PASTOR T.M SIMON ' PASTOR OF PASTOR'S ' & ' TEACHER OF TEACHER'S ' HAS PASSED AWAY

Pastor T.M. SIMON went home to meet his saviour Jesus Christ to recieve his eternal reward on January 24, 2009 at 7:55 am. Pastor T.M SIMON was born at Ranny , Pathanamthitta district of kerala on November 12, 1936 o Late Rev & Mrs.T.K MATHEW. one of the seven founders of the Indian Pentecostal Church of God.

Pastor T.M SIMON started his career in 1958 as personal secretary to the Rear Admiral at the Naval Flag office Ministry of Defence, Goverment of India in Bombay. Obeying the higher calling to serve Jesus Christ in 1964, Pastor Simon resigned his job to serve in the northern parts of India.

In 1983 he founded New Testament Church Mission an continued to be the senior pastor and president of the organization until his death.Pastor Simon was passionate in teaching the Word Of The God to all those who loved to learn; he was always refered as a Well Trusted Authorityof Bible and Theology. A Great Theologian , he founded three bible colleges and taught more than ten thousand students of the Bible. He was often reckoned as the Pastor of Pastors and Teacher of Teachers. He was an approachable encouraging servant of God.

He is survived by his dear wife of 41 years Mrs. Kunjamma Simon; three sons: Pastor Mathew Simon, David Simon an Abraham Simon; daughters -in-law: Shyni, Kimberly, and Daisy; grand children: Priscilla, Jonathan, Elijah, Hannah, Joshua.

INDONESIA BANNED MUSLIMS FROM DOING YOGA

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Muslims in Indonesia are banned from practicing yoga that contains Hindu rituals like chanting, the country's top Islamic body said Monday, echoing concerns by some religious groups elsewhere about its effect on their faith.
Though not legally binding, most devout Muslims will likely adhere to the ruling because ignoring a fatwa, or religious decree, is considered a sin.
The decision in the world's most populous Muslim state follows similar edicts in Malaysia and Egypt as the ancient Indian exercise gained popularity worldwide in recent years.
Cleric Ma'ruf Amin said the Ulema Council issued its ruling over the weekend after investigators visited gyms and private yoga classes across the sprawling nation. Amir said those performing yoga purely for health or sport reasons will not be affected.
But yoga practitioners immediately criticized the decision.
"They shouldn't be worrying about this," said Jamilah Konny Fransiska, a yoga teacher on the northern island of Batam, adding that all of her students perform yoga solely to strengthen their bodies and minds.
"There is little or no spiritual element to it," she said. "The clerics should be focusing only on purely religious matters, not this."
Yoga — a blend of physical and mental exercises aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit — has become so popular in the United States that many public schools have started offering it as part of their physical education programs.
But there, too, yoga has come under fire, with some Christian fundamentalists arguing its Hindu roots conflict with their own teachings.
A few secular parents are also opposed, saying its spiritual elements could violate rules demanding separation of church and state.
Though there is no Jewish law against yoga, which is widely practiced in Israel, some movements that insinuate idol worship are frowned upon, but not banned, by rabbis. This is to avoid misunderstandings that followers are praying to entities other than God, the sun for instance.
Indonesia is a secular country of 235 million people, 90 percent of them Muslim. Most practice a moderate form of the faith, though an increasingly vocal extremist fringe has gained ground in recent years. They have in some cases succeeded in influencing government policy, because many leaders depend on the support of Islamic parties.
The Ulema Council decided to investigate the need for a yoga ban after religious authorities in neighboring Malaysia issued their own fatwa late last year.
Many people there protested, insisting they had been performing yoga for years without losing their faith. Eventually, even Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had to step in, assuring Malaysians they could continue with the exercises as long as they didn't chant.
Amir, the cleric, said the same rule applied to Muslims here.
"We only prohibit activities that can corrupt Islamic values," he said.
The Ulema Council's annual meeting on fatwas over the weekend also debated whether to issue an edict banning smoking in Indonesia, one of the world's largest tobacco markets.
But cleric Amin Suma said Sunday those talks ended in a deadlock.

