November 13 1995

ARTICLE TOOLS

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* Steven L. Snyder, who for nearly a decade served as president of the U.S. affiliate of Christian Solidarity International, a Swiss-based human-rights group, has founded a new interdenominational religious liberties organization in Washington, D.C., International Christian Concern (ICC). Snyder, 47, says ICC will network with governmental and nongovernmental agencies to help Christians around the world who experience religious intolerance. "As faith is on the rise in most parts of the world, intolerance against Christians is growing," Snyder says. "Governments and Islamic extremists are increasingly targeting those who are proclaiming their Christian faith."

* More than 6,000 delegates representing 60 nations attended the seventeenth Pentecostal World Conference in September in Jerusalem. Speakers at the triennial event included Pat Robertson, David Yonggi Cho, Peter Kuzmic, and Reinhard Bonnke.

* At a September meeting convened by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, on the island of Patmos, a dozen Orthodox leaders from around the world issued a message condemning "nationalist fanaticism." The Serbian Orthodox church has been criticized for taking sides in the war in the former Yugoslavia. The Orthodox statement said national fanaticism results in hatred and repression of minorities. Meanwhile, Catholicos Aram I of the Armenian Apostolic Church said he is working to help the Serbian church "make a positive contribution."

* Joseph W. Tkach, Sr., who in 1986 succeeded founder Herbert W. Armstrong as leader of the Worldwide Church of God and moved the group toward mainstream orthodoxy (CT, Oct. 2, 1995, p. 15), died September 23 after a four-month battle with bone cancer. On September 5, the church's advisory council of ...