ACNS - Persecution of Christians could threaten future of church leadership in Pakistan

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Posted On : December 2, 2010 12:58 PM | Posted By : Admin ACO
ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2010/12/2/ACNS4757
Related Categories: Pakistan

Persecution of Christians could threaten future of church leadership 
in Pakistan

Pakistan's first and only female Anglican priest Revd Jane Shaw has 
warned that persecution of Christians in the country is prompting 
talented potential future church leaders to settle abroad.

Jane, who four years ago accepted an invitation to act as the Church 
of Pakistan's only female Presbyter-in-Charge, said she knew of four 
young pastors sent overseas for training who decided not to return to 
Pakistan.

She said that while there have been incidents of Christians being 
attacked and killed, the majority of persecution was more insidious. 
"It's largely low-level harassment," she said, "not being 
short-listed for jobs because you're a Christian, or, if you do get 
the job, your colleagues making you so miserable that you have to 
leave. Also, in some cases Christian businessmen have been told that 
they'll only get the most lucrative contracts if they convert to Islam."

Other harassment includes Christian children being teased or bullied 
at school, Christian workers being assigned excessive workloads, 
Christians being evicted from accommodation without notice, and 
influential community members occupying Christians' land with impunity.

Jane said that after the anti-Christian riots in Gojra in 2009 
(resulting in the death of eight Christians), she found families in 
nearby Korian living in a graveyard after being evicted from their 
homes. She was also told that Christians in the area who had been 
kicked out of their jobs during the riots were never reinstated.

One significant result of such harassment is that those families with 
the resources to do so are either moving abroad themselves or sending 
their children overseas to study. Too few of her former congregation 
can see a future for their children in Pakistan; most already have 
relatives in the UK, New Zealand, Canada, or the United States.

"Many go and don't return," she said. "I recently lost two families 
from my congregation. I know of four young pastors sent overseas to 
gain experience. None have come back [to Pakistan]."

"It's difficult to see where the next generation of church leaders 
will be coming from," she said.

Jane, who was jointly supported by CMS, USPG and several churches, 
led an English-speaking congregation that meets in a school chapel in 
Lahore, dedicated in memory of Bishop Clement Rockey, an American 
Methodist bishop in the 1930's.

Despite the challenge of ministering in a place where violent attacks 
are common, and where women are treated as second-class citizens by 
the more traditional sections of society, she talks fondly of her 
life as a priest and as a part-time health management adviser at 
Lahore's United Christian Hospital.

She has nothing but praise for her former bishop, Rt. Rev. Samuel 
Robert Azariah (Bishop of Raiwind and Moderator of the Church of 
Pakistan) who she says is doing all he can to promote the role of 
women in society and the church. Bp Azariah is also significantly 
involved in Christian-Muslim dialogue. [1]

Speaking part-way through a tour of churches and agencies that 
supported her placement in Pakistan, Jane went on to make an appeal 
to the Anglican Communion to spend its energy focusing on "pressing issues".

"I agree 100 per cent with Archbishop Tutu when he says not to obsess 
about secondary-level issues such as sexuality and gender, but to 
concentrate on the pressing issues." She believes these to be 
tackling poverty and injustice, and "getting out the message that God 
loves you."

> ENDS

> Notes to Editors

1.       Most recently at a global meeting in Geneva entitled 
Transforming Communities: Christians and Muslims Building a Common Future.
2.       The Church of Pakistan is a united church, which is part of 
the Anglican Communion and a member church of the World Methodist 
Council. It was established in 1970 with a union of Anglicans, 
Scottish Presbyterians (Church of Scotland), Methodists, and 
Lutherans. It is the second largest church in the country after the 
Roman Catholic Church.
3.       Christians form two percent of the population of Pakistan, 
which is approximately 140 million; 97 percent are Muslims.
4.       The Anglican Communion comprises more than 80 million 
members in 44 regional and national member churches around the globe 
in more than 160 countries.