Friday, March 23, 2012

Colleagues List, March 24th, 2012

Vol. VII. No. 32


*****

Wayne A. Holst, Editor

*****

Colleagues List Blog:
http://colleagueslist.blogspot.com/

Canadian Anglican Google Groups:
http://tinyurl.com/7o899yg

My E-Mail Address:
waholst@telusplanet.net

New "Quicklinks" are now included 
with many items. Otherwise, scroll
down to find your selection in the 
body of the blog, as in the past.

*****

COLLEAGUE KUDO

FR. NED CAROLAN 
Dublin, Ireland

March 20th, 2012

Many thanks for your St. Patrick's Day 
greetings!

Thanks also for your weekly inspirations 
which I never miss. It is great to have 
the results of all your research at one's 
"finger tips" - literally.

Ireland has let us have a very mild Winter 
this year. In fact it has been very little 
different from the greater part of the past 
two Summers.

All the very best. Easter is just around the 
corner, so may you have all the Blessings of 
that Holy Season!

Ned Carolan, omi

*****

Dear friends:

This week my special item is a book notice on
the appearance of colleague Gretta Vosper's 
new title:

"Amen: 
 What Prayer Can Mean in a World Beyond Belief"

http://tinyurl.com/6s9a4nq

I hope you will give it the attention it deserves,
as Gretta has invested much of herself in this work.
___

Colleague Contributions:

Lorna Dueck (Toronto) writes of the new Sunday
night prime time soap opera "GCB" that presents
evangelical Christians as optimistic folk.
http://tinyurl.com/84pkln5

Martin Marty (Chicago) reflects on the passing
of William Hamilton and Robert Schuller.
http://tinyurl.com/7c2rkex
___

Net Notes:

"Coptic Pope Dies" - this week, Egyptian
Coptic Christians lost their leader, and
a time of uncertainty faces the community
(ENI, ABC, National Post)

http://tinyurl.com/6oc4hmt
http://tinyurl.com/7mhov2b



"Attacks on Christians" - the heightened 
incidence of persecution suggests a global
monitoring of what is taking place
(America Magazine)

http://tinyurl.com/84xvmvz

"Pope Raps Irish Church" - the Irish
hierarchy has already taken its lumps
from the state, but victims still cry
fowl (Reuters News, Irish Examiner)

http://tinyurl.com/7qxr9mf
http://tinyurl.com/78unoht


"The Common Sense Catholics" - it looks
like Republican candidate Santorum
is finally our of the running, not least
because Catholics have turned against him
(New York Times)

http://tinyurl.com/7sgxkr8

"Jewish Tragedy at Toulouse" - the major
tragedy of the week took place in France,
and the assessment continues
(ENI, Jerusalem Post, Globe and Mail)

http://tinyurl.com/6ucldea 
http://tinyurl.com/8ysqyaw

"Rise of Mormon Feminist Bloggers" -
no patriarchal religion is free from the
probing internet. Here is evidence that
Mormon patriarchs are facing feminism
(The Guardian, UK)

http://tinyurl.com/7snmde7

"Lutheran Pastor New German President" -
first it was the chancellor, then the
president. Both offices are now filled
by Lutherans of East German background
(Anglican Journal)

http://tinyurl.com/7gtjtfn

"Archbishop Reconciles with Gay Priest" -
a heartening story that bishops can
change and seek to reflect the healing
power of the Gospel (Anglican Journal)

http://tinyurl.com/7k9w6yv

"Philippine Conference Preps WCC Korea" -
in anticipation of the 2013 WCC Assembly
in South Korea, an important meeting 
begins this week on global evangelism
(UCA News) http://tinyurl.com/6w8ztsh

"Brazil Pressure May Save Iranian Pastor" -
a sign that more key diplomatic moves are
being handled under the radar of the big
powers and churches (Anglican Journal)

http://tinyurl.com/7vzvvrp

"Franklin Graham, Fox News - Faith's Distortion"
- an Catholic take on how Franklin Graham and Fox 
News are skewing the image of the USA globally 
(National Catholic Reporter)

