Francis: When a Visitor Changes Your Home

Image via Cathleen Falsani/Sojourners

Some of the comments that Wallis makes are:

• But the most stunning thing to me was when Pope Francis brought to our attention, in a joint session of the Congress, four examples of extraordinary figures from American history to illustrate his moral convictions about how to serve the common good. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. were great choices but seemed less a surprise, but then he also named Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton; who — along with King — have regularly graced our covers and articles here at Sojourners. I really couldn’t believe it.

• Yes, he spoke powerfully on a number of critical public issues, but he began by calling the political representatives of this country to their proper purpose and vocation as servant leaders.

I wonder if there will be any ripple effect that reaches the political parties here in Canada?

Theological training in the United Church of Canada includes exposure to both past and current streams of theological thought. For example, Liberation Theology is one of the tributaries to mainstream theological thought in the UCC.

Harvey Cox describes Liberation Theology* in this way:

“Liberation theology is more than just a regionally specific “Latin American theology” or a passing fad. It embodies a momentous leap out of the many centuries in which Christianity was defined as a system of beliefs imposed by a hierarchy. It symbolizes the resurrection of faith-as-trust and represents the retrieval of the core of the gospel message as it was understood and lived in the earliest centuries of Christianity.”

(*page 195 in The Future of Faith)

The United Church of Canada may be moving in the direction of legislating what it is permissible for ministers to believe.

It now appears that the United Church is on the path towards adopting the practices of an exclusionary approach to faith through the erection of a security barrier between itself and those ministers who have different theologies.

Mike Milne, in an article in The United Church Observer, comments that, “A compromise that facilitated the creation of the United Church 90 years ago is at the crux of a debate on what ministers are supposed to believe today.” Read Milne’s column on this controversy at: http://ucobserver.org/faith/2015/09/essential_expectations/

Atoning for Alan Kurdi

We could’ve been his haven. Instead, his family’s hopes ended in the sea off Bodrum.

By Crawford Kilian, 4 Sep 2015, TheTyee.ca

It might have been the shore at Spanish Banks, or the edge of a lake in Ontario’s cottage country. It was every parent’s nightmare. Alan Kurdi’s little body on a Turkish beach might have been our kid’s, in the moment when everything good in our life vanished.

Alan Kurdi, with brother Ghalib. Photo: Twitter.

I just looked away for a second —

I was sure he was safe —

I should have —

If only — 

But no excuse will serve, no alibi will stand up. Alan is beyond all suffering, but he is also beyond forgiving us. “One” used to be pronounced “own,” and “atonement” means to become “at one” again with those we have wronged. But we can never become at one with Alan Kurdi.

Atonement is a faith-filled concept. Crawford Kilian has a wonderful reflection on what Canada is / was / can be. I suggest it is worthwhile reading at: http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/09/04/Atoning-for-Alan-Kurdi/?utm_source=nationalweekly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=040915

Sojourners sent me this important message today:

Are you ready to join with Christians around the world in prayer for God’s creation? Along with the global Church, we at Sojourners have embraced Tuesday, September 1 as a Global Day of Prayer for the Care of the Creation.

Why tomorrow? Patriarch Bartholomew of the Orthodox Communion has long recognized the prayer day; last week, Pope Francis did so for the world’s Roman Catholics; and now, the Protestant World Evangelical Alliance – representing more than 600 million Christians worldwide – and the World Council of Churches have both endorsed the Day of Prayer.

We would like to invite you to participate in this first truly global response by Christians to our many environmental crises by joining in a Telephonic Prayer Meeting organized by Evangelical Christians engaged in various Creation Care ministries at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.

• What: Global Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation – Telephonic Prayer Meeting.

• When: Tuesday, September 1, 8:00-8:50 PM  ET.

• Call in instructions: Dial 1-302-202-1106 – Conference code: 381142 (Kindly mute your line upon connecting.)
  

• Who’s involved? Representatives of Sojourners and our partners at the World Evangelical Alliance, the Lausanne evangelistic movement’s Creation Care Network, Care of Creation, Climate Caretakers, Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, the A Rocha Christian conservation ministry, the Christian Reformed Church, the Presbyterian Church, and Christians for the Mountains, among many others.

• How can I participate? Download this PDF prayer guide and join us in Scripture readings, devotions, and prayer for our world – for repentance for those in power, and for the church. And forward this email to your friends, small group members, pastors, family members and the like. There’s room for everyone to join in prayer!

Don’t forget to click the link and download the PDF! See you on Tuesday for prayer.

In faith,

The Sojourners team