Christmas celebration: Your ‘fall and die’ approach not biblical – Anglican Bishop blasts Olukoya

From Nigeria-

The last is yet to be heard of the controversial comment credited to the General Overseer of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, MFM, Pastor Daniel Olukoya, following his description of Christmas celebration as unbiblical.

The latest to react to the comment was the Bishop of the Diocese of Owo Anglican Communion, Rt Revd Stephen Fagbemi, who stated that Olukoya lacked in-depth knowledge of the bible.

According to Bishop Fagbemi, he emphasized that most of the doctrines being observed at MFM and other pentecostal churches do not have biblical backing, adding that “How many things he is doing today are directly traceable to or instructed in the Bible? Is it the fall and die approach to prayer or which one?”

His words, “I had wanted to respond to Dr. Olukoya of MFM on his display of theological and ecclesiastical ignorance until I read Fr Oluoma’s rejoinder, which I believe to be sound all round. Mine could be seen as an addendum to his well-crafted analysis and response.

More here-

https://dailypost.ng/2019/12/28/christmas-celebration-your-fall-and-die-approach-not-biblical-anglican-bishop-blasts-olukoya/

Questions of God Challenge a Pentecostal Preacher to Change in ‘Come Sunday’

From MSN-

Chiwetel Ejiofor delivers a deeply moving portrayal of a Pentecostal preacher in the throes of a religious crisis in "Come Sunday," a glimpse into the soul of a real-life man challenged to change his beliefs.

Based on a reported segment on "This American Life," "Come Sunday" tells the story of Bishop Carlton Pearson, who for many years led a million-strong Pentecostal ministry based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, until 1998, when he found his faith challenged.

Pearson decided that he no longer believed in hell, no longer believed that only saved Christians would go to heaven and no longer believed that his form of faith was the only one that God could accept. In so doing, he broke with the orthodoxy of his mentor Oral Roberts and threw his ministry into confusion.

More here-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/questions-of-god-challenge-a-pentecostal-preacher-to-change-in-e2-80-98come-sunday-e2-80-99/ar-AAv2mHc

Charismatic movement gains as Church of England sputters

From RNS-

Church closings are nothing new in this country.

In the past six years, 168 Church of England churches have closed, along with 500 Methodist and 100 Roman Catholic churches.

“Christianity in Britain has seen a relentless decline for over 100 years,” says Linda Woodhead, a sociologist at Lancaster University.

Visitors to Britain are often shocked when they see the state of some of this nation’s once-proud church buildings.

But for every Anglican church that has closed over the past six years, more than three Pentecostal or charismatic churches have taken their place, according to an analysis by The Times of London.

These Pentecostal and charismatic churches are drawing young, black, Asian and mixed-race people.

More here-

http://www.religionnews.com/2016/03/29/charismatic-movement-gains-church-england-sputters/

Pentecostal/Anglican cooperation? New horizons in mission

From The Living Church-

Could the Anglican Communion be a “broker” for global mission?

This question was raised by the Rev. Dr. Wonsuk Ma, director of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, at the most recent seminar of Mission Theology in the Anglican Communion. From various corners of the church, thirty attended the meeting convened at Lambeth Palace by Bishop Graham Kings: church planters in London and Somalia, theologians, clergy from various dioceses (priests, archdeacons, canons, bishops), lay workers, and at least one principal of a theological college.

Dr. Ma’s talk on the “Growth of Global Christianity: Shape and Significance for Theology” ranged across various bits of data and historical record. Two of the most striking things he discussed, however, are the much-noted shift of Christianity’s center of gravity to the Global South, especially Africa, and the burgeoning numbers of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians, expected to make up 9.8 percent of the global population within the next nine years.

More here-

http://livingchurch.org/covenant/2016/02/15/pentecostalanglican-cooperation-new-horizons-in-mission/

Snake-Handling Pentecostal Pastor Dies From Snake Bite

From ABC (with video) -

The "snake handling" pastor of a small Pentecostal church in Kentucky died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a weekend church service.

Jamie Coots, the pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, Ky., was handling a rattlesnake during a service when he was bitten on his right hand Saturday night. But when the ambulance arrived at 8:30 p.m., the EMS team found that Coots had gone home, according to a statement from the Middlesboro Police Department.

Middlesboro Police Chief Jeff Sharpe told ABC News that, according to people at the church, Coots verbally refused treatment at the church. He said Coots was unconscious when he got to his house. When the ambulance crew arrived at Coots' home, his wife Linda Coots signed a form declining medical treatment, police said.

More here-

http://abcnews.go.com/US/snake-handling-pentecostal-pastor-dies-snake-bite/story?id=22551754

Pope Francis to visit Pentecostal church in Italy

From Catholic Herald-

Pope Francis will pay a brief “private visit” to the Italian church of a Pentecostal pastor he knew from Argentina, a Vatican spokesman has said.

