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"Take
Heed" Ministries
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Cecil Andrews, PO BOX 13, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AL, Northern Ireland. Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net |
‘Celebration
of Hope’ and HOPE 2008:
Is
there/was there an ‘official association’?
Posted
on our ministry website are articles concerning two upcoming initiatives – one
local in
In the articles posted I
have to a degree ‘interlinked’ these 2 initiatives. A brother in Christ has
just contacted me and in his email he said this –
I've looked at the website for
the Franklin Graham "Celebration of Hope" event, and on its
FAQ page (http://www.celebrationofhope.co.uk/faq.php)
they claim the following:
Q. What is the relationship
between Hope 2008 and Celebration of Hope?
A. Hope 2008 is a collaboration of local church outreach in
different parts of the
So it doesn't appear that they are
one and the same. There's plenty concerning about ‘Celebration of
Hope’, but perhaps you could look into this and correct your article if
necessary?
Why
did I ‘interlink’ these two initiatives in the first place? I will give my
reasons and in so doing I will leave it to you the reader to draw your own
conclusions as to the veracity of the answer given above that there is ‘no official association between the two organisations’.
One
of the important marketing tools employed today to promote some major event
or initiative is an official ‘LOGO’. I’m sure many can remember the
reaction some months ago when the very costly ‘LOGO’ for the 2012 Olympics
to be held in London was officially unveiled. What I want to do now is to
reproduce some pages from the national HOPE 2008 website and to reproduce
copies of literature distributed by the local ‘Celebration of Hope’ organisers.
Not being a technical ‘wizard’ these reproductions are spread over quite an
area in this article –
In my articles on our ministry website I made reference to
an advert that appeared in the Belfast Telegraph on 15th September 2007
announcing the official launch of the local ‘Celebration of Hope’
initiative at the Kings Hall Complex, Belfast. At the foot of the advert, for
all to see, was the very distinct HOPE 2008 ‘LOGO.’ In my article on the
national HOPE 2008 initiative I listed the members of the ‘Board of
Reference’ and one of those serving on that ‘Board’ is Joel
Edwards, General Director of Evangelical Alliance. In my article on the ‘Ecumenical-friendly
Basis of Faith’ I wrote this – “In my earlier article I noted the involvement of
Evangelical Alliance through their General director, Joel Edwards
being listed as a member of the HOPE 2008 Board of reference. Locally
here the Northern Ireland ‘branch’ of Evangelical Alliance has been to the fore
in the planning of some of these liberal, pseudo evangelical events [such as
Kingdom Come in early 2006]. Their input to HOPE 2008 is identified
on the local [Northern Ireland] website where the main article encouraging
support for HOPE 2008 is signed off by
Stephen Cave
National Director Evangelical Alliance
Vice-chair Celebration of Hope
I recognise now that the portion underlined should have
been more accurately phrased ‘Their input to Celebration of Hope is identified
on the local [Northern Ireland] website where the main article encouraging
support for Celebration of Hope is signed off by
Stephen Cave
National Director Evangelical Alliance
Vice-chair Celebration of Hope
That aside,
what is interesting is that at today’s date [15 November 2007] ‘the main
article encouraging support for Celebration of Hope’ and that was
signed off by Stephen Cave is no longer on the Celebration of Hope website.
It is still however posted on the Northern Ireland website of Evangelical
Alliance on http://www.eauk.org/northern-ireland/reach/
and this is what
it says –
Celebration of Hope
Who would have thought it?
A genuine power-sharing government in Northern Ireland with the two most
intractable parties - or so it seemed - now working together for the good of
all! Of course we still have a long way to go but the initial signs are
hopeful, including a peaceful conclusion to the usually tense 'marching
season'. There is a new wind blowing and certainly a new sense of hope that at
long last we are putting the worst of the past behind us and moving into a new
future. What better time then, for us in NI to have a Celebration of Hope
that goes way beyond a political settlement for this small country; an
opportunity for Christians to stand together and speak out the eternal hope
found in the Good News of Jesus Christ?
The Odyssey Arena in Belfast has been booked in April 2008 for that very purpose - a Celebration of Hope. Over 3 evenings Franklin Graham - son of Billy Graham - will bring the good news of the hope to be found in Jesus Christ, supported by Robin Mark, The Newsboys and other well known artists. But these events are just a small fraction of what Celebration of Hope is all about. There will be months of preparation, with churches coming together to mobilise Christians to pray for friends to come to know Jesus, and courses designed to help Christians understand and share their faith better, and following the April programme, churches will be engaged in follow-up and discipleship with those who have taken steps of faith. For more information on Celebration of Hope contact the office on 028 9022 0862 or click here to go onto the website!
