The Dangers of the Self-Referential Church

In his pre-conclave speech, the then Cardinal Bergoglio told his fellow cardinals, "The church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries." He then warned of the dangers of a "self-referential" church" "When the church does not come out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential and then gets sick. . . . The self-referential church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out. . . . When the church is self-referential, inadvertently, she believes she has her own light; she ceases to be the mysterium lunae. . . . It lives to give glory only to one another." The call to go out to the peripheries has to have implications for Christian unity. It is the "self-referential" church that has no interest or zeal to go out to the other without which Christian unity cannot happen.

Source: Fr. Peter Hocken  -  Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 101. / Address of Pope Francis to media representatives, in the Paul VI Auidience Hall, Vatican City, March 15, 2013. Text made known by Cardinal Ortega of Havana, Cuba, with the agreement of Pope Francis.

“I have not forgiven him”

In August 2012 at her church, Northridge Church in Plymouth, Mich., she publicly announced that her father is a serial killer and told her story to a women’s ministry.

“I have not forgiven him,” she told them.

Marijo Swanson, another church friend, talked to her about forgiveness. How we handle betrayal is on us, she told her.

“If we choose not to forgive or not work at healing from the betrayal,” she said, “we continue to give the other person power to control us and our feelings.”

In the fall of 2012, while working out in a gym, Kerri suffered a stress fracture in her tibia. She was laid up for weeks, with time to think.

One day, the forgiveness just poured over her. She sobbed so hard that she had to pull the car over. The anger was gone, the hurt was fixed, the holding out against Dad was not there anymore.

But forgiveness did not mean she’d made peace with murder.

Dad belonged in prison.

Source: Roy Wenzl  -  "When your father is the BTK serial killer, forgiveness is not tidy", The Wichita Eagle, 21 February 2015, http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/kansas/article10809929.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-1

“Prayer Outside the Walls”

Sisters have served on ecumenical commissions and local ministerial councils, and hold memberships in groups dedicated to pastoral care and Christian ethics. We host annual prayer services for peace and unity, including “Prayer Outside the Walls” where we invite all to join us. “Prayer Outside the Walls” events are conducted regularly and can be joined virtually with us via Facebook. Beyond literally being prayed outdoors, these prayers are prayed outside the invisible walls of any kind of prejudices.

The Basilica of Saints Cyril and Methodius at Villa Sacred Heart has been the site of numerous ecumenical gatherings and is the center of life at St. Cyril Spiritual Center which is located at the Motherhouse of the Sisters in Danville, PA. Saint Cyril Spiritual Center is a sponsored ministry of the Congregation where we provide a place to refresh mind, body, and spirit. We warmly welcome people of various traditions and ages and host retreat groups including the Society of the Holy Trinity which is a group of Lutheran Pastors who come to St. Cyril’s Spiritual Center for an annual retreat.

Source: Sr. Jean Marie Holup, SSCM  -  "The Ecumenical Commitment of a Catholic Women’s Religious Community", Paulist.org
http://www.paulist.org/the-conversation/the-ecumenical-commitment-of-a-catholic-womens-religious-order/

"Each one of us forgives the killer ..."

The family of Mr Godwin - a father of 10 and grandfather of 14 - said on Monday they forgave the suspected killer.

His daughter, Tonya Godwin-Baines, had urged Stephens to surrender.

"Each one of us forgives the killer, the murderer," she told Cleveland TV station WJW. "We want to wrap our arms around him."

"I forgive you and love you, but most importantly, God loves you. God can heal your mind and save your soul."

The victim's son, Robert Godwin Jr, said: "Steve, I forgive you... I'm not happy what you did, but I forgive you."


Source: BBC  -  "'Facebook killer' Steve Stephens found dead after car chase", 18 April 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39634681

3 Congregations Sharing a Building

Andrews started preaching for this congregation in 1998 and jokes that he preached it into the ground. A quarter-century later, he has to preach sitting on a stool with his cane propped nearby. He makes no pretense about the small body’s ability to attract or retain new members. But they do church really well, practicing hospitality, perhaps entertaining some angels unaware.
...
On the first Wednesday night of the month, they have a potluck with The Refuge, a progressive congregation that shares their building and meets there at 5 p.m. on Sundays.

Last year, Northwest ladies gave a baby shower for the wife of Albert Kubura, the minister who serves the third church that uses the building.

