"As a descendant of these people ..."

The unusual meeting between Reiner and Chaika was held recently in the Israeli city of Netanya, as part of the activity of German organization March of Life. About 100 Belarus-born Holocaust survivors, wearing caps and glasses and wrapped in their coats, faced some 10 young Germans, tall and good-looking, the descendants of Nazi soldiers and officers. The former spoke about their horrible experiences in the Holocaust, and the latter told them about their families’ grim history.

Surprisingly, there was no anger in this intergenerational meeting, just a lot of sadness and a bit of comfort, for both sides.
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The 25-year-old Samuel Haas took the microphone and said, “My grandparents were Nazis. One of them handed out printed propaganda information, and the other three traveled across Europe as part of their job in the Wehrmacht army. They murdered, robbed and looted. And as a descendant of these people, I would like to stand on Israeli soil and say out loud that we must not let such a thing happen again. I want to expose my family’s story and support Israel and the war on anti-Semitism.”
 
Haas’ comments reflect the solidarity at the heart of this event and the agreement that such meetings will help guarantee that horrible events like the Holocaust will never repeat themselves.
 

Source: Itay Ilnai  -  "Nazis’ descendants sing ‘Hatikva’ to Holocaust survivors", Ynet News, 6 Jan 2017, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4902914,00.html

Paul Pleads For ...

(2) I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to agree with each other (be of the same mind) in the Lord. (3) Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women because they have labored side by side with me for the cause of the gospel (good news) of Christ, along with Clement and the rest of my ministry partners, whose names are written in the book of life!

Source: The Apostle Paul  -  Philippians 4:2-3

Madeleine L'Engle

How often we children have been unwilling: unwilling to listen to each other, unwilling to hear words we do not expect. But on that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit truly called the people together in understanding and forgiveness and utter, wondrous joy. The early Christians, then, were known by how they loved one another. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people could say that of us again? Not an exclusive love, shutting out the rest of the world, but love so powerful, so brilliant, so aflame that it lights the entire planet – nay, the entire universe!

Source: Madeleine L’Engle  -  As quoted by John Armstrong on the Costly Love FB page, 24 May 2017

Traci Blackmon

Echoing Carter’s concerns was Traci Blackmon, acting executive minister of justice and witness for the United Church of Christ. A well-known speaker on race and religion, Blackmon offered a pastoral presence in Ferguson, Mo., following the fatal police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in 2014.

“It often seems like justice can take forever. But we cannot give up. We cannot quit,” she said.

Prayer is an essential component in the struggle but is most effective when we “pray with our feet,” Blackmon said, quoting the 19th-century social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “I prayed for freedom for 20 years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

“God so desires our obedience and cooperation that God is unwilling to carry out God’s purposes until men and women have energized and honored their participatory role in their own prayers,” she said.

“I am not suggesting that work and prayer are the same thing. Work is not a substitute for prayer. They are not to be equated but neither are they to be separated. Prayer must include the obedience of one’s conviction and a willingness to seek that which is good and just. Dormant prayer must not be a substitute for action.”

Blackmon said those advocating for racial justice could take hope in a parable found in the Gospel of Luke describing an unjust judge who neither feared God nor respected people, but who nevertheless granted justice to a widow who persisted until she received it. Though the text explicitly says the judge never “changed his heart or mind,” the widow’s dogged persistence effected a change in his behavior.

Source: Traci Blackmon  -  As quoted by Robert Dilday, "Racial reconciliation tough but essential, say leaders at New Baptist Covenant summit", Baptist News Global, 19 September 2016, https://baptistnews.com/article/racial-reconciliation-tough-but-essential-say-leaders-at-new-baptist-covenant-summit/

Michael Phelps & The Purpose-Driven Life

Phelps told ESPN that the book "turned me into believing there is a power greater than myself and there is a purpose for me on this planet." Warren's book also convinced Phelps to reconcile with his estranged father, Fred, who divorced his wife when Phelps was just 9 years old. When the two men saw each other for the first time after so many years of separation, they embraced in a big hug. After he left Meadows in November 2014, Phelps resumed training for the Rio Olympics.

Source: Hazel Torres  -  As quoted in Christian Today, http://www.christiantoday.com/article/legendary.u.s.swimmer.michael.phelps.reveals.how.purpose.driven.life.by.rick.warren.saved.his.life/92191.htm

The Real Questions

… there were not separate denominational movements of Holy Spirit renewal.  There was one movement of the Holy Spirit touching Christians of every tradition.  The real questions are:

  • For the existing churches:  How do we as churches respond to this one ecumenical movement of God's Holy Spirit?

  • For participants:  How do we as Christians baptized in the Spirit and part of an ecumenical work of God across all of the churches relate this grace to our own church tradition and to our lives as committed church members?


