Theology is ‘wrestling with the unfathomable mystery of God’, but to enlighten rather than to obscure, says Simon Barrow, paying tribute to two Mennonite scholars and pastors, Alan and Eleanor Kreider, as part of a festschrift entitled'Forming Christian Habits in Post-Christendom'.This short piece appears as part of afestschriftfor Alan and Eleanor Kreider, who spent many years at the London Mennonite Centre. The book was co-published in July 2011 by the Institute of Mennonite Studies and Herald Press in the US.

Fifteen leaders of dioceses and national church bodies in Norway have joined in common prayer at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland.Fifteen leaders of dioceses and national church bodies in Norway, among them all 12 bishops of the Church of Norway, shared common prayer on 17 August at the Ecumenical Centre chapel in Geneva, Switzerland.They were joined in this act of worship by members of the Norwegian congregation in Geneva and staff of many church-related agencies including the ACT Alliance, Conference of European Churches, Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and World Council of Churches (WCC).The Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, a pastor in the Church of Norway who currently serves as General Secretary of the WCC, welcomed those who had come to “join us in honouring the victims” of last month’s violence in Norway.“We are still a people who are in sorrow, embracing one another, lighting candles in memory of those whom we have lost, praying for the survivors and their families,” he said. He told the story of a young woman he knows who was shot five times at the Utøya Island youth camp on 22 July. “She knows that her friends saved her,” Tveit reported, “and she is determined that this is not something that will destroy her life.”In her sermon, Presiding Bishop Helga Haugland Byfuglien of the Church of Norway said that “we still see faith, hope and love standing up against evil, hate and destruction”, weeks after “the long Friday” on which “this unbelievable thing happened in so peaceful a corner of the world.” She offered thanks to the world’s churches and other faith communities “for being together with us at this moment.”After the service, several church leaders offered further testimony to the sense of unity that has sprung up. Berit Hagen Agøy, General Secretary of the Church of Norway council on ecumenical and international relations, spoke of her appreciation for the support and insights of Muslims she has encountered.“I am impressed by Muslim leaders in Norway,” she told the congregation in Geneva. “Even though they experienced massive harassments and even threats immediately after the attacks – when many Norwegians assumed the terrorist or terrorists must be Muslim – they have clearly denied any connection between the terrorist, a self-proclaimed Christian, and Christianity.”She continued, “It is thought-provoking that Muslim leaders were among those who stated most clearly that the act of the terrorist is contradictory to Christianity.”“Together with the Islamic Council of Norway,” she said, “the Church of Norway and the University of Oslo are planning two seminars this autumn about extremism and religion. Work together on this issue was actually planned before the terror attack on the 22nd of July. I must admit that when we first talked about these events, we were thinking of Islamic extremism. In July, we suddenly realised that we also have to confront nationalistic extremism in our own Christian culture.”Bishops Laila Riksaasen Dahl and Erling Pettersen reported on many of the ways that “the church was there” in the immediate aftermath of the horrible violence. They marvelled at “a new language” of reconciliation and unity that has grown up in their land, and they stressed the need for the church to dedicate itself to following up in support of victims, their families and the whole society.The bishops’ two-day visit to Geneva includes meetings with leadership and staff of such ecumenical organisations as the WCC, the LWF, ACT Alliance and the Ecumenical Institute at Bossey, Switzerland.[Ekk/3]

Senior parliamentarian Sir Menzies Campbell and commentator James Fergusson, whose book'Taliban'strips away misconceptions and lays bare the contradictions of western policy, are taking part in a public conversation on Friday 19 August, co-sponsored by the beliefs and values think-tank Ekklesia.

Amnesty International has reiterated its concern at the wider deployment of Tasers after a man in Cumbria died after being struck by the weapon.Amnesty International has reiterated its concern at the wider deployment of Tasers after a man living in Barrow, Cumbria died after being struck by the weapon.The respected human rights NGO's spokesperson Eulette Ewart said: “While we’re not able to comment on the details of this specific tragic incident, Amnesty International has long been concerned at the wider deployment of the Taser across UK police forces.“Tasers are potentially lethal and therefore should only be used in a limited set of instances where there is a very real threat of loss of life.“Only officers who receive the highest standard of training on how and when to use Tasers should be armed with these weapons and there must be a high level of accountability whenever Tasers are used.”Last month an 82-year-old man was hospitalised after being Tasered in west London by a Metropolitan Police officer. The man was reported to have been arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and criminal damage to a motor vehicle.Police in the United States have carried Tasers for several years. Since 2001, Amnesty International has recorded the deaths of more than 450 people in the United States after they were struck by a Taser.In many instances, most of the deceased were unarmed and did not appear to present a serious threat when they were shocked, in some cases several times.[Ekk/4]

