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A controversial New Zealand church has rolled out a publicity stunt in time for Christmas - with a billboard showing the Virgin Mary holding a positive pregnancy test.
Auckland's St Matthews in the City Church launched its festive advertising campaign to 'avoid the sentimental and trite' and 'spark thought and conversation'.
Vicar Glynn Cardy said: 'It's real. Christmas is real. It's about a real pregnancy, a real mother and a real child. It's about real anxiety, courage and hope.
Earlier work: The Church's first ad campaign in 2009 saw Joseph in bed with Mary.Controversial: St Matthew in the City Church in Auckland, New Zealand, has launched this billboard depicting Virgin Mary and a positive pregnancy test, on its building
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III (centre)receives a miniature belt and souvenir shirt from Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and his wife Jinky during a courtesy call at the Malacanang premier guest house lobby in Manila November 20, 2010.
Philippine politicians resumed debating today a reproductive health bill that is increasingly seen as a test of the political will of President Benigno Aquino, a champion of the measure, and the Catholic Church which fiercely opposes it.
The Church has a high-profile politician arguing its case: Manny Pacquiao, the world’s best pound-for-pound boxer and a neophyte lawmaker, came out against the bill which would improve access to contraception and sex education.
“I am totally against the RH (reproductive health) bill,” Pacquiao, 32, a father-of-four, told reporters after meeting members of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
“Let’s listen to God and not an ordinary man. We should educate people on how to plan their family, but, in accordance with God’s teachings. The RH bill will not end poverty. We must stop corruption if we really want to help our poor people.”
Opponents of the bill have linked the use of contraception to abortion, which is illegal in the Philippines and would remain so. Supporters, including Aquino, say it aims to improve maternal health and family planning to help alleviate poverty.
Aquino’s support is seen as improving the bill’s chances of passing, after the Church has successfully blocked a number of previous versions. But a protracted battle could also erode his personal support and sideline other legislative plans.
Politicians are wary of upsetting the Church, which is not afraid to preach politics from the pulpit, and analysts say the bill could be Aquino’s toughest test — despite an opinion poll showing a clear majority of Filipinos support the measures.
“He can’t risk antagonising further the church and losing altogether its support, because his mother and his predecessor were shored up by the church during their difficult times,” Joselito Zulueta, an analyst on church issues, told Reuters.
“In the cases of Ferdinand Marcos and former President Joseph Estrada, the church’s opposition to their regimes was very decisive.”
Both Marcos and Estrada were forced from office with the backing of the Church, in 1986 and 2001 respectively. The presidency’s of Aquino’s mother, Cory, and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were strengthened by the Church’s backing.
Aquino pledged last month to push for the enactment of the reproductive health bill, even at the risk of his excommunication from the Church.
Church leaders walked out of talks on the bill last week, and the war or words escalated after a senior bishop compared Aquino with ousted dictator Marcos for warning against calls for civil disobedience by opponents of the bill.
About 80 per cent of the population, which is nearing 100 million, are Roman Catholics, including Aquino.
A policeman standing guard at the entrance of the police headquarters in Jos. A series of Christmas Eve church attacks and explosions have left at least 14 people dead in Nigeria
Explosions in Nigeria's central region killed 32 people on Christmas Eve and six people died in attacks on two churches in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation, officials said on Saturday.
On Friday night, a series of bombs were detonated during Christmas Eve celebrations in villages near the central city of Jos, killing at least 32 people while 74 were in a critical condition, the state police commissioner said.
Nigeria's army chief said the blasts were not part of religious clashes which flare up sporadically as tensions bubble under the surface in a country where the population is split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians.
It (Jos explosions) was caused by a series of bomb blasts. That is terrorism, it's a very unfortunate incident,' Azubuike Ihejirika said in the southern city of Port Harcourt.
The attacks come at a difficult time for President Goodluck Jonathan, who is in running a controversial campaign ahead of the ruling party's primaries on January 13
A ruling party pact says that power within the People's Democratic Party (PDP) should rotate between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.
Suspected Islamist sect members attacked three churches in northern Nigeria on Christmas Eve, leaving six people dead and one of the churches burned
Jonathan is a southerner who inherited office when President Umaru Yar'Adua, a northerner, died during his first term this year and some northern factions in the ruling party are opposed to his candidacy.
