Kerygma USA

Mrs. Harris was raised in Mount Pleasant, the daughter of a holiness Pentecostal pastor.
...
The next 20 years were filled with marriage, kids and ministry. The newlyweds had moved to southern California, where Harris was from and he joined a business Mrs. Harris’ family had started. Mrs. Harris home-schooled their children and the couple eventually worked in a book business and ministry.

They continued their involvement with missions, pro-life endeavors, their local church and Youth With A Mission. At the time, they also attended a nondenominational church.
But an experience after communion one day prompted Mrs. Harris to look deeper into the practice and the significance of Christ’s body and blood.

Through that, she began to look more closely into Roman Catholicism and particularly the teachings about marriage, because she said she hated her husband at the time.

Harris joined her in the study of the Catholic Church, even though he hadn’t necessarily initiated it. Harris said he always was looking for something different in a church and didn’t exactly know what he was looking for.

After a year of attending classes to convert, the couple converted to Catholicism.

“We didn’t see Catholic as (the) only thing, but for us personally, it kind of was the answer to some other things,” Harris said. “We retained all that we were before as a Christian. We just added being a Catholic.”

Some of their friends in ministry questioned their decision, but Harris didn’t mind.

“We knew it was what God called us to do,” he said.
 ...
Upon entering the Catholic Church though, the couple noticed a ministry opportunity of which they were previously unaware.

Youth With A Mission, more commonly known as YWAM, had a Catholic-oriented ministry called Kerygma. Kerygma is Greek for “proclamation” and, in this case, refers to the proclamation of the Gospel. It emphasizes building unity between Catholics and other Christians.

The Harrises sensed a calling to this ministry, so after an introduction to it and some additional training, they became the co-directors of Kerygma USA. Mrs. Harris had ties to YWAM from her previous training as a young adult so because the ministry new them already, it was a natural fit.

Though Kerygma existed internationally, it had not flourished nationally and the Harrises wanted to change that.

They became full-time staff members, and serve as directors of the Texas and U.S. ministry, living on the financial support of people who believe in their work.

Kerygma’s focus has been to work in evangelization and discipleship of young Catholics so they don’t leave the church. In addition, they focus on learning to walk hand-in-hand with the Protestant community.

It isn’t about being Protestant or Catholic, Mrs. Harris said. It’s about being believers and living in harmony.
...
In all of the ministry opportunities, the Harrises encourage participants to fully exercise their Catholic faith.

Harris said he wants the people who participate in their ministry to find the fullness of a relationship with Jesus that he and his wife have found.

He also wants them to know God as the ever present being that He is and be able to communicate His truth with others.

“I want them to go back to their parish and say, ‘Father, how can I help you in the church?’” he said of the youth.

Harris said he and his wife still retain the “fire of youth” in their heart and soul and want to share that with the people they work with. To Mrs. Harris, the work is fulfilling.

“The joy is watching God’s heart be blessed and having satisfaction knowing when God said (in) John 17:21, that they be one, that he didn’t mean that we all have to look alike and believe the same thing,” she said. “He meant that we have to love one another and they will know we are Christians by our love.”

Source: Source Unknown

Irish Catholic Priest works with Protestant Attackers

As well as enjoying good relations with the Church of Ireland (Anglican), Methodist and Presbyterian ministers in Ballymena, Father Symonds has worked closely with Protestants found guilty of sectarian attacks. ... "If you had told me when I was being ordained that I would be working with former loyalist prisoners, I would have thought that I would have been disastrous," he said.

Source: Fr. Paul Symonds  -  As quoted by the Catholic Review in "English priest receives awards for work in Northern Ireland", 5 Jan 2008, http://www.catholicreview.org/article/faith/vocations/english-priest-receives-award-for-work-in-northern-ireland#sthash.kh59mvOi.dpuf

"We have to forgive him ... and we will"

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

Duane's Story

It’s hard to believe it has been three decades since that memorable church service.  At the time I was a young youth minister and I remember the steady stream of phone calls flooding our church office.  Caller after caller asked the same question:  “Is it true that Henri Nouwen is speaking at the Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana?”  “Yes, at 7:00 this coming Sunday evening,” our church receptionist Maggie kept responding.

