[St. Ephrem the Syriac]
The lessons scripture taught were simple and clear. God did not play favorites. His love was bigger than all the controversies people invented to divide and destroy: “Our Lord,” Ephrem reminded anyone who would listen, “spoke gently to teach his followers the power of gentle words.”
Source: Joseph P. Amar - St. Ephrem the Syrian – “Harp of the Holy Spirit”, The Maronite Voice, 21 June 2019
https://www.maronitevoice.org/articles/2019/6/21/st-ephrem-the-syrian-harp-of-the-holy-spirit
Prime Minister Apologizes Publicly to Aborigines
Naysayers similarly questioned the sincerity of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd when, in early 2008, he made a public apology to his country's aboriginal peoples for the government's longstanding policies of racial segregation, containment, and de facto abuse. Others welcomed the Prime Minister's words. One was Fr. Michael Lapsley of South Africa: "Of course, an apology does not take away the truth of the wrong that was done and the pain that continues to be felt through the generations of indigenous Australians. Nevertheless there is no doubt that this representative acknowledgement ... can be balm in the wounds, a major step and a turning point on the long journey towards restorative justice and healing for all. Over the years I have heard many of you speak about your own sense of guilt and shame about what happened in your country's history. Today I am sure that many of you shed tears of joy that finally the day has come in a dignified way to squarely face the horror of what happened and to travel a new journey." ... He realized that an apology - any apology - is singularly important because if often represents the first crucial step without which dialogue, let alone forgiveness, can never develop.
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.211
From Richard Foster
Right now we remain largely a scattered people. This has been the condition of the Church of Jesus Christ for a good many years. But a new thing is coming. God is gathering his people once again, creating of them an all-inclusive community of loving persons with Jesus Christ as the community's prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant. This community is breaking forth in multiplied ways and varied forms.
Source: Richard Foster - Streams of Living Water, p. 273
Charismatic Ecumenism
One area which Rome for a long time did not recognize was the charismatic work for Christian unity, according to Fr. Peter Hocken, an English priest long involved in the CCR.
The Renewal was born ecumenical - the fruit of Catholics being prayed over by Pentecostals - and from the start went beyond the conventional theological dialogue model that came out of the Second Vatican Council.
Hocken calls this extra element “charismatic ecumenism,” because it involves discerning the action of the Holy Spirit in - and recognizing the gifts poured out by the Spirit on - other denominations. One of its “striking hallmarks,” he says, is “the radical equality of all those baptized in the Holy Spirit,” one that “requires a new formulation of our convictions.”
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/
Martin Luther & His Wife
Life was hard. Family life was hard. Marriage was hard. And yet, Martin and Katie loved each other tremendously. They viewed marriage as a school of character, whereby God uses the hardships of daily family life to sanctify us.
...
May the marriage of Martin and Katie, as well as their love for their children, remind us today of Christ's love for his church and the Father's love for us as his redeemed children.
Source: Matthew Barrett - "Martin Luther on Marriage as a School of Character", Christian Living, The Gospel Coalition, 3 August 2011, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/martin-luther-on-marriage-as-a-school-of-character
Ann Cogdell
The process of praying prayers of identificational repentance is both humbling and necessarily cleansing—looking at the sin of another or a grievous event of history, I felt that my eyes needed to be purified so that I could look with care rather than point the finger; but looking carefully, I realize that there are similar tendencies in me and I begin to feel compassion instead. It was a new thought for me to realize that I’m standing alongside the ones or the situation I’m praying for. I found it difficult to feel free to weep in the public setting of lament, though I often weep in private over things that grieve me. So, I was challenged because one of the things that draws me to Jesus is that He is deepIy free—well, I want to be more like Jesus.
Source: Ann Cogdell - Report to Christ Church Anglican in Waco, 4 Sept. 2016 (written draft)
Mutual Suspicion
But no one reads the Bible as an extraterrestrial or an angel; our church community provides the colored glasses through which we read, and the framework, or horizon, or limits within which we understand. My "glasses" were of Dutch Reformed Calvinist construction, and my limiting framework stopped very far short of anything "Catholic!' The Catholic Church was regarded with utmost suspicion. In the world of the forties and fifties in which I grew up, that suspicion may have been equally reciprocated by most Catholics. Each group believed that most of the other group were probably on the road to hell. Christian ecumenism and understanding has made astonishing strides since then.
Source: Peter Kreeft - Hauled aboard the Ark, http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm
Catholic Confession of Corruption
Years ago, Francis spoke harshly of the Protestant reformers. But in the run-up to the trip, he has had only words of praise for Luther. He recently called the German theologian a reformer of his time who rightly criticized a church that was "no model to imitate."
