Missionaries of the World

There has been no decision by the Crown Nominations Commission on the new Archbishop of Canterbury. The 16-member commission spent two days this week deliberating candidates and was to put two names forward to Prime Minister of England, David Cameron. At the end of the meeting, held at an undisclosed location, the Church of England issued a statement suggesting the commission had been unable to reach agreement. Dr Williams remains in office until the end of December

The former butler of Pope Benedict XVI has gone on trial in the Vatican after he allegedly leaked confidential documents to the Italian media. Paolo Gabriele was a personal servant of the Pope for several years and held the keys to the papal apartments. He is accused of taking the Pope's confidential documents and passing copies of them over to Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who used them in his book "His Holiness: The secret papers of Pope Benedict XVI", published in May.

Franklin Graham has called on Christians to be faithful in preaching the Gospel message as he visited the United Kingdom to launch this year's Operation Christmas Child. "Secularism has conquered much of Europe and the West and it came in overnight," he told reporters. "As evangelicals and Christians we need to be more outspoken than we've ever been about our faith and not be ashamed." Operation Christmas Child is an annual Christmas initiative coordinated by Samaritan's Purse. This year, the charity is aiming to deliver 8 million shoe boxes filled with Christmas gifts for children in impoverished communities around the world, including parts of Europe.

The Nagaland Legislative Assembly on Saturday passed a bill that proposes the setting up of a church-backed university to impart high quality education that encompasses many academic disciplines. The proposed university will offer courses on arts, science, commerce, medicine, agriculture, engineering, theology and required disciplines for human resource development. It will be sponsored jointly by Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC) and Council of Baptist Churches in Northeast India (CBCNEI).

Matthew Vines is a 22-year-old gay Christian who believes being gay is not a sin. He came to that conclusion after two years of studying Scripture and the works of dozens of biblical scholars. The Harvard University student, currently on leave of absence, is now trying to win over fellow believers not just with an emotional testimony but with what he is presenting as biblically solid arguments. There is no contradiction between being Christian and being gay," he told BBC.

A United Kingdom church, St Edmund's Church has banned yoga classes, terming the physical exercise "not compatible" with the Catholic faith. "Yoga is a Hindu spiritual exercise. Being a Catholic church we have to promote the gospel and that's what we use our premises for," Father John Chandler of St Edmund's Church, where yoga classes were to be held. Yoga instructor Cori Withell said the classes she booked for yoga and pilates at St Edmund's Church building in Southampton were cancelled with 10 days to go.

The states have experienced heavy monsoon rains for nearly three weeks, causing rivers to burst their banks. Dozens have been killed and 700 villages submerged in the worst flooding to hit the area in three decades. Christian relief agencies are rushing aid to tens of thousands affected by floods in Assam and it now fears the outbreak of waterborne diseases. The floods have been caused by heavy monsoon rains which led to the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries to break their banks. Reports said at least 19 of Assam's 27 districts have been hit by floods over the past week. The incessant rains have also hampered relief and rescue operations by the Army and paramilitary troops.

Catholic groups in India have called for the protest of an upcoming Hindi film if scenes portraying believers and clergy in an offensive manner are not removed from the film. "If the clergy of any other religion would not be seen in such a manner, why is it expected that the Christian community keep quiet over such mockery and ridicule of its faith?" Joseph Dias said in a statement from the Catholic-Christian Secular Forum. Joseph Dias, who is head of the ecumenical group, noted that while stereotyping of Christians has existed in films, the movie "Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal".

The Big Jubilee Thank You was signed by thousands of the public in churches and cathedrals across the country have been delivered to Buckingham Palace thanking the Queen for 60 years of service. Signatories included bishops, vicars, Scouts, Girl Guides and Mothers' Union members. Many people chose to add their own comments and words of thanks to the letter, which was coordinated by the Church of England and HOPE Together. Durham Cathedral and the Diocese of Europe chose to present the signatures of thanks in beautifully bound books.

The Catholic Church remembers Saint Vincent de Paul, the French, 17th century priest known as the patron of Catholic charities for his apostolic work among the poor and marginalized on September 27. During a September 2010 Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI noted that St.Vincent "keenly perceived the strong contrast between the richest and the poorest of people," and was "encouraged by the love of Christ" to "organize permanent forms of service" to provide for those in need.