Jonathan faces a challenge from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for the ruling party nomination, and some fear any unrest in Africa's most populous nation will be exploited by rivals during campaigning.
'What happened (in Jos) was not religious it was political ... the aim of the masterminds is to pit Christians against Muslims and start another round of violence,' the governor of Plateau state said.
In a separate incident, at least six people were killed in what appeared to be religiously motivated attacks on two churches in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Attackers threw petrol bombs late on Friday at a church in the city, killing five people, including a Baptist pastor. A security guard at a nearby church died in a similar assault.
'This is a worrisome situation and the government will do all it can to fish out the perpetrators of this evil act,' the governor of Borno State, Ali Sheriff, said on Saturday.
'We must ensure that adequate security is provided for all citizens to worship freely without fear of molestation.'
Hundreds of people died in religious and ethnic clashes at the start of the year in the 'Middle Belt', the central region where the mostly-Muslim north meets the predomnantly Christian south.
There have been localised outbreaks of violence since then.
The tension is rooted in decades of resentment between indigenous groups, mostly Christian or animist, who are vying for control of fertile farmlands and for economic and political power with migrants and settlers from the north.
Men in southern Egypt tried Thursday to calm Christians angry about a deadly drive-by shooting at a Coptic church the night before. Thousands of Christians rioted in the town of Nag Hammadi.
the head of the Coptic minority, Pope Shenuda III, led a Christmas midnight mass at the Abbassiya church in Cairo which was attended by thousands of worshippers.
An Egyptian Coptic church appears behind a mosque in Cairo
The Christmas midnight mass in Cairo was attended by thousands of worshippers.Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who has been widely tipped as being the next head of state, was among several prominent figures who attended the mass, an AFP photographer said.
The shooting outside a church on Wednesday night sparked clashes the following day
The killing of seven in a drive-by shooting that targeted Egyptian Coptic Christians leaving a Christmas Eve midnight Mass has triggered clashes with police during a funeral procession for the victims.
Three suspects in a shooting that killed six Coptic Christians and a Muslim policeman in southern Egypt have turned themselves in after being squeezed in a police cordon, security sources said on Friday.
Police said they had surrounded the area around the city of Nagaa Hamady where the shooting took place on Wednesday and closed all possible routes of escape.
The killings took place just before midnight on Coptic Christmas Eve when a gunman, accompanied by two others, fired on Christians in a shopping area in Nagaa Hamady, killing two, then went to Mary Guirguis Church and shot five more, including the church's Muslim guard.
The interior ministry said on Thursday that a preliminary investigation suggested the gunman was a Muslim criminal known to police, and that the attack was related to the alleged rape of a Muslim woman by a Christian more than a month earlier.
About 1,000 Coptic Christians staged a protest in Nagaa Hamady on Thursday, saying the attack was an act of persecution aimed at Egyptian Christians.
Egypt's government denied it was sectarian violence, however, and said it was an isolated incident.
"The Nagaa Hamady incident is a crime committed by a thug and does not have anything to do with Islam," Khairat Osman, secretary-general of Egypt's ruling party in Qena governorate, where Nagaa Hamady is located, was quoted as saying by state agency MENA.
"All religions promote peace and love, and there are good relations between Coptics and Muslims."
Police are investigating the motive.Christians account for about 10 percent of Egypt's predominantly Muslim population of around 78 million. Sectarian violence is rare but disputes occasionally erupt.
Southern Egypt is relatively undeveloped compared with the capital Cairo. Nagaa Hamady, which has a large coptic population, is about 60 km (40 miles) north of the tourist and archaeological centre of Luxor.
Attackers in a car raked a crowd of shoppers in a south Egypt town with gunfire, killing a policemen and six Coptic Christians on the eve of their Christmas celebrations, a security official said on Thursday.
The drive-by shooting took place late Wednesday in the southern Egyptian town of Nagaa Hammadi as Copts were preparing for Christmas which they celebrate January 7 along with other Orthodox communities, the official said.
Witnesses however gave a conflicting account of the attack, saying the gunmen struck as worshippers emerged from midnight mass at the main church in Nagaa Hammadi.
"Three unidentified individuals in a car opened fire on Christians in a shopping district as they were making purchases for Christmas," the security official said, as cited by state-run MENA news agency.
Nine other Copts were wounded in the shooting, he added.
The gunmen also opened fire "in front of a convent located in an rural area" near the town, in the province of Qana, 700 kilometres (435 miles) south of Cairo, the official said.
