By Anto Akkara, ENINews
Bangalore, India - Church leaders in India’s southern Karnataka state have joined secular groups in criticizing the state government’s decision to give 170 million rupees (US$3 million) to Hindu temples that agree to pray for rain in a drought-wracked monsoon season.
“Christians are to acknowledge that changing one’s religion is a decisive step that must be accompanied by sufficient time for reflection and preparation, through a process ensuring full personal freedom.” This assertion is one of the guiding principles for Christian mission in India suggested in early March by a consultation convened under the leadership of the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore University (BTESSC).
Bhubaneswar, India, 5 December (ENInews) An independent tribunal investigating anti-Christian violence in India's eastern Orissa state in 2008 has indicted the state government for failure to protect Christians and has made several recommendations.
21 November (ENInews). Mainline churches in India have prepared a suggested version of anti-corruption legislation and sent it to the government, which is drafting comprehensive anti-corruption legislation to be presented in Parliament in early December.
Bangalore, India, 20 September. Muslims in Kashmir, in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, are supporting the re-building of a Christian school that was destroyed by fire during anti-Christian violence one year ago.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, on a two week visit to India, today gave the Chevening lecture in New Delhi at the invitation of the High Commissioner Sir Richard Stagg. The lecture was hosted by the British Council. Among dozens of sermons, talks and seminar interventions by the Archbishop during his visit to eight major cities, this was the only keynote lecture.
Christians and secular groups in India have commemorated the October 2 anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, but attacks against Christians continued on a day that marks the Indian independence campaigner's message of non-violence.
More than 100 Christian houses were torched in the troubled city of Kandhamal and nearby district of Boudh in the Orissa district as the nation prepared to celebrate the 139th anniversary of Gandhi's birth.