Pope Benedict XVI is calling upon Christians to follow the example of Jesus Christ in becoming "last of all and servants of all." "A key point in which God and man are different is pride," said the Pope during his Angelus address to pilgrims at Castel Gandolfo Sept. 23. "We, who are little, desire to appear great, to be first; while God, who is truly great, is not afraid to humble himself, and make himself last." The Pope drew his reflections from today's Gospel according to St. Mark in which Jesus announces his impending death and resurrection. His disciples, however, "did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to ask him."

The report said, churches continue their ministry in a climate of fear and Christian converts are prosecuted and harassed. Welcoming Nadarkhani's release, Ahmad Shaheed and Heiner Bielefeldt, U.N. Special Rapporteurs, called on Islamic Republic officials "to calm the situation for churches, especially house churches and allow them to carry out their activities." In this report they also pleaded with Iranian officials to observe the rights of other religious minorities, including Baha'is and Dervishes.

The Bishop of Peshawar in Pakistan is asking Christians to pray after a church was destroyed. According to Anglican Alliance, thousands of people stormed the compound in Mardan, near Peshawar last week. They burnt down the church and destroyed the homes of two priests and the head-teacher of the church school. The attackers also looted newly installed computers from the school before setting it on fire. No one was harmed in the attack.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association has launched an intensive 12-part online training course. The School of Evangelism Online is made up of four separate courses looking at preparation, proclamation, power and preservation. The courses draw on 60 years of evangelistic outreach and include sermon messages from Billy Graham, as well as introductions and details from Franklin and Will Graham. Video resources feature respected Christian leaders like John Stott, Ravi Zacharias, Ron Hutchcraft and Greg Laurie.

Pope Benedict XVI has called for negotiation and collaboration between Christians and Muslims. Speaking at his general audience at the Vatican today, the Pope reflected upon his visit to Lebanon at the weekend, where he met members of both faith communities. He paid tribute to the cohabitation and collaboration between faith communities in Lebanon, saying it was "emblematic for the region". The "mutual respect, understanding and fraternity" displayed in his meeting with Muslim representatives "constitutes a powerful sign of hope for all mankind", he said.

St.Paul Lutheran Church in Mardan was burnt by angry mob protesting against the anti-Islam film on September 21, 2012. About 8,000 strong mob broke into the Church compound and the angry mob set the fire on Church along with two Personage and the adjacent Head-Teacher's house of the local Christian school. The Christian school has been looted. Newly-installed computers have been stolen. The Bishop of Peshawar, Rt. Rev. Humphrey Peters has appealed for support from the Anglican Communion condemned the attack: "The damage has been very severe and we will need to rebuild. We are asking for people around the world to keep us in your prayers".

The denunciation comes from the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) that under pressure from Hindu nationalists, a local administrator denies the status as a place of worship to a community hall legally built by a Christian community. Usually, the Tamil Nadu is known as an example of harmony and development among the Hindu, Christian and Muslim communities. "Alarming" growth of religious intolerance in Tamil Nadu, a State of Southern India, generally taken as an example of development and harmony between the different communities.

National Prayer Committee Chairman, David Butts was in Jakarta, Indonesia for the World Prayer Assembly in May and during the course of that week, he met six different prayer leaders from six different nations, who told him that they had been mobilizing their intercessors to pray for the elections in the United States. David thought, "If Christians in China, India, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia and Great Britain are praying for our elections, how can we not?" These leaders then posed a challenging question to him—"Are Christians in America praying?"

More couples are considering marrying in church, according to the Church of England. Visitors to the Your Church Wedding website increased by nearly 50 % in 2011, from just under 273,800 in 2010 to 410,000 the following year. There has been growing interest in church weddings after a change in the law in 2008 to make it easier to marry in church. The increase in visitors to the Your Church Wedding website has coincided with an increase in visitors to the Church of England stand at wedding shows around the country. The Church of England said more couples were visiting the stand to ask questions about church weddings.