Stephen Cave
National Director
One
has to wonder why the hitherto clear involvement of Evangelical Alliance
[NI] in the promotion of Celebration of Hope, an initiative linked
with Franklin Graham of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
[BGEA] has been downplayed almost to the point of extinction on the
official Celebration of Hope website.
Such
distancing of EA [NI] from this event involving the BGEA seems
all the more strange in the light of this current posting on the website of EA
[NI] –
http://www.eauk.org/northern-ireland/specialprojects/kingdom-come.cfm
Kingdom Come... more than words
Kingdom
Come... more than words:
An event for Christians with a heart for Ireland
Kingdom Come... more than words, ended on 2 February 2006.
This was a joint initiative of Evangelical Alliance and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association steered by senior church leaders from a range of denominations. If you want to see what you missed out on please go to www.kingdomcomeireland.com. The main talks and stream plenaries were recorded throughout the event and copies can be obtained by contacting EMS Audio Ltd on 028 9127 4411 [A Northern Ireland number].
Perhaps
it was felt that local evangelicals might not be too keen to support an
initiative, Celebration of Hope, that had an ‘official association’ with a national initiative [HOPE 2008],
that for its part had ecumenical support at the highest ecclesiastical level [Rowan Williams, Archbishop
of Canterbury and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor], that had active support/involvement from
the General Director of Evangelical Alliance [Joel Edwards] and that was being ‘fronted’ locally for promotional purposes by the
Northern Ireland Director of Evangelical Alliance, Stephen Cave.
‘Is there /was there’ an ‘official association’ between Celebration
of Hope and HOPE 2008? – the official ‘party line’ on the website of
Celebration of Hope says that ‘there is no
official association between the two organizations’. In the
light of what I have shared in this article perhaps the issue is not just as
‘clear-cut’ as that denial claims.
We should never forget the
previous ‘shady’ dealings that took place between CARE [NI] and Evangelical
Alliance [NI] as they sought to involve so-called ‘Evangelical
Catholics’ in their ‘evangelistic’ ‘Passion Movie Café’ outreach in
Central Belfast. In the article that I wrote about that sorry episode http://www.takeheed.net/CAREEAAGENDAS.htm I
wrote [and still stand over] –
“Information that is now in my possession shows
that there was no ‘naïveté’ on the part of Hugh Marcus [of
CARE] but rather this was a calculated strategy and
‘agenda’ on the part of both Hugh Marcus and Stephen Cave [of
Evangelical Alliance] and
their aim was to keep their hopes for ‘Evangelical Catholic’ involvement hidden
from the public”
In closing, let me
just point out that sadly, where Franklin Graham is concerned, he is adopting
the same ecumenical view of the Papacy that his father held as this website
posting clearly shows –
BILLY
AND FRANKLIN GRAHAM PRAISE POPE;
FRANKLIN
SAYS THEY PREACH SAME GOSPEL.
Friday Church News Notes, April 8, 2005
Fundamental Baptist Information Service, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org
Billy Graham called Pope John Paul II “unquestionably the most influential voice for morality and peace in the world during the last 100 years” (“Graham remembers pope’s warmth, courage,” Winston-Salem Journal (N.C.), April 2).
In an interview with Katie Couric on NBC television, Franklin Graham
also praised the Pope and claimed that they preach the same gospel. He
said: “We disagree on a lot of doctrinal issues and I guess those disagreements
will always be there. At the same time we did agree on the fundamentals that
Jesus Christ is the son of the living God who came to this earth to die for our
sins and when he died on that cross and shed his blood he took the sins of the world
with him on the cross; and if we confess our sins and repent and by faith
receive Christ into our hearts God will forgive us and cleanse us. These are
fundamentals of the faith we agreed on and support and we appreciate
this man and the stand he has taken on so many of these moral issues.”
Regrettably when it comes to unscriptural co-operation with the false Roman Catholic system headed up by The Papacy, where Franklin Graham is concerned, it appears to be a sorry case/example of the old adage – ‘like father, like son’.
Cecil Andrews – ‘Take Heed’
Ministries – 15 November 2007