George Miley on OM's Ships

Both during my years in India and those with the ships Logos and Doulos, I found myself in a different church most Sundays, often as the speaker.  As a team, we felt a strong sense of unity with and submission to the churches we visited.  There were times with the ships when we had a clear idea of the kind of program we wanted to arrange in a particular port city, but local church leaders asked us to adjust it.  We always honored their requests.  As long as we were in that city, we were part of the body of Christ there.  We would never intentionally do our own thing.

While in a port city, we ministered with our brothers and sisters from the churches there.  Local believers translated for us in the conferences and evangelistic events.  They greeted the visitors to the ship.  They served with us in the kitchen, engine room, and other non-public areas.  They were part of our prayer meetings and group devotional times.  We experienced God together, moving in and through us.

Sometimes hundreds of them came to the quayside just before the ship's departure to say goodbye.  It was not unusual for the tugs to be slowly pulling the ship away from the quay while people on the shore and on the ship waved to each other and wept softly.  We had been joined together in the work of the kingdom for only two to three weeks, and yet an incredibly powerful bond had been established between us.  Doing ministry together tends to do that.  We knew indeed that we were one family, one body.

Source: George Miley  -  "Loving the Church, Blessing the Nations", Ch. 13 "Apostolic Organizational Structures", pp. 143-144

German Lutherans

[Pope Francis] encouraged Catholics and evangelicals to work “to overcome the existing obstacles” by persevering with “insistent prayer” and “every [other] effort,” including “intensifying the theological dialogue and reinforcing collaboration between us.”
...
He recognized that progress has been made “in the spirit of reconciliation,” adding that the churches are working together “to seek the way forward to an even greater Eucharist fellowship.”

[Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated E.K.D.) in Germany] said the issue has been raised in the various dialogues with the Vatican. Cardinal Marx confirmed this effort at a press conference in Rome with the German evangelical leaders that followed the meeting with the pope. He said both sides are working together “to figure out if we can reach a common line.”

Source: Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm  -  Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, the chairperson of the Council of the Evangelical Church (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, abbreviated E.K.D.) in Germany, as quoted by Gerard O'Connell in "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

What brought Methodist, Anglican, and Catholic leaders together in Malaysia?

It all began with the case of the missing pastor.
On the morning of 13 February, Raymond Koh was exiting a highway in the leafy suburb of Kelana Jaya just outside of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
A widely circulated CCTV clip appears to show what happened next. A convoy of black SUVs and motorcycles is seen swooping down on his car and boxing it in by the side of the road.
Then, several men jump out and run to Mr Koh. There is a flurry of activity, and the convoy moves off - along with his car. It is allegedly the last time anyone sees him.
...
The heads of Malaysia's Methodist, Anglican and Roman Catholic churches attended a prayer service for Mr Koh last week.

Source: BBC  -  "A missing pastor and the disappearances chilling Malaysia", Tessa Wong, BBC News, 12 April 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39252139

Russell Moore

Conservative Christians, and especially Southern Baptists, must be careful to remember the ways in which our cultural anthropology perverted our soteriology and ecclesiology. It is to our shame that we ignored our own doctrines to advance something as clearly demonic as racial pride. And it is a shame that sometimes it took theological liberals to remind us of what we claimed to believe in an inerrant Bible, what we claimed to be doing in a Great Commission.

Source: Russell Moore  -  "How Martin Luther King Jr. Overcame ‘Christian’ White Supremacy", TGC - The Gospel Coalition, 2 Feb 2015, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-martin-luther-king-jr.-overcame-christian-white-supremacy

Hanna's Story

My name is Hanna Zack Miley.  My father’s name is Markus Zack.  My mother, Amalie Zack, was his second wife. For the last 73 years of my life, I have not seen my father.  I could not embrace him.  The only material object that I could touch, and physically connect with him was the gravestone of his first wife located in the Jewish cemetery in Gemünd.  On June 23, 2013, that changed. 
 
When I first laid my fingers on the smooth granite that my father certainly touched decades earlier, it was early in my journey towards forgiveness and reconciliation. Rightly would my father and mother have also had gravestones in the Gemünd cemetery.  But they had no gravestones at all. They were Jews in Nazi Germany.  
 
In the winter of 1938, our little family of three moved from Gemünd to Cologne. I am not sure if we left under duress or voluntarily, looking for anonymity in a big city.
 