Open with Mozilla Firefox
http://tinyurl.com/8y7mcqu

"Crystal Cathedral Downfall - a Cautionary Tale"
- we have reported the demise of this once
flashy mega church. Here are some lessons
(Religious News Service)

http://tinyurl.com/7uyzutv
___

Global Faith Potpourri:

Twelve faith stories appear this week courtest
of Ecumenical News International, Geneva.
___

Wisdom of the Week:

John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi, 
Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Aldous Huxley
and Claudia Lapp share their insights.
___

On This Day:

The New York Times reports on stories as they
they were unfolding:

The first spacewalk by Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei 
Leonov  (1965) http://tinyurl.com/6mbax9o

12 people are killed and 5,500 others are sickened 
when poisonous gas is leaked on five Tokyo subway 
trains (1995) http://tinyurl.com/8xdfdzf

3,000+ civil rights demonstrators led by MLK Jr.  
began their march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala 
(1965) http://tinyurl.com/7pl6e4t
___

Closing Thought

This week geologian Thomas Berry celebrates 
evolutionary theology in a most winsome way.

Lenten blessings,

Wayne

********************************

St. David's and ACTS Ministry Announce:

OUR SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS TOUR FOR 2013
TURKEY AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

April 22nd - May 8th, 2013

Tour sale begins with deposit starting June, 2012
Full payment due, January, 2013

More details such as costs to be made available 
in the Sunday worship guide and the St. David's 
Spiritual Travelers Discussion List Group as they
become available.

To join the list discussion contact:
Deb. Charnusaki - debcharnuski@hotmail.com

Your tour hosts: 

Marlene and Wayne Holst
waholst@telusplanet.net (or) 
marleneaholst@gmail.com
403-286-7416

*****

SPECIAL WINTER STUDY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Introducing the Full Program

ST. DAVID'S MONDAY NIGHT STUDY
WINTER 2012

"The Other Face of God:
When the Stranger Calls Us Home"

by Mary Jo Leddy

Ten Monday Nights - 
January 16th - March 26th, 2012

See the study schedule:
http://tinyurl.com/78f2ll2

Information about the book from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/c6aror6

Visit Romero House, Toronto on the web:
http://tinyurl.com/7c9dsb4

NOTE: Mary Jo Leddy is coming to St. David's
the weekend of September 20th-22nd. Watch for 
new information as it becomes available.

*****

ST. DAVID'S ACTS MINISTRY AND
THE FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY CENTRE 
ON THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY CAMPUS

Welcome to our -

LENTEN STUDIES 2012

Noon Hour Book Discussions for Faculty, 
Staff and Students Winter Series for 2012:

"An Altar in the World" by Barbara Brown Taylor

Discovering God in the ordinary experiences of life
March 2nd - March 30th - five Friday noon sessions

Time and Location for all sessions:
12:00 to 1:00PM in the Native Centre Board Room
Located above the Dairy Queen, Mac Hall Student's 
Centre

Led by: Wayne Holst, 
Coordinator of the ACTS Ministry, St. David's United
and a Faith and Spirituality Centre Liaison.

Cost of the book: $15.00 each

http://tinyurl.com/7qpxcmw
http://www.ucalgary.ca/faithandspirituality/

Join us this year for stiumlating campus discussions!

For more information: Adriana Tulissi 403-220-5451
Co-ordinator, Faith and Spirituality Centre, U. of 
C. - artuliss@ucalgary.ca

*****

SPECIAL ST. DAVID'S LINKS

Contact us at: asdm@sduc.ca (or)admin@sduc.ca
St. David's Web Address - http://sduc.ca/

Listen to audio recordings of Sunday services -
http://sduc.ca/St_Davids_United_Church/Audio.html

*****

STUDY ARCHIVES

An accumulation of thirty-five books studied
since 2000 can quickly be found at:
http://tinyurl.com/6oxmyj4

This collection of study resources represents 
more than a decade of Monday Night Studies at 
St. David's, plus extra courses too!

You are welcome to use our course outlines,
class notes and resource pages in your personal
and group reflections.

******************************************

SPECIAL ITEM

Book Notice -

AMEN
What Prayer Can Mean
In a World Beyond Belief,
by Gretta Vosper
HarperCollins Canada: Toronto
Release Date: April 3rd, 2012
340 pages. $33.00 CAD
ISBN #978-1554686476

Publisher's Promo:

Prayer is an essential part of the daily 
lives of many people. Some believe it 
connects them with God, a cosmic force, 
the universe or life itself, and that it 
can change circumstances or bring them 
comfort, protection and peace. 