What was striking about the surge of phone calls was that they weren’t coming from our church members or Presbyterians in Southern California.  They were coming from Catholics.  The callers’ first response to hearing that Father Nouwen was in fact speaking on Sunday evening was a quick, “Great!”  But nearly all callers followed with the same second question: “Why is Henri Nouwen speaking at a Presbyterian church and not a Catholic church?   He IS a Catholic priest after all!”  Maggie graciously answered, “You’ll have to ask Father Nouwen that question.”

On the Sunday Henri Nouwen was scheduled to speak, our pastor explained in the morning worship services that seating would be limited for our special evening service as we expected a large crowd.  Henri Nouwen had just returned from his extended time in Latin America and our church was one of the first churches in the United States where he would be speaking and sharing his experience.  On the church patio that Sunday morning were a lot of perplexed Presbyterians wondering who this Catholic priest was and why was he speaking at our church. 

I was not perplexed.  Our Associate Pastor Bob had introduced me to Nouwen’s work and Bob was instrumental in bringing Nouwen to our Presbyterian church.  I was excited and in awe that I would meet Father Nouwen, having read many of his books. I was deeply moved and influenced by his book Wounded Healer.  The book profoundly influenced my thinking about being a servant leader.  Decades later two quotes still resonate within me: 

For one man needs another to live, and the deeper he is willing to enter into the painful condition which he and others know, the more likely it is that he can be a leader, leading his people out of the desert into the promise land. For we are redeemed once and for all. The Christian leader is called to help others affirm this great news, and to make visible in daily events the fact that behind the dirty curtain of our painful symptoms there is something great to be seen: the face of Him in whose image we are shaped.

I arrived early to the Sunday evening service and was glad that I did.  Lots of people arrived early in order to ensure a seat. I took a seat with friends and they commented that there were a lot of “new” faces at the service.  My friends remarked that they suspected the majority of the new faces were Catholics.  We were delighted to see such a variety of people in church.
 
As I observed the people with the “new” faces I noticed two things: 1) Their faces looked unhappy; and 2) Most of them sat with their arms across their chests as if they were holding onto something internally.   I happened to know lots of happy Catholics and none of them sit with their arms across their chests.  It was clear to me that any unhappiness experienced that evening centered on the fact that they were displeased that Henri Nouwen had chosen to speak in a Presbyterian church rather than a Catholic church.  He WAS a Catholic priest after all.

But I also observed the faces of Presbyterians seated throughout the sanctuary.  They didn’t seem comfortable in their familiar pews.  They had the look of perplexity, uncertainty, and diffidence, as if their faces involuntarily blurted out “What is going on here?  I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this.”

The church was packed that Sunday evening.  People who arrived late had to stand in the back.  Into this odd mix of people and emotions our Pastor welcomed all, introduced Henri Nouwen, and offered a prayer.  Father Nouwen then rose and in his gentle, humble, and gracious manner shared of what God had shown him in Latin America, what God had impressed upon him, and as a result, his increased sensitivity to the work of the Holy Spirit in his and others’ lives. 

As Henri Nouwen spoke the atmosphere in the church changed.  Metaphorically speaking, an awakening dawn interrupted the evening service.  Into the darkness of discomfort and distrust beamed a transforming light.  Into the cool air blew a warm breeze of faith.  Onto the unhappy and perplexed faces of those gathered that night emerged smiles like sunrises spanning across the sanctuary.  By the end of the service there were no arms across chests, but rather arms extended and hands clasped, Catholic to Protestant, brother to sister.  We concluded the evening by singing, “We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord,” and for many of us gathered that evening, it was our first experience of what that Oneness could look like and feel like.  It was powerfully inviting, energizing, and unforgettable. 

