1st Time Since Reformation

For the first time since the Reformation, the Evangelical Church in Germany, which represents the vast majority of Protestants in that country, has invited the pope to visit their homeland, the nation where the Reformation began. An ecumenical delegation from Germany visited Pope Francis in the Vatican on Feb. 6 as part of the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of that event.

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

A Catholic Cardinal Honors Protestant Anabaptists

The Bruderhof is an international Christian community of almost 3,000 people in 23 settlements on four continents. Their goal is radical discipleship in the spirit of the first days of the Church in Jerusalem.

From eight years of friendship with Pastor Arnold, his wonderful wife, Verena, and the hundreds of members centered at Woodcrest in Rifton, I can tell you they are “a light to the world.” I love them, and have learned much from them, and my predecessors claimed the same. As the late Father Benedict Groeschel whispered to me, “They’re better Catholics than I am!”

Source: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan  -  "Radical Discipleship Lived in Our Midst", Catholic New York, 27 April 2017, http://www.cny.org/stories/radical-discipleship-lived-in-our-midst,15453

Reformed Churches Join *The Joint Doctrine on Justification by Faith*

“A new phase of friendship and cooperation, said Pope Francis, on welcoming the adherence of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) to the ecumenical consensus on the Doctrine of Justification, on July 5, 2017 at Wittenberg in Germany, where Luther’s Reformation began in 1517.
...
Monsignor Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, represented the Catholic Church at the signing. He read a message of Pope Francis who welcomed it as “an eloquent sign of our commitment to continue together, as brothers and sisters in Christ, on the path from conflict to communion, from division to reconciliation.”

Source: Anne Kurian  -  "Pope Welcomes Adherence of the Reformed Churches to the Declaration on Justification", Zenit, 14 July 2017, https://zenit.org/articles/pope-welcomes-adherence-of-the-reformed-churches-to-the-declaration-on-justification/

1995

For Catholics it is easy to recognize 1995 as a key moment, being the year of the issue of John Paul II's encyclical letter on ecumenism, Ut Unum Sint. This may be the only papal encyclical that begins with a personal declaration: "I carry out this duty with the profound conviction that I am obeying the Lord, and with a clear sense of my own human frailty."

Source: Fr. Peter Hocken  -  Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 63 [Ut Unum Sint 4]

"Enormous Avalanche of Wrongs"

As for the freedom that comes from owning up to one's faults, Steve, an old friend of mine, says:

… The pivotal experience came inexplicably and unexpectedly: I was suddenly aware what an enormous avalanche of wrongs I had left behind me.  Before, this reality had been masked by pride adn by my wanting to look good in front of others.  But now, memories of everything I had ever done wrong poured out of me like a river of bile.  All I wanted was to be free, to have nothing dark and ugly and hidden within me; I wanted to make good, wherever I could, the wrongs I had done.  I had no excuses for myself - youth, circumstances or bad peers.  I was responsibile for what I had done.  On one page after another I poured it all out in clear detail. I felt as though an angel of repentance was slashing at my heart with his sword, such was the pain.  I wrote dozens of letters to people and organizations I had cheated, stolen from, and lied to.  Finally I felt truly free.


Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.168-169

Chip & Johanna

The Gaines shared, “Our family has made a commitment to put Christ first, a lifestyle our parents modeled for us very well. They showed us how to keep our marriage and family centered around God.

As for ‘Fixer Upper,’ we have been surprised at the impact of our faith through the show. We haven’t been overtly evangelical, but the rich feedback we have received on family and love all source from our faith. Jesus said the world would know His disciples by their love for one another, and we’ve glimpsed this in practice and strive for it every day.”

Source: Chip & Joanna Gaines  -  On CBS Sunday Morning, http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-couple-behind-fixer-upper/ , as quoted on http://qpolitical.com/1-chip-joanna-gaines-changing-america-easy-see/

Benjamin Berger

September 5: Repentance service at Christ Church

It is not very well known that UK and Germany shared the first protestant bishopric in Ottoman Jerusalem. Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem is the best known and most visible of this blessed period, which came to an abrupt and painful end in the 1880s. In a service, conducted by Canon Andrew White and witnessed by Messianic leader Benjamin Berger, this sin was brought before the Lord. In a letter to British intercessors GPC reported this memorable event to our friends in the UK.


