At this, Elder John rose up like a white candle and answered quietly: "Great sovereign! What we value most in Christianity is Christ himself -- in his person. All comes from him, for we know that in him dwells all fullness of the Godhead bodily. We are ready, sire, to accept any gift from you, if only we recognize the holy hand of Christ in your generosity. Our candid answer to your question, what can you do for us, is this: Confess now and before us the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came in the flesh, rose, and who will come again -- Confess his name, and we will accept you with love as the true forerunner of his second glorious coming."
Source: Vladimir Soloviev - A Short Tale of the Anti-Christ
"My grandparents were Nazis"
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.
...
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
Meanwhile in Wichita KS ...
We share meals, snacks, adult beverages, tell our life stories, identify our parishes, talk about books we’ve read and books we should read—each year I see some of the same people and we catch up. Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox acknowledge our differences in doctrine and worship but without animosity or rancor. Of course, Jesus is our center, but the works of the Fathers of the Church are our common heritage. Other names are often mentioned: C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stanley Hauerwas, Pope Benedict XVI, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Wendell Berry, Charles Taylor, George Florovsky, Dorothy L. Sayers, etc. Two names I seldom hear mentioned are Martin Luther and John Calvin. It isn’t as though the Great Schism or the Protestant Reformation never happened, but the focus on Mere Christianity, the central doctrines of the Christian Faith and the feeling that we must unite on those doctrines and the challenges we face guide the speakers and the audience.
Source: Stephanie Mann - "Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox in Wichita, Kansas" blog entry, National Catholic Register, 20 Jan 2017, http://www.ncregister.com/blog/stephaniemann/protestants-catholics-and-orthodox-in-wichita-kansas
Von Balthasar summarizes Soloviev
But resistance comes from Pope Peter II, John the Elder, leader of the Orthodox and Professor Ernst Pauli, representing Protestantism: under the pressure of persecution the three churches in this eschatological situation at last unite. Peter's primacy is recognized, and the Pauline and Johannine churches come into the Roman fold. The spokesmen of Christianity are persecuted and killed, but they rise again; the last Christians journey to the wilderness, the Jews raise a revolt and the Christians join with them. They are slaughtered; but then Christ appears, robed in the imperial purple, his hands outspread with the marks of the nails upon them, to rule for a thousand years with those who are his own.
Source: Hans Urs von Balthasar - From an article by Hans Urs von Balthasar on Soloviev in the Third Volume of "The Glory of the Lord"
Who is loved by both Catholics and Protestants?
Ever since, I've found that this choice to come aboard the ark is just about the best thing I ever did. I've ever since thought of it as my main vocation, to build bridges between Catholics and non-Catholics. I was a signer of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together statement, and support that very strongly. I love somebody like C. S. Lewis whom almost all evangelical Protestants love, and almost all faithful Roman Catholics love. St. Augustine's another one; Catholics and Protestants both love him.
Source: Peter Kreeft - Conversion to Catholicism, Catholic Education Resource Center, http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/dr-peter-kreeft-s-conversion-to-catholicism-part-2.html
United in some ways, divided in others
The new religious identities and communities which emerged from these conflicts—Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, and the more radical groupings often lumped together under the name “Anabaptist”—did indeed share some beliefs and attitudes in common. They all prioritized the written Word of God in the Bible over traditional Church teaching and discipline, and they all vehemently rejected the papacy and the allegedly materialistic religious system which the papacy headed. But they were divided among themselves—often lethally—on almost everything else. Within a single generation of Luther’s protest, “Protestants” were excommunicating, fighting, and persecuting each other, as well as the common Catholic enemy, and many were calling for a reform of the Reformation.
Source: Eamon Duffy - First Things, "The End of Christendom" (Book review of Reformations by Carlos Eire), November 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/11/the-end-of-christendom
Global Cooperation between Lutherans & Catholics
In addition to the ecumenical prayer service Oct. 31 in Lund — the city where the Lutheran World Federation was founded in 1947 — Pope Francis and leaders of the Lutheran World Federation will witness the signing of a cooperation agreement between the federation’s World Service and Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based umbrella organization of national Catholic charities.
Source: Catholic News Service - "Sorrow and joy: Marking the Reformation with honesty about the past", 28 October 2016, https://cnstopstories.com/2016/10/28/sorrow-and-joy-marking-the-reformation-with-honesty-about-the-past/
CS Lewis on Forgiveness
Quoting CS Lewis:
To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, "Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.123
Abbé Paul Couturier
In 1935, Abbé Paul Couturier, a priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons, sought a solution to the problem of non-Roman Catholics not being able to observe the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. He found the solution in the Roman Missal as the Association for Promotion of the Unity of Christians had done seventy-eight years earlier in England. Couturier promoted prayer for Christian unity on the inclusive basis that “our Lord would grant to his Church on earth that peace and unity which were in his mind and purpose, when, on the eve of His Passion, He prayed that all might be one.” This prayer would unite Christians in prayer for that perfect unity that God wills and by the means that he wills. Like Fr. Paul Wattson, Abbé Couturier exhibited a powerful passion for unity and had sent out “calls to prayer” annually until his death in 1953.
