Christian denominations like the Church of South India (CSI) and Marthoma Syrian Church joined the protest against the violence. “All those attending our institutions will attend work wearing black badges," said an official of Mar Thoma Church at its headquarters in Thiruvalla. In Kerala, around 5,900 educational institutions remained closed. The institutions that were closed in Kerala include four medical colleges and 11 engineering colleges run by the Catholic Church.
In Delhi scores of Christians marched to Orissa Bhawan, the office of the state resident commissioner, to protest the violence in Orissa against Christians. “Christians from at least 30 churches across the country participated in the rally in Delhi.
Several social activists like Udit Raj and Teesta Setelvad also participated in the protest march to Orissa Bhawan and addressed the gathering there.
Several schools and colleges in Delhi, including St. Stephens College, St Columba's School and Somerville School, were closed for the day.
In Orissa, over 100 educational institutes observed the shut down to express solidarity.
“There is almost an ethnic cleansing in the state,” Father babu Joseph Catholic spokes person said.
Read it all
Friday, August 29, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Women abandon the churches in England .
Churches in England have lost about 50,000 women every year from their congregations since 1989, according to a Derby-based sociologist.
Dr Kristin Aune, from the University of Derby, said many young women were put off by the traditional values. She said television programmes promoting female empowerment also discouraged women from going to church. She is the co-author of Women and Religion in the West.
Dr Aune, said: "Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church."
More
Dr Kristin Aune, from the University of Derby, said many young women were put off by the traditional values. She said television programmes promoting female empowerment also discouraged women from going to church. She is the co-author of Women and Religion in the West.
Dr Aune, said: "Young women tend to express egalitarian values and dislike the traditionalism and hierarchies they imagine are integral to the church."
More
Friday, August 22, 2008
WCC commemorates date of founding in Amsterdam 60 years ago
Geneva (ENI). Church leaders around the world have continued their celebrations of the founding of the World Council of Churches 60 years ago in Amsterdam on 23 August 1948, when the grouping officially came together to forge greater Christian unity.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Presbyterian pastor due back in church court over gay wedding
from TitusOneNine by Kendall Harmon
A Presbyterian minister who officiated at a lesbian wedding in 2005 is heading for church court again, two years after charges against her were dismissed on a technicality.
The Rev. Janet Edwards of Pittsburgh will again face possible expulsion if convicted by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Pittsburgh Presbytery.
Edwards will appear before the commission Oct. 1, to answer charges that she defied her ordination vows and Presbyterian Church (USA) rules by officiating at the Pittsburgh wedding of a lesbian couple in 2005.
"I am trying really hard to speak clearly about how what I did reflects Jesus' love and justice, and so I hope the permanent judicial council acquits me," Edwards said.
Read the whole article.
A Presbyterian minister who officiated at a lesbian wedding in 2005 is heading for church court again, two years after charges against her were dismissed on a technicality.
The Rev. Janet Edwards of Pittsburgh will again face possible expulsion if convicted by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Pittsburgh Presbytery.
Edwards will appear before the commission Oct. 1, to answer charges that she defied her ordination vows and Presbyterian Church (USA) rules by officiating at the Pittsburgh wedding of a lesbian couple in 2005.
"I am trying really hard to speak clearly about how what I did reflects Jesus' love and justice, and so I hope the permanent judicial council acquits me," Edwards said.
Read the whole article.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Church as Sacrament
In his Models of the Church, however, Avery Dulles remarks that the understanding of the Church as sacrament is technical and sophisticated and cannot easily be popularised.[4] In his later work, A Church to Believe In, he identifies other difficulties in communicating an understanding of the Church as a sacrament:
The term ‘sacrament’ suggests either an impersonal reality, such as baptismal water, or a ritual action, such as anointing. It is hard to think of a social body as a sacrament. Further, the image suggests a conspicuousness which the Church as a whole does not possess, since most Catholics and Christians do not go about in uniform. And finally, there is some ambiguity about what the Church as sacrament or sign represents. Is the Church, as we commonly experience it, a convincing sign of the unity, love, and peace, for which we hope in the final kingdom? The Church in its pilgrim state is still far from adequately representing the heavenly Jerusalem, even in a provisional manner.[5]
Such difficulties of communication and credibility, however, do not cancel out the value of understanding the Church as a sacrament. They are rather a challenge to state as clearly and as convincingly as possible different dimensions of the concept. In attempting to do so here, it will be useful to begin with a presentation of some of the biblical background to this way of approaching the nature and purpose of the Church.
