Lawyer Matthew Lawson made the comment while acting for the Hastings Gospel Trust in a Hastings District Council Resource Consent Hearing last Friday.

The application involves demolishing a house on a 758sqm Reynolds Road property (pictured) and replacing it with a chapel and carpark.

Besides Lawson, three of the four residents opposing the application appeared at the Hearing.

Residents' concerns

The residents opposing the consent application were concerned about noise and traffic impacts on Reynolds Road.

They are concerned about losing a residential property during a housing crisis and the impact an "exclusive organisation" would have on the street's "tight-knit community".

Brethren plans

The proposed hall would be used twice a week. There would be a 6am communion service on Sundays and a prayer meeting on Monday evenings before 8pm.

A maximum of 45 people are likely to attend.

The plans include surrounding the property with a 1.8m high fence to reduce noise.

Good neighbours

Lawson said the application did not breach the Hastings District Plan. Nor does it "give rise to any matters of groundbreaking Resource Management significance".

He also said Christian churches are "an integral part of our communities and the ability to practise their religion is an inalienable right" under the New Zealand Bill of Rights.

Six letters from people who lived near other similar Brethren chapels were provided to the Hearing as evidence. All six confirmed the Brethren are excellent neighbours.

Fearing the unknown

Lawson suggested those opposing the Brethren proposal could be classified as having "perception fears and fears of the unknown".

At worst, their opposition could be described as "Nimbyism and/or religious intolerance", he said. To this he also added: "I do not wish to ascribe such a description to the matters raised by submissions."

He also raised concerns about opponents' use of the term "community".

Their use of "community" concentrates on a select small group, he said.

In reality, the community is broader than Reynolds Road. Their opposition is an example of "Nimbyism by stealth".

Not in our street

One resident took exception to the Nimbyism label.

The street is a Kiwi ideal where everyone looks out for one another and the Brethren presence would change this, he said.

The group "defines itself as an exclusive organisation not known to intermingle with others" - the opposite to the way "this neighbourhood community acts today," .

The Brethren's want "to use our street and neighbourhood for their purposes, creating noise and traffic while adding no value" to the street community, he opined.

Another resident noted most local Brethren chapels were largely on bigger roads, not disturbing sleeping neighbours at 6am on Sundays.

She presented a NZ Census table showing Brethren members make up just 0.15 per cent the population. She asked why the group needs another chapel and why it couldn't be located on a larger arterial road.

Submissions about the proposal are ongoing.

Source

• Stuff

The New Zealand priest has just returned from the Myanmar-Thai border.

Landmines surround a Catholic church in Myanmar. Before mining it, the military had been using the church as a kitchen.

The military junta's mining of the Mother of God church in Mobye, a town in southern Shan state, came after occupying the church for several days while they conducted air strikes and used heavy weapons to destroy over 100 homes and displace over 5,000 people.

The military recently retreated from the church; parishioners were urged not to go near the church building.

Landmines "no surprise" says local priest

Bird says he is sadly no longer surprised by the actions of the Myanmar military.

"I think one of their military tactics is to keep people afraid. They do anything that creates terror and uncertainty," Bird told CathNews.

"The disruption of normal life means that they are in control.

"So laying landmines, limiting travel, constant surveillance and stopping on roads are tactics to keep people afraid."

Bird says religious sisters have told him that to stay alive, they hide in the toilet at night. It's their only option: the military fire into the windows if a light is on and the toilet is the only place without a window.

The reason: the military doesn't want people moving around at night. "It's all part of living under constant fear," Bird says

He says the military is not just targeting religious women.

Recently he spoke with a young man chased by the military with a view to capturing him. He fled from Myanmar across the border.

The military has fixed ideas about who to target, Bird says.

Take people on motorbikes, for instance. The military rule in the community is that it's permissible for 'a man and a woman to be on a motorbike.' Two men on a motorbike, however could be part of the resistance. They risk being shot.

"Every day is a fearful experience," Bird says.

