A2J Unity Week Reflection

When I was in college I had several confusing and painful experiences with Christians from a particular tradition that caused me to be judgmental and closed off to this tradition.  It took some time but God has redeemed these painful experiences and I now have wonderful friends who are part of this tradition and have received the gifts and strengths of this tradition I once rejected.

Source: A2J Community  -  Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 1", 18 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-1

The Most Feared Religious Group In America

About a century ago, millions of Americans feared that members of a religious group was amassing an arsenal of weapons for a secret, preplanned takeover of the United States.

The feared religious group wasn’t Muslims. It was, as Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce wrote in a great piece in 2015, Catholics.

Source: German Lopez  -  "100 years ago, Americans talked about Catholics the way they talk about Muslims today", Vox, 18 Jan 2017, http://www.vox.com/2017/1/18/14312104/islamophobia-catholics

Glenn Beck - One Way Out

We are a country in trouble, and we have only one way out: reconciliation. We must follow the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message and method and move away from a pursuit of “winning” and toward reclaiming our shared humanity. We cannot reconcile with those who want to tear up the Constitution or those who want blood in the street. But we can and must reconcile of our own free will with our neighbors and friends.

Source: Glenn Beck  -  "Empathy for Black Lives Matter", opinion column for NY Times 7 Sept 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/opinion/glenn-beck-empathy-for-black-lives-matter.html?_r=1

Reflection ... Action ... Prayer

Reflection
I will never forget a meeting I was part of in a small German city in 2003.  A group of Christians from different traditions and countries had come together to pray for God’s blessing on this particular city, suffering under the weight of un-forgiveness and division.  During the meeting a young Lutheran pastor said some hurtful things about the Catholic church, rooted in his own painful experiences.  The tension in the room was palpable as we waited to see what would happen next.  An older Catholic woman walked towards this young pastor and knelt down before him and asked for forgiveness for the specific ways he had been hurt by some in the Catholic Church.  He extended his hand to her and helped her up, then they embraced and wept.  Forgiveness and healing in Christ, won the day
 
Action
Have you ever considered asking someone for forgiveness for sin that was done against them by someone that you represent.  In Daniel 9:16, Daniel confesses to God not only his own sins but the sins of his father and of his people.
 
Prayer
Triune God, following the example of Jesus, make us witnesses to your love. Grant us to become instruments of justice, peace and solidarity. May your Spirit move us towards concrete actions that lead to unity. May walls be transformed into bridges. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Source: A2J Community  -  Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 6", 23 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-6

Forgiving Shavod

Quoting Steven McDonald, a NYPD officer shot by a teenager and paralyzed:

I forgave Shavod because I believe the only thing worse than receiving a bullet in my spine would have been to nurture revenge in my heart.  Such an attitude would have extended my injury to my soul, hurting my wife, son, and others even more.  It's bad enough that the physical effects are permanent, but at least I can choose to prevent spiritual injury.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.180

Journeying Together & Forgiving One Another

Father Alexei, I know you are the official representative of the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese on ecumenical events, so what do you see as the most significant fruits of the Catholic-Protestant interaction at Azusa Now?

“There are two things,” he answered. “First, this is very much in line with Pope Francis’ thinking. In ‘The Joy of the Gospel,’ he writes about our relationship with fellow Christians and he writes these words:

‘We must never forget that we are pilgrims journeying alongside one another. This means that we must have sincere trust in our fellow pilgrims, putting aside all suspicion or mistrust and turn our gaze to what we are seeking.’

“And, that is exactly what we did in the Coliseum on Saturday,” he said.

“The other significance is the forgivingness factor: at the end of the week for Christian unity, Pope Francis asked for forgiveness for the ‘un-Gospel-like behavior on the part of Catholics against Christians of other churches.’

“The mutual exchange of forgiveness between Catholic and Evangelical-Christians on Saturday wondrously reflected this forgiveness.”

Source: Jennifer Wing Atencio  -  "Christians pack Coliseum for revival: Catholics join thousands of  believers to mark 110th anniversary of Pentecostal Azuza revival", Angelus News, 13 April 2016
https://angelusnews.com/news/christians-pack-coliseum-for-revival-catholics-join-thousands-of-believers-to-mark-110th-anniversary-of-pentecostal-azuza-revival

Ethnicity in the New Testament

 In the Book of Acts we read that with the coming of the Holy Spirit, diverse expressions of languages were being spoken. And in Revelation we see a glimpse of eternity with men and women from every tongue, tribe, and nation making up the choir of eternal praise (Rev. 7:9). That the writers of Scripture took notice of ethnicity, and saw diversity as good, makes it impossible for the Christian to hold to thoughts of racial superiority, or separation of the races.

