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Updates delayed as AGC focus on
disaster relief continues
Week of
25 Feb - 3 Mar 2007
AGC expresses sadness over death of six Bluffton University students
Major upgrades to website this weekend prior to a week hiatus
4- 10 March news online
Statement
on The
Lost Tomb of Jesus (movie)
AGC supports VT “Patient Choice and Control at End of
Life,” House
Bill 44
AGC Elders in Eastern Europe decry "neo-cathar upstarts" during meeting. Pictures and comments included.
Details and pictures on Bishop Michelle who passed to glory.
13 Feb 07
Nearly
450 persons travelled from
far and wide to pay respects to Bishop Michelle. The private cremation
was attended by family and members of the Council of Elders.
Memorial
page with pictures will be posted.
12 Feb 07
Elders from across North
America arrive
for the Service of Light schedule for 1400h this afternoon. The Council
of Elders will hold a short formal meeting following the service.
10 Feb 07
09 Feb 07
Bishop Michelle
passes to Glory at
age 57 in her sleep
Secretary of the AGC Medical Relief Society practiced the ancient rite
of the Endura and died a peaceful and perfect death. The
cremation and Celebration of Light will take place Tuesday 13 February,
2007.
More...
Has William
Donohue crossed the
501(c)(3) line?
The
AGC
Office of Legal Affairs will investigate if recent comments made by
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League may have broken the
law by interfering in the campaign of John Edwards and if so,
may
support legal efforts to strip the Catholic League of its tax-exempt
status.
Details
to
follow.
Read AGC statement.
08 Feb 07
Guardian Riordan says Vaticanist Church surrenders on death penalty
07 Feb 07
CANADA GENERAL
07 Feb 07 AGC supports freeze or end to University tuition in Canada
Thousands
of
university and
college students rallied across Canada
on Wednesday as a national day of action to demand lower
tuition
fees
and more education funding.
The
Canadian
Federation of
Students, an alliance of more than 80
student unions, organized rallies on campuses and marches on provincial
legislatures. Workshops, panel discussions and information
pickets are
also taking place.
06
Feb 07
05 Feb 07
USA GENERAL
05 Feb 07 U.S. Senate must send a clear and direct message and cut off spending for the Iraq occupation and mandate an orderly withdrawal of U.S. forces.
USA
WA
05 Feb 07 GCCC endorses Senate Bill 5336, legislation that recognizes
and grants rights to people in domestic partnerships, specifically
same-sex couples and elderly couples who have not wed.
Convictions v. conviction: Watada's court-martial begins and
ends
08 Feb 07
The judge overseeing the court-martial of an Army officer who refused
to deploy to Iraq declared a mistrial Wednesday, saying 1st Lt. Ehren
Watada did not fully understand a document he signed admitting to
elements of the charges.
05 Feb 07 Fort Lewis this week will become ground zero for the peace
movement
as 1st Lt. Ehren Watada goes on trial for refusing to serve in Iraq.
The GCCC will watch these proceedings carefully.
USA
ME
05 Feb 07
A revolt against a national
driver's license, begun in Maine last month, is quickly spreading to
other states. The Maine Legislature on Jan. 26 overwhelmingly passed a
resolution
objecting to the Real ID Act of 2005. The federal law sets a national
standard for driver's licenses and requires states to link their
record-keeping systems to national databases.
Within a week of
Maine's action, lawmakers in Georgia, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico,
Vermont, and Washington state also balked at Real ID. They are expected
soon to pass laws or adopt resolutions declining to participate in the
federal identification network.
The good Christians have long had a strong presence in Maine and
continue their public witness.
USA MT
Good Christians in
Montana urge rejection
of
the federal Real ID
Act
of 2005, which requires states to issue driver's licenses that meet
certain standards, such as verifying citizenship.
04 Feb 07
Middle East Council of Churches website and 27 other sites hacked
Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. to be inaugurated Feb. 7
Mennonites document systematic violence against Colombian Protestants
Discrimination against gay people is like apartheid, says Tutu
Renewed Australian row about the boundaries of faith and politics
CANADA GENERAL
07 Feb 07 AGC supports freeze or end to University tuition in Canada
Thousands
of
university and
college students rallied across Canada
on Wednesday as a national day of action to demand lower
tuition
fees
and more education funding.
