Ukrainian Orthodox Christians Formally Break From Russia
ISTANBUL — The spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide recognized the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine in a four-hour ceremony in Istanbul on Sunday, formalizing a split with the Russian church to which it had been tied for more than four centuries.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader, handed a Tomos of Autocephaly containing a decree of independence to the newly appointed Metropolitan Epiphanius of Ukraine, cleaving millions of Ukrainians from the Russian Orthodox Church.
The independence effort outraged political and religious leaders in Russia. But for President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine, who stood before an elevated throne throughout the ceremony in Istanbul, the occasion was an affirmation of independence from Russian influence in his embattled country and a boost ahead of elections in March.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/06/worl ... 3053090107
Christianity
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swamidada_1
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:21 pm
Is Santa Claus Real?
Teacher Who Told Kids Santa Isn't Real Has Been Let Go (fired), District Superintendent Says
FOX News — Amy Lieu
What's worse than a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking? Perhaps a place in the unemployment line.
A substitute teacher who recently told first-graders that Santa Claus is not real is no longer working for a New Jersey school district, the superintendent said Tuesday.
Montville Township Public Schools Superintendent Rene Rovtar confirmed in a statement to Fox News that the substitute, who has not been identified, is no longer with the K-12 district.
Rovtar previously told News 12 New Jersey that "childhood wonder associated with holidays and traditions" is special to her.
The superintendent, calling the incident the Cedar Hill School the "Santa matter," said no additional comment would be made on the topic due to "the fact that this is a personnel matter."
Cedar Hill School Principal Michael Raj had previously sent a letter to parents following Thursday's incident at the school, noting the "childhood innocence of the holiday season."
Raj said that as a parent himself, he understands the “sensitive nature” of the topic.
NEW JERSEY SUBSTITUTE BREAKS IT TO FIRST-GRADERS THAT SANTA ISN'T REAL: REPORT
In addition to a discussion on Santa, Rovtar said the students had asked the substitute teacher questions about the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Elf on a Shelf and leprechauns, NJ.com reported.
"She proceeded to debunk all of it," Rovtar told the news outlet Friday.
The "Santa matter" prompted a social media outcry from the parental community, the report said.
“Many of us parents have been doing damage control since the kids get home from school,” parent Lisa Simek posted to Facebook on Thursday.
Another parent, Myra Sansone-Aboyoun, told News 12 New Jersey that her 6-year-old daughter Addriana was extremely upset by the ordeal.
“I was heartbroken. You know, my daughter is the hugest believer in the whole Christmas spirit -- Santa, giving,” the mother said.
Montville Township is about 30 miles northwest of New York City.
Teacher Who Told Kids Santa Isn't Real Has Been Let Go (fired), District Superintendent Says
FOX News — Amy Lieu
What's worse than a lump of coal in your Christmas stocking? Perhaps a place in the unemployment line.
A substitute teacher who recently told first-graders that Santa Claus is not real is no longer working for a New Jersey school district, the superintendent said Tuesday.
Montville Township Public Schools Superintendent Rene Rovtar confirmed in a statement to Fox News that the substitute, who has not been identified, is no longer with the K-12 district.
Rovtar previously told News 12 New Jersey that "childhood wonder associated with holidays and traditions" is special to her.
The superintendent, calling the incident the Cedar Hill School the "Santa matter," said no additional comment would be made on the topic due to "the fact that this is a personnel matter."
Cedar Hill School Principal Michael Raj had previously sent a letter to parents following Thursday's incident at the school, noting the "childhood innocence of the holiday season."
Raj said that as a parent himself, he understands the “sensitive nature” of the topic.
NEW JERSEY SUBSTITUTE BREAKS IT TO FIRST-GRADERS THAT SANTA ISN'T REAL: REPORT
In addition to a discussion on Santa, Rovtar said the students had asked the substitute teacher questions about the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Elf on a Shelf and leprechauns, NJ.com reported.
"She proceeded to debunk all of it," Rovtar told the news outlet Friday.
The "Santa matter" prompted a social media outcry from the parental community, the report said.
“Many of us parents have been doing damage control since the kids get home from school,” parent Lisa Simek posted to Facebook on Thursday.
Another parent, Myra Sansone-Aboyoun, told News 12 New Jersey that her 6-year-old daughter Addriana was extremely upset by the ordeal.
“I was heartbroken. You know, my daughter is the hugest believer in the whole Christmas spirit -- Santa, giving,” the mother said.
Montville Township is about 30 miles northwest of New York City.
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swamidada_1
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:21 pm
An interesting situation created more than a decade ago when some 4/5 years Ismaili kids in USA questioned their parents 'why we do not have Santa, why are we not getting gifts as our other school mates are getting on Christmas'? One kid asked, does Hazar Imam play Santa and give gifts? These innocent queries of kids were discussed at that time but no proper resolution.
Obviously Santa Claus is not real, the modern Santa popped up in 16th century, then how can we explain our kids to satisfy them.
Obviously Santa Claus is not real, the modern Santa popped up in 16th century, then how can we explain our kids to satisfy them.
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swamidada_1
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:21 pm
‘McJesus’ statue sparks riot at museum in Israel as protesters call for removal of ‘offensive’ art
Published time: 15 Jan, 2019 17:55
Edited time: 15 Jan, 2019 19:18
An art exhibit featuring a crucified Ronald McDonald caused chaos in the Israeli city of Haifa last week, after members of the country’s Arab Christian minority took offence at the depiction and protested outside the museum.
Hundreds of Christian protesters called for the statue, titled ‘McJesus,’ to be removed from the museum, with Israeli police saying that some rioters even hurled a firebomb at the building and threw stones, shattering windows and injuring officers. Crowds were eventually dispersed with tear gas and stun grenades, according to the Associated Press.
However, it seems the protesters missed the point of the exhibit, which was not intended to be an attack on Christianity, but instead meant as an artist’s statement on capitalism, corporate domination and how modern society and culture worship false gods. The exhibit also includes Barbie-doll boxes with Jesus and the Virgin Mary inside.
The sudden focus on the exhibit came as a surprise to Museum Director Nissim Tal, however, since the art in question had been on display for months already without issue. It is believed that photos of the controversial statue recently published on social media prompted the protests.
The work has also been shown in other countries without problems, although Israel’s Christians make up a tiny percentage of the population in a country which is already rife with ethnic and religious tensions.
Wadie Abu Nassar, an adviser to church leaders who have demanded the exhibit’s removal, told the AP it was necessary to understand that freedom of expression “is interpreted in different ways” in different societies. “If this work was directed against non-Christians, the world would be turned upside down,” he said.
The museum has refused to remove the artwork, saying that it must uphold freedom of expression and resist pressure. “If we take the art down, the next day we’ll have politicians demanding we take other things down and we’ll end up only with colorful pictures of flowers in the museum,” Tal said, adding: “We will be defending freedom of speech, freedom of art, and freedom of culture, and will not take it down.”
Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev, who has earlier been accused of supporting censorship after pushing legislation commanding national “loyalty” in art, also called for the exhibit to be taken down, saying it was “disrespectful.”
The museum has hung a curtain over the entrance to the exhibit and put up a sign saying that it is not intended to offend, but that is the “maximum” it will do, its director added. Protesters, however, have refused to give up, with one reportedly camping outside the museum in a tent with a sign calling on artists to “respect religions.”
In another twist, the Finnish artist who produced the ‘McJesus’ statue, Jani Leinonen, also wants the work taken out of the Haifa museum, but not because he doesn’t want to offend. Leinonen said he supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure Israel to change its policies toward Palestinians.
www.rt.com/news/448885-mcjesus-statue-i ... t-protest/
Published time: 15 Jan, 2019 17:55
Edited time: 15 Jan, 2019 19:18
An art exhibit featuring a crucified Ronald McDonald caused chaos in the Israeli city of Haifa last week, after members of the country’s Arab Christian minority took offence at the depiction and protested outside the museum.
Hundreds of Christian protesters called for the statue, titled ‘McJesus,’ to be removed from the museum, with Israeli police saying that some rioters even hurled a firebomb at the building and threw stones, shattering windows and injuring officers. Crowds were eventually dispersed with tear gas and stun grenades, according to the Associated Press.
However, it seems the protesters missed the point of the exhibit, which was not intended to be an attack on Christianity, but instead meant as an artist’s statement on capitalism, corporate domination and how modern society and culture worship false gods. The exhibit also includes Barbie-doll boxes with Jesus and the Virgin Mary inside.
The sudden focus on the exhibit came as a surprise to Museum Director Nissim Tal, however, since the art in question had been on display for months already without issue. It is believed that photos of the controversial statue recently published on social media prompted the protests.
The work has also been shown in other countries without problems, although Israel’s Christians make up a tiny percentage of the population in a country which is already rife with ethnic and religious tensions.
Wadie Abu Nassar, an adviser to church leaders who have demanded the exhibit’s removal, told the AP it was necessary to understand that freedom of expression “is interpreted in different ways” in different societies. “If this work was directed against non-Christians, the world would be turned upside down,” he said.
The museum has refused to remove the artwork, saying that it must uphold freedom of expression and resist pressure. “If we take the art down, the next day we’ll have politicians demanding we take other things down and we’ll end up only with colorful pictures of flowers in the museum,” Tal said, adding: “We will be defending freedom of speech, freedom of art, and freedom of culture, and will not take it down.”
Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev, who has earlier been accused of supporting censorship after pushing legislation commanding national “loyalty” in art, also called for the exhibit to be taken down, saying it was “disrespectful.”
The museum has hung a curtain over the entrance to the exhibit and put up a sign saying that it is not intended to offend, but that is the “maximum” it will do, its director added. Protesters, however, have refused to give up, with one reportedly camping outside the museum in a tent with a sign calling on artists to “respect religions.”
In another twist, the Finnish artist who produced the ‘McJesus’ statue, Jani Leinonen, also wants the work taken out of the Haifa museum, but not because he doesn’t want to offend. Leinonen said he supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to pressure Israel to change its policies toward Palestinians.
www.rt.com/news/448885-mcjesus-statue-i ... t-protest/
THE IMAMAT OF JAMES: BROTHER OF JESUS, SUCCESSOR OF CHRIST & LEADER OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
Posted on January 25, 2019 by Ismaili Gnostic
Every Prophet has had a Legatee (wasi) in whom the Light of the Imamate has been firmly set and established with surety, and to whom the knowledge of prophecy has been temporarily entrusted through trusteeship.
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, (The Paradise of Submission, 136)
The disciples said to Jesus, ‘We know you will leave us. Who is going to be our leader then?’ Jesus said to them, ‘No matter where you go, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.’
Gospel of Thomas Saying 12
This article illustrates how the historical successor of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of the Children of Israel, was his brother James the Just (Hebrew: Yaakov Tzadik). The evidence for this is drawn from historical sources, including the New Testament, Church Histories, and extra-biblical writings. These sources clearly show that James was the Bishop of the Jerusalem Church, which held authority over the early Jewish Christian communities, and also indicate that Jesus himself appointed James to succeed him. We also explain the theological importance of the succession of James the Just and his family within the Ismaili Muslim theological vision of the hiero-history of Prophethood and Imamat. In Ismaili terminology, James the Just was Jesus’ Legatee (wasi) and the Imam after him.
More...
https://ismailignosis.com/2019/01/25/th ... istianity/
Posted on January 25, 2019 by Ismaili Gnostic
Every Prophet has had a Legatee (wasi) in whom the Light of the Imamate has been firmly set and established with surety, and to whom the knowledge of prophecy has been temporarily entrusted through trusteeship.
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, (The Paradise of Submission, 136)
The disciples said to Jesus, ‘We know you will leave us. Who is going to be our leader then?’ Jesus said to them, ‘No matter where you go, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.’
Gospel of Thomas Saying 12
This article illustrates how the historical successor of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of the Children of Israel, was his brother James the Just (Hebrew: Yaakov Tzadik). The evidence for this is drawn from historical sources, including the New Testament, Church Histories, and extra-biblical writings. These sources clearly show that James was the Bishop of the Jerusalem Church, which held authority over the early Jewish Christian communities, and also indicate that Jesus himself appointed James to succeed him. We also explain the theological importance of the succession of James the Just and his family within the Ismaili Muslim theological vision of the hiero-history of Prophethood and Imamat. In Ismaili terminology, James the Just was Jesus’ Legatee (wasi) and the Imam after him.
More...
https://ismailignosis.com/2019/01/25/th ... istianity/
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swamidada_1
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:21 pm
WAS JAMES REAL BROTHER OF JESUS CHRIST
Did Jesus really have a brother?
By Michael McKinley, Special to CNN
Updated 7:21 PM ET, Tue March 17, 2015
The Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest, calls the relationship between James and Jesus "very complicated."
Ben Witherington III offers the Protestant view that Jesus and James were full brothers, with Jesus being the elder.