Calling the experience soul-destroying, he says young talented people are losing hope for their lives and their futures.

Access to the internet in Myanmar is intermittent, although it is more regular than formerly, Bird says.

He's accusing the military of providing the internet with the hope of catching and imprisoning people.

"Every time you get stopped on the road or in the village or in the towns on the street, the military ask people for their phones, which they then search.

"So the common practice before going out every day is to delete all the social media platforms because that'll be the first thing that military check."

Turning on the internet is a way of making young people fearful and afraid, he says. It's a very tangible reminder not to join the resistance and not connect with each other and any resistance group.

Bird is a member of the Marist Asia Foundation team that works on the Thai-Myanmar border, supporting Myanmar migrants through education, health and pastoral care.

Sources

• Interview
• UCANews.com

Ms Ann Clark, who is the Vice President of the Association, informed, "The Association received a complaint and it was investigated. Mr Patel is no longer a member of the Wellington JP Association Read more

But five years after his death, a High Court heard Jack Enright's will was "morally and legally questionable" and awarded four of the five out-of-pocket siblings nearly $1 million each. Read more

Abusive messages against the Christian religion and Pakeha were spray-painted in green on the state highway side of the church, next to Campion College, on Wednesday night.

Parish priest Monsignor Frank Eggleton said bad timing made the graffiti worse.

"It was a big shock for me, but also all the children coming to school had to walk past it and it was very upsetting to us to see them even looking at it."

Insults targeting faith were especially horrifying at a time when New Zealand was grieving a tragedy triggered by anti-religious bigotry, he said.

On Thursday, Gisborne police said they are following lines of inquiry in relation to the vandalism.

In Thursday's Gisborne Herald, Campion College principal Paul McGuinness and Gisborne's Mayor Meng Foon expressed their disgust and alarm about the graffiti.

Mr McGuinness said it was very sad to see especially in light of the tragedy in Christchurch.

"At a time when New Zealanders are being asked to come together in solidarity and embrace our diversity as a country, the graffiti is a reminder that this may be a long path to travel for some in our community," he said.

"It is also very sad a church is the target for this vandalism when many of the church communities throughout New Zealand are active in trying to heal the harm caused by last week's tragedy."

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• gisborneherald.co.nz
• Image: newshub.co.nz

Persecuted and Forgotten? has been published by the UK office of Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Some of the report's findings are:

• Persecution of Christians reached a new high between 2015 and 2017, as groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram stepped up attacks
• Not only are Christians more persecuted than any other faith group, they are also experiencing the worst forms of persecution
• The international community is failing to respond adequately to the violence.

The report says if Christian organisations and other institutions had not filled the gap, the Christian presence could already have disappeared in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.

Researchers focused on 13 countries, providing an overview of the state of religious freedom for the country's various denominations.

As well as in Iraq and Syria, Christians are under increasing threat in several major Islamic countries, and under authoritarian regimes such as North Korea and Eritrea.

In China, Christians have come under increasing pressure as authorities try to force their religion to conform to Communist ideals.

More than 2,000 churches have been demolished in the coastal province of Zhejiang and police are still routinely detaining clergy.

Source

The Christian Post

The Catholic Herald

Image: All News Pipeline

He wrote, "Who needs employees if they stop work five times per day to talk to an imaginary being?"

Richards was accused of confusing the Sikh in the photo on the Z Energy Facebook page with a Muslim.

However, he said this was not the case. "I did not confuse Sikh and Muslim. My comment was on the original post, which was about diversity, not on the photo.

Richards said he made comments on all kinds of religion and that it was his right to do so through freedom of speech.

Richards teaches American history and religion at the University of Waikato. But he said his opinion is his own and do not represent those of the University.

On his own Facebook page he said, "In Saudi Arabia and other Islamic theocracies, Muslims would kill me for criticizing their stupid beliefs."

"In New Zealand, they go after my job. They will fail, and they need to learn respect for evidence, reason and freedom of speech."

