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Christmas at The Cathedral

Gospel artists gather for Christmas special on mainstream TV.

A holiday music event meant to showcase some of the most prominent gospel and inspirational music artists is scheduled to air on network TV this month.

MyNetworkTV, a television network owned by Fox Television, will broadcast an hour-long special dubbed Christmas at the Cathedral on Dec. 6, featuring guests Mary Mary, Tye Tribbett and G.A., Smokie Norful, J Moss, Martha Munizzi, Marvin Sapp, David Peaceton and Da’ .

Hosted by comedian George Wallace, the show will be held at the 24,000-member West Angeles Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Los Angeles, one of the COGIC denomination’s largest and most prominent congregations.

Bishop Charles E. Blake, the church’s senior pastor and also head of the 6 million-member COGIC, says his church is delighted to welcome the event.

“Our holy days have been so secularized and twisted from their original meaning,” he says. “This is an opportunity to have a focus on the Lord and the kindness of Jesus and His coming to earth.”

Gospel singer Martha Munizzi says she hopes the Christmas special reaches new audiences and that viewers at home are compelled to consider “the real reason for the season—the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

According to Robert Coleman, the 46-year-old Fox producer who spearheaded the project, a Christmas-gospel extravaganza on network TV is a rarity. “May have been on cable before,” he says, “but this many gospel music artists in the mainstream on a major network is a first.”

Coleman, who was born in St. Louis and grew up in the Pentecostal-based COGIC denomination, notes that asking Blake to host the event at West Angeles was an obvious choice. “The $60 million cathedral is a perfect match,” he says. “Bishop Blake [was] overjoyed” to do it.

Blake told Charisma that Coleman is a longtime member at West Angeles and has been involved in many things, but “this is one of his projects that I’m most proud of.”

Sony BMG Music will release a CD of the concert in December, says Coleman. He predicts the Christmas special will be “an evening filled with joy, love and laughter” as good cheer is spread through good music.
Paul Steven Ghiringhelli

The Hallmark Channel plans to air an original Christmas movie Saturday, Dec. 8, titled The Note. The story is about newspaper columnist Peyton MacGruder (Genie Francis, General Hospital), who suddenly finds herself on a dramatic journey to locate, before Christmas, the intended recipient of a note scribbled by a father seated on a crashing airliner. Taking her column’s readers along for the ride, Peyton also unexpectedly confronts her own personal demons while on her frantic cross-country search for the child.

Coinciding with a recent DVD release titled Christmas Memories, a 30-minute TV Christmas special by the same name will air this holiday season. Christmas Memories is a collection of vintage 8mm and 16mm home movies meant to evoke viewers’ favorite Christmas memories. In addition to CW Network, it will air on Christian networks such as INSP, NRB Network, INI, The Miracle Channel and Sky Angel.

b>Leading up to New Year’s Day, GOD TV will broadcast the One Thing conference live from Bartle Hall in Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 28-31. The annual worship-prayer event, led by Mike Bickle of the International House of Prayer, will feature worship artists Misty Edwards, the Merchant Band and Jason Upton. On Dec. 31, the conference will end with live GOD TV coverage of Lou Engle’s TheCall Kansas City—a full day of worship, fasting and intercession for what organizers say is a “holy prescription” for a city or nation in need of hope.

1 in 5 Pregnancies Worldwide End in Abortion

A recent study by the pro-abortion Allan Guttmacher Institute found that abortions have decreased by 17 percent worldwide, from 46 million to 42 million.

A recent study by the pro-abortion Allan Guttmacher Institute found that abortions have decreased by 17 percent worldwide, from 46 million in 1995 to 42 million in 2003.

But despite that drop, one-in-five pregnancies still are terminated each year. The report also found that the number of “unsafe” abortions was increasing, particularly in developing nations.

“Abortion is evidence that the needs of pregnant women are not being met,” said Carrie Gordon Earll, senior bioethics analyst for Focus on the Family Action. “Women seek abortion when they fear they cannot adequately provide for their children. By providing clean water and better living conditions for pregnant women, the number of abortions will drop even more.”

ORU Receives $70 Million Pledge

Days after Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts resigned the scandal-ridden school received a $70 million pledge.

Days after Oral Roberts University (ORU) President Richard Roberts resigned and the same day that the school’s Board of Regents announced their plans to separate finances and leadership from Oral Roberts Ministries, the scandal-ridden school received a $70 million pledge, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Mart Green, founder of the Christian-based office supply store chain Mardel, announced that he would immediately give the school $8 million and the other $62 million after a 60- to 90-day review of the school’s financial records.

Green, who stated he has no ties to ORU, said he had been following the story in the media of the school’s recent troubles and decided he wanted to help move the university forward. “Let's straighten the ship,” Green said Tuesday. “Let's get integrity. Let's get trust built back and the rest will go away.”

Town Believes Prayer Brought Man Back From Dead

A 21-year-old was said to have miraculously awakened after being declared brain dead as a result of critical injuries sustained during an accident.

