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ONITSHA, Nigeria — Mobs stopped killing and looting in this battered Nigerian city on Thursday and turned to disposing of the evidence in the crudest of ways. With smoldering bonfires fueled by pieces of wood and old tires, men burned the remains of their Muslim victims on downtown streets, leaving charred remains that motorists swerved to avoid. As the city's thousands of surviving Muslims struggled to return to their northern homes or huddled at police stations, Christian residents expressed little remorse for their role in five days of religious violence sparked by anger over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. At...

Peter Akinola, Anglican Primate of Nigeria and President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, comments on the recent attacks by Muslims against Christians in that country.  From all indications, it is very clear now that the sacrifices of the Christians in this country for peaceful co-existence with people of other faiths has been sadly misunderstood to be weakness We have for a long time now watched helplessly the killing, maiming and destruction of Christians and their property by Muslim fanatics and fundamentalists at the slightest or no provocation at all. We are not unaware of the fact that these religious...

Up to a hundred people may have died in the violence that rocked parts of northern Nigeria on 18 February following the publication in Europe of cartoons satirising the prophet Mohammed. Sources in northern Nigeria report that at least 30 churches and 250 shops and houses were destroyed in Borno State, when a peaceful protest in the capital city Maiduguri turned violent and a crowd armed with sticks, machetes and iron bars rampaged through the town destroying Christian properties and targeting members of the clergy. Father Gajere, priest of St. Rita’s Catholic Church was burned to death in his home...

“Turn the Other Cheek” and the Violence of Sharia Reuters reports: Nigeria’s main Christian body has said it may no longer be able to contain Christians from retaliating after Muslim rioters killed dozens of Christians and torched churches. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which says 50 people died in anti-Christian rioting in the northern city of Maiduguri at the weekend, described the violence as part of a Muslim plan to turn Nigeria into an Islamic state…. Religious violence has killed thousands since 12 northern states introduced Islamic law in 2000, alienating Christians. In a public statement released on Monday,...

"ONITSHA, Nigeria – Charred bodies littered the streets of this bustling commercial center yesterday after three days of rioting in which Christian mobs wielding machetes, clubs and knives set upon their Muslim neighbors. Rioters have killed scores of people here, mostly Muslims, after burning their homes, businesses and mosques in the worst violence yet linked to the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad first published in a Danish newspaper. The violence erupted after similar attacks on Christians in northern Nigeria last week by Muslims infuriated over the cartoons. " ~snip~ "Residents combed through destroyed shops and homes of Muslims to loot."...

ONITSHA, Nigeria - Christians in this southern Nigerian city burned Muslim corpses and defaced wrecked mosques Thursday, showing little repentance after days of sectarian violence that has killed more than 120 people across the country. Onitsha has borne the brunt, with at least 80 of the deaths. The violence followed weekend protests over the publication of cartoons of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. "We don't want these mosques here anymore. These people are causing all the problems all over the world because they don't fear God," said 34-year Ifeanyi Ese, standing amid the concrete rubble of an Onitsha mosque. With a...

Judith Apter Klinghoffer at the History News Network reports that Nigerian Christians are being macheted by Muslims "outraged at the Danish cartoon nonsense. Gateway Pundit is reporting that 35 persons have been killed, 30 churches burned, and 5 hotels set ablaze. Rantings of a Sandmonkey is reporting injuries, but no deaths yet, in Egypt. In an update, Klinghoffer reports that Nigerian Christians are retaliating: Finally, MSM has the story it has been waiting for, a story about Christians and Muslims killing each other. As I have noted bellow, the Christians have concluded that they can either continue to die or retaliate....

Christians in Nigeria are being slaughtered in their churches by foaming Muslims enraged by the dreaded cartoons. Being the minority Christians first tried to appease but were still brutalized. Nigerians are crying out that ABSOLUTELY NO media coverage is being given to this. Is another Muslim on Christian genocide (ie Rwanada) happening while the MSM twiddles their thumbs?

ABUJA, Nigeria, (Jan. 30, 2006)-- Former Archbishop of the Church of the Province of Kenya, the Most Rev David Gitari has ruled out the possibility of an African emerging as the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC), arguing that the office of the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion is tied-up to the politics of Britain. The Archbishop was interviewed by The Guardian Newspapers when he visited Nigeria as guest speaker to the annual Bishops' Retreat of the Church of Nigeria, (Anglican Communion) at the Ibru Ecumenical Centre, Agbarha-Otor, Delta State. His statement is coming on the heels of the election by...