The Student Christian Movement have warned that an increase in private sponsorship of university places may lead to undue influence from corporations.The Student Christian Movement (SCM) have warned that an increase in private sponsorship of university places is likely to lead to undue influence from corporations with dubious ethics.Commenting ahead of the publication of A Level results tomorrow (18 August), they accused the government of paving the way for the privatisation of higher education.The warning came as KPMG prepared to run its own clearing process following the release of A Level results. The accountancy firm, which is sponsoring at least 100 degree places, has run its own corporate application process in parallel with the general application system.KPMG has been criticised by equality and campaigners for advising corporations on tax avoidance. Price Waterhouse Coopers is also sponsoring around 100 university places.The government is keen to encourage more'off-quota'places sponsored by private companies, on top of a reduced number of public places.But SCM, Britain's oldest national student organisation, said that academic independence has already been damaged when arms companies have sponsored engineering and management courses.They gave the example of Loughborough University, where representatives of BAE Systems sit on engineering course committees. Students have said that the case studies are skewed towards the arms industry and that the sponsorship provides a recruiting ground for BAE."Arms dealers such as BAE already wield too much influence over a number of courses and departments,” said Hattie Hodgson, a member of SCM’s General Council.SCM has long supported campaigns by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) for an end to arms companies'recruitment and influence within higher education.Hodgson insisted, “The government has opened the door to a potential privatisation of higher education by squeezing the number of public places, hiking up fees and allowing corporations - some of them with questionable ethics - to gain undue influence over education”.She added, “These measures will only exacerbate inequality and social problems in the UK”.SCM last year led Christian resistance to the government's plan to treble tuition fees in England. They backed nonviolent direct action against the increase.[Ekk/1]

NGOs have welcomed a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme highlighting the extraordinary scale of oil spills in the Niger Delta.The National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta (NACGOND) has welcomed a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report highlighting the extraordinary scale of oil spills in the Ogoni area of the Niger Delta.NACGOND was formed by partner organisations of church-based research and advocacy group the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility (ECCR).They include the Centre for Social and Corporate Responsibility, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, and Stakeholder Democracy Network, all of which work with oil-affected communities in the Niger Delta.The 14-month UNEP project surveyed 122 kilometres of pipeline rights of way and visited all known and accessible oil spill sites, wells and other oil-related facilities in Ogoniland.It concludes that “most members of the current Ogoniland community have lived with chronic oil pollution throughout their lives” and that environmental restoration of Ogoniland “could prove to be the world’s most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken if contaminated drinking water, land, creeks and important ecosystems such as mangroves are to be brought back to full, productive health”.According to NACGOND, the UNEP report “estimates the need for a thirty year clean-up process that will cost $1 billion in the first five years, provides an explanation of how the current regulatory system is broken and explains that Shell has failed to adopt and uphold even its own environmental standards”.The report “has for the first time independently explained what people in the communities knew already – that decades of environmental failings have caused an environment crisis in Ogoni”, the coalition says.NACGOND is calling for immediate implementation of UNEP’s emergency response recommendations, including clean drinking water for those most at risk, and for Shell Nigeria to accept that “its standards have contributed to the environmental disaster and immediately review and change its approach to oil spills”.It also urges “a comprehensive and systemic survey” of environmental degradation across the entire Niger Delta region: “Protection of land, waters and health of communities should be paramount”.Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has also accepted the report, acknowledging that 30 per cent of Shell Nigeria’s oil spills in the Delta “have been caused by operational failure or human error ... this is unacceptable and [Shell Nigeria] has to improve its performance. It is determined to do everything within its control to reduce operational spills.”Shell has also recently accepted responsibility in a British court for two large oil spills in the Bodo area of Ogoni, in 2008/9.NACGOND has criticised the UNEP report on one point. “Not many civil society organisations in our coalition can claim to have been consulted; nor are there many communities in our networks that claim to have supplied information during UNEP’s investigations,” it says.In a separate comment, independent pollution expert Professor Richard Steiner stated that the UNEP report, largely funded by Shell, “essentially confirms, in a quantitative manner, what previous studies have already stated – that there is extensive and severe environmental and human health damage from oil operations in the Niger Delta, and that the companies, principally Shell, have not met international best practice standards in their Nigeria operations”.The study had “delayed action by Shell to correct its ... operations in Ogoniland and the rest of the Delta,” Professor Steiner said.[Ekk/1]

