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This newsletter will
wrap up 2007. We have
compiled a list of twenty trends, in the news, for 2007.
You can read this
review by clicking on the link below
http://www.understandthetimes.org/yir200
7.shtml
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December 15 - Prince Charles will appear at conference as a hologram
Article: Misc.
His
detractors may argue that his green principles do
not stand up to close
examination. But now Prince Charles is set to
confound his critics by
addressing an energy conference -
as a
hologram.
Determined to keep his
environmental damage to
a minimum, Charles will save
the 15 tons of carbon that would have been
generated by flying himself
and his staff 7,000 miles to the
World Future Energy Summit
in Abu Dhabi.
Instead, a three-dimensional image of the
Prince will be seen giving a
five-minute talk.
Charles recorded the
message at Highgrove last month.
It will be transformed into a
hologram-style image using technology
based on a Victorian music-
hall technique called "ghosting".
A video projector will beam
an image of the Prince on to the floor.
It is then reflected up on to a
paper-thin sheet of foil
to create
an optical illusion that makes him
appear as a 3-D image on
stage.
Former US Vice-President Al Gore
used similar
technology to appear as a
hologram at Wembley Stadium at the beginning
of the Live Earth concerts
earlier this year.
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December 23 - Silent fright - Birthplace of Jesus hijacked by Muslims
Article: Misc.
BETHLEHEM - Muslim street peddlers here
bombarded tourists with discounted
souvenirs in Manger Square - the hub of
Bethlehem's holiday activity - setting
up shop in front of Christian stores some
of whose owners complained their
businesses were being hijacked.
"Tourism is up this year. Christians
are
visiting from all over. They come out of the
Church of the Nativity and
before they arrive at my store they've already been
approached by a half-dozen Muslim
vendors selling the same stuff but
cheaper,"
said the manager of one shop situated
across from the Church of the Nativity
alongside Manger Square.
But
the
thoroughfare has been packed with Muslim
vendors selling souvenirs and religious
items such as crosses and cedarwood
carvings - much the same objects found in
the surrounding Christian stores.
Upon
observing the scene for an
afternoon, it was clear during that time
the Muslim
vendors were raking in the
majority of business. According to local
shopworkers, this has been the
situation for the past two weeks.
Qumsiyeh
and other Christian leaders said if
current trends in Bethlehem continue, there may be no
Christians left in the city in 15 years.
He said he appealed to U.S.
Christian leaders to help initiate housing
projects and find ways to fortify
and strengthen Bethlehem's Christian
population, but that little assistance
was offered.
"The way things are,
soon there will not be a single Christian
living in the land of Jesus,"
he said.
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December 24 - A Bible, But No E-mail
Article: Misc.
How do you
see the relationship between Russia and the
U.S., going forward?
Russia and the U.S. were
allies during the Second and the First World
Wars, which allows us to think
there's something objectively bringing us
together in difficult times.
Today to be successful, one must be able to
reach agreements. The ability to compromise is not
a diplomatic politeness but
rather taking into account and respecting
your partner's legitimate
interests.
Do you
think the U.S. wants to see a strong Russia
or a weak Russia?
I believe the U.S. already
understands that only a
strong Russia will respond to
the genuine interests of the U.S.
What
role does faith play in your leadership?
First and
foremost, we should be governed by
common sense. But common
sense should be based on moral principles
first. And it is not possible
today to have morality separated from
religious values.
The
government has arrested some ?Russian
industrialists and seized their
assets. Why?
Well,
"Thou shalt not steal." They didn't have
difficulties with me. They had
difficulties with the people of the
country and with the law.
Earlier
you used the phrase Thou shalt not steal.
Have you read the Bible?
Yes, I
have. And the Bible is on my plane.
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December 25 - Some Protestants warm up to Mary
Article: One World Religion
A determined group of Protestant
writers and teachers is trying
to change that. With books like
The Real Mary, and
Mary for Evangelicals, and articles in
magazines like
Christianity Today and the Christian
Century, they are trying to persuade
Protestants to embrace
Mary.
The rift between Protestants and
Catholics over Mary began
during the Reformation and worsened in the
1850s, when the Immaculate
Conception of Mary became an official
Catholic doctrine. In 1854,
Pope Pius IX
pronounced that Mary was
"exempt from all stain of original
sin."
In explaining Catholic devotion to
Mary, Choby said it stems from
love for her son, the savior. "She's the
mother of Jesus," he
said, "If you have a close
relationship with Jesus, it
makes sense that you'd have a close
relationship with his
mother."
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December 26 - Bethlehem sermon calls for peace in Middle East
Article: Israel And The Last Days
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - The Catholic
leader
in the Holy Land again called for peace in the
Middle East on Tuesday
as he addressed thousands of Christians
gathered at the traditional site
of Jesus's birth.
"This land of
God
cannot be for some a land of
life and for others a land of death,
exclusion, occupation, or
political imprisonment," Latin
Patriarch Michel Sabbah said
in a sermon for the Christmas midnight
mass.
"All those
whom
God, the lord of history, has
gathered here must be able to find in this
land life, dignity and
security," he said, addressing thousands
of Christians from all over the
world in a sermon delivered in his
native Arabic.
Sabbah, who last week said that
peace in the Middle East
depended on Israel, reiterated that message in
a less direct way on Tuesday.
