74 – Hanna’s parents were gassed in the death camp at Chelmno, Poland, on May 3,1942. On May 3, 2015 she read from her book in the city of Bonn, Germany.
75 – When Hanna finished Markus came to the microphone. “Hanna, my grandfather was an SS Officer at Chelmno when your parents were there.”
76 – He continued. “I don’t know what to say. I can only stand here and ask for forgiveness.” Hanna went to him. “I forgive you.” They embraced.
77 – With tears the grandson of a German SS Officer asked forgiveness of a Jewish Holocaust survivor. She forgave him. The ground became softer.
Source: George Miley - Maturing Toward Wholeness in the Inner Life, Chapter 1, "Restore the Ancient Anointings", http://www.quellen.org
Pelikan
In 1959, on the eve of the Second Vatican Council, [Jaroslav Pelikan] coined another phrase of continuing relevance when he wrote of “the tragic necessity of the Reformation.”
That phrase appeared in a book titled The Riddle of Roman Catholicism, published while Pelikan was still a Lutheran. Much later in his life, in 1998, he was received into the fellowship of the Orthodox Church in America. This decision represented an Eastward tilt in Pelikan’s own spirituality that had been long in the making. But he continued to believe that the great religious upheaval in the Christian West at the dawn of the modern era had involved both the necessity of reform and a division at once scandalous and tragic.
Source: Timothy George - First Things, "The Reformation: A Tragic Necessity", 11 July 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/07/the-reformation-a-tragic-necessity
Only One Thing Brings Us Together
So if you're listening to this, I want to encourage you to examine your life. Think about the things that actually get in the way of your relationship with others - issues, doctrines, practices, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture. All those things are important, God has given us those things as gifts. But there's one thing that brings us together. As the Apostle Paul said to a church that was filled with divisions, the Apostle Paul said, "I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." So we come to the cross, we deny ourselves, we set our identity aside, and we cling to our identity in Christ, and that brings us into perfect, transcendent, supernatural unity.
Source: Gary Kinnaman - "Unity in Diversity", YouTube video by LightBalloon, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HXZlgjSTQ
The Pope Records a Video on the Archbishop of Canterbury's Phone
In a video recorded on the phone of the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to join the worldwide “Thy Kingdom Come” prayer campaign May 30-June 9.
Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, used his phone to record the video message by Francis when the two met at the Vatican April 11.
...
“We are praying that the Spirit would inspire and equip us to share the good news of Jesus Christ with our friends and families, our communities and networks,” according to the www.thykingdomcome.global website.
Source: Cindy Wooden - "Pope encourages Catholics to join ecumenical prayer campaign", Crux (from Catholic News Service), 20 May 2019
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/05/20/pope-encourages-catholics-to-join-ecumenical-prayer-campaign/?fbclid=IwAR0L4BKA6fJDMsdLdwtz64Y1yDcEPnHpTka_SaIME7Jt_vqlN3mP6bqAMGs
The Harvest is found in the Field
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
Remaining in a White Church
Lauren Brown, who leads the South Jersey Be the Bridge group, said that her faith motivated her to become involved in reconciliation. That starts with being honest about the racial divides in the country, she said.
“Tasha has a clear understanding that we can’t heal what we don’t acknowledge and that the only way to heart transformation and bridge building starts with truth and is delivered with grace,” she said.
...
Racial reconciliation has become a controversial topic in evangelical churches, like the ones that Morrison has belonged to. Some black Christians have decided to leave white churches and focus on being part of predominantly black congregations. Others have criticized seminaries and Christian conferences for their lack of diversity.
Morrison says she feels called to remain in a mostly white congregation.
“I think that’s my story, and that’s the space that I’ve been in the last 10 years. And that’s the space that needs this work,” she said.
