Posted on 03/07/2006 7:57:32 PM PST by sionnsar
Members of the Muslim community in a suburb of Ambilobe, Madagascar, have donated land to the Anglican Diocese of Antsiranana in the Province of the Indian Ocean.
“I could not believe my ears,” the Bishop of Antsiranana, the Rt. Rev. Roger Chung, said in an official release published by the telecommunications department of the Anglican Communion Office. “But God’s ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts, says the Book of Isaiah.”
According to the chairman of the new parish, Diogene Mahavavy, the Muslim community donated the land after becoming aware of the difficulties that the Anglicans were having in obtaining a plot of land on which to build a new suburban church.
The people of Ambilobe are from the Antakarana tribe, which is predominantly Muslim, Mr. Mahavavy said, but evangelization in the region has resulted in many families having both Muslim and Christian members; mutual support is common.
The new church will be the daughter church of St. Michael’s, Ambilobe. Two predecessors of Bishop Chung are buried on the grounds of St. Michael’s.
Madagascar, the world’s fourth largest island, is located off the southeast coast of Africa. The Anglican Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean contains seven diocese in Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. The Christians would do well to watch their backs and sleep with one eye open.
I suspect they've run out of non-islamic stuff to burn down.
They need something to practice on.
This is good news. We should be celebrating and encouraging and even exemplifying acts of generousity like this.
I'd love to see htose who want to condemn all Muslims as the enemy explain this one away.
Yesterday I was looking at a FR post on the politics/activist? forum titled "Egyptian producer plans first Arab film on Jesus". One point that was made was that the producer planned to run his project by the local Coptic Christian community for input. There were a number of comments, some sceptical, some interested, some with questions. One person asked "What ever became of the Coptics?". Having recently bought a book on ancient civilizations of Africa, I posted a detailed answer. I went back a few hours later to see if there was feedback and was astonished to find the entire thread had been pulled.
Any idea why this would happen? I also entered the title here at the religious forum to see if it was moved. Didn't find it. I am totally puzzled and a little disturbed as there was only one comment after mine, and I couldn't see anything alarming about the thread except it indicated some chance of cooperation between Chrisians and Muslims.
No idea why it would have been pulled...
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