It’s a Pentecostal church composed almost entirely of Burundi refugees who set up for worship in the Northwest auditorium every Sunday afternoon. About 30 people attend that service, too, many of them women in brightly colored headdresses. Young people sing on microphones in their native Kirundi language, leading a spirited and energetic worship that often lasts all afternoon.
Members of the Northwest church and the international group greet each other in the foyer and in the parking lot. The young children run to hug the elderly friends they’ve made coming and going each week. One of the boys had a birthday in July and insisted on inviting the children from all three congregations to his party so that no one would be left out.

Source: Cheryl Mann Bacon  -  "Aging, declining church chooses hospitality", The Christian Chronicle - An International Newspaper for Churches of Christ, 31 July 2019
https://christianchronicle.org/aging-declining-church-chooses-hospitality/

A Lutheran Bishop with Catholic Pilgrims

The Lutheran bishop of Austria ( we have only one)  went with us for 3 hours when we did the "Way of the Book" where bibles and other lutheran books were smuggled from Germany to the hidden-protestants in Austria. We all came to the conclusion that all these Christians  Waldensians, Anabaptists and Protestants are an example for us how to live our faith in times of condemnation.

Source: Verena Lang  -  Report on the Austrian Way of Repentance pilgrimage, August 2016

Fr. Ignatius Spencer

Fr. Ignatius Spencer was born George Spencer in 1799 and was an Anglican clergyman in the area of Althorp, Northamptonshire, where Lady Diana was buried after she was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

Fr. Spencer converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of 31, scandalizing some in the Victorian society.

The Spencer family, mostly members of the Church of England, were the fifth wealthiest family in the country at the time.

Early on in his priesthood, Fr. Spencer was attracted to the active contemplative community of the Passionists. He became known for his ecumenical efforts in pursuit of “unity in truth,” the same quest for truth that led him to the Catholic faith.

Source: Catholic News Agency  -  Priest related to Princess Diana on the path to sainthood, 31 Aug 2016, http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/priest-related-to-princess-diana-on-the-path-to-sainthood-66326/

Dad in Prison

Our dad has the sweetest smile. Cliff says that it’s his favorite thing about our [jail] visits. This time, dad shared stories from his childhood that made our hearts hurt, and helped us to understand him so much more. He sang for us a new song he had written. Yep, it turns out all three of us are songwriters! His song was gentle and emotional, and his tears made his chin quiver as he sang. He said it was the best [jail] visit ever, and that he felt like “a free man, outside of the fences.” We all agreed together that God is restoring so much in our family.

As we were leaving, and he was headed back to his cell, I got this urge and I ran back over to give him
another hug. It caught him off guard, and he smiled.

We left that prison with a mix of joy and sorrow in our hearts.

Source: Amber Hunter  -  "Picture Day at Polansky", A2J blog, 31 Oct 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/picture-day-at-polunsky

Verena's Story

My name is Verena Lang.  I live in Austria.   My journey to reconciliation has been long and arduous.  How could it not be when you have to confront the history that I have?  A history that includes confusing and condemning messages about God and the church.  A history where I had to confront the fact that my father was a leading Nazi during World War II.  A history where I was led to enter into the pain of my Jewish friends who lost loved ones in the Holocaust.  A history that now leads me to be involved in the work of reconciliation between Catholics, Protestants and Free churches.

I was born in Salzburg in 1944. My faith journey began with a confusing, inaccurate, and limited view of God.  My father was a Catholic and my mother was a Protestant. Both of my parents left the church before my birth.  Therefore I was not baptized as a child.  My parents told me that I could choose any denomination that I wanted. From my mother I was told that in the Old Testament you find cruel stories of an angry God.  From my father I was told that Jesus was a good man but he is not God and was not a Jew.

When I attended high school I was part of a class with Protestant girls.  I often say they put all us heretics together, because Austria, at that time, was 80% Catholic.   Due to the Counter Reformation, Protestants were said to be heretics in Austria. To spend time with my Protestant girlfriends helped me to eliminate any fear of contact with Protestants or members of Free churches.

It is interesting that in my schooling I was drawn to study history, culminating in a PHD in the subject.  The historical period I was most drawn to was the period between World War I and World War II.  This was the period where my father was involved in the politics of Austria. There is a character in James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses, that states: “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”  These words resonate with me and my story.  I had a lot of “awakening” to do, personally and spiritually. 
 
​Following the end of World War II, Austria, like Germany, was divided into four parts (one part each ruled by the Americans, the British, the French, and the Russians).  I was brought up in the zone occupied by the Americans. As a child we were told all Nazis were criminals. How do you reconcile this when your father was a Nazi?   How do you live with a deep love for your father and at the same time live in a society that tells you he is a criminal?  These questions were too painful to confront. So I hid the story of my father being a leading Nazi.  Yet, amidst the hiding, I was always searching for the truth.  My study of history helped me to further “awakenings” even after the death of my father.  We can feel imprisoned by history, but we can also be liberated through studying and engaging with history. 
 