Science and archaeology offer insights into ancient artifacts that could be linked to Jesus Christ. "Finding Jesus: Fact. Faith. Forgery," broadcasts Sunday, March 22, at 9pm ET/PT on CNN.
(CNN)In November 2002, the world was captivated by the biggest archaeological discovery ever made relating to Jesus: a 2,000 year-old ossuary -- or bone box -- bearing the tantalizing inscription in Aramaic: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
If it was true, this was the first physical evidence ever found of Jesus' existence. And yet, if this amazing ossuary was false, then it was one of the greatest forgeries in history.
Underlying the question of the authenticity of the ossuary is an even bigger theological problem: whether or not Jesus actually had any brothers. Though the debate's origins are ancient, the answer still divides Catholics and Protestants.
For Catholics, Mary, Joseph and Jesus are a family unit unto themselves. Yet Catholic theology also holds that Jesus was God's son, born of the virgin -- and that Mary did not give birth to other children, divine or otherwise.
So who are these "brothers" that the Gospel of Mark mentions?
The Rev. James Martin, author of the book "Jesus: A Pilgrimage," calls the relationship between James and Jesus "very complicated."
"He's called clearly the brother of the Lord, and the Greek uses the common word for brother," Martin says.
But Catholics also believe in Mary's perpetual virginity, so Martin surmises that James and the other brothers were Joseph's children from a prior marriage."It makes sense that Joseph would have been older and Mary was younger, so I see them in a sense as stepbrothers."
Other Catholic scholars see James and Jesus as cousins, an idea that began in the fourth century, when St. Jerome, who translated the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament into Latin, argued the point against the theologian Helvedius, who said Mary and Joseph had other children.
Jerome countered that these children were instead born to Mary of Clopas, Jesus' aunt. Jerome used his linguistic facility to argue that "adelphios," the Greek word used for Jesus' brothers and sisters, could refer to cousins, as well as to siblings.
Protestants, however, see Jesus' family as free of ambiguity, with Mary and Joseph having several children. One of them is Jesus -- but the question then becomes, which one?
Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, offers the Protestant view that Jesus and James were full brothers, with Jesus being the elder.
"The New Testament says nothing about Mary being a perpetual virgin, it says she virginally conceived Jesus, and it certainly implies that she went on to have more children after that, and his brothers and sisters are in fact his brothers and sisters," Witherington says.
Jesus is presented as the older brother who leaves the family and walks about in Galilee and Judea, has a ministry and leaves James and the other brothers and sisters in charge of the family, according to the scholar.
What's more contentious for some Protestants, is the fact that Jesus, as the eldest in the family, essentially forsook his obligation as next-in-line to head the family after Joseph died. Instead he followed his divine destiny, as ordained by his father in heaven.
That left James to fill the void. Whatever he was -- brother, step-brother or cousin -- we know that James became important in the early Christian church because of his relation to Jesus. Paul, the apostle who transformed the new religion from a local phenomenon into a movement throughout the Roman Empire, says as much in his letter to the Galatians:
"Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him 15 days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord's brother."
James and Peter and Paul were the prime movers of this new faith, with James the leader of the Jesus followers in Jerusalem until he was martyred in 64 CE, forgiving his killers with his last breath, just as his brother Jesus had done.
Given his importance to the early Christian Church, why wouldn't he be connected to his brother, or even stepbrother, on the burial box containing his bones?
//www.cnn.com/2015/03/11/living/jesus-bro ... /index.htm
Did Jesus really have a brother?
By Michael McKinley, Special to CNN
Updated 7:21 PM ET, Tue March 17, 2015
The Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest, calls the relationship between James and Jesus "very complicated."
Ben Witherington III offers the Protestant view that Jesus and James were full brothers, with Jesus being the elder.
Science and archaeology offer insights into ancient artifacts that could be linked to Jesus Christ. "Finding Jesus: Fact. Faith. Forgery," broadcasts Sunday, March 22, at 9pm ET/PT on CNN.
(CNN)In November 2002, the world was captivated by the biggest archaeological discovery ever made relating to Jesus: a 2,000 year-old ossuary -- or bone box -- bearing the tantalizing inscription in Aramaic: "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus."
If it was true, this was the first physical evidence ever found of Jesus' existence. And yet, if this amazing ossuary was false, then it was one of the greatest forgeries in history.
Underlying the question of the authenticity of the ossuary is an even bigger theological problem: whether or not Jesus actually had any brothers. Though the debate's origins are ancient, the answer still divides Catholics and Protestants.
For Catholics, Mary, Joseph and Jesus are a family unit unto themselves. Yet Catholic theology also holds that Jesus was God's son, born of the virgin -- and that Mary did not give birth to other children, divine or otherwise.
So who are these "brothers" that the Gospel of Mark mentions?
The Rev. James Martin, author of the book "Jesus: A Pilgrimage," calls the relationship between James and Jesus "very complicated."
"He's called clearly the brother of the Lord, and the Greek uses the common word for brother," Martin says.
But Catholics also believe in Mary's perpetual virginity, so Martin surmises that James and the other brothers were Joseph's children from a prior marriage."It makes sense that Joseph would have been older and Mary was younger, so I see them in a sense as stepbrothers."
Other Catholic scholars see James and Jesus as cousins, an idea that began in the fourth century, when St. Jerome, who translated the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament into Latin, argued the point against the theologian Helvedius, who said Mary and Joseph had other children.
Jerome countered that these children were instead born to Mary of Clopas, Jesus' aunt. Jerome used his linguistic facility to argue that "adelphios," the Greek word used for Jesus' brothers and sisters, could refer to cousins, as well as to siblings.
Protestants, however, see Jesus' family as free of ambiguity, with Mary and Joseph having several children. One of them is Jesus -- but the question then becomes, which one?
Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, offers the Protestant view that Jesus and James were full brothers, with Jesus being the elder.
"The New Testament says nothing about Mary being a perpetual virgin, it says she virginally conceived Jesus, and it certainly implies that she went on to have more children after that, and his brothers and sisters are in fact his brothers and sisters," Witherington says.
Jesus is presented as the older brother who leaves the family and walks about in Galilee and Judea, has a ministry and leaves James and the other brothers and sisters in charge of the family, according to the scholar.
What's more contentious for some Protestants, is the fact that Jesus, as the eldest in the family, essentially forsook his obligation as next-in-line to head the family after Joseph died. Instead he followed his divine destiny, as ordained by his father in heaven.
That left James to fill the void. Whatever he was -- brother, step-brother or cousin -- we know that James became important in the early Christian church because of his relation to Jesus. Paul, the apostle who transformed the new religion from a local phenomenon into a movement throughout the Roman Empire, says as much in his letter to the Galatians:
"Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him 15 days; but I did not see any other apostle except James the Lord's brother."
James and Peter and Paul were the prime movers of this new faith, with James the leader of the Jesus followers in Jerusalem until he was martyred in 64 CE, forgiving his killers with his last breath, just as his brother Jesus had done.
Given his importance to the early Christian Church, why wouldn't he be connected to his brother, or even stepbrother, on the burial box containing his bones?
//www.cnn.com/2015/03/11/living/jesus-bro ... /index.htm
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swamidada_1
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:21 pm
TaborBlog
Jesus, His Brother James, and Peter: When a Picture is Worth More Than a Thousand Words
2ND TEMPLE JUDAISM NOVEMBER 17, 2017
Few readers of the English Bible realize that the name “James” actually comes from the Hebrew name Jacob or Yaaqov, which adds to the confusion over the various “Jameses” mentioned in the New Testament. There is, of course, Jacob the Patriarch, grandson of Abraham; James the Apostle, the fisherman brother of John and one of the two sons of Zebedee (Mark 4:21); “James the Less,” and several others. Ironically, the most obscure, and surely the most important James as “James the brother of Jesus,” known subsequently as “James the Just.” Getting our “Jameses” straight takes a bit of analysis. You can read my own attempt to sort through the names in my post “Getting our ‘Jameses’ Straight,” as well as the extensive series “The Forgotten Brother of Jesus.”
Our earliest reference to James the brother of Jesus, surprisingly, comes not in our New Testament gospels but in the letter of Paul to the Galatians. There he recounts his first visit to Jerusalem after his vision of “Christ,” where he says he had an audience with “James the Lord’s brother,” the leader of the Jerusalem followers of Jesus (Galatians 1:18-19). He goes on to list this James, along with Cephas or Peter, and John–presumably the fisherman son of Zebedee–as the “pillars” of the Church. Given the later reputation of Simon Peter as the titular head of the Church and in Catholic tradition, the first “Pope” or bishop of Rome, this listing of James first, ahead of Peter, comes as a surprise to many, though the primacy of James the brother of Jesus is well attested (Acts 15:12-21; Galatians 2:11-12; Gospel of Thomas 12; Eusebius, Church History 2. 1. 3). For more of the core primary textual sources on James see “Primary Sources on James the Just,” and “Essays on James the Brother of Jesus.”
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. This painting acquired from a private dealer in Italy in 1811 and now in the National Gallery of Art Collection in Washington, D.C., is by an unknown artist who was apparently influenced by Cimabue (1240-1302), the great Italian painter of Florence. Cimabue is known for his move away from flat and stylized Byzantine art toward a more naturalistic attempt to portray feeling and emotion. This painting with Jesus in the center, flanked by Peter and James the brother of Jesus, seems to say it all. Notice how James is almost a “twin” of Jesus, both in expression, hair style, clothing, and general demeanor, whereas Peter is clearly “odd man out” in terms of the way he is portrayed. He even seems to be scowling over at James, perhaps jealous of his status and closeness to Jesus. This negative caricature of Peter is also found, as I have recently noted, in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, see here, in which Peter is jealous of the intimacy and wisdom Mary apparently received from Jesus that seemed to put her above the traditional leaders among the Twelve Apostles. One has to wonder what this unknown artist knew or thought he knew about the complexities of early Christian leadership and any possible rivalry between Peter who is associated more with Rome and the West, and James the Brother of Jesus who receives great emphasis in the East–particularly among the Armenian Christians.
//jamestabor.com/jesus-his-brother-james-and-peter-when-a picture-is-worth-more-than-a-thousand-words/
Jesus, His Brother James, and Peter: When a Picture is Worth More Than a Thousand Words
2ND TEMPLE JUDAISM NOVEMBER 17, 2017
Few readers of the English Bible realize that the name “James” actually comes from the Hebrew name Jacob or Yaaqov, which adds to the confusion over the various “Jameses” mentioned in the New Testament. There is, of course, Jacob the Patriarch, grandson of Abraham; James the Apostle, the fisherman brother of John and one of the two sons of Zebedee (Mark 4:21); “James the Less,” and several others. Ironically, the most obscure, and surely the most important James as “James the brother of Jesus,” known subsequently as “James the Just.” Getting our “Jameses” straight takes a bit of analysis. You can read my own attempt to sort through the names in my post “Getting our ‘Jameses’ Straight,” as well as the extensive series “The Forgotten Brother of Jesus.”
Our earliest reference to James the brother of Jesus, surprisingly, comes not in our New Testament gospels but in the letter of Paul to the Galatians. There he recounts his first visit to Jerusalem after his vision of “Christ,” where he says he had an audience with “James the Lord’s brother,” the leader of the Jerusalem followers of Jesus (Galatians 1:18-19). He goes on to list this James, along with Cephas or Peter, and John–presumably the fisherman son of Zebedee–as the “pillars” of the Church. Given the later reputation of Simon Peter as the titular head of the Church and in Catholic tradition, the first “Pope” or bishop of Rome, this listing of James first, ahead of Peter, comes as a surprise to many, though the primacy of James the brother of Jesus is well attested (Acts 15:12-21; Galatians 2:11-12; Gospel of Thomas 12; Eusebius, Church History 2. 1. 3). For more of the core primary textual sources on James see “Primary Sources on James the Just,” and “Essays on James the Brother of Jesus.”
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. This painting acquired from a private dealer in Italy in 1811 and now in the National Gallery of Art Collection in Washington, D.C., is by an unknown artist who was apparently influenced by Cimabue (1240-1302), the great Italian painter of Florence. Cimabue is known for his move away from flat and stylized Byzantine art toward a more naturalistic attempt to portray feeling and emotion. This painting with Jesus in the center, flanked by Peter and James the brother of Jesus, seems to say it all. Notice how James is almost a “twin” of Jesus, both in expression, hair style, clothing, and general demeanor, whereas Peter is clearly “odd man out” in terms of the way he is portrayed. He even seems to be scowling over at James, perhaps jealous of his status and closeness to Jesus. This negative caricature of Peter is also found, as I have recently noted, in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, see here, in which Peter is jealous of the intimacy and wisdom Mary apparently received from Jesus that seemed to put her above the traditional leaders among the Twelve Apostles. One has to wonder what this unknown artist knew or thought he knew about the complexities of early Christian leadership and any possible rivalry between Peter who is associated more with Rome and the West, and James the Brother of Jesus who receives great emphasis in the East–particularly among the Armenian Christians.