Source: Nicola A. Menzie - "‘Be the Bridge’ fosters dialogue between black and white Christians", Baptist Standard, March 19, 2019
https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/faith-culture/bridge-fosters-dialogue-black-white-christians/
John Dawson
In responding to the broken heart of God, we need to identify with the sins of the nation in personal and corporate repentance. Even though Nehemiah was apparently a very righteous man and innocent of the specific sins that the nation of Israel had committed, when he prayed for the restoration of Israel he prayed as a member of the guilty nation, identifying with their sins, saying "I and my father's house have sinned." (Nehemiah 1:6-7) Ezra went even further when he said, "Oh my God: I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquitiies have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens" (Ezra 9:4) Both Ezra and Nehemiah were righteous men, but they so identified with the people that they were interceding for that they considered themselves guilty with them. You may be a righteous person who is not involved in any direct way with the vices present in your nation, but there is no temptation which is not common to humanity (1 Cor. 10:13). We can all identify with the roots of any given sin, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)
Source: John Dawson - What Every Christian Should Know About Reconciliation, p. 20
Richard Harvey
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/
Family Secrets Brought To Light - And Healed
Callaway's descendants, who only learned about him recently, welcomed the occasion as a chance to right wrongs and bring about healing in the community.
Deborah Tatum, whose grandfather was the brother of Callaway's father, learned his name and his story in 2014 while researching genealogy. She was surprised to learn about the terrible secret but could understand why her relatives may have kept it hidden.
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
Catholic Archbishop working *with* the Reformers!
[Hermann von Wied, Archbishop of Cologne] went so far as to incorporate Protestants into his reforming efforts: “in 1539 von Wied invited Melanchthon and Martin Bucer to help him in preparing a more thoroughgoing scheme of reform for his diocese, and although Melanchthon eventually refused to compromise himself in this way, Bucer accepted. Similarly, in the same year, Bucer joined with Georg Witzel, a married priest whose early enthusiasm for Luther had cooled and who had returned to Roman obedience, in drafting a Church structure for Ducal Saxony in the wake of the death of Luther’s instransigent enemy Duke Georg.”
It was a remarkable sight: “an Archbishop of the Western Church who openly regretted the failure of repeated efforts to reform the Church, while still proclaiming his loyalty to the Holy See.”
Source: Diarmaid MacCulloch - "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
To Find the Wounded Heart
"Sr. Joela's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
The Nuns Who Ended The French Revolution
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
Gaius
(5) My beloved friend Gaius, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters (possibly representatives or missionaries from the church in Ephesus), even though they are strangers to you. (6) They have told the church (in Ephesus) about your love. Please send them on their journey in a way that honors God. (7) They went out from us (the church in Ephesus) for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ, taking no help from the unbelievers. (8) Therefore, we should always provide hospitality to such people, so that we may work together for the truth.
Source: John the Beloved - 3 John 1:5-8 (IEB)
Where are the Seeds of Hatred?
"Trembling, I realized that if I looked into my own heart I could find seeds of hatred there, too. Arrogant thoughts, feelings of irritation toward others, coldness, anger, envy, indifference - these are the roots of what happened in Nazi Germany. And they are there in every human being. As I recognized - more clearly than ever before - that I myself stood in desperate need of forgiveness, I was able to forgive, and finally I felt completely free." -- Hela Erlich, Holocaust survivor
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.36
Life in the Bruderhof
Incidents like these are a chance to have contact with other people; one of our membership vows is the explicit promise to hash out our problems with people face to face. It is also true, though, that we sometimes just need to joyfully clean up a mess we did not make, or take on a task in addition to our normal work load. Last week one of the other families couldn’t manage their barn chore day and asked us to cover.
Source: Ian Barth - "Why I teach my sons about hard work", Voices blog entry on Bruderhof.com, 25 Jan 2017, http://www.bruderhof.com/en/voices-blog/2017/january/why-i-teach-my-sons-about-hard-work
The State of the Church - According to Paul
(11) For, my brothers and sisters, some people from Chloe’s household have told me that there are divisions among you, (12) because one claims, “I follow Paul”; another claims, “I follow Apollos”; another claims, “I follow Peter”; and still another, “I follow Christ.” (13) Christ can’t be divided!
Source: The Apostle Paul - 1 Corinthians 1:11-13 (IEB)
Trey Kent - Racism in Austin
AWAKENING #3 I’ve always hated racism, but more passively than actively. Recently Jesus told me that the prayer movement would be a key part in seeing racial walls come down. The last few weeks I’ve been on a crash course reading two Martin Luther King, Jr. books and one about the slave turned statesman named Fredrick Douglas. I’ve recently joined two citywide groups of leaders that are working to end racism in ATX and to bring John 17 unity to our city. All because God said, get busy working to see My church become one!
