Leaving Social Media Platforms

I have decided to leave Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I am thankful to the many folk who have interacted with me, both positively and negatively over many years! I have been challenged and hope I have challenged. But now is the time to say goodbye to these platforms! I have come to see that although I wanted to convey love and grace and the beauty that saves the world, through these channels, I have been drawn into a vortex that I find problematic…even destructive to our humanity! And so I must say adieu and farewell. I will hopefully now find more time to be a contemplative and will be writing more here on my blog and on the ‘Companions of Jesus’, website, @ https://www.cjesus.net

BM

Update April 2023 After a number of requests I have kept a ‘Facebook’ page live. I still hope to keep this in mind:

Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours,
Yours are the tweets through which love touches this world,
Yours are the posts through which the Gospel is shared,
Yours are the updates through which hope is revealed.
Christ has no online presence but yours,
No blog, no Facebook page but yours.

(Meredith Gould)

Companions of Jesus – Website

It is with great regret that I have had to agree to have the Companions of Jesus Website taken down! After over 15 years, it was a decision I did not take easily. Many folk have come to know the Order through the Website and it was a daily help to many.

Unfortunately, the new platform was under attack on a daily basis, with attempts to infiltrate the administration side as well as loads of email spam getting through, which had to be checked.

My dear friend, Mike Creasy, had helped me set up the site in 2004 and had kindly paid for the site and every upgrade and new platform. He was the tech man behind the site and gave of his time and money freely. I am deeply indebted to him and thank his for his love, care and time, which he gave freely for for us all!

We do have a Facebook page and I hope it will continue to be used as much as it is at the moment and I will look to see how we might best utilize this platform for the present moment.

As to the future….well I, or Brother Nemo, (Servant of Communion) would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in developing a new Website for the Companions! It would need to be secure and I would hope that whoever might consider taking on such a venture would also be the tech person (behind the scenes) as well as the front page person! (On the  old site…I looked after the front page, whilst Mike, looked after the back-end and all technical stuff).

May we all live loved and preach the gospel…with words…if really necessary!

Pax et Bonum

Michael

Br. Michael Daly, CJ.

Email Br. Nemo or Myself via:  franciscans@hotmail.co.uk

 

New Blog Site

Hello dear friends. I have transferred my previous blog to WordPress, which I hope will be an improvement and give everyone more scope. It will take a little while for me to get used to the mechanics of this site, so please bare with me. I hope you approve of this upgrade and look forward to your comments.

Michael Daly CJ

June 2010

Remembering the persecuted Church this Easter

From an Email Prayer Alert received from Open Doors.http://www.opendoorsuk.org/

Michael Daly CJ
April 2010

A letter from prison

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.”
– Philippians 3:10 [NIV]

Eritrea
As Christians across the world remember the agony of the cross and the triumph of the empty tomb this weekend, the church in Eritrea continues to know the reality of sharing in Christ’s sufferings.

On 27 March, military officials arrested 17 Christians gathered for prayer in Segenaite in southern Eritrea. Their arrest brings to 28 the reported number of Christians arrested for their faith since the beginning of March.

But despite the intense pressure God’s people are facing, they continue to stand firm. Below is the translation of a letter from an Eritrean pastor, written to his wife from prison.

My dearest wife

God, by His holy will, has prolonged my prison sentence to five years. I very much long for the day that I will be reunited with you, our children and God’s people in the church.

I would love to be free in order to serve God. But, in here, God has made me not only a sufferer for His Name’s sake in a prison of this world over which Christ has won victory, but also a prisoner of His indescribable love and grace.

I am testing and experiencing the love and care of our Lord every day. When they first brought me to this prison, I thought the devil had prevailed over the church and over me. I thought the work of the gospel in Eritrea was over.

But the moment I entered my cell, one of the prisoners called me and said, ‘Pastor, come over here. Everyone in this cell is [unsaved]. You are much needed here.’ So, on the same day I was put in prison, I carried on my spiritual work.

The longer I stay in here, the more I love my Saviour and tell the people here about His goodness. His grace is enabling me to overcome the longing that I feel for you and for our children. Sometimes I ask myself, ‘Am I out of my mind?’ Well, isn’t that what the apostle said, ‘Whether I am of sound mind or out of my mind, I am Christ’s!’

– From a pastor in chains

More than 2,200 Christians remain unjustly imprisoned for their faith in Eritrea.