//jamestabor.com/jesus-his-brother-james-and-peter-when-a picture-is-worth-more-than-a-thousand-words/
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swamidada_1
- Posts: 239
- Joined: Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:21 pm
With reference to above article by Ismailignosis, I have a question;kmaherali wrote:THE IMAMAT OF JAMES: BROTHER OF JESUS, SUCCESSOR OF CHRIST & LEADER OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY
Posted on January 25, 2019 by Ismaili Gnostic
Every Prophet has had a Legatee (wasi) in whom the Light of the Imamate has been firmly set and established with surety, and to whom the knowledge of prophecy has been temporarily entrusted through trusteeship.
Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, (The Paradise of Submission, 136)
The disciples said to Jesus, ‘We know you will leave us. Who is going to be our leader then?’ Jesus said to them, ‘No matter where you go, you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.’
Gospel of Thomas Saying 12
This article illustrates how the historical successor of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of the Children of Israel, was his brother James the Just (Hebrew: Yaakov Tzadik). The evidence for this is drawn from historical sources, including the New Testament, Church Histories, and extra-biblical writings. These sources clearly show that James was the Bishop of the Jerusalem Church, which held authority over the early Jewish Christian communities, and also indicate that Jesus himself appointed James to succeed him. We also explain the theological importance of the succession of James the Just and his family within the Ismaili Muslim theological vision of the hiero-history of Prophethood and Imamat. In Ismaili terminology, James the Just was Jesus’ Legatee (wasi) and the Imam after him.
More...
https://ismailignosis.com/2019/01/25/th ... istianity/
In Haji Bibi Case Bombay 1905 the genealogical chart presented by Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah mentioned Simon Peter (Shama’un) as Imam in the time of Jesus Christ, where as article by gnosis mentions James as Imam of that time. The article by Ismailignosis heavily depends upon Christian doctrines and documents.
Church of England changes 400-year-old rule about Sunday services
LONDON — The Church of England has acknowledged the reality of shrinking congregations and overworked priests and lifted a 400-year-old rule requiring that all churches hold services every Sunday.
Canon law dating from 1603 required priests to hold morning and evening prayers and a communion service each Sunday in every church they oversaw.
But after decades of declining attendance, many priests are now responsible for multiple churches, especially in rural areas. Until now, they have needed permission from a bishop not to hold Sunday services in each church.
The change was approved Thursday at a meeting of the church's governing Synod.
Bishop of Willesden Pete Broadbent, who proposed the change, said it "just changes the rules to make it easier for people to do what they're already doing. It stops the bureaucracy."
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ch ... ailsignout
LONDON — The Church of England has acknowledged the reality of shrinking congregations and overworked priests and lifted a 400-year-old rule requiring that all churches hold services every Sunday.
Canon law dating from 1603 required priests to hold morning and evening prayers and a communion service each Sunday in every church they oversaw.
But after decades of declining attendance, many priests are now responsible for multiple churches, especially in rural areas. Until now, they have needed permission from a bishop not to hold Sunday services in each church.
The change was approved Thursday at a meeting of the church's governing Synod.
Bishop of Willesden Pete Broadbent, who proposed the change, said it "just changes the rules to make it easier for people to do what they're already doing. It stops the bureaucracy."
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ch ... ailsignout
Why Celibacy Matters
How the critique of Catholicism changes and yet remains the same.
Excerpt:
The sexual ethic on offer in our own era should make Catholics particularly skeptical. That ethic regards celibacy as unrealistic while offering porn and sex robots to ease frustrations created by its failure to pair men and women off. It pities Catholic priests as repressed and miserable (some are; in general they are not) even as its own cultural order seeds a vast social experiment in growing old alone. It disdains large families while it fails to reproduce itself. It treats any acknowledgment of male-female differences as reactionary while constructing an architecture of sexual identities whose complexities would daunt a medieval schoolman.
In the name of this not-obviously-enlightened alternative, Catholicism is constantly asked to “reform” away practices that are there because they connect directly to the New Testament — in the case of celibacy, to Jesus’ own example and his hard words for anyone making an idol of family life.
This seems like a bad bargain, no matter how much hypocrisy there may be in Rome.
That clerical celibacy doesn’t guarantee asceticism is obvious, any more than attending Mass guarantees prayerfulness (trust me on that one). But it preserves the call even when the system is corrupted. And to lose that call, in this era of scandal and unfinished purgation, could easily leave only the corruption, undiluted and unchecked.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/opin ... 3053090224
How the critique of Catholicism changes and yet remains the same.
Excerpt:
The sexual ethic on offer in our own era should make Catholics particularly skeptical. That ethic regards celibacy as unrealistic while offering porn and sex robots to ease frustrations created by its failure to pair men and women off. It pities Catholic priests as repressed and miserable (some are; in general they are not) even as its own cultural order seeds a vast social experiment in growing old alone. It disdains large families while it fails to reproduce itself. It treats any acknowledgment of male-female differences as reactionary while constructing an architecture of sexual identities whose complexities would daunt a medieval schoolman.
In the name of this not-obviously-enlightened alternative, Catholicism is constantly asked to “reform” away practices that are there because they connect directly to the New Testament — in the case of celibacy, to Jesus’ own example and his hard words for anyone making an idol of family life.
This seems like a bad bargain, no matter how much hypocrisy there may be in Rome.
That clerical celibacy doesn’t guarantee asceticism is obvious, any more than attending Mass guarantees prayerfulness (trust me on that one). But it preserves the call even when the system is corrupted. And to lose that call, in this era of scandal and unfinished purgation, could easily leave only the corruption, undiluted and unchecked.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/opin ... 3053090224
White Christian Nationalism May Not Be Religious, But It Is Christian
White Christian nationalism’s foot soldiers don’t necessarily connect their racial resentment with their devotion to the Bible, yet they're often trying to retake what they presume to be lost: white and Christian dominance.
After my recent post on the terror attack in New Zealand, several Christians reached out to Religion Dispatches and directly to me asking why I conflated white terrorism with Christian nationalism.
They eloquently noted that the shooter (whose name I shall not use) did not use Christian theology, but espoused anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views that seemed disconnected from religion. But in making that argument, they might be missing a larger point: white Christian nationalism isn’t religious (or even grounded in religious scripture), but its adherents nearly always frame their grievances in terms of endangered white Christian societies.
Following Charlottesville, I wrote that white nationalism does have theological roots, with evangelicals like Bob Jones standing firmly in the way of civil rights. In modern iterations, white nationalism and Christian fundamentalism have converged with folks like Tony Perkins, Steve King (who is at it again), and David Duke.
But for the most part, white Christian nationalism’s foot soldiers don’t necessarily connect their racial resentment with their devotion to the Bible. Many aren’t religious, and in fact that’s generally beside the point. Instead, their resentment towards Others (generally non-white and non-Christian populations) is built up over time, largely through online portals that function as echo chambers for the blend of history, conspiracy theory, and racism that produces and sustains white Christian nationalism.
And we should note that it’s really a resentment movement that wears religion like a hood ornament or team colors. In such a definition, these nationalists are trying to retake what they presume to be lost: white and Christian dominance.
In a larger context, none of the nationalist and exclusivist movements—Jewish nationalism in Israel; Islamism in parts of Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia; Hindu nationalism in parts of India; Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand—that have grown in recent years are grounded in theology. They’re all connected by a shared sense of grievance and an imagined community based on assumed shared ideals.
The New Zealand terrorist might not have been religious per se, but he was 100 percent devoted to the divine providence of white (Christian) nationhood.
https://rewire.news/religion-dispatches ... christian/
White Christian nationalism’s foot soldiers don’t necessarily connect their racial resentment with their devotion to the Bible, yet they're often trying to retake what they presume to be lost: white and Christian dominance.
After my recent post on the terror attack in New Zealand, several Christians reached out to Religion Dispatches and directly to me asking why I conflated white terrorism with Christian nationalism.
They eloquently noted that the shooter (whose name I shall not use) did not use Christian theology, but espoused anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views that seemed disconnected from religion. But in making that argument, they might be missing a larger point: white Christian nationalism isn’t religious (or even grounded in religious scripture), but its adherents nearly always frame their grievances in terms of endangered white Christian societies.
Following Charlottesville, I wrote that white nationalism does have theological roots, with evangelicals like Bob Jones standing firmly in the way of civil rights. In modern iterations, white nationalism and Christian fundamentalism have converged with folks like Tony Perkins, Steve King (who is at it again), and David Duke.
But for the most part, white Christian nationalism’s foot soldiers don’t necessarily connect their racial resentment with their devotion to the Bible. Many aren’t religious, and in fact that’s generally beside the point. Instead, their resentment towards Others (generally non-white and non-Christian populations) is built up over time, largely through online portals that function as echo chambers for the blend of history, conspiracy theory, and racism that produces and sustains white Christian nationalism.
And we should note that it’s really a resentment movement that wears religion like a hood ornament or team colors. In such a definition, these nationalists are trying to retake what they presume to be lost: white and Christian dominance.
In a larger context, none of the nationalist and exclusivist movements—Jewish nationalism in Israel; Islamism in parts of Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia; Hindu nationalism in parts of India; Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand—that have grown in recent years are grounded in theology. They’re all connected by a shared sense of grievance and an imagined community based on assumed shared ideals.
The New Zealand terrorist might not have been religious per se, but he was 100 percent devoted to the divine providence of white (Christian) nationhood.
https://rewire.news/religion-dispatches ... christian/
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DAWN.COM
TODAY'S PAPER | MARCH 23, 2019
Pakistan’s terrified Christians
Pervez HoodbhoyMarch 23, 2019
THE prime minister and people of New Zealand have put before us gold-plated standards of decency, compassion, and firmness against religious terrorism. Their response to last week’s horrific mosque massacres in Christchurch was exemplary. Many countries need to learn from New Zealand, Pakistan more than most.
Donning a black chadar, 38-year-old Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was visibly sorrowing as she tightly hugged the bereaved women around her. Muslims are not others, she said. Referring to the dead, she spoke of them simply but poignantly, “they are us”. To the Australian killer: “You may have chosen us — we utterly reject and condemn you.” Without the Bible and without reference to God, Ardern had been sworn into the prime minister’s office just 18 months ago. She says it is compassion that matters, not religion.
From end to end, her country also mourned. Newspapers reported florists running out of wreaths to be placed outside the two attacked mosques; donations for afflicted Muslim families poured in; churches held special services; and candle-light vigils were everywhere. An angered white teenage boy successfully landed an egg on the face of a far-right Australian senator who had blamed the Christchurch attack upon Muslim immigration into New Zealand. The senator promptly punched him — a punch that the youth will probably forever treasure.
Compare New Zealand’s reaction with the aftermath of every mass killing in Pakistan. With the sole exception of the Peshawar Army Public School massacre in December 2014 carried out by the TTP, I am unaware of any other atrocity inspiring significant public grief and outrage.
One hopes for the day when Pakistan has a prime minister like New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern.
None was evident after a simultaneous attack in May 2010 upon two Ahmadi worship places in Lahore that left 94 dead. No ministers, politicians or other prominent figures hugged the bereaved ones. Shahbaz Sharif, the then Punjab chief minister, chose not to visit the Ahmadi community. However, his elder brother Nawaz Sharif called them our “brothers and sisters”, instantly drawing condemnation from many within his own party. Although one of the accused attackers was overpowered and handed to the police by unarmed worshippers, he was subsequently released.
In numerical terms, the two back-to-back suicide bombings on Peshawar’s All Saints Church in September 2013 were still more gruesome. They left 127 dead — more than two and a half times the number at Christchurch. Commiserations by national leaders rang hollow. Imran Khan, standing outside the bombed-out church, told the survivors that calamity had visited them because of US drone strikes. He said that to prevent still more such attacks Pakistan should negotiate with the TTP (which claimed the church bombing).
How can we know which of Pakistan’s minorities — Ahmadi, Christian, Hazara, Hindu, Shia — has had the roughest deal? One measure of desperation is the extent to which a minority avoids the mainstream and pursues anonymity. Nothing speaks more eloquently to this than the naming of newborns nowadays.
Take Christians. Back in the 1950s the names of Karachi’s Christians, including those in my Garden East neighbourhood, were usually biblically derived. Boys could be Jacob, Joseph, Michael, Paul, Peter, Robert, etc. Girls were often Mary, Pauline, Rachel, Rita, Ruth, etc. But no longer — Christian parents are opting for safety: Emaan, Hina, Iqbal, Maryum, Naveed, Saima, Shafqat, Shahbaz etc. Survival in a hostile milieu demands camouflaging.
