Paul's message of comfort comes to a community whose relationship with their leader has been strained, nearly to the breaking point (2 Cor 2:1-4; 7:8) His announcement of God's comfort is purposed with provoking renewed fidelity on the part of the Corinthians to the gospel (1:1-7; 7:11-12). Central to his announcement is acknowledgement of God's forgiveness of the Corinthians' sins and the ongoing participation in God's present redemptive work (7:10-12).
Source: Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan - "Comfort, O Comfort, Corinth: Grief and Comfort in 2 Corinthians 7:5-13a", Harvard Theological Review, 104:4 (2011), p. 442-443
Facing Unity
The international commission's 1985 document "Facing Unity" recommends that Roman Catholics recognize the Augsburg Confession -- the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran church -- as a legitimate profession of faith. "Facing Unity" invites Catholics to recognize Martin Luther as our common teacher, as one whose heritage has been distorted over time.
Source: Thomas Ryan - National Catholic Reporter, "Lutherans and Catholics chart path to unity", 16 Nov 2016, https://www.ncronline.org/news/theology/lutherans-and-catholics-chart-path-unity
Key To Living In Peace
Few people are the sons or daughters of serial killers.
But psychologists say all of us suffer trauma in life.
How we respond defines us. Some of us turn bitter. Others find a way to live in peace. One key, as Kerri’s psychologist said later, is who we have in our lives and how good they are at guiding us.
Another key, as Kerri herself would say someday, is whether we can forgive the seemingly unforgivable.
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
Word On Fire On Luther
It is obvious to everyone, Ryrie argues, that Luther was a fighter, taking on not only fellow intellectuals, but the curia, the Pope, and the Emperor himself. And it is equally clear that he bequeathed this feistiness to his followers over these past five centuries: Zwingli, Calvin, Wilberforce, Lloyd Garrison, Billy Sunday, Karl Barth, etc. There is always something protesting about Protestantism. But to see this dimension alone is to miss the heart of the matter. For at the core of Luther’s life and theology was an overwhelming experience of grace. After years of trying in vain to please God through heroic moral and spiritual effort, Luther realized that, despite his unworthiness, he was loved by a God who had died to save him. In the famous Turmerlebnis (Tower Experience) in the Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg, Luther felt justified through the sheer mercy of God. Though many others before him had sensed this amazing grace, Luther’s passion, in Ryrie’s words, “had a reckless extravagance that set it apart and which has echoed down Protestant history.” It is easy enough to see this ecstatic element in any number of prominent Protestant figures, from John Wesley to Friedrich Schleiermacher to John Newton. Luther was an ecstatic, and the religious movement he launched was “a love affair.”
Source: Bishop Robert Barron - "Looking at Luther with Fresh Eyes", Word on Fire, 13 June 2017, https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/article/looking-at-luther-with-fresh-eyes/5491/
Thirsting for ...
As I tasted the life and joy that flows from repentance, I began to thirst for it daily.
Source: M. Basilea Schlink - Repentance: The Joy-Filled Life, p. 16
The Ugandan Martyrs
The present day church in Uganda was born in 1880. Before the colonial expansion of that age, there was little European interest in Sub-Saharan Africa. But with the explorers and traders came the gospel, and the message of Christ was received with great joy and purity of heart. In six short years, the faith of the Ugandan converts would outshine that of their teachers.
For the Ugandan natives, embracing Christianity meant renouncing old tribal beliefs and practices. It also required a certain degree of loyalty to the western missionaries, either the British Anglicans or the French Catholics. Naturally, this change upset the old political and social order. The young Ugandan King Mwanga felt particularly threatened.
Mwanga was a known pedophile who routinely abused the boys in his court. According to tradition, the king had absolute authority over his subjects. Thus his abuse, though repulsive in the Ugandan culture, was tolerated without question until the conversion of several young men in the king’s service.
Among the Catholic converts in the royal court was Joseph Mkasa, the king’s chief steward. Mkasa enjoyed a warm friendship with his lord for many years, but when Mwanga ordered the killing of a new Anglican bishop, Mkasa confronted him and condemned the murder. This infuriated the king. Mwanga struck Mkasa with a spear and ordered his execution. On the way to his beheading, Mkasa publically forgave the king, and made one last plea for his repentance.
Charles Lwanga took Mkasa’s place as leader of the Christians at court. Like his predecessor, Lwanga worked to keep the young boys away from the king. For six months all was quiet, until Mwanga called for one of his pages. When the king asked why the boy had been away, the youth replied that he had been receiving religious instruction. Mwanga summoned the boy’s teacher and killed him on the spot with his own spear. Then he locked the royal compound and summoned his executioners.
Lwanga understood the king’s intention. That night he baptized four catechumens, including a thirteen year old named Kizito. The following morning Mwanga summoned his entire court, separating the Christians from the others. He questioned the fifteen believers, all under twenty-five years old, asking if they would choose to remain Christians. When they all resolutely responded, “Yes,” he condemned them to death.
Other professing Christians were swept up in the persecution until the condemned numbered twenty-four, thirteen Catholics and eleven Anglicans. They were marched 37 miles to the site of their execution, many singing and rejoicing as they went.
The chief executioner was young Kizito’s father. Twice he urged his son to run and hide, but the boy refused. Kizito was killed first. Others were tortured, then wrapped in reed mats and burned on a pyre.[1]
Shortly afterwards, the missionaries were expelled. Without priests and without sacraments, the Ugandan Christians remained steadfast and grew in number. When the Catholic missionaries returned after King Mwanga’s death, they found 500 practicing Christians, and 1,000 catechumens awaiting baptism. The Anglican Church, likewise, was strengthened by the death of her children.
The Ugandan martyrs were canonized in 1964 by Pope Paul VI. The following is an excerpt from his speech.[2]
The African martyrs add another page to the martyrology – the Church’s roll of honour – an occasion both of mourning and of joy. This is a page worthy in every way to be added to the annals of that Africa of earlier which we, living in this era and being men of little faith, never expected to be repeated.
In earlier times there occurred those famous deeds, so moving to the spirit, of the martyrs of Scilli, of Carthage, and of that “white robed army” of Utica commemorated by Saint Augustine and Prudentius; of the martyrs of Egypt so highly praised by Saint John Chrysostom, and of the martyrs of the Vandal persecution. Who would have thought that in our days we should have witnessed events as heroic and glorious?
Who could have predicted to the famous African confessors and martyrs such as Cyprian, Felicity, Perpetua and – the greatest of all – Augustine, that we would one day add names so dear to us as Charles Lwanga and Matthias Mulumba Kalemba and their 20 [sic.] companions? Nor must we forget those members of the Anglican Church who also died for the name of Christ.
These African martyrs herald the dawn of a new age. If only the mind of man might be directed not toward persecutions and religious conflicts but toward a rebirth of Christianity and civilisation!
Africa has been washed by the blood of these latest martyrs, the first of this new age (and, God willing, let them be the last, although such a holocaust is precious indeed). Africa is reborn free and independent.
[1] Catholic Online, http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=35, June 11, 2010)
[2]http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_article/934/Martyrs_of_Uganda_Paul_VI.html June 11, 2010.
Source: Amy Cogdell - Ancient Wells
An Orthodox Council in 2017
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.
...
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.
...
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