Others engage in the act of prayer as a 
traditional ritual from which they neither 
demand nor expect results. Many who pray 
cannot imagine living without it. For many 
others, however, prayer has no significance 
in their lives at all. Having left a practice 
they once knew or matured without religious 
intervention or instruction, the idea of 
praying regularly might be considered by 
these individuals as nothing more than a 
waste of time. In Amen, Gretta Vosper, 
United Church minister and author of the 
controversial bestseller "With or Without 
God," examines these diverse positions in 
the light of harsh realities of unanswered 
prayer, the secular critique of supernatural 
intervention and the need for a deep sense of 
ownership for the suffering in the world. 

With characteristic honesty, she calls the 
reader to submit the tradition of prayer to 
the test of integrity. Can we draw from it 
useful principles for addressing human and 
global needs? Or is it safe, and maybe even 
more effective, to get up from our knees and 
live out the answers we seek?

---

Author's Words:

... doing things the way you've always done
them just because you've always done them
that way may be neither productive nor an
efficient use of resources (and the author 
applies this to our practice of prayer.)

To some, it is present in a meaningful
day-to-day inspirational way; to others, it
is mostly out of sight, present only for
occasional ceremonial purposes. Sometimes
it is entirely absent, its emply place, if
noticed at all, only a curiosity...

For some... prayer is a positive element in
their lives. It connects them with God...
Prayer makes their lives more meaningful,
more purposeful, and in the meaning they
derive from it, their world makes sense.

Yet for others who still hold on to it,
prayer has been a source of frustration,
confusion and despair... they have repeatedly
asked God for help, for healing, for change;
they have believed and trusted and tried to
be patient; they have surrendered their will
to God... And nothing happened. Nothing.
Things have stayed the same or got worse.

If other people have prayers answered, why
not them? Is it their faith? Their method
of praying? Their unworthiness? Their sin?
... for these people, prayer has not been
a blessing.

For still others, prayer serves a purely
ceremonial function (they pray, for example,
when they sit down to Thanksgiving dinner)
... but prayer now holds only a symbolic place
in their busy lives.

Still others... know little, if anything,
about prayer... Most of the time there is
not even an empty space in their lives
where prayer might have been. They have
lived long and well without it...

Some experience incredible benefits from
prayer, while some experience great
disappointments (people seem to thrive with 
or without prayer and the author reflects
profoundly on this apparent contradiction.)

In most of my experience with communal
prayer in the mainline denominational church
(I find little or no opportunity to experience
deep and meaningful prayer experiences.) (So)
if someone asks me if I pray, the answer is
not a simple one.

(The author concludes that just as the way
we live is more important than what we believe
- and that compassion trumps doctrine every time - 
so also it is with prayer or no prayer. The way 
we live is more important than whether we pray 
or not.)

In this book, I'm inviting you on an
exploration of the concept and practice
of prayer - with or without god - to see 
what we'd like to put into a model for
living and growing together - with or
without prayer. We will examine what it is
that prayer has offered and might offer the
world into the future. If all prayer can 
mean in a world beyond belief is distraction
and disappointment at best - and strife,
segregation and discontent at worst - then we
must get up from our knees, unclench our
hands, and let it go. If we find that prayer
is an essential ingredient to well-being, 
then we will have to find ways to preserve
it and make it as practically accessible as
possible. If there is even one beneficial
aspect to prayer that we can extract and
bring with us, we will.

I'm inviting you to explore the intellectual
terrain, toughen up your feet on it for a
bit, and let your ideas grow.

- from the Introduction

Throughout human existence we have prayed
because prayer went out before us as a line
of protection... we have sheltered ourselves
behind it, confident that it would hold off
the greater sorrows, the ones we couldn't
bear, and filter through to us only those
our hearts could carry...

We know, you and I, that (this) image isn't
the reality. We haven't known protection...

(As I wrote this book I had the faint hope...)
I would find a thread that would weave itself
into a tapestry I could throw over the horrid
truth of utter aloneness.