But earlier this month, even this dissimulation did not work for one happily married Christian couple with three children, with the entire family having non-Christian specific names. (Dawn’s policy does not allow identification of the rape victim.) Little did they know of the hell that lay in wait. A sexual predator in their Islamabad neighborhood stalked the wife but was rebuffed by her. With pistol in hand, and with an accomplice, the man later entered their house and abducted her. The police initially refused to register an FIR or recover her, eventually acting only under pressure.
Two weeks later the distraught and disoriented woman was shifted to a Dar-ul-Aman. With severe visible bruises, she says she had been raped for a full 10 days. The police refused the husband’s request for a medical inquiry because, according to the signed evidence, she had converted to Islam and was now one of the abductor’s wives.
This has made the problem infinitely more serious since the woman cannot now legally revert to being a Christian. That she signed the conversion document under duress may or may not matter. The courts, of course, will have to decide. But, given the slowness of such trials, this may take from many months to many years. Meanwhile the family is in hiding and the predator roams freely.
Let us step back and reflect for a moment: in a population of 220 million, there are bound to be egregious examples of wrongdoing; a wider judgement from any single example is unwarranted. A more reliable guide is the extent to which people around demonstrate empathy, and how a religious minority perceives itself positioned in the society. Sadly, this too does not look promising.
At a rally last Saturday (March 16) at the Islamabad Press Club protesting the recent abduction just a few dozen people — mostly Christians — turned up. Speaker after speaker claimed that Christians didn’t deserve this mistreatment because “we too had fought for Pakistan”. Just as unconvincing and pathetic were their appeals to the so-called “Quaid’s Pakistan” and his Aug 11, 1947, speech. But let us not blame these desperate people for clutching at straws; Pakistan’s minorities live under the boot of the majority and know they cannot speak the truth.
If there was a slight ray of hope, it came from one solitary bearded imam from the same neighbourhood of Islamabad as the victims. Forced conversions go against Islam, he said, citing the Quranic verse containing “la ikraha-fi-din” (there is no compulsion in religion). One wonders how far this line of argument will go towards easing the family’s anguish.
As structures of hate proliferate across the world, one desperately looks around for those who can intelligently use love and sympathy as tools to dismantle them. I much hope someone someday will think of nominating Jacinda Ardern for the Nobel Peace Prize. And I hope that someday Pakistan too will have a prime minister like her.
The writer teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad.
Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2019
/www.dawn.com/news/1471340/pakistans-ter ... christians
TODAY'S PAPER | MARCH 23, 2019
Pakistan’s terrified Christians
Pervez HoodbhoyMarch 23, 2019
THE prime minister and people of New Zealand have put before us gold-plated standards of decency, compassion, and firmness against religious terrorism. Their response to last week’s horrific mosque massacres in Christchurch was exemplary. Many countries need to learn from New Zealand, Pakistan more than most.
Donning a black chadar, 38-year-old Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was visibly sorrowing as she tightly hugged the bereaved women around her. Muslims are not others, she said. Referring to the dead, she spoke of them simply but poignantly, “they are us”. To the Australian killer: “You may have chosen us — we utterly reject and condemn you.” Without the Bible and without reference to God, Ardern had been sworn into the prime minister’s office just 18 months ago. She says it is compassion that matters, not religion.
From end to end, her country also mourned. Newspapers reported florists running out of wreaths to be placed outside the two attacked mosques; donations for afflicted Muslim families poured in; churches held special services; and candle-light vigils were everywhere. An angered white teenage boy successfully landed an egg on the face of a far-right Australian senator who had blamed the Christchurch attack upon Muslim immigration into New Zealand. The senator promptly punched him — a punch that the youth will probably forever treasure.
Compare New Zealand’s reaction with the aftermath of every mass killing in Pakistan. With the sole exception of the Peshawar Army Public School massacre in December 2014 carried out by the TTP, I am unaware of any other atrocity inspiring significant public grief and outrage.
One hopes for the day when Pakistan has a prime minister like New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern.
None was evident after a simultaneous attack in May 2010 upon two Ahmadi worship places in Lahore that left 94 dead. No ministers, politicians or other prominent figures hugged the bereaved ones. Shahbaz Sharif, the then Punjab chief minister, chose not to visit the Ahmadi community. However, his elder brother Nawaz Sharif called them our “brothers and sisters”, instantly drawing condemnation from many within his own party. Although one of the accused attackers was overpowered and handed to the police by unarmed worshippers, he was subsequently released.
In numerical terms, the two back-to-back suicide bombings on Peshawar’s All Saints Church in September 2013 were still more gruesome. They left 127 dead — more than two and a half times the number at Christchurch. Commiserations by national leaders rang hollow. Imran Khan, standing outside the bombed-out church, told the survivors that calamity had visited them because of US drone strikes. He said that to prevent still more such attacks Pakistan should negotiate with the TTP (which claimed the church bombing).
How can we know which of Pakistan’s minorities — Ahmadi, Christian, Hazara, Hindu, Shia — has had the roughest deal? One measure of desperation is the extent to which a minority avoids the mainstream and pursues anonymity. Nothing speaks more eloquently to this than the naming of newborns nowadays.
Take Christians. Back in the 1950s the names of Karachi’s Christians, including those in my Garden East neighbourhood, were usually biblically derived. Boys could be Jacob, Joseph, Michael, Paul, Peter, Robert, etc. Girls were often Mary, Pauline, Rachel, Rita, Ruth, etc. But no longer — Christian parents are opting for safety: Emaan, Hina, Iqbal, Maryum, Naveed, Saima, Shafqat, Shahbaz etc. Survival in a hostile milieu demands camouflaging.
But earlier this month, even this dissimulation did not work for one happily married Christian couple with three children, with the entire family having non-Christian specific names. (Dawn’s policy does not allow identification of the rape victim.) Little did they know of the hell that lay in wait. A sexual predator in their Islamabad neighborhood stalked the wife but was rebuffed by her. With pistol in hand, and with an accomplice, the man later entered their house and abducted her. The police initially refused to register an FIR or recover her, eventually acting only under pressure.
Two weeks later the distraught and disoriented woman was shifted to a Dar-ul-Aman. With severe visible bruises, she says she had been raped for a full 10 days. The police refused the husband’s request for a medical inquiry because, according to the signed evidence, she had converted to Islam and was now one of the abductor’s wives.
This has made the problem infinitely more serious since the woman cannot now legally revert to being a Christian. That she signed the conversion document under duress may or may not matter. The courts, of course, will have to decide. But, given the slowness of such trials, this may take from many months to many years. Meanwhile the family is in hiding and the predator roams freely.
Let us step back and reflect for a moment: in a population of 220 million, there are bound to be egregious examples of wrongdoing; a wider judgement from any single example is unwarranted. A more reliable guide is the extent to which people around demonstrate empathy, and how a religious minority perceives itself positioned in the society. Sadly, this too does not look promising.
At a rally last Saturday (March 16) at the Islamabad Press Club protesting the recent abduction just a few dozen people — mostly Christians — turned up. Speaker after speaker claimed that Christians didn’t deserve this mistreatment because “we too had fought for Pakistan”. Just as unconvincing and pathetic were their appeals to the so-called “Quaid’s Pakistan” and his Aug 11, 1947, speech. But let us not blame these desperate people for clutching at straws; Pakistan’s minorities live under the boot of the majority and know they cannot speak the truth.
If there was a slight ray of hope, it came from one solitary bearded imam from the same neighbourhood of Islamabad as the victims. Forced conversions go against Islam, he said, citing the Quranic verse containing “la ikraha-fi-din” (there is no compulsion in religion). One wonders how far this line of argument will go towards easing the family’s anguish.
As structures of hate proliferate across the world, one desperately looks around for those who can intelligently use love and sympathy as tools to dismantle them. I much hope someone someday will think of nominating Jacinda Ardern for the Nobel Peace Prize. And I hope that someday Pakistan too will have a prime minister like her.
The writer teaches physics in Lahore and Islamabad.
Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2019
/www.dawn.com/news/1471340/pakistans-ter ... christians
Athens in Pieces: The Happiest Man I’ve Ever Met
What is it like to be a monk? I spent three days in Greece’s revered ‘Holy Mountain’ monastery to find out.
Excerpt:
To understand contemporary Greece, and what connects it (and fails to connect it) with antiquity, you have to consider the Orthodox Church, which still has considerable ideological power over Greek life, for good or ill. Christianity is the connecting tissue in the body of Hellenism, for it is here that religious traditions and, most important, the Greek language was preserved. Mount Athos, the spiritual epicenter of Orthodoxy, is an entirely self-governing monastic republic, with its own parliament. Legally part of the European Union, Athos is an autonomous state with its own jurisdiction, like the Vatican, although the monks would not appreciate that analogy: The Orthodox Church has still not forgotten the Catholic sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
The monastic tradition on Athos goes back to the 9th century A.D., although the continuous Christian presence is much older. Athonite legend has it that the Virgin Mary traveled to Athos with St. John the Evangelist and liked it so much that she asked Jesus for it to be her garden. Happy to oblige his mother, Jesus agreed. And since that time, the only female creatures allowed on Mount Athos are cats, who are abundant in the monasteries. The mother of God was apparently the only woman to be allowed in her garden.
We were going to spend three days and two nights in the monastery of Simonopetra, or Simon’s Rock, founded in the 13th century. The fact that my name is Simon rather amused some of the monks to whom we were introduced.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/opin ... dline&te=1
What is it like to be a monk? I spent three days in Greece’s revered ‘Holy Mountain’ monastery to find out.
Excerpt:
To understand contemporary Greece, and what connects it (and fails to connect it) with antiquity, you have to consider the Orthodox Church, which still has considerable ideological power over Greek life, for good or ill. Christianity is the connecting tissue in the body of Hellenism, for it is here that religious traditions and, most important, the Greek language was preserved. Mount Athos, the spiritual epicenter of Orthodoxy, is an entirely self-governing monastic republic, with its own parliament. Legally part of the European Union, Athos is an autonomous state with its own jurisdiction, like the Vatican, although the monks would not appreciate that analogy: The Orthodox Church has still not forgotten the Catholic sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.
The monastic tradition on Athos goes back to the 9th century A.D., although the continuous Christian presence is much older. Athonite legend has it that the Virgin Mary traveled to Athos with St. John the Evangelist and liked it so much that she asked Jesus for it to be her garden. Happy to oblige his mother, Jesus agreed. And since that time, the only female creatures allowed on Mount Athos are cats, who are abundant in the monasteries. The mother of God was apparently the only woman to be allowed in her garden.
We were going to spend three days and two nights in the monastery of Simonopetra, or Simon’s Rock, founded in the 13th century. The fact that my name is Simon rather amused some of the monks to whom we were introduced.
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/03/opin ... dline&te=1
From the Ashes of Notre-Dame
How a burning cathedral rebukes a divided Catholic Church.
Excerpt:
That’s where I was, what I had at least half-written, before the fire began in Paris. But now let me try to say something larger, something commensurate to the symbolism of one of Catholicism’s greatest monuments burning on Holy Week, a day before Benedict’s own birthday, on the day after Catholics listened to a gospel in which the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom.
That larger thing is this: The problem of Catholic narratives that can’t find synthesis, of “liberal” and “conservative” takes that feed angrily off one another, of popes and former popes as symbols grasped by partisans, is not the problem of the sex abuse crisis. It is simply the problem of Roman Catholicism in this age — an age in which the church mirrors the polarization of Western culture, rather than offering an integrated alternative.
The church has always depended on synthesis and integration. That has been part of its genius, a reason for all its unexpected resurrections and regenerations. Faith and reason, Athens and Jerusalem, the aesthetic and the ascetic, the mystical and the philosophical — even the crucifix itself, two infinite lines converging and combining.
Notre-Dame de Paris is a monument to a particularly triumphant moment of Catholic synthesis — the culture of the high Middle Ages, a renaissance before the Renaissance, at once Roman and Germanic but both transformed by Christianity, a new hybrid civilization embodied in the cathedral’s brooding, complicated, gorgeous sprawl.
The Catholicism of today builds nothing so gorgeous as Notre-Dame in part because it has no 21st-century version of that grand synthesis to offer. The reforms of the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council and everything after, have left the church partially and unsuccessfully transformed, torn between competing visions of how to be Catholic in modernity, competing promises of renewal and reform, competing factions convinced that they are the firefighters inside Notre-Dame, and their rivals are the fire.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/opin ... dline&te=1
********
We Were the Caretakers of Notre Dame. We Failed.
A hundred years from now, people will still be talking about the fire of 2019.
Excerpts:
Though most Parisians don’t visit often — and some never do — Notre-Dame is more than just a tourist attraction or a historic monument. It sits in the middle of the city, walking distance from practically everywhere, on the bank of the river that divides the city. Residents might not have fully realized it until Monday, but I think it reassured them to know that at the heart of their highly planned city was someplace entirely non-rational and non-Cartesian. Notre-Dame’s hulking, Gothic presence has long suggested that there is something mysterious and unknowable at the center of it all.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/opin ... dline&te=1
How a burning cathedral rebukes a divided Catholic Church.
