These efforts came to a culmination in the 1541 Imperial Diet at Regensburg (Ratisbon). Henry VIII sent Bishop Stephen Gadiner of Winchester, Rome sent the irenic Cardinal Contarini. MacCulloch writes, “When introduced to Bucer, [Contarini] observed, ‘How great will be the fruit of unity, and how profound the gratitude of all mankind’. Bucer replied equally graciously: ‘Both sides have failed. Some of us have overemphasized unimportant points, and others have not adequately reformed obvious abuses. With God’s will we shall ultimately find the truth.'”
Not everyone wanted Regensburg to succeed: “some of the Emperor’s own princes were not anxious to see the Habsburg family’s problems solved, even less so the King of France, who would have been a necessary party to any final agreement.” But the politicians weren't the cause of the failure; the theologians were: “Contarini could not give ground on the eucharistic doctrine of transubstantiation; the Protestants were not prepared to say that confession to a priest was necessary. Their measure of agreement on justification in the Regensburg Book was therefore irrelevant. Then messages from both Rome and Luther in Wittenberg made it quite clear that even that would not be accepted.”
Source: Martin Bucer - Martin Bucer, Regensburg Diet, 1541, as quoted by Diarmaid MacCulloch in "Europe's House Divided", as quoted by Peter Leithart, "Ecumenism in the Sixteenth Century", First Things, 6 Feb 2017, https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2017/02/ecumenism-in-the-sixteenth-century
Killing Native Americans for Oil Money
And I would say this. I spoke with some of the descendants of the husband of Mollie Burkhart and the uncle who was one of the masterminds of the plot, and they were remarkably candid, and after I finished the book I received a note from one of the descendants, who said "I'm so ashamed that this is part of our history, and please if you see the Osage will you please tell them that."
Source: David Grann - David Grann, author of "Killers of the Flower Moon", quoted in "In The 1920s, A Community Conspired To Kill Native Americans For Their Oil Money", Morning Edition, NPR, 17 April 2017, http://www.npr.org/2017/04/17/523964584/in-the-1920s-a-community-conspired-to-kill-native-americans-for-their-oil-money
Why Forgive?
I will always be glad I forgave Angelo. I have learned that the cruelest prison of all is the prison of an unforgiving mind and spirit.
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.23
From Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory
Many examples of Christian churches working together exist today—shared efforts to feed, clothe and house the poor and neglected bring Christians together in many communities across this local Church. I thank all of those who make such endeavors possible and deeply satisfying for everyone.
Source: Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory - The Georgia Bulletin, "The love of Christ compels us to reconcile", 26 Jan 2017, https://georgiabulletin.org/commentary/2017/01/love-christ-compels-us-reconcile/ (ALSO IN SPANISH at https://georgiabulletin.org/commentary/2017/01/el-amor-de-cristo-nos-apremia-reconciliarnos/?lang=es)
The Secret Jews Of The Hobbit
We should marvel at the fact that an essentially Jewish tale spurred the very birth of modern fantasy, owing to an author who saw in the history of the Jewish people an incredible story. It is a reminder that Jews are indeed part of a wondrous tale, one that we are living today.
Source: Meir Soloveichik - The Secret Jews of The Hobbit, Commentary Magazine, 11 August 2016, https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-secret-jews-of-the-hobbit/
"How we respond defines us"
Few people are the sons or daughters of serial killers.
But psychologists say all of us suffer trauma in life.
How we respond defines us. Some of us turn bitter. Others find a way to live in peace. One key, as Kerri’s psychologist said later, is who we have in our lives and how good they are at guiding us.
Another key, as Kerri herself would say someday, is whether we can forgive the seemingly unforgivable.
Source: Roy Wenzl - "When your father is the BTK serial killer, forgiveness is not tidy", The Wichita Eagle, 21 February 2015, http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/kansas/article10809929.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-1#storylink=cpy
Insulted! David Does ... Nothing
Insulted, his hesed greeted with contempt, David . . . does nothing. He sends the messengers to Jericho to wait for their hair to grow back (v. 5), but nothing more. There are no war preparations in Israel, no retribution. David does not return insult for insult, evil for evil. He has had long practice in bearing humiliations and being unjustly mistreated. It's the story of his life, at least during Saul's reign.
...
Meanwhile, David returns kindness for kindness, curbs his passion for revenge, lets things go, and ends up with another crown in his collection. Somebody is defending David's honor, and but it's not David.
Source: Peter Leithart - "David's Restraint, Yahweh's Trap", First Things Blog, 23 Jan 2017, https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2017/01/davids-restraint-yahwehs-trap
Jesus at the Center
Blame it on Jesus for starting a polarization-busting movement. Make no mistake, Jesus inhabited a polarized culture of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Herodians, Zealots (all political parties, by the way), but he refused to play by their rank-and-file games.
