The Orthodox in Germany

After World War II, the situation of the Christian churches in Germany changed significantly. Refugees from the East of the German Empire moved to the West, and the allied forces saw to it that they were settled in Germany so as to bring Protestants and Catholics in contact with each other. Later economic growth led to a shortage of labour, resulting in agreements between the German government and many Mediterranean countries to have “guest workers” brought to Germany. In this way, people from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Morocco, and Tunisia came to Germany, which increased the confessional and religious diversity in the country. This saw in particular an increase in the Orthodox presence in Germany. Although it was initially thought that they would return to their home countries after a couple of years (hence the name “guest workers”), they stayed and left their mark on German life and culture. The 1980s saw an increase of ethnic German immigrants, many of whom were Orthodox, Baptist, or Jewish. In recent years, war, terror, and social unrest in the Middle East, Africa, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and many other countries has generated a large flow of refugees. While most of them flee to neighbouring regions, there are increasing numbers of migrants trying to find refuge in Germany and in other European countries.

Source: Council of Churches in Germany (ACK)  -  "The Ecumenical Situation in Germany", http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/prayer_worship/ecumenical_situation_in_Germany.html

Epaphras

(12) Epaphras (who started the church in Colossae; see Colossians 1:7), who is a servant of Jesus Christ from Colossae, sends his greetings. He is always wrestling (fighting) in prayer for you, so that you will stand strong in God’s will, mature and full of assurance. (13) I can tell you that Epaphras is working hard for you in Colossae and for the believers in the neighboring cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis (modern Pemukkale). (Colossae, Laodicea, and Hierapolis are all located in the Lycus Valley of modern Turkey).

Source: The Apostle Paul  -  Colossians 4:12-13 (IEB)

Why Take Unity Seriously?

For most of my Christian life I didn’t take unity seriously. Not at all.
Heck, I didn’t even think about Christian unity. It didn’t even cross my mind. And if I did, by some complete fluke, I’d shrug. Meh, someone else’s problem. Above my pay grade.
Not it!
But I was wrong.
...
I’ve come to the conclusion that we, my Christian brothers and sisters, need to take our unity seriously, right now, or face the devastating consequences. This, folks, is important.

Source: K. Albert Little  -  The Cordial Catholic on Patheos, 1 May 2015, "Dear Christians: Take Our Unity Seriously, Because Everyone is Watching", http://www.patheos.com/blogs/albertlittle/dear-christians-take-our-unity-seriously-because-everyone-is-watching/

A Pope Praises Luther

Last June, Pope Francis went so far as to praise Luther — once deemed a heretic by the Catholic Church — as a great reformer.

On his flight back to Rome from Armenia, the pope told reporters: "The church was not a role model, there was corruption, there was worldliness, there was greed, and lust for power. He protested against this. And he was an intelligent man."

Source: Pope Francis  -  As quoted on 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

Rod Dreher & his Father

Dreher left Catholicism in 2006; after covering the Catholic sex-abuse scandal for the Post and The American Conservative, he found it impossible to go to church without feeling angry. He and his wife converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, and, with a few other families, opened their own Orthodox mission church, near St. Francisville, sending away for a priest. It was Dreher’s Orthodox priest, Father Matthew, who laid down the law. “He said, ‘You have no choice as a Christian: you’ve got to love your dad even if he doesn’t love you back in the way that you want him to,’ ” Dreher recalled. “ ‘You cannot stand on justice: love matters more than justice, because the higher justice is love.’ ” When Dreher struggled to master his feelings, Father Matthew told him to perform a demanding Orthodox ritual called the Optina Rule. He recited the Jesus Prayer—“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”—hundreds of times a day.

Two life-changing events occurred after Dreher began the regimen of prayer. He was alone at home one evening, lying in bed, when he sensed a presence in the room. “I felt a hand reach inside my heart and put a stone there,” he said. “And I could see, in some interior way, that the stone said, ‘God loves me.’ I’d doubted all my life that God really loved me.” A few months later, Dreher stopped by his dad’s house to organize his medications. Ray was sitting on the porch, reading the newspaper and drinking coffee. When Dreher leaned down to kiss him on the cheek, his father grabbed him by the arm. Tears were in his eyes. “He was stammering,” Dreher recalled. “He said, ‘I—I—I spent a long time talking to the Lord last night about you, and the transgressions I did against you. And I told him I was sorry. And I think he heard me.’ ” Recounting the story in the back seat of the car en route to D.C., Dreher still seemed astonished that this had happened. “I kissed him, and said, ‘I love you.’ ”

Dreher’s father died in 2015. The next summer, the mission lost its priest and one of the founding families moved away. To be near an Orthodox church, Dreher and his family moved to Baton Rouge. Looking back on his time in St. Francisville, Dreher thinks that, if he hadn’t moved there and then forced himself to follow the rules—prayer, proximity, love—he would have stayed an angry child forever.

