The spiritual seat of the world's Orthodox Christians on Friday issued a call for unity ahead of the first ever meeting of the faith's 14 independent churches that is expected to discuss the churches' common future and efforts to heal the nearly 1,000-year rift with the Roman Catholics.
The meeting later this month in Crete will be convened by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.
All the Orthodox churches, old and new that emerged over the centuries, have never met like this before — not since the "great schism" of 1054, when the Orthodox and Roman Catholics split after disputes over the Vatican's power.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is also based in Istanbul, said the "Holy and Great Council is a unique and historical occasion." Preparations for the meeting have been underway since 1961, when the planning first began.
Bartholomew's spokesman, the Rev. John Chryssavgis, told The Associated Press that the June 19-26 gathering's "sole purpose is the affirmation of unity."
"Unity is a slow and painful process. We don't have to be united on every point to convene the council; but we do have to convene the council if we aspire to unity," Chryssavgis said.
The call followed reports that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which is due to come to Crete, had threatened to pull out, reportedly asking for some mostly procedural changes to the agenda. It did not say what changes it was requesting or if it would carry out the threat.
Chryssavgis said that "after centuries of isolation, occupation, and persecution," it won't be easy for the churches to come together.
"It is very natural, then, for some Churches to feel unsure or uncomfortable about coming together after such a long time, much like members of a family might be skeptical and even mistrustful after a long period of separation," he said.
Unlike the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox churches are independent and have their own leadership. For example, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow is head of the world's largest Orthodox Church, but is considered equal to other patriarchs.
Bartholomew is called the "first among equals," but leads a smaller flock than Kirill.
Since the "great schism" there have been about a dozen smaller Orthodox councils over the centuries to discuss theological or doctrinal issues, but there has never been a meeting on the scale of the Holy and Great Council.
The Crete council will discuss the mission and role of the Orthodox Church and its global flock, issues relating to the function of the churches and its relations with other Christian faiths. Unity of the Orthodox churches is considered a key prerequisite to any reconciliation with the Vatican.
"Our focus should be on the objective of unity," Chryssavgis said.
Source: Associated Press - AP Wire News Story
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/orthodox-christians-spiritual-seat-issues-calls-unity-39581777
Who Defends David's Honor?
Insulted, his hesed greeted with contempt, David . . . does nothing. He sends the messengers to Jericho to wait for their hair to grow back (v. 5), but nothing more. There are no war preparations in Israel, no retribution. David does not return insult for insult, evil for evil. He has had long practice in bearing humiliations and being unjustly mistreated. It's the story of his life, at least during Saul's reign.
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Meanwhile, David returns kindness for kindness, curbs his passion for revenge, lets things go, and ends up with another crown in his collection. Somebody is defending David's honor, and but it's not David.
Source: Peter Leithart - "David's Restraint, Yahweh's Trap", First Things Blog, 23 Jan 2017, https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2017/01/davids-restraint-yahwehs-trap
Pope Invites Protestants
Pope Francis has invited thousands of Catholic charismatics and members of Pentecostal and Evangelical churches to Rome to celebrate Pentecost and mark the 50th anniversary of what became the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
Source: Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service - "Pope plans Pentecost celebrations with charismatics and Pentecostals", Crux, 2 May 2017, https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/05/02/pope-plans-pentecost-celebrations-charismatics-pentecostals/
Generosity Resulting in Praise
(12) This ministry (service) of giving is not only providing for the needs of the Lord’s people in Jerusalem, but will also overflow in many expressions of thanksgiving to God. (13) Because of your ministry, by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience flowing from your confession of the gospel (good news) of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and everyone else. (14) And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the abundant grace God has given you. (15) Praise be to God for his abundant (indescribable) gift!