"It is not up to the weakest to submit
themselves and continue to
live a life of deprivation;
it is up
to the strongest, to those who have
everything in hand, to detach
themselves and to give to the weakest what
is due to them."
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December 17 - Emerging Pastor to Young Believers: Ask Anything
Article: Emerging Church
Emerging pastors who
cater
their
ministries to young people and those traditionally not
found
in the pews have opened the
pulpit
to
questions boggling young believers
today.
Mars Hill founding pastor Mark Driscoll
opened
the
"Ask Anything" floor
in October,
encouraging congregants to submit any
questions they wanted
addressed in next year as part of a
sermon series.
The second most
popular question asked by Mars
Hill
attendants was: "What can
traditional/established churches learn
from 'emerging'
churches?"
"We take the Bible
as literally true,"
Driscoll has said to The Associated
Press.
"If the Bible doesn't forbid
something, we believe there's a lot
of
freedom in cultural
issues."
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December 24 - 'Blair's plan to convert began at 10 Downing Street'
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
LONDON: Former British prime minister
Tony Blair
began preparations to convert to
Roman
Catholicism four
months before leaving office, a media report
has
said.A source close to the
Vatican said
that Blair had actually begun the course of
informal
instruction with RAF chaplain Father John Walsh, in
February, while
still at 10 Downing Street.
One of Blair's final official engagements
before
leaving office was a visit to the Vatican in
June, during which
he met Pope Benedict XVI.
Blair was formally accepted
into
Roman
Catholicism during a Mass led by Cardinal Cormac
Murphy-O'Connor,
head of Catholics in England and Wales, at
Archbishop's
House, Westminster on Friday.
The former prime minister's conversion has
ended
years of
speculation but raised fresh
questions about
whether he had renounced his views on issues such
as
gay rights, abortion
and stem-cell research. Before receiving full
communion, he
would have had to confess all his
sins.
"He has wanted to do this for some
time, and
now he's done it. It is something that
matters
to him a great
deal," Blair's former spokesman Alastair
Campbell was
quoted as saying in the report.
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December 26 - Russia launches final satellites for its own GPS
Article: One World Government
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia
successfully launched a
rocket on Tuesday
carrying the last three satellites
to complete a
navigation
system to rival
America's GPS.
The military-run
GLONASS
mapping system
works over most of Russia and is expected to cover
the globe by the
end of 2009, once all its 24 navigational
satellites are
operating.
Work on GLONASS -- or Global Navigation
Satellite System
-- began in the Soviet Union in the
mid-1970s to give its armed forces exact
bearings around
the world.
Officials said GLONASS would mainly
be used
alongside the U.S.
global positioning system, which Washington can
switch off for
civilian subscribers, as it did during recent
military operations
in Iraq.
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December 27 - Ahmadinejad sends Pope Christmas greeting
Article: One World Religion
TEHRAN - Iranian
President Mahmud
Ahmadinejad congratulated Pope Benedict XVI on the
birth anniversary of Jesus
Christ and the New Year in a message on
Wednesday.
The president expressed hope that
the New
Year would be the year when cruelty and
aggression
are
abolished.
"I hope 2008 will be
the year of peace and
friendship, and that people's rights will be more
respected and morality will be
promoted in societies throughout the
world," he stated.
All divine
religions convey a similar
message, and that is the need to worship God,
defend the oppressed, and
promote moral values, he said.
Ahmadinejad also sent separate
Christmas
greeting messages to his
counterparts in Christian countries.
Peace,
friendship,
brotherhood, justice, and
security will be established anywhere in the
world that Jesus Christ's
teachings are put into practice, the
president said in the
message.
"Let us
all play a
role in establishing justice and
love in the world," he added
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December 26 - Anglican Head Emphasizes Love for Creation in Christmas Sermon
Article: Social Gospel
LONDON - The spiritual head of the
worldwide Anglican
Communion stressed the need
to
protect the environment in his
Christmas sermon Tuesday.
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr.
Rowan Williams said
"human greed" is
threatening to distort the fragile balance of the earth
and that the message of
Christmas is about God's love for creation,
according to the Press
Association. "And God's way of making sure
that
this joy is fully available is
to join humanity on
Earth so that human beings
may recognize what they are and what they are
for."
"When we threaten the balance
of things, we
don't just put our material
survival at risk, more profoundly we put our
spiritual sensitivity at risk - the
possibility of being opened up to
endless wonder by the world
around us," the archbishop added,
according to the Press
Association.
Williams encouraged
people to
show reverence to God's
creation and to each other.
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December 28 - Russia denies claims of missile deal
Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars
The federal agency overseeing
Russia's
military exports on Friday denied
reports that the country is planning to
deliver S-300 anti-aircraft missile
systems to Iran.
Iran's
defense minister said this week
that
Russia is preparing to equip Iran
with the missile systems that would
dramatically increase the country's
ability to repel an attack.
But the Federal
Military-Technical Cooperation
Service denied the claim in a brief
statement. "The question of deliveries
of S-300 systems to Iran, which has now
arisen in the mass media,
is not currently
taking place, is not being considered
and is not being discussed at this time
with the Iranian side," said
the agency, known by its Russian initials,
FSVTS.
The
S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense
system is capable of shooting down
aircraft, cruise missiles and ballistic
missile warheads at ranges of over
145 kilometers and at altitudes of about
27,000 meters. Russian military
officials boast that its capabilities outstrip
the US Patriot missile
system.
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
In Jesus,
Roger Oakland
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