For me, there is no thread - only the yearning
for one. (I must continue to "seek the truth,
come whence it may, cost what it will") For
me, the truth must "Lead where it will..."

We have no prayer that can keep us safe. We
have no prayer that can intervene in the laws
of the universe and keep away illness, evil,
calamity. We have no prayer that can heal a
sick child or extend the life of a loved one.
... We have no prayer that can move mountains.

We have only ourselves. We have only ever had
ourselves. But we have done all these things.
And we can do more. Amen.

- from the Epilogue.

---

My Comments:

Gretta Vosper of Toronto, whose earlier book
"With or Without God" was a helpful exercise
on the meaning of god for our time now offers
challenging insights on the meaning of prayer
in her new book "Amen."

Both books challenge traditional understandings,
and, in many ways, my praise and critique of
her first volume apply here. I respect the author
for her honesty and her desire to probe bravely 
below the surface of our sometimes unclear and
ever-changing assumptions which she calls our
"core narratives." At the same time, I need to
question whether her experience of these matters
is anything close to my own.

These starting-points made, I assume some good 
debate is to be anticipated.

The church has a long history of 'obedient rebels' -
that is, of people some called heretics but others
knew better. I do not consider Vosper's views
heretical on the subject of prayer. In fact, I find
her dead right in some of the challenges she raises 
against our traditional assumptions.

I often wonder myself about the depth of spirit that
exists in a typical Sunday morning service in 
churches of the mainline Protestant tradition. From 
what I've experienced of some Catholic masses, I 
think things are quite similar - in spite of the 
beauty of many liturgies, both Catholic and 
Protestant. In truth,much of what passes for 
prayer is quite infantile.I agree with Vosper 
that it is high time we grew up!


Her attempts to critique sacred cows are not bad, 
and I would agree that she must certainly speak for
many people in, and beyond, the pews. Anyone who 
writes more than 300 pages on the subject of prayer 
has got to be taking it seriously. So I am quick 
to discard the loose talk that the author is no 
Christian.


Still, I have to question whether she has done enough
probing of what is available and happening out there
in the world of faith. I know many who have been
equally concerned about the spirituality of prayer
within and beyond the Christian tradition. Probing
minds and hearts are never content with the status
quo. They are constantly being challenged to go
outside mundane practices and to venture into new
experiences.

Vosper assumes a decidedly rational approach to
prayer, and that may be her limitation. For me, 
'reasonable prayer' is an oxymoron. Prayer as
meditation and mysticism transcend the mind and 
link our heads and hearts in a profound way.
In that regard, she may be much more 'protestant'
than she realizes.

---

Let me express one additional concern I have about
the book. It ends on a rather sad note. The author 
is very honest about her own stance at this point.
"We have only ourselves. We have only ever had 
ourselves." She ends by saying that, when all is 
said and done, we stand alone in a universe without
any transcending meaning. 

Her understanding of our human condition is not 
unlike what I understood Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) 
the English poet was saying in 'Dover Beach' more
than a century ago -

"The Sea of Faith
Was once too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down to the vast edges drear
and naked shingles of the world...

And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

---

Arnold spoke for his time, yet his was but one
voice, and not all were convinced then, as now,
that the era of faith had been eclipsed. 

---

I resume:

I need to continue claiming there is a God, and 
that we have the ability to exchange communication. 
For me, that is expressed well in the United Church 
of Canada creedal statement of some decades back:

"We are not alone. We live in God's world."

---

I encourage you to read Vosper's important book. 
It should challenge you at some of those 'vulnerable'
spots on the meaning of prayer. It should also help 
you refine where you stand.

---

Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/6s9a4nq

*********

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

LORNA DUECK
Toronto, ON.

