Gunmen have opened fire at a number of sites in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing at least 78 people and injuring about 200 more.
Police said shooting was continuing and that the incidents were co-ordinated terrorist attacks. Gunmen had taken hostages at two hotels, they said.
At least seven sites have been targeted across India’s financial capital.
The real cause of the violence against Christians in Orissa, and now elsewhere in India, is the fear among extremist Hindu movements that many “untouchable” and “tribal” people will turn to the Christian faith because of the appalling treatment they receive from their caste-ridden communities and the love and care they are shown by Christian humanitarian organisations. Some of those who receive such care, but by no means all, become Christians of their own free will. Is this so unacceptable in secular and democratic India?
Scores of Christians have been murdered. Their homes, churches, presbyteries, convents and charitable institutions have been destroyed, allegedly in retaliation for the murder of a Hindu swami and some of his followers, probably by Maoist insurgents. During this time, it seems that the state authorities have not allowed Christians from other parts of India, let alone elsewhere, even to bring relief to fellow believers. The Federal Government also appears to have been paralysed and ineffective.
There is an outcry when a single Hindu is killed, and Christian leaders have strongly condemned any such incident. Christians in Orissa are, however, rapidly running out of cheeks to turn.
Beleaguered Christians in India have “run out of cheeks to be struck” a senior Anglican bishop declared yesterday, on hearing reports that a Christian mob had hacked a Hindu to death in the troubled state of Orissa.
Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, called for peace, and said that the murder, conducted by a knive-wielding mob of 50 Christians, could not be condoned. But he told The Times: “For months now, scores of Christians have been killed, homes, convents and presbyteries have been burnt down to the ground.”
He said: “Now one Hindu has been killed, allegedly by Christians. We do not know under what circumstances but it suggests that the worm has turned and the Christian community has run out of cheeks to be struck.”
Those who came to attack Christians here early last week set their trap well, residents say.
First, they built makeshift barricades of trees and small boulders along the roads leading into this village, apparently to stop the police from intervening.
Then, villagers say, the attackers went on a rampage. Chanting “Kill these pigs” and “All Hindus are brothers,” the mob began breaking into homes that displayed posters of Jesus, stealing valuables and eventually burning the buildings. When they found residents who had not fled to the nearby jungle, they beat them with sticks or maimed them with axes and left them to die.
A local official said three people died as a result of the attack on Aug. 25. The carefully placed roadblocks accomplished their purpose; residents say a full day passed before help arrived.
One villager, Asha Lata Nayak, said, “I saw the mob carrying sticks, axes, swords, knives and small guns. They first demolished the village church and later Christian houses. Nobody came forward to help us.”
(ACNS) The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Willams, has expressed profound distress at the extreme violence being used in Orissa following the murder of Hindu leader, Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati.
In a letter sent today to the Moderator of North India, the Most Revd Joel Mal, Dr Williams called for an end to the violence in Orissa and for intense prayer for the suffering churches.
The Archbishop said of the situation:
“I hope that Christians and people of faith around the world will make known their horror at this violence, their support for the rebuilding of lives and the churches, orphanages and schools destroyed, and for work towards future reconciliation”.
We, the Bishops from the united churches of South Asia which include the Church of South India (1947), Church of North India (1970), Church of Pakistan (1970)`and the Church of Bangladesh (1972), present at the Lambeth Conference 2008 have embodied the unity of God’s Church in fulfillment of our Lord’s high priestly prayer “that they may all be one”. We represent nearly a quarter of the human race practicing and living all the major faiths of the world. We are grateful for our heritage of different church traditions which have contributed to our formation. The Anglican Communion, being the one common thread, connecting us all.
As united and uniting churches and full and integral members of the Anglican Communion, we wish to say that:
1. We bear witness to the Triune God and to the unity of His Church as one, holy, catholic and apostolic.
2. We applaud the initiative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in organizing the Walk of Witness on the London Day highlighting urgent issues of poverty, deprivation, exploitation and disease in the world and demanding speedy implementation of Millennium Development Goals.