The
Canadian
Federation of
Students, an alliance of more than 80
student unions, organized rallies on campuses and marches on provincial
legislatures. Workshops, panel discussions and information
pickets are
also taking place.
05 Feb 07 AGC expandsthe argument against tax-free status of churches
Guardian
Riordan says Vaticanist Church surrenders on death penalty
08 Feb 07
 In
a statement
released in conjunction with a world congress on the death penalty,
held in Paris,
France from February 1 to 3, John Guardian Riordan said the RCC had yet
again surrendered any moral authority it presumed to have by refusing
to absolutely reject the death penalty. "I'm
astonished"
said Riordan, "it
was one of our few areas of common agreement and suggests the Roman
church is returning to medieval roots."
Rather
than condemning the practice outright, the Vatican used nuanced
language to indicate that while it found the practice "an affront
to human dignity", it could in some circumstances be
necessitated. The language is starkly different from that used to
condemn abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage which can never be
justified.
Guardian Riordan, Bishop of Boston said, "Clearly
the Vatican
has concluded that a man imprisoned on death row has engaged in
multiple same-sex contacts and may attempt (same-sex) marriage. By
endorsing state-sponsored executions they remain consistent with their
opposition to same-sex marriage. This is a perverted attempt at logic.
The same perversion that encouraged and then ignored the widespread
rape of children."
Speaking about the court imposition of a right to same-sex 'marriage',
the Vatican has suggested such actions "can never be
justified." Writing in the official Vatican newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano in 2003, Vatican theologian Gino Concetti
commented
on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision to permit
homosexual 'marriage'. "This is a great wound to human
dignity that can never be justified," he said.
Riordan went on to say the practice of capital punishment "
is repugnant,
barbaric and is rejected by Jesus, rejected by Scripture, rejected by
the Early Church. The Vatican position is itself an affront to human
dignity."
Read AGC statement.
26 Jan 07 Is Our
Future Evangelical?
An engaging article
by Dr. J. Nelson Kraybill.
What's New
12 Feb 07 Spamming results in some deactivated emails
For our gentle readers to understand, some of our emails addresses have
been manually key entered for spamming purposes. Deactivation
was the only course of action for some of these addresses.
12 Feb 07 Weekly news format
Seems we still do not have it quite to our readers liking just yet!
From what we can determine, folks want an interface that combines the
format used in 1996, 2001 and 2005 with some bells and whistles thrown
in. We are not very good at the bells and whistles. We can attempt for
greater simplication as time allows.
07 Feb 07 Changed weekly news format
Responding to the consensus, temporary changes have been made.
30
Jan 07 Changed weekly news format
Responding to the consensus, as of 01 Feb each
month will
be one page with the cumulative weekly news retained. The Weekly News Index
has been
updated. Past weeks are here 1
2
3
4
29
Jan 07 adding Hack/Spam
alert log to Mail Directory
Restoring calendars section. February will be here.
We have had alot of
feedback on what people want to see and we will try to accomodate.
Worship section
26 Jan 07 Feedback ideas for revamping the News section have
been
welcomed and are under active consideration.
- We intend to increase AGC specific news stories and reduce general
interest stories which you may find just as easily on secular newsites.
- The design of the page will be simplified.
26 Jan 07 GCCC Canada may move site
The GCCC (Canada) is considering moving its new website to
http://canada.cathar.net.
24 - 26 Jan 07 Moving emails from one mail server to another. No loss
of content, just delayed replies.
25 Jan 07 Hostile spamming continues against specific emails.
These have been de-activated and the originators are being tracked.
International
Renewed Australian row about the boundaries of faith and politics
Australian
AGC bishop releases statement supporting Rudd and upholding separation
of church and state. Details to follow.
Discrimination against gay people is like apartheid, says Tutu
22
Jan 07
Alice Lakwena, the self-proclaimed prophetess founded the Holy
Spirit Movement in the 1980s. Her followers believed magic
potions protected them
in battle, but they were defeated by government forces. Many
later
regrouped to form the Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA), led by her cousin Joseph Kony. The LRA is holding talks to end
its 20-year conflict.
Major power
outages continue in
South Africa
22 Jan 07 Large parts of South Africa, including Cape
Town
and Johannesburg, have been experiencing power cuts, due largely to an
unexpected demand for electricity.
