- News on the International Church of Christ/ICOC
Includes information on the controversy about whether or not the International Church of Christ is a cult?
WARNING! A link to the International Church of Christ Web site below.
- Accorging to the HOPE worldwide web site on February 18, 2006 ...HOPE worldwide is a faith-based charity founded in 1991 by the International Churches of Christ...
- January 13, 2005 Ways you were pressured to give to Hope Worldwide, The ICC Discussion forum
- According to the REVEAL web site on February 2004 ...former members have stated that there is
considerable pressure on International Churches of Christ members to contribute heavily to HOPE's work...
More Information
- The ICC and HOPE Worldwide (H.O.P.E.), Dave Anderson, RightCyberUp
In this section we examine HOPE Worldwide, the charitable organization run by the International Churches of Christ (ICC), and discover that HOPE is much more than an effort to "give hope to a hurting world." We will find that HOPE exists to advance the aims and objectives of the ICC.
[Note: this article does not deny that many people have been helped through HOPE, nor that many sincere people have dedicated their time as HOPE volunteers. These criticisms are directed instead at ICC leadership's (mis-)use of HOPE.]
Most of the following news items did not make the
connection between the International Church of Christ, HOPE worldwide, and the
controversy about whether or not the International Church of Christ is a cult?
- January 30, 2006 Religious Groups Get Chunk of AIDS Money, By RITA BEAMISH, Associated Press Writer via sfgate.com
AP
New groups are springing up to win a piece of President Bush's $15 billion AIDS program, with traditional players and religious groups joining forces to improve their chances in a competition that already has targeted nearly a quarter of its grants for faith-based organizations...
...Among those winning grants were:
...HOPE. The global relief organization founded by the International Churches of Christ recently brought comedian Chris Rock to South Africa for an AIDS prevention event. AIDS grants support HOPE in several countries...
2005
- September 5, 2005 Local Golfers Urged To Help With Hurricane Relief, By First Coast News Staff, First Coast News, Jacksonville, Florida
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Local golfers are being urged to help out Katrina relief efforts. The golf clubs at Windsor Parke and Julington Creek will donate a portion of every golfer's fees through the end of the month to help hurricane victims...
...Winsor Parke General Manager Bernard Santiago.
"Of those rates, $5 of every round will go to Hope Worldwide Jacksonville to help in their
efforts and their relief fund," he said.
The month-long golf special is expected to raise between $20,000 and $30,000 to help relief efforts.
- June 22, 2005 The Nashville Church forces members to donate, suit says - By Mitchell Kline, The Tennessean
Two former members of The Nashville Church have filed a lawsuit claiming the church uses cultlike tactics, manipulation, peer pressure and guilt to force members into tithing and making other financial contributions.
In their lawsuit, which was filed Friday in Williamson County Chancery Court, Jack and Kay Pelham of Red Boiling Springs say they joined The Nashville Church in 1998...
...The Pelhams are seeking to recover more than $93,000 in tithes and offerings they made to the church, the International Churches of Christ (the denomination's headquarters in Los Angeles) and two affiliated charitable organizations...
...The Pelhams allege that The Nashville Church, the ICC, Hope Worldwide, and Central and South America World Sector jointly participated in a scheme to defraud church members, who are not allowed to inspect the church's financial records...
- March 2, 2005 Chiles quits governor's race over residency rule, By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Political Editor, The Palm Beach Post, Florida (Lawton "Bud" Chiles III, like his father a native Floridian, was forced to drop out of the governor's race Monday because he spent 10 recent years in New York.
Florida's constitution requires the governor to have been a resident of the state "for the preceding seven years" when elected...
...Chiles was born in Lakeland but decided to move to New York two years after his father was elected governor in 1990.
At the time, Chiles III had a consulting business in Tallahassee. When his father became governor, rival lobbyists and some in the media said Chiles was taking unfair advantage of his name to win business.
