Church Issues

• Welby sows multi-faith seeds: Speaking about the need for cross-cultural sensitivity in missions, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said that Brits must not demean “the light that others have” or presume “to tell others what is wrong with their faith”. He also said “We are not contradicting any of the claims we make about the centrality of Jesus Christ…by recognising that other traditions offer people encouragement, community and even deep wells of spirituality”. Read more here.
  
• Austrian Protestants allow gay marriage blessings: The Lutheran EKO (Austrian Evangelical Church) will now allow the blessing of same-sex unions, although individual congregations will be able to opt out. Read more here.
  
• Wycliffe accelerates Bible translation in Nigeria: Meeting with local church leaders, Wycliffe is hoping that their new accelerated strategy will help to spread the word of God in areas that may soon become inaccessible to missionaries. Read more here. On Thursday, Boko Haram attacked the village of Lassa, destroying homes and a church, killing one person and abducting two sisters. Read more here.

World Scene

• Germany refuses to blacklist Hezbollah: The country’s minister of state has said that Germany will not be following in the footsteps of the USA and Britain in designating Hezbollah’s ‘political wing’ a terrorist organisation. Read more here.

Israel & Middle East

• Gaza tensions escalate after rockets fired on Tel Aviv: Two Hamas rockets were launched at Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip, prompting retaliatory strikes from Israel. Commentators suggest that Hamas is seeking to escalate tensions with Israel in order to avoid its own implosion. Read more here. Earlier this week, Hamas forcibly dispersed Gazan civilians protesting economic conditions. Read more here and here.
  
• Temple Mount closed after clashes: On Tuesday a fire-bomb was thrown at Israeli police prompting low-level clashes, some arrests and the closure of the Temple Mount complex. Tensions have been running high since Palestinians broke the status quo in February, entering the previously sealed ‘Golden Gate’ area and declaring it a mosque. Read more here.
  
• US drops ‘occupation’ language regarding Golan, West Bank: The State Department’s annual report on human rights worldwide drops all language of ‘occupation’ in reference to the disputed territories, though a US Embassy spokesperson says this does not mean a change in policy. Read more here.

Upcoming Events

• Issachar Ministries conference: Monday 18 – Wednesday 20 March. ‘Brexit: Hardship or Harvest?’. Swanwick, Derbyshire. Call the office for more details and to book: 01767 223270.
  
• A Day of Prayer in Westminster: Friday 29 March (Brexit Day). The Emmanuel Centre. Organised by Issachar Ministries. With Dr Clifford Hill, David Hathaway and others. Click here to watch the promotional video. Click here for more information and to book tickets.

Recommended Sources

At Prophecy Today UK we are aware that the world is moving very quickly and it is difficult to keep up with all the latest developments – especially when the material circulated by our mainstream media is increasingly far from reality and definitely not devoted to a biblical perspective!

Though we are not a news service, we want to help keep you informed by passing on updates and reports as we are led. This will be a selective, not an exhaustive, round-up, which we hope will be helpful for your prayers. Click here to browse our News archive.

We recommend the following news services for regular updates from a Christian perspective:

• Christian Concern (UK)
• Christian Institute (UK)
• JNN News (Barry and Batya Segal, Israel)
• Worthy News (Israel)
• Family Watch International
• Barnabas Fund
• Kehila News (Israel)

For regular news briefings about Israel, the Jewish News Syndicate is also recommended.