Witnesses, cited by local officials, said the main gunman, a Muslim, is wanted by police and linked the incident to the abduction of a 12-year-old Muslim girl in November who was allegedly raped by a Coptic youth.
"The first elements of the investigation, based on testimony of people on the ground, indicate that the main shooter is a town resident identified as Mohammed Ahmed Hussein, who is wanted by the police," one official said.
In November, hundreds of Muslim protesters torched Christian-owned shops in the town of Farshut, near Nagaa Hammadi, and attacked a police station where they believed the suspected rapist was being held.
That incident was the latest in a string of sectarian tensions in 2009 between Muslims and Egypt's Copts -- the Middle East's largest Christian community who represent roughly 10 percent of Egypt's 80-million population.
Copts have complained over the years of frequent discrimination, harassment and that they are the targets of sectarian attacks. They also allege they are overlooked in top jobs in the army, police and judiciary. Related article: Copts, police clash in south Egypt
On Wednesday, the head of the Coptic minority, Pope Shenuda III, led a Christmas midnight mass at the Abbassiya church in Cairo which was attended by thousands of worshippers.
Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who has been widely tipped as being the next head of state, was among several prominent figures who attended the mass, an AFP photographer said.
Church members inspect the torched Metro Tabernacle church in Desa Melawati in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Malaysian firefighters examine the damage
Police deployed officers to patrol churches and mosques across the country after the attacks
Religion and language are sensitive issues in multiracial Malaysia
Malaysian forensic experts and security officials investigate at the gutted administrative block of a Church
Three churches in Malaysia were firebombed early Friday as religious tension continues over a court decision that allows a Catholic publication to use the word 'Allah' for God, which Catholics claim is a long-standing practice.
Three churches in Malaysia were firebombed early Friday morning as its government works to quell religious tensions following a court ruling – and a subsequent government appeal – that allows the country’s Christians to use the term Allah to refer to God. Only one church was seriously damaged and no one was injured.
Mosques throughout the country also small organized protests during their Friday prayer services and there are reports of cars with Christian stickers having their windshields smashed.
The controversy began when The Herald, a Roman Catholic newspaper in Malaysia, challenged a ban against the periodical using Allah in the Malay-language section of their newspaper to refer to God in a Christian context. Though Allah has been incorporated into the Malay language to mean God and the Koran teaches (Surah 29:46) that Christians, Muslims, and Jews share the same God, many Malaysian Muslims contend that Allah only refers to God for Muslims. Many allege Christians are using Allah in an effort to convert Muslims to Christianity, reports The Times of London.
Malaysian Christians argue that they have used Allah “for decades” in their Malay-language Bibles without any issues. In the court case, the Herald’s legal team argued that Allah is an Arabic word for God and that they use it in their publication to serve the needs of their subscribers in Borneo. Time magazine reported that they rejected claims of trying to convert Muslims.
Meanwhile, tensions continue to mount between religious groups in Malaysia. Muslims constitute a slight majority, with Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists comprising the rest of the population. Although Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak originally supported protests against the court ruling that began last week, The Wall Street Journal reports that he is now calling for calm and asking citizens not to blame the government for inspiring the church attacks.
"There should be no over-zealous action that can harm the harmony of the country," Mr. Najib said.
Political analysts say Mr. Najib is attempting to tread a fine line between wooing the support of Malaysia's large ethnic-Chinese and Indian minorities, who make up around 40% of the country's population, and maintaining the support of an ethnic-Malay majority that has become increasingly defined by its Islamic faith in recent years.
As protests continue, there is concern among many Malaysians that the unrest represents an increasingly Islamicized government. In an interview with Al Jazeera Azmi Sharom, a columnist and law professor at Universiti Malaya, said that the government had been “pandering” to the groups of people who are now protesting for a long time.
He said the government allowed some groups to protest when others were banned because the main ruling Umno party - which depends on the Malay/Muslim demographic to remain in power - was “unwilling to do anything which would seem to go against what they think is the Malay/Muslim desire.”
A report in the Malaysian Insider, however, warns that the attacks may be “triggering a blame game with opposition leaders pointing fingers at their political rivals” for stoking religious tensions. Additionally, it reported that a number of Muslims disapprove of the recent church attacks, while there are also many Christians who disagree with using the word Allah to describe God.
