She is a seamstress and owns a small retail shop. He is an accountant. The couple live with Mike's family, where Adoley sometimes feels she's blamed for the couple's childlessness after having three miscarriages.

When they visited our home in Accra one Sunday in December 2015, Adoley complained about a few things, such as Mike refusing to carry her handbag in church while she went to the bathroom, because - as he explained - "a man doesn't carry a woman's bag".

This anecdote points to a bigger story about the church in Africa today, and the messages that some of its influential male leaders promote about masculinity, marriage and gender roles in society more broadly.

"Men of God" are powerful
While churches in the economic north are emptying out those in the Global South - and especially Africa - are growing.

Pentecostal and charismatic churches have mushroomed, many influenced by a wave of American-exported evangelicalism in the 1970s and 1980s.

Churches also carry out important social functions the state has neglected. They are involved in addressing HIV/AIDS, building hospitals and establishing universities.

This kind of work - sometimes called the "social gospel" - makes the church much more than simply a religious space. The modern African church promises a life that is abundant and prosperous - both spiritually and materially.

African church leaders - the bishops and archbishops, prophets and overseers, pastors and deacons, benignly referred to as "men of God" - are powerful.

Their teachings have a wide reach that is not limited to Sunday mornings and mid-week services. There are TV and radio programmes, audiotapes and books, international branches and YouTube videos that reach a wide audience beyond their own congregations. Continue reading

Sources

• Quartz Media article by Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, University of Ghana
• Image: Reuters

It is finalising trespass orders against nine members of the Victory Christian Church, a Pentecostal church that has a subsidiary branch called New Zealand Campus Ministries Trust.

University spokesperson James Gardiner said concerns over the members' behaviour have been raised over several years and, while no formal complaint has been laid, the university decided it needed to take action.

He said the members have no reason to be on the campus and students should be able to walk around campus without feeling harassed. Continue reading and Read More about Victory Christian Church

While in southern Italy, in Caserta on July 27, Pope Francis made what the Vatican called a "strictly private" visit with 200 pentecostal and evangelical Christians.

Francis apologised for the persecution in the 1920s and 1930s, and urged Christians to celebrate their diversity and unity.

"Catholics were among those who persecuted and denounced the Pentecostals, almost as if they were crazy," Francis said.

"I am the shepherd of the Catholics and I ask you to forgive my Catholic brothers and sisters who did not understand and were tempted by the devil."

Giovanni Traettino, a Pentecostal pastor and longtime friend of Pope Francis, welcomed the Pope, who he described as "my beloved brother".

Pope Francis said he knows some people were shocked that he would make a special trip outside of Rome to visit a group of Pentecostals, "but I went to visit my friends".

Traettino told the Pope his visit was "unthinkable until recently," even though, he said, "even among evangelicals there is great affection for you".

Meeting with Caserta's Catholic priests and bishops from the Campania region the previous day, Pope Francis gave a glimpse into his thoughts about Catholic relations with Pentecostals.

He told the story of a priest who went on mission in a remote area of Argentina and met a woman who told him the Catholic Church had abandoned her and her fellow Catholics.

"I need the word of God, so I had to go to the Protestant service," the woman said.

The Pope said the priest apologised on behalf of the Catholic Church, but recognised and respected the depth and sincerity of her faith.

"Every man, every woman has something to give us," the Pope said, advising the priests to listen to people and engage in dialogue.

Benedict XVI was right when he said that "the Church grows not through proselytism, but through attraction", Pope Francis said.

And attraction is "human empathy guided by the Holy Spirit", Francis said.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Religion News Service
• Image: ANSA

The formal agreement was signed during the celebration of the 50th Golden Jubilee of SSEC in Ambu, Malaita.

Following the agreement, SSEC's Bishop Mathias Lima commissioned 10 Solomon Islands SSEC missionaries to serve with the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu.

Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu Moderator Kalarongo Ova earlier said the church was happy about the agreement they signed.

"I and my small delegate were invited and happy to be here. We are happy to formally have an agreement of Solomon Islands SSEC missionaries to serve in Vanuatu.

The South Seas Evangelical Church is an evangelical, Pentecostal church in the Solomon Islands. In total, 17% of the population of the Solomon Islands adheres to the church, making it the third most common religious affiliation in the country behind the Anglican Church of Melanesia and the Roman Catholic Church.

The SSEC is particularly popular on Malaita, the most populous island, where 47% of its members live; there are also smaller populations are on Guadalcanal, Honiara, Makira, and other provinces.

Source

• Solomon Star
• Wikipedia
• Image: ssecorgs

While a poll of 4437 adults detected no evidence that Catholics feel more guilty about sexual sins than other religious people, it found that religious people in general feel more guilt than the non-religious.

Only 12 per cent of practising Catholics and 9 per cent of nominal Catholics polled said they would feel any guilt about using contraception. By contrast, a quarter of Muslims said they would feel ashamed of using contraception.

A total of 57 per cent of Catholics said they would feel guilty about having extramarital sex, only 1 per cent higher than the general population.

By contrast almost 90 per cent of Baptists and Pentecostals said they would feel guilty about adultery, as did about 70 per cent of Jews and Muslims polled.

Only 19 per cent of Catholics said they would feel guilty about sex before marriage, compared with 50 per cent of Baptists, almost two thirds of Muslims and more than three quarters of Pentecostal Protestants.

Professor Linda Woodhead, professor of the sociology of religion at Lancaster University, who commissioned the study, said it showed a widening gap between the Catholic faithful and the hierarchy on issues of personal morality.

The findings emerge from research into the notion of guilt by academics at the Religion and Society Programme, an academic unit based at Lancaster University.

Woodhead said that while it is known that many Catholics quietly ignore the Church's teaching on issues such as contraception, it was striking how little "lurking guilt" there was.

"It does show that people have distanced themselves completely from the Catholic Church's teaching," she said.

"Most Catholics are taking authority much more from their own reason and intuition than they are from the Catholic Church's teaching….

"It is particularly concerning for the Church because it has really staked its distinctiveness on sexual morality."

Sources:

The Telegraph

The Guardian

Catholic guilt (Wikipedia)

Image: Shafaqna