BREAKING NEWS
Polish Adventist Minister Cleared of "Anti-state" Crimes After 48 Years
early half a century after being arrested for "anti-state" crimes and sentenced by the Stalinist regime to a year and a half imprisonment, the Polish Supreme Court has annulled the 1954 sentence issued against Adventist pastor Konrad Janyszka.
Janyszka was accused of "disseminating false information" that allegedly aimed to "significantly erode the interests of the Polish state," public "showing of slides" considered to be protected by state censorship, and for possession of printed materials for the use of Adventist clergy, alleged as intended to be hidden from the state authorities.
Janyszka, 79, whose health still is affected by the time in prison, said that after hearing of the court's decision he "knelt down and thanked God that justice was served." Janyszka was arrested on July 3, 1953, two weeks after his second daughter was born and was denied letters from his family. They were allowed to visit him only once. "They did not allow me to have a Bible and ridiculed my keeping the Sabbath," he said.
"The first thing I did when I was imprisoned was to fast. I prayed that the Lord would sustain me. And He did. He was close to me and helped me go through it all," said Janyszka. The biggest challenge was to survive on a diet that he mostly could not eat. "Toward the end of the sentence I was placed in a hospital when they had to force-feed me. They did not want me to leave the prison as skinny as I became," he reminisced. Janyszka was released January 3, 1955. "I served the entire sentence, up to the minute," he commented.
Andrzej Sicinski, spokesman for the Polish Seventh-day Adventist Church, reports that the Supreme Court considered an appeal to annul the 1954 judgment, and ruled that the sentence represented a flagrant breaking of the law by the authorities of that time.
The ruling explains that charges such as those leveled against Janyszka, did not substantially prove the pastor's intention to disseminate false information. Statements and acts of the Adventist pastor expressed "only his private evaluation of the situation and a critique of the then reality, as well as a presentation of his religious views."
The court further stated that Janyszka acted within the parameters of the guaranteed right to freedom of religion and belief, and a free exercise of religion in a personally chosen form.
Janyszka's ordeal was not an isolated case during the severely restrictive years of Communism in Poland. All churches were affected. The repression pushed churches to "underground" activities.
Recalling the ordeal of imprisonment, Janyszka described his faith as also being on trial. "My faith did not weaken," he said. He recalled that six months before the end of his sentence, he was informed about arrests of three other Adventist pastors: Wiktor Ciuk, Egon Kulesa and Andrzej Maszczak, a seminary director. "I was not happy about this," he said. "[I concluded] that it wasn't just a fight with me. They were fighting with the church. They were fighting with Christ's church."
-–Adventist News Network
Church Leaders Focus on Reaching
Out To Faith Communities
Committed to reaching out to other faith communities, Seventh-day Adventist mission experts and directors from the church's Global Mission religious study centers met in December in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to share reports and discuss future directions for Adventist relations with other religions around the world.
A focus of the meeting was Adventist interaction with Jewish people. Rabbi Henry Sobel, of the Congregacao Israelita Paulista, the largest synagogue in Brazil, who is widely regarded as the unofficial leader of Brazilian Jewry, emphasized the need for continuing dialog between different religious groups. The group visited Sobel's synagogue for services celebrating the end of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
On Sabbath, the study center group worshiped at the Beth B'nei Tsion, a Jewish Adventist temple, where the liturgy of the Seventh-day Adventist congregation parallels that of Jewish services. The group then visited an Adventist church where services are specially designed to reach out to the Arab and Muslim community.
Global Mission religious study centers explore ways of reaching out to the Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and secular communities. "They were created for the purpose of experimenting with ways to better understand and communicate with adherents of other world religions," says Mike Ryan, director of Global Mission. "The primary question we ask of the study center directors is, ‘Do we have models of bridge-building that are being implemented around the world?' They have the job of producing resources, as well as building awareness among church members of what they are doing." -–Adventist News Network
Adventist Church Celebrates 90
Years of Adventist Communication
The communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church celebrated its ninetieth anniversary late last year. In 1912, the church founded the Bureau of Press Relations which later developed into the Bureau of Public Relations, a precursor to the current department of communication.