Richards said he had deleted his Facebook comment himself, "because I do not want extremists coming after me".

That fear may be well founded. In 1998, the university hired a security guard to protect Richards while he was on campus after two death threats were made against him following a lecture he gave on the Mormon Church's history of violence and polygamy.

Source

• Stuff
• New Zealand Herald
• Image: NewstalkZB

Father Vinsensius Darmin Mbula, chairman of the National Council of Catholic Education says diversity, pluralism and tolerance need to be taught to children in the family and in school.

He said advice would be sought from Islamic experts and thinkers from other religions.

The guidelines will not only incorporate promoting the values of Pancasila — Indonesia's philosophy to respect pluralism, it will refer to Pope Francis' document, Educating Intercultural Dialogue in Catholic Schools: Living in Harmony for a Civilisation of Love.

Mbula said the guidelines would be presented to the government, where he hopes they would be integrated into the mainstream curriculum.

"In the current curriculum there is no special attention given to efforts to cultivate awareness about diversity and building tolerance."

Mbula referred to a 2015 survey in 171 schools in Jakarta and Bandung, West Java that revealed 9.5 percent of students supported violence committed by radical groups, including the so-called Islamic State group.

An earlier survey by the Institute for Islamic and Peace Studies revealed that almost 50 percent of students supported radical ideas.

Ahmad Nurcholish, a Muslim, and chairman of the education of diversity and peace division at the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace said students must have an inclusive and contextual understanding of religion.

"There are still many who only believe in the 'truth' of their religion, dismissing other people's beliefs as wrong and misguided," he said.

Source

• UCAN
• Image: Quora

The U.S. State Department warned that religion-based terrorists as well as some governments across the globe are threatening the liberties of religious minorities.

"One of the best ways to deny these murderers their victory is by ensuring that those they have sought to destroy not only survive, but thrive," said Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, announcing the 2015 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom last Tuesday.

Though the report has often focused on serious violations of religious freedom by governments across the globe, Blinken said it also details the "major threat" by groups like Daesh (ISIS) al-Qaida, al-Shabab and Boko Haram.

"There is, after all, no more egregious form of discrimination than separating out the followers of one religion from another — whether in a village, on a bus, in a classroom — with the intent of murdering or enslaving the members of a particular group," he said.

The document, in its 18th year, includes details of how almost 200 countries are faring in protecting the religious liberty of their citizens.

David Saperstein, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said 24 percent of the world's countries — in which 74 percent of the world's population lives — have serious restrictions on religious freedom, based on government policies or hostile acts by individual organizations or societies.

He highlighted the report's emphasis on laws around the globe about blasphemy and apostasy: "No one region, country or religion is immune to the pernicious effects of such legislation."

Source

• Religion News Service
• UPI
• Malaysiakini
• The Whitehouse
• Asia Times
• Image: mccluresmagazine.com

Her comments came after Trump, the Republican nominee, took issue with remarks the soldier's father made at the Democratic National Convention.

In an ABC interview that aired on Sunday, Trump questioned why Ghazala Khan, mother of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, stood quietly by her husband, Khizr Khan, as he took the stage at last week's Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Trump suggested the mother might not have been "allowed" to speak.

Speaking at a church service, Clinton said Trump had been insulting to a family who had sacrificed so much.

She also used the episode to contrast her own religious faith with that of Trump, who has spoken of religion on the campaign trail infrequently.

"I don't begrudge anyone of any other faith or of no faith at all.

"But I do tremble before those who would scapegoat other Americans, who would insult people because of their religion, their ethnicity, their disability," Clinton said.

Her remarks were made at the Imani Temple Ministries, an African-American church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Read more

Source

• Reuters
• CNN Politics

The priest, who has been serving in Russia for 24 years, said since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Catholic Church has followed government regulations that require religious organizations to be officially registered with the government.

Some smaller religious groups, often Evangelical, believe it is against their conscience to register with the government and so they refuse to do so, the priest said.