The memory of that service is vivid three decades later.  The decades have taught me that God’s power is real and accessible.  Therefore it is NOT hard for me to believe that the Spirit of God can remove barriers, heal wounds, upend history, transform hearts and communities.  That night, and many others since, have convinced me that the work of Wittenberg 2017 and its call to prayer, repentance, reconciliation, and unity is a worthy pursuit and holds the promise of being a transformative experience.  It prompts me to recall another quote of Henri Nouwen from Wounded Healer, when he wrote:  It is exactly in common searches and shared risks that new ideas are born, that new visions reveal themselves and that new roads become visible.

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Duane's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/duanes-story.html

Robert Schuman - Founder of the "European Project"

The Rome ceremony of March 25, 1957, is currently being referred to in the media as ‘the birth of the European project’; yet the official birth-date is May 9, 1950, when Robert Schuman presented his surprise proposal for the pooling of French and German coal and steel industries in a three-minute speech in Paris.

In what must surely count as ‘the defining moment of post-war Europe’, Schuman’s Declaration laid the foundation of the European house in which today 500 million Europeans from 28 (soon to be 27) nations live together in peace. This is why May 9, and not March 25, is called Europe Day. This fact remains a best-kept secret in some of the founding member nations like the Netherlands, but is widely known in newer member nations like Slovenia, which I visited last week.
...
Today, once more, Europe is at a crossroads. That is nothing new. The history of the European project is a story of many crises, each one another uncertain step towards an unknown future. Schuman himself lived through many crises, buoyed by his Christian faith and his commitment to ‘a democratic model of governance which through reconciliation develops into a community of peoples in freedom, equality, solidarity and peace and which is deeply rooted in Christian basic values’.

Source: Jeff Fountain  -  "That Roman Plot", Weekly Word eNewsletter, 27 March 2017, http://us9.campaign-archive1.com/?u=65605d9dbab0a19355284d8df&id=0ec5e383c4&e=0b86898e11

Leonard's Story

In 1972, I became a believer at the age of 21. My story is sadly summed up in one word: ignorance.
 
For twenty years following my public profession of Jesus as my Redeemer, my young family actively attended church and all became Christians. We grew in the Spirit, placed our faith in God who guides our lives and decisions.
 
Regretfully, during all that time I was completely unaware of what the term Protestant meant and the reasons of its origin. This became particularly embarrassing and painful in the years ahead because, I was a teenager living in Wiesbaden, (just a short drive from Mainz & Worms) where my father was stationed serving in the U.S. Air Force. And, during those years I was oblivious to anti-Semitism, the history of Reformation and the deep divisions between Catholics and Protestants.
 
Even though I regularly attended church in the chapels provided on the military bases, I was completely unaware of the reasons there were separate "Protestant" and "Catholic" services, nor the history behind it.
 
It was not until around 1993 while attending a PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) the "scales" fell off my eyes while studying the history of the Church (from many differing sources) leading up to the Reformation and why freedom of worship for billions became radically different since 1517.
 
I began observing and, now seeing, the divisions in virtually all churches – Protestant and Catholic alike. Determined not to add to those divisions, I became familiar with the many differing ways worship was lived out in all followers of Christ, and in the Tribe of Judah.
 
In recent years I've prayed that God would involve me in some fashion with the events this year and with all the healing restoration many are receiving.  My ignorance has been replaced with a clearer understanding of our shared history and in particular the extensive anti-Semitism that remains throughout Europe.
 
Sharing our mutual Christian history with those in my life and church helps reconcile followers of Jesus, and helps diminish the wariness many Americans harbor toward Jewish people.
 
I praise God and thank Him for His Patience with me during all those years of ignorance.

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Leonard's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/leonardrsquos-story.html

St. Benedict

Benedict is a realist about loving.  He knows love comes only through effort and practice.  It is costly.  It is fatiguing.