Chiles denied the accusations, but moved to New York in 1992, where he spent 10 years working with Hope Worldwide, a charity affiliated with the International Church of Christ. "Believe me, if I could have stayed a Florida resident, I would have, because you pay about 10 times the tax up there," said Chiles, who is now an Orlando real-estate developer...)
- February 16, 2005 Theologians trained to counsel persons with HIV, Jamaica Observer (The course facilitators were...Joy Spence-Crawford (Hope Worldwide Jamaica), who were all trained by the Ministry of Health's VCT Training Programme...)
- February 11, 2005 Democratic field for governor swells to three, By Brian E. Crowley, Palm Beach Post Political Editor, Palm Beach Post, Florida (...In the Democratic primary, he joins state Sen. Rod Smith of Gainesville and Lawton "Bud" Chiles III, who announced Thursday in Orlando that he will walk throughout the state, duplicating a campaign effort made 35 years ago by his father, the late Gov. Lawton Chiles...
...Chiles acknowledged Thursday that opponents might again raise questions about the ethics of a consulting business he ran while his father was governor. At the time, some lobbyists in Tallahassee said Chiles was taking unfair advantage of his father's name to win business for the company, Chiles Communications.
After a series of news stories, Chiles closed the company and went to New York. He eventually became vice president of Hope Worldwide, a charity organization affiliated with the International Church of Christ. He is now an Orlando businessman.
"It got to be untenable," Chiles said of the stories about Chiles Communications. "We had been in business long before my father became governor, but suddenly everything we did was being questioned. I did nothing wrong and I'm happy to answer any questions that come up."...)
- February 8, 2005 'Bud' Chiles hopes to walk dad's path, By John Kennedy, Tallahassee Bureau via South Florida Sun-Sentinel (The son of the late Lawton Chiles plans to tread the length of the state in his quest to be governor...
...Lawton "Bud" Chiles III...
...When his father was elected governor in 1990, the business and political lines continued to overlap occasionally until Chiles left to work as vice president of Hope Worldwide, a global charity providing education and medical services for poor families...)
- February 5, 2005 Is Bud Democrats' Response to Jeb?, By Bill Rufty, The Ledger, Florida (LAKELAND -- Bud Chiles came back to his boyhood home of Lakeland on Friday...
...On Thursday, he will officially kick off his campaign at the Orlando History Center. Before the end of this month Chiles, 51, will start walking in Century near the Alabama border to duplicate the now famous 1,000 mile trip across and down the state that his father made in 1970 on the way to winning the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate...
...The younger Chileses had planned to move to Washington and open their public relations firm there, but instead Bud took a job with Hope Worldwide, a charitable agency dealing with child health and development in countries around the world. He was at that job for 10 years...
..."I believe that my community service experience and business experience are as important if not more important than sitting in political office for 15 years," Chiles said...
...Many of the issues Bud Chiles dealt with at Hope Worldwide are the same issues his father championed, first as U.S. senator and then as governor: child health, early child education and health care for those with no access to insurance...)
- January 19, 2005 Aid groups accepting donations for victims, CNN (International aid organizations are accepting donations to help victims of the powerful earthquake and resulting tsunamis that caused widespread destruction in parts of South Asia and East Africa. The groups include:
...Hope Worldwide...)
- January 15, 2005 Indian tsunami victims receive boats and houses, ABC Radio Australia (Aid workers are distributing survival kits that include a boat and a house to Indian survivors of the tsunamis disaster.
The packages have been assembled by international sports management group, IMG's Emergency Relief Fund and Hope Worldwide...)
- January 15, 2005 Every dollar counts, By TRACI MOYER, Tribune staff writer, Indiana (...Reed Stoeckley, owner of the Book Nook Bistro, said he felt compelled to make a donation to the tsunami victims. He also wanted to offer others an easy way to give...
...Stoeckley has generated $175 in donations he plans to match.
"I have a basket up front with information about the charity organization Hope Worldwide," he said. "It's an international benevolence organization for this kind of thing."...