Source: Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A. - "BACKGROUND: Brief History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017", by Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A., Associate Director of Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/background/brief_history.html
Council of Nicaea (1699 years ago)
Take the issue of the date of Easter, for example. This year, westerners celebrated this festival a week earlier than the Eastern and Oriental Churches. Which westerner could say why? Easterners know very well. It has to do with history, about which we in the west don’t really care very much. We’re not really so interested in the past as we are in starting with a clean slate to shape our own futures. Yet we have little understanding how much our past has already shaped who we are and why we do things in certain ways.
Briefly, then: at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD, leaders from across the then-Christian world agreed on a formula to celebrate Easter on the same date: the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox (March 21); but always after Jewish Passover, as Jesus and his disciples had celebrated Passover the night before he was crucified.
However, the Julian calendar, which had been in use since 45BC, was a solar calendar. The Catholic Church adopted the Gregorian lunar calendar in 1582 in order to compensate for the loss of days which built up over a long period. Most countries have since followed suit, but the Eastern churches have held to the Nicene Council formula, when Easter falls anywhere between April 4 and May 8. For Catholics, and for the West with them, Easter falls between March 22 and April 25. Sometimes the two Easters fall on the same dates, as in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2017. But this won’t happen again until 2034!
Source: Jeff Fountain - Weekly Word eNewsletter, 1 May 2019, "Vibrant Celebration"
https://us9.campaign-archive.com/?e=0b86898e11&u=65605d9dbab0a19355284d8df&id=c06ec3e640
John Armstrong & Bishop Barron
I want to share a simple story of friendship this month. One of my greatest joys in my work of ecumenism has been the deep and abiding friendships I have been afforded. One of my real friends is the well-known Catholic teacher and evangelist Bishop Robert Barron. If you do not know the ministry of Word of Fire I heartily urge you to tap into their many resources. Yes, it is Catholic. But it is a Christian ministry that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel. Every Christian will benefit if you are humble and teachable.
I first heard Bishop Barron on Chicago radio about fifteen years ago. As I drove to preach at a church about twenty minutes from home each Sunday I listened to Fr. Barron. I was delighted by his Christ-exalting exposition of the Gospel text for the day. He almost always spoke directly to both my heart and mind. Later, I met Fr. Barron and a friendship developed. Fr. Barron and I have done presentations in many diverse settings, including Catholic and Protestant audiences. I have never shared a pubic meeting with him without being more determined to love Christ better. He once told me I was a Barnabas. I am not sure that is true but it gave me grace to continue in the work of teaching and encouragement.
Source: John Armstrong - November 2020 Friends Letter, 4 Nov 2020
https://mailchi.mp/f0592e0aa9ae/november-2020-friends-letter?e=4c0e810bbb
Protesting Your Own Book Title
[Thomas Howard’s] publisher titled his last Protestant book Evangelical is Not Enough. He told me he’d protested the title, because he did not want to speak negativity of his childhood home. The publisher knew a title that would bring in the buyers, because there were many in that world looking for a way out.
Source: David Mills - "RIP Thomas Howard: 1935-2020", Catholic Herald, 15 October 2020
https://catholicherald.co.uk/ch/rip-thomas-howard-1935-2020/
Repentance in Russia & Israel
Source: Wittenberg 2017 - "Hans & Rita's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
William J. Seymour
I admire the persistence and faith of William J. Seymour, the pioneer of the Azusa Street Revival of the early 1900s. Several modern Christian movements spun out of that or were influenced by what happened there. He was blind in one eye, and he was a black man who was the son of former slaves. I learned that he was segregated from his fellow students who were white, while in the Bible school he was a part of in Houston led by Charles Parham. But he stayed and learned.
He landed in Los Angeles, convinced that there was a baptism in the Holy Spirit experience like what happened in Acts 2 and power that would come with that, both for him and for the greater body of Christ. He doggedly proclaimed the word he read in Acts 2 for a time before he ever saw what he was proclaiming manifest in his life personally and even as others started to experience it before he did.
But when that well broke open, it influenced far more people than he may have ever imagined and certainly has shaped the global Christian picture. The Azusa Street movement was a great miracle of unity for a time as people of different ethnicities gathered together through the outpouring of the Spirit.
Source: Clinton Scroggins - Posted on FB 29 Oct 2017, reposted 3 years later in 2020
United Response to COVID
Parishes in the Austin Diocese, which includes Central Texas, may resume public celebration of Mass Tuesday, but a another group of area churches doesn’t plan to reopen until June.
Included in the group are Highland Baptist Church, Maranatha Church, Harris Creek Baptist Church, Antioch Community Church, Greater Zion Baptist, Crossroads Fellowship, Renew Church, Columbus Ave. Baptist Church, Brazos Meadows Baptist, Christ the King, Greater New Light Baptist, Grace Church, Waco, Grace Church, Hewitt, Ministerios Bethania, Central Christian Church, Park Lake Drive Baptist, Western Heights Baptist, New Life Christian Fellowship, Meadowbrook Baptist, New Faith Christian, Faith Bible Church and St. Stephen’s AME.