Source: Lonni Collins Pratt & Fr. Daniel Homan, OSB  -  Radical Hospitality: Benedict's Way of Love, p. 49

Pentecostal Catholics

The Charismatic movement brought renewal to mainstream Protestant churches beginning in the 1960’s. My family was involved in the very beginning of this charismatic movement in New Zealand. My father, a Baptist elder, led a prayer meeting every Friday night in our home that was packed with people from across our city from all denominations. When Catholics too began being ‘filled with the Spirit’ and calling themselves Pentecostal Catholics, our horizons were being truly stretched beyond our denominational prejudices and our wildest dreams!

Source: Jeff Fountain  -  "The Hope Of Pentecost", Weekly Word eNewsletter, 5 June 2017, http://us9.campaign-archive2.com/?e=0b86898e11&u=65605d9dbab0a19355284d8df&id=2f143ac9e0

Fr. Ignatius Spencer - Related to Princess Di

Fr. Ignatius Spencer was born George Spencer in 1799 and was an Anglican clergyman in the area of Althorp, Northamptonshire, where Lady Diana was buried after she was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

Fr. Spencer converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of 31, scandalizing some in the Victorian society.

The Spencer family, mostly members of the Church of England, were the fifth wealthiest family in the country at the time.

Early on in his priesthood, Fr. Spencer was attracted to the active contemplative community of the Passionists. He became known for his ecumenical efforts in pursuit of “unity in truth,” the same quest for truth that led him to the Catholic faith.



Source: Catholic News Agency  -  Priest related to Princess Diana on the path to sainthood, 31 Aug 2016, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priest-related-to-princess-diana-on-the-path-to-sainthood-66326/

Patty's Story

When I was a teenager I displayed my history and theology geekery to its fullest during Halloween.  As everyone walked around in various levels of dazed sugar highs and dressed as alter egos, I would proclaim to anyone interested or listening, “Happy Reformation Day!”

It was on October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  This simple act done by a Catholic monk and theologian was a pivotal act in history that sparked the Protestant Reformation.  2017 marks the 500-year anniversary of this event.

It was significant to me as a youth because I had undergone a reformation of my own.  Against all odds as a Thai American, I grew up in a family of Christian faith.  It’s estimated that there are only 300,000 Thai Catholics worldwide.  Thailand is a Buddhist country and less than 5% of its population counts itself as something other than Buddhist.  Thanks to French missionaries that came to Thailand in the 1700s, I count it a privilege that my family has worshipped at St. Xavier Parish in the heart of Bangkok for generations.  I also need to thank my tenacious maternal grandmother who had the forethought to ensure one condition in my parents’ informal prenup - all of their children were to be raised Catholic.

 I’m also a member of a living community of people who have had a sublime, metaphysical, faith experience.  In some cultures, people refer to this as being “born again”.  Whatever those connotations, I can at least affirm that it was a life-changing experience for me.  In fact, it happened to me while I was in junior high. Since I attended a school that was grades 7-12, when I graduated, I was voted “most philosophical” as well as “most changed.”  It’s a memory that is real, and deeply personal.  It changed me then, and continues to shape who I am now.

​For example, I love science fiction. I often think that I find this genre appealing because the idea of an alternate reality or a portal to another world isn’t so far-fetched to me.  Even though I’m an intelligent, rational person, I touched, saw, and experienced something other. Not only do I believe in a God, I believe God is good and mysteriously powerful enough to care about me personally and still manage to handle the weight of the world. 