Jesus sits with the progressive: the Jameses and Johns who are zealous to see God’s kingdom restored and justice rendered to marginalized, impoverished, oppressed, and occupied people. Jesus also sits and shares meals with the Matthews—Matthew was a tax collector who had cozied up to the Romans and was a part of the occupying powers—those some might consider greedy neocons.
When Jesus gathered the first core of disciples, there was an intentional disruption of the poles. If it were not for Jesus holding the space at the center, James and John would loathe Matthew and his ilk; they’d all naturally slide into the cultural ditch of mutual hatred for one another.
Source: Dan White - "When Clinton and Bush go to church … together", V3 Church Planting Movement, Jan 2017, http://thev3movement.org/2017/01/when-clinton-and-bush-go-to-church/
Catholics & Protestants in the State Capitol
Vince Torres, Executive Pastor at the Blaze Christian Fellowship, explains it this way, "What happened Sunday was nothing short of historic. Watching Catholics and Protestants come together in worship and prayer to our God was so powerful and unlike anything I have ever witnessed at our state capitol. The gathering served as proof that the gospel message of Jesus Christ has the power to transcend denominations and even politics. It was such an honor to be part of it. To God be all the glory."
Source: Vince Torres, Executive Pastor at the Blaze Christian Fellowship, quoted by Brian Alarid in "Christians Make History With Worship Event at New Mexico State Capitol", Charisma News, 7 March 2017, http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/63470-is-this-historic-worship-gathering-part-of-james-goll-s-prophesied-west-coast-rumble
Is It Time? ...
I believe this is urgent, my brothers and sisters. We have had one civil war in our history that the Church made no effort to stop but in fact aided and abetted by our conflicting messages and inflammatory rhetoric. Another may take a different form where our political factions take up arms (Lord knows we have enough of them) in our cities if they cannot resolve their differences or be heard in the halls of Congress and the office of the President. We could fall into anarchy or tyranny. I like to say that children who play with matches inside the house often do not realize they can burn the house down until they do. Our incendiary and inflammatory speech may not stop there. It didn’t before the Civil War. Church, I’m asking, is it time to say “we must reconcile our differences and lead our country in doing the same?”
Source: Robert C Trube - rtrube54, "The Scandal of the Church in America: Part One", Bob on Books, 13 Feb 2017, https://bobonbooks.com/2017/02/13/the-scandal-of-the-church-in-america-part-one/
Every Christian Should Interest Us
A friend who thinks of the Roman Catholic Church as the oldest form of Protestantism recently asked, “Why should an Orthodox Christian be interested in Dan Berrigan?” He was slightly scandalized that I, a member of the Orthodox Church since 1988, had written a biography of this often-jailed Jesuit priest, At Play in the Lions’ Den.
The core of my answer is that every Christian, no matter what church or communion or sect he belongs to, should interest us to the extent that he or she has lived a Christ-shaped, Christ-revealing life. While no community of Christians has been more attentive to preserving the theology and liturgy of the first millennium as the Orthodox Church, we don’t have a monopoly on sanctity. Christ did not say it was by our excellent theology that his followers would be known, but by their fruits. All sanctity deserves our interest—our divisions should not blind us to holiness on the other side of our ecclesiastical borders. As I recall, it was Metropolitan Platon of Kiev who, in the 19th century, remarked: “The walls we build on earth do not reach to heaven.”
Source: Jim Forest - "Father Daniel Berrigan, SJ: Why Should an Orthodox Christian be Interested in Him?", Orthdoxy In Dialogue, 12 Dec 2017
https://orthodoxyindialogue.com/2017/12/12/father-daniel-berrigan-sj-why-should-an-orthodox-christian-be-interested-in-him-by-jim-forest/
Abbé Paul Couturier, Part 2
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: Abbé Paul Couturier - Quoted by Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A. in "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
Abbé Paul Couturier, Part 1
…"spiritual ecumenism" was first used by the Abbe Paul Couturier from Lyon, France, in the mid-1930s, to describe an approach to ecumenism that was grounded in deeper conversion of all to Christ, was rooted in and nourished by prayer on the model of the prayer of Jesus in John 17, and was deeply penitent for the sins of all parties against the unity of the one body. Couturier's vision for ecumenism was adopted by the Catholic bishops at Vatican Two, and found clear expression in the decree on ecumenism. John Paul II strongly endorsed the teaching of the council on spiritual ecumenism in his encyclical letter Ut Unum Sint in 1995.
Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 91 / UR 6-8 / UUS 15-17, 21-27.