Source: Global Prayer Call  -  Posted on their FB page 28 Sept 2016

Amy Cogdell

I believe we are living in remarkable days.  God is sharing his pain over division in the Church with many, both the great and the small.  Already I can see fruit.  Christians join together for prayer, dialogue and works of mercy in many places.  Still, I believe there is a greater glory to be revealed, the glory which Jesus prayed for His last night on earth.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. (John 17:22)

I want to share a memorable chapter in my story.  It began on a remarkable day, a day still vivid in my memory.

It was 2:00 am and I was pacing my dining room floor.  I had spent the entire day in a state of shock, though I could not understand why the events of the day had shaken me so.  In the morning I had felt impressed to call an old college friend, my freshman roommate.  I had planned to convey a simple message, but as we talked, God began opening me up and I found myself telling Margaret about some dreams I had been having.  One specific dream was set in my hometown Church of Christ, only worship in the church was nothing like I remembered. In my dream women played guitars  (which was forbidden in my conservative church), the pastor had long hair, and most shocking of all, he had invited a young Catholic woman to preach!  In the church of my youth, women were never allowed to preach and Catholics were not even considered Christian.

Another dream I had was set in a church that felt entirely foreign.  I saw men in black robes with long beards, speaking a language I did not recognize until I heard them chant “Kyrie Eleison.” While I did not understand these dreams fully, I knew they were a vision of increased unity in the worldwide Body of Christ.
After I had told Margaret my dreams, she turned the tables. “Amy,” she ventured tentatively. “I’ve been having dreams too, dreams about you.  I’ve been dreaming that we are sharing the Eucharist.  All these years I have been aching to ask you, why aren’t you Catholic?”

I was stunned. Margaret’s tenderness touched me deeply.  Something about her words stirred an ache in my gut, a longing for something unknown.  Yet part of me felt offended.  After all, I was the elder sister in the faith!  I had been a Christian for years before she had her conversion in college.  Such thoughts had to be nipped in the bud.  “Margaret,” I answered. “Your dream is beautiful. I know we are sisters in Christ, but I could never be Catholic because I don’t believe many teachings of the Catholic Church.”  She apologized for saying anything, and we hung up, both shaken.

I spent the rest of the day in a fog, recalling our conversation.  When my children finally went to bed, I took my Bible and read these words from Ezekiel, “Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, and I will put them with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’  I wondered if this Old Testament promise to Israel and Judah was also God’s heart for Protestants and Catholics.  I prayed for God to bind Protestants and Catholics together again, but still I felt no peace.  Because I could not sleep, I paced the floor.
About 2:00 am, a sudden, overwhelming physical pain hit my chest.  I fell to the floor with my hands over my heart groaning, “Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you, Jesus!”  I knew that my Lord was sharing something precious with me, an intimacy deeper than I had ever known.  He was allowing me to experience His pain over division in the Church – a pain like the pain of divorce, but deeper and broader, as only Christ’s heart could bear.

Until that night I had no idea that Christian division caused our Lord such pain.  I had always assumed that our differences were a small matter in God’s eyes.  Though I had little hope that we Christians could come to unity on earth, I was blissfully certain that God would work everything out in heaven.   Now God had called me out of complacency.  I knew He wanted me to pray with Him for His followers to be one as Jesus and the Father and the Spirit were one.

I took up this call only to discover God’s interruption of my life was not finished.  Quite unexpectedly, I found myself drawn to the Catholic Church just down the street in my neighborhood.  It was not a matter of dissatisfaction with my own church.  I loved our charismatic, evangelical church!  Even so, the pull I felt towards the Catholic parish down the street was strong and mysterious. 