Source: Joshua Rothman  -  "Rod Dreher's Monastic Vision", The New Yorker, 1 May 2017, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/01/rod-drehers-monastic-vision

Austin Suggs

Something I'm incredibly passionate about is dialoguing with those I disagree with and doing my best to learn from them despite our differences. When it comes to branches of Christianity that I disagree with, my passion is even more increased. I simply love learning from Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. While we don't see eye to eye on everything, there is so much that we do agree on that can form the basis of great unity between Catholics, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox.

Source: Austin Suggs  -  From the "About" section of "My Experience Going to Catholic Mass as a Protestant", YouTube video on the Gospel Simplicity channel
https://youtu.be/M4nfaPm7NQE

7 Ecumenical Councils

Although the early church convened local and regional church councils in an attempt to debate and formulate its theological positions, these gatherings carried no authority over the whole Christian world. However, beginning in 325, Roman emperors gathered early church leaders in seven ecumenical councils, held over 462 years, between 325 and 787.

Each of these Ecumenical Church Councils took place in the Greek-speaking East and was primarily focused on the theological issues related to the triune nature of God (the Trinity) and Jesus Christ (Christology). Most of the early church fathers lived in the East and so most early theological writings were in Greek. Even in Rome, Christians worshiped in Greek until around 380. The Roman Catholic Pope (bishop) did not attend any of the councils.

Source: Dr. Andrew Jackson  -  "The Ecumenical Church Councils of the Early Church (325-787)"
https://www.drandrewjackson.com/the-ecumenical-church-of-councils-of-the-early-church-325-787/

Reflection, Action, Prayer

Reflection
This section hits home hard for me. I find it easy to close my heart off to those who have hurt me and even more difficult to face the reality that I have hurt others and that my attitudes and actions have directly and indirectly led to division and disunity.   There are conflicts in my past where I have hidden behind the letter of the law, and fallen short of the spirit of law that calls me to follow Jesus to the cross.  Jesus is teaching and helping me to keep my heart open and pursue those who have brought me deep pain and to never lose hope that God can heal and restore in even the most hopeless situation.
 
Action
Ask God to show you a broken relationship in your life that He desires to bring healing and restoration to.  Begin to pray about this asking God to show you what to do.  Trust that He will speak to you and then obey what He asks you to do.  Consider inviting others to pray with you.  Never underestimate the rippling effects of healing and peace that can come from a restored relationship.
 
Prayer
Lord Jesus, who prayed that we might all be one, we pray to you for the unity of Christians according to your will, according to your means. May your Spirit enable us to experience the suffering caused by division, to see and confess our sin and being forgiven and restored prepare us to be bearers of reconciliation wherever you place us.  Amen.
 

Source: A2J Community  -  Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 4", 21 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-4
http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-4

Luisa Hugosson from Colombia

Her friend Luisa Hugosson, 67, a native of Colombia, chimed in. “The pope’s visit is good for Lutherans and Catholics,” Ms. Hugosson said. “We are living in a new time, and we must be open and show respect.”

Source: Luisa Hugosson  -  As quoted by Christina Anderson, New York Times, "Pope Francis, in Sweden, Urges Catholic-Lutheran Reconciliation", 31 Oct 2016, http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/world/europe/pope-francis-in-sweden-urges-catholic-lutheran-reconciliation.html

JP2 Calls for Confession of Sins Against Unity

In his apostolic exhortation of 1994,Tertio Millennio Adveniente, John Paul II called for a confession of Catholic sins in the past, including sins against unity. "Among the sins which require a greater commitment to repentance and conversion should certainly be counted those which have been detrimental to the unity willed by God for his people."

Source: Pope John Paul II  -  Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 34

Sleeping in the same bed and ...

I often think about how our marriage might have turned out if we hadn't learned to forgive each other on a daily basis right from the start.  So many couples sleep in the same bed and share the same house but remain miles apart inwardly, because they have built up a wall of resentment between themselves.  The bricks in this wall may be very small - a forgotten anniversary, a misunderstanding, a business meeting that took precedence over a long-awaited family outing.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.122