A Christian human rights agency is calling for a full investigation into the murder of protestant Pastor Henry Rodriguez, 44, who was shot dead as he left his church in Bogota, Colombia. The killing occurred during the afternoon of September 16. According to a news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Rodriguez was a leader at the United Pentecostal Church in the Marsella neighborhood in the Kennedy sector of Bogota. The reasons behind the assassination are unknown, however, according to local press reports; witnesses said the murder was carried out by what appeared to be professional hit men.

Justice A S Naidu, a former judge of the Orissa High Court, will now head the investigation into the 2008 anti-Christian violence that rocked Kandhamal district in Odisha. He replaces Justice SC Mohapatra, who died in May following a brief illness. Naidu, who joined the Bar in the year 1973, past served as counsel for several judicial Commissions of Enquiry set up by the Government of Odisha. He will now continue the probe that came to a grinding halt after Justice Mohapatra's death. The one-man judicial Commission was set up in September 2008. Although the Commission was to submit its report within six months, it took five extensions as the probe required more time.

Pastor Raju, 35, is in charge of Grace Church at Kelaginahatti, Annayakana Halli, near Arasikere in Hassan District of Karnataka. He has a congregation of about 80 believers and he lives with his wife, Pushpa, (30) and two young children, a boy (5) and a girl (3). He has been doing his ministry during the last 4 years in a number of places in the surrounding villages. On Tuesday afternoon, 18-9-12, Pastor Raju organized a prayer meeting for the sick patient, mainly for the HIV patients and the blind people at Kelaginahatti and the meeting was being attended by about 200 people. Preparations for serving dinner to the participants at the end of the prayer meeting, were also going on.

The Moderator of the Church of Pakistan has called upon the Pakistani Government to consider repealing the blasphemy laws. Bishop Samuel Azariah warned that the laws were open to "misuse". He said that the recent case of Rimsha Masih, a young Christian girl accused of blasphemy, was "proof of the misuse of the law". An imam who had been among Rimsha's accusers was later arrested on suspicion of planting evidence against her. He warned that there were many more people victimised by the blasphemy laws. "Rimsha's case is one among many," he said.

The Kanyakumari District Administration should withdraw cases foisted on members of the United Christian Council (UCC) for taking out a peace rally, urged Most Rev.G Devakadasham, Moderator of Church of South India (CSI) and Bishop of Kanyakumari Diocese at Nagercoil on Tuesday. Mourning the death of J. Edwin Raj in a communal clash at Nadaikavu near Kaliyakkavilai (Nithravilai) on August 26, UCC members had taken out a peace rally in eight places in the district on September 09 defying the prohibitory order of the police. Therefore, the police had booked UCC members, along with member of Lok Sabha, J. Helen Davidson and the MLAs who had participated in the rally.

A recently released study by a Christian research organisation shows that most churchgoers do not read or study the Bible on a daily basis. The findings of the Transformational Discipleship Assessment released by LifeWay Research noted that 19 per cent of respondents report reading or studying the Bible outside of church "every day". By contrast, 36 per cent of respondents said that they either engage the Bible "once a week", "once a month", or "a few times a month". Eighteen per cent reported rarely or never reading or studying the Bible outside of worship.

The World Council of Churches has concluded its Central Committee meeting with statements of concern on several countries. The Central Committee called for a commission of inquiry into the killing of miners at the Lonmin mine in South Africa and urged civil authorities to prosecute those directly responsible for the deaths. The Central Committee said that the WCC "stands in solidarity with the churches of South Africa as they seek to minister and bring healing to the families that lost their loved ones in the massacre and to all who have been affected by this terrible situation". A statement on the ongoing financial and economic crisis placed particular emphasis on Greece, where the Central Committee was meeting.

George William Sawday, (1854-1944) a Great missionary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society (Methodist Missionary) was born in England. He went to India and worked at the begining in Tumkur, Karnataka and then moved to Mysore District, did the GOD's work since 1876. Rev.Sawday was the pioneers of modern education in Karnataka who also reinforced Christian missionary base in old Mysore region. He contributed fund for the growth of Christian missionaries. He dedicated 64 years of his life for Karnataka; his prime focus was on education and health. In India, he worked at Mysore, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Tumkur and its surrounding places. He was recognised in 1923 and awarded the Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal (First Class) for his public services in India. Name: George William Sawday Born : March 10, 1854 in Sidmouth, Devon, England Married : Sarah Trot Curnock Missionary Work : Karnataka, India Died : September 16, 1944, in Mysore, Karnataka, India George William Sawday's e...

