News briefs Evangelicals threaten split in Anglican Church The Layman Online from news sources Friday, November 5, 1999 Evangelicals in the Anglican church are demanding their own bishops, an action that threatens to split the Church of England, The Times of London said. "Reform," a group of 430 clergy and 1,000 laity, wants sweeping changes made in the established Anglican system of authority, allowing parishes the option of refusing the jurisdiction of bishops who hold liberal theological views such as approving the ordination of homosexuals. The parishes then would come under conservative "flying bishops." Three such bishops are in place to minister to church members who reject female bishops. "Many laity, in particular in our numerous evangelical churches, are scandalized by what is so often reported," says First Report, a document to be debated by the group next month. "For many laity, the people who pay the bills, the present system and the results of it simply will not do." The document refers to bishops who support the homosexual lobby as "heretical." Latin Americans launch U.S. mission churches The Layman Online from news sources Friday, November 5, 1999 Strong new evangelical churches started by Latin American immigrants are popping up in the United States. They are led by immigrants from Latin America who are helping re-evangelize the United States, where churches have grown weak because of "materialist secularism," Jose Gonzales, Uruguayan researcher, said. More than 1,000 evangelical churches of Latin American origin have opened recently in the United States, Gonzales said. "It is a spiritual renewal with very unique sociological characteristics." The Latin American community will be the leading minority in the United States in the year 2002, he said. One example is Eklessia USA, whose congregation is the fasting-growing Protestant church in Fairfax, Va., ALC News said. Bolivian Carlos Penaloza pastors the church, which is made up of people from 13 Latin American nationalities and African and Asian countries who receive the Gospel message through a translator. Leaders from the Latin churches are professionals who may have started out poor but have improved their lot, it said. "The only sector of the church that is growing is made up of ethnic minorities," said Gonzales, a former sympathizer of Uruguayan guerrillas who has become a Christian. Heart patients do better with prayer Newsroom from news sources Friday, November 5, 1999 Heart patients who were prayed for had fewer complications in recovery, a study found. The Mid-America Heart Institute at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City studied 990 coronary patients in one year, The Associated Press said. The first names of half the patients were given to religious believers who prayed for four weeks that they would have a speedy recovery with no complications. The prayed-for patients had 10 percent fewer complications, according to a study published in the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers said the study suggests that prayer facilitates healing. Former National Baptist employee is sentenced The Layman Online from news sources Friday, November 5, 1999 Bernice Edwards, a former employee of the National Baptist Convention USA, has been sentenced to two years in jail for tax evasion. An associate of former NBC USA President Henry Lyons, she also was ordered to pay $190,000 to the Internal Revenue Service, serve supervised release for three years, undergo mental health treatment, and not open any bank accounts. Edwards, 42, could have received 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, The Associated Press said. Edwards failed to pay taxes on $500,000 she received while working as a publicist for the NBC USA, a U.S. district judge ruled Oct. 25. She was a co-defendant in Lyons' trial on charges of defrauding companies that were doing business with the denomination out of millions of dollars. He is serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence.

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