...To make sure the contributions go to a qualified charity for tax purposes, donors can search for the charity at www.IRS.gov....
...Some smaller charities may not be listed. Contributions to foreign organizations are generally not deductible...)
- January 15, 2005 India gets tsunami starter kits, Reuters via TVNZ, New Zealand (The first "Save the Family Life Starter Kits" that include a boat and a house to put survivors of the tsunamis back on their feet were distributed in India on Saturday.
The $US5,500 ($NZ7,101) package is prepared by two international
NGOs - international sports management group IMG's Emergency Relief Fund and Hope Worldwide.
The kits are paid for by donations received by the relief fund for tsunami victims, Mark Templer of Hope said...)
- January 14, 2005 India's tsunami survivors get 5,500-dollar "Save Family" starter kits, AFP via Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates (...The 5,500-dollar package is prepared by two international NGOs -- international sports management group IMG's Emergency Relief Fund and Hope Worldwide.
The kits are paid for by donations received by the relief fund for tsunami victims, Mark Templer of Hope told AFP...)
- January 12, 2005 Late Gov. Chiles' son plans run for governor, Associated Press via St. Petersburg Times, Florida (TALLAHASSEE - Lawton "Bud" Chiles III will run for governor in 2006, hoping to capture the seat his late father held for eight years before Gov. Jeb Bush took office...
...Chiles, 51, lives in Orlando and runs a coastal development company. He returned to Florida almost two years ago after working as a vice president for Hope Worldwide, a charity that provides education and medical services for poor families abroad...)
- January 11, 2005 Lawton Chiles' Son Running For Florida Governor, WFTV, Orlando, Florida (TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Lawton "Bud" Chiles III will run for governor in 2006, hoping to capture the seat his father held for eight years before Gov. Jeb Bush took office...
...Chiles, 51, lives in Orlando and runs a coastal development company. He returned to Florida almost two years ago after working as a vice president for Hope Worldwide, a charity that provides education and medical services for poor families on six continents...)
- January 11, 2005 Chiles' son running for Florida governor, By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer via The Gainesville Sun, Florida (Lawton "Bud" Chiles III will run for governor in 2006, hoping to capture the seat his father held for eight years before Gov. Jeb Bush took office...
...Chiles, 51, lives in Orlando and runs a coastal development company. He returned to Florida almost two years ago after working as a vice president for Hope Worldwide, a charity that provides education and medical services for poor families on six continents...)
- January 6, 2004 Wayne-based charity reaches out to tsunami victims, By Ryan Richards, The Suburban and Wayne Times, Wayne, Pennsylvania (...The unsettling field report was e-mailed to Wayne-based HOPE Worldwide, a faith-based global charity founded by the International Churches of Christ, which is coordinating disaster-relief efforts in sections of Indonesia and India.
"We activated our volunteers in those areas," explained HOPE Worldwide's Mandy Jordan during an interview this week at the Wayne corporate headquarters...
...Monetary donations to Hope Worldwide from Americans and those in other countries to aid relief efforts have been generous, according to organization officials. The total as of this week is $150,000.
"The response has been tremendous," said Marcia W. Scaggs, HOPE Worldwide's marketing projects administrator...
...HOPE Worldwide was organized in 1991 by Radnor residents Robert and Patricia Gempel, who currently serve as president and executive vice president, respectively. Initial projects included medical care for trash-sorters in Mexico City; an adoption agency in Atlanta, Ga.; an AIDS clinic in the Ivory Coast, and a tuberculosis control program in Chennai, India.
"Today, we have programs all over the world," said Scaggs. "We are in 80 nations."...)
- January 4, 2005 Donors responding to calls for relief aid, By Margaret Steen, San Jose Mercury News, California (..."We encourage donors to give with appropriately broad restrictions," said Tom Briscoe, chief financial officer of Hope Worldwide, based in Wayne, Pa. His group has raised more than $150,000.