Town Says Prayer Brought Man Back From Dead

A 21-year-old Oklahoma native was said to have miraculously awakened after being declared brain dead as a result of critical injuries sustained in an all-terrain-vehicle accident, reported NBC News affiliate WOAI in San Antonio.

Family members of Zack Dunlap were astonished when he stretched out his arm and grabbed a nurse who was prepping his body for organ donation. The Dunlap family had urged their entire hometown of Frederick, Okla., to pray for a miraculous recovery.

“God come down and give him a miracle. I believe that with all my heart,” Dunlap's uncle, James Blackford, told WOAI. “Doctor came back down and said: 'Well, I don't know what happened. But I guess it was faulty equipment on the first test.’ It wasn't faulty equipment,” Blackford said. “God touched him.”

Though Dunlap has a lot of recovering to do many in the town believe that he is alive because of prayer.

“I think it's the result of people praying in this town, and committing him to the Lord,” said Roberta Klein, Dunlap’s neighbor. “God has a purpose for him.”

Grandmother Calling Parents to Boycott School

A grandmother is urging parents with children in California public schools to keep their children home Nov. 28-29 to protest two bills that would mandate homosexual instruction of all children.

Joy Stutz, a Southern California grandmother, is urging parents with children in California public schools to keep their children home Nov. 28-29 to protest two bills recently made law that would mandate homosexual instruction of all children without parental consent or an opt-out provision, reported One News Now.

Last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed California Senate Bill 777 into law, which mandates positive representation of homosexual lifestyles when teaching, and California Assembly Bill 394, which orders “anti-harassment” training to be given to students, parents and teachers.

“What [passage of the bills] effectively did was open the door wide [so] that the children in the public schools—all public schools in California—will be indoctrinated with the homosexual agenda, beginning with age 5 on up,” Stutz told One News Now. “They will no longer be able to have a reference of 'mommy and daddy' as being a normal family. It will now be taught that it is perfectly normal to have two mommies or two daddies.”

Stutz said that parents must join together to fight these laws and believes this boycott is a step in the right direction; the next step might be to withdraw students from the public school system and enroll them in private school or home school them.

“If this law stands, we must pull our children out of public schools,” she said.

Christmas at the Cathedral

A holiday gospel music special, featuring Mary Mary, Tye Tribbett and G.A., Martha Munizzi and Smokie Norful, will be aired on network TV next Tuesday night, Dec. 4.

A holiday gospel music special will be on network TV next Tuesday night, Dec. 4 (originally scheduled for Dec. 6). My Network TV, a network TV channel owned by FOX television, will air an hour-long event dubbed “Christmas at the Cathedral” featuring guests Mary Mary, Tye Tribbett and G.A., Martha Munizzi and Smokie Norful.

Hosted by comedian George Wallace, the show takes place in the 24,000-member West Angeles Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Los Angeles, the COGIC denomination’s largest and most prominent congregation in the U.S.

Bishop Charles E. Blake, the church’s senior pastor and also head of the 6 million-member COGIC, told Charisma his church was delighted to play host.

“Our holy days have been so secularized and twisted from their original meaning,” he said. “This is an opportunity to have a focus on the Lord and the kindness of Jesus and His coming to earth.”

According to Robert Coleman, the 46-year-old producer at FOX behind the project and a member at West Angeles, a Christmas-gospel extravaganza on network TV is a rarity. “May have been on cable before,” he said, “but this many gospel music artists in the mainstream on a major network is a first.”

–-PAUL STEVEN GHIRINGHELLI

ORU President Richard Roberts Resigns

Amid a wrongful-termination, lawsuit which included allegations of financial impropriety and sexual misconduct, Richard Roberts resigned his position as university president on Friday, Nov. 23.

Amid a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed in October by former professors at Oral Roberts University (ORU), which included allegations of financial impropriety and sexual misconduct, Richard Roberts resigned his position as university president on Friday, Nov. 23.

The resignation follows an emergency meeting at ORU called last week by the school’s founder, Oral Roberts, after tenured faculty members had issued a vote of no confidence in Richard Roberts’ ability to stay on as president.

Roberts asked faculty for a second chance and a fresh start, claiming he should remain at the school as president because stepping down would be tantamount to admitting to wrongdoing, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Several faculty members reportedly refused to acquiesce.

In addition to the no-confidence vote by faculty, ORU’s provost, Mark Lewandowski, one of four top administrators named in the wrongful-termination suit, announced last week that he was willing to go as far as resigning his top academic post if Roberts was reinstated, the AP reported.

Roberts, who asked for a leave of absence last month while an investigation into the school and his leadership is underway, said in his resignation letter on Friday: “I love ORU with all my heart. I love the students, faculty, staff and administration and I want to see God’s best for all of them.”

The Board of Regents will meet this week to determine the process for searching for a new school president.

Baptist Denominations Forge New Coalition

Groups of various Baptist denominations not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention plan to launch a new coalition of moderate and liberal-leaning Baptists.

