DAWN Fridayfax 1997 #2

DAWN News from Worldwide plus Austria and Mozambique

1996 in figures

Austria: From all camps into the Stephansdom

Mozambique: When Bible verses save lives

Mozambique: Weapons in the collection bag

1996 in figures:

According to statistician David Barrett (USA), the world population grew to 5.804 billion in 1996; 1.843 billion of those are under 15 years old. There are 1.715 billion poor people living in cities, with an additional 970 million living in slums. The church continues to grow rapidly: of the 1.782 billion church members, 1.302 billion are "practising Christians", numbers which have grown from 1.159 billion and 905 million in 1970.

According to Barrett, the number of missionary Christians (Great Commission Christians) has grown from 300 million in 1970 to 786 million in 1996. Charismatic and Pentecostal churches have by far the greatest rate of growth: in 1900, they had 3.7 million members; in 1970, 74.4 million; today, the number 479.8 million.

The number of Christian service groups has grown from 14,100 in 1970 to 23,200 in 1996; the number of mission agencies has grown from 2,200 to 4,500. Churches have a total income of $94 billion per year, and mission agencies and independent organisations $100 billion.

Source: David B. Barrett, GEM Research, Status of Global Mission 1996

Austria: From all camps into the Stephansdom

"It was a big surprise," writes pastor Dietrich Fischer-Doerl, leader of the Austrian Baptist's national youth work. Shortly before Christmas 1996, johannes Fichtenbauer, Catholic deacon and leader of the laypeople's movement "Turn to the Lord" invited non-Catholic youth leaders to take part in organising a celebration service in Vienna's Stephansdom (Stephan's Cathedral) on 18 January 1997; this was the first time that such an invitation had been made. Representatives from various Protestant camps decided to co-operate, but realise that the chance is not to be taken for granted and that their co-operation will also be criticised. However, the event is seen by many Protestants and Catholics as a sign of hope and God's leading, which will increase trust and remove suspicion.

Source: Dietrich Fischer-Doerl, tel./fax (0043) - 2162 - 666599

Mozambique: When Bible verses save lives

We have received interesting background details about the peace agreement in Mozambique from Fergus MacDonald, General Secretary of the Scottish Bible Society. One day, the Anglican Bishop Dinis Sengulane was in Maputo, in the hotel in which the decisive peace talks in 1992 were planned to take place. As it seemed that the talks were again going to fail, the Bishop took advantage of a pause in the discussions and read the following Bible verse to the warring parties: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy". "We asked the parties to be merciful with Mozambican population," says Bishop Dinis, "there had been enough atrocities." "Blessed are the peacemakers," he continued, "can't you sit down and discuss a ceasefire?" There was no reply; silence reigned for about three minutes, until one of the rebel leaders asked "Why haven't we heard that before? Why did no-one tell us?" The two sides agreed to meet for ceasefire talks, convinced that the initiative came from the gospel. The discussions reached a positive conclusion, saving the lives of thousands of people. "The decisive factor was the word of God. We now have peace in our country," says the Bishop.

Source: Fergus MacDonald, Scottish Bible Society, fax (44)-131-3370641

Mozambique: Weapons in the collection bag

Mozambique's churches are taking an active part in the disarmament process. They call it "Weapons to ploughshares". "Because the churches are politically neutral - church leaders are not permitted to be members of a political party - we are accepted by people of various political groups," says Bishop Dinis. For that reason, the churches are taking an active part in the peace process, with the government's full support. The "Weapons to ploughshares" project, the name of which is based on a verse in Micah 4, offers to swap weapons for something useful: "In exchange for a weapon, people are given a sewing machine, a spade, a hoe or something like that, something useful for rebuilding the country. The exchange rate for a complete tractor is currently around 500 weapons," says Bishop Dinis. "Every month, people bring around 110 weapons and 300-400 bombs into the church, where they are destroyed." The church can't do completely without the government's assistance, because they are no experts in destroying weapons. "We had to ask the Defence and Interior Ministries for help in destroying those things which could not be turned into something useful. Also, children can bring their toy guns and pistols, and we show them how to build new toys and play new games!"

Source: Fergus MacDonald, Scottish Bible Society, fax (44)-131-3370641

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