In Cologne my parents saved my life by placing me on the Kindertransport, number 8,814 of 10,000 Jewish children allowed to leave Germany.  In 1942, they too left Cologne on a train – but not one bound for Great Britain, where mine had taken me. They went to the Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland.  Unknown to its inhabitants, this ghetto was only a stage in their eventual extermination. Markus and Amalie Zack were gassed to death in nearby Chelmo. There was no gravestone.  There was no grave.  Their bodies were unloaded into a pit, only to later be dug up and burned.  Their ashes scattered in the forest fulfilled the chilling promise that, “The Jews will make good fertilizer.”

Now it is June 23, 2013. I am on the stage of the Kurpark Hall in Gemünd.  Four hundred Germans in the hall are celebrating the opening ceremony for the 800th anniversary of the founding of their home town.  I am anticipating something special, because they have asked me to stand with my husband George as F. A. Heinen, a local journalist, walks towards us holding in his hands a wrapped, rectangular object.
 
On this Sunday afternoon, I have already been recognized as the patron of this meaningful celebration.  I have already seen the only known photograph of my father projected on to a large screen – the camera capturing a moment of dignity before the Jews were ejected from Gemünd.  I have already heard a German high school student read his name aloud, in honor rather than in horror.  I have imagined tracing his name carved into his Stolpersteine, a brass paving stone that will be laid in front of his house, our house, on the main street of Gemünd, so that any passerby who stoops or kneels can read, “Died, May 3 1942, Chelmno.” 
 
George and I stand on the stage, the wrapping paper is whisked away from the mysterious object and F. A. Heinen, a big burly man, cannot hold back his beaming smile as he hands me a framed document.  What is it?  Heinen is the author of numerous books detailing the history of the region under National Socialism, and in his research sifting through the district’s archives, he discovered a document, a rental agreement for one of the many pieces of land my father owned in the area.
 
My father’s signature jumps towards me as I look down at the copy of the document.
 
A signature uniquely represents the person.  I already possess a poem my mother quoted when her pen touched the page in the autograph book belonging to Ruth, a fellow Jewish survivor from Gemünd.  Eight years ago Ruth tore out the page and gave me the poem with my mother’s actual signature. Now it has been joined by this flowing script displaying my father’s identity.  His hand is strong, the lines firm and confident.  I am lost in wonder as I consider the late-in-life gift of a second material connection to my father.
 
I think about the courage of the local group, composed of students, teachers, business people, retired citizens, government officials and the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches.  They have researched and planned for months to honor the former Jewish citizens of Gemünd by placing their story at the center of the 800th anniversary. I think about the pain they must have experienced digging down into the evil of their own story, and I marvel at God’s mercy, that He would visit Gemünd with such healing mercy.  Just moments before, I had read in German my carefully prepared speech to the citizens of the home town which expelled me as a seven year old girl.  Holding my father’s document, the words I had spoken now take on deeper significance:
 
I am here representing the silenced Jews.  For many years, there was a veil of silence, but in the last few years there has been a willingness to learn the truth about the past.  I believe that the celebration today and the laying of the eleven Stolpersteine are public acknowledgements of the wrongs done by our ancestors.  When such acts of repentance take place, they open the way for God’s healing, forgiveness and redemption.  The darkness and evils of the past can be washed away, and we as citizens can stand upright, free from our burdens of the past.
 
As I consider the approaching anniversary of the Reformation and the commemoration through Wittenberg 2017 I believe there are valuable connections between the laying of the Stolpersteine and healing the wounds of  division that have persisted throughout church history as well as other historical “spaltung” (division).  Below are a few principles for reconciliation to consider.

The descendants of those bearing the guilt of past wrongs must take the initiative and lead in acts of repentance.
We who are the descendants of those who have been sinned against are uniquely placed to  pray for the hearts of those who have wronged us. The love  of God melts hard hearts.  We must ask God for the miraculous gift of forgiveness.
A significant part of the story is personal relationships. The Lord led us to individuals from Gemünd's past and present and gifted us with deep, healing friendships.
Through 13 years of intercession there were many discouragements and failures but we slowly learned God's way of doing things.  Now we stand awed by God's mercy.

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Hannas Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/hannas-story.html

"A Catholic Spy"

Then I caught sight of a Catholic spy in the Protestant camp: a gold cross atop the pole of the church flag. Adoring Christ required using that symbol. The alternative was the froth. My gratitude to the Catholic Church for this one relic, this remnant, of her riches, was immense. For this good Protestant water to flow, there had to be Catholic aqueducts. To change the metaphor, I had been told that reliance on external things was a "crutch!" I now realized that I was a cripple. And I thanked the Catholic "hospital" (that's what the Church is) for responding to my needs.