Following my studies, my husband and I moved to Wieselburg, a little town in the east of Austria. At that time I was asked to sing in the masses of the Catholic Church. I did this also in Salzburg in the Protestant Church because I liked to sing. After eight years of singing in the Catholic Church in Wieselburg, a surprising event took place.  It happened on a Holy Thursday.  I was not in a crisis at the time, nor was I seeking after God.  Yet God touched my heart with the words of the liturgy: “Do this in remembrance of me.”  These words, along with God touching my heart, were the beginning of a profound conversion where I received deep healing over several years.

When I surrendered my life to God it was as if he took an eraser to eliminate all the negative and condemning thoughts that I had accumulated from my parents as a child -- all the bad thoughts, all the lies about Jews, all the conflicting words about God.  I received a lot of love from Jesus and was healed from anxiety about death. Today I am fully awake to all the healing I experienced and know that my healing has been a gift from God to help me endure what was to come.

After some years I fell into a big crisis. Deep feelings, that I had long suppressed, came out as sadness and anger.   I felt I had to finally confront all the evil things that took place during Nazi rule and the involvement of my father. This proved to be a time of purification and a time for me to mature in my Christian life.

It took me a decade until I could come to the decision: I will forgive my father.  Later, still, I came to forgive my mother (who I had learned had abandoned me for a period as a child).  The power of forgiveness freed me from a tremendous amount of pain I had been living with.  When I said to God: “I forgive my mother for leaving me because she did not know what she was doing,” I was healed from 45 years of chronic back pain.

God continued to lead me into expanding forgiveness. Years ago, my husband and I attended a big Christian conference in Rome.  One day the conference celebrated a mass of reconciliation between European nations.  Following the celebration we had lunch.  At the lunch I sat next to a lady from Israel, a Jewish woman who had lost all her relatives in the Holocaust. She had originally come from Germany. I listened to her story and experienced a deep sadness about it.  I felt led to say to her: “Mrs. Kleinberger, my father was a Nazi and on behalf of my father and my country, I ask you for forgiveness for what the Nazis did to your family.” A long silence followed. Then she did something astounding, something transformative.  Mrs. Kleinberger wept and embraced me and said to me: “ In Christ we are one.”

This transforming idea of “in Christ we are one” continues in my life today.  Years ago my husband and I were invited to the “Round Table – Way of Reconciliation”.  The Round Table is a fellowship of leaders of all denominations and churches in Austria, including Catholics, Protestants, Pentecostals, Free churches, Anglicans, and Orthodox. Fifty years ago it would have been impossible to think that members of all these churches and denominations could sit together around a round table and begin to respect and love one other.  Our individual and church histories had all convinced us that we alone were in possession of the truth and the others were wrong.  For 400 years Austria was a predominantly Catholic country because our rulers – the Habsburg families – were Catholic.  All non-Catholics were said to be heretics. The split in the church created a tragic divide.  We have to learn that we have a common history and that God is a God of history. 

The Bible tells us to: Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations (Deuteronomy 32:7).   I was forced to do this when I was asked to prepare a paper for a Conference on the common history of the Catholic and Protestant church.  Through this experience God was encouraging me and moving me to further “awakenings” and to deeper involvement in the reconciliation between the different parts of the Body of Christ.  This has led me to become active in the important work of Wittenberg 2017.  I am convinced that the principles of reconciliation that guide Wittenberg 2017 are important to give our attention to and hold the promise of leading us to greater unity among the Body of Christ.   Among the Principles, the following stand out to me:

Divisions weaken the Church universal.
The Church universal should feel the pain of her divisions and grieve them.
Grieving requires memory and emotion and we should pray for reconciliation and unity.
Any division can be healed and reconciled with the power of God.

These Principles have proven true in my journey of forgiveness and reconciliation.  They have been true in my family’s life.  Because of this I am convinced that God can do his work of forgiveness and reconciliation in the divided Church. This is my prayer and my hope.

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

Disruption? Or Breach?

It is an interesting question discussed by historians whether the Scottish Reformation could have been avoided. The most plausible answer seems to be “no,” given the condition of the late medieval/early modern Church, and the political ambitions and avarice of the nobility. What is slowly coming to be recognized, however, is that it represented not only a ‘disruption,' as was later suffered in the 19th century within the Kirk itself, but a breach that has weakened Christianity in the country and is now leading to the death of the reformed part of it.