Globe and Mail
March 21st, 2012

GCB (Good Christian Belles/Bitches)

http://tinyurl.com/84pkln5

*****

MARTIN MARTY

Sightings  3/19/2012

"Sic Transit- - The Passing of 
William Hamilton and Robert Schuller"

http://tinyurl.com/7c2rkex

*****

NET NOTES

COPTIC POPE DIES
Shenouda III was 88

Ecumenical News International
March 19th, 2012

Egyptian Christians mourn death 
of Coptic Pope Shenouda III

(ENI news) - Thousands of Egyptians are 
mourning the death of Pope Shenouda III, 
the longtime leader of the Coptic Orthodox 
Church, who died 17 March at the age of 88. 
His funeral will be on 21 March, at St. 
Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, where his body 
has been sitting in state on a large wooden 
throne. Tributes have come in from around 
the world, with Pope Benedict XVI offering 
prayers and U.S. President Barack Obama 
praising Pope Shenouda as an "advocate 
for tolerance and religious dialogue."

---

ABC News
March 17th, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/6oc4hmt

--

Copts Face Uncertain Future as
Thousands Gather to Mourn Pope

National Post
March 18th, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7mhov2b

*****

ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS
Global Watchdog Needed

America Magazine
March 26th, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/84xvmvz

*****

ROME RAPS IRISH CHURCH
Abuse and Neglect Deplored

Reuters News Service
March 20th, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7qxr9mf

---

"Victims Still Cry Fowl"

Irish Examiner
March 21st, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/78unoht

*****

COMMON SENSE CATHOLICS
Turn Down Santorum

The New York Times
March 22nd, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7sgxkr8

*****

JEWISH TRAGEDY AT TOULOUSE

Ecumenical News International
March 20th, 2012

French religious groups condemn 
killings at Jewish school

Paris (ENI news) - As schools across France 
observed a minute of silence on 20 March in 
memory of three children and a teacher killed 
at a Jewish school, faith groups condemned 
the murders and expressed solidarity with 
the victims' families. The Council of 
Christian Churches in France (CECEF) said 
it "shared the pain of the Jewish community 
after the murderous shooting" on 19 March. 
Some observers also denounced the political 
rhetoric that has targeted immigrants and 
religious minorities ahead of the French 
presidential elections.

---

"West Encourages These Incidents Say Israelis"

Jerusalem Post
March 21st, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/6ucldea 

---

"Pushed Closer to Islam's Margins"

Globe and Mail
March 23rd, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/8ysqyaw

*****

THE RISE OF MORMON
FEMINIST BLOGGERS

The Guardian, UK
March 18th, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7snmde7

*****

LUTHERAN PASTOR NEW 
PRESIDENT OF GERMANY

Anglican Journal
March 22nd, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7gtjtfn

*****

ARCHBISHOP RECONCILES
WITH GAY PRIEST
After Twenty Years

Anglican Journal
March 23rd, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7k9w6yv

*****

GLOBAL MISSION, EVANGELISM
CONFERENCE MEETS IN PHILIPPINES 
Prep for 2013 WCC Assembly in S. Korea

Uca News
March 22nd, 2011

http://tinyurl.com/6w8ztsh

*****

PRESSURE FROM BRAZIL 
MAY SAVE IRANIAN PASTOR

Anglican Journal News
March 21st, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7vzvvrp

*****

OF FRANKLIN GRAHAM, FOX NEWS
AND FAITH'S DISTORTION

National Catholic Reporter
Editorial, March 21st, 2012

Open with Mozilla Firefox
http://tinyurl.com/8y7mcqu

*****

CHRYSTAL CATHEDRAL DOWNFALL
OFFERS CAUTIONARY TALE

Religious News Service
March 15th, 2012

http://tinyurl.com/7uyzutv

*****

GLOBAL FAITH POTPOURRI

Ecumenical News International
News Highlights
19 March 2012

Norway's Lutheran state church headed 
toward dis-establishment

Oslo (ENI news) - Major steps toward the 
dis-establishment of Norway's state church, 
the (Lutheran) Church of Norway, were passed 
by the government on 16 March in its weekly 
session with King Harald V. Expected to be 
adopted by the Parliament (Storting) in May 
or June this year, the proposals will make 
changes in the country's constitution as well 
as in other church legislation, the Ministry 
of Government Administration, Reform and 
Church Affairs announced. "I hope we have 
now prepared a good basis for the Church 
of Norway to be an open and inclusive 
national church, also in a multicultural 
and multi-religious setting," Minister 
Rigmor Aasrud (Labour Party), said in a 
news release. 
_____


Rio+20 summit must include 
ethical principles, say experts

Geneva (ENI news) - The current draft text 
for the forthcoming U.N. Rio+20 summit on 
sustainable development is weak and needs 
to strengthened to include ethical 
principles that highlight stronger 
commitments on equity, accountability, 
and universal human rights norms, experts 
said. "The conference should lift up human 
rights mechanisms as major instruments to 
hold governments and the private sector 
accountable," Guillermo Kerber, program 
executive with the Commission of the 
Churches on International Affairs at 
the World Council of Churches (WCC), 
told a forum in Geneva on 16 March.