The UK Home Secretary is under pressure to halt the deportation of Robert Segwanyi to Uganda, where he was imprisoned and tortured for being gay.In less than 24 hours, more than 1,000 people have joined a petition campaign calling on the UK Home Office to halt the deportation of Robert Segwanyi to Uganda, where he was imprisoned and tortured for being gay.Segwanyi is scheduled for deportation on Thursday,18 August, 2011 on Kenya Airways KQ410 which leaves Heathrow Airport at 8.00pm.“Robert has been badly represented, which is largely why his case has hit a crisis point,” said Paul Canning, a blogger at LGBT Asylum News who launched the campaign on Change.org, where the petition has been sighted. “The UK authorities are also being completely unreasonable".Canning insisted, “There is plenty of evidence Robert is gay and - of course - that [in] Uganda is unsafe”.Uganda’s government continues to threaten gay, lesbian and bisexual people with the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which if passed would introduce the death penalty for a second “offence” of homosexuality.While the bill died at the end of the last Parliament in May, Uganda’s government is said to be willing to resurrect the measure sometime in August.Gays, lesbians and bisexuals are regularly arrested and tortured in Uganda. According to LGBT Asylum News, Segwanyi was arrested in 2010 and tortured for being gay. He eventually escaped to the United Kingdom, where he applied for asylum two weeks after his arrival.John Bosco, one of the few gay men to return to the United Kingdom after being deported to Uganda, met Robert before he was in Haslar detention centre (near Portsmouth) and has remained in phone contact."It's a really bad time for him and as a gay Ugandan, I know how hard it is to be gay in Uganda as I was arrested and tortured by police,” Bosco told LGBT Asylum News.He explained that many people in Uganda had been assaulted by members of the public as soon as they had been labelled as being gay.“When I was deported by the British, you handed me back to government officers and this is what exactly happened to me,"said Bosco,"I was beaten up really badly.”He added, “Robert is in tears and terrified".A UK immigration judge denied Segwanyi’s asylum appeal. According to Change.org, he claimed that Uganda poses no threat to gays and lesbians.On Tuesday, Canning started an additional petition on Change.org asking Kenya Airways to refuse to let Segwanyi board his flight.Pilots for Air France refused to fly Joseph Kaute to Cameroon, where he faced five years in prison for being gay. Canning hopes this last-minute campaign will potentially spare Robert’s life.“I hope immigration officials do the right thing and let Robert Segwanyi stay in the United Kingdom,” said Paul Canning. “But if they don’t, then I hope Kenya Airways refuses to fly Robert Segwanyi because Robert’s safety is in jeopardy if he is deported to Uganda".[Ekk/1]

The news that unemployment figures have risen has triggered a warning about potential students who miss out on university places this week.The news that unemployment figures have risen has triggered a warning about potential students who miss out on university places when A Level results are published tomorrow (18 August).It was reported today that the official count of UK unemployment rose by 38,000 to 2.49 million between March and June this year.The news comes a day before an expected scramble for university places by those who miss out on places tomorrow. The number of places is more limited than usual due to government cuts.The University and College Union (UCU), which represents academic and teaching staff, warned today that the tens of thousands of students who will miss out on a university place this summer are “unlikely to have a plan B”.The union said that those set to miss out on a university place risk joining the dole queue. UCU also pointed to the fact that record numbers of young people are already not studying or working.“We can expect to see a repeat of last year's frustrating situation when more than 200,000 students were left without a university place,” said Sally Hunt, UCU’s General Secretary, “Young people getting their A-level results tomorrow have been encouraged to aim higher and apply to university. They have done just that and are now having the door slammed shut in their faces.”She added that the “real issue” for those who miss is deciding what to do next. UCU pointed out that almost one in five people aged 19-24 in England are not studying or working.“Unless the government looks again at increasing the number of funded university places we risk consigning thousands of qualified and talented people to join the increasing numbers of the unemployed,” said Hunt.Government cuts to higher education, along with a decision to treble tuition fees from 2012, have been sharply criticised by UCU, along with organisations including the National Union of Students and the Student Christian Movement.[Ekk/1]

I returned last Friday from a week more or less out of reach of TV, radio and electronic communications to what feels like another country: A country convulsed by anger, outrage and anguish. A country in which the ‘old certainties’ of even ten days ago, now seem past their sell by date.

