23 February 2011

Presbyterians Week Headlines

[1] Afghan Christian Convert from Islam Set to be Executed for Apostasy

[2] Christian Farm Worker in Pakistan Murdered by Muslim Employer for Taking a Day Off

[3] Female Fifteen-Year-Old Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church Member Still Missing Eight Months after Kidnapped by Muslim Extremists

[4] Car-Bombed Northern Ireland Presbyterian Church Reopens after One Year

[5] Presbyterian Church in Nigeria Reinstates Suspended Ministers, Elders, and Members from the Mid East Synod

[6] Church of Scotland Minister Joins Nationwide Protests of 400,000 Highway Potholes by Baptizing Baby in Pothole-Font

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[1] Afghan Christian Convert from Islam Set to be Executed for Apostasy

The American Family Association has announced that Said Musa, a former Afghan Muslim who became a Christian eight years ago, is soon to be executed for the Islamic crime of apostasy. A spokesman for the Afghanistan Ministry of Justice was quoted as saying: “The sentence for a convert is death and there is no exception.”

As of 20 February 2011, 1461 U.S. military members have been killed in the Afghanistan war officially named “Operation Enduring Freedom”.


+ American Family Association, Post Office Drawer 2440, Tupelo, Mississippi 38803, 662-844-5036

+ The Washington Post, 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington DC 20071, 202-334-6000, Contact Form


[2] Christian Farm Worker in Pakistan Murdered by Muslim Employer for Taking a Day Off

A 17 February 2011 report from Compass Direct News Service titled “Pakistani Christian Killed by Muslim Employer, Relatives Say” reports that twenty-four year old Christian Imran Masih of the Punjab Province of Pakistan was killed by his Muslim farmer employer for taking a day off without previously notifying the employer.

The employer notified Masih’s family that he had hanged himself in a cattle stall on the farm, and the young Christian was found hanging six inches from the ground with no platform anywhere in the vicinity from which to jump. Police refused to file charges against those involved in Masih’s death, and Masih’s family was initially denied the autopsy report. After Christians staged a two hour blockage of a main road, charges were files against the farmer, the farmer’s brother, and two other men. The “skewed” autopsy report was eventually released, saying only that Masih had died from hanging.

Two men that washed Masih’s body reported genital swelling and a bruise on the back of Masih’s head. An investigator for Community Development Initiative, a legal aid group assisting Masih’s family, are considering exhumation of Masih’s body to further investigate the cause his of death.

Masih is survived by his wife of eight months and an unborn child.


+ Compass Direct News Service, Post Office Box 27250, Santa Ana, California 92799, 949-862-0304, Fax: 949-752-6536, info@compassdirect.org


[3] Female Fifteen-Year-Old Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church Member Still Missing Eight Months after Kidnapped by Muslim Extremists

Fifteen-year-old Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) member Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo disappeared eight months ago returning from a trip to Khartoum, Sudan, to obtain transcripts for admission to secondary school. Two days later, threatening phone calls and a ransom demand of SDP1,500 (equivalent to US$560) began, with one kidnapper asking Hiba’s widowed mother: “Don’t you want to have this slave back?”

It is believed that the kidnappers are Muslim extremists who targeted Hiba’s family because they are Christians, and that police are aiding the criminals. Hiba’s mother said that when she went to a police station to open a case, police bluntly told her she must first leave Christianity for Islam.

In October 2010, a Muslim businessman seized property belonging to the SPEC in Khartoum, Sudan, allegedly aided by the police.


+ Compass Direct News Service, Post Office Box 27250, Santa Ana, California 92799, 949-862-0304, Fax: 949-752-6536, info@compassdirect.org

+ Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church, Post Office Box 57, Khartoum, Sudan, 249-11-776 807



[4] Car-Bombed Northern Ireland Presbyterian Church Reopens after One Year

A 21 February 2011 Belfast Telegraph article titled “Newry Congregation ‘Overjoyed’ as Bombed Church Rises Again” reports that a 20 February 2011 service at Downshire Road Presbyterian Church (Presbyterian Church in Ireland) in Newry, County Down, Northern Ireland, celebrated the reopening of the church 363 days after a car bomb set off in downtown Newry by Irish republican dissidents heavily damaged the church.

UK£350,000 worth of repairs and restoration work were required to fix the church damage, where the annex was destroyed by the bomb, and the main church building had historic stained glass windows destroyed and suffered severe structural damage.

The 22 February 2010 car bomb contained 115kg of explosives, making it the largest bomb detonated in Northern Ireland since before 2000.


+ Belfast Telegraph, 124-144 Royal Avenue, Belfast BT1 1EB, Northern Ireland, 028-9026-4000, writeback@belfasttelegraph.co.uk

+ Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Church House, Belfast BT1 6DW, Northern Ireland, 028-9032-2284, Fax: 028-9041-7301, Info@PresbyterianIreland.org


[5] Presbyterian Church in Nigeria Reinstates Suspended Ministers, Elders, and Members from the Mid East Synod

A 19 February 2011 Vanguard article titled “Presbyterian Church Reintegrates Suspended Ebonyi Deputy, Others” reports that the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (PCN), after an emergency meeting of the PCN General Assembly Executive Committee, called in an effort to demonstrate Christian love and forgiveness, has lifted the suspensions of the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Prof. Chigozie Ogbu and eleven other ministers, elders, and members of the PCN who were ousted after misunderstandings arose between the PCN and its officers in the Mid East Synod.

For background information on this article, please read the 5 January 2011 Presbyterians Week article [3] Presbyterian Church of Nigeria Indefinitely Suspends Seven Clergy, Two Elders, and Three Others for Alleged Acts of Insubordination and Lawlessness Capable of Destabilizing the Church and Causing a Breach of Public Peace, and the 12 January 2011 Presbyterians Week article [5] Mid-East Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria Leaving to Establish Reformed Presbyterian Church of Nigeria.

+ Vanguard, Lagos, Nigeria, 234- 7742861, community@vanguardngr.com

+ Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, 26 Ehere Road, Post Office Box 2635, Aba, Abia State, Nigeria, 082-234-780


[6] Church of Scotland Minister Joins Nationwide Protests of 400,000 Highway Potholes by Baptizing Baby in Pothole-Font

An 18 February 2011 article in The Scottish Sun titled “Hole-y War” reports on the creative Scotland-wide protests springing up because there are 400,000 unrepaired potholes on Scotland’s 40,000 miles of roadways.

Church of Scotland minister the Rev. Alan Sorensen of Wellpark Mid Kirk Church in Greenock, Scotland, recently performed Scotland's first pothole christening on eleven-month-old Olivia Logsdon, commenting: “There's no shortage of christening fonts opening up on our roads, although I think most motorists would prefer they remained in churches.”


+ The Sun, 3 Thomas More Square, London E98 1XY, England, 020-7782-4000, corporate.info@the-sun.co.uk

+ Church of Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4YN, Scotland, 0131-225-5722