Apologies towards Aboriginal People

Naysayers similarly questioned the sincerity of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd when, in early 2008, he made a public apology to his country's aboriginal peoples for the government's longstanding policies of racial segregation, containment, and de facto abuse.  Others welcomed the Prime Minister's words.  One was Fr. Michael Lapsley of South Africa:  "Of course, an apology does not take away the truth of the worng that was done and teh pain that continues to be felt through the generations of indigenous Australians.  Nevertheless there is no doubt that this representative acknowledgement ... can be balm in the wounds, a major step and a turning point on the long journey towards restorative justice and healing for all. Over the years I have heard many of you speak about your own sense of guilt and shame about what happened in your country's history.  Today I am sure that many of you shed tears of joy that finally the day has come in a dignified way to squarely face the horror of what happened and to travel a new journey." ... He realized that an apology - any apology - is singularly important because if often represents the first crucial step without which dialogue, let alone forgiveness, can never develop.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.211

Qadree Ollison, Professional Football Player

Qadree Ollison, Professional Football Player:

"For some reason, you thought it was right to go and gun down my brother that morning of Oct. 14. You had that choice. My brother, at gunpoint, didn't have a choice to live. It wasn't up to him. He lost the two greatest things God gives us as people: He lost his ability to choose, and he lost his life. Now here I am, and I have this choice to hate you or not. I choose not to. I don't hate you, Denzel. I hate what you did, most certainly. But I still think your life is just as precious as the next person's. No life means more than another's. None of us are perfect."


Source: Vaughn McClure  -  ESPN, 8 May 2019
http://www.espn.com/blog/atlanta-falcons/post/_/id/34204/falcons-rookie-qadree-ollison-keeps-the-faith-through-brothers-murder

How to Help the Apostles

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Source: Bible  -  2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Molly T. Marshall quotes Steven Harmon

A cadre of Baptist scholars has been writing about emerging catholicity, the holy desire for unity among all ecclesial communions. Taking tradition more seriously as a source for theological construction, these Baptists urge usage of the ancient creeds of the apostolic heritage of the whole church to supplement their reading of Scripture. A leading theologian in the movement, Steven Harmon, contends, “Baptists have their own distinctive ecclesial gifts to offer the church catholic, without which even the churches currently in communion with the bishop of Rome are something less than fully catholic themselves.”

Source: Molly T. Marshall  -  "Can a Baptist be a Catholic?", Baptist News Global, 13 September 2016, https://baptistnews.com/article/can-a-baptist-be-a-catholic/

Catholic Cardinal: "Thanks to Luther ..."

Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 1969 to 1989, noted that Vatican II accepted many of Luther's demands. Thanks to Luther, he said, many good ideas have been introduced into the Roman Catholic church, such as the use of the vernacular in liturgy; offering of both species in holy Communion; need for constant reform; priesthood of all believers; and more attention to Scripture and preaching. What we have in common is more important than what divides us.

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

Confess Not Only Personal Sin

The Church needs to learn to confess sin the Bible's way, which is also the Lord's way. We need to learn to confess not only personal sin but also parental, ancestral and national sin. We need to confess parental, ancestral and national sin that the Holy Spirit shows us, so that we do not unwittingly walk in those sins. As the examples of Moses (Exo. 34:9; Num. 14:17-19), Jeremiah (Jer. 14:20), Daniel (Dan. 9:8, 20), and Nehemiah (Neh. 1:6) show us, we can always identify with the roots of any given sin even if we ourselves have not committed it. I may not have committed hate crimes against African Americans, but I can identify with the sinful attitudes at the root of racism--pride, intolerance, fear, control, divisiveness, isolationism, and self-preservation. Moses and Jeremiah were not idolaters, but they confessed the sin of idolatry on behalf of God's people, asking the Lord to forgive their sin (Exo. 34:9; Num. 14:17-19; Jer. 14:20).

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

NPR on the Reformation

The animosity and resentments left by the Reformation only began to heal after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, with the start of an ecumenical dialogue aimed at promoting Christian unity.

Source: NPR  -  National Public Radio, 28 Oct 2016, "The Pope Commemorates The Reformation That Split Western Christianity", http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/10/28/499587801/pope-francis-reaches-out-to-honor-the-man-who-splintered-christianity

Rabbi Jonathan Kaplan

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/

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