Richard Harvey on Jews & Lutherans
So I am waiting for Lutherans, both as church bodies and as individuals, to show the fruits and action of repentance. Many expressions of regret and remorse have been made over the years for the sufferings of the Jewish people, but few actual acts of repentance, requests for forgiveness and demonstrations of a new heart, attitudes and actions to restore relations between Jews and Lutherans.
Source: Richard Harvey - "A Messianic Jew Looks at Luther", https://lutherandthejews.com/2017/02/09/a-messianic-jew-looks-at-luther/
Fr. Peter Hocken
Not only will God not reject his promises to his servants, but he will not deny their call and their work. Just as the Lord always acknowledges the witness of his Old Testament servants, Abraham, Moses and David, so he will always acknowledge the witness of his Christian servants, whether Peter and Paul, Athanasius and Augustine, Francis of Assisi and Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther and John Calvin, John Wesley and Count von Zinzendorf, Dwight Moody and Charles Spurgeon.
Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - One Lord One Spirit One Body, pp.67
Jean-Paul Samputu
Referring to Jean-Paul Samputu, a Tutsi who forgave the Hutu killer of his parents:
As Jean-Paul's story … bears out, forgiving is a deeply personal matter. Ultimately each of us must find healing within, on our own terms, and in our own time. On another level, however, forgiving is much more. Even if its power connects people one by one, the resulting "ripple effect" can be felt on a much broader scale. In fact, forgiveness can be a powerful social force, transforming and empowering whole groups of people.
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.202
Cardinal Bergoglio's Address
In his pre-conclave speech, the then Cardinal Bergoglio told his fellow cardinals, "The church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries." He then warned of the dangers of a "self-referential" church" "When the church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then gets sick. . . . The self-referential church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out. . . . When the church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light; she ceases to be the mysterium lunae. . . . It lives to give glory only to one another." The call to go out to the peripheries has to have implications for Christian unity. It is the "self-referential" church that has no interest or zeal to go out to the other without which Christian unity cannot happen.
Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 101. / Address of Pope Francis to media representatives, in the Paul VI Audience Hall, Vatican City, March 15, 2013. Text made known by Cardinal Ortega of Havana, Cuba, with the agreement of Pope Francis.
Resistance - Listen, Receive, Encourage
Francis was aware that a number of cardinals and curial officials present as he spoke are engaged in such resistance, including Cardinals Burke and Sarah, but he declared “the absence of reaction is a sign of death!” whereas resistance “is a sign that the body is alive.”
Consequently, he said, “the good resistances—and even the less good ones—are necessary and merit to be listened to, received and encouraged to express themselves.”
Source: Pope Francis - "Pope Francis Speaks about the Reform of the Roman Curia and the Resistance to it", by Gerard O'Donnell, America - The National Catholic Review, 22 Dec 2016, http://www.americamagazine.org/content/dispatches/pope-francis-speaks-about-reform-roman-curia-and-resistance-it?utm_content=buffer50118&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
"I Only Love Momma"
Early in our childhood development we are often unable to self identify with more than one pole.
I experienced this with my own son when he was three. I would look him in the eye and say, “I love you so much buddy,” and he would respond, “I ONLY love momma. I don’t love you. I just love momma.” After putting my heart back together, I would gently respond, “You can love us both,” and he would respond, “I can only love momma.” This went on for nine months, but eventually a couple neurons somewhere in his cute little head fused together to permit him to say I love you to both of us.
Carl Jung explains that this phenomenon can continue through adulthood, causing us to relate primarily in either/or categories.
I’m convinced our adult civilization is regressing emotionally.
We slide back to childhood when we particularly dislike something about a people group (progressives or conservatives) and deem it necessary to find ways to accumulate a burning mound of facts about why we should hate “them.” Polarization is not a result of intellectual enlightenment or informed thinking; it is a result of emotional regression.
To sign up for Jesus and join his movement is to take on the mature work of integrating differing poles rather than regressing into either/or categories.
Source: Dan White - "When Clinton and Bush go to church … together", V3 Church Planting Movement, Jan 2017, http://thev3movement.org/2017/01/when-clinton-and-bush-go-to-church/
Dylan from The Porches of Holly
Dylan thought about how odd it was that even after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He bore the scars that humanity pounded into His body. He pondered how God could carry the scars of angry men, yet release them from His judgment. 'Father, forgive them.' While men ripped the body of God to shreds, He submitted Himself to their sin, yet did not hold their wrongs against them. 'What kind of insanity was that?' Dylan wondered. 'If only I could do the same," he muttered.
Source: Traci Vanderbush - From her novel The Porches of Holly, as quoted on Facebook by the author on 18 June 2020