Tuesday, October 13, 2009
faith news:Christians urged to share burden of the poor
by Charlie Boyd
Resources have been put together by the Micah Challenge anti-poverty movement to help ordinary Christians engage with the issues and inspire them to do what they can to make a difference.
faith news:Iraqi Christians pray for peace
Iraqi Christians pray for peace
Iraqi Christians pray for peace
Living in privileged positions now, they fear being scapegoats for U.S. war
(12-25) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- Christmas comes for Iraqis with plenty of tinsel, packed churches and the mournful, mystical tone of millennia-old chants.
A veneer of normality prevailed everywhere in Baghdad on Christmas Eve. Christmas trees were sold on several street corners, and liquor stores -- almost all of which are owned by Christians -- were doing a brisk business as people stocked up for holiday parties.
Beneath the surface, however, is the gut-wrenching fear of war -- and, perhaps worse, what might happen after the bullets stop flying.
For Iraq's approximately 800,000 Christians, today is truly a Christmas like no other.
By any measure, Christians, who constitute 4 percent of Iraq's population, are a privileged minority, and they may have much to lose if the United States invades the country in the coming weeks, as appears increasingly likely. Despite their cultural links to the West -- most Iraqi Christians are relatively wealthy and have relatives living in the United States -- they have been protected by Saddam Hussein from fundamentalist Islam, and they are broadly loyal to his regime.
"This is a very sad Christmas, and we are very afraid of the New Year," said Bishop Constantine Delli, deputy patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, which represents most of Iraq's Christians.
The Chaldean Catholics, who are loyal to the Vatican, trace their roots to the fourth century A.D., when their creed became the official religion of the Mesopotamian region of the Roman Empire.
Delli voiced the widespread concern of Iraqi Christians that if the United States invades, the resulting chaos could cause the Muslim masses to carry out pogroms against Christians.
"Unless the government is able to act with a very strong hand, there could be violence against Christians," he said. "They may be influenced by Saudi Arabia, becoming fanatic."
CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE
Those fears were right below the surface during the Christmas Eve service at Our Mother of Sorrows Church in downtown Baghdad, the country's largest.
The pews were packed, tree boughs were hung overhead, and creches were in the corners. But there was an otherworldly timelessness, too -- as always for Chaldeans, the liturgy and music were in ancient Aramaic, the language Jesus Christ is believed to have spoken.
The location of Our Mother of Sorrows is symbolic of Iraqi Christians' current state of mind. The church is squeezed among narrow streets clogged with handcarts and honking vehicles, hemmed in by the enormous Souk Araby on one side and a large mosque on another.
The Rev. Nidheer Dakko, Our Mother of Sorrows' priest, said: "Some traditional Muslims hate Christians. Not the government, no. They protect us.
"But this time, some Muslims see us as the enemy. Because America is Christian, they say the Christians are bombing Iraq," he added, referring to the sporadic attacks by U.S. and British planes enforcing the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq. "If there is war now, many, many Muslims will try to kill Christians because of this."
Iraqi Christians note anxiously that 60 percent of Iraq's population is Shiite, the version of Islam predominant in neighboring Iran. If the United States succeeds in overthrowing Hussein's regime, Dakko says, the new government may be dominated by Shiites. Several southern Shiite clerics have recently said that Iraq should adopt Shariah, or fundamentalist Islamic law.
"The Shiites hate the Sunnis and Christians," said Dakko. Sunni is the branch of Islam predominant in central and northern Iraq. "This is a problem. Iran likes the Shiites because it wants to make Iraq part of Iran."
Fears were compounded after the Aug. 15 murder and beheading of a Catholic nun, Cecilia Hanna, in the northern city of Mosul. The motive was later determined to be robbery, not religion, and three culprits were sentenced to long prison terms -- only to be set free when Hussein gave a mass amnesty to thousands of prisoners in November.
CHRISTIANS DO WELL IN IRAQ
Christians have more status in Iraq than in any other Arab nation except Lebanon, and they constitute a large part of the country's merchants and intelligentsia. Prominent Christians include Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the most powerful man in the regime after Hussein, and the late Michel Aflaq, the Syrian founder of the ruling Iraqi Baath Party, who was the mentor of young Saddam Hussein when he was in exile in Damascus in the 1950s.
Christmas Day and the day after are official holidays for Christians -- Muslims don't get the day off. The Orthodox Christmas, Jan. 6 and 7, is also a holiday for Christians.