The pastors of the churches say they were encouraged to show unity, after watching their followers come together.
"Crisis always brought people together and I think the crisis has brought churches together," said John Durham, the lead pastor of Highland Baptist church.
"I have been so proud of the Waco community, where people have stayed active with their faith in the middle of this crisis," said Jimmy Seibert the Senior Pastor of Antioch.
Source: KWTX Waco - As quoted by Phil Brown on FB, 16 May 2020
A Catholic Priest visits a Presbyterian Church
Fr Martin Magill’s Ecumenical Tithing: Rosemary Presbyterian Church
....
When I used to live in North Belfast, over 15 years ago, I was a regular visitor to events at Rosemary Presbyterian church. I returned there, this time to the church halls, for evening worship. I spoke to a number of people I remembered from that time.
...
As I reflect on the whole experience, I recognise how good it was to worship with people I had known over 15 years ago. I had a number of conversations reflecting on the area and the challenge for the churches in North Belfast I detected a keenness for the churches to work together. I heard about a prayer course based on the ideas of the 24/7 prayer initiative which was open to all the Christian denominations in the area. I also found it helpful to hear about discipleship because the gospel passage which I will preach on from the Common Lectionary comes from Matthew 28 and the command of Jesus to make disciples.
Source: Fr. Martin Magill - As quoted by Gladys Ganiel on her blog Building a Church Without Walls, [GET DATE] 2014, http://www.gladysganiel.com/irish-catholic-church/fr-martin-magills-ecumenical-tithing-rosemary-presbyterian/
Jemar Tisby
First, I believe in the church. I will not break fellowship with her or any of her people based on politics. Jesus Christ himself prayed for the unity of believers. “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:11b). Christ wants his church to be unified, so it is in the name of Christian unity that I must speak honestly.
Source: Jemar Tisby - "Trump's Election and Feeling 'Safe' in White Evangelical Churches", Reformed African American Network, 18 Nov 2016, https://www.raanetwork.org/trumps-election-feeling-safe-white-evangelical-churches/
Forgiving an Unrepentant Murderer
On May 13, 1993, five Amish children were killed by a speeding auto near Fredericksburg, Ohio. The auto was driven by a young man, Eric Bache, who showed no remorse for his action in the days that followed. After the funeral, an elder of the community, Henry Burkholder, said: "We could take it a lot easier if he would feel sorry. It's a little harder to forgive since he doesn't seem upset. But we have to forgive him. And we will."
Source: Henry Burkholder - Elder of the Amish Community in Fredericksburg, Ohio, quoted by the New York Times, 17 May 1993, as reported in Peter Schmiechen's "Christ the Reconciler: A Theology for Opposites, Differences, and Enemies", p. 112
A Catholic Cardinal: "Thanks to Luther ..." (!)
Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 1969 to 1989, noted that Vatican II accepted many of Luther's demands. Thanks to Luther, he said, many good ideas have been introduced into the Roman Catholic church, such as the use of the vernacular in liturgy; offering of both species in holy Communion; need for constant reform; priesthood of all believers; and more attention to Scripture and preaching. What we have in common is more important than what divides us.
Source: Thomas Ryan - National Catholic Reporter, "Lutherans and Catholics chart path to unity", 16 Nov 2016, https://www.ncronline.org/news/theology/lutherans-and-catholics-chart-path-unity
Practicing Love
[2:06:12]
Omoye Agbontaen:
Do you have any recommendations for how people can experience and cultivate an atmosphere where they can experience a portion of the love that you experienced in heaven? ...
Dr. Mary Neal:
... I'm going to go back to doing the work of transformation. ...
[2:09:01]
I mean, we're all broken. And you have to get to the point where you recognize that, and realize, like "OK." I mean, like a good friend, they can be jerks one day, but you're not going to stop being their friend. But it's sort of a snowball, that as you begin to walk that walk, and express that love to yourself and to others, the intensity of it does build.
One little trick, for example. (I'm not going to pretend that I like every person I meet. But, having said that ...) If I meet someone that they just bug me, and my initial reaction to them is not one of love, it's really interesting, because I can, first of all, consciously remind myself that this person in front of me is an incredibly beloved child of God, I remind myself of that.
And then I find one thing about them that I like or that I appreciate, it can be anything so silly
the color of their shirt, any little thing. It's amazing, if I can pick out that first thing, and then I start feeling love for that, it grows, and very rapidly, I'm amazed at myself, now it happens almost instantaneously, I can go from meeting someone and thinking, "Uh, I don't like this person", to feeling incredible love for them, very quickly, and it's all because you just have to practice love, you have to practice love, and then it becomes second nature.
Source: Dr. Mary Neal - Q&A during Rez Week 2020, 2 April 2020
https://youtu.be/SN-B8sN7BKc?t=7567