This year’s Oscars may have been passed out, but for some churches across the country the major motion picture season is just getting started.
Frustrated with the movies Hollywood has been releasing, more and more congregations are making their own feature films.
One is Friends Church here in Yorba Linda, a Quaker congregation with an evangelical megachurch worship style where members are finishing production on a film called “Not Today.”
Austin Ihiekwe knows firsthand just how deadly malaria can be. He grew up in Nigeria and watched as his baby brother died from the mosquito-borne disease even though his parents could afford medicine and were diligent in treating their children.
“In the rainy season, all kids had malaria, every month or every other month,” said Ihiekwe, 67, of Cottage Grove. “But the availability of medicine is not universal. Some could afford it, some could not.” And the medicines didn’t always prevent the disease.
From Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday, Ihiekwe and members of Christ Episcopal Church in Woodbury are raising money to buy 364 insecticide-treated mosquito nets to be sent to Africa. The 364 nets represent one for each member of the congregation. The effort is part of a larger mission project during Lent involving Episcopal churches statewide and their nearly 20,000 members, said Brian Prior, bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Often what appears as repentance is really an attempt to minimize the pain we feel as we face the consequences of our own actions.
Take for example the story in Numbers 14 about the people of Israel, their rebellion against Moses’ leadership and their refusal to enter the Promised Land. You know the story – disregarding the exhortations of Joshua and Caleb to have faith in God and take possession of the land (Numbers 14:6-9), the people caved in to the fears of the other 10 spies who said that the land and its people would devour and destroy Israel (Num. 13:31-14:3). They considered stoning Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb, choosing a new leader and going back to Egypt (Numbers 14:4, 10). But for the gracious intercession of Moses on their behalf, God would have struck the people of Israel with a plague and destroyed them. Instead, in response to Moses’ plea, God stayed his hand of execution and forgave them (Numbers 14:20). Nevertheless, he required the people to face the consequences of their rebellion, faithlessness, and intent to murder Moses: God required this unfaithful generation to wander in the desert and not to enter the Promised Land for 40 years – “one year for each of the forty days you explored the land.” (Numbers 14: 21-35).
The ten spies who spread the bad report about the land were struck down by a plague – only Joshua and Caleb were spared because of their faithfulness and witness. When the people heard this they appeared to repent. They mourned bitterly. They felt remorse for their actions and attitudes. They even confessed their sin!
But even in the midst of such heartfelt emotion and confession, they were already to repeat their rebellion in what seemed to them to be obedience to God….
The Episcopal churches of the Naugatuck Valley share a unique and historic clergyman. The Rev. Richard Mansfield served as minister to a circuit that extended from West Haven to Waterbury, nearly 60 miles.
Mansfield’s father, Jonathan, was a deacon in the New Haven Congregational Church. The son studied to become a Congregational clergyman. He finished all the required studies for admission to Yale College (now Yale University) at age 11. College rules required him to wait until he was 14 before admission. He graduated in 1841 with first honors of his class. This earned him a prize that led to his conversion to Episcopalian.
St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church in Chelsea is embarking on a 40-day Lenten celebration of forgiveness and freedom.
Rev. John Mark Ford, St. Catherine’s rector, decided to breach the Lent season with a specific focus on forgiveness.
“I want to introduce my congregation to the unburdening ourselves of some of the things that grind on us and keep us beaten down, things the church and God have offered to relieve us of,” Ford said. “I wanted to do this through this Lent series.”
Consider the issues that most threaten humanity’s common future: global terrorism, climate change, overpopulation, and the political and social unrest caused by economic disparity. These problems transcend national boundaries and beg for international solutions. Yet political leaders have generally been unwilling or unable to find solutions.
So here’s where churches come in. Or should.
Religious leaders are the goad or conscience of a society. From the ancient Hebrew prophets to Jesus, Mohammed, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., we count on our spiritual leaders and communities for moral guidance. Conversely, people have been known to engage in horrendously immoral behavior if their religious leaders tell them it’s OK. Witness the shameful role religion has played in propping up the Confederacy, Nazi Germany or global terrorism. Simply put, religion matters. If not to the so-called new atheists, at least to ordinary folk….
O Lord our God, grant us, we beseech thee, patience in troubles, humility in comforts, constancy in temptations, and victory over all our spiritual foes. Grant us sorrow for our sins, thankfulness for thy benefits, fear of thy judgment, love of thy mercies, and mindfulness of thy presence; now and for evermore.
–John Cosin (1594-1672)
The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for thy house will consume me.”
–John 2:13-17
Technicians are battling to stabilise a third reactor at a quake-stricken Japanese nuclear plant that has been rocked by a second blast in three days.
Sea water is being pumped into reactor 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after its fuel rods were fully exposed twice.