Armed with little more than faith and a canon, a Rwandan David is today positioning itself against an American Goliath. The intent is largely a rescue effort, said Emmanuel Kolini, archbishop of Rwanda. Under his leadership, the Anglican Mission in America is attempting to save more than 120 million "unchurched" Americans from the "spiritual genocide" plaguing this and other nations, the spiritual leader said. As a religious principal living in Rwanda, and as the overseer of the Anglican Mission in America, a missionary movement trumpeting conservative Anglican tradition, Kolini is well-positioned to speak on concerns surrounding the systematic killing of...

LAGOS, NIGERIA - At first, it seems a surprising sight: inside a two-story mosque in sub-Saharan Africa's largest metropolis hangs a life-size portrait of Jesus Christ. Yet worshipers at "The True Message of God Mission" say it's entirely natural for Christianity and Islam to cexist, even overlap. They begin their worship by praying at the Jesus alcove and then "running their deliverance" - sprinting laps around the mosque's mosaic-tiled courtyard, praying to the one God for forgiveness and help. They say it's akin to Israelites circling the walls of Jericho - and Muslims swirling around the Ka'ba shrine in Mecca....

The Bishop of Madi/West Nile in the Province of Uganda has written a letter to several priests, deacons and vestries formerly in the Diocese of Florida informing them that they have been received and accepted into his diocese and the African province by Letter of Transfer. The Rt. Rev. Joel Obetia wrote to the priests including the Rev. James McCaslin, Jr., and vestry of All Souls Church, Jacksonville, the Rev. Neil Lebhar and vestry of Redeemer Anglican Church, Jacksonville, the Rev. Lawrence Edward O'Connell, the Rev. Charles Shields Bailey (Deacon), the Rev. George William Hall, Jr., (ret), the Rev. Dorothy...

http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2005/006/4.42.html From Africa to Ukraine Eastern Europe's most influential pastor is a Nigerian who wants to reach the world through his Ukranian congregation. By Dawn Herzog Jewell Sunday Adelaja Sunday Adelaja never dreamed of becoming a megachurch leader when he left his Nigerian village at age 19. He was headed to the Soviet Union on a journalism scholarship. Only six months earlier, moved by an evangelistic crusade on TV, he had accepted Christ. That was in 1986, when millions of Soviet peoples lived under the shadow of communism. The young Sunday had no idea that communism denied God's existence when...

The Church “cannot remain as it always has been,” Archbishop Ellison Pogo told over 100 delegates to the 11th General Synod of the Church of Melanesia, and called for the Anglican Church in the Central Pacific to permit the ordination of women to the priesthood. The Anglican Churches of the Global South are as divided over the issue of women’s orders as is the Church of England. Evangelical provinces such as Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda ordain women -- while Nigeria and Southeast Asia do not. Anglo-Catholic Provinces are equally divided with Central Africa opposed and the West Indies in favour...

From the Changing Attitude website; The first General Meeting of the Changing Attitude Network in Nigeria is being held November 25 to 27. Over 1,000 delegates are expected to gather at the National Art Council in Abuja including 100 lesbian and 900 gay members of Anglican churches from every part of Nigeria. This will be the largest gathering of lesbian and gay people ever held in Nigeria and the first gathering of Anglican LGBT members... The General Meeting will also begin to plan how the group can make an input to the process of listening to lesbian and gay people...

Johannesburg - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa has come out in support of polygamy and homosexuality - provided they promote the cause of the Gospel. The church's bishop, Louis Sibiya, said on Sunday that there was not a simple "yes" or "no" answer as to whether a self-confessing gay person could be married and even ordained in the church, or whether a polygamist could be ordained into the ministry. "Rather, we should ask how the acceptance and/or non-acceptance of these promote the course of the Gospel," he said, speaking at 30th anniversary celebrations of the church in southern...