A petition opposing the Government's plans to change the definition of marriage has reached 600,000 signatures. The petition by the Coalition for Marriage (C4M) was launched in February and has grown to become the biggest active campaign in the UK. It calls upon the Government to retain the current definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The Government plans to expand the definition of marriage to include same-sex unions despite strong opposition. A ComRes poll suggested 70% of the population was against redefining marriage.

The President of Pakistan Christian Congress has demanded that President and Prime Minister of Pakistan to re-investigate all cases of blasphemy that have been officially filed with local authorities. Nazir Bhatti said allegations of evidence tampering by an Islamic cleric in the Rimsha Masih blasphemy case has confirmed his suspicions that Pakistan's notorious blasphemy laws have been widely misused by Muslims against minorities and their communities. Earlier this month, a court in Islamabad ordered Rimsha released on bail by two personal surety bonds of 10,00,000 Pakistani Rupees each.

The United States is on heightened alert every September 11. This time, the attacks are coming from atheists and the target is the cross. The American Atheists Foundation filed a lawsuit regarding the 17-foot, relic cross found amid the rubble at the World Trade Center. The lawsuit complains of unequal representation. The cross was dedicated to the World Trade Center Memorial. After it was found amongst the debris, workers and volunteers saw it as a symbol of hope. The cross brought great comfort to those who had lost loved ones in the terrorist attack.

Hermann Friedrich Mogling (1811–1881), also spelt Herrmann Friedrich Moegling, was a German Missionary from Basel Mission who spent most of his career in the western regions of the state of Karnataka, India. He was credited to be the publisher of the first ever newspaper in the Kannada language called as Mangalooru Samachara in 1843. He was father of Kannada journalism and the first person to compile an English-Kannada dictionary (Kettle) and he played a key role in preserving several classical texts in Kannada. He also translated Kannada literature into German. He was the founder and the first principal of BEM Theological Seminary. He was awarded a doctorate for his literary work in Kannada called as Bibliotheca Carnataca. Name: Hermann Friedrich Mogling Born : May 29, 1811, Wurttemberg, Germany Married : Pauline Missionary Work : Mangalore, India Died : In 1881, Esslingen, Germany Hermann Mogling's early life Hermann Mogling was born on May 29, 1811 in the town o...

Jonathan Goforth, (1859-1936) the first Canadian Presbyterian missionary to China with the Canadian Presbyterian Mission, with his wife, Rosalind Goforth. He was the China's Greatest Evangelist and was one of the greatest foreign missionaries of his era. He became the foremost missionary revivalist in early 20th century China and helped to establish revivalism as a major element in Protestant China missions. He felt God's call to serve in China after hearing Oxford County native George Leslie Mackay, a pioneer Presbyterian missionary to Taiwan, speak; he claimed to sense a call from God to go to China. He married Rosalind Bell Smith. His wife, Rosalind Goforth, was the author of How I Know God Answers Prayer (1921), her husband's biography, Goforth of China (1937) and Climbing: Memoirs of a Missionary's Wife (1940). They served in China for the next 46 years. Name: Jonathan Goforth Born : February 10, 1859 in Ontario, Canada Married : Rosalind Bell-Smith Missi...

Sister Mary Pilar Verzosa, (67), the founder of Pro-Life Philippines, died yesterday from Herniation Syndrome secondary to cerebral bleeding, days before her 68th birth anniversary on September 24. The Good Shepherd nun suffered an aneurysm on Thursday while giving a lecture to students at De La Salle University in Cavite City. She later slipped into a coma from which she did not recover. Verzosa's remains were cremated and taken to the Good Shepherd Convent on Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City last night for a three-day wake. She had been breathing with the aid of an artificial respirator until her death.

