Greeting the German delegation in his private library, Francis sought to give new impetus to the effort toward Christian unity. He encouraged evangelicals and Catholics, when considering an ecumenical initiative, to ask themselves: “Can we share it with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we do another stretch of the road together?
“We have the same baptism: We must walk together, without growing tired,” Francis said. There is no going back on the road to unity he assured the delegation; Catholics and evangelicals must “continue to witness together to the Gospel and to continue on the road to full unity.”
Source: Gerard O'Connell - "German Evangelical Church issues historic invite to Pope Francis", America : The Jesuit Review, 6 Feb 2017, http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/06/german-evangelical-church-issues-historic-invite-pope-francis
Let My Words Bring Honor ...
When darkness closes in, introduces itself as a friend, then I'm sad to say I'm too often drawn in to the lies and gossiping
God Your words are purest silver, full of meek untainted grace
So let my words bring only honor to Your vast and gracious name
...
I call upon my name of the Lord to guard my heart, make my words pure
Source: Peter Nevland - Purest Silver - Psalm 12, from Exposing the Psalms, by Peter Nevland & Co.
39 Churches in Maui
Today people all over the island are out sharing the Gospel. Thirty nine churches have joined in a massive Maui movement to share the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus. This has been going on for three days now and just from the combined groups from upcountry churches alone, there have been more than 200 individuals who have said yes to Jesus.
Source: Bill Vanderbush - Sharpening Iron blog post, 6 Sept 2007
https://billvanderbush.blogspot.com/2007/09/today-people-all-over-island-are-out.html?m=1
Bonhoeffer
Since his student days in Berlin, Bonhoeffer had been deeply involved in the emerging ecumenical movement, especially through the group called the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship Through the Churches. With some exceptions (the great Dominican Yves Congar being one), most Roman Catholics stood aloof from such movements. Bonhoeffer had been attracted to aspects of the Catholic Church since his first visit to St. Peter’s in Rome in 1924. He was also familiar with the Una Sancta movement, an effort to overcome confessional divisions through the renewal of faith among both German Protestants and Catholics, to establish “fraternity in Christ across all barriers.” While Bonhoeffer appreciated this effort, he had reservations about it. His main concern was not the goal, which he shared, but the lack of theological clarity. Without such clarity, he believed, no enduring unity could be built.
Source: Timothy George - "Bonhoeffer at Ettal: Advent", First Things, 12 Dec 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/12/bonhoeffer-at-ettal-advent-1940
Amy Cogdell, quoted by Ann Cogdell
Trying to better understand what identificational repentance is, I asked Thomas' wife Amy, who's very much involved with him in the work, how she might describe it and here's what she said:
"Identificational repentance recognizes the grave sin of one's people, either past or present. It grieves the sin, recognizes its consequences at least in part (only God sees the full consequences of our sin), and then pleads for mercy, conviction, and justice to right any remaining wrongs. Identificational repentance acknowledges our connection to our past, our own proclivity to sin, and the great mercy of God in helping us grieve over things which grieve His heart."
Source: Amy Cogdell - As quoted by Ann Cogdell in her report to Christ Church Anglican in Waco, 4 Sept. 2016
Keep Praying!
It is no accident that the greatest Catholic reform in centuries - Vatican II - occurred after a half-century of intense Protestant ecumenism. I wonder: To which Protestants’ prayers was Vatican II the answer? I’d like to think that Vatican II was the Lord’s answer to the prayers of an elderly Methodist woman worried about her Catholic grandchildren.
Source: Peter Leithart - "Protest into Prayer", First Things Blog, 2 May 2014, https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2014/05/prayers-for-protestants
The Prophet Isaiah
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
Source: Bible - Isaiah 6: 5-7
M. Basilea Schlink
I started asking God for a repentant heart. And God, who answers prayer, responded. Shipwrecked on the rocks of a difficult relationship, I had to face reality. I had failed. I was incapable of truly loving someone who made life hard for me. God convicted me of my sin and gave me a contrite heart.
Source: M. Basilea Schlink - Repentance: The Joy-Filled Life, p. 16
A Church Advocating for *Other* Churches in Town!
The church is a source for healing and comfort, transformation and peace--especially in times like this. We encourage you to come to our church in the middle of town, or the Celebration Community Church across from the hospital, or Illuminate that meets at the High School or the Catholic Church off Waterside, the 7th Adventist in the hospital or Susan Bubber's Anglican gathering. These great people are full of God’s love and offer the solution to pain and suffering in this world.
Source: Community Presbyterian Church in Celebration, FL - Posted on FB, 14 Jan 2020
A Stunned Catholic
It's hard to measure how stunning this is to someone-like me-who grew up in the reactionary American Catholic Church of the 1950s and early 1960s. You were taught not even to set foot in a Protestant church on the pain of mortal sin. Hell, it was even considered weird to enter other Catholic churches outside your own parish, let alone those funky Eastern Orthodox churches where they used pita bread for Communion. I was not allowed to join the best Boy Scout troop in my town because it was sponsored by the local Congregational church.
Source: Charles P. Pierce - Esquire, "Pope Francis Just Did What the Church Should Have Done Decades Ago", November 1, 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/news/pope-francis-just-did-church-153416395.html
E. Stanley Jones
The Church has been “the mother of my spirit”, the guide of my youth, the fellowship of my mature years, the home of my soul.
Source: E. Stanley Jones - E. Stanley Jones (from Linda Fulmer)
Dreaming of Change in the USA
I dream of several changes that might flow out of this:
I hope this would lead our churches into a similar process of listening deeply to God, the Holy Scriptures, and one another, more intensely than to the political echo chambers that form many of our views.
