The Pope enters the world of Twitter

Pope Benedict XVI entered the world of social media and sent his first tweet via his iPad on Tuesday.

"Dear Friends, I just launched www.news.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI," wrote the 84-year-old while watched by Vatican officials and the media.

The Pope used his Twitter account to annouce the Vatican’s latest project - an interactive multi-media website, which includes Twitter updates, YouTube videos, Flickr photos and Facebook links.

Bruno Bartoloni, a Vatican expert said the Church's embrace of social media was also a way to bypass traditional and more critical media to deliver information directly.

"The paedophilia scandals of recent years have shocked the Church and have encouraged it to abandon the language of tradition," he said.

"The Church understands that its reasoning is often badly understood, with traditional media choosing to underline colourful aspects or criticism, or simplifying messages that are in essence complex," he added.

The latest multimedia efforts by the Vatican are part of a bigger drive announced by the Pontiff last year in his keynote message at the Church's World Communications Day, where he urged priests to make "astute use of the unique possibilities offered by modern communications."

The Christian message "can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different 'highways' that form cyberspace and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own," he argued.

Landmark agreement reached in Evangelism ethics between Protestants and Catholics

A ‘historic’ agreement on evangelism ethics has been reached by the three main bodies of Christianity, which together represent 90 percent of Christians in the world.

Leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance, the World Council of Churches and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue met in Geneva on Monday to launch a document entitled, "Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct."

The document is the result of five years of cooperation between the groups, and it offers a biblical understanding of evangelism before outlining ethical guidance for Christians involved in mission. It also marks the first time in history that Catholics, mainline Protestants and evangelicals have worked together to endorse a major theological document.

"This is a historic document, a historic moment and a time for Christians to awake once again to our calling to mission and unity, always bearing in mind the ways in which Jesus calls us to do so," the Rev. Dr. Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary general of the WEA said at the press conference staged at the ecumenical centre in Geneva.

The document includes three sections, with the first part offering a biblical foundation for Christian mission. The second part details 12 principles Christians are called to follow in witnessing of Christ in a manner consistent with the Gospel. These include: acting in God’s love; living with integrity, compassion and humility; rejecting any form of violence; and offering respect to all people. The final part of the document speaks to churches, missions organisations and agencies as it offers advice on how to be communities of faith in a diverse world.

Jean-Louis Cardinal Tauran, the Vatican representative, said the recommendations "will help us reduce unnecessary tensions and to present the truth of God in a credible way to the world around us."

"Conversion cannot be imposed on anyone," Tveit emphasised. "I hope this is a clear message [we convey] through this document."

Tauran added that there was "no hidden agenda" behind the spirit of renewed missionary activity embodied in the document but rather it is to "encourage people in a pluralistic world to live together in a better climate of mutual dialogue and respect and sincere friendship."

Asteroid narrowly misses the Earth

An asteroid flew past Earth on Monday afternoon, with is proximate point being only 7,600 miles, around 30 times closer to Earth than the moon.

Due to its proximity, Asteroid 2011MD was visible even with a modest telescope. It is believed that even if the asteroid had collided with the Earth, its relatively small size would have meant it burnt up in the atmosphere.

The next asteroid to pass Earth will be noticably larger. Asteroid 2005 YU55 is around 400 meters in diameter, and will pass the plant on Nov 8 at roughly 200,000 miles, or 0.85 the lunar distance.

Political dissident released from Chinese prison

The environmental and political activist, Hu Jia, has been released from prison by the Chinese government.

Mr Hu, 37, is a proponent of peaceful activism against the Chinese government and is also well known for his work in HIV/AIDs, and in environmental concerns. Hu was found guilty in 2007 of “incitement to subvert state power” because of his protests over China staging the Olympic Games.

In one open letter in 2007, Mr Hu wrote: “The Olympics will be held in a country where there are no elections, no freedom of religion … where torture and discrimination are supported by a sophisticated system of secret police.”

Mr Hu’s release was announced by his wife, Zeng Jinyan, via her Twitter account.

“We are fine and happy. Need to rest for some time. Thank you everyone,” the post read.

The BBC has reported that it appears Mr Hu is under house arrest as there is a police guard standing outside his home. Mr Hu is also banned from speaking to the media.

Christian leaders in Southern Hemisphere are more positive

Close on 2,200 evangelical Christian leaders were surveyed by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life at the Lausanne Conference in Cape Town last year.

The results were released this week with some interesting findings.

Approximately half of the globe’s evangelical Protestant leaders are optimistic about the future, confident that Christians have an increasing influence in their countries and that things will be better for them in five years.

The other half are pessimists, and of the opinion they are losing influence within their countries and most are not convinced that things will be better for Christianity where they live in the future.

This split on optimism is between the northern and southern hemispheres and interestingly enough, it is the more impoverished south who see a brighter future. This includes Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.

Leaders from the United States proved to be the most pessimistic of all, with 80% saying that Christianity is losing influence in their country.

Other interesting results from the survey include:

- Only 3% of evangelical Christian leaders believe in evolution as defined by scientists, with 40% saying evolution was guided by God, while around 50% believe God created the planet and life on it as it is now.