Source: Fr. Peter Hocken  -  One Lord One Spirit One Body, pp.59

Foxhole Ecumenism

In the U.S. we have seen a foxhole ecumenism develop during the culture wars. Evangelical Protestants—historically the most anti-Catholic sector of the American Church—meet vibrantly faithful Catholics on the pro-life picket line, while Catholics realize that their best allies for upholding the definition of marriage happen to be Evangelicals. Old boundaries become permeable as theological differences get swallowed up in co-belligerency.

What happens at the picket line happens in seminaries and pastors’ studies. These days Protestant pastors read papal encyclicals for edification, and Western Christians discover unexpected wealth in the works of Orthodox liturgists. From the Catholic side, Vatican II, for all its excesses and false moves, has made the Catholic Church sound more Protestant because it has become more attuned to common biblical and patristic sources. Swimming the Tiber has become a popular Evangelical sport, partly because of the manifest attractions of Catholicism, partly because the Catholic Church is more hospitable to Evangelical concerns than anyone could have imagined in 1870 or 1950.

Source: Peter Leithart  -  First Things, "The Future of Protestantism: The Churches Must Die to be Raised Anew", August 2014, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/08/the-future-of-protestantism

Fr. Peter Hocken

In Francis, says Hocken, there is a “new emphasis on the creativity of the Holy Spirit,” reminding people that while some things may stay the same, nothing is ever merely repeated, and that God is constantly doing new things.
That can often be missed, he says, by Catholics anxious to find a precedent for everything in past tradition - yet tradition is precisely made up of the new things God has done for His Church.
But maybe it takes the Holy Spirit to see that.

Source: Austen Ivereigh  -  "Jubilee in Rome highlights charismatic fruits in Francis’s Pentecost papacy", Crux, 3 June 2017, https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/06/03/jubilee-rome-highlights-charismatic-fruits-franciss-pentecost-papacy/

Patriarch Bartholomew

 According to a new report from the Union of Orthodox Journalists, during his trip to Mt. Athos the previous month, Pat.  Bartholomew attempted to convince several Athonite abbots and monks that there are no dogmatic differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, and that reunion with the Catholic church is inevitable.

Pat. Bartholomew expressed his personal convictions during a private talk at Pantocrator Monastery with the brethren and guests of the monastery, including other Athonite abbots. Eyewitnesses report that Pat. Bartholomew’s security did not allow anyone to record the conversation.

In his opinion, the division that now exists between Orthodoxy and Catholicism is merely a matter of historical events, not dogmatic differences.

 Catholics “are just as Christian as we are,” Pat. Bartholomew emphasized, adding that the recent gift of the relics of St. Peter from Pope Francis is proof of the Catholic church’s nearness to Orthodoxy.

Source: OrthoChristian.Com  -  "Patriarch Bartholomew tells Athonites reunion with Catholics is inevitable, reports UOJ", Mt. Athos, November 27, 2019
https://orthochristian.com/125924.html

A Song from Cliff Hunter

We don't see eye to eye but I pray one day that we'll arrive
At a place where grace and love abide, where differences are put aside.
For the sake of peace we'll murder pride, stop breeding death, start speaking life,
And maybe we could spend some time seeing the world through the other's eyes.
Forgiving more, condemning less, stop adding to this awful mess.
Praying to see the other blessed, sharing those things inside these chests.
I'm guilty but don't wanna be, this sin just comes so naturally,
But I repent, I wanna see our mutual prosperity!

Source: Cliff Hunter  -  From Now On, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxoLizX1fIk&feature=youtu.be

Forgiving a killer

Tonya Godwin-Baines agreed with her sister about the need for forgiveness.

"The thing that I would take away the most from my father is he taught us about God ... how to fear God, how to love God, and how to forgive. Each one of us forgives the killer."
Her voice breaking, Godwin-Baines credited her faith with keeping her strong and helping her recognize others are grieving, too.


Source: Melissa Mahtani  -  "Cleveland victim's family: We forgive killer", CNN, 18 April 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/us/cleveland-victims-family-we-forgive-killer-cnntv/index.html

A Jesuit on the Reformation

Gerard O'Connell, Vatican correspondent for the Jesuit magazine America, says the pope's participation in commemorating the Reformation is proof of the extraordinary change in Catholic-Lutheran relations.

"A recognition, perhaps, that both sides missed something at the time of the Protestant Reformation," says O'Connell. "The Catholic Church missed ways of reforming itself. Luther and those around him pressed in a way that just couldn't be taken on board, so, in a way, both sides misspoke."

