“Here in Iraq we Christians cannot afford to throw out words carelessly as the media in the West can do,” he added. “I would ask those in the media who use every issue to stir up division to think about this.”
Source: Archbishop Bashar Warda - Catholic Archbishop of Erbil, Iraq, as quoted in Archbishop to Anti-Trump Protesters: "Where Were You When Muslim Terrorists Were Slaughtering And Persecuting Christians?", Freedom Outpost, http://freedomoutpost.com/archbishop-to-anti-trump-protesters-where-were-you-when-muslim-terrorists-were-slaughtering-and-persecuting-christians/
An Evangelical Megachurch in Colorado Springs
I grew up in Colorado Springs, Colo., a Catholic girl in the evangelical New Jerusalem. In addition to Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs is home to more than 100 evangelical ministries. I spent my adolescence defending myself against evangelicals who did not believe I was saved or who argued that liturgy and ritual were dead because they were formulaic or routine.
So I was surprised to learn that New Life Church, a nondenominational, charismatic evangelical megachurch in Colorado Springs, with more than 10,000 members, recently embraced more traditional liturgies as well as social justice work without evangelization. New Life now recites the Nicene Creed, which it uses as its statement of faith, offers Communion at most of its locations on Sunday mornings, teaches its members about the liturgical calendar and has a home for unwed mothers experiencing homelessness called Mary’s House—as in Mary, the Mother of God.
Source: Anna Keating - Online article in America - The Jesuit Review, 2 May 2019
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/05/02/why-evangelical-megachurches-are-embracing-some-catholic-traditions
Kim Kollins
In the late 1990s discussions began to take place about a possible initiative involving new church charismatic leaders with leaders from CCR. A prime mover was Kim Kollins, an American convert to Catholicism from an independent charismatic background, who had come to Europe as a missionary, and rather quickly became a Catholic. The fruit has been a series of meeting entitled Gatherings in the Holy Spirit, gathering leaders from both sides and meeting every two years—always in Rome at the request of the "nondenominationals." From these meetings came provisional discussions between the "nondenom" leaders and officials of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the Unity of Christians, which have led in 2012 to the decision to begin a three-year round of conversations in 2014 on the theme, "Authority, Revelation, and the Word of God."
Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 62 [It's Only, by Kim Kollins - the story of her conversion]
German Lutheran Identificational Repentance after WWII
Another example of mainline denominational corporate confession comes from the German Lutheran Church. At the end of World War II, in October 1945, the newly formed United Evangelical Lutheran Church, under the influence of one of its leaders, the prominent anti-Nazi theologian and pastor, Rev. Dr. Martin Niemöller, who had resisted the Nazis alongside the famous Christian martyr, Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, issued the Stuttgart Confession of Guilt (Stuttgarter Schulderklärung). In the Stuttgart Confession, the German Lutheran church identified with and confessed the corporate guilt of the German people for the widespread suffering perpetrated by the former Nazi government with words like the following:
With great pain we say: Through us unending suffering has been brought upon many nations and countries. . . . Now a new beginning should be made in our churches.
Apparently the Lutheran denominational leadership felt such identificational repentance was in keeping with their theological understanding of Christian confession. This kind of corporate confession of national guilt has been articulated and discussed over the past decades by German theologians like Dr. Martin Honecker and Dr. Gerhard Besier, as well as by German New Testament scholars like Dr. Bertold Klappert of the University of Göttingen.
Source: Dr. Gary S. Greig - The Biblical Foundations of Identificational Repentance as One Prayer Pattern Useful to Advance God's Kingdom and Evangelism, April 2001
Lutheran & Catholic Charities Working Together
In addition to the ecumenical prayer service Oct. 31 in Lund — the city where the Lutheran World Federation was founded in 1947 — Pope Francis and leaders of the Lutheran World Federation will witness the signing of a cooperation agreement between the federation’s World Service and Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based umbrella organization of national Catholic charities.
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/
We Ordinary Catholics Must ...
"It cannot just be Pope Francis who puts action behind the words that Catholics and Lutherans must get closer to each other," said Ewa Siekierski, a Danish Catholic who crossed over from Copenhagen into Sweden to see the pope. "We — ordinary Catholics — must also do (our part) for it to become a reality."
Source: Ewa Siekierski - As quoted by Andrew Medichini, Jan M. Olsen & Nicole Winfield of the 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
Why am I an Anglican?
Why am I an Anglican?
Not so much because of beauty or the stability of the liturgy, but because it puts me in touch or rather opens a window into the historic practices of the saints east and west who like each of us lived into the call to pursue a fully devoted Christian life. Their examples, understandings, and patterns of life past down have strengthened and grounded my own Christian walk.
Source: Alexei N. Laushkin - Posted on FB 24 Sept 2020
Ballymena, Northern Ireland
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 would have been disastrous," he said.
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
Hanna Miley
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