*****

20 March 2012

Pope to find challenges, 
opportunities in Cuba

Vatican City (ENI news) - Two weeks 
before Pope Benedict XVI was scheduled 
to touch down in Cuba, a small group 
of protesters occupied a church in 
central Havana, asking that a message 
with their requests be delivered directly 
to the pope. Their action was swiftly 
condemned by church authorities as 
"illegitimate and irresponsible." 
The group remained in the church for 
two days, and only left on 15 March 
after being assured by a top church 
leader that they could return home 
without police interference, Religion 
News Service reports. The episode 
illustrates the challenges that Benedict 
will find in Cuba during a 23-29 March 
trip that will also include a stop in 
Mexico.

*****

21 March 2012

Forest burials gain popularity 
among German Christians

Berlin (ENI news) - For the last decade, 
some Germans have tapped into their nation's 
feelings for its ancient forests and chosen 
a final resting place in a woodland gravesite. 
Churches used to frown on the practice but 
now "friedwald" ("peaceful forest") rites 
are becoming more accepted. There are 
currently 41 forest burial sites across 
Germany with at least five more opening 
this year. Its increased popularity is due 
to several factors  - gradual acceptance of 
alternatives to conventional burial, such as 
cremation; desire for less-expensive options
than traditional funerals and a hunger to 
re-connect with the natural world.
______

22 March 2012

South African judge criticized for 
supporting evangelist's conference

Cape Town, South Africa (ENI news) - South 
Africa's chief justice, Mogoeng Mogoeng, 
has been criticized for "requesting" the 
country's top judges from different 
religious backgrounds to attend a 
leadership conference by John Maxwell, 
an American evangelist. Mogoeng, through 
an e-mail sent by his staff, said judges 
and their deputies should "be available" 
for an evangelical leadership conference 
that was held in Johannesburg on 12 March. 

_____

U.S. women faith leaders call for 
greater oversight of cosmetics industry

Washington, D.C. (ENI news) - Women 
religious leaders in the U.S. called on 
22 March for greater government oversight 
of the cosmetics industry to protect 
children and the environment from toxic 
chemicals. "Scripture tells us that we 
were made in God's image," said Chloe 
Schwabe, environmental health program 
manager at the National Council of 
Churches (NCC), according to an NCC 
news release. 

_____

Malawi president rejects calls 
from faith leaders to resign

Blantyre, Malawi (ENI news) Malawi 
President Bingu wa Mutharika on 22 March 
rejected calls from faith groups that he 
resign following a political and economic 
crisis that has rocked the southern 
African nation. A delegation of civil 
society organizations meeting at a national 
conference organized by the Public Affairs 
Committee (PAC) on 15 March demanded that 
Mutharika "resign honorably within 90 days 
or if he thinks he is still popular, he 
should call for a referendum within the 90 
days. Failure to follow this will call for 
mass action." Last year, the government 
cracked down on protesters demanding 
economic changes that would ease fuel 
and foreign-currency shortages. 

_____

U.S. churches lost $1.2 billion 
in recession, report says

Washington, D.C. (ENI news) - Even as 
membership remains relatively stable in 
U.S. churches, the effects of the recession 
have caused contributions to drop by $1.2 
billion, according to the 2012 Yearbook 
of American and Canadian Churches. The 
almost $29 billion contributed by church 
members represented a 2.2 percent decrease 
in terms of per capita giving, the yearbook 
reported. The $1.2 billion decline in 2010
was nearly three times as large as the $431 
million in losses reported in 2009, and 
"provides clear evidence of the impact of 
the deepening crises in the reporting 
period," the Yearbook's editor, the Rev. 
Eileen Lindner, wrote. 