For example, his group would prefer a gift earmarked for orphanages in general rather than one specific orphanage. The group has a general disaster relief fund, not separate funds for specific disasters.)
- January 1, 2005 Rich to the rescue in India, Sri Lanka, By DAVID ROHDE AND AMY WALDMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES via Seattle Post-Intelligencer (�Nor, said Samuel Thomas, the program director for HOPE Worldwide in India, a faith-based organization, were the groups cooperating with each other...)
2004
- December 31, 2004 South Florida sends prayers, money, - By Lori Sykes, Staff Writer, South Florida Sun-Sentinel (...At the South Florida Church of Christ in Plantation, spokesman Jon Brash said the church is accepting donations for HOPE worldwide, a nonprofit organization that is coordinating relief efforts in India and Indonesia...)
- December 2, 2004 World Aids Day: Prevention, Only Way Out,
This Day (Lagos) via allAfrica.com (...Hope Worldwide Nigeria exhibited its commitment to the continued fight against the pandemic as it staged an intensive one-day awareness campaign in Epe and different locations in Lagos...)
- December 1, 2004 Dispatches From Romania, By Sarah E. Richards, Slate Magazine (...She explained that she was kicked out of her parents' house, so the social worker sent her to a shelter for mothers and children run by the charity Hope Worldwide. Loredana Bogdan, who helps run the 6-month-old center, where women lounge around the kitchen with their babies, said two women decided to keep their babies after the waiting period ended...)
- October 23, 2004 ICOC West African Leaders Conference, By Mary Ekah, THISDAYOnLine, Nigeria (All is set for the special leadership conference of West African Leaders of International Churches of Christ (ICOC) to be held in Lagos from October 29 to November 1...
...The goal of the leadership conference, the organisers said, is to equip the leaders from Nigeria and other West African nations with great leadership skills that would in turn help them transform the lives of men and women in their countries, adding that there would be classes in every aspect of leadership and quality life...
...There would be an update and fresh sensitisation by Hope Worldwide on HIV/AIDS and strategies on fighting the disease through awareness and effective education...)
- October 7, 2004 CMS ANNOUNCES $24,683 GRANT TO HOPE WORLDWIDE IN PHILADELPHIA, PA. - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. today announced a $24,683 grant to HOPE Worldwide, in Philadelphia, Pa., to help improve access to health care for drug addicts and alcoholics, and their families...)
- September 18, 2004 Charity run to be held in Seoul, Korea Herald
, South Korea (A charity marathon will be held in Seoul tomorrow to raise money for tuberculosis and AIDS patients in both South and North Korea.
The International Run for HOPE 2004, organized jointly by HOPE Worldwide Korea and the Korean Alliance to Defeat AIDS, will begin at 2 p.m. at the Han River Citizen's Park in Yeoido, central Seoul...)
- August 12, 2004 Thundermist offering free services for schoolchildren, BY ZACHARY R. MIDER, Journal Staff Writer, Providence Journal, Rhode Island (WEST WARWICK --...
...Last weekend, volunteers from Thundermist and HOPE Worldwide New England, a charity founded by the International Churches of Christ, knocked on doors throughout West Warwick to talk to residents about immunizations, lead poisoning and other children's health issues. They reported visiting more than 2,000 households...)
- August 10, 2004 Thundermist is offering free immunizations, TRACY SCUDDER , Daily Times Staff Reporter, Kent County Daily Times, Rhode Island (WEST WARWICK --...
...Volunteers from HOPE Worldwide New England and Thundermist Health Center knocked on doors in the Arctic and Phoenix area from 9:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. on Saturday...
..."We want to assist in bridging the gap between community needs and people that want to help meet those needs," said Brad Fackler, a HOPE Worldwide New England board member...)
- July 23, 2004 Virgin Atlantic, Others Support Victims of HIV/AIDS, By Agha Ibiam, THISDAYOnLine, Lagos, Nigeria (Virgin Atlantic, an International airline and Associated Airline operating in Nigeria have donated two return tickets to Hope Worldwide in support of the organisation's 'Ark' programme for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC) and People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).