Source: Open Doors

More Violence against Christians in India

Christians face 1,000 attacks in 500 days in Karnataka State
Christians in southern Karnataka state are experiencing an unprecedented wave of persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in 500 days, according to an independent investigation by Justice Michael Saldanha, a former state High Court judge.

“On 26 January – the day we celebrated India’s Republic Day – Karnataka’s 1,000th attack took place in Mysore city,” Saldanha said, explaining the figure was based on reports from faith-based organisations.

The latest attack took place on 17 March, when a mob of 150 people led by the Hindu extremist organisation Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, stormed the funeral of a 50-year-old Christian identified only as ‘Isaac’. During his funeral, a mob pulled Isaac’s coffin apart, threw his body into a tractor and dumped it outside, saying his burial would have contaminated Indian soil.

State authorities have denied the results of the inquiry, saying the number of attacks is significantly less.

In addition to the attacks, many Christians have also faced false charges of fraudulent or forced conversions. In his report, Justice Saldanha states that Christians are regularly “dragged to the police station under false allegations, immediately locked up, beaten and denied bail”. He adds that 468 Christian workers in rural areas have been targeted with such actions since September 2008. The report notes, “The police are totally out of control.”

Karnataka has a population of 52 million; just over a million are Christian.

Source: http://www.compassdirect.org/ andhttp://www.opendoorsuk.org/

Michael Daly CJ
26th March 2010

Lord have mercy!

What treasure do we hold in our hearts? I fear that Christians can be the most dangerous people in the world! We can so easily take the Bible and twist the scriptures into anything we want, to justify our actions, theology, doctrine and lifestyle.

Kýrie, eléison; Christé, eléison; Kýrie, eléison.

Michael Daly. CJ
January 2010

The following report is by Rhonda Shafner of the Associated Press.

EKET, Nigeria – The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall.

His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him — Mount Zion Lighthouse.

A month later, he died.

Nwanaokwo Edet was one of an increasing number of children in Africa accused of witchcraft by pastors and then tortured or killed, often by family members. Pastors were involved in half of 200 cases of “witch children” reviewed by the AP, and 13 churches were named in the case files.

Some of the churches involved are renegade local branches of international franchises. Their parishioners take literally the Biblical exhortation, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”

“It is an outrage what they are allowing to take place in the name of Christianity,” said Gary Foxcroft, head of nonprofit Stepping Stones Nigeria.

For their part, the families are often extremely poor, and sometimes even relieved to have one less mouth to feed. Poverty, conflict and poor education lay the foundation for accusations, which are then triggered by the death of a relative, the loss of a job or the denunciation of a pastor on the make, said Martin Dawes, a spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund.

“When communities come under pressure, they look for scapegoats,” he said. “It plays into traditional beliefs that someone is responsible for a negative change … and children are defenseless.”

____

The idea of witchcraft is hardly new, but it has taken on new life recently partly because of a rapid growth in evangelical Christianity. Campaigners against the practice say around 15,000 children have been accused in two of Nigeria’s 36 states over the past decade and around 1,000 have been murdered. In the past month alone, three Nigerian children accused of witchcraft were killed and another three were set on fire.

Nigeria is one of the heartlands of abuse, but hardly the only one: the United Nations Children’s Fund says tens of thousands of children have been targeted throughout Africa.

Church signs sprout around every twist of the road snaking through the jungle between Uyo, the capital of the southern Akwa Ibom state where Nwanaokwo lay, and Eket, home to many more rejected “witch children.” Churches outnumber schools, clinics and banks put together. Many promise to solve parishioner’s material worries as well as spiritual ones — eight out of ten Nigerians struggle by on less than $2 a day.

“Poverty must catch fire,” insists the Born 2 Rule Crusade on one of Uyo’s main streets.

“Where little shots become big shots in a short time,” promises the Winner’s Chapel down the road.

“Pray your way to riches,” advises Embassy of Christ a few blocks away.

It’s hard for churches to carve out a congregation with so much competition. So some pastors establish their credentials by accusing children of witchcraft.

Nwanaokwo said he knew the pastor who accused him only as Pastor King. Mount Zion Lighthouse in Nigeria at first confirmed that a Pastor King worked for them, then denied that they knew any such person.

Bishop A.D. Ayakndue, the head of the church in Nigeria, said pastors were encouraged to pray about witchcraft, but not to abuse children.

“We pray over that problem (of witchcraft) very powerfully,” he said. “But we can never hurt a child.”