Read it all from Brian Gleeson in Australian EJournal of Theology
The term ‘sacrament’ suggests either an impersonal reality, such as baptismal water, or a ritual action, such as anointing. It is hard to think of a social body as a sacrament. Further, the image suggests a conspicuousness which the Church as a whole does not possess, since most Catholics and Christians do not go about in uniform. And finally, there is some ambiguity about what the Church as sacrament or sign represents. Is the Church, as we commonly experience it, a convincing sign of the unity, love, and peace, for which we hope in the final kingdom? The Church in its pilgrim state is still far from adequately representing the heavenly Jerusalem, even in a provisional manner.[5]
Such difficulties of communication and credibility, however, do not cancel out the value of understanding the Church as a sacrament. They are rather a challenge to state as clearly and as convincingly as possible different dimensions of the concept. In attempting to do so here, it will be useful to begin with a presentation of some of the biblical background to this way of approaching the nature and purpose of the Church.
Read it all from Brian Gleeson in Australian EJournal of Theology
Community
community
What is community and why should educators be concerned with it? We explore the development of theory around community, and the significance of boundaries, social networks and social norms - and why attention to social capital and communion may be important.
Since the late nineteenth century, ‘the use of the term community has remained to some extent associated with the hope and the wish of reviving once more the closer, warmer, more harmonious type of bonds between people vaguely attributed to past ages’ (Elias 1974, quoted by Hoggett 1997: 5). Before 1910 there was little social science literature concerning 'community' and it was really only in 1915 that the first clear sociological definition emerged. This was coined by C. J. Galpin in relation to delineating rural communities in terms of the trade and service areas surrounding a central village (Harper and Dunham 1959: 19). A number of competing definitions of community quickly followed. Some focused on community as a geographical area; some on a group of people living in a particular place; and others which looked to community as an area of common life.
Read it all here
What is community and why should educators be concerned with it? We explore the development of theory around community, and the significance of boundaries, social networks and social norms - and why attention to social capital and communion may be important.
Since the late nineteenth century, ‘the use of the term community has remained to some extent associated with the hope and the wish of reviving once more the closer, warmer, more harmonious type of bonds between people vaguely attributed to past ages’ (Elias 1974, quoted by Hoggett 1997: 5). Before 1910 there was little social science literature concerning 'community' and it was really only in 1915 that the first clear sociological definition emerged. This was coined by C. J. Galpin in relation to delineating rural communities in terms of the trade and service areas surrounding a central village (Harper and Dunham 1959: 19). A number of competing definitions of community quickly followed. Some focused on community as a geographical area; some on a group of people living in a particular place; and others which looked to community as an area of common life.
Read it all here
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Implications of Church as Eschatological Community
The eschatology of the Bible addresses the individual with a powerful call to a life of trust and obedience. The eschatological hope buoys up the individual with confidence that God's redemptive purpose will not be thwarted. Far from inviting the individual to lapse into a quietistic mood of waiting for escape from this "vale of tears" or of ticking of the unfolding "signs of the times," the eschatological thrust of the Bible calls the individual into action. Jesus' own life is set before us as the example of One who participates already in God's eschatological Kingdom. Jesus' life reveals that anticipatory living-living which discloses the character of life in the fully-manifested Kingdom-involves active work at unmasking and overcoming evil in its many forms; constant effort to be on the side of those in need; ministries of healing and teaching; profound trust in God; and proclaiming the gospel of reconciliation to all.
Read it all here from Presbyterian Today Online
Read it all here from Presbyterian Today Online
Monday, August 11, 2008
How Churches Might Face the Coming Crises
Here is what Chuck Warnock a Baptist pastor see "How Churches Might Face the Coming Crises" by adapting to the three interrelated crises--energy, economy and environment
--Redefinition of "church." Church will no longer be the place we go. Church will be the people we share faith with. Churches will still meet together for worship at a central time and location, but that will become secondary to the ministry performed during the week. Church buildings will become the resource hub in community ministry, like the old Celtic Christian abbeys. Church impact will replace church attendance as the new metric.
--Restructuring of church operations. Due to the high cost of fuel and a struggling economy, churches will become smaller, more agile and less expensive to operate than in the past. Churches will need to provide direct relief to individuals and families with meal programs, shelters, clothing, job training, and more.
In the not-distant future, we will live in a world where government is increasingly unable to fund and provide those services. Church buildings will become increasingly more expensive to maintain, and churches with unused weekday space will consider partnerships with businesses, other ministries, and helping agencies.
Or churches will sell their conventional buildings and reestablish in storefronts that operate as retail businesses six days a week, and gathering places on Sunday (or Thursday or whenever).
Churches will focus outwardly on their "parish" more than inwardly on their members. Church staff will become more community-focused rather than church-program focused and become team leaders in new missional ventures.