Source: Trey Kent - "A Pastor's Heart" blog post on Northwest Fellowship, 7 July 2020
https://northwestfellowship.com/blog/2020/07/07/a-pastors-heart
Azusa Now
Father Alexei, I know you are the official representative of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese on ecumenical events, so what do you see as the most significant fruits of the Catholic-Protestant interaction at Azusa Now?
“There are two things,” he answered. “First, this is very much in line with Pope Francis’ thinking. In ‘The Joy of the Gospel,’ he writes about our relationship with fellow Christians and he writes these words:
‘We must never forget that we are pilgrims journeying alongside one another. This means that we must have sincere trust in our fellow pilgrims, putting aside all suspicion or mistrust and turn our gaze to what we are seeking.’
“And, that is exactly what we did in the Coliseum on Saturday,” he said.
“The other significance is the forgivingness factor: at the end of the week for Christian unity, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the ‘un-Gospel-like behavior on the part of Catholics against Christians of other churches.’
“The mutual exchange of forgiveness between Catholic and Evangelical-Christians on Saturday wondrously reflected this forgiveness.”
Source: Jennifer Wing Atencio - "Christians pack Coliseum for revival: Catholics join thousands of believers to mark 110th anniversary of Pentecostal Azuza revival", Angelus News, 13 April 2016
https://angelusnews.com/news/christians-pack-coliseum-for-revival-catholics-join-thousands-of-believers-to-mark-110th-anniversary-of-pentecostal-azuza-revival
Matteo Calisi & Lou Engle
The music quieted while the constantly boisterous crowd fell to a noticeable hush as the “men-in-black,” collared Catholic priests and their friends, who were incidentally wearing black, took center-stage. Standing with my right foot about one inch from the stage drop, I looked out on the crowd to see trepidation on faces and looks of curiosity, and even a noticeable pause of breath.
Matteo Calisi, former president of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, was introduced and began to address the crowd in Italian with Dr. Bruno Ierullo translating:
“We are a delegation, a Catholic delegation. … I come from Italy. And, I bring you a salute from 150 million Charismatic Catholics.” As the crowd cheered, Calisi then spoke to the crowd about the influence of the Asuza Street Revival on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
Following these remarks, he ceremoniously laid prostrate on the stage and kissed Lou Engle’s feet in an act of reconciliatory love. “We are just in a holy moment right here,” Engle emotionally cried out. Then he continued to call out the other church elders onto the stage while he fell to his knees reciprocally kissing Matteo’s feet.
“Jesus, I thank you!” cried out Calisi while Engle kneeled before his feet, “because you are breaking the spirit of division! You are preparing a great revival in the event of this call, like you did 100 years ago. Do it again! Do it again! Holy Spirit let your Spirit come again for a billion Catholics.”
Source: Jennifer Wing Atencio - "Christians pack Coliseum for revival: Catholics join thousands of believers to mark 110th anniversary of Pentecostal Azuza revival", Angelus News, 13 April 2016
https://angelusnews.com/news/christians-pack-coliseum-for-revival-catholics-join-thousands-of-believers-to-mark-110th-anniversary-of-pentecostal-azuza-revival
Mike Bickle: Catholics 1st to 24/7
Mike Bickle shared his testimony with The Tidings while dodging heavy raindrops by standing under the cover of an outdoor kitchen canopy by the greenroom tent.
“When I was in my 20s I was asked to pastor a church and I never officially went back to the Catholic Church, but I also don’t feel like I intentionally left it either. At the House of Prayer, I encourage people to learn the teachings of the Catholic saints, as the experts on contemplative prayer, such as Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross,” he said.
“In fact, the idea for 24-hour prayer and musical praise comes from the writings of King David; however, it was first done in the Christian church by the Catholics!” Bickle joyously expressed with his famously contagious grin.
Source: Jennifer Wing Atencio - "Christians pack Coliseum for revival: Catholics join thousands of believers to mark 110th anniversary of Pentecostal Azuza revival", Angelus News, 13 April 2016
https://angelusnews.com/news/christians-pack-coliseum-for-revival-catholics-join-thousands-of-believers-to-mark-110th-anniversary-of-pentecostal-azuza-revival