It was after this experience that my faith and worldview began to expand beyond my Catholic upbringing.  After meeting God in such a visceral way, I had an unquenchable thirst to know more about the God that I’d met.  My family went through a lot of grief as they watched me go through a “rebellious” stage as I began to question things at the parish I attended, at my Confirmation classes, and in my family.  I went through a vitriolic apostasy phase.  At age thirteen I found myself sitting in the reference section of the city library reading extremely large, bound, hard copies of the Encyclopedia of Religion.  I am thankful to many friends who invited me to different churches and youth groups of various non-denominational and mainline Protestant churches.  That was my first experience with non-Catholic Christians and it felt foreign.  It was in that environment of welcome while feeling a sense of alienation that I had an epiphany about a fundamental aspect of my Christian faith - I could own it.  What did this Thai American have in common with Latin and German speaking, white, male monks like Luther or Augustine?  Same God, same faith, same family, same tradition.  I could own it like I owned my family tree. 

Through providential circumstances I also attended a small evangelical Christian college in the Midwest.  I was culture shocked in more ways than one.  As a native Southern Californian, I learned the definitions of the words “cold” and “autumn”.  I learned that “15 miles from downtown” meant something completely different in the Midwest than it did in LA.  I learned that evangelical Christian culture is a world of its own and also imperfect.  As I entered a new phase of apostasy with evangelical Christianity, I found myself making peace with my Catholic tradition.  In an evangelical environment that I wanted to disown, I found myself taking refuge in Catholic liturgy that spoke to the inexpressible mysteries of faith in my heart.   After much heartache and wrestling, I eventually made peace with my faith “families” both Catholic and Protestant.

The problem with this is that I feel like the child of divorced parents.  Along with my personal journey, my love of history makes me aware of centuries of bad blood between Catholics and Protestants, Protestants and Protestants, Christians and Jews . . . The list goes on.  I can’t disassociate myself from these traditions because I’ve been adopted into this family, and even if it’s not my fault that there are skeletons in the closet as well as skeletons paraded around public discourse, it’s my family and so I own it and take responsibility for it.  And when I examine my own life, I know that I’ve been guilty of closing the door to keep those skeletons from view.

This makes me all the more grateful to be here in this time and place.  Today, I write this from a hotel in Berlin, Germany.  I have the privilege and honor of serving on the Board for Wittenberg 2017, a movement dedicated to reconciliation through prayer, repentance and unity.  Rather than culminating in 2017, the goal is to be a springboard for healing and unity as we gather an international and ecumenical group comprised especially of Catholics, Protestants and Messianic Jews.

While there is a vast amount of diversity within the Church community, most everything that divided us in 1517 doctrinally is no longer an issue.  Yet the Church today faces a new set of issues.  It is still seen as fragmented rather than diverse, scandalized rather than transforming, hurtful rather than healing.

As we approach 2017 we are truly in a kairos moment.  In Greek, “kairos” refers to a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens.  Growing up, preachers referred to pregnant women about to give birth as a kairos moment.  Another example can be found in physics.  This morning I read an article about the physics lab in Cern, Switzerland.  Regarding the results of the Higgs mass measurement, there are scientists who believe that our state of the universe is at its least stable. That we are on the verge of a “phase change.”  The article made the analogy to “supercooled water poised to freeze or superheated water on the point of boiling.” Like the pregnant woman analogy, one minute you’re pregnant and the next minute you’re not.  That’s a kairos moment phase change.

What phase change will the Church undergo post-2017? That is a question I find myself dreaming about and imagining almost daily.

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Patty's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/pattys-story.html

Interchurch Community in Ireland

“It was during this time that the then-Bishop (Cahal) Daly, now Cardinal Daly, introduced me to a diocesan priest, Father Martin McGill, saying ‘You two should have something in common,’ because of our joint interest in ecumenism. Martin and I immediately clicked – we shared a common vision – and after the synod we continued to meet and pray for peace and reconciliation,” he said.

“I became convinced that God was calling me to work in Northern Ireland, but it took two years to convince everyone else – they say that the test of a true vocation is opposition and patience,” added Father Symonds.

In 1999, Father Symonds moved to Belfast and joined the Columbanus Community of Reconciliation, where three Protestants and three Catholics lived together in an interchurch community.

