Sister Constance

Meet the nuns who put an end to the French Revolution. "The first to sing as she ascended was the youngest of the Carmelites, Sister Constance. Called by the executioners, she knelt before her Mother Superior, asked her blessing and permission to die, and then placed herself beneath the guillotine without any need of assistance or force. Each of the remaining nuns followed in exactly the same manner. During the executions, no sounds could be heard save the singing of the sisters, their chorus reduced one by one, and the remorseless slicing of the guillotine. The customary drum roll did not take place, and no one in the crowd cheered, laughed, or mocked the victims."

Source: Author Unknown - As posted by David Gabler on FB, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYq614xqnlI

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!
----------- Chorus ---------------
So please believe that I'm sorry. I know I'm wrong, I often am.
You've got the right to be angry. If you stay mad, I'll understand.
But you should know that I feel guilty. It isn't right, those things I've done.
So please forgive me and I'll try harder to love you better, so much better from now on!
----------------------------------
Oh You're special but you never know. I hardly ever let it show,
the way I really feel inside, shrouded in my fear and pride.
And God forbid I let you see the most authentic parts of me.
The shame of my impurity or the pain and insecurity,
But never mind the reasons why, the fact is that you're God's and I have judged you as if you were mine.
This is where I draw the line.
I'm choosing now to put your needs before my own
And happily die to self and try my best to love you more and love me less.

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

"On the road to full unity"

Greeting the German delegation in his private library, Francis sought to give new impetus to the effort toward Christian unity. He encouraged evangelicals and Catholics, when considering an ecumenical initiative, to ask themselves: “Can we share it with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we do another stretch of the road together?

“We have the same baptism: We must walk together, without growing tired,” Francis said. There is no going back on the road to unity he assured the delegation; Catholics and evangelicals must “continue to witness together to the Gospel and to continue on the road to full unity.”

Source: Gerard O'Connell - "German Evangelical Church issues historic invite to Pope Francis", America : The Jesuit Review, 6 Feb 2017, http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/06/german-evangelical-church-issues-historic-invite-pope-francis

Theopolis

What kind of churches do we at Theopolis dream of? Churches like these:
....
Cities where all the churches pray and worship and labor together, where the pastors serve the interests of the city, speaking with one voice to civic leaders. Pastoral associations that include representatives of every church—Evangelical, mainline, charismatic, Catholic, Orthodox. Local pastoral associations that discuss theological differences, and do so honestly, vigorously, charitably, striving toward a common confession of the faith.

Source: Peter Leithart - Theopolis Institute blog, "Reformational Catholicism, A Wish List", 20 October 2016, https://theopolisinstitute.com/reformational-catholicism-a-wish-list/

Dennis Jernigan

However, this doesn't happen in the pulpit. For Jernigan and his family, ground zero of the fight against sin begins in their living room.

"Even to this day, my wife and I (host a) meeting every Wednesday night where people can come," Jernigan says. "It's just like Vegas: what happens in the living room, stays in the living room. People feel safe."

If believers genuinely want to change the culture, here's where the rubber meets the road, Jernigan says: "What if every believer in America saw their home and family as a conduit of healing? We'd change the culture overnight.

"Stop expecting church, church leadership to minister to people we're involved with. Never once did we go to barn to get the harvest, but we went to the field. ... We are all as new creations called to be ministers of reconciliation."

Source: Dennis Jernigan - Quoted by Jessilyn Justice in "Ex-Gay Songwriter Believes You May Be Born Gay, but It Doesn't Matter", Charisma Magazine, 2 Dec 2015, http://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/25004-ex-gay-songwriter-believes-you-may-be-born-gay-but-it-doesn-t-matter

Amy Cogdell

When I was younger, I used to believe that all the great Catholic Christians of history would have been Protestants if they had only had the opportunity or sound teaching. The more I read of their writing, the more I understand that they were truly Catholic with all the particular quirks of Catholic spirituality . Many of my favorite writers are from the Counter-Reformation and they spoke out strongly against the reformers. I often like to think of them in heaven, singing next to the Wesley brothers.

Source: Amy Cogdell - Personal correspondence

"The past shapes the present"

Callaway's lynching lived in whispers among African-Americans of that era. As they passed on, in the absence of official records, media accounts or a gravestone, Callaway faded from the town's collective memory.
Almost no one in LaGrange today knew Austin Callaway's name until recently -- not his descendants, not the local NAACP president, not the mayor, not even Police Chief Louis Dekmar.

As the chief learned more about the lynching, he came to understand how it strained relations between his force and the African-American community. He decided it was time to apologize for law enforcement's role and acknowledge its impact on community relations.

"The past shapes the present," he said in an interview before the event.

Source: Emanuella Grinberg, CNN - "'Justice failed Austin Callaway': Town attempts to atone for 1940 lynching", Emanuella Grinberg, CNN, 28 Jan 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/us/lagrange-georgia-callaway-1940-lynching/index.html

From Conflict to Communion

“The meeting in Lund stems from a process of dialogue spanning several decades,” said the Rev. Michael Bjerkhagen, official chaplain to the king of Sweden. “A milestone in this process was the document, ‘From Conflict to Communion,’ signed in 2013. In this document Lutherans and Catholics express sorrow and regret at the pain that they have caused each other, but also gratitude for the theological insights that both parties have contributed.”