We call upon the Anglican Communion to seriously take up this challenge and help to restore the dignity of the exploited and abused humanity. This will certainly mean an equitable sharing of resources within the Communion.
3. We urge the Communion to stand in solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed religious minorities and work for equitable justice to all especially to the women, children and dalits of South Asia and in other parts of the world as members of the one Body of Christ; for if one member suffers we all suffer. This needs to be expressed in tangible terms through living and supporting relationships.
4. However, we are saddened and disturbed by the fractured nature of the Anglican Communion today which seems primarily to have been caused by the issue of human sexuality. We do feel the pain of the absence of some bishops who have kept themselves away from this fellowship. We acknowledge the biblical norms on human sexuality and urge that within the Anglican Communion this may be upheld for the effective witness of the Gospel.
We desire that the matter may be resolved by a continuing process of listening and healing where we may be willing to forgive and accept one another generously and move towards true reconciliation.
5. So, we invite the whole Communion to do some heart-searching and in humility walk the Calvary Road so that our differences, self-justifications and arrogant attitudes may be crucified and that we all experience the power of the resurrection for the transformation of our life together in the Communion.
Signed on behalf of the participating Bishops at the Lambeth Conference 2008.
The Most Rev John Gladstone, Church of South India
The Rt Rev Brojen Malakar, Church of North India
The Most Revd. Dr. Alexander Malik, Church of Pakistan
The Most Revd Paul S. Sarker, Church of Bangladesh
Bishop George Ninan tends to divide people into two groups: those who have political freedom and economic opportunity and those who have had their God-given rights taken away.
Since he’s an Anglican bishop from South India, one might think he would see people as Christian or Hindu or Muslim. Or that he might see those from South India as being distinct from other Indians or even other Asians.
But Ninan’s world view has been shaped by speaking out on behalf of oppressed people of many faiths and cultures – and by being threatened by several governments.
“In a just society, people are not only created equal, but have equal rights to resources,” he said.
Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank has made its first loans in New York in an attempt to bring its pioneering microfinance techniques to the tens of millions of people in the world’s richest country who have no bank account.
The bank’s entry into the US, its first in a developed market, comes as mainstream banks’ credibility has been hit by the mortgage meltdown and many people are turning to fringe financial institutions offering loans at exorbitant interest rates.
Grameen has lent $50,000 in the past month to groups of immigrant women in Jackson Heights in New York’s borough of Queens. During the next five years, it plans to offer $176m in loans within New York city, and then expand to the rest of the US.
Ok, a quiz first. How big was the first loan Muhammad Yunus made in 1976? Once you have guessed go and read it all.
The 31st biannual synod of the Church of South India has elected a new moderator. The Rt. Rev. John Wilson Gladstone, Bishop in South Kerala, was elected leader of the united church by the 500 synod delegates meeting in Visakhapatnam on Jan 12.
The Bishop in Madurai, the Rt. Rev. Christopher Aswer was elected Deputy Moderator, and Mr. M. Jayakumar of Bangalore and Mr. Devasahayam of Warangal were elected General Secretary and Treasurer respectively, while 66 members of the church were elected to serve on its executive council.
The giant Chinese rock tossed into the Asian production pool this decade is about to be followed by another from India. Given time it is likely to be of similarly large import. The first rock profoundly changed Australia, setting up huge economic waves that swamped some (including many manufacturers) while others surfed to prosperity (miners and tax collectors). Watch out for the second rock.
On the surface Australia now appears hooked on swapping rocks for Chinese boxes. True, but fairly glib and deceptive all the same. The content of these boxes is normally not Chinese at all and many of our rocks (particularly coal) go elsewhere in Asia.
What is different this decade is a revamp of Asian production, with bits and pieces made everywhere being finished off in the Middle Kingdom. China is still largely an assembler, not a manufacturer. Those who do these sums reckon only about 25 cents in every dollar in the boxes is in fact Chinese. The majority comes from elsewhere, especially Japan, Taiwan and Korea