The Nigerian church is a branch of a Californian church by the same name. But the California church says it lost touch with its Nigerian offshoots several years ago.

“I had no idea,” said church elder Carrie King by phone from Tracy, Calif. “I knew people believed in witchcraft over there but we believe in the power of prayer, not physically harming people.”

The Mount Zion Lighthouse — also named by three other families as the accuser of their children — is part of the powerful Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria. The Fellowship’s president, Ayo Oritsejafor, said the Fellowship was the fastest-growing religious group in Nigeria, with more than 30 million members.

“We have grown so much in the past few years we cannot keep an eye on everybody,” he explained.

But Foxcroft, the head of Stepping Stones, said if the organization was able to collect membership fees, it could also police its members better. He had already written to the organization twice to alert it to the abuse, he said. He suggested the fellowship ask members to sign forms denouncing abuse or hold meetings to educate pastors about the new child rights law in the state of Akwa Ibom, which makes it illegal to denounce children as witches. Similar laws and education were needed in other states, he said.

Sam Itauma of the Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation Network said it is the most vulnerable children — the orphaned, sick, disabled or poor — who are most often denounced. In Nwanaokwo’s case, his poor father and dead mother made him an easy target.

“Even churches who didn’t use to ‘find’ child witches are being forced into it by the competition,” said Itauma. “They are seen as spiritually powerful because they can detect witchcraft and the parents may even pay them money for an exorcism.”

That’s what Margaret Eyekang did when her 8-year-old daughter Abigail was accused by a “prophet” from the Apostolic Church, because the girl liked to sleep outside on hot nights — interpreted as meaning she might be flying off to join a coven. A series of exorcisms cost Eyekang eight months’ wages, or US$270. The payments bankrupted her.

Neighbors also attacked her daughter.

“They beat her with sticks and asked me why I was bringing them a witch child,” she said. A relative offered Eyekang floor space but Abigail was not welcome and had to sleep in the streets.

Members of two other families said pastors from the Apostolic Church had accused their children of witchcraft, but asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

The Nigeria Apostolic Church refused repeated requests made by phone, e-mail and in person for comment.

___

At first glance, there’s nothing unusual about the laughing, grubby kids playing hopscotch or reading from a tattered Dick and Jane book by the graffiti-scrawled cinderblock house. But this is where children like Abigail end up after being labeled witches by churches and abandoned or tortured by their families.

There’s a scar above Jane’s shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of $60 didn’t cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism.

Israel’s cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa’s father drove a nail through her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry — all knees, elbows and toothy grin — was beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his father as his pastor’s wife cheered it on.

The children at the home run by Itauma’s organization have been mutilated as casually as the praying mantises they play with. Home officials asked for the children’s last names not to be used to protect them from retaliation.

The home was founded in 2003 with seven children; it now has 120 to 200 at any given time as children are reconciled with their families and new victims arrive.

Helen Ukpabio is one of the few evangelists publicly linked to the denunciation of child witches. She heads the enormous Liberty Gospel church in Calabar, where Nwanaokwo used to live. Ukpabio makes and distributes popular books and DVDs on witchcraft; in one film, a group of child witches pull out a man’s eyeballs. In another book, she advises that 60 percent of the inability to bear children is caused by witchcraft.

In an interview with the AP, Ukpabio is accompanied by her lawyer, church officials and personal film crew.

“Witchcraft is real,” Ukpabio insisted, before denouncing the physical abuse of children. Ukpabio says she performs non-abusive exorcisms for free and was not aware of or responsible for any misinterpretation of her materials.

“I don’t know about that,” she declared.

However, she then acknowledged that she had seen a pastor from the Apostolic Church break a girl’s jaw during an exorcism. Ukpabio said she prayed over her that night and cast out the demon. She did not respond to questions on whether she took the girl to hospital or complained about the injury to church authorities.

After activists publicly identified Liberty Gospel as denouncing “child witches,” armed police arrived at Itauma’s home accompanied by a church lawyer. Three children were injured in the fracas. Itauma asked that other churches identified by children not be named to protect their victims.

“We cannot afford to make enemies of all the churches around here,” he said. “But we know the vast majority of them are involved in the abuse even if their headquarters aren’t aware.”

Just mentioning the name of a church is enough to frighten a group of bubbly children at the home.

“Please stop the pastors who hurt us,” said Jerry quietly, touching the scars on his face. “I believe in God and God knows I am not a witch.”

___

Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.