Source: Abbot Tryphon  -  "The Evil of Racism", posted on his FB page on 3 June 2020

Tithing ... Time

But could Presbyterians tithe their Sundays to the Church of Ireland, i.e. go to the Church with the Anglicans rather than with their fellow-Presbyterians some five times a year? Could a member of the Church of Ireland reciprocate this ecumenical gesture or do likewise with the Methodists, worshipping with them on the occasional Sunday and also transferring the tithe of their support for the Church Missionary Society to the Methodist Missionary Society? Could Roman Catholics transfer a tithe of their support for Trócaire to Christian Aid? And sometimes buy and read the Church of Ireland Gazette instead of the Irish Catholic or Catholic Herald? Could Roman Catholic ordinands tithe their theological studies to another Church? In other words, could they study and live with Anglican, Orthodox or Presbyterian ordinands for a part of their course?

Source: Fr Michael Hurley  -  Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Second Spring? (Dublin: Veritas), p. 83-84, as quoted by Gladys Ganiel in her blog post "Fr Michael Hurley on Ecumenical Tithing", 5 November 2011, http://www.gladysganiel.com/irish-catholic-church/fr-michael-hurley-on-ecumenical-tithing/

Young People - Build Bridges of Friendship

The Pope hopes that these days that bring you together in Riga will help you not to be afraid of your limits but to grow in trust in Jesus, the Christ and Lord, who believes and hopes in you. May you, in the simplicity to which Brother Roger bore witness, build bridges of friendship and make visible the love with which God loves us.
From the depths of his heart, the Holy Father gives you his blessing, to you young people participating in this meeting, to the Brothers of Taizé, and to all the people who welcome you in Riga and the surrounding region.

Source: Pope Francis  -  As quoted in "Pope sends message to Taizé youth gathering" by Vatican Radio, 27 Dec 2016, http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2016/12/27/pope_sends_message_to_taize_youth_gathering/1281913

Didn't Commit, Did Confess

In Jer. 14:20 Jeremiah shows that he, as an individual, is responsible to confess ancestral and national sin, since he is a member of his people, for whom he is praying: Jeremiah 14:20, "We acknowledge our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers.” No, he didn't commit the sins his people did. He didn't rebel against the Lord, worship false gods, and oppress the poor. But he did take part in confessing those sins on behalf of Jerusalem and Judah. 

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

1-way & 2-way streets

Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey framed the duty to forgive with his Catholic faith, pointing to the words of the “Our Father” prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

The prayer challenged Polan in 2002 when a gunman killed two of the abbey’s monks and seriously wounded two others. Some of his religious brothers forgave easier than others.

The benefits always go beyond the individual.

“We forgive ourselves and then turn to others we have hurt,” Polan said. “Forgiveness is a one-way street, and reconciliation is a two-way street.”

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article11877386.html#storylink=cpy

Source: Abbot Gregory Polan  -  Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey, as quoted by Mark Morris in "Forgiveness is Harder in Practice than in Theory," Mark Morris, The Kansas City Star, 1 March 2015,  http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/local-columnists/article11877386.html

Identificational Repentance in Germany

Another example of mainline denominational corporate confession comes from the German Lutheran Church. At the end of World War II, in October 1945, the newly formed United Evangelical Lutheran Church, under the influence of one of its leaders, the prominent anti-Nazi theologian and pastor, Rev. Dr. Martin Niemöller, who had resisted the Nazis alongside the famous Christian martyr, Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, issued the Stuttgart Confession of Guilt (Stuttgarter Schulderklärung). In the Stuttgart Confession, the German Lutheran church identified with and confessed the corporate guilt of the German people for the widespread suffering perpetrated by the former Nazi government with words like the following:
With great pain we say: Through us unending suffering has been brought upon many nations and countries. . . . Now a new beginning should be made in our churches.
Apparently the Lutheran denominational leadership felt such identificational repentance was in keeping with their theological understanding of Christian confession. This kind of corporate confession of national guilt has been articulated and discussed over the past decades by German theologians like Dr. Martin Honecker and Dr. Gerhard Besier, as well as by German New Testament scholars like Dr. Bertold Klappert of the University of Göttingen.

Source: Stuttgart Confession of Guilt  -  As quoted by Dr. Gary S. Greig, The Biblical Foundations of Identificational Repentance as One Prayer Pattern Useful to Advance God's Kingdom and Evangelism, April 2001

Advocating for a Slave

Philemon, if you consider me a partner in Christ, I ask you to welcome Onesimus back home as you would welcome me. If he has done you any wrong or owes you anything, charge it all to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand. I will pay you back everything that Onesimus owes you—not to mention that you owe me your very life.