​​​​ABUJA, Nigeria -- Little more than a century ago, legions of Christian missionaries arrived here from Europe with an imposing agenda for changing traditional African practices. Worshiping animistic gods, they told people, was sinful. So was keeping carved idols at home. And in a land where polygamy was common, the missionaries taught that marriage was a sacred union between one man and one woman, period. Today, many devout Christian Nigerians adhere firmly to the view that homosexuality is ungodly, and they have been rankled by its growing acceptance among church leaders in the United States and Europe. As the descendants...

Father Bernard Mary Ayo Oniwe Father Bernard, OP (the Order of Preachers) was born in Nigeria in 1968. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Dramatic Art from Obafemi Awolowo University. He received his Master’s degree in Theology from the Dominican Institute of Philosophy and Theology, an affiliate of Duquesne University, in Ibadan, Nigeria. He was ordained in 2000 at Ibadan, Nigeria as a Dominican of the Saint Joseph the Worker Providence. He is designated for ministry in the Diocese of Harrisburg and is assigned to serve here for three years. Nigeria is a former British Colony. Father...

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone) OPINION August 26, 2005 Posted to the web August 26, 2005 By Bugalo ChilumeIn African culture, homosexuality is taboo. President Robert Mugabe has been widely reported to have said that homosexuals are worse than pigs, which didn’t go down well with the West. Sam Nujoma is also known to have publicly unpalatable terms to describe homosexuality. In fact, he is reported to have ordered the arrest and deportation of homosexuals from Namibia.Across the continent, homosexuality is a criminal offence, except in South Africa, where the minority white race was in power prior to majority rule - they...

-snip- The people of Hunt County, a largely rural area of which Greenville is the county seat, are about to get a rare opportunity to break with the past. The Redeemed Christian Church of God is a fast-growing evangelical church with mostly black adherents but that espouses a multicultural mission. Founded in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1952, it is building its North American headquarters on the outskirts of Greenville. The church's goal, according to its mission statement, is to establish parishes within five minutes' driving distance of every family in every city and town in the United States. It is now...

LONDON (August 18, 2005)--AS THE urbane vicar for Ealing, in West London, the Rev Nicholas Henderson might not have seemed the obvious first choice to become bishop of one of the most conservative provinces in Africa. But electors in the diocese decided otherwise. Based on his 18-year relationship with Lake Malawi diocese in the province of Central Africa, Malawi, during which time he visited regularly, giving help and raising £250,000 for religious, social and humanitarian projects, they elected him to be the next Bishop of Lake Malawi. But few knew of his record as a leading liberal theologian and, until...

Please give me a moment of time so I can tell you about an extraordinary opportunity save the lives of hundreds of children, and also further a movement forgiveness that could have a ripple effect around the world and through generations in Muslim - Christian relations. An extraordinary calling has been rippling through the network of Sudanese Christian immigrants in the US to bring relief to their former persecutors, the Muslims of the Darfur region of Sudan. "They burned our home, and they killed all my family, but I know God would have me come to their aid, even if...

[All, CT's requirement for excerpting, and FR's excerpting rules, don't allow me to provide enough to give you any sense of this excellent article. --sionnsar] Philip Jenkins, in his groundbreaking The Next Christendom, wrote that a "global perspective should make us think carefully before asserting 'what Christians believe' or 'how the church is changing.' All too often [such statements] refer only to what that ever-shrinking remnant of Western Christians and Catholics believe. Such assertions are outrageous today. … The era of Western Christianity has passed within our lifetimes, and the day of Southern Christianity is dawning."In the Anglican Communion, the...

In light of Archbishop Akinola’s statement on the Church of England’s new policy permitting same-sex civil partnerships, it seems the cracks in the Anglican Communion are growing wider. Back on May 30th , I expressed my amazement at ++Rowan Williams’ support of this new policy and painted in stark terms its implications for the Communion. I would probably be slightly more tactful now, but I wrote: I seriously doubt any reasonable hope remains of keeping the Anglican Communion together save the Queen asking him to step down, which I don’t expect. Up to now, the Global South clergy could say...

The shaky peace following 20 years of civil war in the Sudan may be coming apart as communal violence erupted in Khartoum following the death in an air crash on July 30 of Sudanese vice president and former rebel leader John Garang. “It has been planned to bury the body of the late Dr. John Garang in Juba Saturday, Aug. 6,” the provincial secretary of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, the Rev. Enock Tombe, told The Living Church. “The funeral service will be held at All Saints’ Cathedral. The late Dr. Garang was a Christian of the Episcopal Church...