Pastor John Pargy, (26) is working with the India Gospel Church at Birmawal in Ratlam about 310 kms from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. He is married to Neelu, 23 and he has two 5 and 2 year old sons. On September 07, 2012 he was distributing Christian literature in Birmawal village when about 25 RSS and Bajranga Dal activists pounced upon him and stopped him from distributing the Christian tracts. They also began abusing and cursing him and levelling allegations against him that he was converting Hindus to Christianity.

Release International has welcomed the release of Iranian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani but criticises restrictions on religious freedom in Iran. Pastor Nadarkhani was released from prison at the weekend after spending three years behind bars for apostasy. An Iranian court judge dropped the apostasy charge during Saturday's hearing but sentenced him to three years in prison for evangelising Muslims. He was released immediately as he had been held in prison since his arrest in 2009.

Black flags were hoisted in as many as 150 churches including Nagercoil, Arumanai, Manjalumoodu, Melpuram, Chitharal, Karode, Kuttaicode and Melparai on Sunday in protest against the murder of Edwin Raj (29) of Nadaicavu, near Nithravilai on August 26, 2012. The Nithravilai police have registered cases against seven persons including the district president of BJP, C.Dharmaraj. Moreover the police have arrested five persons in this connection so far. However various Christian organisations at a meeting held recently, Bishop Devakadatshiyam decided to hoist black flags and organise peace processions in different parts of the district. Special prayers also held in all churches on that day.

In a rare official complaint from a Vatican senior official in Jerusalem, Fr.Pierbattista Pizzaballa Custodian of the Holy Land said in a Friday statement that Israel has failed to respond adequately to frequent discrimination against Christians. "The time has come for the authorities to act to put an end to this senseless violence and to ensure a 'teaching of respect' in schools for all those who call this land home," said the statement, which appeared in La Stampa and was signed by several other Vatican officials.

Christian Devotees from across the Country witnessed the 'Velankanni Matha' car procession, ringing in the penultimate day celebrations of the annual feast festival of Our Lady of Good Health here on Friday. The six cars floated through a sea of humanity marking another ecstatic spiritual experience next only to the first day's flag hoisting event. The procession commenced from the entrance of the main shrine. The event would be followed with the lowering of the flag on Saturday evening, bringing the curtains down of the nine-day festival that witnessed lakhs of pilgrims thronging the venue. Also the nine-day festivity was marked by litanies in various languages for pilgrims across various regions.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy has been acquitted and released, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide. CSW, which supports the persecuted church, has been informed that Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has been freed from prison and is now at home with his family. Pastor Nadarkhani made an appearance in court today during which the apostasy charges against him were dropped. However, he was found guilty of evangelising Muslims and sentenced to three years in prison.

Rimsha Masih, the Christian girl accused of blasphemy in Pakistan, has been granted bail. According to reports, Judge Muhammad Azam Khan has ordered her release and set bail at 5,00,000 rupees (around £3,300). He also ordered that she be placed under protective custody out of concern for her safety. Rimsha was placed in a maximum security prison three weeks ago after neighbours accused her of burning papers with Koranic writings on them. Her principal accuser, Imam Khalid Chishti, was arrested last week on suspicion of planting evidence against Rimsha.

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has condemned the vandalism of the Latrun Monastery, close to Jerusalem on Monday night (03.09.2012). The monastery was established in 1890, and its vineyard and winery produce a wide variety of wines. The door of the Cistercian monastery was set alight in the early hours of Tuesday and anti-Christian graffiti endorsing the Israeli settlement of the Palestinian Territories was sprayed on its walls. During the vandalism, a wooden door to the impressive monastery sustained damage after having been set on fire. Among the slogans were, "Jesus is a monkey" and "Migron."

People across England will be walking, cycling, jogging and even horse riding their way between churches this Saturday to help raise funds for urgent repair works. Ride + Stride takes place annually on the second Saturday of September. Around 8,000 churches are opening their doors to welcome the fundraisers this year. Most of England's 35,000 church buildings are in good or fair condition but some are struggling and require additional help to meet the costs of maintaining their buildings. In a survey by the National Churches Trust, which is organising the event, eight per cent of respondents said their church building was in a poor or very poor condition.

