In Brief
In Brief

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Teen 'Little Buddha' Is Missing in Nepal

A teenage "Little Buddha" who had been meditating and fasting for 10 months in a forested area of Nepal is missing, with no clear clues pointing to his whereabouts.

Police and residents of the southern district of Bara have been searching for the 15-year-old boy, Ram Bahadur Banjan, who was last seen March 11.

Since May, thousands of people had gone to see the boy in his forest abode because they thought he was the reincarnation of Nepal's Gautama Siddhartha, the Buddha.

Makeshift shops had been set up to cater to the visitors, who had come from Nepal and neighboring India.

Visitors were permitted to view Banjan between dawn and dusk from a cordoned area about 80 feet away.

The area is known to have substantial numbers of communist rebels, who have been fighting government troops for a decade, and some people fear that he may have been kidnapped.

But police officials have discounted the possibility of an abduction by the rebels or by local criminals. They said that Banjan might have just wandered off.

-- Religion News Service

'Pray-as-You-Go' Web Site Gets Off to a Fast Start

A Roman Catholic order in Britain has launched a "pray-as-you-go" Web site aimed at putting stressed-out commuters and other travelers in touch with God via their iPods and cell phones.

Since Ash Wednesday, British Jesuits have been offering daily prayer services, spiritual music and Bible readings that can be downloaded from their Web site ( http://www.pray-as-you-go.org ) and played back on personal communications gadgets on journeys to and from work or school.

On Ash Wednesday alone, some 3,300 prayer sessions -- each lasting about 10 to 12 minutes -- were downloaded in countries as far away as the United States and Australia. By mid-March, the total stood at more than 33,000 sessions and was climbing.

The service was planned as a project for the Lenten season, but London's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the British Jesuits are expected to extend "pray-as-you-go" well beyond the end of Lent.

Each session opens with a peal of bells and closes with questions to encourage personal reflection.

The site also offers the option of using "pray-as-you-go" as a daily podcast, which automates the downloading process and keeps the user up to date with the site's latest offering.

-- Religion News Service

'Black Contract' Search For Signers Is Extended

After undergoing treatment for cancer, an African American pastor has extended his deadline for seeking 1 million Christian signatures for a "Black Contract with America on Moral Values."

Bishop Harry R. Jackson is the head of the High Impact Leadership Coalition and senior pastor at Hope Christian Church in Lanham, which has 3,000 congregants. He originally set a Feb. 1 deadline for obtaining the signatures but has extended it to the 2008 presidential election.

Jackson would not name a specific figure, but he said current signatures number "in the thousands." Jackson began treatment for esophageal cancer six months ago, putting the coalition's goals on hold. He said that his cancer is in remission and that he has resumed public activities.

The contract outlines issues that Jackson considers most critical in the black community: traditional family values, reduction of poverty, education, prison reform, health care and aid for Africa.

The contract, he said, is intended to stimulate the creation of "a voice for the new black church" in contrast to the "stereotypical, politically left-leaning African American stance."

-- Religion News Service