Violent Mobs Surge Through Sudan Capital By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 48 minutes ago Violent mobs surged again into the streets of Sudan's capital Tuesday, a day after 36 people died in riots sparked by the death of Sudanese vice president and former southern rebel leader John Garang. The initial violence Monday was blamed on Garang supporters from the Christian and animist south who blamed his death in a helicopter crash on Sudan's Muslim-dominated government, but both northerners and southerners reportedly staged attacks Tuesday after a quiet morning. Arab gangs invaded some neighborhoods heavily populated by southerners...

Sudan's Vice-President John Garang, a former rebel leader, has been killed in a crash, a UN official has said. Mr Garang had been missing since Saturday, when contact was lost with his helicopter flying back from Uganda. He was greeted as a peacemaker by more than a million people when he was sworn in three weeks ago as part of a deal ending a decades-long civil war. The BBC's Jonah Fisher says Mr Garang's importance in holding together southern Sudan cannot be overstated.

SYDNEY, (LifeSiteNews.com) - A letter by Australian bioethicist Dr. Amin Abboud published in the July 30 edition of the British Medical Journal notes that "A regression analysis done on the HIV situation in Africa indicates that the greater the percentage of Catholics in any country, the lower the level of HIV." Dr. Abboud's letter comes in response to an article published in the journal's June 4 issue which wonders if newly elected Pope Benedict XVI will alter the Church's teaching on condoms in light of the burgeoning HIV/AIDS epidemic. Abboud asserts that "On the basis of statistical evidence it would...

POLICE have raided churches in Zimbabwe's second-largest city, rounding up people sheltering there since their homes were destroyed in the urban renewal drive. At least four clerics were detained in the raids on Bulawayo, which came ahead of the release of a UN report on the demolition campaign. The Government of President Robert Mugabe defends the campaign as a drive to clean up overcrowded and crime-ridden slums. The opposition says the push is aimed at breaking up its strongholds among the urban poor and forcing them into rural areas, where they can be controlled by chiefs sympathetic to the Government....

The G8 leaders' pronouncement last Friday about aid to Africa reflected the views of international bureaucrats who, as Paul Theroux wrote, ride from meeting to meeting in new Land Rovers. I wish they would instead ride on the back of a Mitsubishi flatbed truck with 39 Africans jubilantly and melodically singing of their faith in Christ: "He is not number eight. He is not number six. He is number one." Standing behind the cab was like being at the prow of a ship with the wind blowing hard and dirt roads tough on truck suspensions taking the place of waves....

Ex-rebel leader John Garang has been sworn in as Sudan's vice-president, ending two decades of bitter civil war. President Omar al-Bashir signed a power-sharing constitution with Mr Garang's followers at a ceremony in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. Southern Sudan is to be given some autonomy and former rebels will take up seats in the country's government. One-and-a-half million people died in 20 years of fighting between the mainly Muslim north and Christian south. A full power-sharing government is due to be formed next month. As well as being named national vice-president, Mr Garang will head the autonomous administration in southern Sudan...

Nigeria - Wednesday June 08, 2005 CHRISTIAN LECTURER DISAPPEARS AFTER DEATH THREAT Muslim dress code stirs unrest in Kaduna and Kano states. June 8 (Compass) — Andrew Akume, a Christian lecturer at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Zaria city, Kaduna state, northern Nigeria, has disappeared since the issuance of a death sentence against him. A militant Muslim group at ABU passed the sentence on him claiming he blasphemed Mohammed, the prophet of Islam. The death sentence for Akume, the university’s dean of the faculty of law, is contained in two fatwas (Islamic decrees) issued in the months of May...

Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - Anglicans in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda have started a process that could lead to a split within the "mother" Church of England over the homosexuality dispute. Church leaders in Kenya have signed a document on the Anglican Global Initiative (AGI), which envisages the churches forming a new communion separate from American, Canadian and European churches supporting homosexual ordinations and same-sex "marriage." The church in the three African countries already has refused any further financial assistance from the U.S. Episcopal Church. The AGI will be chaired by Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola and West Indies Archbishop Drexel Gomez....