Source: John Haldane  -  A Tale of Two Cities - And of Two Churches, First Things, 23 Oct 2015, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/10/a-tale-of-two-citiesand-of-two-churches

A Baptist Making the Sign of the Cross

The night before Ash Wednesday, I had a dream. I usually don’t remember my dreams, but this time I did. I was teaching a theology class on making the sign of the cross at the imposition of ashes on the forehead. I then explained to (I assume) my mostly Baptist students that it was the same sign pastors and priests make on babies as they are baptized. Just then my alarm went off, and my lecture was cut short.

Now awake, I pondered the dream. In the Roman Catholic tradition, the sign of the cross is bestowed upon the foreheads of the faithful at confirmation. And on every Sunday, after the gospel is read, worshippers make the sign of the cross on the head, lips and hearts as a reminder to follow the gospel with one’s whole self. Several traditions that anoint with oil also trace the sign of the cross on the forehead.

As I reflected on my dream in a social media post, one person suggested that to make the sign of the cross in the Roman Catholic tradition serves as a prayer to the Trinity. With the mention of ashes, another person asked if I had heard “Beautiful Things” by the Christian alternative rock group Gungor. The song includes these lyrics: “You make beautiful things / You make beautiful things out of the dust. . . You make beautiful things out of us.”
...
“What would it look like for Baptists to recover and reclaim the old tradition of making the sign of the cross?”
...
Perhaps Lent, the season of introspection and penance, is the perfect time – even for us Baptists – to begin making the sign of the cross.

Source: Kate Hanch  -  "A case for making the sign of the cross — even for us Baptists (and other Protestants)", Baptist News Global, Opinion, March 15, 2019
https://baptistnews.com/article/a-case-for-making-the-sign-of-the-cross-even-for-us-baptists-and-other-protestants/

We've Erased History Enough

Just one of many reasons calling slaves, workers, migrants or immigrants angers me. We've erased history enough in America. Slaves were completely stripped of native land, dignity, family names, language, culture and family. We must remember black slaves were the only oppressed group that were completely denied education and the ability to read. This didn't take place for a few years but for generations and centuries. Their blood and stories run through my veins. I'm here today because of someone's resilience, faith and survival. I don't ever want to forget that and neither should you. So I have problem when we don't name the oppression, gloss over it, misinterpret, and erase American history related to slavery. Denial serves no one, there is liberty and freedom in truth. The truth makes us free, lies perpetuate bondage. How many of you have heard of this story? How many learned of the murders of 20,000 blacks in Mississippi in school? I didn't. This isn't about shame and guilt but conviction that leads us toward redeeming justice. May we lament. LORD have Mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have Mercy.

Source: Latasha Morrison  -  Facebook post on 8 Mar 2017, with link to https://blackmainstreet.net/never-forget-devils-punchbowl-20000-freed-slaves-died-forced-post-slavery-concentration-camp/

How Important Are The Differences?

The divisions that exist now are very different than the divisions that existed when I became a Catholic about fifty years ago.  The divisions between Catholics and Protestants are far less important to both sides now, even though they still exist, than they were fifty years ago, because we are facing a common enemy, a culture of death, a society that is becoming increasingly anti-Christian.  When a common enemy threatens, then warring brothers put their civil wars on hold for a while, important as they are.  Like the Irish and the English, who've had a lot of troubles, but fought together and died for each other in the trenches in World War I and again in World War II.

Source: Peter Kreeft  -  Conversion to Catholicism, Catholic Education Resource Center, http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/dr-peter-kreeft-s-conversion-to-catholicism-part-2.html

Willing to Die for the Sake of ... Peace

To many people, the death of de Chergé and his fellow monks proves the worst stereotypes of Islam.  But to him it was the expected cost of being a peacemaker.  To me, it is a stark reminder of the work that must be done world-wide to spread the healing message of forgiveness.  In a time when so many people are willing to die in ongoing armed conflicts between the "Christian" West and the supposed "menace" of Islam - whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, Algeria, or anywhere else - where are there men and women who are willing to die for the sake of peace?

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.60

The Date of Easter

Take the issue of the date of Easter, for example. This year, westerners celebrated this festival a week earlier than the Eastern and Oriental Churches. Which westerner could say why? Easterners know very well. It has to do with history, about which we in the west don’t really care very much. We’re not really so interested in the past as we are in starting with a clean slate to shape our own futures. Yet we have little understanding how much our past has already shaped who we are and why we do things in certain ways.

Briefly, then: at the Council of Nicaea in 325AD, leaders from across the then-Christian world agreed on a formula to celebrate Easter on the same date: the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox (March 21); but always after Jewish Passover, as Jesus and his disciples had celebrated Passover the night before he was crucified.