*****

23 March 2012

Church leaders stress partnership as 
Christianity grows in global South

Manila, Philippines (ENI news) - As delegates 
to a World Council of Churches (WCC) gathering 
noted Christianity's growth in the global South, 
church leaders from Africa and Asia stressed 
that partnership in mission and evangelism is 
needed more than ever. "We acknowledge that 
the growth of Christianity in the global South 
(Africa and Asia) is the result of the success 
of the North's mission and evangelism work," 
the Rev. Opoku Onyinah of the Pentecost Bible 
College in Ghana told ENInews on 23 March. 
Speaking before a pre-assembly of the WCC 
Commission on World Mission and Evangelism 
(CWME), Onyinah said Pentecostal churches' 
emphasis on personal religious experiences 
and encounters with the Holy Spirit has 
helped many churches in Africa grow. 
_____

Churches say Hong Kong needs universal suffrage

Hong Kong (ENI news) - As Hong Kong heads toward 
the choice of a chief executive on 25 March, its 
churches are raising their voices in support of 
universal suffrage. Under the present political 
system, the government head will be chosen by 
1,200 electors who mainly coming from the 
business sectors and pro-Beijing groups. 
The Hong Kong Christian Council held a prayer 
meeting 23 March in support of democracy in 
the former British colony, which was returned 
to China in 1997. "We are disoriented and angry," 
said the council and the prayer meeting asked for 
suffrage in the next election in 2017.

*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners Online

March 19th, 2012

"If everyone demanded peace 
instead of another television set, 
then thereƂ’d be peace."

- John Lennon

---

March 20th, 2012

"We have to make truth and nonviolence 
not matters for mere individual practice 
but for practice for groups and communities 
and nations. That at any rate is my dream. 
I shall live and die trying to realize it."

- Mahatma Gandhi

---

March 21st, 2012

"The silence required of the Christian is 
not found fundamentally and primarily of 
human making. Rather, believers must realize 
that they already possess within themselves 
and at the same time in God the quiet, hidden 
“chamber” into which they are to enter and in 
which they are with [God].”

- Hans Urs Von Balthasar

---

March 22nd, 2012

"Every moment of our human life is a moment 
of crisis; for at every moment we are called 
upon to make an all-important decision -  to 
choose between the way that leads to death and 
spiritual darkness and the way that leads toward 
light and life; between interests exclusively 
temporal and the eternal order; between our 
personal order will... and the will of God."

- Aldous Huxley

---

March 23rd, 2012

"If peace were our greatest industry,/
harmony our best-selling product,/ 
and no one unemployed in its pursuit,/ 
this scene would be as common as 
  chicory flowers in June/ 
as we soaked in solar pleasure and/ 
the simple beauty of humans in harmony/ 
at the jade green lake."

- Claudia Lapp

*****

ON THIS DAY

Provided by the New York Times

On March 18, 1965 - the first spacewalk took 
place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left 
his Voskhod 2 capsule and remained outside the 
spacecraft for 20 minutes, secured by a tether.

http://tinyurl.com/6mbax9o

---

On March 20, 1995 - in Tokyo, 12 people were 
killed and more than 5,500 others sickened 
when packages containing the poisonous gas 
sarin leaked on five separate subway trains.

http://tinyurl.com/8xdfdzf

---

On March 21, 1965, more than 3,000 civil 
rights demonstrators led by the Rev. Martin 
Luther King Jr. began their march from Selma 
to Montgomery, Ala.

http://tinyurl.com/7pl6e4t

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT

"Now, in our modern scientific age, in a
manner never known before, we have created 
our own sacred story, the epic of evolution,
telling us, fromm empirical observation and
critical analysis, how the universe came to
be, the sequence of its transformations down
through some billions of years,, how our
solar system came into being, then how the
earth took shape and brought us into 
existence... This is our sacred story.

- Thomas Berry

Thomas Berry celebrates our new, collective,
sacred story, one that permeates our globe 
at this time, one that is truly universal,
and one that derives from science. He 
emphasises in other places how important
sacred stories have always been to human
tribes in order to ground them in morality
and in celebration. Today, "the tribe" is
no longer just local. It is our entire
species. Our whole species share the common
story. 

Do you find yourself grounded by it?

- Matthew Fox

(end)

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