HOLOCAUST DENYING BISHOP HAS BEEN ' SILENCED'

VATICAN CITY - An ultraconservative society recently rehabilitated by Pope Benedict XVI silenced one of its bishops Tuesday and distanced itself from his claim that no Jews were gassed during World War II.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, also asked for forgiveness from the pope for the "dramatic consequences" of Bishop Richard Williamson's comments.
The Vatican press office issued Bishop Fellay's statement as part of its own efforts to quell an outcry among Jews that Benedict had removed Bishop Williamson's 20-year-old excommunication, despite his views on the Holocaust.
Bishop Fellay said he has forbidden Bishop Williamson from speaking publicly about any historical or political questions and that his views "don't reflect in any way the position of the society." Bishop Fellay himself referred to the "genocide of Jews" by Nazis.
"We ask forgiveness of the supreme pontiff and all the men of good will for the dramatic consequences of this act," Bishop Fellay said.
Benedict rehabilitated Bishop Williamson, Bishop Fellay and two other members of the society last week as part of his efforts to bring the traditionalist society, which opposes many of the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, back into the Vatican's fold.
Bishops Williamson, Fellay and the two other bishops were excommunicated 20 years ago after they were consecrated by the late ultraconservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal consent.
Jewish groups denounced Benedict for embracing Bishop Williamson, who denied during an interview broadcast last week on Swedish state TV that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. He said about 200,000 or 300,000 were killed.
The Vatican has stressed that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Bishop Williamson's views. But amid increasing outcry from Jewish groups, it intensified its defense of Benedict's record denouncing anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.
On Tuesday, Vatican Radio aired a lengthy program to mark Holocaust remembrance day, recalling Benedict's 2006 visit to Auschwitz, his 2005 visit to the main synagogue in Cologne, Germany, and other remarks in which he has denounced the "insane, racist ideology" that produced the Holocaust.
Video clips of those remarks were posted on Vatican links on the Holy See's new YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/vatican. Vatican Radio also ran an interview with an Auschwitz survivor.
On Monday, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, ran a front-page article saying Bishop Williamson's views were "unacceptable" and violated church teaching.
The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants said the Vatican's attempts to reject Bishop Williamson's views were necessary but insufficient.
"At a minimum, the Vatican should now demand that Williamson repudiate his heinous views," said the group's vice president, Elan Steinberg.

AMERICAN CHURCHES HITTING HARD BY TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

The nation's economic fallout has hit both the sacred and secular worlds of Central Florida. Many local churches now are struggling with the same money issues that confront businesses: budget crises, salary reductions and staff layoffs.

"We're facing what our members are facing in their companies and at work," said the Rev. David Loveless, pastor of Discovery Church in Orlando. Its four campuses serve about 4,000 members."We've probably cut $700,000 out of the budget this year," Loveless said.

Although his church has not missed any loan payments, it had to lay off about a dozen of its 75 paid staffers and recently instituted across-the-board pay cuts of 10 percent.

Loveless said some cuts could be reinstated if the economy improves, but he pledged to be the last person to return to his previous salary.Meanwhile, he has encouraged parishioners to keep giving in practical ways, such as gift cards from grocery and hardware stores, so they can continue to help those both inside and outside the church.

"One of the smartest things we can do is to give [despite] our need," Loveless said. "We're just trying to act contrarian to show we have faith in the future and demonstrate we believe God will take care of us."Although donations are down, Loveless and others have reported strong attendance as the economy spirals."Attendance is not the problem," said the Rev. Randolph Bracy Jr., pastor of New Covenant Baptist Church of Orlando. "That's the irony."The economy's impact on church finances mirrors a national trend. Many churches are facing the prospect of "needing a bailout," according to a year-end report by Cargill Associates Inc., a Christian fundraising development firm in Fort Worth, Texas.

Working closely with Catholic and Protestant churches -- both mainline and Evangelical -- across the United States in 2008, the firm monitored the financial effect of the economy on church giving."There's no question churches are feeling the pinch on a national level," said Pat Graham, president of Cargill Associates.Church members in needFor the first time in its 16-year history, New Covenant has not met its budget goal. Diminished collections caused the church to bring in $500,000 less than anticipated in 2008."We're in dire straits right now," said Bracy, pastor of the 2,000-member church. "I'm 64, and I've never seen anything like it."As a result, Bracy and other church leaders ordered several budget cuts, staff layoffs and a delay in expansion plans.The church's emergency and charitable funds have been focused more than ever on its own struggling members.

The Rev. Jon Dunwell said his Westwood Church in Orlando faces similar challenges.As lean times hit, Westwood started a directory for those in need. That way other congregation members could offer aid, from job leads to simply inviting folks to dinner so that cash-strapped parishioners wouldn't feel isolated.Some Westwood members also have offered to drive families to services, allowing out-of-work churchgoers to save on gas.

CHIEF RABBINATE CUTS TIES WITH VATICAN

Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Wednesday that he felt "full and indisputable solidarity" with Jews.
Benedict spoke days after his decision to revoke the excommunication of a bishop who says no Jews were gassed during the Holocaust provoked an outcry among Jews.
Benedict said Wednesday that he hoped the memory of the Holocaust would also serve as a warning against the "unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the hearts of men."
He spoke during a public audience at the Vatican.