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/

Early History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

In 1913, the Faith and Order Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church published a leaflet promoting prayer for unity on Whitsunday and in 1915 published a Manual of Prayer for Unity. The preparatory Conference on Faith and Order at Geneva in 1920 appealed for a special week of prayer for Christian unity ending with Whitsunday. Faith and Order continued to issue “Suggestions for an Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity” until 1941 when it changed the dates for its week to that of the January Octave. In this way, Christians, who for reasons of conscience, could not join with others in prayer services could share in united prayer at the same time. These various efforts while not attaining wide observance among the churches was to pave the way for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which came to be observed widely throughout Christendom.

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

Pope's Message to Taizé Youth Gathering

Young Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic Christians, by these days lived in real fraternity you manifest your desire to be protagonists of history and not let others decide your future. The Pope encourages you to stand firm in hope by letting the Lord live in your hearts and your daily lives. With Jesus, the faithful friend who never disappoints, you will be able to walk along the path toward the future with joy and devote your talents and abilities for the good of all.

Source: Pope Francis - As quoted in "Pope sends message to Taizé youth gathering" by Vatican Radio, 27 Dec 2016, http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/12/27/pope_sends_message_to_taize_youth_gathering/1281913

Bergoglio & Cantalamessa

Long before he became pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was practising this “ecumenical ecumenism” in Buenos Aires, giving his support to huge joint Catholic-evangelical meetings in Luna Park stadium.
Two of them were attended by Cantalamessa, who was deeply impressed by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires’s extraordinary openness to the current of Grace. “I’ve never seen a bishop in front of an interconfessional audience declare, ‘this is the Church’,” he told me during a break on Thursday.

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/

The Bishop of Gozo

Why did the Bishop of Gozo make this gesture? Here are a few thoughts:

1) Jesus prayed to the Father that Christians would be one in him and the Father is answering this prayer. (John 17)

2) There is a rising tide of Christians from all traditions whose passion is to offer themselves to see this prayer of Jesus become a growing reality in our day.

3) The Holy Spirit is breaking down barriers and opening up unimaginable possibilities.

4) This Bishop is simply following the example of Pope Francis.

Source: Ryan Thurman - "Signs of Hope: A Lenten Surprise", A2J Blog post on 2 March 2017, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/signs-of-hope-a-lenten-surprise

Pentecostal & Charismatic Movements

Paragraph 14 - For more than a hundred years, Pentecostal and other charismatic movements have become very widespread across the globe. These powerful movements have put forward new emphases that have made many of the old confessional controversies seem obsolete. The Pentecostal movement is present in many other churches in the form of the charismatic movement, creating new commonalities and communities across confessional boundaries. Thus, this movement opens up new ecumenical challenges that will play a significant role in the observance of the Reformation in 2017.

Source: Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity - Conflict to Communion: Report of the Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity, p. 14

Forgive ... and forget?

As Glenn's life (and countless others) shows, forgiving always involves the conscious decision to stop hating, because hating can never help. Contrary to the simplistic proverb "forgive and forget", however, it does not necessarily require forgetting. Who can cast off the memories of a childhood marked by abuse? and how can someone in a wheelchair possibly forget that he or she will never walk again? Nor does it need to involve confronting the perpetrator. In the case of sexual trauma, this is probably not even advisable. Still, for some people, a face to face reckoning may prove to be the only way forward.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.9

Fr. Ruff

Father Frank [Ruff] said good relationships between denominations are a matter of the heart as well as the head.
“It is not enough to have formal agreements and scholarly statements,” he cautioned. “You have to bring the attitude of respect and cooperation with each other.”

Source: Fr. Frank Ruff - As quoted by Frank Lesko in "After the Fire", Posted 3 Jan 2017 on Glenmary Home Missioners, http://www.glenmary.org/after-the-fire/

Sincere Mistakes Rather Than Dishonest Rationalizations

I was never taught to hate Catholics, but to pity them and to fear their errors. I learned a serious concern for truth that to this day I find sadly missing in many Catholic circles. The typical Calvinist anti-Catholic attitude I knew was not so much prejudice, judgment with no concern for evidence, but judgment based on apparent and false evidence: sincere mistakes rather than dishonest rationalizations.

Source: Peter Kreeft - Hauled aboard the Ark, http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm
http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm

"Each one of us forgives the 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

History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

What were some of the important historical antecedents to this octave of prayer? Certainly in the 19th century, the desire for Christians to pray together was part of the spirit of the age among those alarmed by the divisions which weakened the power of Christian witness. In 1846, for instance, the Evangelical Alliance was established in London and had developed both international and inter-church connections. Ruth Rouse noted that it was “the one and only definitely ecumenical organization . . . which arose out of the Evangelical Awakening in the 19th century” (A History of the Ecumenical Movement: 1517-1948). The concept of unity espoused in their constitution was union among Christian individuals of different churches for renewal in the Spirit; they would not deal with the question of the reunion of churches. The Alliance set aside one week beginning on the first Sunday of the year, for united prayer by members of different churches to pray for renewal in the Spirit.

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

Catholics & Evangelicals

Catholics are already copying Protestant techniques for generating enthusiasm in their children (there’s even a growing Catholic niche within Contemporary Christian Music), and evangelicals are tinkering with the model of Catholic education in their own Christian schools. More substantively, many Catholics appreciate the straightforward earnestness of evangelical devotion, while evangelicals are beginning to appropriate the spiritual exercises and theological precision developed in the Catholic tradition. This is possible only because Catholics and evangelicals both have a rich love for Christ, and want it to get richer.

Source: Daniel P. Moloney - As quoted in a First Things letter to the editor, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2001/03/peter-and-mary-together