One day, when I could resist no longer, I showed up for morning mass planning to hide in the back as an observer.  As it happened, there was no place for a blonde woman in her early 30’s to hide.  Daily mass was held in a small side chapel that held no more than twenty people. The average parishioner’s age was about 65.  Everyone was Hispanic except for me.  The mass was in Spanish, and I spoke no Spanish.  Nor was I the least bit familiar with the liturgy.  I didn’t know when to stand, when to kneel, how to make the gestures everyone else was making.  When mass was over, I ran home and cried.  Then I got up the next week and did it again, and again, and again.
After a few weeks of sporadic attendance, I thought I should meet the parish priest and explain my presence.  I planned to ask if I could offer some service to the parish – rides for the elderly, meals for the sick, or some other quiet, practical help. When I left the priest’s office, I found myself on the leadership team of the parish youth group despite my protestations that I was a Protestant and probably should not be teaching young Catholics.

During the next few months, I fell in love with my new Catholic family.  I met some of the kindest, most holy, most sacrificial people I had ever known.  I read Catholic theology voraciously.  I peppered my friend Margaret with all sorts of doctrinal questions.  And I repented for the arrogance and ignorance that had shaped my attitude toward the Catholic Church.

One day as I was reflecting on some passage by a Catholic author, my husband asked, “You aren’t seriously considering becoming Catholic, are you?”  Needing wisdom quickly, I prayed.  It was true that my heart was drawn to the Catholic Church, but I also loved my Protestant family.  More important than any personal desire was the unity of our family, and the honor I both owed and felt toward my husband.  “Thomas,” I answered. “I am not seriously considering doing anything you could not bless with your whole heart.”

Several months later, hidden away in a thousand-year-old church in Switzerland, Thomas gave me his full blessing.   During an afternoon of silent prayer, we both felt released to walk together as a Protestant/Catholic couple, living in the tension of a union which is true and deep and beautiful already, but incomplete.  We long for the day when we can share communion again.  Even more, we long for the return of our Lord who will “make all things new.”  Until then, we pray with Jesus that all Christians “may be perfected in unity so that the world may know Him.”

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Amy's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/amys-story.html

Latin America

In Latin American, Africa, and Asia, where united prayer among churches and identificational repentance have been employed to advance God's Kingdom, whole communities, cities, and people-groups have been opened up to the gospel. The Holy Spirit's power is being poured out, bringing many to saving faith in Christ and multiplying healing, signs, and wonders, which show the grace and power of Jesus as Lord.

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

MLK - Forgiveness is a Permanent Attitude

Quoting Steven McDonald, a NYPD officer shot by a teenager and paralyzed:

When I was a very young kid, Dr. King came to my town in New York.  My mother went to hear him speak, and she was very impressed by what she heard.  I hope you can be inspired by his words too.  Dr. King said that there's some good in the worst of us, and some evil in the best of us, and that when we learn this, we'll be more loving and forgiving.  He also said, "Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it's a permanent attitude."  In other words, it is something you have to work for.  Just like you have to work to keep your body fit and your mind alert, you've got to work on your heart too.  Forgiving is not just a one-time decision.  You've got to live forgiveness, every day.


Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.181

Slate: Heavenly Song

Syrian and Iraqi families bring Pope Francis to tears singing Psalm in Aramaic … The magical performance in this video features the choir of the Georgian Orthodox Church, and took place in the Church of St. Simon the Tanner in Tbilisi, Georgia, when Pope Francis visited Sept. 30. While there, he offered a plea for peace for the persecuted and the victims of war—in Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere.

If the powerful performance moves you to tears, you’re not alone—it had the same effect on the pope. The choir was made up of people from Syrian and Iraqi families and was led by their Friar Seraphim. It’s the well-known Psalm 53, “Our Father,” but sung in Aramaic. Its ancient sound is no doubt one reason the effect is so otherworldly.


Source: Slate  -  "Heavenly Song", 11 October 2016, http://www.slate.com/articles/video/video/2016/10/a_georgian_choir_sings_a_psalm_in_aramaic_for_pope_francis_on_his_visit.html

Fr. Martin Magill

Fr Magill’s determination to push the boundaries in terms of ecumenical outreach is evident from his practice of what the late Michael Hurley SJ called “ecumenical tithing”.

