11-28-06
Greetings!
First Things is a great monthly periodical. As its mission statement puts forth: "First Things is published by Religion and Public Life, an interreligious, nonpartisan research and education institute whose purpose is to advance a religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society." It's a very impressive publication. Their December issue contains a fascinating article by Philip Jenkins entitled "Believing in the Global South." This essay is adapted from a lecture he gave.
In the essay he points out that the Christian world is moving south, with explosive growth in Africa and Asia, while Europe slowly loses its faith. For instance:
"Some figures cry out for special notice. Look, for instance at the story of Christian growth in Africa. In 1900, Africa had 10 million Christians representing about 10% of the population; by 2000, this figure had grown to 360 million, representing about half the population. Quantitatively, this may well be the largest shift in religious affiliation that has ever occurred, anywhere. If we focus on the Catholic population alone, Africa had 1.9 million Catholics in 1900, but by 2000 the continent's Catholic population had risen to 130 million, representing a gross increase if 6,708%. And yet another figure for the Catholic world should give us pause . In 2000, there were more Catholic baptisms in the Philippines than in France, Spain, Italy, and Poland combined. By 2025, approximately 60% of Catholics around the world will probably live in Africa and Latin America alone—not counting the Philippines, China or India—and the proportion should reach 2/3 before 2050. At that point, European and Euro-American Catholics will be a small fragment of a church dominated by Filipinos, Mexicans, Brazilians, Nigerians, and Congolese."
Now, Jenkins doesn't cast this reality as a good or a bad event. However, he does point out that there will be changes coming. For example, the experience of the Church in Africa and Asia is much different then that of our own. As he points out, the parables Jesus told have much more resonance with them—for example the woman who searches all day for the lost coin. To the average American, that sounds rather pointless. To the poor African, who doesn't know where their next meal is coming from---it makes perfect sense. Likewise, whereas healings, exorcisms, and other supernatural experiences are often looked at skeptically by modern man—for many in the developing Church, such experiences, which echo the Scriptures are a daily experiences.
As Jenkins relates: "At a healing revival in Uganda, a woman reported being cured of a spinal complaint. After this event, 'a whole stream of people…stood up one by one to declare joyfully what Jesus had done for them. They had been dumb, mad or psychologically disturbed; crippled, epileptic, hemorrhaging; they had had cancer, epilepsy and asthma. By turns they declared that they had been healed by the power of the Lord Jesus. So many people wanted to testify that in the end the parish catechist simply resorted to calling out the afflictions and doing a head count of those who had been healed.' This may sound like the typical currency of charismatic movements the world over, except that this particular example occurred in a Roman Catholic church, through the ministry of an Indian priest, and the initial miracle described took place during the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament."
Wow. Indeed as throughout history, while the Churches' teachings have not changed, it has found new and invigorating life in new worlds. In the year 300, one could not have imagined Europe becoming "the cradle of Christianity." And similarly, today we may well be witnessing the creation of a "new cradle of Christianity."
Benedict XVI's Itinerary for
Turkey Trip
Tuesday-to-Friday Visit
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is the program of Benedict XVI's fifth international apostolic journey, which will take him to
Turkey from Tuesday to Friday.
* * *
ITALY
Tuesday, Nov. 28
Fiumicino (Rome)
9 a.m. Departure from Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport of Rome/Fiumicino to Ankara
--- --- ---
TURKEY
Ankara
1 p.m. Arrival at Esemboga International Airport
-- Visit to the Atat�
rk Mausoleum
-- Welcome ceremony and courtesy visit to the President of the Republic
-- Meeting with the Vice Prime Minister
-- Meeting with the President of Religious Affairs (Address of the Holy Father)
-- Meeting with the Diplomatic Corps (Address of the Holy Father)
--- --- ---
Wednesday, Nov. 29
Ephesus
-- Holy Mass (Homily of the Holy Father)
Istanbul
-- Moment of prayer at the Patriarchal Church of St. George and private meeting with
H.H. Bartholomew I (Greeting of the Holy Father)
--- --- ---
Thursday, Nov. 30
-- Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St. George (Address of the Holy Father, and Joint Declaration)
-- Visit to the Museum of Saint Sofia
-- Visit to the Blue Mosque
-- Moment of prayer at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral and meeting with H.B. Patriarch Mesrob II (Greeting of the Holy Father)
-- Meeting with H.E. the Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan
-- Meeting with the Grand Rabbi of Turkey
-- Meeting and dinner with the members of the Catholic episcopal conference
--- --- ---
Friday, Dec. 1
-- Holy Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit (Homily of the Holy Father)
-- Farewell ceremony at the Airport of Istanbul
-- 1:15 p.m. Departure from the Airport of Istanbul to Rome
--- --- ---
ITALY
Ciampino (Rome)
3:45 p.m. Arrival at the Airport of Ciampino (Rome)
ZE06112705
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Thursday, Nov. 30th is the Feast of St. Andrew--
here is a beautiful reflection by Pope Benedict XVI on St. Andrew and the Cross. Via Zenit 6-14-06
A subsequent tradition, as I was saying, recounts the death of Andrew in Patras, where he also suffered the torture of crucifixion. However, in that supreme moment, as his brother Peter, he asked to be placed on a cross different from that of Jesus. In his case, it was a cross in the shape of an X, that is, with the two beams crossed diagonally, which for this reason is called "St. Andrew's cross."