Source: Paul  -  Philemon 17-19 (IEB)

Humbly Looking Into Our Sordid Past

I am convinced that the deep collective wounds of Canada, the US, Guatemala, and indeed all of the Americas, cannot be healed without humbly looking into our sordid past, and seeking sincere and life-transfiguring reconciliation with the African-American community, and with the Native Peoples of our continents.

Source: Nate Bacon  -  Ministry newsletter on 1 Sept 2017

Go See Them For Yourself

I’ve visited the Bruderhof in the Hudson River Valley, and found warm hospitality. If you live in the NYC area, I strongly advise you to go up the Hudson and see them for yourself; they welcome visitors. As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, my religious beliefs are rather different from their Anabaptist creed, but nobody tried to proselytize me. They were just generous and open-hearted.

Source: Rod Dreher  -  "With the Bruderhof", Daily Dreher eNewsletter, 11 Dec 2020
https://roddreher.substack.com/p/with-the-bruderhof

ECT

"Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" (ECT) is the title of a programmatic statement composed by eight Protestants (leader, Charles Colson) and seven Roman Catholics (leader, Richard John Neuhaus) and endorsed by 12 more Protestants and 13 more Roman Catholics. It appeared in the journal "First Things" in May of this year and, shortened, in the Spring edition of "Touchstone."

Source: J.I. Packer  -  Christianity Today, "Why I Signed It.  Part 1.", 12 Dec 1994, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1994/december12/4te34a.html?start=4

Rita & her sister

Rita’s younger sisters lived in the area. Rita took a long-shot chance and reached out to her for a visit. Her sister took a long-shot chance and said yes. That began a difficult and honest adult process of mutual repentance, forgiveness, and understanding. At that time, little did we know that seven or eight years later we would be moving to Texas, literally twenty minutes from where her sister lived! Thirty years of alienation, erased! A sister and a friend recovered, plus geographic proximity!

Source: Dr. Stephen R. Crosby  -  "Confessions of a Christian Idiot", Reprinted from Christianity Without the Religion Magazine - February 2019
https://stevecrosby.org/christian-unity/confessions-of-a-christian-idiot

Mass Lynching of Italian-Americans

The largest mass lynching in US history killed 11 Italians in New Orleans in 1891. And now an Italian-American group says [New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell] is set to offer a first-ever apology to Italian-Americans for the city's role in the lawless murders.
…
Mike Santo, who serves as special counsel for the commission, said he'd become aware of the lynching a few years ago, realizing how the 1891 lynching was a "longstanding wound" for the Italian-American community.
He said the commission got in touch with the mayor, who was amenable to the proposal, and his group has been coordinating for weeks with a liaison in the mayor's office to get the proclamation written.
He praised Cantrell, calling her the "right woman at the right time" to step up and acknowledge a darker aspect of her city's history.
"It takes a lot of nerve to do that," Santo said. "People want to see that, especially today."
He said he personally felt the pending proclamation was "refreshing." On behalf of Italian-Americans more broadly, he said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Source: Ryan Prior  -  "128 years later, New Orleans is apologizing for lynching 11 Italians", CNN, 1 April 2019
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/01/us/new-orleans-mayor-apologizes-italian-americans-trnd/index.html

A Catholic & A Jew (and the Catholic is ... Tolkien)

This dwarf-elf alliance may well be a paradigm of a Jewish-Christian friendship. Interestingly, as Saks and others have noted, Tolkien’s correspondence during World War II reveals that he himself fell into an unplanned interfaith friendship. Too old to serve in the war, he was asked at Oxford to serve on air-raid duty, keeping watch in order to alert denizens of the university town if there was a bombing and they needed to seek shelter. While on duty, he was paired with one of the most esteemed Jewish historians and Zionists then in Britain. Tolkien wrote:

I was in the small C33 room: very cold and damp. But an incident occurred which moved me and made the occasion memorable. My companion in misfortune was Cecil Roth (the learned Jew historian). I found him charming, full of gentleness (in every sense); and we sat up till after 12 talking. He lent me his watch as there were no going clocks in the place: —and nonetheless himself came and called me at 10 to 7: so that I could go to Communion! It seemed like a fleeting glimpse of an unfallen world. Actually I was awake, and just (as one does) discovering a number of reasons (other than tiredness and having no chance to shave or even wash), such as the desirability of getting home in good time to open up and un-black and all that, why I should not go. But the incursion of this gentle Jew, and his somber glance at my rosary by my bed, settled it. I was down at St Aloysius at 7.15 just in time to go to Confession before Mass.


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/