--Repackaging of "sermons" and Christian education. With fewer people "attending" church, fewer will also attend Christian education classes. Churches will deliver Christian education content via mobile devices. Short video clips accessible from iPhones (and other smart devices) will be the primary content carriers for church and culture.
Church "members" (if that quaint term actually survives) will still gather, but more for monthly celebrations, fellowship and sharing than weekly meetings, worship or learning. Of course, there may be several monthly celebrations geared to different lifestyles (tribes), schedules and preferences. Again, the abbey concept of the church as hub with many smaller groups revolving around the resource center.
--Refocus from institution to inspiration. Okay, so I went for the easy alliteration there. Restated, less emphasis on the "church" and more on how the church enables its adherents to live their faith.
Declining church attendance is not a crisis of faith. It's a crisis of delivery. We can bemoan the fact that fewer people come to church, but ballgames are not suffering from declining attendance. People go to what they want to go to.
Church ministry has to focus on engaging people in meaningful ways that enable their spiritual journeys.
In a world in crisis, people are looking for something to believe in as institution after institution crumbles. If banks, businesses, and whole countries fail, where can we put our trust? Church should have the answer 24/7, delivered like everything else is delivered now--when people want it, at their convenience, and in a way that resonates with them.
Read all
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10855
Chuck Warnock
08-08-08
--Redefinition of "church." Church will no longer be the place we go. Church will be the people we share faith with. Churches will still meet together for worship at a central time and location, but that will become secondary to the ministry performed during the week. Church buildings will become the resource hub in community ministry, like the old Celtic Christian abbeys. Church impact will replace church attendance as the new metric.
--Restructuring of church operations. Due to the high cost of fuel and a struggling economy, churches will become smaller, more agile and less expensive to operate than in the past. Churches will need to provide direct relief to individuals and families with meal programs, shelters, clothing, job training, and more.
In the not-distant future, we will live in a world where government is increasingly unable to fund and provide those services. Church buildings will become increasingly more expensive to maintain, and churches with unused weekday space will consider partnerships with businesses, other ministries, and helping agencies.
Or churches will sell their conventional buildings and reestablish in storefronts that operate as retail businesses six days a week, and gathering places on Sunday (or Thursday or whenever).
Churches will focus outwardly on their "parish" more than inwardly on their members. Church staff will become more community-focused rather than church-program focused and become team leaders in new missional ventures.
--Repackaging of "sermons" and Christian education. With fewer people "attending" church, fewer will also attend Christian education classes. Churches will deliver Christian education content via mobile devices. Short video clips accessible from iPhones (and other smart devices) will be the primary content carriers for church and culture.
Church "members" (if that quaint term actually survives) will still gather, but more for monthly celebrations, fellowship and sharing than weekly meetings, worship or learning. Of course, there may be several monthly celebrations geared to different lifestyles (tribes), schedules and preferences. Again, the abbey concept of the church as hub with many smaller groups revolving around the resource center.
--Refocus from institution to inspiration. Okay, so I went for the easy alliteration there. Restated, less emphasis on the "church" and more on how the church enables its adherents to live their faith.
Declining church attendance is not a crisis of faith. It's a crisis of delivery. We can bemoan the fact that fewer people come to church, but ballgames are not suffering from declining attendance. People go to what they want to go to.
Church ministry has to focus on engaging people in meaningful ways that enable their spiritual journeys.
In a world in crisis, people are looking for something to believe in as institution after institution crumbles. If banks, businesses, and whole countries fail, where can we put our trust? Church should have the answer 24/7, delivered like everything else is delivered now--when people want it, at their convenience, and in a way that resonates with them.
Read all
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=10855
Chuck Warnock
08-08-08
Friday, August 1, 2008
Slouching Toward Bethlehemfrom Emergent Village by Steve Knight
Google Reader (1000+)
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
from Emergent Village by Steve Knight
By Julie Clawson, re-posted from onehandclapping:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
—W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming
I remember that this poem captured my imagination back when I was in high school. Yeats’ personal beliefs held that history moved in 2,000 year cycles as represented by conical spirals. One spiral represented religious power and the other secular powers. As history unfolded, these “gyres” increased and decreased in inverse proportions. Every 2,000 years a major upheaval occurred for each. So around the birth of Christ, the secular Empire of Rome was at its strongest and religious power weak. But at that moment, history shifted with the birth of Christ. Religion increased in power for the next 1,000 years then started to decrease as scientific advances began giving secular systems the edge. To Yeats, as the year 2000 approached and religion spiraled down to its weakest point, the stage was set for some great change to occur. And so he asked — “what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
While I didn’t buy into Yeats’ occult beliefs in dualistic powers guiding the unfolding of history, I recognized the truth behind the patterns and changes in history he described. History, especially religious history, does seem to function in cycles of a sort. One witnesses some great event or renewal movement that inspires a few generations but which dwindles in influence and power over time. Eventually its power and passion have become so weak that a new renewal occurs starting the cycle over again. It is fascinating to trace these sorts of developments through history.