This means that part of his time each week, usually on a Sunday afternoon or evening is devoted to worshipping in another Christian denomination, sometimes St George’s Church of Ireland in Belfast “a very beautiful very high church”.

He believes this commitment comes from “the imperative I get from Jesus Christ in John 17”.

Fr Magill reveals that it is “only a matter of time before I will worship in a Free Presbyterian church as part of ecumenical tithing”.

He is also working on a list of ten things that Catholics can learn  from other denominations and “top of the list is welcoming because 90% of churches do welcoming better then we Catholics”, followed by singing.

Source: Martin O'Brien  -  "A Quiet Peacemaker", The Irish Catholic, 11 Dec 2014, http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/quiet-peacemaker

Where Do We Direct Our Critical Glance?

Both as individuals and as a community of believers, we all constantly require repentance and reform - encouraged and led by the Holy Spirit.  "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said 'Repent,' He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."  Thus reads the opening statement of Luther's 95 Theses from 1517, which triggered the Reformation movement.  Although this thesis is anything but self-evident today, we Lutheran and Catholic Christians want to take it seriously by directing our critical glance first at ourselves and not at each other.

Source: Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity  -  Conflict to Communion:  Report of the Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity, p. 7

Roman Missal Prayer for Unity

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: 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

Catholic honored by Southern Baptists

Here's something you don't see every day: Catholic priest Frank Ruff was recently given a gift at the 2017 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting! This was to recognize that Rev. Ruff started attending SBC annual meetings as a Catholic "observer" 50 years ago in 1967! His organization (Glenmary) has been representing the US Catholic Bishops ever since.

Frank Ruff is well known and well loved by many in the SBC for his deep faith and his longstanding commitment to building relationships across denominational lines.

The award was given at the Executive Committee (EC) meeting. EC membership includes 80 representatives of SBC agencies and regions, including some of its senior leadership. Other guests and interested parties also attend, so that there were a few hundred in attendance. Frank Page, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Committee, spoke for nearly five minutes on Rev. Ruff.
Frank Ruff and Glenmary come to the SBC as ambassadors of goodwill with a message: To give appreciation for the witness of the SBC. While we often hear about the differences and tension between denominations, there is much that we can thank each other for. We come in prayerful solidarity as our fellow Christians have this important annual meeting for their denomination.


Source: John 17:21 - Evangelicals and Catholics  -  Posted on their FB page, 27 June 2017

Baptists & Catholics Sharing a Building

A warm and friendly relationship between the two faith communities has developed. All agree that respect has been key. The Baptist and Catholic communities work hard to share the building and to be good neighbors. The Catholic congregation keeps the necessary items for Mass on carts at the back of the church. They set up for Mass and then meticulously return the space to its original configuration so that it’s ready for Baptist Sunday School and worship.

The Catholic and Baptist communities share more than just a church building. Friendships have been formed and strengthened. They pray for each other regularly and assist each other when needed. In January, the Catholic community treated their Baptist hosts to an afternoon meal and social time in appreciation for their hospitality.

“It’s [the fire] bringing the (larger) community closer together,” remarked Pastor Buck. “It has really been a blessing.”


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

Canada's Apology to the Jews for Turning Away the St. Louis

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized on Wednesday for the country’s 1939 refusal to take in a ship carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees, adding that the country would do more to protect Canadian Jews from violence.

The St. Louis left Hamburg in May 1939 in a desperate search for a safe haven from persecution by Nazi Germany. After it was rebuffed by Canada and other nations, it returned to Europe, where historians have estimated that more than 250 of the passengers were murdered in Nazi death camps.

“We apologize to the 907 German Jews aboard the St. Louis, as well as their families,” Trudeau told the House of Commons. “We are sorry for the callousness of Canada’s response. We are sorry for not apologizing sooner.”

Source: Ynet News - "Trudeau apologizes for Canada's 1939 refusal of Jewish refugee ship", 11.08.18
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5392569,00.html