ANR Bulletin
Adventist News Review
Trans-European Division of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church

04 January 2006

In this Issue:

* Cyprus: Christmas service raises funds for cancer sufferers
* Pakistan: A story reported by ADRA Pakistan
* England: Adventist scientist contributes to "intelligent design"
debate
* Sweden: Swedish union sells Hälsans Kök to Tivall


CHRISTMAS SERVICE RAISES FUNDS FOR CANCER SUFFERERS

NICOSIA, CYPRUS [ANR] - A special Christmas Carol Service in aid of
the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society raised CY£347 for the charity at the
Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nicosia. The Christmas Eve service,
which involved people of all ages, incorporated music, drama and
illustrated readings to powerfully convey the Christmas Story. Mr
Andreas Athanassiades, Asst Executive Director for the Cyprus
Anti-Cancer Society, was given a special slot in the service to
introduce the work of the charity and make an appeal just before the
offering was collected.

?Each year our church seeks to make a charitable contribution during
its Christmas Service,? says Valerie Fidelia, Church Clerk. ?The act
of giving to charity encourages us to focus on others and consider
their needs. It is very compatible with the spirit of the season.?

Amongst other activities, Mr Athanassiades explained how the Cyprus
Anti-Cancer Society has created the Non-Smokers League which educates
the public on the disastrous effects of smoking as a prime cause of
cancer. Since 1959 the Adventist Church has offered smoking cessation
programmes in local communities, and has helped over 20 million
smokers quit the habit worldwide. Its current programme, ?Breathe
Free: The Plan to Stop Smoking?, provides support through all three
stages of smoking cessation: preparation, breaking free, and
maintenance.

In addition to monetary support, the Adventist Church has also
responded to an urgent appeal for blood donors for the Cyprus
Anti-Cancer Society and committed to becoming a regular blood bank
for the charity. The next blood donation event is 20 January at their
premises on 2 Paraskeva Ioannou, Strovolos, starting at 6.00 pm.

As a special treat for the many people who attended the service,
Starbucks Ledra Branch provided hot chocolate and other beverages,
which were served throughout the morning and after lunch. This is the
second consecutive year in which Starbucks has sponsored the church?s
charitable efforts. Last year Starbucks provided beverages for the
church?s Christmas programme in aid of the children in Darfur, Sudan.

[Alex Elmadjian/ANR]


A STORY REPORTED BY ADRA PAKISTAN

RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN [ANR] - Alex is just one example of an ADRA
director, used by God to move a mountain. He lives in Turkey.
Although his office did not send any money to ADRA Pakistan, he
actually gave a donation worth 180,000 USD, the cost of paying for
three C-130 cargo planes to deliver 60,000 pounds worth of tents to
Pakistan.

When the huge tents were donated by several European ADRA donor
countries, promises were made by a certain airline that the tents
would be sent free of charge to Pakistan. It didn?t happen.

So Alex was asked to find an alternative. He immediately trucked the
tents from Europe to Turkey arranging free passage with a huge
Russian cargo plane. But the tents arrived too late.

A couple hours later during a United Nations Joint Logistics Center
meeting in Islamabad, our ADRA Pakistan team learned that NATO was
making their last flight out of Turkey within 36 hours. Alex
personally traveled hundreds of kilometers with the truck drivers,
driving non-stop through snowy passes at night, and got those tents
loaded onto three C140 cargo planes in time for NATO?s final free
flight. Now those tents are in Bagh. They will be distributed by
trucks and helicopters to villages where about 50 people will sleep
in them by night, and about 75 children will study in them by day.

I have visited a 700-student high school in Bagh where two tents are
already in use. Pakistani students always wear uniforms. But many of
these children were wearing the only change of clothes they have ?
the ones they were wearing on October 8.

Over 100 students from this school died in this mega disaster. Every
student in that school has lost at least one close family member.

I looked over that student body, noting the many colors of clothing.
A couple hours later, while flying low over the mountains via
helicopter, I noticed makeshift tents, that looked like patchwork
quilts. The colors looked about the same as what I had just seen at
school. I could not help but wonder if the material had been
someone?s favorite shirt, just two months ago.

Here is the latest overview of the resources and supplies
received/delivered by ADRA Pakistan:

Total cash donations received: USD $2,006,053.78
Total tonnage of relief items delivered: 673.3 tons
Total volume of relief items delivered: 6,121 cubic meters
Total number of trucks used to transport relief items: 305
Total number of ADRA staff: 67 contracted, 11 volunteers = 78
Total estimated number of people helped: 68,450

{John McGhee /ANR]


ADVENTIST SCIENTIST CONTRIBUTES TO "INTELLIGENT DESIGN" DEBATE

WATFORD, ENGLAND [ANR] - The subject of Intelligent Design (ID) has
been in the international news as a judge in the town of Dover,
Pennsylvania, USA ruled that a school wanting to teach ID as an
alternative to evolution would be violating the American
constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools.

Here in the UK, as far back as September of last year, the subject
featured in a Guardian article written by popular evolutionists
Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne. In a ferocious attack they dismissed
ID as a "disingenuous euphemism," which was, in their view, "simply
creationism camouflaged with a new name".