These new laws seem to be intended to target these newer, less established groups who are unregistered and may meet in private residences, he added.

The question now is how the law will be applied and whether its application will violate the Russian Constitution, which states:

"Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of conscience, the freedom of religion, including the right to profess individually or together with other any religion or to profess no religion at all, to freely choose, possess and disseminate religious and other views and act according to them."

The 'Yaroyava' package has been fiercely condemned both by Russian Christians and rights activists and internationally. It makes house churches illegal and limits religious activity to registered buildings.

Russia's Council of Churches-Baptists said in an open letter:

"Any person who mentions their religious view or reflections out loud or puts them in writing, without the relevant documents, could be accused of illegal missionary activity."

Another open letter, from the Protestant Churches of Russia, said the laws were "the most draconian anti-religion bill to be proposed in Russia since Nikita Khrushchev promised to eliminate Christianity in the Soviet Union".

Source:

• Catholic News Agency
• Adventist Review
• Christian Today
• Image: Pixabay

Russia's new anti-terrorism laws, which include sweeping restrictions on Christian evangelising and teaching the faith, have officially come into force.

A Catholic priest, who has been serving in Russia for 24 years, says the Catholic Church follows government regulations. These require religious organizations to be officially registered with the government.

Some smaller religious groups, often Evangelical groups, believe it is against their conscience to register with the government and so they refuse to do so, the priest said.

The 'Yaroyava' package, named after their sponsor in the Russian Duma, has been fiercely condemned both by Russian Christians and rights activists and internationally. It makes house churches illegal and limits religious activity to registered buildings.

According to Russia's Council of Churches-Baptists, the laws will "create conditions for the repression of all Christians". The council said in an open letter: "Any person who mentions their religious view or reflections out loud or puts them in writing, without the relevant documents, could be accused of illegal missionary activity."

Another open letter, from the Protestant Churches of Russia, said the laws were "the most draconian anti-religion bill to be proposed in Russia since Nikita Khrushchev promised to eliminate Christianity in the Soviet Union".

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Christian Today
• Christian Post
• Image: Pixabay

This week has been particularly bad.

SIS boss Rebecca Kitteridge on Tuesday revealed a rise in the number of young New Zealand women heading to Iraq and Syria.

A 14-year-old girl ignores the taunts from her peers as she walks to class. She's wearing a headscarf.

"Someone should check her backpack for bombs," one kid says. Continue reading

"The most important thing is that freedom of religion and of worship guaranteed in the constitution must not be narrowed with regulations that can create problems," Father Guido Suprapto, the Indonesian bishops' laity commission secretary, told ucanews.com.

Legislation, enacted in 2006, laid out onerous requirements to build places of worship.

This has particularly impacted religious minorities in Muslim-majority communities.

Church officials, for example, are obligated to provide a list of names and signatures of 90 worshippers and get signed support from at least 60 local residents along with the approval of a village head.

The legislation provoked a spate of church demolitions this year in Aceh province, where authorities took down places of worship that did not possess required permits.

In one incident, a group of Muslim hard-liners torched a Protestant church.

Source

• globalpulsemagazine.com
• Image: thejakartapost.com

Six houses, eleven kiosks, and a mushala (small mosque) were burned, and a man was shot dead.

"We regret the burning of mushala and the attack on Muslims in Tolikara, which caused the loss of life during the celebrations," said the leaders in their statement.

"In regard of this event, we also push the authorities to immediately solve the problem completely and professionally by processing the actors according to the law."

"We also ask the people not to be provoked by false issues [spread by] irresponsible people."

A group of people believed to be members of the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GIDI) went to Baitul Mustaqin Mosque in Tolikara when Muslims were performing an Eid prayer on Friday.

They protested the use of a loudspeaker during the prayer, stating that it was disturbing an event their church was holding at the same time.

A police spokesman had said that the incident was incited by a letter spread by local Christian leaders in Papua's Tolikara Regency last week, calling on Muslims not to perform the Eid el- Fitr prayer near where Christians were to attend a seminar.