1. Preamble and Context 1.1. We are traditionally proud of our belonging to the Anglican Communion. It gives us the sense of being local and global, vulnerable and formidable. As one piece of my episcopal robes I wear the Canterbury cap to make the point. 1.2 We have been disappointed and felt betrayed. After the passing of the Lambeth 1998 resolution 1.10 the Anglican Church of Kenya breathed a sigh of relief that the unity in the Anglican Communion was strong enough to carry out even the homework directed by the spirit of the resolution a) The homework of holding...

The Anglican Church of Kenya has severed links with the Episcopal Church of America and demanded its expulsion from the global communion.The announcement at the end of a three-day meeting in Nairobi was made amidst revelation that the head of the parent church in England, archbishop Rowan William would be visiting Kenya on July 20.The church made the move over ECUSA’s endorsement of Dr Gene Robinson, a 59-year-old homosexual bishop who divorced his wife to live with a male partner.Besides foregoing unspecified financial aid, the Kenyan Church would also not send its clergy for training at churches that recognise lesbianism...

More than 10,000 Christians have been killed since 1999, the year Islamic "Sharia law" was introduced in Nigeria, according to Voice of the Martyrs, a group that aids the persecuted church around the world. Nearly 1,000 homes and churches have been burned down by Muslim radicals – with a wink and a nod from a government that doesn't recognize the rights of non-Muslims. The war on Christians began in 1999 when Alhaji Ahmed Sani assumed the office of governor in Nigeria's Zamfara state. Just five months later, he introduced Sharia law. Soon 11 other northern Nigerian states, all with Muslim...

LONG before the Lambeth 2 and the divisive marriage of the American gay bishop Gene Robinson broke the Anglican Communion, Uganda's infant Christian community had to deal with today's hot potato. Ugandan converts were thrown headlong into "the issue of the 21st century". How do Christians respond to state-sanctioned homosexuality in light of its apparent contradictions with culture, faith and nature? For the early church, it was a literal "baptism by fire" experience. Mwanga's homosexuality is an issue we tip-toed about for fear of offending the Buganda monarchy which abhors homosexuality. But all historical accounts of the martyrs agree that...

Main Entry: pri'mate Etymology: Middle English primat, from Old French, from Medieval Latin primat-, primas archbishop, from Latin, leader, from primus Date: 13th century 1 often capitalized : a bishop who has precedence in a province, group of provinces, or a nation2 archaic : one first in authority or rank : LEADER 3 [New Latin Primates, from Latin, plural of primat-, primas] : any of an order (Primates) of mammals comprising humans, apes, monkeys, and related forms (as lemurs and tarsiers) -pri'mate-ship \-*ship\ noun --pri-ma'tial \pr*-*m*-sh*l\ adjective ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) -- Archbishop Peter Akinola, leader of the growing and...

Anglican bishops in Africa who are refusing millions of dollars from liberal AmericanEpiscopal sources to protest homosexual clergy say the price of their protest has been higher than they thought. "To be honest, there is not enough money for the needs we have in Rwanda after the [1994] genocide," said Rwandan Bishop John Rucyahana of the Diocese of Shyira, "but if money is being used to disgrace the Gospel, then we don't need it." The Rev. Alison Barfoot, assistant to the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, said the Anglican province has no working phones in its Kampala headquarters because it lacks...

RECENT DIVISIONS in the Anglican Communion over sexuality have prompted various interpretations of the Church of Nigeria’s position, given the outspokenness of its Primate, the Most Revd Peter Akinola. Having served in parishes in both Nigeria and England, I believe I am qualified to comment.Few critics of Archbishop Akinola know about the friendship that existed between him and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA), the Most Revd Frank Griswold, before the outbreak of this crisis. If the Bishop and the Archbishop are no longer in communion or in impaired communion, the issue at stake...

What will a more Afrocentric church bring? Generalizing about 300 million people is risky, but African churches are known for a greater emphasis on the supernatural as well as for their more conservative stances on moral issues. Pentecostal and charismatic churches flourish, even more than mainline Protestant and Catholic churches do – although some Africans are comfortable mixing and matching elements from different Christian faiths and even indigenous beliefs. "We have people who come to Mass on Sunday, go to a Protestant healer on Wednesday, and see the witch doctor on Saturday," said Father Ani, who proudly points out that...