So I’ve been intrigued to hear Phyllis Tickle speaking and writing on these historical trends recently. I assume this is the topic of her upcoming book The Great Emergence, but I’ve heard her speak on it recently on the Mars Hill podcasts and to Sojourners Magazine. She describes that every 500 years, there is upheaval and renewal in the church — and that we are in one of those times right now. The zeitgeist of the age, the issues in the world, and the moving of the Holy Spirit all conspire to effect great change. Phyllis Tickle is calling our current change the “great emergence” — referring not just to the emerging church, but to all the reforming movements in the church today. I look forward to reading her book and hearing more of her perspective on the matter.
But what amuses me the most is that the current changes occurring in the church (and the ones in the past for that matter) were viewed as a malevolent force more reminiscent of Yeats’ “rough beast” than the movings of the Holy Spirit. Change is feared and its harbingers vilified (if I hear one more person refer to Brian McLaren as the antichrist …). The calls of the reformers are not properly understood and often seen as a rejection of all that has come before. While it may be difficult to convince some that questioning and critique is not rejection (or arrogance), I think Yeats’ imagery could prove useful in this case. The widening gyres represent a continuous unfolding of history that expands and contracts, but never breaks away fully from its spherical path. What one experiences is a shift not a genesis. Accepting that perspective may help some more easily dwell within the unfolding of history.
With Yeats’ I agree that “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” But I believe that to be a good thing — the impetus that pushes us to renewal and revival.
Julie ClawsonJulie Clawson has spent the last few years helping plant an emerging church in the Chicago suburbs, but will soon be heading back home to Austin, Texas. She is currently working on a book about everyday justice issues.
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
from Emergent Village by Steve Knight
By Julie Clawson, re-posted from onehandclapping:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
—W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming
I remember that this poem captured my imagination back when I was in high school. Yeats’ personal beliefs held that history moved in 2,000 year cycles as represented by conical spirals. One spiral represented religious power and the other secular powers. As history unfolded, these “gyres” increased and decreased in inverse proportions. Every 2,000 years a major upheaval occurred for each. So around the birth of Christ, the secular Empire of Rome was at its strongest and religious power weak. But at that moment, history shifted with the birth of Christ. Religion increased in power for the next 1,000 years then started to decrease as scientific advances began giving secular systems the edge. To Yeats, as the year 2000 approached and religion spiraled down to its weakest point, the stage was set for some great change to occur. And so he asked — “what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”
While I didn’t buy into Yeats’ occult beliefs in dualistic powers guiding the unfolding of history, I recognized the truth behind the patterns and changes in history he described. History, especially religious history, does seem to function in cycles of a sort. One witnesses some great event or renewal movement that inspires a few generations but which dwindles in influence and power over time. Eventually its power and passion have become so weak that a new renewal occurs starting the cycle over again. It is fascinating to trace these sorts of developments through history.
So I’ve been intrigued to hear Phyllis Tickle speaking and writing on these historical trends recently. I assume this is the topic of her upcoming book The Great Emergence, but I’ve heard her speak on it recently on the Mars Hill podcasts and to Sojourners Magazine. She describes that every 500 years, there is upheaval and renewal in the church — and that we are in one of those times right now. The zeitgeist of the age, the issues in the world, and the moving of the Holy Spirit all conspire to effect great change. Phyllis Tickle is calling our current change the “great emergence” — referring not just to the emerging church, but to all the reforming movements in the church today. I look forward to reading her book and hearing more of her perspective on the matter.
But what amuses me the most is that the current changes occurring in the church (and the ones in the past for that matter) were viewed as a malevolent force more reminiscent of Yeats’ “rough beast” than the movings of the Holy Spirit. Change is feared and its harbingers vilified (if I hear one more person refer to Brian McLaren as the antichrist …). The calls of the reformers are not properly understood and often seen as a rejection of all that has come before. While it may be difficult to convince some that questioning and critique is not rejection (or arrogance), I think Yeats’ imagery could prove useful in this case. The widening gyres represent a continuous unfolding of history that expands and contracts, but never breaks away fully from its spherical path. What one experiences is a shift not a genesis. Accepting that perspective may help some more easily dwell within the unfolding of history.
With Yeats’ I agree that “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” But I believe that to be a good thing — the impetus that pushes us to renewal and revival.
Julie ClawsonJulie Clawson has spent the last few years helping plant an emerging church in the Chicago suburbs, but will soon be heading back home to Austin, Texas. She is currently working on a book about everyday justice issues.
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