Fr. Peter H. Davids

As a person I am a devoted Catholic Christian who embraces the richness and wisdom of the roughly 2000 years of the Christian spiritual tradition. In terms of vocation, I enjoyed 34 years as an Episcopal/Anglican priest, building upon previous years as a preacher and chaplain with the Plymouth Brethren, and was and am also happily involved in other Christian traditions as appropriate canonically. I did call myself relatively Anabaptist theologically, but realized that that part of Anabaptism with which I identified came from the Devotio Moderna and the Franciscan Teriaries. I have always been very invested and involved in my local church wherever I was, believing that one cannot be part of the formation of ministers and Christian students without being actively engaged in ministry oneself. I therefore expect that I will eventually be ordained in the Catholic Church.
I am or have been active in several spiritual and renewal movements, including past or present activity in Marriage Encounter, Engaged Encounter, and Cursillo, and also in the International Order of Saint Luke the Physician, in which I was a chaplain. I believe that the best scholarship is generally combined with deep piety and, as appropriate, with community involvement. I also have a deep commitment to my family, which, while grown, still has a high priority in my life.
My basic theological formation took place through encounter with the New Testament, especially the gospels and James, although later I would discover Anabaptist theology, the charismatic renewal and the classic spiritual tradition (all three in a one year period) which would contribute to my ongoing formation. Later I had intensive involve with Catholic theology, building on a foundation that had been laid over the previous 30 plus years, and culminating in my reception into the Catholic Church. In terms of ongoing emotional formation, both Caretakers I and II and the Post-Graduate Seminar in Family Emotional Systems have been very important.
As a teacher I am committed to integrated education and the education of the whole church. By integration I mean the integration of the various theological disciplines and the integration of the whole theological world with praxis, both in ministry and in the world at large. Without such integration learning tends to be compartmentalized and remains unapplied to life and ministry. Furthermore, I believe that the life of the teacher is an integral part of his or her teaching, and that teaching does not end with the end of a course, but that each teacher has certain students that he or she should remain in relationship with long after the course, in some cases for life.

Source: Fr. Peter H. Davids  -  General Interests section of his About page for the St. Paul Center website
https://stpaulcenter.com/fr-peter-h-davids-2/

A Serial Rapist & Murderer

Quoting Michael Ross, a serial rapist and murderer:

I feel a profound sense of guilt: an intense, overwhelming and pervasive guilt that surrounds my soul with dark, tormenting clouds of self-hatred, remorse and sorrow … Reconciliation is what I yearn for most: reconciliation with the spirits of my victims, with their families and friends, and finally with myself and God.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.169-170

Evangelicals promoting aspects of Catholicism

While this way of putting it might make some evangelicals uncomfortable, others have already started using the resources this Pope has made accessible and attractive to the world. It is obvious that Charles Colson and Billy Graham pay more attention to the writings of the Holy Father and take them to heart more readily than do some dissenting Catholic priests and theologians. Pat Robertson for a time was sending copies of the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a gift to friends, while some Catholics view the Catechism as oppressive and authoritarian. It could even be argued that Campus Crusade and Prison Fellowship have done more to advance the Church of Mary than entire theology departments of some Catholic universities. These evangelical leaders recognize that Catholics and evangelicals share the same gospel, the same deposit of faith, and especially in recent decades, the same evangelical and apostolic imperative.

Source: Daniel P. Moloney  -  "Evangelicals in the Church of Mary", First Things, December 2000, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/12/evangelicals-in-the-church-of-mary

Latasha Morrison

Seeing racial division at conferences and churches really broke my heart and gave me a holy discontent. As I came to the predominantly white church, I saw a blindness. [Most people] thought the issue was diversity—“If I have someone on staff who doesn’t look like me, then there is my racial reconciliation.”

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 Catholic Church - Suspicious!!

But no one reads the Bible as an extraterrestrial or an angel; our church community provides the colored glasses through which we read, and the framework, or horizon, or limits within which we understand. My "glasses" were of Dutch Reformed Calvinist construction, and my limiting framework stopped very far short of anything "Catholic!' The Catholic Church was regarded with utmost suspicion. In the world of the forties and fifties in which I grew up, that suspicion may have been equally reciprocated by most Catholics. Each group believed that most of the other group were probably on the road to hell. Christian ecumenism and understanding has made astonishing strides since then.

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

Cardinal Timothy Dolan on the Bruderhof

Reflecting upon the Acts of the Apostles during paschaltide is an examination of conscience to see if we are loyal to the characteristics of our first-generation Christian ancestors.

If we’re lucky, we have attractive models today who base their daily lives on the gospel and the paradigm of the Acts of the Apostles.

We here in the archdiocese are indeed so fortunate, as we enjoy friendship with such a remarkable community, the Bruderhof.

And, these Easter days, we are particularly united with them as they commend their Senior Elder, Pastor Johann Christoph Arnold, to eternity.

Source: Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan  -  "Radical Discipleship Lived in Our Midst", Catholic New York, 27 April 2017, http://www.cny.org/stories/radical-discipleship-lived-in-our-midst,15453