Date: 2009-10-12 19:26:15
In putting together this newsletter we gather stories from all over the globe. Sometimes they mirror each other in fascinating ways. Today is such an occasion.
The launch of a new book about the Student Christian Movement provided the impetus for one news article. The book brings home the importance of guarding the heritage of a movement like the SCM and passing on its learnings. Browsing through the Forward I found a quote underlining the “transformative role” played by “daily services of prayer, like the discipline of a period of silence” in SCM conferences during the height of the movement’s influence.
Another article from Ecumenical News International commemorates the peaceful demonstrations in Leipzig in October 1989 that ushered in the end of what was then the German Democratic Republic, more commonly known as East Germany. For seven years prior to this point, Christians had been gathering weekly in the Church of St Nicholas (Nikolaikirche) to pray for peace – while their counterparts in the West were doing the same.
Commemoration, making history visible: that’s one link between these articles. The second is the “transformative role” of prayer in leading people to live lives as disciples of Jesus, sometimes at great risk.
The combination of remembering the past and underlining the role of prayer is also present in a third article, a feature from the World Council of Churches. As the Faith and Order Commission meets, former Moderator of Faith and Order, Mary Tanner, says: "We must find a way to build on what we have achieved, or else it will evaporate." A few sentences later we read: “Mary Tanner stressed the importance of remembering that Faith and Order dialogue has always been characterized by ‘deep spirituality grounded in prayer; it is not an arid academic exercise’”.
Finally, we announce the celebration, on 31 October, of the tenth anniversary of the Declaration on Justification. A special ecumenical service will be held, as well as a workshop. Prayerfully together we give thanks for this milestone in church history.
Analysing the present in the light of learnings from the past, while steeping our lives in prayer (which could embrace many forms of spiritual listening and learning) – that seems to me to sum up what I have gleaned from today’s articles. Not a bad way to remember that it is Anti-Poverty Week. Not a bad lens through which to read statements by church leaders and others regarding Australia’s official response to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur regarding the NT Intervention.
I trust we will all know how to act – prayerfully – during these days of remembering.
Glenine Hamlyn
Leading QC and human rights advocate Julian Burnside has added his voice to those of churches calling the Australian Government to honour its obligations with respect to the NT Intervention.
This October in Leipzig, Germany, prayer services are being held on Mondays, as they were throughout the 1980s till the wall came down.
A new book covers the history of the Student Christian Movement in Australia, exploring some of the most important social and theological issues of the past century.
With several new members on the Faith and Order Commission of the World Council of Churches (WCC), it is time to take stock and consider progress.
Saturday, 31 October: Workshop and ecumenical service - celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Signing of the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church (31 October 1999) and endorsed by the World Methodist Council on 23 July 2006.
We bring you the advertisement of the Christian Conference of Asia for a new General Secretary. Applications close 15 November, 2009.