Since the Gulf War, the internationally isolated Hussein has increasingly embraced conservative Islam -- a political gambit, his critics say.
In 1994, with his regime becoming imperiled by the economic crisis brought about by U.N. sanctions, he ordered the closure of all nightclubs and bars and banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants.
He has spent large sums in building mosques, including one in Baghdad, that when completed will be the largest in the world outside Mecca. The Muslim call to prayer is broadcast on state television five times daily, after which quasi- Muslim homilies written by the dictator are read.
MUSLIM, CHRISTIAN FRIENDS
A few blocks away from Our Mother of Sorrows, one of many conversations taking place at the same time showed how Iraqi secular tolerance will not die easily.
Gathered around an elegantly appointed table in a 200-year-old house was store owner Amal al-Khedairy and her friends Selwa and Sana Wazir. Al-Khedairy is Muslim; the other two are Armenian Catholic.
"We have never had anything to fear in this country," said Selwa Wazir. "People here are friends. We are all Iraqis, just like the people here in this room."
"But there are plenty of people who keep on saying we are not good Muslims because we are so tolerant," said al-Khedairy. "They keep saying this, and if you Americans come here, they will say it even more, and my friends will be blamed for anything that happens."
"This is the wrong time of year for such thoughts," said Sana Wazir. "Why can't we just love each other?"
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
faith news:Baptist leaders fined for street evangelism in Russia
Baptist leaders fined for street evangelism in Russia
by Gretta Curtis, Christian Post
Posted: Thursday, October 8, 2009, 8:56 (BST)
Norway-based Forum 18 News service reported that the two preachers - Mikhail Alentyev and Aleksandr Legotin were fined on 25 September by magistrate at Gusev Municipal court for holding a public demonstration.
Legotin insisted that because the Baptists had held a religious service and not a demonstration, the legal requirement to notify the authorities in advance should not have applied. “We follow the law very carefully,” he told Forum 18.
“And under the Universal Declaration [of Human Rights] we have the right to freedom of conscience – the law should be doing the opposite, protecting us from such arbitrariness,” he said.
All public gatherings – whether political or religious – must be sanctioned by the municipal authorities in advance, a Kaliningrad police source speaking on condition of anonymity told Forum 18 on 1 October.
“But they didn't have permission and they had no intention of getting it!” he remarked, clearly irritated by the Baptists' actions, while admitting they had not disturbed public order.
Asked why permission is necessary, the source replied, “That's the law in Russia!” and pointed to Article 20.2 of the Administrative Violations Code. Forum 18 said the policeman declined to comment further.
Mr Alentyev commented to Forum 18 that his 30-strong Gusev congregation “knows from experience” that the local authorities will block its public evangelism even if they do submit advance notification.
The community belongs to the Baptist Council of Churches, which broke away from the Soviet-recognised Baptist Union in 1961 in protest at regulations preventing missionary activity and religious instruction to children. Its communities refuse on principle to register with the authorities in post-Soviet countries.
As the Gusev Baptists preached, sang, played musical instruments and handed out gospels in the town's centre during their end of August evangelism week, they were disrupted by police four times.
"They said, 'What right do you have to do this? Permission? No? Then down to the police station!'" recalled Alentyev, who was detained there for an hour on 3 September.
Faith news:Pope Laments 'Dying' Churches in West
Vatican City, July 28 - Pope Benedict XVI lamented the seemingly "dying" church in Europe and the United States and raised questions about the soaring number of priests in Asia and Africa in a lengthy, off-the-cuff speech to Italian priests.
Benedict also expressed sadness at the plight of divorced Roman Catholics who remarry without getting an annulment, reaffirming that they cannot receive Communion but stressing they should feel they still belong to the church.
The pope made the remarks to priests from the northern Valle d'Aosta region in a two-hour closed meeting Monday in Introd, near where he has been vacationing. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published a transcript of the remarks Wednesday.
The pope began his remarks, which touched on Marx, the upheavals in Europe of 1968 and other topics, by stressing that a pope isn't an "oracle" and "is infallible only in rare situations." Benedict previously has stressed that he intends to listen to others and not do only his will as pope.
He then delved into the issues raised by the Aosta bishop on the concerns of priests, noting that he was recently visited by bishops from Africa and Sri Lanka, where the number of priests is skyrocketing. In Europe and elsewhere, the number of priests has fallen sharply.