Excerpt:
That’s where I was, what I had at least half-written, before the fire began in Paris. But now let me try to say something larger, something commensurate to the symbolism of one of Catholicism’s greatest monuments burning on Holy Week, a day before Benedict’s own birthday, on the day after Catholics listened to a gospel in which the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom.
That larger thing is this: The problem of Catholic narratives that can’t find synthesis, of “liberal” and “conservative” takes that feed angrily off one another, of popes and former popes as symbols grasped by partisans, is not the problem of the sex abuse crisis. It is simply the problem of Roman Catholicism in this age — an age in which the church mirrors the polarization of Western culture, rather than offering an integrated alternative.
The church has always depended on synthesis and integration. That has been part of its genius, a reason for all its unexpected resurrections and regenerations. Faith and reason, Athens and Jerusalem, the aesthetic and the ascetic, the mystical and the philosophical — even the crucifix itself, two infinite lines converging and combining.
Notre-Dame de Paris is a monument to a particularly triumphant moment of Catholic synthesis — the culture of the high Middle Ages, a renaissance before the Renaissance, at once Roman and Germanic but both transformed by Christianity, a new hybrid civilization embodied in the cathedral’s brooding, complicated, gorgeous sprawl.
The Catholicism of today builds nothing so gorgeous as Notre-Dame in part because it has no 21st-century version of that grand synthesis to offer. The reforms of the 1960s, the Second Vatican Council and everything after, have left the church partially and unsuccessfully transformed, torn between competing visions of how to be Catholic in modernity, competing promises of renewal and reform, competing factions convinced that they are the firefighters inside Notre-Dame, and their rivals are the fire.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/opin ... dline&te=1
********
We Were the Caretakers of Notre Dame. We Failed.
A hundred years from now, people will still be talking about the fire of 2019.
Excerpts:
Though most Parisians don’t visit often — and some never do — Notre-Dame is more than just a tourist attraction or a historic monument. It sits in the middle of the city, walking distance from practically everywhere, on the bank of the river that divides the city. Residents might not have fully realized it until Monday, but I think it reassured them to know that at the heart of their highly planned city was someplace entirely non-rational and non-Cartesian. Notre-Dame’s hulking, Gothic presence has long suggested that there is something mysterious and unknowable at the center of it all.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/opin ... dline&te=1
What It Means to Worship a Man Crucified as a Criminal
A God who allows suffering is a mystery, but so is a God who suffered.
Excerpt:
But the cross is more than simply a gateway to the City of God. “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross,” John Stott, one of the most important Christian evangelists of the last century, wrote in “The Cross of Christ.” “The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” From the perspective of Christianity, one can question why God allows suffering, but one cannot say God doesn’t understand it. He is not remote, indifferent, untouched or unscarred.
Scott Dudley, the senior pastor at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Wash., and a lifelong friend, pointed out to me that on the cross God was reconciling the world to himself — but God was also, perhaps, reconciling himself to the world. The cross is not only God’s way of saying we are not alone in our suffering, but also that God has entered into our suffering through his own suffering.
Scott readily concedes that there’s no good answer to the question, “Why is there suffering?” Jesus never answers that question, and even if we had the theological answer, it would not ease our burdens in any significant way. What God offers instead is the promise that he is with us in our suffering; that he can bring good out of it (life out of death, forgiveness out of sin); and that one day he will put a stop to it and redeem it. God, Revelation tells us, will make “all things new.” For now, though, we are part of a drama unfolding in a broken world, one in which God chose to become a protagonist.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/opin ... 3053090420
A God who allows suffering is a mystery, but so is a God who suffered.
Excerpt:
But the cross is more than simply a gateway to the City of God. “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross,” John Stott, one of the most important Christian evangelists of the last century, wrote in “The Cross of Christ.” “The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” From the perspective of Christianity, one can question why God allows suffering, but one cannot say God doesn’t understand it. He is not remote, indifferent, untouched or unscarred.
Scott Dudley, the senior pastor at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Wash., and a lifelong friend, pointed out to me that on the cross God was reconciling the world to himself — but God was also, perhaps, reconciling himself to the world. The cross is not only God’s way of saying we are not alone in our suffering, but also that God has entered into our suffering through his own suffering.
Scott readily concedes that there’s no good answer to the question, “Why is there suffering?” Jesus never answers that question, and even if we had the theological answer, it would not ease our burdens in any significant way. What God offers instead is the promise that he is with us in our suffering; that he can bring good out of it (life out of death, forgiveness out of sin); and that one day he will put a stop to it and redeem it. God, Revelation tells us, will make “all things new.” For now, though, we are part of a drama unfolding in a broken world, one in which God chose to become a protagonist.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/opin ... 3053090420
Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?
We all wonder what will happen to us after we die. When a loved one dies, we long to see him or her again after our turn comes. Will we have a glorious reunion with those we love or is death the end of all consciousness?
Jesus taught that life does not end after our bodies die. He made this startling claim: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again.” According to the eyewitnesses closest to him, Jesus then demonstrated his power over death by rising from the dead after being crucified and buried for three days. It is this belief that has given hope to Christians for nearly 2000 years.
But some people have no hope of life after death. The atheistic philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote, “I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my own ego will survive.”[1] Russell obviously didn’t believe Jesus’ words.
Jesus’ followers wrote that he appeared alive to them after his crucifixion and burial. They claim not only to have seen him but also to have eaten with him, touched him, and spent 40 days with him.
So could this have been simply a story that grew over time, or is it based upon solid evidence? The answer to this question is foundational to Christianity. For if Jesus did rise from the dead, it would validate everything he said about himself, about the meaning of life, and about our destiny after death.
If Jesus did rise from the dead then he alone would have the answers to what life is about and what is facing us after we die. On the other hand, if the resurrection account of Jesus is not true, then Christianity would be founded upon a lie. Theologian R. C. Sproul puts it this way:
The claim of resurrection is vital to Christianity. If Christ has been raised from the dead by God, then He has the credentials and certification that no other religious leader possesses.[2]
All other religious leaders are dead, but, according to Christianity, Christ is alive.
Many skeptics have attempted to disprove the resurrection. Josh McDowell was one such skeptic who spent more than seven hundred hours researching the evidence for the resurrection. McDowell stated this regarding the importance of the resurrection:
I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, OR it is the most fantastic fact of history.[3] McDowell later wrote his classic work, The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict, documenting what he discovered.
So, is Jesus’ resurrection a fantastic fact or a vicious myth? To find out, we need to look at the evidence of history and draw our own conclusions. Let’s see what skeptics who investigated the resurrection discovered for themselves.
More and related links
https://y-jesus.com/lp/6-jesus-rise-dea ... gI_wPD_BwE
We all wonder what will happen to us after we die. When a loved one dies, we long to see him or her again after our turn comes. Will we have a glorious reunion with those we love or is death the end of all consciousness?
Jesus taught that life does not end after our bodies die. He made this startling claim: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die like everyone else, will live again.” According to the eyewitnesses closest to him, Jesus then demonstrated his power over death by rising from the dead after being crucified and buried for three days. It is this belief that has given hope to Christians for nearly 2000 years.
But some people have no hope of life after death. The atheistic philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote, “I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my own ego will survive.”[1] Russell obviously didn’t believe Jesus’ words.
Jesus’ followers wrote that he appeared alive to them after his crucifixion and burial. They claim not only to have seen him but also to have eaten with him, touched him, and spent 40 days with him.
So could this have been simply a story that grew over time, or is it based upon solid evidence? The answer to this question is foundational to Christianity. For if Jesus did rise from the dead, it would validate everything he said about himself, about the meaning of life, and about our destiny after death.
If Jesus did rise from the dead then he alone would have the answers to what life is about and what is facing us after we die. On the other hand, if the resurrection account of Jesus is not true, then Christianity would be founded upon a lie. Theologian R. C. Sproul puts it this way:
The claim of resurrection is vital to Christianity. If Christ has been raised from the dead by God, then He has the credentials and certification that no other religious leader possesses.[2]
All other religious leaders are dead, but, according to Christianity, Christ is alive.
Many skeptics have attempted to disprove the resurrection. Josh McDowell was one such skeptic who spent more than seven hundred hours researching the evidence for the resurrection. McDowell stated this regarding the importance of the resurrection:
I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, OR it is the most fantastic fact of history.[3] McDowell later wrote his classic work, The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict, documenting what he discovered.
So, is Jesus’ resurrection a fantastic fact or a vicious myth? To find out, we need to look at the evidence of history and draw our own conclusions. Let’s see what skeptics who investigated the resurrection discovered for themselves.
More and related links
https://y-jesus.com/lp/6-jesus-rise-dea ... gI_wPD_BwE
Are Christians Privileged or Persecuted?
How Western liberalism’s peculiar relationship to its Christian heritage leaves non-Western Christians exposed.
The murderous radicals who set off bombs and killed hundreds on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka chose their targets with ideological purpose. Three Catholic churches were bombed, and with them three hotels catering to Western tourists, because often in the jihadist imagination Western Christianity and Western liberal individualism are the conjoined enemies of their longed-for religious utopia, their religious-totalitarian version of Islam. Tourists and missionaries, Coca-Cola and the Catholic Church — it’s all the same invading Christian enemy, different brand names for the same old crusade.
Officially, the Western world’s political and cultural elite does its best to undercut and push back against this narrative. The liberal imagination reacts with discomfort to the Samuel Huntingtonian idea of a clash of civilizations, or anything that pits a unitary “West” against an Islamist or Islamic alternative. The idea of a “Christian West” is particularly forcefully rejected, but even more banal terms like “Western Civilization” and “Judeo-Christian,” once intended to offer a more ecumenical narrative of Euro-American history, are now seen as dangerous, exclusivist, chauvinist, alt-right.
And yet there is also a way in which liberal discourse in the West implicitly accepts part of the terrorists’ premise — by treating Christianity as a cultural possession of contemporary liberalism, a particularly Western religious inheritance that even those who no longer really believe have a special obligation to remake and reform. With one hand elite liberalism seeks to keep Christianity at arm’s length, to reject any specifically Christian identity for the society it aims to rule — but with the other it treats Christianity as something that really exists only in relationship to its own secularized humanitarianism, either as a tamed and therefore useful chaplaincy or as an embarrassing, in-need-of-correction uncle.
You could see both those impulses at work in the discussion following the great fire at Notre-Dame. On the one hand there was a strident liberal reaction against readings of the tragedy that seemed too friendly to either medieval Catholicism or some religiously infused conception of the West. A few tweets from the conservative writer Ben Shapiro, which used phrases like “Western Civilization” and “Judeo-Christian” while lamenting the conflagration, prompted accusations that he was ignoring the awfulness of medieval-Catholic anti-Semitism, and also that his Western-civ language was just a dog-whistle for white nationalists.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/opin ... dline&te=1
How Western liberalism’s peculiar relationship to its Christian heritage leaves non-Western Christians exposed.
The murderous radicals who set off bombs and killed hundreds on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka chose their targets with ideological purpose. Three Catholic churches were bombed, and with them three hotels catering to Western tourists, because often in the jihadist imagination Western Christianity and Western liberal individualism are the conjoined enemies of their longed-for religious utopia, their religious-totalitarian version of Islam. Tourists and missionaries, Coca-Cola and the Catholic Church — it’s all the same invading Christian enemy, different brand names for the same old crusade.
Officially, the Western world’s political and cultural elite does its best to undercut and push back against this narrative. The liberal imagination reacts with discomfort to the Samuel Huntingtonian idea of a clash of civilizations, or anything that pits a unitary “West” against an Islamist or Islamic alternative. The idea of a “Christian West” is particularly forcefully rejected, but even more banal terms like “Western Civilization” and “Judeo-Christian,” once intended to offer a more ecumenical narrative of Euro-American history, are now seen as dangerous, exclusivist, chauvinist, alt-right.
And yet there is also a way in which liberal discourse in the West implicitly accepts part of the terrorists’ premise — by treating Christianity as a cultural possession of contemporary liberalism, a particularly Western religious inheritance that even those who no longer really believe have a special obligation to remake and reform. With one hand elite liberalism seeks to keep Christianity at arm’s length, to reject any specifically Christian identity for the society it aims to rule — but with the other it treats Christianity as something that really exists only in relationship to its own secularized humanitarianism, either as a tamed and therefore useful chaplaincy or as an embarrassing, in-need-of-correction uncle.