Among the many supporters of ID, and particularly in the smaller
subset of creationists, the article provoked an angry reaction. Many
Seventh-day Adventists who read the article were appalled at the use
of a supposedly scientific approach to discredit and poor scorn upon
the theory of ID, simply because it dared to offer an alternative to
evolutionism.

After considering the ensuing discussions one Adventist scientist, Dr
John Walton, Professor of Reactive Chemistry at of the University of
St Andrews, began to prepare a reasoned response to the Dawkins and
Coyne article. On Tuesday of this week, 20 December 2005, that
response, entitled "Origins Science Needs Design Rehab", was sent to
the Guardian newspaper.

In his 3,000 word article Walton raises a number of issues which have
not been adequately dealt with by evolutionists, even though they are
aware of them and have been promising answers to them for many years.
For many scientifically minded Christians, some of whom may have been
preparing to roll over and accept the full compass of evolution
simply on the weight of the number of its proponents. Walton's
arguments will come as welcome relief.

For example there is the fundamental issue of "irreducible
complexity" - the fact that for "biological machines to work, all (or
most) of the molecular parts are needed at once, i.e. the complexity
cannot be reduced to some much simpler state." This is related to the
familiar "missing links" issue. "For over a century evolutionary
scientists have been promising that laboratory science will someday
discover a quantifiable mechanism for evolutionary change," says
Walton. However, apart from changes of the "finch beak" kind, which
simply illustrate the micro-evolutionary changes that are easily
observable in nature, "verifiable laboratory evidence is completely
absent."

Walton's strongest criticisms of the Dawkins and Coyne article
however, concern the inability of evolutionists to apply scientific
objectivity to their own field. "The oft repeated dictum 'evolution
is fact' has become a password ritually affirmed by orthodox
Darwinians," Walton says. "Dawkins and the majority of his
evolutionary peers automatically rule out ID on ... philosophical
grounds and consider it a waste of time to evaluate the evidence."

But new conceptual tools, which give measurable criteria for
detecting design, should encourage scientists to re-evaluate their
position. Walton highlights the work of William Dembski who
"demonstrated that systems exhibiting high complexity combined with
'specification' are always produced by intelligent agents." Dembski
discussed just what is meant by 'specification' by referring to a
dart board and concluded that: "It turns out that nature, and
particularly biology, is equivalent to a long series of bullseyes
that have all been hit by darts."

[John Surridge/ANR]


SWEDISH UNION SELLS HÄLSANS KÖK TO TIVALL

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN [ANR] - For many years AB Svenska Nutana has played
a significant role in spreading the gospel in Sweden promoting
healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle.

For the past 15 years Nutana and its sister company Hälsans Kök have
worked closely with Tivall. This has proved very profitable and
Nutana/Hälsans Kök have regularly contributed large sums to the Union
which, among other things, have been channelled into Ekebyholm
Secondary School and other institutions, reaching out to unchurched
people.

On December 13 2005 Förvaltaren Trädkronan AB, signed a contract
involving the sale of AB Hälsans Kök, including the brand name and
product range, to Tivall Sweden AB, a newly formed subsidiary of
Tivall (1993) Ltd. Tivall will take over the business on January 1,
2006. AB Svenska Nutana will remain in church ownership through
Förvaltaren Trädkronan AB.

The decision to sell Hälsans Kök was based on several factors..

During the past 10 years the heath food market has rapidly expanded.
Under the leadership of Ole Pedersen Hälsans Kök has capitalised on
this and established itself as a main player in the frozen health
food market in Sweden and the other Nordic countries. This has
enabled it, together with AB Svenska Nutana, to regularly contribute
funds to the Swedish Union budget. Commercially there is no guarantee
that the market will continue to expand. Competition has increased
and substantial investment is needed to maintain market shares.

The tension between commerce and church has led the previous and
current church executives to the conclusion that it is in the best
interests of all concerned to sell AB Hälsans Kök while the health
food market is strong. Wisely invested, the interest on the capital
generated from this sale will provide a steady income flow for the
Swedish Union in the future.

Björn Ottesen, President of the Swedish Union, says: ?The main
business of the church is a spiritual one. To reach out with the
gospel and to encourage people to follow Jesus, is our main focus.
Running a business demands time, effort and resources. We believe
that God has blessed and opened a door which enables us to
concentrate our resources on our primary task. We would like to
express special thanks to Ole Pedersen and all involved with the
running of Hälsans Kök and also the working group, headed by Ronny
Hermansson and Ole Pedersen, who have managed the sale.?

[Audrey Andersson/ANR]


?There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to
death.? Proverbs 16:25.
Prayer Request: That God?s will may be done throughout the
Trans-European Division this New Year, and that we all may draw
closer to Him.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANR Staff: Miroslav Pujic, news director
ANR, 119 St Peter's Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: anr@ted-adventist.org
Website: www.ted-adventist.org

ANR (Adventist News Review) is a news and information bulletin issued
by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
in the Trans-European Division. You are free to re-print any portion
of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we
kindly request that you identify ANR whenever you publish these
materials.