According to a statement in Lagos, the tickets which have been formally presented to Hope Worldwide are the star prizes for the national draw which will take place at the third edition of the 'Ark' fundraising dinner in Lagos soon...
...He said the organisation is determined to raise about N15 million this year to support the call of the helpless children whose parents are either dead or too sick because of HIV/AIDS through the support of individuals who will buy the raffle tickets sold at designated sales points in Lagos and other part of the country.
Oshilaja said that part of the monies that will be raised at the occasion, would be used to scale up Hope's programmes in four other cities...)
- July 23, 2004 Virgin Atlantic, Others Support Victims of HIV/Aids by Agha Ibiam, This Day (Lagos) via allafrica.com
- July 22, 2004 Volunteers required to monitor TB patients, Leony Aurora, Jakarta Post, Indonesia (...recently signed up as a volunteer at a stand in Mal Taman Anggrek, West Jakarta, set up by Hope Worldwide Indonesia, a health and education non-governmental organization (NGO)...
...TB eradication program manager Gerung Karundeng told the Post this was Hope Worldwide's first attempt to train and appoint volunteers who were not health workers or direct relatives of TB patients...)
- July 1, 2004 HIV/Aids is a Health Problem, Not a Moral Issue - Osilaja, Daily Champion (Lagos) via allafrica.com (Mr. Yemi Osilaja is the Executive Director, Hope Worldwide Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy, prevention, and care. In this interview with senior staff writer, CHINAKA OKORO, he gives insight into his organisation's operations...
...Hope Worldwide was registered in Nigeria in 1996...)
- May 18, 2004 Hope Worldwide Nigeria Seeks N15m to Cater for Aids Orphans, Vanguard (Lagos) via allafrica.com (It was a full house. The venue was the new corporate headquarters of HOPE Worldwide Nigeria...
...Addressing the gathering, Executive Director, HOPE Worldwide, Mr. Yemi Osilaja pointed out that the upcoming event, with the theme "Securing the future", is billed to take place at the prestigious Yoruba Tennis club, on the 28th of August 2004...)
- February 17, 2004 GreaterChinaCRM, CRMGuru Join Hands With HOPE worldwide And Its China Education Programs - China (GreaterChinaCRM and CRMGuru, organizers of "China CRM Forum 2003" are joining hands with HOPE worldwide and its China Education Programs via direct charity donation. In their own upcoming industry event "China CRM Forum 2004", GreaterChinaCRM and CRMGuru will donate 5% of the sold ticket revenue to HOPE worldwide, to sponsor the operating of its education programs in China...)
- February 15, 2004 Healthy Start offers tips, gifts for parents - by Saba Ali, The Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York (...HOPE Worldwide, a faith-based charity with the Church of Christ, helped coordinate 40 volunteers who put the event together...)
- January 28, 2004 ACCJ Donates 2.3 Million Yen Each to Hope Worldwide Japan and HELP Asian Women's Shelter, Japan Corporate News (Tokyo, Japan, Jan 28, 2004 19:03 (JST) - (JCN Newswire) - Representatives of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) today donated a total of Y4.6 million to two worthy charities in Japan--Hope worldwide Japan and...
...Subcommittee Co-chair Kelly Wells presented large checks representing the donations to Mr. Koichi Miyakawa, director of Hope worldwide Japan...)
- January 15, 2004 Prescribing hope in Kabul, by Seth Muller, Arizona Daily Sun (...The Deasys, who work at the Tuba City Regional Health Center and reside in Flagstaff, traveled to Afghanistan under the Christian-oriented, British-based Hope Worldwide. Kathy Deasy met Dr. Mark Timlin, who heads the HOPE Worldwide organization, during her first trip to Afghanistan last March...)
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HOPE in the News
- 2003
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- 1999-1997
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