If we can take anything positive from the days of destruction and division in England recently, says Chris Bain, perhaps it should be a dedication to tackle fear and exclusion wherever it exists around the world, and to stand by the women and children in the poorest countries who currently stand afraid on their own.Twice a year, CAFOD organises Fast Days in schools and parishes so that people in our country can get a glimpse of what it means to live in hunger in the poorest countries in the world.We ask those children and parishioners with a rumbling stomach after skipping their lunch at Lent and Harvest to think about people whose daily reality is their twice-yearly sacrifice, and remember the feeling the next time they are raising funds to help those in need.Last week, people in London, Manchester, Birmingham and other areas affected by the terrible wave of riots experienced something else of what it means to live in the poorest countries: to be caught in the grip of fear.For millions of us, walking or cycling home from work, or going to the shops, the everyday journeys which we regard as routine were suddenly transformed into a rollercoaster of wracked nerves, wondering what would appear around the next corner, trying to work out the direction of the sirens, shouts and breaking glass.Never has getting inside the front door at home, or hearing from a loved one that they are safe, felt like such a relief. That is before we heard the news from Ealing of people being attacked in their homes, and felt a new wave of fear sweep over us.I live just off the Walworth Road in South London, and for two hours on Monday night, the street belonged to the rioters and looters.Thank God the riots have now subsided, but we should do our best to remember the feelings of fear that they created. Because what many of us felt for a few fleeting moments is the reality of every waking hour for so many millions of people around the world.A few months ago I was in Colombia, where in the past two decades 70,000 civilians have been killed in civil conflict and 4.5 million – nearly a tenth of the population – displaced from their land. One woman I met saw her son forcibly conscripted by guerrillas; another witnessed her husband shot in front of her by right wing militias recruited by rich landlords. No wonder they lived in constant fear – and the knowledge that the perpetrators act with impunity.Across East Africa, small farming communities are on a constant state of alert for raids by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, whose senseless terror has seen tens of thousands killed, raped and abducted over recent years, and hundreds of thousands more made homeless. Imagine knowing what the LRA had done in the past, and spending every day waiting for the next raid.In the Democratic Republic of Congo’s long suffering war zone, people bravely try to carry on with their lives despite the constant threat from rebel groups and army units. In the town of Minova in South Kivu, we worked with our Church partners to build an irrigation system in the town so that the local people, especially women and young girls, who used to have to climb down the mountainside to collect water from the river, no longer need to make that daily journey in fear of rape and murder, or send children to collect water never sure if they will return.In 2008, a bitter election in Kenya erupted into the most awful ethnic violence, with armed mobs on the rampage. The Catholic Church provided refuge for thousands, but many could not escape. Rebuilding those communities, supporting the survivors, and trying to prevent a repeat is a thankless but vital task, and it starts – as in the past with Rwanda – by trying to deal with the fear and suspicion in communities where neighbours have previously turned on each other.In all these countries across the world, millions of poor people are living every day wondering whether danger lies over the next hill, whether the men walking towards them mean harm, whether their homes and villages will be secure at night, and whether simmering ethnic tensions will explode.Some of the issues CAFOD is dealing with across the developing world – hunger, poverty, disease, exploitation – are all the more appalling because the people suffering from them have known nothing else and accept them as part of life. But fear is an emotion no-one ever gets used to or accepts, wherever they live.None of us in Britain would tolerate living our daily lives in the grip of the fear that many of us felt fleetingly last week, so none of us should tolerate women and children having to live in such fear all day and every day of their lives.Just as so many communities in England came together in solidarity to resist the looters, or clean up the damage they had caused, let us show that same solidarity to others in even greater need.Desperate as they are, the problems they face – land seizures, militia violence, ethnic tension – are not intractable. Alongside our Church partners, CAFOD is bringing justice, protection, security and a sense of community where there is none, tackling the roots of fear and the reality of violence.If we can take anything positive from the days of destruction and division at home, perhaps it should be a dedication to tackle fear wherever it exists around the world, and stand by the women and children in the poorest countries who currently stand afraid on their own.---------©Chris Bain is director of CAFOD, the Catholic relief and development agency -www.cafod.org.uk