Groups of various Baptist denominations not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., plan to launch in Atlanta this January a new coalition of moderate and liberal-leaning Baptists, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

Dubbed the New Baptist Covenant, the group was organized as a result of meetings led by former President Jimmy Carter, who severed ties with the SBC in 2000 over its “increasingly rigid” positions, the AP reported.

Some of the participating denominations include the American Baptist Churches, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the National Baptist Convention USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

According to the National Baptist Convention (NBC) Web site, Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore are committed participants.

“We seek nothing more nor less than that for which Christ prayed, for no other reason than that which He gave: that ours will be a believable witness as to who Jesus is and why He came,” said William Shaw, president of the NBC, the nation's largest predominantly black denomination.

Ministry Helps Bring Healing in Rwanda

In the years since the Rwandan genocide, Hutus and Tutsis have been finding ways to unite and rebuild.

Memories of bloodshed, rape and murder still haunt the hundreds of thousands of people who survived the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, which left at least 800,000 dead in a three-month period. Yet in the years since the Hutu tribe planned and executed its brutal attack against the Tutsis, Christian observers say Rwandans have been experiencing the healing power of Christ, and learning to forgive and rebuild their nation.

“Despite such suffering, trauma and disappointments … more people are coming to Christ and submitting their lives to Him and accepting Him as Lord and Savior,” said the Rev. Philbert Kalisa, an Episcopal minister and founder of REACH, a Christian organization with a mission to help Rwandans reconcile.

Since 1997, Kalisa has been leading peace-building and conflict-management seminars across the nation. “The work of REACH-Rwanda with the people who were traumatized during the genocide of 1994 is so incredibly healing,” said Gerry Gardner, president of REACH-USA and staff member of Church of the Holy Spirit in Osprey, Fla.

“The atrocities are painful to hear about, but the hope that is rebuilding among the men, women and children in Rwanda is a model for the world, especially when one looks at what is going on in the Sudan and northern Uganda.”

Kalisa, who is Tutsi, fled with his family to nearby Burundi in 1961 to escape the persecution of the Tutsis families. He returned in 1995 and eventually founded REACH, an acronym for Reconciliation, Evangelism and Christian Healing, which seeks to first reconcile people to Christ.

“Our mission is broad; it is not only limited to the aftermath of the genocide,” he said. “We preach the gospel of reconciliation, calling and encouraging people to get reconciled with God and with one another.”

In addition to focusing on evangelism and reconciliation, REACH works with the Rwandan government and church groups to help relieve poverty and create jobs. REACH is currently raising money to buy and distribute motorcycles that will enable Rwandans to earn income as taxi drivers.

“Reconciliation requires that we are committed to setting all people free spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, socially and physically,” Kalisa said. “The church in today's society has no alternative but to provide holistic care to her flock.”

REACH volunteer Agnes Mukagasana, who is Hutu, said she was repeatedly raped during the genocide for being married to a Tutsi and felt betrayed by her family when her aunt and brothers turned her husband and children over to be killed because they were Tutsi. Feeling a deep sense of rejection, Mukagasana thought she had no one to turn to until she was introduced to Christ through the REACH program.

“God requests us to reconcile and forgive our enemies,” she said. “For the first time, I forgive. I forgive everyone who killed my family. I forgive those who raped me and my daughter. I forgive my in-laws, and I forgive even those that I don't know. I even forgive myself.”

Mukagasana now regularly visits those who killed her family in prison. She said living with hatred and anger for so many years continued to damage her long after the genocide ended. She now says that through Christ she has experienced more peace and joy than she had known even before her family was murdered.

Kalisa said the changes taking place in individuals and the nation as a whole can be attributed only to God's healing power. “When you look at how the country was destroyed, how the Rwandans killed each other … leaving hundreds of thousands of victims … no one could believe that these people would live together again in the same country,” he said.

“Now … people live together. No revenge. We have a united government where everyone is represented in parliament, army, police, and they work together to bring peace and unity among the Rwandans.”–Felicia Mann

Writers Strike Prompts Prayer in Hollywood

Recently 700 people gathered in Beverly Hills to pray for the end to the two-week writers’ strike that has halted production on many Hollywood studios.

Last Friday 700 people gathered for the National Media Prayer Breakfast at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., to pray for the end of the two-week writers’ strike that has halted production on many Hollywood studios, reported the Associated Press (AP).

“We pray that both groups would feel your supernatural guidance to stop blaming and posturing and start peacefully listening and negotiating,” prayed Geriann McIntosh, senior vice president of administration for Warner Bros. Television. “We pray that you keep everyone that is affected by the strike in your loving care.”

Many attendees at the breakfast, which was co-sponsored by the Hollywood Prayer Network and Mastermedia International Inc., focused prayers on quickly ending the strike to avoid massive job loss.

Prayer network founder Karen Covell, whose husband lost his job as a result of the strike, believes this is a critical time for Americans to pray for Hollywood, the AP reported.

“If it goes on for months it will shut down the income for families, and people need to start making tough decisions,” she said. “There is a lot of fear. There is a very current need for prayer.”

Covell added: “We are praying for it to be fast and fair and dealt with quickly.”