International nuclear watchdogs said there was no sign of a meltdown but one minister said a melting of rods was “highly likely” to be happening.
In Tokyo, the Rev. Claudia Genung Yamamoto, a United Methodist missionary, discarded her planned Sunday sermon text at West Tokyo Union Church, where she has served as pastor for nearly 17 years.
Instead of speaking about the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, she focused on Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
As Congress is considering the extent of Islamic extremism in America, scholars on both sides of the Atlantic wonder whether the liberal Protestant theology of the last two centuries must share some blame for the violence committed by Muslim radicals….
For the Rev. Cannon Felix Orji, pastor of St. Francis on the Hill on El Paso’s Westside, the news that he had been elected bishop for the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA, came as a big surprise.
He didn’t even know he was a candidate.
The last time he learned he was a candidate for bishop, he removed his name from consideration.
“I’ve not been a contender for the position,” Orji told El Paso Inc. “My interest in ministry is to serve the church and to preach the gospel, not to become a big shot. I’ve not really been interested in being a bishop.
“However, this time they did not want to talk to me because they didn’t want me to wriggle out of it again. But I’m delighted.”
Churches have seen their congregations decimated this week after dissident Anglican priests and their parishioners turned to Rome.
Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of the exodus in both Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells as worshippers opted instead to celebrate their first mass at Catholic churches.
In Tunbridge Wells, Father Ed Tomlinson led 70 worshipers to join St Anselm’s Roman Catholic Church in Pembury leaving a congregation of just 15 at his former church St Barnabas.
Meanwhile, Father Ivan Aquilina took 40 parishioners with him to St Thomas’ Roman Catholic Church in Sevenoaks leaving 50 at the town’s St John the Baptist Church.
[Karen] Brynildsen, her husband, Martin, and a half-dozen other area Episcopalians are among thousands worldwide entering or planning to enter the Roman Catholic Church in expectation that the Vatican will establish an Anglican “ordinariate” in the United States. The canonical structure would allow them to retain their reverent, hymn-rich liturgy and other sacred traditions after conversion.
One impetus of the movement, though not the only one, is the progressive-traditionalist divide playing out across Christendom. Dismayed by the drift of mainstream Anglicanism on some social and theological issues ”” including women’s ordination and the sanctioning of homosexuality ”” conservatives have turned to Rome, where teaching and practice are unchanged.
The local group has been meeting at Sacred Heart, in Bath, to undergo religious instruction and look forward to the day when the church will offer the liturgy that has nourished their Christian faith these many years. Pope Benedict XVI set the stage for that possibility in November 2009 in a document called Anglicanorum Coetibus, which the Vatican said was a response to persistent requests from Anglican groups for a process whereby they could be accepted into the Catholic Church while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage.
On the 11th of March at 2:46pm, the biggest earthquake ever to hit Japan struck just off the coast of the Tohoku region. This caused a tsunami and fires that brought massive devastation to a very wide area. This unimaginably strong earthquake triggered an explosion at the Fukushima No.1 nuclear reactor. The people living in the area around that and the No. 2 reactor have been evacuated. The stories and images constantly broadcast by the media have left people lost for words, unable to describe the sheer scale of the unbelievable devastation caused by the earthquake, tsunami and fires.
We see homes devastated, whole towns that were swallowed by the tsunami, and houses that continue to burn because fire fighters are unable to reach both the properties and the people who were the victims of this catastrophe. With hearts filled with grief and helplessness we see people who are mourning their lost loved ones and others who search tirelessly for missing family members. There are so many who have lost their homes and possessions. Towns and villages were obliterated by the tsunami, everything was gone in a second.
Christians in south Punjab Province are accusing senior district officials of supporting local Muslims who allegedly demolished 150 Christian graves and desecrated holy relics ”“ and are now threatening Christians seeking legal redress.
In the Kot Addu area of Muzaffargarh district, Waseem Shakir told Compass by telephone that an influential Muslim group last Nov. 6 took illegal possession of a 1,210-square yard piece of land designated as a Christian cemetery and set up shops on it. Official records state that the portion of land was allotted as a Christian cemetery, he said.
“Local Muslims demolished 150 Christians’ graves and desecrated the cross and biblical inscriptions on the graves in a bid to construct shops on the property,” said Shakir, a resident of Chak (Village) 518, Peer Jaggi Morr, Kot Addu. “Only five marlas [151.25 square yards] are all that is left for the Christians to bury their dead now.”
Marti Fritz has put her heart and soul into St. Luke’s Episcopal Church for 30 years.
She sings in the choir, served twice on the lay board, raised her children in the congregation. Her husband is the church archivist. The ashes of Fritz’s mother and sister are in the church’s memorial wall.
“It’s really my home,” Fritz said of the church.
Right now, it’s a home in turmoil.
The Rev. Steve Lawler should have just given up chocolate or television for Lent.