- A clear majority saw abortion as usually or always morally wrong, with a similar number saying the same thing about homosexuality.

- Half of those surveyed believe the Bible should be read literally, while the other half said not everything in it should be taken literally.

Ancient Crusader city uncovered beneath streets of Acre

Archaeologists are preparing to reveal an entire medieval compound in the city of Acre in northern Israel. This hidden city beneath a city was populated by Crusaders and then covered for centuries under rubble after a military attack that destroyed it.

This compound was about the size of two footballs and was last used in 1291 when a Muslim army overwhelmed Acre's Christian garrison and leveled it.

The existing city of Acre was built by Ottoman Turks in 1750, and effectively preserved the earlier city, but also hid it for hundreds of years.

"It's like Pompeii of Roman times — it's a complete city," Eliezer Stern, the Israeli archaeologist in charge of Acre told the Associated Press.

Stern said the town was "one of the most exciting sites in the world of archaeology."

One section that the archaeologists are preparing to reveal to the public is an arched passageway underground. Inscribed in plaster on one wall was a coat of arms — graffiti left by a medieval traveler. Nearby stretched a cobblestone main street complete with a row of shops that once sold souvenirs like clay figurines and ampules for holy water.

Acre has existed for at least 4,500 years, but reached its pinnacle after the Crusaders conquered it in 1104. Under their rule it became a busy trading area dominated by competing orders of soldier-monks, who often fought among each other in the streets. Other Europeans living in the city were merchants from cities like Genoa, Venice and Pisa.

Acre became renowned for being a cesspit of corruption, violence and sexual proclivity. Many European criminals, outlawed in their own lands, fled there. One French Bishop, Jacques de Vitry, who arrived in the city in 1216 was horrified by what he found there describing it as “totally depraved” and “filled with prostitutes”.

"When I entered this horrible city and found it full of countless disgraceful acts and evil deeds, I was very confused in my mind," he wrote.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority now considers Acre one of its richest heritage sites and whole teams of archaeologists are sifting through its ancient streets and buildings hoping to uncover further historical treasures.

(For more information on this story, you can go to www.haaretz.com).

Francis Collins on why he believes in both God and evolution

Francis Collins is a physician-geneticist who is well known for his important discoveries of disease genes and for his leadership of the landmark Human Genome Project. Collins has been described by the Endocrine Society as “one of the most accomplished scientists of our time,” but he is equally well known for his outspoken Christian faith.

Collins says he grew up in an agnostic home and by the time he finished his studies, he was a firm atheist. However, dealing with dying patients led him to investigate different faith paths and also to familiarise himself with God in cosmology. Collins was greatly affected by C.S. Lewis’ book ‘Mere Christianity’ and he eventually became a Christian as a result.

In a recent keynote speech to 31st Annual Christian Scholars’ Conference at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Collins said he has never struggled between his belief in evolution and his belief in God, because he sees evolution as God’s elegant way of creation.

Collins informed his audience that billions of years sound long to humans, but if God operates outside of time then it might not seem long to God. The Director of the NIH reminded the scholars that when Darwin’s evolution theory was first introduced, the Church hardly protested, and in fact many clerics backed it as a credible explanation of how God created the world.

“God is the author of it all and we just learn something more about the how,” insisted Collins. “God is an awesome mathematician and physicist … God’s plan included the mechanism of evolution to achieve that, to create this marvelous diversity of living things on our planet.”

Collin’s view of evolution being a part of God’s creation plan is called theistic evolution.

Even more interesting than his views on evolution, Collins also insisted he did not believe that Adam and Eve were the only people on earth. Scientists who investigate today’s genetic variations, have found that we have an ancestral pool of at least 10,000 people.

“I can’t see how you get there by going through a bottleneck of a single individual,” argued Collins about present-day genetic variations. “You have to carry along variation and variation requires a population. This could not happen if you have just one person as the ancestor of all of humanity.”

“So I think you can preserve the idea of a literal, historical couple (Adam and Eve) as long as you don’t try to say they were the only humans and we are all descended from just them,” said Collins. “That second part science won’t support.”

Collins also spoke at length about his belief that faith and science need not clash, but could operate harmoniously.

“People in the world are hearing you can’t have both. It has got to be one or the other,” said Collins. “The essential thing is we’re about the truth. A faith that basically asks people to disbelieve facts is not about the truth. If there are aspects about our Christian faith that has gone down that road, it is up to all of us to try to pull that back.

“Look at the facts, look at the truth, and in the process, admire all the more and worship all the more God the creator. But in the nonessential things, let’s not get too worked up about those options about Adam and Eve as long as they’re consistent with the facts.”

A smiling Collins told his audience that a key principle he uses to harmonize science and his Christian faith is based on a famous statement by former New York Sen. Patrick Moynihan: “You are entitled to your own opinion, you are not entitled to your own facts.”

“I think we are also rather engaged with that view that when it comes to these issues of science and faith, we are wide open to options and opinions about how it all fits together as long as we recognize there are certain facts that do have to be dealt with,” added Collins. “Facts about the Bible and facts about science.”