News, December 2010

News from the Churches

8000m2 awarded to evangelical foundation for school near Seville. Lleida city council closes 5 churches and opens case studies on 3 more; MyHope - TV campaign through home groups launched for Christmas 2011 splash. Betel association and Madrid City Mission celebrate 25th anniversaries. Micah Challenge comes to Spain. Holy Land Theme Park coming to Mallorca! This and more... Read on!

Now on or coming soon!

The Disney version of C.S. Lewis's The Journey of the Dawn Treader was released in Spain on Friday 3rd. In this case, it was given a special launch by the Catholic Bishops' Conference, in a similar way to the recently launched documentary Blood Money. Although there are special materials published to help evangelical churches in the States and elsewhere to take advantage of the film, these have been appropriated by the Catholics in Spain! May the Gospel message get through loud and clear.
An evangelical foundation has been awarded a grant of 8,000 square metres of ground to build a school in Dos Hermanas, near Seville. It will become the first evangelical school in Andalusia since the Civil War and will offer infant, primary and secondary education. The competition for the new school was won due to the proposal to make this a centre for educational research. More from Protestante Digital (Spanish).
The city council of Lleida (Catalonia) has closed 5 churches and opened studies on 3 more in the weeks before the regional elections. Meanwhile, a Catholic church which has been denounced repeatedly for excessive bell tolling has no such study. The reason given is that the churches appear to have no opening licence, as though they were discotheques or pubs. The need for a licence is arbitrary, depending on each town hall, but recently the Catalonian Parlament published regulations for the entire region. With elections at regional level, it is doubtful if the churches can obtain even a start to justice until well after Christmas. The church buildings all belong to pentecostal groups, including Assemblies of God, the Gypsy Filadelfia church and two Nigerian churches. They are all located, as is customary in Spain, in premises on the ground floor of blocks of flats, it being virtually impossible to buy land suitable for the building of a church, even if one had the money. In theory, the city councils should provide land for the churches to build on.
Mi Esperanza (My Hope), a TV campaign, will take place at Christmas 2011. It was launched in mid-November 2010. The campaign aims to unite the best of mass and personal evangelism, by training church members to invite neighbours, family and other contacts to their home to watch the 30 minute TV show together. They will then give a 3 minute testimony and invite people to turn to Christ. In this simple way, local churches can take advantage of a nationwide broadcast on a main stream channel to reach out at a time of year when people are most open to the gospel. This outreach is being supported by most of the largest denominations and many local churches, as well as backed with a major contribution from the Billy Graham Association. See the Spanish website!
Protestante Digital is to get a major overhaul and update. The news service of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance had almost 2 million visits in 2009 and during late 2010 will become a daily updated medium. We wish them well. Get a preview here! (To read the latest from PD scroll down.)
Meanwhile, our P4S renewal continues in abeyance as we await a return to work of the graphic designer. The underlying CMS (Content Management System) is now fully ready for use. For over a year the same engine (but not content!) has been in use at St. Pixels, the online church and The Media Net.
A new Theme park is coming to Mallorca: THE HOLY LAND! News reports, such as this one in the Guardian, inform us that it will soon be here. The local church in Capdepera has not yet been informed by the developers, but also heard through the press! What we know is that the developers have handed in a four page proposal to the local council, which will undoubtedly be followed up by more detail if council members show interest. See also this PD article.

Recent news and events

On 9th December the former directors of Barcelona's Evangelical Hospital and Madrid's City Mission, Armand Urrutia and Juan Simarro, were awarded the second Diakonia prize for evangelical social work. Dr. Urrutia, a fourth generation evangelical, kept the hospital going despite the persecution and problems which arose during the Franco dictatorship, during which it was also protected by the British and German consular authorities. Since being returned to the evangelicals, the hospital has continued to provide service to evangelicals and others in the city of Barcelona. The Madrid City Mission, based on the example of missions in Britain, particularly that of Birmingham, celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. Previously Juan Simarro was a teacher at the Fliedner Foundation's Evangelical school El Porvenir in Madrid and also taught Spanish to a generation of foreign missionaries in the 1980s.

On 17th November, the State Department published its annual Religious Liberty report. Hilary Clinton's presentation can be seen on YouTube. Here is the file on Spain.

Betel, the rehabilitation association which grew out of WEC celebrated its 25th anniversary on 12th November. In a weekend of activities, the association celebrated the multitude of lives turned around from drugs to Christ by God's power. Founded by WEC missionary Elliot Tepper, Betel has grown to be a multi-national rehabilitation ministry. 30 years ago Spain was in the grip of a devastating epidemic of drug-taking, with many young people losing their lives through heroin, AIDS and associated illnesses. The combined ministry of Betel, Remar and Reto, the three major evangelical organisations dedicated to rescuing these people is a testimony of God's love for the unlovable. 120,000 have been through Betel's centres.

Cape Town 2010, the 3rd round of the Lausanne movement, was relayed to 14 Globalink locations across Spain between 16th and 25th October. Some 25 Spanish representatives attended. More from Protestante Digital.

Earlier news in bullets:

On 22nd October the Madrid City Mission celebrated its 25th anniversary. Madrid was the first city in Spain to have a City Mission. The ministry continues to be widely supported by churches and individuals from Madrid and further afield. There are now related missions in Seville, Malaga, Valencia and Zaragoza.
On 2nd October, the churches of Valladolid recalled with a march the Auto de Fe of 8th October 1559, when Protestant believers were burnt at the stake. A manifesto was read half way along the route. This time the march ended in a celebration and lots of fun!
Micah Challenge took centre stage at many churches on 10th October, bringing world poverty to the attention of believers.
On 1st October the Madrid churches' regional council signed a deal with the local health authority to provide protestant chaplains to the region's hospitals, during the first regional -and national- conference for hospital chaplains. This is the first official agreement, although there are pastors who regularly visit hospitals in all regions of Spain.
from 23rd to 26th September On the Red Box brought us their first European Open Air Preachers' Conference. One hundred people from all over Europe gathered and got involved in the on-street action!
The OM ship Logos Hope visited Las Palmas and Santa Cruz in the Canary islands during September.

For earlier news from the churches, click here!

Finally, more news from the churches is always available at the Protestante Digital site.

You can also listen to some reports and comment.

Latest on Protestante Digital: (17th December)

The lost Evangelical vote
How Evangelicals ought to contribute to society
Sudan in the spotlight of prayer

(10th)
The Emperor’s mission clothes?
Socialist Party listen to Christian Socialist concerns

(3rd)
The Tower of Babel - made in Spain
Parents win two-year fight to remove crucifixes from (some) classrooms
World conference against sex trafficking

(26th November)

Catholics call on Pope to recognise that Spain is not entirely Catholic
First official visit from World Council of Churches leader
Spanish teacher expelled from Western Sahara accused of ‘proselytism’
One of the best wines in Spain is kosher
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