Pastor Damodar, 42, is in charge of a house church at Sagar, Shimoga District of Karnataka in India. He has been doing his ministry during the last three years and he has a congregation of about 15 believers. He lives with his wife, Rathna, 28, and two of their children, a boy and a girl. He belongs to the Vishwakarma Brahmana community. On Wednesday, he had organized a prayer meeting in the evening at the residence of a believer, Smt. Sunandamma of Taligoppa and a few believers were also present at the prayer meeting.

Five buses carrying Sri Lankan pilgrims to the Trichy airport were attacked by activists of Tamil outfits on Tuesday, according to media reports. Pilgrims were injured by broken glasses inside one of the buses, reports said. Earlier on Tuesday, a batch of 178 Sri Lankan pilgrims faced protests, with a pro-Tamil outfit trying to block their vehicles when they were returning after offering worship at the famous Velankanni Christian shrine near Nagapattinam. Sticks and stones were hurled by the activists near Kattur at three of the seven buses on their way to fly back home, leaving three with bruises as they rushed out of the vehicles, police said.

Pope Benedict XVI says the heroic sanctity of St. John the Baptist proves that a solid life of prayer is the best source of courage for Christians facing a modern world that is hostile to God and those who love him. "The martyrdom of St. John the Baptist reminds us, Christians of our time, that we cannot stoop to compromises with the love of Christ, his Word and the Truth. The Truth is the Truth and there is no compromise," the Pope stated in his Aug. 29 general audience address at Castel Gandolfo. Christian life, he said, requires a "daily martyrdom of fidelity to the Gospel" which can be defined as the "courage to let Christ grow in us and direct our thinking and our actions" and can only occur through a "solid relationship with God."

Tension continues to prevail at Sathancode near Nithravilai, Kanyakumari, Tamilnadu, India following the murder of a tailor on the midnight of last Sunday. According to police sources, Edwin Raj (30) of Nadaicavu was beaten to death in a group clash at Sathancode. A group was offering prayer in a house which was objected to by the other group. A wordy quarrel ended with the death of Edwin Raj. Relatives of the deceased refused to accept the body and demanded the immediate arrest of those who were responsible for the death. They resorted to road roko at Nadaicavu junction to urge the district administration to arrest the culprits. Few shops were closed at Nithravilai, Nadaicavu and Virivilai and bus services to Nadaicavu were also affected on Monday.

Four British Christians are in Strasbourg today to press for the right to live according to their faith in the workplace. The European Court of Human Rights is today hearing the cases of Nurse Shirley Chaplin, airline worker Nadia Eweida, registrar Lilian Ladele and relationships counsellor Gary McFarlane. Mrs Chaplin and Mr McFarlane are being supported in their cases by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC). CLC Director, Andrea Minichiello Williams accused the Government of "astonishing double-standards" in their handling of the case.

The Rev Sun Myung Moon, the Founder of the Unification Church and self-proclaimed messiah, died early Monday in South Korea. He was 92. Moon died of complications related to pneumonia at a church-owned private hospital in Gapyeong near his home. The South Korean leader was known for performing mass weddings, including one in 2009 that involved 10,000 couples at Sun Moon University outside of Seoul, South Korea. Despite Moon's emphasis on the importance of marriage, he divorced his first wife, Sun Kil Choi, in 1952. His second wife, Hak Ja Han, gave birth to 14 children, but one daughter died in infancy. Moon declared that he and his wife are the "true parents of all humanity", and are known in the church as the True Family and their children the True Children.

A group of leaders representing the All India Milli Council (AIMC), National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) and the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI) on Saturday met at the Church of North India headquarters, New Delhi to chalk out measures for the restoration of peace and normalcy in the aftermath of violence in Assam. In the brainstorming that ensued, the members opined that the problem in Assam should not be seen as a clash between the Bodos or Muslims but as a humanitarian crisis and a national issue that could eventually damage the secular fabric of the country.

The Muslim cleric who accused a young Christian girl of blasphemy has been arrested by Pakistani authorities on suspicion of planting evidence against her. Rimsha Masih's family say she is 11-years-old and has Down's Syndrome. She has been held in police custody for the past two weeks after being accused of blasphemy. Muslim neighbours accused Rimsha of burning pages of the Koran. The accusation caused hundreds of Christians in her home town of Mehrabad to flee.