Source: The Apostle Paul - 2 Corinthians 9:12-15 (IEB)
The Ground Level in France
In writing to a knowledgeable observer of the French Catholic scene that the emphasis on personal conversion through simple faith in Jesus was at least an “allowable minority position” within Catholicism, he responded: “I would go even farther than you do in one respect. My conversations with priests and Catholic theologians in France bring me to believe that the necessity for a personal faith commitment on the part of the baptized is the overwhelming majority position for French Catholic clergy! This is what is continually being taught to the faithful by their parish priests in the homilies that are being presented during the baptisms of infants. Hence, you might want to add to your arguments that on a pastoral level, the teaching of the Catholic Church (at least in France, an overwhelmingly Catholic country) also favors an evangelical view. Again, I have yet in my encounters with Catholic priests and theologians for the past 20+ years in France, to find someone who holds to or teaches a pure (in the sense of excluding the necessity of a personal faith commitment to Christ) ‘baptismal regeneration’ doctrine. I would say that on the ‘ground level’ Roman Catholicism in France is very friendly to the evangelical emphasis on the necessity of a personal acceptance of Jesus-Christ as Lord and Savoir to enter into the fullness of life in Christ that their baptism experience anticipated.” (Bjork 2004)
Source: David E. Bjork, Ph.D. - BJORK, D., in a 2004 personal email Re: Your chapters and my paper, to Paul Miller, as quoted in footnote 45 of "Evangelicals Cooperatively Evangelising & Discipling with Catholics in Faithfulness to Evangelical Distinctives", by Paul Miller
Why Do We Have Division?
In the aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death, I realized that the reason we have such division [in the church and elsewhere] is because people are not in relationship with one another. We’re not in proximity. When you don’t have friendships, you assume things about people who are different than you culturally. You won’t have empathy, because you don’t know anyone who looks like that, or anyone that worships that way, or anyone that dresses that way.
Source: Latasha Morrison - As quoted in Christianity Today, "Latasha Morrison: The Church Is the ‘Only Place Equipped to Do Racial Reconciliation Well’", interview by Morgan Lee, January 2017, http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2017/january/latasha-morrison-church-is-only-place-equipped-to-do.html
The Secret Jews of The Hobbit
We should marvel at the fact that an essentially Jewish tale spurred the very birth of modern fantasy, owing to an author who saw in the history of the Jewish people an incredible story. It is a reminder that Jews are indeed part of a wondrous tale, one that we are living today.
Source: Meir Soloveichik - The Secret Jews of The Hobbit, Commentary Magazine, 11 August 2016, https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-secret-jews-of-the-hobbit/
Bonhoeffer, Not Taking Communion
Bonhoeffer was clearly charmed by the place, but as a Protestant pastor he was not completely at ease with everything he saw and experienced. “The Catholic Advent seems somewhat strange to me,” he wrote to Bethge. At Finkenwalde, the Lord’s Supper had been celebrated once each week. At Ettal, Bonhoeffer could go to Mass and share in the prayers and readings, but, as he was not a member of the Catholic Church, he could not partake of the bread and wine at communion. “I am longing for the Lord’s Supper,” he said. Still, Bonhoeffer’s presence at what he called “quite a wonderful Mass” did bear witness to a kind of broken unity, a sanctorum communio not yet fully realized in the visible church of the undivided Christ here and now. Several weeks before Bonhoeffer arrived in Ettal, as war raged across Europe, Pope Pius XII had issued a Motu Proprio calling for a “crusade of prayer,” inviting Catholics around the globe to join in a prayer for world peace. In a letter to Bethge, Bonhoeffer referred to the Pope’s decree: “Today the pope has ordered a prayer for peace in the whole church. Could we not also have prayed along with them? I did.”
Source: Dietrich Bonhoeffer - As quoted by Timothy George in "Bonhoeffer at Ettal: Advent", First Things, 12 Dec 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/12/bonhoeffer-at-ettal-advent-1940
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.
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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/
Good Prayer for Other Churches
(4) Philemon, I always thank my God when I remember you in my prayers, (5) because I hear about your love for all of God’s people and your faith in the Lord Jesus.
Source: The Apostle Paul - Philemon 4-5
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.”
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“What would it look like for Baptists to recover and reclaim the old tradition of making the sign of the cross?”
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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/