Tenth Anniversary of the Killing of Graham Staines

Ten years after the brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in India’s Orissa state, widow Gladys Staines is urging persecuted Christians there to turn to Christ. On Thursday,22nd January, a mass was held at the site of murders in Monoharpur marking the tenth anniversary, followed by a prayer service on Friday and the inauguration of a new physiotherapy hall. Baptist missionary Graham Staines, 58, and his sons Philip, 9, and Timothy, 7, were sleeping in their station wagon in Manoharpur village when they were attacked by a mob of Hindu extremists and burned alive inside their vehicle on the night of 22 January 1999. Mr Staines had spent more than 30 years working with leprosy sufferers in India. In an interview with AsiaNews this week, Mrs Staines admitted there had been times of sadness during the last 10 years. “I feel sad that I do not have my husband to support me, to guard me, but these are just momentary emotions of sadness which also fill me with great hope, the hope of heaven and of being reunited with my husband and children in paradise and seeing the Father face to face. This guarantee fills me with consolation,” she said. Although Mrs Staines said she missed the support of her husband and was sad that she was not able to see her sons grow up, she affirmed forgiveness for the killers and said that Christ had been her companion over the years. “God gives me great support, and the prayers of people has been a source of great consolation, and this is the solidarity I share with the widows of Kandhamal. It is Jesus who is the source of every consolation and support. God gives us the strength to be able to carry our cross and to live in His will. Our life and our work here on earth has to go on according to His holy will.” Mrs Staines went on to express her sadness over the recent wave of attacks against Christians in Orissa but urged women who had lost their husbands in the killings to stay strong “and Christ will be your support, your companion, your guide and your strength”. “When God is working with us, nothing can be against us,” she said. “I am in prayerful solidarity with them, I share their sufferings and I want to encourage them with hope. It is painful and sad but importantly - it is not how we live, but what matters is ‘whether we are in the will of God’.” Mrs Staines returned to Orissa in 2006 to continue the work of her husband in fostering peace and harmony. She encouraged Christians elsewhere to support believers in Orissa with solidarity and prayers. “To the people of the world I say, do not give up hope, pray for India,” she said. Mrs Staines has previously stressed forgiveness for the killers. When one, Dara Singh, was sentenced to death and 12 others given life imprisonment in 2003, she appealed for clemency. Singh’s death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. In a 2006 interview with AsiaNews, she stressed the importance of forgiveness. "In forgiveness, there is no bitterness and when there is no bitterness, there is hope. This consolation comes from Jesus Christ." source

Karnataka High Court allows House Churches to hold Worship services

Legal Victory for House Churches in Karnataka

Posted on January 14, 2009 by cd

KARNATAKA, INDIA (ANS) – Over four months after government authorities closed several house churches in Karnataka, India, the Karnataka High Court said they should reopen and can hold worship services.

This followed the action of several pastors and Christian believers from Davanagere District who had lodged a writ petition to the High Court of Karnataka in Bengaluru.

The All India Christian Council had supported the pastors in logistical and finding legal representation. For last four and half months about twelve churches in Davanagere in central Karnataka were locked.

Following attacks on several churches on August 17, 2008, the district administration issued notices seeking a survey of churches functioning without permission. In early September, several churches were sealed. The next week Deputy Commissioner K. Amar Narayan instructed the Police Department to survey churches and prayer halls to check how many of them were authorized. The Indian media noted that worship places of other religions were not checked.

Local Christian leaders say the problems were because extremist Hindutva groups influenced officials. During 2008, groups like RSS and Bajrang Dal have beaten believers, pastors, and even set fire to churches. They also made false accusations against pastors and registered cases with the police.

The High Court chief Justice Mr. Dinakar was strict with the District Collector saying, “In a democratic country, no one has power to stop anyone worshiping according to one’s own faith. One’s faith can be a church or any other worship centre.”  more

Story of Hindutva

Augustine Kanjamala | Friday, 26 December 2008 Why Hindu extremists target Christians A militant school of Hindu thought which despises Islam and Christianity as alien creeds is growing in strength in India. Many Westerners believe that Hinduism is exemplified by Gandhi, the saintly man who led India to independence through toleration and ahimsa, or non-violence. But there is another strain of Hinduism which is far from tolerant and dreams of reviving the martial traditions of Aryan forebears. One leading Hindu monk, the Sankaracharya of Karvipith, criticised Gandhi in 1922: “Ahimsa undermines Hindu self-respect; passive and non-resisting sufferance is a Christian and not an Aryan principle.” Organized anti-Christian animosity and violence in India goes back to the Hindu reformist movement, Arya Samaj, and its founder Dayananda Sarasvati (1824-1883). When an American Presbyterian mission in Punjab began to attack Hinduism and denounce its superstitions, Dayananda was infuriated. His Hindu social reform movement bore some resemblance to Luther’s slogans. His mottoes included, “back to Vedas” (like “back to the Scriptures”). He introduced the Sudhi rite for reconversion to counter Christian proselytism among the Chura community of outcasts. In 1923, a political extremist from the state of Maharashtra, V.D. Savarkar, after imprisonment for 12 years for terrorism, published his book Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? He argued that only those who are bound by the Hindu culture and uphold India as their pitrubhumi (fatherland) and punyabhumi, (holy land) should enjoy full rights. Muslims and Christians, whose holy lands are far off in Arabia and Palestine, are not children of the soil of the sub-continent. He popularized the slogan: “Hinduise all politics and militarize Hinduism”. The exclusivist Hindutva policy was radically opposed to the inclusive and secular policies of the founders of independent India. more