On Wednesday police reported they were set to charge several suspects.

National Police chief General Badrodin Haiti said that police were investigating all claims surrounding the incident, including the spreading of flyers purportedly from the GIDI — the largest religious group in the district.

GIDI has denied distributing the flyers and instead accused police of inciting the riot by firing at some GIDI youths "peacefully protesting" the use of loudspeakers in the mass prayer.

Source

• globalindonesianvoices.com
• shanghaidaily.com
• antaranews.com
• radionz.co.nz
• thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com
• Image: muslimvillage.com

It has been alleged that dozens of armed people wearing robes assaulted a group while saying the rosary at a house in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta, on Thursday.

They reportedly beat up the house owner, Julius Felicianus, a journalist and three others.

Felicianus is the director of the Galang Press publishing house.

He was at the Galang Press office in Baciro, conducting interfaith prayers with the Yogyakarta Anti-Violence Community (Makaryo) for a safe presidential election when the attack happened.

When he returned to his house he was attacked and suffered severe injuries and broken bones.

Kompas TV reporter Michael Aryawan was also injured. His camera was also taken by the assailants.

Interviewed by AsiaNews, the Archbishop of Semarang, Johannes Pujasumarta said that the reasons behind the attack should be investigated quickly.

He hopes for thorough investigations, not only by the police, but also "the local Catholic community " and the results will be handed over "to the authorities for further investigation".

On May 13, Makaryo recorded 18 unresolved cases of sectarian violence in the province, including one in which the Islamic Jihad Front (FJI) allegedly assaulted the chairman of the Gunungkidul Interfaith Forum, Aminuddin Azis ,on May 2.

Source

• AsiaNews.it
• The Jakarta Post
• Image: Freenewspos.com

The former St Patrick's Primary School site, in South Dunedin, was bought in April this year by the Christchurch-based charity which has plans to spend about $8 million building the An-Nur Kiwi Academy - a non-profit school under charitable status which will accommodate about 150 year 11 to 13 boys from across the country. Continue reading

Yuet Rappard, a farm worker, appeared in front of Justices of the Peace in the Dunedin District Court yesterday and was found guilty of offensive behaviour for telling a student to remove her burqa while she was shopping on May 17. Continue reading

Representatives of the Lincoln Rd centre contacted police today after finding the premises had been entered and damaged.

Sergeant Todd Webley of Christchurch Police says there is no indication at this stage that the break-in was racially motivated. "There are no slogans or messages, or anything that suggests a racial or cultural motivation for the break-in.

"It has all the hallmarks of an opportunistic burglary, and an initial scene examination suggests the offenders may have gained entry through an insecure window."

Source

• The Press
• Image: JBrianday.com

The report titled "The Rising Tide of Restrictions on Religion" shows a six percent increase in restrictions in the four years until 2010.

The report cites evidence that paints a stark picture of a "rising tide" of intolerance and government restrictions on religious matters.

Evidence include "crimes, malicious acts and violence motivated by religious hatred or bias, as well as increased government interference with worship or other religious practices".

The survey has seen an acceleration of the tendency towards religious intolerance, reporting a 63 percent rise from mid-2009 to mid-2010 in the number of countries that increased government restrictions, in comparison with Pew's last survey that had noted a 56 percent rise.

"The number of countries where harassment or intimidation of specific religious groups took place rose from 147 as of mid-2009 to 160 as of mid-2010," the report says.

Among countries showing marked increases in religious intolerance for the first time - albeit still only classed as "moderate" - was the United States.

The report notes that the percentage of the world's population living in countries with low levels of restriction fell between 2007 and 2010 from 14 percent to 6 percent.

The survey reports that in all five major regions of the world - including the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa where religious restrictions previously had been declining - freedom of faith was coming under increasing pressure.

The increase in religious restrictions comes as recent surveys have appeared to demonstrate that the world is becoming more religious.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Herald Online
• Image: AP/ The Guardian