Worldwatch: Updates on the Global Church
Christian World News
February 1, 2008
CWN.com - Keep an eye on Christianity around the globe with WorldWatch.
Martyred for Christ in Pakistan
It happened in the frontier city of Peshawar.
Masked gunmen shot and killed the young Pakistani pastor while he was driving home.
The Voice of the Martyrs Canada reports Sajid Willam was murdered for his evangelistic work in the northwest region of Pakistan.
He leaves behind a wife and an 18-month-old daughter.
Vietnamese Catholics Stand up to the Government
There was a rare show of defiance in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Thousands of Vietnamese Catholics are demanding the communist government return several properties once owned by the Catholic Church.
But the government insists all land belongs to the state.
Just five years ago, the police would have jailed these protestors.
Remarkably, there were no arrests and the police did not break up the protest.
Healing to North Korea
A Christian church in Seoul, South Korea is building a hospital in the capital of the communist North.
In December, Pastor David Yonggi Cho of Yoido Full Gospel Church broke ground on the hospital that will bear his name.
Members of North Korea's government-sanctioned churches are helping build the 260-room facility that will specialize in cardiac health in Pyongyang.
Cho says he hopes the hospital will be a bridge between North and South.
"There are many children with heart disease in North Korea because they don't have enough food to eat," Cho said. "I want to establish this hospital before I retire so that the dying children of North Korea can have heart surgery."
The hospital will also have a chapel for patients and their families.
Greece's Orthodox Church Leader Dies
The head of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church died of cancer earlier this week.
Archbishop Christodoulos was 69.
The controversial leader is perhaps best known for improving relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
Christodoulos also worked to bring the church close to society and modern issues.
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