Source: Catholic Review  -  "English priest receives awards for work in Northern Ireland", 5 Jan 2008, http://www.catholicreview.org/article/faith/vocations/english-priest-receives-award-for-work-in-northern-ireland#sthash.kh59mvOi.dpuf

The John 17 Movement

Our John 17 leadership has decided that our only mission is to bring Christians together in worship and prayer, believing that our unity efforts will be a significant factor in building kingdom collaborations for the good of our city and state.

Direct and indirect outcomes of our John 17 Movement include:

  • AZ127 (www.az127.com), based on James 1:27, is a local church and parish movement to reduce significantly the number of foster children in our state system by getting kids into Christian homes. In the last couple years, AZ127 has place more children in foster care homes than all the other agencies of the state combined. The movement was initially formed and led by three evangelical megachurches, but in the last year, Paul Mulligan, President of Phoenix Catholic Charities, “translated” the AZ127 content into Catholic language, and the diocese has adopted AZ127 as a model for families in their parishes to open their homes to foster kids.

  • For the last eighteen months I’ve been serving as the Phoenix Mobilizer for American Bible Society’s 6-city scripture engagement campaign. Bishop Olmstead has given me his full blessing to spearhead a decade-long Bible engagement movement for the Diocese of Phoenix. Key Catholic priests and parish leaders have come together to develop and implement a plan.

  • The Arizona director of Alpha (http://alphausa.org/), Jad Levi, who also serves on our John 17 Movement advisory team, has had remarkable favor with the diocese. In the next six months, about two dozen of the 93 parishes in the diocese will be launching Alpha as a part of the the New Evangelization to bring Catholics and their friends into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. The website of the USCCB states, “The focus of the New Evangelization calls all Catholics to be evangelized and then go forth to evangelize” (http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teac…/…/new-evangelization/).


Source: Gary Kinnaman  -  Presented during Movement Day NYC, representing the John 17 movement and Greater Phoenix and Arizona Catholic/Evangelical Bridges, as posted on the John 17 FB page on 1 November 2016.

A Protestant Pastor Preaches about Catholics

Late 1990s. I preached a series of messages on what Evangelicals can learn from Catholics and what Catholics can learn from each other. Perhaps half of the people in my congregation were from a Catholic background. (I never called them “former” Catholics.) Most of their families were divided: Catholic family members were offended and angry their loved ones were no longer attending mass, and Catholic-background folks in my congregation wanted their Catholic family members to be “born-again.”
For my message on what we can learn from Catholics, I invited the local monsignor to do a video for us to answer the question. After the service, my wife said, “I want to go to his church.”
My purpose in this teaching series was to bring down the dividing walls of misunderstanding and hostility. As my dear friend in Phoenix, Auxiliary Bishop E. Nevares loves to say, “Can we just pray together?”
2000. We formed an interconfessional team (Catholics, Mainline, Evangelicals) to plan and implement a citywide celebration of the 2000-year history of Christianity. About 35,000 attended the event at our baseball stadium. I served on the planning team, which met at the diocesan center.

Source: Gary Kinnaman  -  Presented during Movement Day NYC, representing the John 17 movement and Greater Phoenix and Arizona Catholic/Evangelical Bridges, as posted on the John 17 FB page on 1 November 2016.

Fr. Martin Magill, Northern Ireland

Fr Magill’s determination to push the boundaries in terms of ecumenical outreach is evident from his practice of what the late Michael Hurley SJ called “ecumenical tithing”.

This means that part of his time each week, usually on a Sunday afternoon or evening is devoted to worshipping in another Christian denomination, sometimes St George’s Church of Ireland in Belfast “a very beautiful very high church”.

He believes this commitment comes from “the imperative I get from Jesus Christ in John 17”.

Fr Magill reveals that it is “only a matter of time before I will worship in a Free Presbyterian church as part of ecumenical tithing”.

He is also working on a list of ten things that Catholics can learn  from other denominations and “top of the list is welcoming because 90% of churches do welcoming better than we Catholics”, followed by singing.

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