There
has also been a partial shutdown at the Koeberg
nuclear plant near Cape Town, where a turbine tripped.
The
national
supplier of power, Eskom, has warned
that the situation will remain critical for the next week.
No good
Christian will comply with mandatory national identity cards
CANADA
Active websites
appear as a graphic
Please note:
GCCC (Canada)) site
returns by mid- February
USA
See also:
GCCC (USA) website |
American
democracy in crisis (not
available)
No good
Christian will comply with mandatory national identity cards
Active websites appear as a graphic
Please
note: GCCC (USA) site returns by mid- February
Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. to be inaugurated Feb. 7
29
Jan 07 The CCT will be formally launched at Pasadena Presbyterian
Church, Pasadena, Calif. CCT will bring together families of Christian
churches and organizations from across the United States. Another 18
churches and national Christian organizations are involved or are
present as observers in the CCT decision-making process.
On its Web site, the new ecumenical organization claims to do something the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA and National Association of Evangelicals have not been able to do -- bring together Christians from five traditions: evangelical and Pentecostal, Orthodox, Protestant, racial and ethnic, and Roman Catholic. "Christian Churches Together is unique in providing the only venue where churches from all the
major groupings of churches, representing over 100 million Christians, come together for prayer, dialogue, fellowship and witness," it said.
The
AGC is
considering the merits of membership in the CCT and will observe
closely its initial stages of development. We do note with interest and
appreciation that they have agreed to the consensus model of
decision-making.
Anti-smoking movement hits
historical moment
22
Jan 07 Thirty years after it began as just
another quirky movement in Berkeley, Calif., the push to ban smoking in
restaurants, bars and other public places has reached a national
milestone.
For the first time
in the
nation's history, more than half of
Americans live in a city or state with laws mandating that workplaces,
restaurants or bars be smoke-free, according to Americans for
Nonsmokers' Rights.
"The movement for
smoke-free air has gone from being a California
oddity to the nationwide norm," said Bronson Frick, the group's
associate director. "We think 100 percent of Americans will live in
smoke-free jurisdictions within a few years."
Plant-based fat
substitute used in
Pittsburgh school
22 Jan 07 The
secret ingredient
is a plant-based fat substitute called Z Trim.
It's been in the school's popular ranch dressing for months, quietly
reducing the fat and calories students are getting when they load up
their salads and chicken with it.
Z Trim, which has
no fat, is
made from the hulls of corn, oats, soy,
rice and barley. It was developed by a scientists at a U.S. Department
of Agriculture lab in Illinois in the mid-1990s.
The Center for
Science in the
Public Interest, a consumer advocacy
group that often speaks out on unhealthy food, said it has no safety
concerns about Z Trim.
It's taken several
years to get
the product into production and on
the market. In 1998, FiberGel Technologies of Mundelein, Ill., acquired
the license for Z Trim and built a manufacturing plant with plans to
market and sell it to both food manufacturers and consumers.
Sold as a gel or
powder, it can
be used in dressings, dips, sauces,
baked goods, processed meats, snack foods, cookies, pies and other
foods. Unfortunately, it cannot be fried.
Québec
See also: Église de Cathar au Québec
website
|
GCCC
Canada
website
Please note:
Both websites return
by mid- February
17 Jan 07 The good Christians in Québec suspend
$10m in
funds
The
AGC has suspended a $10 million dollar investment in Québec
pending the decision by Quebec's Toponymy Commission on a
proposal to re-name Parc Avenue after
former premier Robert Bourassa, who died of skin cancer in 1996. The
proposal was made after the Roman Catholic Church opposed a move to
rename a major street with closer ties to Bourassa on the grounds there
was a Vaticanist cathedral on site.
"The
Roman Catholic
Church, which pays no taxes and receives generous tax subsidies, grants
and other special considerations from the Montreal and
Québec
governments has no moral authority in this matter. It is time to
examine the privileges this church enjoys in Québec, from
its
protection against investigation of the sexual abuse of children to tax
exemption."
said
a spokesperson
for the AGC in Canada. An addition $30 million dollars in facilitated
investment money targeted for electric hybrid cars is also uncertain.
Archives
See
also: Archive of
previous weeks
Good
Christian Online News from 1994 - 2006 archived
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