Magic Statistics

Turkey has restored a millennium-old Armenian church on Akdamar Island in Lake Van, in an area of the country historically populated by ethnic Armenians.  Situated on a rocky point on the island in the huge lake, the Akdamar church (at right), called the Church of Surp Khach, or Holy Cross, was built between 915 and 921.  The interior is filled with beautiful blue frescoes, while the exterior is covered with stone reliefs depicting biblical scenes.

The Akdamar church, one of the most precious remnants of Armenian culture 1,000 years ago, deteriorated over the last century, a victim of neglect after Turks carried out mass killings of Armenians as the Ottoman Empire crumbled around the time of World War I. Rainwater seeped through the collapsed, conical dome, treasure-hunters dug up the basalt floor, and shepherds took potshots with rifles at the facade.

Next week, the church will showcase Turkey's tentative steps to improving ties with its ethnic Armenian minority, as well as neighboring Armenia. Turkey completed a $1.5 million restoration of the sandstone building, and invited Armenian officials to a ceremony there on March 29 to mark what Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has called a "positive" message.

An Armenian deputy culture minister and other prominent Armenians plan to attend the church's opening near the city of Van in eastern Turkey. Armenia's foreign minister welcomed the restoration, but said Turkey mistakenly believed the project would prove that it was dedicated to better ties with its neighbor.

Turkey still refuses to open its border with Armenia, which has been sealed since 1993 at great cost to the Armenian economy.  Also, ethnic Armenians living in Turkey complain of harassment and human rights abuses from Muslim Turks.

Patriarch Mesrob II, the spiritual head of the Armenian Orthodox community in Turkey, has asked the government to mount a cross on top of the church, which used to have one, and to allow periodic religious services there.

The government has yet to respond, but placement of a cross could be sensitive for Erdogan, who plans to attend the inauguration ceremony, and his Islamic-rooted government. The symbolism could upset some Muslims, and Turkey's powerful military, might regard it as a concession to Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.

Turkey views the church as a museum, not a place for Christian worship.

More photos of this glorious church are posted here and here.

h/t: Big News Network.com - Breaking Religious News

Previous related posts:

• Turks mourn Hrant Dink: “We are all Armenians”
• The largest genocide in history against Christians
• Medieval Armenian cemetery destroyed

British homosexual men are patronising a Los Angeles fertility clinic that offers IVF babies with a special added feature for the discerning consumer: the gender of your choice.  And the cost is only £33,000.  Such a deal!

Nearly 20 male couples from this country have already taken part in the scheme, in which they pay for eggs from a university student which are then implanted in a different woman who bears the child.

The Fertility Institutes, the clinic in Los Angeles which runs the programme, said it had also received 25 inquiries by last week from male couples in Britain thinking of paying for surrogate children.

The programme is thought to be the first specialist surrogacy scheme dedicated to “two-father” families.

The men can even choose whether to have boys or girls, with three-quarters so far opting for male babies.

The supply of IVF equipment in Britain is insufficient to meet demand from homosexual consumers, but they can just jet off to Hotel California and drop £33 thou to buy their product baby.

The clinic said it was meeting the demand from gay men who were desperate to become parents but were unable to start a family in Britain because of the shortage of donor eggs and surrogate mothers.

But not “desperate” enough to procreate the way God planned it.

Thankfully, someone offers a rational view:

Josephine Quintavalle, founder of Comment on Reproductive Ethics, an antiIVF campaign group, said: “This programme shows we have reached the ultimate in the manufacture of the bio-baby. There always seems to be a new way of reconstructing the traditional family. On the one hand in the United Kingdom we are saying that a child doesn’t need a father, but in America we are saying that two fathers is a good idea.

“It’s time to ask children what they’d like rather than what selfish adults think is a good idea. I would put my money on children preferring a stable family with a mother and father.”

Unfortunately infants can’t talk, so they have to rely on the common sense of adults—the one commodity in this whole sorry enterprise that is truly in short supply.

Previous related posts:

• Scientific studies speak against same-sex parenting
• Pediatricians concerned about homosexual parenting
• Yeah, these guys are exemplary fathers

Uzbekistan pastor Dimitry Shestokov was sentenced to four years in a labour camp for illegal religious activities.  The verdict said that several years of internal exile is necessary because re-education is possible only if he is isolated from general society.

The court ruled that Shestakov had to be deprived of his freedom "given the absence of the possibility of re-educating him without isolation from society".

Pastor Shestokov has appealed his sentence and will be held in an Andijan prison until his hearing, for which no date has as yet been set.  Petty regulations have been imposed, apparently in an attempt to prevent him from practicing his religion.

Forum 18 has learnt that the prison administration, which is headed by Lieutenant-Colonel Pulatov, has banned Shestakov from kneeling to pray and confiscated his copy of the New Testament. Instead of the New Testament, he has been offered the Koran to read.

For some reason, I don’t think he will find spiritual sustenance in the Qur’an.  (Quite the opposite, in fact.)  And, fortunately, Christians are not required to kneel while praying, although Muslims apparently are.

Forum 18 has been unable to find out why those small-minded restrictions have been imposed on Shestakov and other prisoners in Uzbekistan.

Pastor Shestokov will turn 38 on 9 April, the day following the church’s celebration of our Lord’s resurrection.

Previous related posts:

• Uzbek pastor sentenced to internal exile
• Pastor arrested by Uzbekistan secret police
• Uzbekistan: We're a free country, so butt out!

This morning's processional hymn at Christ Church Cathedral, Whitehorse. (Hymn #200 in the Anglican Church of Canada's hymn book, Common Praise.)

We sing the praise of him who died,
of him who died upon the cross;
the sinner's hope let men deride;
for this we count the world but loss.

Inscribed upon the cross we see
in shining letters, God is love:
he bears our sins upon the tree:
he brings us mercy from above.

The cross: it takes our guilt away,
it holds the fainting spirit up;
it cheers with hope the gloomy day,
and sweetens every bitter cup.

It makes the coward spirit brave,
and nerves the feeble arm for fight;
it takes its terror from the grave,
and gilds the bed of death with light.

The balm of life, the cure of woe,
the measure and the pledge of love,
the sinner's refuge here below,
the angel's theme in heaven above.

Words: Thomas Kelly, 1815
Music: Bow Brickhill

Thomas Kelly (1769-1855) was a very prolific hymn-writer, composing 765 hymn texts in about fifty years, and is also remembered as a forceful evangelistic preacher.  The son of an Irish judge, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, intending to study law.  He decided to pursue holy orders instead after being converted to Christ.  In 1792, he was ordained a priest in the (Anglican) Church of Ireland.  However, his powerful gospel preaching, often focusing on justification by faith, was unpopular with many in the church establishment, and he was soon dismissed from the Anglican Church.

For most of his life he associated himself with the dissenting Congregationalists and gained a reputation as a captivating preacher, spiritual poet, scholar, and sympathetic and generous pastor.  He was especially loved as a man of gracious and kind spirit, always ready to help and give to those in need.

As a hymn writer, he is often considered the equal of John Newton or Isaac Watts.  He also composed the music for many of his hymns.

Among his best-known hymns are:

• “The head that once was crowned with thorns”
• “Look, ye saints! the sight is glorious”
• “Praise the Saviour, ye who know him”

The collect for today, the Fifth Sunday in Lent, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

We beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-15
The Gospel: St John 8:46-59