INDONESIA PLANE-PRAYERS
Families of plane’s missing gather in prayer
SURABAYA, Indonesia (AP) — While others celebrate the new year, families of the passengers aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 are spending the holiday in shock and prayer.
In a waiting room at the airport in Surabaya, Indonesia, the Rev. Philip Mantofa prayed with about 100 grieving relatives on New Year’s Eve.
Mantofa, whose church lost about 40 members in the disaster, said: “Help us, God, to move forward, even though we are surrounded by darkness.” Before breaking up, those gathered stood together and sang “I Surrender All” with their hands reaching upward.
Mantofa said, “Some things do not make sense to us, but God is bigger than all this. Our God is not evil.”
Nearly all the passengers on the plane were Indonesian, and many were Christians of Chinese descent. Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but the population of Surabaya, the nation’s second-largest city, is about 10 percent Christian.
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191-v-32-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor)–While others celebrate the new year, families of the passengers aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 are spending the holiday in shock and prayer. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. ((Opens with sound)) (31 Dec 2014)
< 192-r-32-(Families of AirAsia Flight 8501, singing at airport prayer service on New Year’s Eve)–Sound of families of AirAsia Flight 8501 singing at airport prayer service on New Year’s Eve. (31 Dec 2014) < VATICAN-POPE-NEW YEAR’S EVE Pope says celebrants should remember life’s fleetingness VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has presided over a solemn New Year’s Eve prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica, using his homily to stress life’s fleetingness. The spiritual leader said, “How we like to be surrounded by so many fireworks, seemingly beautiful, but which in reality last only a few minutes.” Quoting the Bible, he said, there is a “time to be born and a time to die.” Francis said a New Year is a time to examine our consciences and reflect on our mortality. Afterward, the 78-year-old pontiff, wearing a long white coat, a scarf and a thin skull cap, braved frigid air to admire the life-size Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square. For 20 minutes, he walked around shaking the hands of people lined up behind barriers to greet him. Sound: 169-r-09-(Pope Francis, preaching homily at New Year’s Eve Mass)–Pope Francis, speaking Italian, says “so many fireworks, apparently beautiful but in reality they only last a few instants.” (31 Dec 2014) < 170-r-07-(Pope Francis, preaching homily at New Year’s Eve Mass)–Pope Francis, speaking Italian, says “at the end of the year and also at the end of each day we should exam our consciences.” (31 Dec 2014) < CHICAGO-CARDINAL GEORGE Cardinal George drops out of cancer clinical trial CHICAGO (AP) — The Archdiocese of Chicago says retired Cardinal Francis George has been dropped from a clinical trial he participated in to treat a recurrence of cancer. The archdiocese said Wednesday that recent scans have shown the trial’s experimental drug hasn’t been effective for George. 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SOUTH AFRICA-REFUGEES South African church to evict hundreds of refugees JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The New Year brings an uncertain future for more than 500 people who are being evicted from the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. The church has been a haven for refugees and homeless people for the past 14 years. Methodist Bishop Paul Verryn believes the church has the responsibility to help those new to the city integrate into an unforgiving urban environment, but his policy allowed the church to become a teeming dormitory resembling an indoor slum. Church officials say they can no longer afford the wear and tear on the building or the water and electricity bills incurred by the refugees. ISRAEL-AFRICAN HEBREW ISRAELITES LEADER Spiritual leader of African Hebrew Israelites dies JERUSALEM (AP) — The spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites, a polygamous vegan group that believes some black Americans are the descendants of an ancient Jewish tribe, has died in the southern Israeli town where he brought his followers four decades ago. The group says Ben Ammi Ben Israel died Saturday at the age of 75. He was born Ben Carter in Chicago in 1939. The group considers him the Messiah. He maintained that some black Americans were descendants of the biblical tribe of Judah. He said they migrated to West Africa after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and were eventually sold as slaves to the United States centuries later. The African Hebrew Israelites have about 3,500 members in Israel and thousands more in the U.S, the Caribbean, Africa and the U.K. MOROCCO-BANNED FILM Morocco banning of ‘Exodus’ film causes controversy RABAT, Morocco (AP) — The banning in Morocco of Ridley Scott’s biblical epic “Exodus” has provoked an angry response in the North African country by film makers and members of the governing coalition. Morocco’s movie commission issued a letter to all cinemas notifying them that the 2014 film has been banned for possibly portraying God in the scene of Moses’ revelation. Abderrahman Tazi, the head of Morocco’s association of filmmakers, issued a statement Tuesday calling the banning “ridiculous and irrational” and saying it would discourage foreign filmmaking in the country. The Progressive Socialist Party, a coalition partner with the governing Islamists, issued a statement carried by the media on Wednesday calling the commission’s move “strange and incomprehensible” and damaging to the country’s image. GERMANY-MERKEL-NEW YEAR’S SPEECH Merkel tells Germans not to attend anti-Islam rallies BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned the country’s citizens not to participate in weekly anti-Islam rallies that have attracted growing numbers of supporters in the eastern German city of Dresden. Merkel, in her New Year’s speech, condemned organizers of the protests, which she said they are driven by prejudice and hatred of foreigners. The chancellor found unusually direct words Wednesday for the rallies organized by a group calling itself Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West, which have been attended by thousands. She said when the protesters chant “We are the people,” they actually mean to say “You don’t belong — because of your religion or your skin color.”
