Date: 2010-01-15 17:43:58
The first newsletter of the year, and Haiti is uppermost in our prayers. Again we grapple with issues of justice – how could this happen to one of the poorest nations on earth, where simply surviving is difficult under any circumstances?
All the more amazing it is to read reports like the following one, sent as an email bulletin from the US one day after the earthquake:
“The Van Dams, who serve with Christian Reformed Church World Missions, joined with their neighbors in the street to try to get some rest, because the earthquake severely damaged their home. The earthquake centered on the capital of Port-au-Prince, where the Van Dams live.
The area is home to about three million people.
‘The people in the ravine beside our house were praising and singing to God all night long.…," the Van Dams wrote to CRWM the morning after the quake.”
Obviously there are people in Haiti who could teach me a lesson or two about being thankful.
A news release of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) of 14 January contains the lyrics of a hymn written specially for Haiti by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. The last verse reads like this:
“Where are you in the anguish? Lord, may we hear anew
That anywhere your world cries out, you’re there-- and suffering, too.
And may we see, in others’ pain, the cross we’re called to bear; Send out your church in Jesus’ name to pray, to serve, to share.”
(Tune - “Beneath the cross of Jesus”: Frederick Charles Maker, 1881
Text: Copyright © 2010 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. All rights reserved. Permission is given for use by those who support Presbyterian Disaster Assistance)
That for me sums up the only adequate kind of response there can be to the question of the pain of it all.
Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA), is conducting an ecumenical appeal. See below. Please pass on the link and give generously.
Wishing us all the watchfulness we need, through the Spirit of Christ, to be sent out this year as people of the church, in Jesus’ name.
Glenine Hamlyn
Act for Peace, the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia, has launched an urgent appeal on behalf of its church partners on the ground in Haiti. Please give.
A global alliance of Christian aid agencies is coordinating the relief efforts of its members from Geneva after a massive earthquake in Haiti.
On 14 January church leaders will join Coptic Christians in Melbourne on a march to the Egyptian consulate, in an attempt to highlight the need for action in Egypt after the killing of six Coptic Christians on their Christmas Eve.
The global ecumenical movement has a prominent role to play in bringing the hope of peace to a world of division, says the new General Secretary of the World Council of Churches.
Wednesday 20 January: Two internationally renowned Jewish performers, Miriam Ohevet El and Tavor Ben Dor, will be presenting a Jewish sacred music concert
Based on previous seminars, Toowoomba Churches Together is organizing a retreat focusing on how we tackle the difficult issues together, now that we have got to know each other: Orders and Church Leadership (episcope) and Eucharistic Hospitality.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 16-23 May 2010. All over Australia during this week, people from a wide range of churches will gather to celebrate and pray for church unity. A poster and prayer cards will soon be available for purchase from QCT. To download resources, click here.
Australian political leaders speak of sustainability measures in terms of cost rather than investment, say faith leaders as they call for visionary leadership.
Is the Earth our neighbour? Do we have an ethical responsibility to care for her? Does the Bible say anything about climate change? Theologians discussed such questions at a seminar during the Copenhagen summit in December 2009.
After the theology committee of an ecumenical alliance in the Middle East "found no biblical or theological reasons to oppose female ordination", member churches - Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed - were asked to act on this finding.
In November 2009 a number of individuals in Britain with a long-standing commitment to Christian unity spent 24 hours together for an informal discussion of the current state of ecumenism in Britain. The document is a collation of some thoughts expressed at the meeting. Many sound surprisingly familiar.
Congratulations to Believing Women for a Culture of Peace, who won the People’s Choice prize of $500 in the Lord Mayor’s photographic exhibition, Brisbane Celebrates. The organization had entered the group photo they took at their Harmony Day & Navruz celebration in 2009.
Nominate a woman peacemaker in Queensland for an award that recognizes her contribution.
26 January
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