I would hope public Christian leaders would sit down with those who differ greatly to practice these steps and model them for others. Imagine if Franklin Graham, from Samaritan’s Purse, and Jim Wallis from Sojourners met each other as believers and modeled this effort toward coming to a common mind and communion of heart.
I dream of the day when Christians, instead of aligning with one political party or another, would line up together to advocate for public policies that reflect the whole of the counsels of the Bible and challenge both parties to end the either-or approaches that characterize so much of our politics that set our people against each other.
Source: Robert C Trube - rtrube54, "The Scandal of the Church in America: Part Two", Bob on Books, 14 Feb 2017, https://bobonbooks.com/2017/02/14/the-scandal-of-the-church-in-america-part-two/
Christ at the center
Pope Francis hailed the fact that Catholics and evangelicals are commemorating the historic events of the Reformation together “in order to put, once again, Christ at the center of their relations.” He recalled that deep down the church reformers were “animated and restless” about how “to indicate the road to Christ.” He said that should be at the heart of Catholic and evangelical efforts today as they move forward on the road to unity.
Pope Francis welcomed a joint evangelical-Catholic initiative in Germany to hold a ceremony of penance and reconciliation in March because “to heal memory, to witness to Christ” is an ecumenical task.
Source: Gerard O'Connell - "German Evangelical Church issues historic invite to Pope Francis", America : The Jesuit Review, 6 Feb 2017, http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/06/german-evangelical-church-issues-historic-invite-pope-francis
1913 ... 1920 ... 1941
In 1913, the Faith and Order Commission of the Protestant Episcopal Church published a leaflet promoting prayer for unity on Whitsunday and in 1915 published a Manual of Prayer for Unity. The preparatory Conference on Faith and Order at Geneva in 1920 appealed for a special week of prayer for Christian unity ending with Whitsunday. Faith and Order continued to issue “Suggestions for an Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity” until 1941 when it changed the dates for its week to that of the January Octave. In this way, Christians, who for reasons of conscience, could not join with others in prayer services could share in united prayer at the same time. These various efforts while not attaining wide observance among the churches was to pave the way for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which came to be observed widely throughout Christendom.
Source: Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A. - "BACKGROUND: Brief History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017", by Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A., Associate Director of Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/background/brief_history.html
Thesis 10 from Katongole & Rice
Thesis 10) Imagination and conversion are the very heart and soul of reconciliation.
Reconciliation is about learning to live by a new imagination … That is why the work of reconciliation is sustained more through storytelling and apprenticeship than by training in techniques and how-tos. Through friendship with God, the stories of scriptures and faithful lives, and learning the virtues and daily practices those stories communicate, reconciliation becomes an ordinary, everyday pattern of life for Christians.
Source: Emmanuel Katongole & Chris Rice - Reconciling All Things, p. 151
Dorothy Day
Dorothy Day, an old acquaintance of mine who worked for decades among New York City's poor, said that in trying to change the world the biggest obstacle is never other people or institutions, but our own sense of discouragement and futility. "We can change the world, to a certain extent," she admonished in a newspaper column. "We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever-widening ripples will reach the world."
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.214
Peter Nevland
Does anybody know what a mess I'm in, running out of excuses for all my sin?
I'm sorry for the miserable fool I've been, can You begin to rain Your mercy?
...
Your kindness is honey to those who ask, and I want to be more than this mask of violence and murder: I need your undeserved love.
...
Source: Peter Nevland - Running out of Excuses - Psalm 51, from Exposing the Psalms, by Peter Nevland & Co.
"On the spot ..."
Fr Martin Magill’s Ecumenical Tithing: Shankill Gospel Hall
....
This weekend I happened to be cycling to another church in North Belfast for worship when I noticed Shankill Gospel Hall with a member of the congregation coming out the door and on the spot I decided to worship there.
Source: Fr. Martin Magill - As quoted by Gladys Ganiel on her blog Building a Church Without Walls, 13 April 2015, http://www.gladysganiel.com/irish-catholic-church/fr-martin-magills-ecumenical-tithing-shankill-gospel-hall/
Facing the Challenge Together
Many people in Germany today have no real knowledge of the Christian faith, and they do not seem interested in understanding, let alone embracing it. If the churches take their mission seriously to “go to all nations and make them my disciples” (Mt 28:19), it should be a priority for them to engage these people in dialogue. Instead of dealing with this challenge by themselves, churches should face it together, learning from each other’s experience and encouraging each other. Focusing on their common faith can only strengthen the bond among the churches. Also, trying together to communicate the Christian faith in an understandable way can lead the churches themselves to a deeper understanding of their own faith. The 500th anniversary of the Reformation can be seen as an opportunity to remind the public—Christians and non-believers alike—of what the Christian faith is all about: God’s love in Christ for us humans and for all creation. That is why the churches in Germany have decided to make the anniversary a celebration of Jesus Christ (“Christusfest”).
Source: Council of Churches in Germany (ACK) - "The Ecumenical Situation in Germany", republished by Gramoor, http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/prayer_worship/ecumenical_situation_in_Germany.html
Remorse from the Archbishop of Canterbury
Catholics and Protestants will gather at Lambeth Palace - Welby’s London home - to express remorse and pray for Christian unity.
Although the physical atrocities against Catholics took place during the reigns of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Edward VI, Catholics (and Jews) were not allowed to vote, sit in Parliament or attend universities until the middle of the 19th century.
Source: Crux - "Archbishop of Canterbury to express remorse over Reformation violence", Crux Religion News Service, 17 January 2017, https://cruxnow.com/rns/2017/01/17/archbishop-canterbury-express-remorse-reformation-violence/