"There was corruption in the church, worldliness, attachment to money and power," Francis told reporters this summer.
They are the same abuses Francis has criticized in the 21st-century Catholic Church he now leads.
Source: Andrew Medichini, Jan M. Olsen & Nicole Winfield - Associated Press, "Pope on Reformation: Forgive 'errors' of past, forge unity", 31 Oct 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/news/reformer-pope-heads-sweden-mark-luthers-reforms-050227744.html
Bonhoeffer Prays With Catholics
Bonhoeffer was clearly charmed by the place, but as a Protestant pastor he was not completely at ease with everything he saw and experienced. “The Catholic Advent seems somewhat strange to me,” he wrote to Bethge. At Finkenwalde, the Lord’s Supper had been celebrated once each week. At Ettal, Bonhoeffer could go to Mass and share in the prayers and readings, but, as he was not a member of the Catholic Church, he could not partake of the bread and wine at communion. “I am longing for the Lord’s Supper,” he said. Still, Bonhoeffer’s presence at what he called “quite a wonderful Mass” did bear witness to a kind of broken unity, a sanctorum communio not yet fully realized in the visible church of the undivided Christ here and now. Several weeks before Bonhoeffer arrived in Ettal, as war raged across Europe, Pope Pius XII had issued a Motu Proprio calling for a “crusade of prayer,” inviting Catholics around the globe to join in a prayer for world peace. In a letter to Bethge, Bonhoeffer referred to the Pope’s decree: “Today the pope has ordered a prayer for peace in the whole church. Could we not also have prayed along with them? I did.”
Source: Dietrich Bonhoeffer - As quoted by Timothy George in "Bonhoeffer at Ettal: Advent", First Things, 12 Dec 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/12/bonhoeffer-at-ettal-advent-1940
Kreeft - Learning From Each Other
Catholics and Protestants learning from each other "is just an inherently important subject," Kreeft said, noting that when he undertook the project he did not even realize the timing of the book's release would coincide with the year of Protestantism's 500th birthday.
Source: Brandon Showalter - "God Is Moving to Unite Catholics and Protestants as Culture Crumbles, Says Peter Kreeft (Interview)", Christian Post, 31 May 2017, http://www.christianpost.com/news/god-moving-unite-catholics-protestants-culture-crumbles-peter-kreeft-185719/#U1qdy1mDie2ToSSB.99
The Holy Spirit Does New Things (which we can miss)
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/
Catholics rejoice in Anglican course
While no magisterial statement has been forthcoming, Catholic officials have expressed themselves positively: Nicky Gumbel, an Anglican curate at Holy Trinity, Brompton who functions as a chief spokesman for Alpha, was presented on the strength of his Alpha involvement to the Pope in February 2004, an audience made possible by another senior churchman who is a firm advocate for Alpha – Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher to the Papal Household. (See Alpha News 2004) In France, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, recorded remarks on the Alpha introductory video, saying, “For the French church, Alpha is a great opportunity for our time. It is a wonderful gift that we have received from England.” (Ibid) Additionally, Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien wrote in a brochure for an Alpha conference in Glascow, “I see the Alpha course as an initial and very important tool for … the ‘rechristianization of Scotland.’” (Ibid) In Austria, Salzburg’s Archbishop Dr. Alois Kothgasser observed about Alpha, “I rejoice that this course now also is increasingly spreading within the Catholic Church in Austria and that through it people find a living faith in Jesus Christ.” (Alpha für Katholiken 2003, p. 1) („Ich freue mich, dass dieser Kurs nun auch in der Katholischen Kirche in Österreich immer mehr Verbreitung findet and dass durch ihn Menschen zu einem lebendigen Glauben an Jesus Christus finden.“)
Source: Cardinal Philippe Barbarin - Alpha News 2004, as quoted in footnote 45 of "Evangelicals Cooperatively Evangelising & Discipling with Catholics in Faithfulness to Evangelical Distinctives", by Paul Miller
Forgiving Their Father's Murderer
Police have said Stephens apparently chose the grandfather of 14 at random.
The daughters spoke proudly of the example their father set for them in faith and forgiveness.
"I promise you, I could not do that if I did not know God, if I didn't know him as my God and my savior, I could not forgive that man," Debbie Godwin said.