Benedict he said the "joy" at the growing numbers of churchmen in the developing world is accompanied by "a certain bitterness" because some would-be priests were only looking for a better life.
"Becoming a priest, they become almost like a head of a tribe, they are naturally privileged and have another type of life," he said. "So the wheat and the chaff go together in this beautiful growth of vocations.
"Bishops have to be very attentive to discern (among the candidates) and not just be happy to have many future priests, but to see which ones really are the true vocations - discern between the wheat and the chaff," he said.
Benedict also touched on another his favorite themes: the state of the church in Europe. He said in contrast to the developing world, where there is a "springtime of faith," the West was "a world that is tired of its own culture, a world that has arrived at a time in which there's no more evidence of the need for God, much less Christ, and in which it seems that man alone can make himself.
"This is certainly a suffering linked, I'd say, to our time, in which generally one sees that the great churches appear to be dying," he said, mentioning Australia, Europe and the United States.
Benedict also responded to a question about giving the Eucharist to divorcees who remarry without getting a church annulment. The church says divorcees who remarry civally cannot receive Communion, arguing they are in a state that "contrasts with God's law."
The pope reaffirmed the teaching, although he acknowledged the suffering it has caused and said further study is needed. He mentioned in particular the case of when someone gets married in a church without being a true believer, is divorced, remarries and discovers his or her faith, but isn't allowed to receive Communion.
In reaffirming the policy, he said the church had to respect "the good of the community and the good of the sacrament" as well as help those who are suffering. He said priests should teach that suffering is necessary "and this is a noble form of suffering."
Some Italian media reports have suggested the pope was reconsidering the ban, and that the issue would come up at a bishops' meeting in October dedicated to the Eucharist. The question has long been a concern for Benedict; in the 1990s, bishops from his native Germany asked for flexibility on the matter.
The 78-year-old Benedict marked his 100th full day as pope Thursday, a papacy already far longer than the 33-day term of John Paul I. Benedict's immediate predecessor, John Paul II, was pope for more than 26 years.
13/10/2009 BY: Associated Press
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Daily odb devotion
daily odb
The Measure Of Love
READ: John 15:9-17
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. —John 15:13
On October 2, 1954, First Lieutenant James O. Conway was taking off from Boston Logan Airport, flying a plane that carried a load of munitions. When his plane became airborne, he suddenly lost power over Boston’s bay. In an instant, Conway faced a brutal choice—eject from the plane and save his own life, or crash the plane into the bay causing his own death.
If he ejected, however, the plane would crash into an East Boston neighborhood filled with homes and families. Amazingly, Conway chose to crash the plane into the bay—giving his life for the lives of others.
In John 15:13, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” The willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect others shows a heart that cares more about the needs of others than the needs of one’s self. Someone once said that “the measure of love is what one is willing to give up for it.” God the Father loved so much that He gave up His Son. Christ loved so much that He gave up His life—even taking our sins on Himself and dying in our place.
The measure of God’s love for you is great. Have you accepted His love personally? — Bill Crowder
When Jesus gave His life for me,
Enduring all the agony
Upon the cross of Calvary,
He showed the love of God. —Sper
Nothing speaks more clearly of God’s love than the cross of Christ.
Start everyday with devotionals,dalies, odb, our daily bread, daily odb you can get all these here
READ: John 15:9-17
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. —John 15:13
On October 2, 1954, First Lieutenant James O. Conway was taking off from Boston Logan Airport, flying a plane that carried a load of munitions. When his plane became airborne, he suddenly lost power over Boston’s bay. In an instant, Conway faced a brutal choice—eject from the plane and save his own life, or crash the plane into the bay causing his own death.
If he ejected, however, the plane would crash into an East Boston neighborhood filled with homes and families. Amazingly, Conway chose to crash the plane into the bay—giving his life for the lives of others.
In John 15:13, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” The willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect others shows a heart that cares more about the needs of others than the needs of one’s self. Someone once said that “the measure of love is what one is willing to give up for it.” God the Father loved so much that He gave up His Son. Christ loved so much that He gave up His life—even taking our sins on Himself and dying in our place.
The measure of God’s love for you is great. Have you accepted His love personally? — Bill Crowder
When Jesus gave His life for me,
Enduring all the agony
Upon the cross of Calvary,
He showed the love of God. —Sper
Nothing speaks more clearly of God’s love than the cross of Christ.
Start everyday with devotionals,dalies, odb, our daily bread, daily odb you can get all these here
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