Instead, Lawler, of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Ferguson, decided to adopt the rituals of Islam for 40 days to gain a deeper understanding of the faith.
On Friday, he faced being defrocked if he continued in those endeavors.
“He can’t be both a Christian and a Muslim,” said Bishop George Wayne Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. “If he chooses to practice as Muslim, then he would, by default, give up his Christian identity and priesthood in the church.”
People used to give up food for Lent, usually something they needed to cut back on like sweets.
These days, people are vowing to give up Facebook.
It makes sense, says Lisa Hendey, webmaster at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Fresno’s largest Roman Catholic congregation.
“In the past, it might have been giving up the extras, like chocolate or TV, but Facebook has become such a big part of people’s daily lives, they’re contemplating giving it up, praying about it.”
Russell Arnett remembers the day he proposed to his wife.
The Burlington-area resident made a reservation at a nice restaurant and he had roses and a card waiting for her.
It’s a story many people tell about their lives, but it’s not a story most Catholic priests ever have the chance to tell because most Catholic priests are not allowed to marry.
But Arnett will soon become one of very few married Catholic priests able to tell that story.
Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, of Cape Town, said that he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by the natural disaster that struck Japan on Friday, in a letter to his counterpart Archbishop Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu.
“I have been stunned by the pictures which are reaching us with the images of human tragedy, displacement and the physical damage to so many structures in many communities,” Makgoba said.
The bishop of a diocese in northern part of Japan devastated by yesteday’s earthquake and tsunami, is said to be safe but uncontactable.
Bishop Hiromichi Kato managed to get a message out to say that he is OK, but according Rikkyo University professor Rev.Prof. Renta Nishihara no one has managed to contact him directly.
Prof. Nishihara added that Bp Kato had revealed many churches of Tohoku , including the cathedral suffered the heavy damage.
Two clear messages have gone out from Dublin.
First, the authorities in Dublin Diocese were happy to showcase TEC despite its promotion of same-sex marriage. They have hammered in a wedge that may split our Church in two.
Second, the Primates’ meeting may have finally demolished the proposed Anglican Covenant, section 4.1.1 of which describes a Communion of national Churches “in which each recognises in the others the bonds of a common loyalty to Christ expressed through a common faith and order, a shared inheritance in worship, life and mission, and a readiness to live in an interdependent life”.
TEC’s breaches of that common faith and order are one thing; the failure of the Primates’ meeting to address them is quite another….
So, why are men the minorities in church?
“There’s quite a few reasons behind that,” Thompson said. “Unfortunately, church has gotten a (reputation) of being a gathering place for women. That’s not biblical; the church is about everyone.
“There definitely are roles for men and for women in the church and also in the family. What’s happening in families is a direct result of inactivity of men in church.”
Say good-bye to the NIV Bible as we know it and say hello to the updated, gender-inclusive NIV Bible which debuts in stores this month.
Mega-publisher Zondervan printed 1.9 million copies of the updated NIV Bible in this first run, up from the original 1.4 million.
“This laydown of the NIV update is bigger than we imagined,” said Chip Brown, senior vice president of Bibles for Zondervan, to The Christian Post. “A couple of retailers came in a little higher after seeing the marketing and products.”
In short, marriage has evolved, usually in ways that prove so congenial we forget it was ever otherwise. Extending marriage to same-sex couples would be just one more step. For some advocates of gay marriage, this is the end of the argument. But others sense the need to clarify something further: not just that change is part of the tradition, but that tradition will be part of the change. Chauncey chronicles three stages of the debate. In the 1950’s, gay spokesmen stressed conformity and ”their desire to restrain the public behavior of other homosexuals who did not share their assimilationist intentions.” In the 1960’s and 1970’s, gay liberationists turned toward promiscuity as a means of pleasure and ”self-exploration.” In the 1980’s and 1990’s, AIDS inspired a movement back to monogamy, with conservative writers like Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Rauch preaching marriage as a way to mainstream gay culture.
The conservative faction offers a broadly persuasive case for same-sex unions. Most Americans think family law should favor permanent, monogamous commitments. They also oppose discrimination on the basis of immutable characteristics like race. The path of least resistance, then, is to persuade them that gay marriage is a permanent, monogamous commitment and that sexual orientation is immutable. Among Americans who think sexual orientation can be changed, fewer than one in five supports gay marriage. Among those who think orientation can’t be changed, a plurality supports it. This strongly suggests that the most effective way to change beliefs about gay marriage is to change beliefs about immutability.
O Heavenly Father, subdue in us whatever is contrary to thy holy will, that we may know how to please thee. Grant, O God, that we may never run into those temptations which in our prayers we desire to avoid. Lord, never permit our trials to be above our strength; through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
–Thomas Wilson
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.
–Hewbrews 2:14-15