Cyclone Chido devastates South-Eastern Africa
HUNDREDS of people are feared to have died after Cyclone Chido hit landfall on Saturday morning, devasting the French département of Mayotte, in the Mozambique Channel. Winds reached 137mph. The number killed has been difficult to establish owing to the more than 100,000 undocumented immigrants in a population of 320,000, the BBC reports. President Macron, who plans to visit in the coming days, has declared a national day of mourning. The storm moved on to northern Madagascar, Mozambique, and the Comoros Islands before weakening. As of Tuesday, 34 people had been killed, and 319 had been injured in Mozambique, the UN reports. More than 174,158 people were estimated to have been affected. Tearfund is working with churches in Nampula, Cabo Delgado, and Niassa provinces to evacuate vulnerable people. Tearfund’s country director in Mozambique, Judas Massingue, said: “We are particularly concerned about flooding and the difficulties this will cause for people living with disabilities, the elderly, and child-headed households. Through our work with the local church . . . there is a plan in place to support these vulnerable people to reach safety in exactly this scenario. We are also preparing to be able to provide food, clean water and comfort once the storm has passed.”
US multi-faith coalition welcomes anti-hate strategy
A MULTI-FAITH coalition in the United States, the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, has welcomed a national strategy to counter Islamophobia and hatred of Arabs, after a sharp rise in reported discrimination and violence against Muslim, Arab, and Jewish communities in the United States in the past year, the Episcopal News Service reports. The strategy, President Biden announced last week, “seeks to deepen understanding of these communities and the discrimination and bias they have long faced across a number of sectors”. The co-chair of the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, the Revd Margaret Rose, who is the Episcopal Church’s ecumenical and interreligious deputy to the Presiding Bishop, said: “Anti-Muslim bigotry, like any form of hate, racism, and discrimination, is a dehumanising phenomenon. . . When we dehumanise others, including Muslim, Sikh, Arab, Palestinian, and South Asian communities among others who are impacted by Islamophobia, we dehumanise ourselves.”
Pope to Methodists: Reconciliation is a ‘task of the heart’
THE Pope welcomed a delegation of the World Methodist Council, an association of about 80 Churches, to the Vatican on Monday, to encourage ecumenism before the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, Vatican News reports. In an address, Pope Francis thanked God that Roman Catholics and Methodists had overcome estrangement and had sought dialogue “in reciprocal knowledge, understanding, and love” for the past 60 years. “Opening ourselves to one another has brought us closer and made us realise that reconciliation is a task of the heart,” he said. He invited Catholics and Methodists to unite “differing minds and wills” — a journey that would take time, he said.
Quakers leave X over ‘harmful content’
QUAKERS worldwide will no longer use the socia-media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, owing “to concerns over changes under Elon Musk’s ownership, including increased levels of disinformation and hate”, it was announced on Monday. “X’s role in spreading harmful content and the erosion of journalistic integrity and public discourse directly contradict Quaker principles of truth and integrity,” the announcement said. Other Quaker bodies and associated groups have also left the platform. The Recording Clerk for Quakers in Britain, Paul Parker, said: “When the bad outweighs the good, it is time to seek other methods of engaging where it is easier to find common ground with our fellow human beings.” Quakers in Britain said that their X account would be archived to provide information and support. They can be found on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and BlueSky.
AlamyChristians participate in a rally to celebrate Christmas, in Lahore, Pakistan, on Sunday