The Vatican already distanced itself from comments by bishop Richard Williamson, who has denied that 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II. The Holy See said that removing the excommunication by no means implied the Vatican shared Williamson's views.
But on Tuesday the Chief Rabbinate of Israel broke off official ties with the Vatican indefinitely in protest over the Pope's decision to reinstate a known Holocaust denier.

The Chief Rabbinate also canceled a meeting scheduled for March 2-4 in Rome with the Holy See's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.
In a letter to the commission's chairman, Cardinal Walter Casper, Chief Rabbinate Director-General Oded Weiner wrote that "without a public apology and recanting, it will be difficult to continue the dialogue."
According to a Chief Rabbinate source, the letter was leaked to the Israeli press before it was received by the Vatican, which might further complicate relations between the Chief Rabbinate and the Catholic Church.
Last week, in an attempt to heal a decades-old rift between the Church and a group of ultra-conservative breakaway group of clergymen, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of four bishops. The four Catholic bishops belong to the Society of Saint Pius, which opposed changes in Catholic doctrine made in the 1960s under the Second Vatican Council.
One of them is Britain's Bishop Richard Williamson, who is being investigated for Holocaust denial in Germany, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
In a recent interview with Swedish state television, Williamson denied the murder of six million Jews by the Nazis.
"I think that 200,000 to 300,000 Jews died in Nazi concentration camps, but none of them in gas chambers," Williamson told the interviewer.
"The historical evidence is hugely against six million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler. I believe there were no gas chambers," Williamson reportedly said.
He has also reportedly endorsed the anti-Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion and claimed that Jews are bent on world domination.
In a parallel development Tuesday, Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Society of Saint Pius, distanced himself from Williamson's comments.
Fellay said he has forbidden Williamson from speaking publicly about any historical or political questions and that his views "don't reflect in any way the position of the society."
"We ask forgiveness of the Supreme Pontiff and all the men of good will for the dramatic consequences of this act," Fellay said.
Haifa Chief Rabbi Shear Yishuv Cohen, chairman of the Rabbinate's commission, told The Jerusalem Post that he expected Williamson to publicly retract his statements before meetings could be renewed.
"I understand the Pope's efforts to bring about unity in the Church, but he should be aware that, indirectly, he hurt Jews. We expect him to do the best to repair the situation." Weiner's letter called Williamson's comments "odious" and "outrageous."
Rabbi David Rosen, Director of the American Jewish Committee's Department for Interreligious Affairs, and an advisory member of the Chief rabbinate's commission, said that the Pope's decision has created an atmosphere of "bad faith."
Rosen reckoned that the Pope's move to lift Williamson's excommunication, which was made public just days before International Holocaust Day, was made due to a lack of proper consultation.
"I tend to believe that the Pope simply was not informed about Williamson in advance and now he is in a very uncomfortable situation."
Rosen said that the Pope had a history of improper preparation, leading to large-scale blunders. He cited a speech made in Regensburg, Germany, in which he quoted a medieval emperor who called Islam "evil and inhuman," comments that sparked a wave of Islamic-led violence against Catholic churches around the world.
Rosen said that the Rabbinate expected the Pope to take tangible steps against Williamson.
"I don't think it is my place to tell the Church precisely what to do. But Williamson should be censured in some way or forced to retract his statements.
"Until that happens, we may be in contact with the Vatican on an individual level, but there will be no official meetings."

NO PLACE FOR CHILDREN IN RASHTRAPATHI BHAVAN

Our former President Abdul Kalaam would surely be shocked at this incidence as I am sure the present President Pratibha Patil when they will come to know about this. There is a protocol in which no kids are allowed in Rastrapati Bhawan in formal ceremonies and only those invited by names can enter. This restriction is for security reasons, but it seems security sometimes goes overboard.
Late Havildar Bahadur Singh Bohra was bestowed Ashoka Chakra posthumously. On Republic day the President bestowed the award to his widow 29 year old Shanti Bohra in front of the whole nation. Last September he lost his life while fighting with terrorists in Lawanz’s area in Jammu and Kashmir. He managed to kill three militants before succumbing to his injuries. He was awarded the country’s highest peacetime gallantry award “The Ashoka Chakra”.
But after being bestowed the award when his widow went to collect the award a few hours later at a ceremony in the Rastrapati Bhavan with her two daughters aged five and three, she was not allowed to enter with her daughters. Being an outsider and a stranger to the Capital she had no place where she could leave them. Despite repeatedly pleas she was not allowed to enter “The Rastrapati Bhavan” to receive her award along with her daughters.
There should be some arrangements at the President’s house where people who like Shanti are strangers in the city and have genuine problems can be accommodated. At least a widow with two baby daughters who has lost her husband fighting for the country deserves a little consideration.