Source: Gerard O'Connell  -  As quoted on National Public Radio, 28 Oct 2016, "The Pope Commemorates The Reformation That Split Western Christianity", http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/10/28/499587801/pope-francis-reaches-out-to-honor-the-man-who-splintered-christianity

"3 Years Ago" ... 3 Years Ago

3 years ago this month I was given a trip to Wittenberg for the 500 year anniversary of the reformation. In that place where the 95 thesis were nailed to the door and a split came within the church, we all gathered - Protestants, Baptists, Non-denominational, orthodox, Catholics and so many more- to pray, confess, and forgive one another for causing harm to Christ’s Body. We then committed to work for the health and reconciliation within the family of God. Today my prayer is that Christians from all persuasions can see Christ in one another even through all different types of opinions, practices, and even politics. It is Christ who unifies, all else divides. Differences are important, but to truly celebrate differences rather than smooth them over and pretend we are all the same, we need the love of Jesus Christ.

Source: Edouard L. Pichette  -  Posted on FB 3 Nov 2020

Where Can a Protestant Theologian Find a Place of Shelter?

Until these matters could be clarified, Bonhoeffer needed a place of shelter, a haven from the ever-watchful eye of the Gestapo. His “nomadic existence” was becoming less tenable. “[I need] to plant myself somewhere a little more permanently,” he wrote to his parents. Ettal was first suggested by Paula Bonhoeffer, Dietrich’s mother, who was familiar with the area from vacations she and her husband had spent in the nearby village of Oberammergau. In this way, the Protestant theologian found himself living in a Catholic community.
...
Bonhoeffer found spiritual nourishment at Ettal in the daily rhythms of Scripture, prayer, silence, and song. This pattern resembled, in some respects, Bonhoeffer’s organization of community life at Finkenwalde, with its antiphonal reading of the Psalms, stated hours of prayer, hymn singing, and silence. This form of spiritual life was dubbed by some of his critics as “a new kind of monasticism.” Now ensconced in a rather “old” form of monasticism based on the Rule of St. Benedict, Bonhoeffer reflected on the inherent value of monastic life for the entire church: “It would certainly be a loss (and was indeed a loss in the Reformation!) if this form of communal life preserved for 1500 years were destroyed, something those here consider entirely possible.”

Source: Timothy George  -  "Bonhoeffer at Ettal: Advent", First Things, 12 Dec 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/12/bonhoeffer-at-ettal-advent-1940

The 4 Corners Festival

Fr Magill, one of a family of three whose parents are deceased, has always worked in Belfast  and as a parish priest first in St Oliver Plunket from 2003 to 2013 – where he immediately inaugurated the annual St Oliver Plunkett lecture – and now in Sacred Heart where he has made a demonstrable contribution to wider civic society.

Last year with Presbyterian minister Rev Steve Stockman he co-founded the 4 Corners Festival which “promotes unity and reconciliation” against the background of the legacy of the Troubles and the challenges of today. It is deliberately scheduled around the time of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity so the 2015 events begin at the end of next month.

“This time our theme is generosity and imagination and we will be asking what generosity actually looks like.”

Source: Martin O'Brien  -  "A Quiet Peacemaker", The Irish Catholic, 11 Dec 2014, http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/quiet-peacemaker

Ignatius Spencer: Apostle of Ecumenical Prayer

In 1838, Father Spencer instituted a great “Crusade of Prayer for the Conversion of England” and soon after being appointed as the chaplain to the seminarians at Oscott College in Birmingham, preached at St. Chad’s in Manchester on the need for unity between Catholics and Anglicans in England. He went to Oxford to talk to John Henry Newman, Vicar of St. Mary’s the Virgin, Fellow at Oriel, and leader of the Oxford Movement to discuss the goal of unity in truth but Newman refused to meet with him.
...
His zealous efforts in the cause of unity between Catholics and Protestants, and his desire for England’s conversion, have earned him the title of “Apostle of Ecumenical Prayer”.

Source: Stephanie Mann  -  Blog post 6 Sept 2016, "Servant of God Ignatius Spencer: Apostle of Ecumenical Prayer", http://www.ncregister.com/blog/stephaniemann/servant-of-god-ignatius-spencer-apostle-of-ecumenical-prayer

When I See Charlotte Being Stabbed ...

Quoting Mary Foley, who forgave the girl who killed her teenage daughter:

Forgiveness did not come immediately, even after I knew it was what I wanted.  It was hard.  My main struggle was seeing Charlotte being stabbed in my imagination, and knowing that I hadn't been there to help her.  I often envisaged her bleeding to death.  When I saw these things in my mind, the old anger would begin to rise up in me, and I had to remind myself why I had chosen to forgive:  so that I could release all that pain and hurt into the hands of God.


Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.74