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

Peter Kreeft - Bridges

Ever since, I've found that this choice to come aboard the ark is just about the best thing I ever did.  I've ever since thought of it as my main vocation, to build bridges between Catholics and non-Catholics.  I was a signer of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together statement, and support that very strongly.  I love somebody like C. S. Lewis whom almost all evangelical Protestants love, and almost all faithful Roman Catholics love.  St. Augustine's another one; Catholics and Protestants both love him.

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

School of Prayer

SCHOOL OF PRAYER will encompass courses online, prayer workshops and sessions/meetings to develop lay prayer spirituality that suits families and singles. Topics and themes will go around prayer, intercession, praise and worship and chanting, prophetic, creative expressions, meditation, contemplation, various traditional spiritualities’ prayer approaches: Desert Fathers and Benedictine with Lectio Divina and contemplative aspects, Dominican with the contemplative, Carmelite with the prophetic, supernatural and contemplative aspects, Jesuit with meditation and discernment aspects, Franciscan with mystical and creational aspects etc. New and Old expressions of prayer combined will bring a new sound of praise.

When we learn how to cultivate the Presence in our hearts which is the temple of the Holy Spirit, we can start communal worship practices of Liturgy the of the Hours (Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Night Prayer), Adoration with silence, singing Lectio Divina (also known as Worship with the Word in a harp and bowl model of prayer), Intercession, contemporary praise and worship with its charismatic/contemplative expressions.

Source: Stone to Flesh Community  -  School of Prayer page on the Stone to Flesh / MajorChange website
https://stonetoflesh.org/school-of-prayer

Adam's Story

I had never heard of the Wittenberg 2017 movement until just yesterday, when a friend from a church we used to attend in Austin, TX asked my wife and I to share our story among a small gathering of friends. You see, Julia is a non-denominational Protestant, and I a Roman Catholic - both of us practicing Christians, happily married for four years.
 
Having read Amy Cogdell's story, I am struck to my heart; the pain felt by our Lord over the disunion of the Church on Earth is an all-too-present tension felt by the two of us. Still, we continue to thrive in faith with Christ Jesus together, by attending both Mass and church services every Sunday together. Though we have few theological disagreements and rarely let our emotions over our beliefs conquer our tongues, we continuously pray for union and peace from God for the whole Church to overcome the powers of division.

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

Mateo Calisi

"Mateo Calisi…developed contacts in Argentina with local Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders, with whom a new body was formed; the movement known as CRECES (literally, Renewed Communion of Catholics and Evangelicals in the Holy Spirit). From the beginning, Catholic archbishop of Buenos Aries, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, now Pope Francis, supported CRECES. Cardinal Bergoglio played a regular part in CRECES gatherings, and was prayed over by leading Pentecostal pastors.... Pope Francis is the first bishop of Rome to have had regular and warm relationships with Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders. This closeness is reflected in the welcome given to Cardinal Bergoglio's election as bishop of Rome by a leading Argentinian Pentecostal, Dr. Norberto Saracco: 'Bergoglio is a man of God. He is passionate for the unity of the church—but not just at the institutional level. His priority is unity at the level of the people.'"

Source: Norberto Saracco  -  As quoted by Fr. Peter Hocken in Pentecost and Parousia, p. 69

Sagging Fences, Dilapidated Name Badges

The living God has reached into the post-Reformation Church and has begun tearing apart the sagging fences that have mapped our territories and discarding the badges that have named us. This is happening to the entire Church, and for that reason we should not be talking about the future of Protestantism but about the Church of the future. If we focus on the future of our particular enterprise, we perpetuate the tribalism we should renounce. If we rebuild what God is destroying, are we not transgressors?

Source: Peter Leithart  -  First Things, "The Future of Protestantism: The Churches Must Die to be Raised Anew", August 2014, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/08/the-future-of-protestantism

Growing Up w/ Living Side-by-Side

With the benefit of hindsight, Fr Magill (53), one of the region’s best known priests and a regular broadcaster and tweeter, thinks that his love for ecumenical endeavour stems from his upbringing in the religiously mixed townland of Ballymacilhoyle close to the international airport at Aldergrove.

“Where I grew up it was normal for Catholics, Presbyterians, Church of Ireland and Methodists to live side by side.”

Source: Martin O'Brien  -  "A Quiet Peacemaker", The Irish Catholic, 11 Dec 2014, http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/quiet-peacemaker

What made them "one in heart and mind"?