You could see both those impulses at work in the discussion following the great fire at Notre-Dame. On the one hand there was a strident liberal reaction against readings of the tragedy that seemed too friendly to either medieval Catholicism or some religiously infused conception of the West. A few tweets from the conservative writer Ben Shapiro, which used phrases like “Western Civilization” and “Judeo-Christian” while lamenting the conflagration, prompted accusations that he was ignoring the awfulness of medieval-Catholic anti-Semitism, and also that his Western-civ language was just a dog-whistle for white nationalists.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/opin ... dline&te=1
Abolish the Priesthood
To save the Church, Catholics must detach themselves from the clerical hierarchy—and take the faith back into their own hands.
Excerpt:
My five years in the priesthood, even in its most liberal wing, gave me a fetid taste of this caste system. Clericalism, with its cult of secrecy, its theological misogyny, its sexual repressiveness, and its hierarchical power based on threats of a doom-laden afterlife, is at the root of Roman Catholic dysfunction. The clerical system’s obsession with status thwarts even the merits of otherwise good priests and distorts the Gospels’ message of selfless love, which the Church was established to proclaim. Clericalism is both the underlying cause and the ongoing enabler of the present Catholic catastrophe. I left the priesthood 45 years ago, before knowing fully what had soured me, but clericalism was the reason.
More...
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... MDU2NzM4S0
To save the Church, Catholics must detach themselves from the clerical hierarchy—and take the faith back into their own hands.
Excerpt:
My five years in the priesthood, even in its most liberal wing, gave me a fetid taste of this caste system. Clericalism, with its cult of secrecy, its theological misogyny, its sexual repressiveness, and its hierarchical power based on threats of a doom-laden afterlife, is at the root of Roman Catholic dysfunction. The clerical system’s obsession with status thwarts even the merits of otherwise good priests and distorts the Gospels’ message of selfless love, which the Church was established to proclaim. Clericalism is both the underlying cause and the ongoing enabler of the present Catholic catastrophe. I left the priesthood 45 years ago, before knowing fully what had soured me, but clericalism was the reason.
More...
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... MDU2NzM4S0
The Day Christian Fundamentalism Was Born
How a meeting in Philadelphia changed American religion forever.
For many Americans, it was thrilling to be alive in 1919. The end of World War I had brought hundreds of thousands of soldiers home. Cars were rolling off the assembly lines. New forms of music, like jazz, were driving people to dance. And science was in the ascendant, after helping the war effort. Women, having done so much on the home front, were ready to claim the vote, and African-Americans were eager to enjoy full citizenship, at long last. In a word, life was dazzlingly modern.
But for many other Americans, modernity was exactly the problem. As many parts of the country were experimenting with new ideas and beliefs, a powerful counterrevolution was forming in some of the nation’s largest churches and Bible institutes. A group of Christian leaders, anxious about the chaos that seemed to be enveloping the globe, recalibrated the faith and gave it a new urgency. They knew that the time was right for a revolution in American Christianity. In its own way, this new movement — fundamentalism — was every bit as important as the modernity it seemingly resisted, with remarkable determination.
Beginning on May 25, 1919, 6,000 ministers, theologians and evangelists came together in Philadelphia for a weeklong series of meetings. They heard sermons on everything from “Christ and the Present Crisis” to “Why I Preach the Second Coming.” The men and women assembled there believed that God had chosen them to call Christians back to the “fundamentals” of the faith, and to prepare the world for one final revival before Jesus returned to earth. They called their group the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association.
A Minneapolis Baptist preacher named William Bell Riley organized the meetings. A tall, austere and uncompromising man, Riley was a natural-born crusader, who rarely saw a religious fight he did not think he could win. Under his leadership, the event drew participants from all around the county. Contrary to popular stereotypes, the centers of fundamentalism were in the nation’s major northern and western cities — New York, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle — and not the rural South.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/opin ... _th_190526
******
Pope Francis likens abortion in any scenario to ‘hiring a hitman’
Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to hiring a hitman and said the procedure can never be condoned, even when the foetus is gravely sick.
Speaking at a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference, he urged doctors and priests to support families to carry all pregnancies to full term.
“Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem?” he asked his audience. “Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?”
The pontiff said that the matter was not a religious issue but a human one.
And he denounced decisions to abort pregnancies based on prenatal testing, saying a human being is “never incompatible with life”.
It is not the first time the Pope has spoken out strongly against abortion but his new comments come little more than a week after the issue was pushed into the global spotlight when the US state of Alabama passed highly restrictive laws banning abortion in almost all cases, including where pregnancies have been caused by rape.
The bill’s architects expect that it will be defeated in the lower courts, but hope that it will therefore come before the country’s newly conservative Supreme Court.
If judges there uphold the bill, it will give the green light for other states across the US to impose similarly draconian measures.
Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio are among others which have also passed new abortion restrictions in recent months with the same goal in mind.
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/po ... ailsignout
How a meeting in Philadelphia changed American religion forever.
For many Americans, it was thrilling to be alive in 1919. The end of World War I had brought hundreds of thousands of soldiers home. Cars were rolling off the assembly lines. New forms of music, like jazz, were driving people to dance. And science was in the ascendant, after helping the war effort. Women, having done so much on the home front, were ready to claim the vote, and African-Americans were eager to enjoy full citizenship, at long last. In a word, life was dazzlingly modern.
But for many other Americans, modernity was exactly the problem. As many parts of the country were experimenting with new ideas and beliefs, a powerful counterrevolution was forming in some of the nation’s largest churches and Bible institutes. A group of Christian leaders, anxious about the chaos that seemed to be enveloping the globe, recalibrated the faith and gave it a new urgency. They knew that the time was right for a revolution in American Christianity. In its own way, this new movement — fundamentalism — was every bit as important as the modernity it seemingly resisted, with remarkable determination.
Beginning on May 25, 1919, 6,000 ministers, theologians and evangelists came together in Philadelphia for a weeklong series of meetings. They heard sermons on everything from “Christ and the Present Crisis” to “Why I Preach the Second Coming.” The men and women assembled there believed that God had chosen them to call Christians back to the “fundamentals” of the faith, and to prepare the world for one final revival before Jesus returned to earth. They called their group the World’s Christian Fundamentals Association.
A Minneapolis Baptist preacher named William Bell Riley organized the meetings. A tall, austere and uncompromising man, Riley was a natural-born crusader, who rarely saw a religious fight he did not think he could win. Under his leadership, the event drew participants from all around the county. Contrary to popular stereotypes, the centers of fundamentalism were in the nation’s major northern and western cities — New York, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle — and not the rural South.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/25/opin ... _th_190526
******
Pope Francis likens abortion in any scenario to ‘hiring a hitman’
Pope Francis has compared having an abortion to hiring a hitman and said the procedure can never be condoned, even when the foetus is gravely sick.
Speaking at a Vatican-sponsored anti-abortion conference, he urged doctors and priests to support families to carry all pregnancies to full term.
“Is it licit to throw away a life to resolve a problem?” he asked his audience. “Is it licit to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?”
The pontiff said that the matter was not a religious issue but a human one.
And he denounced decisions to abort pregnancies based on prenatal testing, saying a human being is “never incompatible with life”.
It is not the first time the Pope has spoken out strongly against abortion but his new comments come little more than a week after the issue was pushed into the global spotlight when the US state of Alabama passed highly restrictive laws banning abortion in almost all cases, including where pregnancies have been caused by rape.
The bill’s architects expect that it will be defeated in the lower courts, but hope that it will therefore come before the country’s newly conservative Supreme Court.
If judges there uphold the bill, it will give the green light for other states across the US to impose similarly draconian measures.
Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio are among others which have also passed new abortion restrictions in recent months with the same goal in mind.
More...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/po ... ailsignout
Did the Vatican Hide Art That Depicted Female Priests?
For many people one of the most archaic aspects of the Catholic Church is the fact that it prohibits women from serving as priests. Pope John Paul II ruled in 1994 that the issue of women priests was not open to discussion, and a 2018 essay from the Vatican’s doctrinal office reaffirmed the ban. The subject is the source of some controversy with some claiming that church teaching is nothing other than a patriarchal attempt to suppress women.
One flashpoint in this debate is the history of the early church: some have argued that as women served in liturgical roles back then, they should be allowed to serve today in some capacity. Now a respected academic is going one step further and arguing not only that women in the early church were priests, but also that the Vatican deliberately concealed the artistic evidence that would prove it.
Art historian Ally Kateusz, the author of Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership and a research associate at the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, presented a paper on the subject at the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on Tuesday
Images and more...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/di ... ailsignout
For many people one of the most archaic aspects of the Catholic Church is the fact that it prohibits women from serving as priests. Pope John Paul II ruled in 1994 that the issue of women priests was not open to discussion, and a 2018 essay from the Vatican’s doctrinal office reaffirmed the ban. The subject is the source of some controversy with some claiming that church teaching is nothing other than a patriarchal attempt to suppress women.
One flashpoint in this debate is the history of the early church: some have argued that as women served in liturgical roles back then, they should be allowed to serve today in some capacity. Now a respected academic is going one step further and arguing not only that women in the early church were priests, but also that the Vatican deliberately concealed the artistic evidence that would prove it.
Art historian Ally Kateusz, the author of Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership and a research associate at the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, presented a paper on the subject at the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on Tuesday
Images and more...
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/di ... ailsignout
Clergy Shouldn’t Be Able to Steal Funds for Grindr or Dolls
We could debate whether immoral people seek out positions in the clergy or whether clerical life corrupts people, but that debate misses the point.
Father Joseph McLoone, a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania—a realm of the Church that’s already plagued by horrible scandal—allegedly stole $100,000 to spend on “Grindr men,” globetrotting, and a beach house.
McLoone’s crime appears to be an isolated incident, but it’s indicative of a larger problem, one that could be easily fixed. Churches are incredibly susceptible to theft from within because, unlike every other non-profit and charity, the law does not require financial transparency for churches. They’re financial black holes.
Experts estimate that worldwide, churches lose $63 billion each year to internal “ecclesiastical crime.” That estimate is almost certainly low, due to underreporting and yet it still makes up more than 16 percent of churches’ total income. The director of that annual study believes that “as much as 95% of fraud within churches goes undetected or unreported.”
More...
https://rewire.news/religion-dispatches ... -or-dolls/
We could debate whether immoral people seek out positions in the clergy or whether clerical life corrupts people, but that debate misses the point.
Father Joseph McLoone, a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania—a realm of the Church that’s already plagued by horrible scandal—allegedly stole $100,000 to spend on “Grindr men,” globetrotting, and a beach house.
McLoone’s crime appears to be an isolated incident, but it’s indicative of a larger problem, one that could be easily fixed. Churches are incredibly susceptible to theft from within because, unlike every other non-profit and charity, the law does not require financial transparency for churches. They’re financial black holes.
Experts estimate that worldwide, churches lose $63 billion each year to internal “ecclesiastical crime.” That estimate is almost certainly low, due to underreporting and yet it still makes up more than 16 percent of churches’ total income. The director of that annual study believes that “as much as 95% of fraud within churches goes undetected or unreported.”
More...
https://rewire.news/religion-dispatches ... -or-dolls/
When ‘Priest Weds Nun’
My parents may not get to see the transformation of Catholicism they dreamed of when they married 50 years ago, but some changes are underway.
It made news around the world when my parents married 50 years ago this summer. They weren’t remotely famous. Their wedding was no lavish affair. The surprising interest in their nuptials can be summed up by a headline that ran in a Vancouver newspaper, thousands of miles from the ceremony in my grandmother’s modest Boston home: “Priest Weds Nun.”
The headline wasn’t precisely accurate. My mother was a teaching sister for a decade, but she had left her order the previous summer; my father by then had been a priest for eight years. On the day of the wedding, he was on a leave of absence from his nearby parish and, according to canon law, was automatically excommunicated for marrying without first receiving dispensation from the obligations of his ordination. As he told reporters waiting outside, he knew that his decision broke the rules of the church, but he had done so for its benefit.
“We believe in the goals of the church and love the church very deeply,” he said. “We have committed our lives to the church, and believe we are doing this for the good of the church.”
For him, to marry publicly as a Catholic priest was an act of protest meant to nudge Rome toward reconsideration of clerical celibacy and the church’s view of sexuality generally — a reconsideration he had come to regard as inevitable after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council earlier in the 1960s. “I really felt that in order to be true to the Gospel,” he said, “I should enter into the deepest relationship possible for the church.” By this he meant not his celibate religious vocation but marriage, family and the complicated relationships they would bring.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/31/opin ... 3053090901
My parents may not get to see the transformation of Catholicism they dreamed of when they married 50 years ago, but some changes are underway.
It made news around the world when my parents married 50 years ago this summer. They weren’t remotely famous. Their wedding was no lavish affair. The surprising interest in their nuptials can be summed up by a headline that ran in a Vancouver newspaper, thousands of miles from the ceremony in my grandmother’s modest Boston home: “Priest Weds Nun.”
