COKE ADD CALLED BLASPHEMOUS

Coca-Cola claimed it was promoting Russian culture when it placed images of Russian churches and orthodox crosses on its outdoor refrigerators--but Russian orthodox believers accused the company of blasphemy. Over four hundred people in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 400 km southeast of Moscow, complained to the prosecutor's office in December about pictures of orthodox crosses and onion-shaped church domes on the outdoor refrigerators.

"Coca-Cola uses all these Orthodox symbols in a blasphemous way by placing images of Coca-Cola bottles inside the pictures," the complaint said, according to Russia's Ria Novosti news agency. "Some images are deliberately turned upside down, including the crosses." An inverted cross is traditionally considered to be a satanic symbol. Initially Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. said it would not drop its marketing campaign as there had been no negative reaction in any other Russian cities where the campaign ran.  

However on Jan. 10 Coca-Cola's main Russian bottling distributor promised to remove the religious pictures. "I would assure people that we used these images to promote Russian culture and not to offend anybody's feelings," a Coca Cola spokeswoman said. She said it would take some time to remove all the controversial images. "We are strictly adhering to our principles of ethical marketing, which means we are taking into consideration local community demands. We took the decision to remove the image of the church."

FORTH WORTH RECOMMENDS JOINING SOUTHERN CONE

Photo: Sue Careless

On Jan. 9 Bishop Jack Iker (left) and the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Fort Worth issued a preliminary report recommending that their Diocese accept the invitation to join the Province of the Southern Cone. The report said the realignment under the South American jurisdiction would afford the Diocese “greater self-determination than we currently have under the General Convention of The Episcopal Church.” There would be greater autonomy in “property ownership, liturgy, holy orders and missionary focus.” While the Diocese’s “day-to-day operations would continue,” the report concluded that realigning would allow the Diocese of Fort Worth “the opportunity and freedom to continue to practice the ‘Faith once delivered to all the saints’ without being constantly distracted by the controversies and divisions caused by innovations hostile to traditional Christian norms.” The Diocese could concentrate on evangelism and discipleship, while being sure of “our continued place in the mainstream of Anglicanism, an assurance The Episcopal Church is unable to give.”

On Dec. 8 the Californian Diocese of San Joaquin (pron. wahkeen) was the first diocese to leave The Episcopal Church. On the same day it voted overwhelmingly to join the Province of the Southern Cone under Archbishop Gregory Venables. A convention (synod) must register two votes in two different years, with two-thirds approval before a diocese may leave the national church. Last year the Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Fort Worth each held their first vote to leave and will hold their second finalizing vote this year.

CHRISTMAS VIOLENCE IN INDIA

Christians were killed and injured and numerous homes and churches destroyed in a spate of attacks on Christians over Christmas in the Kandhamal district of Orissa state in eastern India. The violence began Christmas Eve in the village of Brahmani when a mob of Hindus belonging to the Vishva Hindu Parishad militant group attacked Christians and their shops in order to protest their planned Christmas celebrations. The violence spread rapidly.

According to a memorandum submitted to the National Human Rights Commission on December 31, at least 90 churches have been burned and 600 houses torched or vandalized in the attacks. Thousands of Christians have been displaced and others are still missing. The total number of Christians killed is unknown. The Evangelical Fellowship of India has reported further incidents as late as January 2. Local Christians believe that the violence is a direct attempt to intimidate the Christian community and stop missionary work in Orissa, which is one of several Indian states with strict anti-conversion laws. Full details of the carnage are still uncertain since authorities are often denying church groups and fact-finding teams access to the area. Christians remain at risk as religious tensions persist in the region. In Kandhamal the majority of Christian converts are Dalits or “untouchables” who still face massive discrimination. 

Over 800 million Indians (80.5%) are Hindu. The second largest religious group is Muslim (13.4%), followed by Christians at 2.3 percent.  --The Voice of the Martyrs

Notorious bishop refuses to step down

(Staff) The deposed Bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, refuses to step down and according to the British Church Times has resorted to forgery in an attempt to discredit and stop the appointment of Sebastian Bakare as the Diocese's interim bishop. Kunonga was deposed in December after illegally separating from the Province of Central Africa and installing himself as Archbishop of Zimbabwe.

Kunonga has close ties with the tyrannical president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and state police have been forcibly disrupting Anglican services in the Diocese of Harare, intimidating clergy who support the new interim bishop.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is outraged and issued a scathing statement Jan. 14: “Kunonga's position has become increasingly untenable within the Anglican Church over the last year, as he has consistently refused to maintain appropriate levels of independence from the Zimbabwean Government.”

Dr. Williams "condemns unequivocally the use of state machinery to intimidate opponents of the deposed bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga." Williams is appalled by reports of Zimbabwean police "forcibly stopping Sunday services in several churches in Harare where clergy have publicly and bravely refused to acknowledge Kunonga's episcopal authority." Williams, said he "stands in solidarity with the Province of Central Africa and the other loyal Zimbabwean bishops" in supporting Bakare.

In August 2005 Kunonga was charged with asking members of the Zimbabwe secret police--the Central Intelligence Organisation--to “have certain people, whom he named, killed.” The Bishop allegedly marked for death ten priests and lay people. He was also alleged to have purged the diocese of its white clergy; “publicly and deliberately maintained doctrines or opinions which are contrary to the teachings of the Church”; diverted Church funds; falsified records; and violated a host of church laws and procedures.

The trial collapsed after three days when the presiding judge withdrew from the case. But while a mistrial was declared on technical grounds--and Kunonga could not be retried--he was never exonerated. Kunonga was not invited to the 2008 Lambeth Conference.