The visit to the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation in Caserta, about 130 miles south of Rome, “is under study and likely would take place July 26″, said Fr Federico Lombardi.

Fr Lombardi said the Pope knew the church’s pastor, Giovanni Traettino, from Buenos Aires, where the Pentecostal pastor participated in ecumenical events with Catholics, especially Catholics belonging to the charismatic renewal movement. The then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, along with Traettino and Capuchin Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, headlined a large ecumenical charismatic gathering in Buenos Aires in 2006.

More here-

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2014/07/11/pope-francis-to-visit-pentecostal-church-in-italy/

With iPhone, pope starts a new era with Pentecostals

From AP-

The video, recorded on an iPhone, lasts less than eight minutes. The message is simple: We’re brothers despite our differences.

Yet, religious leaders say this informal greeting from Pope Francis has reset relations between the Roman Catholic Church and one of its fiercest competitors around the world, Pentecostals.

Recorded by a clergy friend Francis had invited to Rome, the message was directed to the spirit-filled Christians whose popular movements have for decades been draining parishioners from the Catholic Church, especially in Latin America.

Catholics often compared Pentecostal groups to cults and accused them of overly aggressive, unethical proselytizing. But Francis, saying he was speaking from the heart, said in the video made in January he yearned for an end to their separation and invited them to pray with him for unity.

More here-

http://www.thetowntalk.com/viewart/20140405/LIFESTYLE/304050024/With-iPhone-pope-starts-new-era-Pentecostals

Pentecostal churches thriving in London as traditional denominations decline

From The National Secular Society-

Since 2005, there has been a 50% increase in the numbers of people attending Pentecostal Churches in London — a phenomenon explained by a large influx of immigrants from Africa during that period.

In the same period, the number of Anglican church-goers has declined by 9%, while Catholic worshippers have risen by 1%, again mainly due to immigration from Eastern European and Latin countries.

The new study carried out for the evangelical group The London City Mission by the Brierley Consultancy showed that 230,000 people attended Pentecostal services last year compared to 198,300 at Catholic Masses.

According the Churches Census, which recorded congregation sizes on a Sunday in October 2012, Pentecostal churchgoers now make up 32% of Sunday worshippers in London, compared to 27% for Catholics and 12% attending Anglican churches.

In 1979, 333,700 Catholics went to church on Sunday. This represents a decline of 40%, the same percentage decline as for Anglican churches.

More here-

http://www.secularism.org.uk/news/2013/07/pentecostal-churches-thriving-in-london-as-traditional-denominations-decline

‘Persecuted’ Anglican priest turns Pentecostal

From Uganda-

A senior West Ankole diocese priest, who recently crossed to the Pentecostal church, has been baptized.

Rev. Canon Benon Byamugisha was baptized in the Ekiyanja Ky’omugabe Lake in Mbarara district.

He and other 13 converts from Islam, Roman Catholic and Anglican faiths were baptized by Pastor Norman Mugarura of Daystar cathedral in the presence of the church’s bishop, Nathan Turyamureeba. 

Byamugisha, 54, served as the diocesan health coordinator in the diocese at Bweranyangi in Bushenyi district.

He accused fellow priests in the diocese of persecuting him.

He said he had suffered from a strange ailment that had blocked his digestive system, forcing him into a month of not being able to eat.

But when a Pentecostal pastor, Wilberforce Ssamanya, prayed for him, he “got well”.

More here-

http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/636524--persecuted-anglican-priest-turns-pentecostal.html

Serpent-handling pastor profiled earlier in Washington Post dies from rattlesnake bite

From The Washington Post-

Mack Wolford, a flamboyant Pentecostal pastor from West Virginia whose serpent-handling talents were profiled last November in The Washington Post Magazine , hoped the outdoor service he had planned for Sunday at an isolated state park would be a “homecoming like the old days,” full of folks speaking in tongues, handling snakes and having a “great time.” But it was not the sort of homecoming he foresaw. 
 
Instead, Wolford, who turned 44 the previous day, was bitten by a rattlesnake he owned for years. He died late Sunday.

Mark Randall “Mack” Wolford was known all over Appalachia as a daring man of conviction. He believed that the Bible mandates that Christians handle serpents to test their faith in God — and that, if they are bitten, they trust in God alone to heal them. 

He and other adherents cited Mark 16:17-18 as the reason for their practice: “And these signs will follow those who believe: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/serpent-handling-pastor-profiled-earlier-in-washington-post-dies-from-rattlesnake-bite/2012/05/29/gJQAJef5zU_story.html