News Flash!

UGANDA

The Ugandan Christian Lawyers Fraternity (UCLF) goes before Parliament on Wednesday, 8th December

UCLF Facilitator, Mark Barrell reports that for some time now the "….UCLF have been assisting the Uganda Joint Christian Council and The Evangelical Fellowship of Uganda in preparing its representations before Parliament over the Domestic Relations Bill. It has been taking up most of my time... we have a large 30-40 page document outlining our concerns. I have attached a briefing document which goes over some of the issues. We have been called at short notice to go before Parliament on Wednesday morning.

Please pray that Parliament will listen to our concerns, especially over the liberalisation of the Divorce law and issues such as Quadis Courts, Cohabitation and provisions for Reconciliation.

SOUTH AFRICA

The Christian Lawyers Association of South Africa (CLA) Battles Against Same-Sex Marriages

The Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa has overturned a judgment that rejected an application to amend the marriage act of South Africa to include same-sex 'marriage' to be legal. The Executive Director of CLA; Denise Woods says "this means that we have to fight through the legislative channels to block this from being placed on the statute books. The country is up in arms! The Church is devastated and we are grappling with which way to go from here". For more information, see this Press Statement issued by CLA.

We are aware that in our world today, Gay rights and other related issues have come to the forefront of every sphere of our existence; it has become a serious political, social and religious concern. We as Christians should not only pray but we should voice out and say "NO" to those who will corrupt our societies especially our children.

Pray for CLA and its Leaders as they take this battle to the next level, there is much more at stake than we can ever imagine!

To Stop this law from being passed, write to the:

Minister of Home Affairs,
Mrs. N. Mapisa-Nqakula
Private Bag X741, Pretoria, 0001
Dineo.malao@dha.gov.za
Fax: +27-12-810 7312 and +27-21-461 4191

KENYA

Religious Liberty in Kenya

The Kenyan Christian Lawyers Fellowship (KCLF) has recently taken the bull by the horn as it challenges the inclusion of the sharia code in the country's constitution. The President of KCLF; Paul Ndemo reports that: "A number of us are involved in challenging certain provisions in our draft constitution that seeks to entrench one religion ( Islam) within the draft. We took the matter to court this week and the progress is ok so far. We were asked to serve other relevant parties with the application. We anticipate we will go back to court soon. This is a really fundamental matter for us a country and I believe the outcome could provide a great precedent for much of Africa, if not the world, where we are having religious liberty violated or threatened".

The fellowship would like your help as they need all the material they can get from other jurisdictions to enable them prepare a formidable case. They particularly need: Case laws, Write ups, Constitutions and any other important material by Dec.10th 2004.

Please Pray as well as this is probably the greatest single threat to the church right now in Kenya.

ACLN Changes its Name

ACLN will now be called ADVOCATES AFRICA. The name was changed by the African delegates at the just concluded global convocation to reflect the true purpose of the Network. Please visit the AFRICA PAGE at the New Advocates International website www.advocatesinternational.org for daily and weekly updates and news from Africa and the rest of the world.