The headline wasn’t precisely accurate. My mother was a teaching sister for a decade, but she had left her order the previous summer; my father by then had been a priest for eight years. On the day of the wedding, he was on a leave of absence from his nearby parish and, according to canon law, was automatically excommunicated for marrying without first receiving dispensation from the obligations of his ordination. As he told reporters waiting outside, he knew that his decision broke the rules of the church, but he had done so for its benefit.
“We believe in the goals of the church and love the church very deeply,” he said. “We have committed our lives to the church, and believe we are doing this for the good of the church.”
For him, to marry publicly as a Catholic priest was an act of protest meant to nudge Rome toward reconsideration of clerical celibacy and the church’s view of sexuality generally — a reconsideration he had come to regard as inevitable after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council earlier in the 1960s. “I really felt that in order to be true to the Gospel,” he said, “I should enter into the deepest relationship possible for the church.” By this he meant not his celibate religious vocation but marriage, family and the complicated relationships they would bring.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/31/opin ... 3053090901
Why Pope Francis struggles in Africa
The church is growing fast there, but it is tough terrain for a liberal pontiff
A year ago President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique went to the Vatican and announced triumphantly that he had persuaded the pope to visit his country. Pope Francis retorted that he would make the trip in 2019—if he was still alive. This week the 82-year-old pontiff is keeping that promise, making only his second trip to sub-Saharan Africa, which is by far the biggest area of expansion for Christianity. His tour also takes in Madagascar and Mauritius.
In some ways the itinerary is apt. In Mozambique alone he can see many of the woes that afflict his burgeoning flock across Africa: terrorism, interfaith conflict, environmental harm and the spectre of state failure. Madagascar, a fragile store of biodiversity, is similarly afflicted by poverty and rapid deforestation, which reduces nature’s resilience against disasters, such as the cyclones that swept the region last spring. Around 2m poor Mozambicans were hit by storms and floods.
With the locus of Christianity moving southward, this troubled continent represents the faith’s greatest hope. According to Pew, an American research institute, the share of the world’s Christians who live in sub-Saharan Africa will surge to 42% by 2060, up from 26% in 2015 (see chart). Without that demography-fuelled expansion in Africa, Christianity would be destined to fall rather swiftly behind Islam as the world’s most popular faith. Pew predicts that by 2060 Muslim numbers will be 70% above 2015 levels, whereas the Christian flock will have risen by just 34%. As a net result, Pew reckons, Christians will make up 32% of the world’s population and Muslims just one percentage point less.
But Africa also presents pastoral problems that seem at times beyond the reach of any religious leader, no matter how charismatic. Nor does Francis, despite his compassion for African migrants to the rich world, find the African church easy to navigate, given the doctrinal conservatism of its leaders.
More....
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-a ... a/304034/n
The church is growing fast there, but it is tough terrain for a liberal pontiff
A year ago President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique went to the Vatican and announced triumphantly that he had persuaded the pope to visit his country. Pope Francis retorted that he would make the trip in 2019—if he was still alive. This week the 82-year-old pontiff is keeping that promise, making only his second trip to sub-Saharan Africa, which is by far the biggest area of expansion for Christianity. His tour also takes in Madagascar and Mauritius.
In some ways the itinerary is apt. In Mozambique alone he can see many of the woes that afflict his burgeoning flock across Africa: terrorism, interfaith conflict, environmental harm and the spectre of state failure. Madagascar, a fragile store of biodiversity, is similarly afflicted by poverty and rapid deforestation, which reduces nature’s resilience against disasters, such as the cyclones that swept the region last spring. Around 2m poor Mozambicans were hit by storms and floods.
With the locus of Christianity moving southward, this troubled continent represents the faith’s greatest hope. According to Pew, an American research institute, the share of the world’s Christians who live in sub-Saharan Africa will surge to 42% by 2060, up from 26% in 2015 (see chart). Without that demography-fuelled expansion in Africa, Christianity would be destined to fall rather swiftly behind Islam as the world’s most popular faith. Pew predicts that by 2060 Muslim numbers will be 70% above 2015 levels, whereas the Christian flock will have risen by just 34%. As a net result, Pew reckons, Christians will make up 32% of the world’s population and Muslims just one percentage point less.
But Africa also presents pastoral problems that seem at times beyond the reach of any religious leader, no matter how charismatic. Nor does Francis, despite his compassion for African migrants to the rich world, find the African church easy to navigate, given the doctrinal conservatism of its leaders.
More....
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-a ... a/304034/n
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Kerala nun Mariam Thresia declared a saint by Pope Francis
The nun from Kerala was canonized along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini.
INDIA Updated: Oct 13, 2019 18:07 IST
Kerala nun Mariam Thresia and four others were declared Saints by Pope Francis at a grand ceremony at the Vatican City on Sunday.
Mariam Thresia, who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family in Thrissur in May 1914, was raised to the highest position within the centuries-old institution during the ceremony at the St Peter’s Square.
Thresia was canonised along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini.
The ceremony included a Latin hymn and a recommendation by a representative of the Congregation for the Saints. Huge portraits of the five new Saints were hung from Saint Peter’s Basilica during the ceremony, which was attended by tens of thousands of devotees.
His Holiness Pope Francis (@Pontifex) has canonized Mariam Thresia Mankidiyan, the founder of the congregation of the Holy Family of Thissur. The Chief Minister has extended greetings to the members of the community.
With Sunday’s canonisation, the centuries-old Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala now has four Saints, the first being Sister Alphonsa, who was declared a saint in 2008. Others are Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara, popularly known as Chavara Achen, and Sister Euphrasia, popularly known as Evuprasiamma, who were declared Saint by the Pope in 2014.
Mariam Thresia was called during the first half of her life simply Thresia, the name given to her at baptism on May 3, 1876. Since 1904, she wanted to be called Mariam Thresia as she believed that she was asked to add “Mariam” to her name by the Blessed Virgin Mary in a vision.
And it was as Mariam Thresia that she was professed in 1914, the foundress and first member of the Congregation of the Holy Family.
The Church has declared her as one of the rare holy persons who moved constantly and consciously among the inhabitants of this world as well as with visitors from the world above and below.
“In imitation of Jesus, she helped the poor, nursed the sick, visited and comforted the lonely people of her parish. She was also blessed with the stigmata but kept it secret to avoid attention.
“She received several mystical gifts like prophecy, healing, an aura of light, sweet odour and frequently had ecstasies and levitations.
“Her entire existence was tormented by demons and she offered her sufferings for the remission of the sins of the world,” the Vatican News said.
First Published: Oct 13, 2019 14:25 IST
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... hT7EP.html
Kerala nun Mariam Thresia declared a saint by Pope Francis
The nun from Kerala was canonized along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini.
INDIA Updated: Oct 13, 2019 18:07 IST
Kerala nun Mariam Thresia and four others were declared Saints by Pope Francis at a grand ceremony at the Vatican City on Sunday.
Mariam Thresia, who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family in Thrissur in May 1914, was raised to the highest position within the centuries-old institution during the ceremony at the St Peter’s Square.
Thresia was canonised along with English Cardinal John Henry Newman, Swiss laywoman Marguerite Bays, Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes and Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini.
The ceremony included a Latin hymn and a recommendation by a representative of the Congregation for the Saints. Huge portraits of the five new Saints were hung from Saint Peter’s Basilica during the ceremony, which was attended by tens of thousands of devotees.
His Holiness Pope Francis (@Pontifex) has canonized Mariam Thresia Mankidiyan, the founder of the congregation of the Holy Family of Thissur. The Chief Minister has extended greetings to the members of the community.
With Sunday’s canonisation, the centuries-old Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala now has four Saints, the first being Sister Alphonsa, who was declared a saint in 2008. Others are Father Kuriakose Elias Chavara, popularly known as Chavara Achen, and Sister Euphrasia, popularly known as Evuprasiamma, who were declared Saint by the Pope in 2014.
Mariam Thresia was called during the first half of her life simply Thresia, the name given to her at baptism on May 3, 1876. Since 1904, she wanted to be called Mariam Thresia as she believed that she was asked to add “Mariam” to her name by the Blessed Virgin Mary in a vision.
And it was as Mariam Thresia that she was professed in 1914, the foundress and first member of the Congregation of the Holy Family.
The Church has declared her as one of the rare holy persons who moved constantly and consciously among the inhabitants of this world as well as with visitors from the world above and below.
“In imitation of Jesus, she helped the poor, nursed the sick, visited and comforted the lonely people of her parish. She was also blessed with the stigmata but kept it secret to avoid attention.
“She received several mystical gifts like prophecy, healing, an aura of light, sweet odour and frequently had ecstasies and levitations.
“Her entire existence was tormented by demons and she offered her sufferings for the remission of the sins of the world,” the Vatican News said.
First Published: Oct 13, 2019 14:25 IST
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... hT7EP.html
Power in the Catholic church is shifting south and exposing divisions
The church is pondering whether to ordain women and married men
As the sun sets over Nazareth, a village on the banks of the Amazon river in the Colombian rainforest, a Jesuit priest peers out at a small congregation, made up of members of the indigenous Tikuna people. They are sitting on rickety benches around the edges of a cement church. “Why is everyone so far away?” asks Father Valério Paulo Sartor, stepping down from the altar to say mass from the aisle. “If you won’t come to me, I’ll come to you.”
Some 6,000 miles away in Rome, bishops, indigenous leaders and ngo representatives from the Amazon basin, together with Vatican prelates, are discussing how the Catholic church can do just that. In a three-week synod that ends on October 27th, they hope to find new ways for the church to work with local communities to tackle the crises facing the region—and Catholicism—in a part of the world where the church is overstretched, understaffed, yet still remarkably influential.
The synod represents the biggest step yet towards recognising something many Catholics in the West, especially church leaders, have been reluctant to acknowledge: just as economic and diplomatic power in the secular world is slipping away from the North Atlantic region, a similar process is taking place in Catholicism. In the secular world, the shift is to Asia. Within the Catholic church it is towards not only Asia, but Africa and Latin America, too. That is forcing the church to consider how far it is willing to adapt to the practices and beliefs of cultures with their own spiritual traditions. The synod has added to fears of a new schism within the church.
More...
https://www.economist.com/international ... -divisions
The church is pondering whether to ordain women and married men
As the sun sets over Nazareth, a village on the banks of the Amazon river in the Colombian rainforest, a Jesuit priest peers out at a small congregation, made up of members of the indigenous Tikuna people. They are sitting on rickety benches around the edges of a cement church. “Why is everyone so far away?” asks Father Valério Paulo Sartor, stepping down from the altar to say mass from the aisle. “If you won’t come to me, I’ll come to you.”
Some 6,000 miles away in Rome, bishops, indigenous leaders and ngo representatives from the Amazon basin, together with Vatican prelates, are discussing how the Catholic church can do just that. In a three-week synod that ends on October 27th, they hope to find new ways for the church to work with local communities to tackle the crises facing the region—and Catholicism—in a part of the world where the church is overstretched, understaffed, yet still remarkably influential.
The synod represents the biggest step yet towards recognising something many Catholics in the West, especially church leaders, have been reluctant to acknowledge: just as economic and diplomatic power in the secular world is slipping away from the North Atlantic region, a similar process is taking place in Catholicism. In the secular world, the shift is to Asia. Within the Catholic church it is towards not only Asia, but Africa and Latin America, too. That is forcing the church to consider how far it is willing to adapt to the practices and beliefs of cultures with their own spiritual traditions. The synod has added to fears of a new schism within the church.
More...
https://www.economist.com/international ... -divisions
Catholic Bishops Back Ordination of Married Men as Priests in Amazon Region, a Milestone
VATICAN CITY — A summit of Roman Catholic bishops meeting at the Vatican recommended on Saturday that Pope Francis allow the ordination of married men as priests in the Amazon region, which would lift a roughly 1,000-year-old restriction and potentially revolutionize the priesthood.
It is the first time a grouping of bishops convened by a pope has endorsed such a historic change to the tradition of a celibate priesthood. The proposal is limited to remote areas of South America where there is a scarcity of priests but could set a precedent for easing the restriction on married priests throughout the world.
If Francis, who has already signaled an openness on the issue, accepts the bishops’ recommendation, he will turn the remote areas of the Amazon region into a laboratory for a Catholic Church looking to the global south for its future, with married priests and indigenous rites mixing with traditional liturgy.
The pope is expected to respond to the proposals by the end of this year.
The final document of the summit, noting that many of the faithful in the Amazon region have “enormous difficulties” in receiving communion and seeing a priest, proposed to “ordain priests suitable and esteemed men of the community,” who had already had “fruitful” experiences as deacons and who “receive an adequate formation for the priesthood, having a legitimately constituted and stable family.”
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/26/worl ... 3053091027
VATICAN CITY — A summit of Roman Catholic bishops meeting at the Vatican recommended on Saturday that Pope Francis allow the ordination of married men as priests in the Amazon region, which would lift a roughly 1,000-year-old restriction and potentially revolutionize the priesthood.