On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:

‘Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’

... Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. All the believers were one in heart and mind.



Source: Bible  -  Acts 4:24-30

"As a descendant of these people ..."

The unusual meeting between Reiner and Chaika was held recently in the Israeli city of Netanya, as part of the activity of German organization March of Life. About 100 Belarus-born Holocaust survivors, wearing caps and glasses and wrapped in their coats, faced some 10 young Germans, tall and good-looking, the descendants of Nazi soldiers and officers. The former spoke about their horrible experiences in the Holocaust, and the latter told them about their families’ grim history.

Surprisingly, there was no anger in this intergenerational meeting, just a lot of sadness and a bit of comfort, for both sides.
...
The 25-year-old Samuel Haas took the microphone and said, “My grandparents were Nazis. One of them handed out printed propaganda information, and the other three traveled across Europe as part of their job in the Wehrmacht army. They murdered, robbed and looted. And as a descendant of these people, I would like to stand on Israeli soil and say out loud that we must not let such a thing happen again. I want to expose my family’s story and support Israel and the war on anti-Semitism.”
 
Haas’ comments reflect the solidarity at the heart of this event and the agreement that such meetings will help guarantee that horrible events like the Holocaust will never repeat themselves.
 

Source: Itay Ilnai  -  "Nazis’ descendants sing ‘Hatikva’ to Holocaust survivors", Ynet News, 6 Jan 2017, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4902914,00.html

Paul Pleads For ...

(2) I plead with Euodia and Syntyche to agree with each other (be of the same mind) in the Lord. (3) Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women because they have labored side by side with me for the cause of the gospel (good news) of Christ, along with Clement and the rest of my ministry partners, whose names are written in the book of life!

Source: The Apostle Paul  -  Philippians 4:2-3

Madeleine L'Engle

How often we children have been unwilling: unwilling to listen to each other, unwilling to hear words we do not expect. But on that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit truly called the people together in understanding and forgiveness and utter, wondrous joy. The early Christians, then, were known by how they loved one another. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people could say that of us again? Not an exclusive love, shutting out the rest of the world, but love so powerful, so brilliant, so aflame that it lights the entire planet – nay, the entire universe!

Source: Madeleine L’Engle  -  As quoted by John Armstrong on the Costly Love FB page, 24 May 2017

Traci Blackmon

Echoing Carter’s concerns was Traci Blackmon, acting executive minister of justice and witness for the United Church of Christ. A well-known speaker on race and religion, Blackmon offered a pastoral presence in Ferguson, Mo., following the fatal police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in 2014.

“It often seems like justice can take forever. But we cannot give up. We cannot quit,” she said.

Prayer is an essential component in the struggle but is most effective when we “pray with our feet,” Blackmon said, quoting the 19th-century social reformer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “I prayed for freedom for 20 years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

“God so desires our obedience and cooperation that God is unwilling to carry out God’s purposes until men and women have energized and honored their participatory role in their own prayers,” she said.

“I am not suggesting that work and prayer are the same thing. Work is not a substitute for prayer. They are not to be equated but neither are they to be separated. Prayer must include the obedience of one’s conviction and a willingness to seek that which is good and just. Dormant prayer must not be a substitute for action.”

Blackmon said those advocating for racial justice could take hope in a parable found in the Gospel of Luke describing an unjust judge who neither feared God nor respected people, but who nevertheless granted justice to a widow who persisted until she received it. Though the text explicitly says the judge never “changed his heart or mind,” the widow’s dogged persistence effected a change in his behavior.

Source: Traci Blackmon  -  As quoted by Robert Dilday, "Racial reconciliation tough but essential, say leaders at New Baptist Covenant summit", Baptist News Global, 19 September 2016, https://baptistnews.com/article/racial-reconciliation-tough-but-essential-say-leaders-at-new-baptist-covenant-summit/

Michael Phelps & The Purpose-Driven Life

Phelps told ESPN that the book "turned me into believing there is a power greater than myself and there is a purpose for me on this planet." Warren's book also convinced Phelps to reconcile with his estranged father, Fred, who divorced his wife when Phelps was just 9 years old. When the two men saw each other for the first time after so many years of separation, they embraced in a big hug. After he left Meadows in November 2014, Phelps resumed training for the Rio Olympics.

Source: Hazel Torres  -  As quoted in Christian Today, http://www.christiantoday.com/article/legendary.u.s.swimmer.michael.phelps.reveals.how.purpose.driven.life.by.rick.warren.saved.his.life/92191.htm