However, the Julian calendar, which had been in use since 45BC, was a solar calendar. The Catholic Church adopted the Gregorian lunar calendar in 1582 in order to compensate for the loss of days which built up over a long period. Most countries have since followed suit, but the Eastern churches have held to the Nicene Council formula, when Easter falls anywhere between April 4 and May 8. For Catholics, and for the West with them, Easter falls between March 22 and April 25. Sometimes the two Easters fall on the same dates, as in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2017. But this won’t happen again until 2034!

Source: Jeff Fountain  -  Weekly Word eNewsletter, 1 May 2019, "Vibrant Celebration"
https://us9.campaign-archive.com/?e=0b86898e11&u=65605d9dbab0a19355284d8df&id=c06ec3e640

Ferguson

Several Sundays ago, my family and I visited Concord Church where Pastor Bryan L. Carter spoke powerfully about the turmoil and discord surrounding this issue. He focused our attention on Jesus as the only One who has and can ever bring complete peace in situations like this one that have roots too deep for human solutions to reach. It was beautiful and challenging.


Source: Priscilla Shirer  -  "#FERGUSON" blog post on Going Beyond, 26 August 2014, http://www.goingbeyond.com/blog/ferguson/

Alexander Dietze

Alex Dietze, 39, grew up in a Christian home in Germany where no one mentioned the Second World War, let alone the Holocaust. Alex mainly knew of the war from history classes at school, books and films. But on his 28th birthday something changed.

“My grandfather came to me and wanted to give me as a gift the Nazi war medal he earned for his contribution to the war effort,” Dietze told Ynet. “I was in shock. Previously for me, the Holocaust was a matter of general history and not something personal. I could not believe that my grandfather was among those who took part in the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. My world turned upside down.”
...
“I became interested in the Holocaust and subsequently the State of Israel, and to my astonishment I discovered that hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors live there,” he continued. “My wife Cecilia and I became curious to meet these people. As Germans, we understood that we need to make amends and go to Israel. We had our honeymoon there and we fell in love with the country.”
...
Sofia, 78, is one of the survivors with whom Alex and Cecilia volunteer. She was born in Ukraine and as a baby and a little girl during the Holocaust, she survived by being smuggled from place to place. She immigrated to Israel from Latvia in 1991, and says the German volunteers make her very happy. "They give me health and beauty, when I'm told they're coming, I feel 25 years younger. It's like it's cold and suddenly it's warm, it's so good. The older the person is, the more vulnerable they are and can use a good word. Their good warms us; they are surely messengers of God. Their children see the good that they do and perhaps they will carry on this good, not towards Holocaust survivors but to other people who will need it."

Source: Ynet News  -  "Nazis' descendants delight in volunteering with Holocaust survivors"
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5453594,00.html

Protestants & Catholics Teaching Each Other

Perhaps, I thought, these good Protestant people could worship like angels, but I could not. Then I realized that they couldn't either. Their ears were using crutches but not their eyes. They used beautiful hymns, for which I would gladly exchange the new, flat, unmusical, wimpy "liturgical responses" no one sings in our masses—their audible imagery is their crutch. I think that in Heaven, Protestants will teach Catholics to sing and Catholics will teach Protestants to dance and sculpt.

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

Herrnhut!!

By now everyone was sensing God was doing something new.  Pastor Rothe invited the whole community to the Lord's Table on Wednesday, August 13.  Zinzendorf visited each member of the community to prepare their hearts for the first time of communion since the months of discord.

Even as Pastor Rothe began the service, some started praising and weeping.  God the Holy Spirit was clearly present in a deep and special way.  Confession and forgiveness flowed.  And when the service officially ended, clusters of communicants continued to fellowship together, savoring God's presence.  'From this day on', wrote one historian, 'Herrnhut became a living congregation of Jesus Christ.'

The new unity was expressed in a community lifestyle of worship, servanthood, love feasts, foot-washing ceremonies, and a 24-hour prayer chain began and was unbroken for over one hundred years!  The Herrnhut residents began to receive in prayer a big vision of God's heart for the unreached peoples of the world.

Five years later, this small community of refugees began to send out missionaries to the Caribbean and Surinam, to Lapland and Greenland, to Morocco and South Africa, to Russia and Turkey, to Georgia and Pennsylvania.  By the time [their leader] Zinzendorf died in 1760, it is said that this revived Moravian Church had done more for world missions than all the other protestant churches combined.

Source: Jeff Fountain  -  From "The Little Town That Blessed The World", pp. 39-40