ENUGU, Nigeria – Ejike Mbaka is telling a story. The 20,000 Nigerians gathered around him in the red-dust lot have gone quiet. "Last week, there was a man who was mad, insane," he begins, standing on a rickety stage. "For years, the doctors attempted to heal him. But the infirmity continued. He came to me for help. "I gave him some healing water" – and here, some in the audience hold up the small plastic packages of water he sells, 45 cents each – "and told him to pour it in his ear on Sunday. Then pour it in his...

A hearing for an application to reverse a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that legalises same-sex marriage was held at the Constitutional Court of South Africa on Tuesday. Under the pressure of the churches, especially Anglicans who strongly defend marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman, the Constitutional Court yesterday said that homosexuality is against the Bible and so same-sex unions should not be allowed. According to the report of a local newspaper News24, John Smyth of a conservative group Doctors For Life said, "There is no escaping the fact that in both testaments homosexual acts are...

Growth Stagnates in Europe, Consolidates in America VATICAN CITY, MAY 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- According to the statistics, the greatest challenge facing Benedict XVI at the beginning of his pontificate is the Catholic Church's lack of growth in Europe. Africa, however, is the great hope, where over the past 25 years Catholics have almost tripled in number, according to the new edition of the "Statistical Yearbook of the Church 2003," prepared by the Church's Central Office of Statistics. The results of the volume were published last week in the Italian edition of the Vatican's semi-official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano. Between 1978 and...

CHURCH FORCED TO MOVE HEADQUARTERS Two-million-member Church of Christ seeking to avoid religious violence. April 26 (Compass) -- Devastation caused by religious conflict and the hostile attitude of Muslims toward Christian refugees returning to their villages in the central Nigerian state of Plateau has forced the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) to relocate its regional headquarters from the town of Wase to Kadarko. “The decision to relocate our regional office and the church in Wase town was made by our church council following the complete destruction of all our churches in Wase town and the killing and displacement of...

Christians furious over ads saying Jesus supported taxes Mon Apr 25, 3:46 PM ET - AFP FREETOWN (AFP) - Tax officials in Sierra Leone have infuriated Christians with the publication of newspaper advertisements saying Jesus Christ supported the paying of taxes. The half-page advertisements said that when Jesus was asked if he was against a law requiring the payment of taxes to the Roman emperor he replied: "Pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor and pay to God what belongs to God," quoting from the Gospel of Matthew (22:17-21). It continued: "all Christians should follow the teachings and example...

LAGOS, Nigeria — A fierce competition for souls is on in Lagos. In this sprawling capital that seems glued together out of scraps of rusted iron, plywood and torn posters, the immortal combat is being waged on faded billboards so closely planted along the highway that it's difficult to make them out as they flash by: Divine Harvest! Holy Fire! Winners Chapel! Victorious Family! Champions Chapel! Miracle Explosion! None of the posters is for the Roman Catholic Church, which is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else. Father George Ehusani, secretary-general of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, hardly needs to...

SOWETO, South Africa - Mass is so crowded at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church that the parishioners spill out into the courtyard, where they huddle close to the doors to hear and be heard. Worship here is participatory and joyous, not a staid moral duty performed amid pomp and ritual beneath the stained glass of one of Europe's cavernous and magnificent cathedrals. The Catholic Church seems young, active and relevant, growing at a rate so explosive — with nearly 140 million Roman Catholics in Africa — that it's a vital part of today's Christian expansion. The next pope will inherit...

Prague, 5 April 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Back in 1978, when the Roman Catholic Church last elected a pope, the world stood uneasily divided in a struggle between Soviet communism and the West. By most accounts, Pope John Paul II played a major role in ending that divide, largely by focusing attention on injustices in his native Poland, then under Soviet sway. Today, with the Vatican set to elect a new leader, the world stands divided yet again. The Cold War analogy is imperfect, but increasing tensions and violence are threatening what has been called a possible "clash of civilizations between...

OP-ED COLUMNIST DETE CROSSING, Zimbabwe — So with Easter approaching, here I am in the heart of Christendom. That's right - Africa. One of the most important trends reshaping the world is the decline of Christianity in Europe and its rise in Africa and other parts of the developing world, including Asia and Latin America. I stopped at a village last Sunday morning here in Zimbabwe - and found not a single person to interview, for everyone had hiked off to church a dozen miles away. And then I dropped by a grocery store with a grim selection of the...