Godwin-Baines added, "It's just what our parents taught us. They didn't talk it, they lived it. Neighbors would do things to us, and we would say, 'Dad, are we going to forgive them really?' And he would say, 'Yes, we have to.' "
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
Eastern Orthodox Comment on Division & Unity
Given that I am Orthodox, I can't follow Leithart's vision for the future of the Church. But the notion that the unity of Christians is unacceptably utopian and that Christian division is something to be celebrated is foolish. Christians believe in more than contingent historical circumstances cementing division. Christians believe in the immanent providence of God, animated by the Holy Spirit, who overcomes the sin of man in order to create a new humanity in Christ: and Scripture absolutely reviles disunity. That there is disunity doesn't entail that we should be reconciled to it, any more than pervasive sexual immorality entails that we should reconcile ourselves to it because of the sinful tendencies of fallen man.
Source: Kabane - Youtube comment from "Kabane", an Eastern Orthodox believer, in response to Dr. Peter Leithart's preview of his new book, The End of Protestantism, https://youtu.be/jUYFftPlfyI
Praying for Each Other
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Source: Bible - 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
Pope Francis honors Martin Luther
Asked what Catholics can learn from Lutherans and what they should value of the Lutheran tradition, Pope Francis responded, “Two words come to my mind: reform and Scripture.”
At a “difficult time for the church,” Martin Luther tried “to remedy a complex situation,” the pope said, but for a variety of reasons, including political pressure, his reform movement triggered the division of the church. But Luther’s intuition was not altogether wrong, the pope said, because the church is called to be “‘semper reformanda’ (always reforming).”
In addition, he said, “Luther took a great step by putting the Word of God into the hands of the people” and giving them the Bible in their language, rather than in Latin.
Source: Pope Francis - Quoted by Catholic News Service in "Pope on why he’s going to Sweden: ‘Closeness does all of us good’", 28 Oct 2016, https://cnstopstories.com/2016/10/28/pope-on-why-hes-going-to-sweden-closeness-does-all-of-us-good/
Reconciliation & Unity - Core to the Church
Paul here was writing to those who had already put their faith in Christ, yet were now estranged from him and his companions who were carrying the message of the Gospel. This fragmented relationship gave way to a disconnect from God's purposes towards them. To be estranged from God's ambassadors and community was to be estranged from God himself. Alternatively, to be reconciled to them was to be reconciled in Christ to God.
There is an urgency in Paul which invites his pleading with this fragmented community. Reconciliation and unity are not subsidiary realities to the Gospel, but at the core of salvation and what it means to be the church. If God was in Christ to reconcile the world to himself, and he is now in the church, then he must be at work within the church to reconcile men one to another.
God continues to work to reconcile the community of the redeemed and the church is still his chosen method in revealing himself. The message of salvation is incapable of being disconnected from its incarnation in the community of Christ. As Christ works through to us to plead to the world, he is also at work among us in a similar way with the plea, 'be reconciled to God,' and with it, 'be reconciled with each other.’
Source: A2J Community - Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 5", 22 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-5
Catholics & Lutherans
In the document the leaders "confess our guilt before God on behalf of our churches, asking God and each other for forgiveness and committing ourselves before God to continue to deepen our togetherness."
A service "of penitence and reconciliation" will be held on 11 March next year in the German city of Hildesheim with local churches encouraged to follow suit.
Other ecumenical initiatives to mark the anniversary include a pilgrimage to Israel / Palestine by church leaders.
Pope Francis is also set to begin marking the occasion next month with a service alongside Bishop Munib Younan, president of the Lutheran World Federation, at Lund, in Sweden. They will pray for forgiveness and ask for healing of the wounds inflicted on each other since the Reformation.
Source: Harry Farley - As quoted by Harry Farley, "After centuries of separation, evangelicals and Catholics look to shared future", Christian Today eMagazine, 22 September 2016, http://www.christiantoday.com/article/after.centuries.of.separation.evangelicals.and.catholics.look.to.shared.future/96072.htm
From Terry Mitchell
Went to a small gathering of couples tonight .. . By happenstance, we listed to a speaker talk about divisiveness, hate, bigotry, racism, political slandering . . . And often people use "selected" rules and viewpoints to support their position . . . Everyone looks for a loophole through which their behavior is condoned and justified . . .
In reality, we are simply called to love one another. Not love one another if they are this or that, or believe this or that, or have this style of behavior or that . . . It is not a wish, but a command. The command is simply "love one another". No conditions. No loopholes.
And then ask yourself today and every day, "What does love require of me?"
It was convicting, yet freeing. If we simply "love one another" unconditionally, so many issues just go away.
Love one another. I will try to do just that.
Source: Terry Mitchell - Posted on FB 10 Nov 2016
Let's Come to Our Senses!
When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.
Source: Bible - Luke 15:17-20