Christians news headline 05/03/09

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Gamal Nkrumah braves the blistering crucible of the harshest month of the Coptic calendar, Amshir

The Coptic calendar, the oldest in history, had been in existence for at least three millennia before Christ. Indeed, what today is termed the Coptic Christian calendar is essentially derived from earlier models of ancient Egyptian measurements of time. Ironically, all the current names of the Coptic months retain something of their original ancient Egyptian meanings -- invariably associated with non-Christian Egyptian deities -- thereby betraying their pre-Christian origins.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16745

Bishops: Middle East May Soon Be Empty of Christians

Chaldean Catholic leaders have said that Iraq's diminishing Christian population should be an "alarm bell" for the rest of the world and could foreshadow the transformation of the Middle East.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16746

Russian Church: Christians have limited rights in some states

At a roundtable at the headquarters in Vienna of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Bishop Hilarion of Vienna and Austria, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Representation to European Institutions, pointed out alleged problems experienced by Christians in Turkey, the Northern part of Cyprus and Kosovo.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16731

Brazil attacks church opposition to girl's abortion

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil's health minister accused the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday of an "extreme" and "inadequate" position in opposing an abortion for a 9-year-old girl suspected to have been raped by her stepfather.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16740

Marathon will draw attention to the endanger Assyrian monastery

The Seyfo Center and the Assyrian Youth Federation want to draw attention to the threatening confiscation of the Syriac-Orthodox Mor Gabriel monastery in Turkey. The Syriac-Orthodox Mor Gabriel monastery was built in the year 397 AD and is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16730

Mosul receiving returning Christians

Samir Elias with a Chaldean church in Mosul told the Iraqi bureau of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that the violence against the Christian community was a "cloud that has now cleared, and we hope it will not come back."  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16729

Official: Serbia Church blocks discrimination law

SEOUL (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church of South Korea has started training priests to serve in North Korea, a country criticized by the United States and others for stamping out religion, for the first time in about 40 years.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16728

South Korea Church trains new priests for North

SEOUL (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Church of South Korea has started training priests to serve in North Korea, a country criticized by the United States and others for stamping out religion, for the first time in about 40 years.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16727

ECHR rules against Turkey in Greek Orthodox church case

The Foundation of the Koimisis Theotokou Greek Orthodox Church on the island of Tenedos (known in Turkish as Bozcaada) was vindicated by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday in its case against Turkey.  more....

http://www.coptreal.com/ShowSubjectEn.aspx?SID=16726