It is the first time a grouping of bishops convened by a pope has endorsed such a historic change to the tradition of a celibate priesthood. The proposal is limited to remote areas of South America where there is a scarcity of priests but could set a precedent for easing the restriction on married priests throughout the world.
If Francis, who has already signaled an openness on the issue, accepts the bishops’ recommendation, he will turn the remote areas of the Amazon region into a laboratory for a Catholic Church looking to the global south for its future, with married priests and indigenous rites mixing with traditional liturgy.
The pope is expected to respond to the proposals by the end of this year.
The final document of the summit, noting that many of the faithful in the Amazon region have “enormous difficulties” in receiving communion and seeing a priest, proposed to “ordain priests suitable and esteemed men of the community,” who had already had “fruitful” experiences as deacons and who “receive an adequate formation for the priesthood, having a legitimately constituted and stable family.”
More....
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/26/worl ... 3053091027
Catholic Bishops Agree: Anything but a Woman
The push to allow married men to serve as priests isn’t progress. It’s another form of misogyny.
The modern Catholic Church is beset with serious problems. Among them is that not enough men want to be priests. Over the past three weeks, 184 bishops gathered at a Vatican summit to seek solutions for the Amazon region in particular, singled out because of myriad crises it is facing, including environmental devastation, violence and a shortage of priests to serve the needs of the faithful there.
The bishops’ solution: Do anything other than ordaining women as priests.
On Oct. 26, in a “revolutionary” decision, the bishops gathered at the Vatican voted 128 to 41 to allow an exception to what has essentially been a 1,000-year ban on the ordination of married men as priests. They recommended this change for only certain parts of the Amazon and for only married men already made deacons, meaning men already allowed to perform marriages and baptisms, but not to officiate at mass, which only priests can do. It is now for Pope Francis to decide whether the decision goes forward.
It is surprising in many ways that the bishops made this decision. Allowing a married man to be a priest violates several longstanding rules. They voted as they did despite the tremendous importance of chastity for the Catholic Church and the old idea that sexual activity is a pollutant that cannot be allowed near the holy ritual of the mass. They voted in favor of married priests despite a longstanding fear that for a priest to have a wife and a family would lead to serious conflicts of interest. There is a legend that the word “nepotism” was invented in honor of the grasping nephews of popes who sought and obtained more than they deserved thanks to their powerful uncles (and “nephews” we can sometimes see as a euphemism for “sons”).
These potential conflicts of interest and other dangers that family influence and obligations bring, therefore, are something Catholic authorities have long recognized and have eagerly sought to prevent. They voted as they did despite the symbolic importance, too, of the idea that a priest be united to only one spouse, the Church, just as Jesus Christ was united in an exclusive bond with the Church.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/opin ... d=45305309
The push to allow married men to serve as priests isn’t progress. It’s another form of misogyny.
The modern Catholic Church is beset with serious problems. Among them is that not enough men want to be priests. Over the past three weeks, 184 bishops gathered at a Vatican summit to seek solutions for the Amazon region in particular, singled out because of myriad crises it is facing, including environmental devastation, violence and a shortage of priests to serve the needs of the faithful there.
The bishops’ solution: Do anything other than ordaining women as priests.
On Oct. 26, in a “revolutionary” decision, the bishops gathered at the Vatican voted 128 to 41 to allow an exception to what has essentially been a 1,000-year ban on the ordination of married men as priests. They recommended this change for only certain parts of the Amazon and for only married men already made deacons, meaning men already allowed to perform marriages and baptisms, but not to officiate at mass, which only priests can do. It is now for Pope Francis to decide whether the decision goes forward.
It is surprising in many ways that the bishops made this decision. Allowing a married man to be a priest violates several longstanding rules. They voted as they did despite the tremendous importance of chastity for the Catholic Church and the old idea that sexual activity is a pollutant that cannot be allowed near the holy ritual of the mass. They voted in favor of married priests despite a longstanding fear that for a priest to have a wife and a family would lead to serious conflicts of interest. There is a legend that the word “nepotism” was invented in honor of the grasping nephews of popes who sought and obtained more than they deserved thanks to their powerful uncles (and “nephews” we can sometimes see as a euphemism for “sons”).
These potential conflicts of interest and other dangers that family influence and obligations bring, therefore, are something Catholic authorities have long recognized and have eagerly sought to prevent. They voted as they did despite the symbolic importance, too, of the idea that a priest be united to only one spouse, the Church, just as Jesus Christ was united in an exclusive bond with the Church.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/30/opin ... d=45305309
Relic thought to be from Jesus’ manger arrives in Bethlehem
BETHLEHEM, Palestinian Territory — A tiny wooden relic that some Christians believe to be part of Jesus' manger arrived Saturday in its permanent home in the biblical city of Bethlehem 1,400 years after it was sent to Rome as a gift to the pope.
Sheathed in an ornate case, cheerful crowds greeted the relic with much fanfare before it entered the Franciscan Church of St. Catherine next to the Church of the Nativity, the West Bank holy site where tradition says Jesus was born.
The return of the relic by the Vatican was a spirit-lifting moment for the Palestinians. It coincides with Advent, a four-week period leading up to Christmas. Troubled Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is bracing for the occasion, where pilgrims from around the world flock to the city.
Young Palestinian scouts played bagpipes and the crowd snapped pictures as a clergyman held the silver reliquary and marched toward the church.
Brother Francesco Patton, the custodian of the Franciscan order in the Holy Land, said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had asked Pope Francis to borrow the entire manger, but the pope decided to send a tiny portion of it to stay permanently in Bethlehem.
“It’s a great joy” that the piece returns to its original place, Patton said, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.
A wooden structure that Christians believe was part of the manger where Jesus was born was sent by St. Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to Pope Theodore I in the 640s, around the time of the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land.
On Friday, the thumb-sized wooden piece was unveiled to worshippers at the Notre Dame church in Jerusalem for a day of celebrations and prayer.
In the evening, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and other officials will attend the lighting of a Christmas tree in the Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity.
Imad Isseid, The Associated Press
Photos at:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/re ... ailsignout
BETHLEHEM, Palestinian Territory — A tiny wooden relic that some Christians believe to be part of Jesus' manger arrived Saturday in its permanent home in the biblical city of Bethlehem 1,400 years after it was sent to Rome as a gift to the pope.
Sheathed in an ornate case, cheerful crowds greeted the relic with much fanfare before it entered the Franciscan Church of St. Catherine next to the Church of the Nativity, the West Bank holy site where tradition says Jesus was born.
The return of the relic by the Vatican was a spirit-lifting moment for the Palestinians. It coincides with Advent, a four-week period leading up to Christmas. Troubled Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is bracing for the occasion, where pilgrims from around the world flock to the city.
Young Palestinian scouts played bagpipes and the crowd snapped pictures as a clergyman held the silver reliquary and marched toward the church.
Brother Francesco Patton, the custodian of the Franciscan order in the Holy Land, said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had asked Pope Francis to borrow the entire manger, but the pope decided to send a tiny portion of it to stay permanently in Bethlehem.
“It’s a great joy” that the piece returns to its original place, Patton said, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.
A wooden structure that Christians believe was part of the manger where Jesus was born was sent by St. Sophronius, the patriarch of Jerusalem, to Pope Theodore I in the 640s, around the time of the Muslim conquest of the Holy Land.
On Friday, the thumb-sized wooden piece was unveiled to worshippers at the Notre Dame church in Jerusalem for a day of celebrations and prayer.
In the evening, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and other officials will attend the lighting of a Christmas tree in the Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity.
Imad Isseid, The Associated Press
Photos at:
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/re ... ailsignout
Book
‘EMPTY THE PEWS’ GIVES VOICE TO THOSE WHO’VE ESCAPED TOXIC CHRISTIANITY
We want people who grew up or are growing up in right-wing Christian environments to understand that it’s okay to trust their doubts; and [because] there’s still a pretty strong taboo in the American public sphere against criticizing any large Christian group we hope this book will help [change that].
Interview with the authors at:
http://religiondispatches.org/empty-the ... istianity/
‘EMPTY THE PEWS’ GIVES VOICE TO THOSE WHO’VE ESCAPED TOXIC CHRISTIANITY
We want people who grew up or are growing up in right-wing Christian environments to understand that it’s okay to trust their doubts; and [because] there’s still a pretty strong taboo in the American public sphere against criticizing any large Christian group we hope this book will help [change that].
Interview with the authors at:
http://religiondispatches.org/empty-the ... istianity/
What Would Jesus Do About Inequality?
The faith and work movement wants to bend the gospel back toward economic justice.
Chapel Hill, N.C. — One Saturday morning this fall, I walked into Chapel Hill Bible Church, an unpretentious complex of brick buildings near the highway. Inside, a conference space bustled with 50 people sitting at round tables. The crowd skewed millennial, mostly (but not entirely) white. I sat next to a hip-looking bearded man wearing a hoodie, who told me he was a nurse at a nearby hospital. My other tablemates included a cybersecurity expert, a doctoral student in speech pathology and an occupational therapist working in public schools.
They had come to talk about how they integrate religious faith with what they do for a living — how the lessons and community of Sunday worship can become “a church for Monday,” in the phrase of the conference organizer, Made to Flourish, a Christian ministry based in Overland Park, Kan., which works with churches in all 50 states. The people at my table already knew one another through a local Christian program called Triangle Fellows, which calls itself “an immersive discipleship and leadership development program for young professionals.”
In today’s evangelicalism, this is where the theological action is: the faith and work movement, the intersection of Christianity with the demands of the workplace and the broader economy — in a society that is one of the world’s wealthiest, yet persistently inhumane. In politics, responses to the American economy’s moral crisis usually split along the lines of the culture war. President Trump, still the darling of white evangelical voters, has hardly wavered from the Christian right’s tradition of faith in a lightly regulated market and weak social safety nets.
The evangelical faith and work movement used to be merely another trumpet for this peculiarly American political gospel. But in recent years the movement has become much more ideologically diverse — and far more interesting. Participants are moving beyond the idolatry of the free market to a conversation about economic justice that doesn’t align so neatly with culture war clichés or party platforms.
Conservative evangelicals have long treated the workplace as a sphere for evangelism, where a good Christian prints Bible verses on corporate stationery, shares the gospel with colleagues and admires Jesus as a marketing genius with a knack for parables about investment banking — who is not just the Son of God but also “the founder of modern business,” as the Christian writer Bruce Barton put it in his best-selling 1925 book, “The Man Nobody Knows.” Some Christian-run companies have fused Christianity with free market fundamentalism and declared “religious freedom” to deny employees insurance coverage for birth control. Many have deployed company chaplains and prayer sessions to manage disgruntled workers.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/opin ... 778d3e6de3
The faith and work movement wants to bend the gospel back toward economic justice.
Chapel Hill, N.C. — One Saturday morning this fall, I walked into Chapel Hill Bible Church, an unpretentious complex of brick buildings near the highway. Inside, a conference space bustled with 50 people sitting at round tables. The crowd skewed millennial, mostly (but not entirely) white. I sat next to a hip-looking bearded man wearing a hoodie, who told me he was a nurse at a nearby hospital. My other tablemates included a cybersecurity expert, a doctoral student in speech pathology and an occupational therapist working in public schools.
They had come to talk about how they integrate religious faith with what they do for a living — how the lessons and community of Sunday worship can become “a church for Monday,” in the phrase of the conference organizer, Made to Flourish, a Christian ministry based in Overland Park, Kan., which works with churches in all 50 states. The people at my table already knew one another through a local Christian program called Triangle Fellows, which calls itself “an immersive discipleship and leadership development program for young professionals.”
In today’s evangelicalism, this is where the theological action is: the faith and work movement, the intersection of Christianity with the demands of the workplace and the broader economy — in a society that is one of the world’s wealthiest, yet persistently inhumane. In politics, responses to the American economy’s moral crisis usually split along the lines of the culture war. President Trump, still the darling of white evangelical voters, has hardly wavered from the Christian right’s tradition of faith in a lightly regulated market and weak social safety nets.
The evangelical faith and work movement used to be merely another trumpet for this peculiarly American political gospel. But in recent years the movement has become much more ideologically diverse — and far more interesting. Participants are moving beyond the idolatry of the free market to a conversation about economic justice that doesn’t align so neatly with culture war clichés or party platforms.
Conservative evangelicals have long treated the workplace as a sphere for evangelism, where a good Christian prints Bible verses on corporate stationery, shares the gospel with colleagues and admires Jesus as a marketing genius with a knack for parables about investment banking — who is not just the Son of God but also “the founder of modern business,” as the Christian writer Bruce Barton put it in his best-selling 1925 book, “The Man Nobody Knows.” Some Christian-run companies have fused Christianity with free market fundamentalism and declared “religious freedom” to deny employees insurance coverage for birth control. Many have deployed company chaplains and prayer sessions to manage disgruntled workers.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/opin ... 778d3e6de3