Almost 9,000 hectares of ancestral land has been returned to Enxet Indians in Paraguay, more than a decade after their campaign to reclaim it began.Almost 9,000 hectares of their ancestral land has been returned to Enxet Indians in Paraguay, more than a decade after their campaign to reclaim it began.The Kelyenmagategma, a small community of Enxet Indians, had been forcibly evicted from their homes on several occasions and were surviving on just three hectares of land, says Survival International, the NGO which campaigns for the rights of tribal people.Having suffered countless episodes of violence and persecution at the hands of local landowners, the Kelyenmagategma were forced to bring their case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2004.The government’s decision finally to return the land this month is in response to measures set out by the IACHR.Many of Paraguay’s Indians have fought for the return of their ancestral lands for decades.Survival reports that uncontacted Ayoreo Indians in the northern part of Paraguay are repeatedly uprooted from their homes by foreign cattle firms.State attempts to reclaim or buy back the land for its indigenous owners have been largely unsuccessful.The Ayoreo are now in extreme danger of being wiped out as their forests rapidly disappear to make way for cattle farming, says Survival.[Ekk/4]

Homophobia, nonviolent direct action, the politics of the Bible and the gap between rich and poor have been on the agenda at a gathering of Christian students.The arms trade, homophobia, nonviolent direct action, the politics of the Bible and the gap between rich and poor have all been on the agenda at a gathering of Christian students taking a practical approach to theology.The Theology Summer School, a six-day event which finished last week, took place at Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire. It was organised by the Student Christian Movement (SCM), Britain’s oldest national student organisation, which last year led Christian resistance to the hike in university tuition fees.Alongside worship twice a day, the event involved interactive workshops to allow students to get to grips with the issues affecting society from a Christian perspective. The workshops gave space for Bible study, disagreement, dialogue and practical planning.Speakers and workshop leaders included Anglican priest Chris Howson on the role of the Bible in liberation theology, Christian writer Alison Webster on Christianity and justice, and Liam Purcell of Church Action on Poverty on the growing inequality in the UK.Looking back over the event, students said that they enjoyed the “strong community spirit”, had felt “really challenged throughout the week” and would be taking away “lots of ideas and things to act on”.The Summer School provided new SCM student reps and local group members with practical skills to take back to campus with them, including how to start and sustain a group, strengthen participation and celebrate diversity.“It has been exciting to see students get their teeth into Christian theology as applied to everyday life,"said Hilary Topp, SCM's National Co-ordinator,"They have left the Theology Summer School more prepared to live out the Gospel in the messy world of university and politics".She added,"Jesus did not separate the personal, the social and the spiritual. We cannot choose to ignore the issues around us, any more than we can leave our faith behind when we engage in politics".[Ekk/1]

In most religious traditions there is a commitment to giving money to the poor, and more radically to various kinds of economic sharing within communities.

Purity and simplicity are quite rare qualities. When"pure and simple"is used to describe something which is in reality challenging and complex, it often accompanies the desire to mislead or to close down argument.

The Green Party says investing in youth, tackling inequality and reviewing police tactics are the priorities following the recent disturbances in England.The Green Party says that investing in youth, tackling inequality and reviewing police tactics are among the priorities following the recent disturbances in England."We have to avoid a US approach of criminalising entire communities and using paramilitary policing on young [ethnic] minority men,"according to Jenny Jones, the Green member of the Metropolitan Police Authority.She commented:"What we had was copy cat looting, with the destruction of businesses and livelihoods, because young people felt they could get away with it."We need an urgent review of police tactics, not a whole new armoury. And instead of investing in water cannon, the government should be thinking of investing in the longer-term measures that we know will make a difference."We need to think about younger children who may be vulnerable to getting caught up in gang violence. Above all we need to create a society where youth are not so extremely alienated in the first place,"said Ms Jones.On the day of the parliamentary recall last week, to debate the urban rioting across England, Caroline Lucas, the leader of the Green Party in England, said:"We reject and condemn the horrendous violence, arson and looting that we have seen on the streets of Britain. But we must seek to understand why this happened to prevent it being repeated."The Brighton Pavilion MP continued:"If we stop at denunciations and crackdowns, nothing will be learned about why sections of our own population feel they can riot, loot and treat their neighbours and communities so appallingly."The bigger picture has to be considered. Britain is deeply unequal. Last year, London's richest people were worth 273 times more than its poorest."Given the growing evidence, from Scarman onwards, that increasing inequality had a role to play in at least some of the rioting, the government must commit to an impact assessment of any further policies to establish if they will increase inequality."Dr Lucas concluded:"If individuals are defined as consumers not citizens, there is danger that those who cannot afford to consume feel they have no stake in their community and become more likely to turn against it."The Prime Minister has said this is'Not about poverty but about culture.'But it is about both. It is about inequality and culture and how dangerous it is when you mix growing inequality with a culture which puts consumerism above citizenship."[Ekk/3]