Formal communication within the church developed out of necessity. Standing for the separation of church and state, the Adventist church came under intense scrutiny and public pressure in the late 1800s. The need for a more systematic plan for public information was realized with the creation of the corporate communication office in 1912.
This decision became a historical landmark in corporate communication by a Christian church. Evidence indicates that the 1912 decision produced the first such organized "public relations" activity in a Protestant denomination, with the appointment of Walter Burgan as director of the first communications department. Prior to this, several of the departments had previously engaged in various kinds of press relations activity; however, it was thought that a separate office should be set up to conduct such work on behalf of all the departments and the church at large.
Refocusing the definition of communication in the early 1990s led to the beginning of Adventist News Network (ANN), the news agency of the church, operated by the communication department at the church's world headquarters. ANN reports church news weekly, and, as of September 2002, television viewers receive Adventist NewsLine, a weekly news program produced for the Adventist Television Network.
Presently, apart from the news service, the department oversees numerous communication initiatives for the world church and is involved in public relations, media relations, and Web development.
"This anniversary offers an opportunity to pay a tribute to the creative services of all communication leaders—directors, associates, assistants, secretaries and consultants—throughout the church, including those at the world church headquarters," says Ray Dabrowski, director of communication for the Adventist world church. "Today, we are simply following in the tradition of professional excellence in communication."
-–Adventist News Network
News Notes
In an interview with Adventist Newsline, Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist world church, expressed his hopes for this new year. "As I look to the future, my hopes have to do with peace and tolerance. I don't believe settling conflict can be done by violence and war. We need to learn to negotiate and find our way to solutions through instruments of understanding. I pray we can find a way that is not war."
He also expressed his desire for a greater tolerance between people. "Until the Lord returns--and I long for that–I pray that in this new year we will learn to live better together," Paulsen said. "My primary hope for the new year is that the good Lord we serve will continue to look with loving kindness on us, his children."
As a first step in meeting challenges of 2003, Southern California Conference administration is proclaiming a Call to Prayer for February 8, 2003. "As we begin a new year, I am convinced that we need to 'seek the Lord' at this new and ominous beginning," said Larry Caviness, president. "In generous ways God has blessed us, and we need to praise and thank Him. We also face many daunting challenges as we share the gospel for Him. It is appropriate that God's people seek His guidance, wisdom and power in the affairs of our personal lives and this church's ministry. With more than just a casual conversation with God--with heart-to-heart intimacy with Him, and with each other, we will come to Him for guidance for His church."
Michael Ortel, adult ministry director for the Carolina Conference, has accepted the position of president of the Northern New England Conference. He replaces Gary Thurber who was elected president of the Indiana Conference.
Bettina Krause, assistant direction for communications for the Adventist world church, has accepted the position of assistant to the president of the Adventist world church and will specifically be involved with "Sow One Billion," a plan to reach 1 billion homes around the world in the next 18 months.
Mark Kellner has been appointed as assistant communication director for the world church. He replaces Bettina Krause and will assume his duties as of February 1, 2003.
Ernestine Finley, wife of It is Written Television's Mark Finley, will become the first speaker/director's wife to conduct a full-scale evangelistic series in North America. The series will begin in February in Apopka, Florida. "For a number of years now I have felt God leading me to conduct my own evangelistic series," said Finley. "My desire in holding this series is to see even more people won to Jesus, and to demonstrate that many other lay people out there--both men and women--can be effective soul-winners!"
Martin Loose, a Christian viewer of Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN) who lives in Germany, had a burning desire to reach more people for Christ. He launched his own website listing information on Christian programming, including 3ABN, available via satellite in Europe. Not satisfied with just giving the information, he contacted cable companies, asking them to evaluate the Christian channels available, and encouraged them to add 3ABN to their line-up. Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern (TKS) responded and is now broadcasting 3ABN throughout Germany.
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