World Scene: March 05, 1990

CHINA

Churches Need Leaders

Demand for trained clergy is outracing the supply in China, due to the rapid growth of the country’s churches. Following the resurgence of hard-line Communist control last year, some recent reports estimate that a new church opens in China every 36 hours.

Some estimates have placed the number of Chinese Christians as high as 50 million, most meeting in house churches under untrained lay leaders. But fewer than 1,000 ordained ministers are working in China. The 13 Protestant seminaries in the country are now training about 800 students.

Bishop K. H. Ting, president of the China Christian Council, told a Baptist Press correspondent that the shortage stems from “the long period of ultra-leftism” that culminated in the 1966–76 Cultural Revolution when only one seminary was operating with limited enrollment.

VATICAN

Graham With Pope

Evangelist Billy Graham met with Pope John Paul II and Vatican officials in January to discuss Eastern Europe and relations between Catholics and evangelicals around the world. The meeting was the second between the two leaders. The first, Graham’s first meeting with any pope, occurred in 1981. A Graham representative said the recent meeting was a substitute for one canceled during the Pope’s 1987 visit to the U.S. Graham presented the Pope with a hand-made quilt from North Carolina.

INDIA

Cash For Converts

Militant Hindu organizations in India are using offers of cash and cloth to try to convert tribal Christians to Hinduism, in response to the influence Christian missionaries are having on some communities. The gifts are intended to counter the educational and social services provided by the missionaries, which often attract poor Indians. Recent reports in Indian newspapers said that 8,000 Christian tribals had been converted to Hinduism.

Some Indian political leaders have expressed concern about moves by tribal leaders to declare one area of the country a separate state. The area contains about 13 million people; 15 percent are Christians. The political leaders suspect that the Christian segment and Christian missionaries have inspired the movement.

ISRAEL

Soviet Jews Flood Israel

After more than a decade of trickling immigration, Israel is experiencing one of the largest influxes of Jews in history. The Israeli government estimates 500,000 Jews will enter Israel by 1992. According to a Religious News Service report, about 95 percent of them are expected to come from the Soviet Union. In the first week of 1990, 1,500 Jews arrived in Israel, most on direct flights from Moscow. That number was more than all the Soviet Jews who immigrated to Israel in 1987.

While Soviet policies of glasnost have removed obstacles to emigration, those Jews arriving in Israel say they have also unleashed a wave of anti-Semitism. In the past, most Soviet Jews headed for the West, especially the U.S. But tighter immigration policies have restricted the flow in that direction. So the majority now relocates in Israel.

The immigrants face severe housing shortages and numerous other problems in resettlement. Israel has turned to Jews living outside the country to help finance the absorption effort, which it estimates may cost $4 billion. A U.S. fund drive for $420 million, known as Operation Exodus, has been launched by the United Jewish Appeal, as part of a worldwide effort.

EAST GERMANY

Pastor Aids Deposed Leader

Deposed East German leader Erich Honecker has found refuge in the home of an evangelical pastor whose family suffered under the Communist leader’s regime. Uwe Holmer, president of the East German Evangelist’s Conference, invited the 77-year-old Honecker, who is suffering from terminal cancer, to his house on East Berlin’s north side.

The new East German government has accused Honecker of high treason and has confiscated the homes and property of Honecker and his wife and other members of the Communist party hierarchy. A district court recently released Honecker from custody because of his poor health.

Holmer, who is in charge of 19 church homes for the handicapped and cancer patients, described his invitation to the unpopular leader and his wife as “an act of Christian charity.” He has received many angry calls protesting his action.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Missing: Canadian church worker John Tarzwell, in Pakistan. Tarzwell, affiliated with Operation Mobilization and SERVE, disappeared November 1.

Died: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in Poona, India, of heart disease at age 58. Rajneesh and his followers established a commune near Antelope, Oregon, in the mid-1980s. He was deported in 1985 for immigration violations.

Translated: The Bible into Tok Pisin, a hybrid language encompassing 700 native languages spoken by 3.6 million people in Papua New Guinea. It is among the latest of 1,907 languages in which at least one book of the Bible has been published, according to the United Bible Societies. Some Scripture passages have been published in an additional 168 languages.

Open Adoptions: Open to Debate

As the number of infants placed for adoption shrinks, parents are increasingly exploring “open adoption,” a term referring to options providing more contact between adoptive parents and birth mothers.

Phyllis Lee, Maryland director of Bethany Christian Ministries, the nation’s largest Christian adoption agency, says her agency has offered a form of open adoption that includes an arranged meeting of the birth mother and adoptive family through a social worker, an exchange of first names, and a year of contact through pictures or letters.

She says adoptive families feel more comfortable after meeting the birth mother, who, in turn, feels better about placing her child for adoption. “It used to be so hush-hush. It’s not like that anymore,” she said.

However, Mary Beth Seader, vice-president of the National Committee for Adoption, has reservations. Seader, who defines open adoptions as an exchange of identifying information, including addresses and last names, said open contact can be traumatic for all parties involved. Birth mothers have old wounds reopened. “There’s a loss with adoption, and you must face it to resolve it,” she said. “Women who call on the adoption hotline say they see the pictures and go into depression.”

Adoptive families, too, can feel insecurity over the birth mother’s place in the child’s life, she said. An agonizing situation can also arise when an adoptive family goes through the process with the birth mother, only to have her change her mind.

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