This is what he would have said on that occasion, according to an ancient narrative (of the beginning of the sixth century), entitled "Passion of Andrew": "Hail, O cross, inaugurated by the body of Christ, which has become adornment of his members, as if they were precious pearls. Before the Lord mounted you, you caused an earthly terror. However, now, gifted with a celestial love, you have become a gift. Believers know how much joy you possess, how many gifts you offer. Confident, therefore, and full of joy, I come so that you will also receive me exultant as disciple of him who hanged from you. … Blessed cross, which received the majesty and beauty of the members of the Lord …, take me and lead me far from men and hand me to my Master so that, through you, he will receive me who through you has redeemed me. Hail, O cross, yes, truly, hail!"
As we can see, we are before an extremely profound Christian spirituality, which sees in the cross, beyond an instrument of torture, the incomparable means of a full assimilation with the Redeemer, with the grain of wheat fallen into the earth. We must learn a very important lesson: Our crosses have value if they are considered and welcomed as part of the cross of Christ, if they are touched by the reflection of his light. Only through that cross our sufferings are also ennobled and attain their true meaning.
Sign that the End is Near—Spain proposal to give equal rights to Apes:
The archbishop of Pamplona and Tudela, Fernando Sebastian, has said that only a "ridiculous or distorted society" could propose such a law.
"We don't give rights to some people -- such as unborn children, human embryos, and we are going to give them to apes," the archbishop said.
Amnesty International's Spanish branch has also expressed concerns, saying that humans have yet to see their rights fully guaranteed. A senior member of the Spanish opposition Partido Popular, Arturo Esteban, called the proposal an "act of moral poverty."
The proposal has been front page news since parliament heard testimony from members of the Great Ape Project (GAP), a Seattle-based activist group that campaigns for the creation of a "community of equals" in which humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans
would all have three fundamental rights: the right to life, to freedom, and to protection from torture.
Their "declaration" calls for great apes to be kept locked up only when they are a threat to the community, and then only with a right of appeal to the courts, with representation by a lawyer.
Source: The Washington Times, June 10, 2006, p. 4A; as cited in The Journal / August 2006
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The "Odds of Life Created by Chance"
"The very simplest life form…would be comprised of 239 protein molecules, each of these containing an average of 445 amino acids of at least 20 different types and all 445 precisely slotted into position. The probability that such a simple creature would come together by chance (and none so simple has been found yet to exist) would be 1 x 10 to the 137,915 power. "Furthermore…each amino acid must first be activated by a specific enzyme, multiple special enzymes are required to bind messenger RNA to ribosomes before synthesis can begin or end, and with the exception of glycerine, only amino acids with left handed configurations can be used in protein synthesis. When you take all of these factors into account, the chance that a simple form of life could arise spontaneously by chance is: 1 x 10 to the 15,000,000,000 power."-Hugh Ross, Genesis One: A Scientific Perspective, as cited in The Journal/ August 2006
-Put another way, the odds of everyone coming together so perfectly to create and sustain life "by chance" is equivalent to finding one needle in the middle of the solar system…that's not a haystack, but the entirety of the whole solar system.
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This Sunday being the start of Advent, it's time to bring out the Advent Wreaths. There are beautiful prayers that can be offered in the home by families this holy season. Here is a link to the traditional Advent Prayers: http://www.wf-f.org/ADVPray.html
God bless you!
Phil Lawson
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