| Children removed from ranch
MORE THAN 400 children were being found foster homes this week after the Texas Child Protection Service removed them, with 133 women, from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado, Texas. The move followed a complaint by 16-year-old girl that she had been abused, and that girls of 14 and 15 were being forced into marriage. The church is one of the largest Mormon sects that still allow polygamy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, not linked with the sect, has renounced it.
More than 1000 Indonesian churches close
OFFICIAL FIGURES of church closures in Indonesia show that 1025 have closed since the island nation achieved independence in 1945. Only two churches were closed under its first President, Sukamo; but the pace quickened after 1967, and between 2004 and 2007, 110 churches closed. Christians make up 8.7 per cent of the country’s population; 85 per cent are Muslim.
Marooned crew return home
THE 11 Ukranian crew-members of the bulk-cargo carrier MV Lady East, who have been stuck on board their vessel since it was arrested in Richard’s Bay, South Africa, in May of last year, for being unseaworthy, went home on 1 April. Some had not seen their family since December 2006. A Mission to Seafarers chaplain, the Revd Jaco Dreyer, who befriended and supported the crew, said it had been “an extremely difficult time for the men”. The vessel was bought by a Syrian company on 20 March. |
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