eChurch Blog

This is at the heart of the Christian cry to unify, the very heartbeat of the prayer of Jesus. Pray obstacles are removed for an historic meeting between Pope Benedict and Patriarch Kirill:

Russian Orthodox Metropolitan (Archbishop) Hilarion, urged the Vatican to show “some signs” of readiness to resolve a decades-long conflict between Orthodox and Catholics in Ukraine that has been blocking a meeting of the two world religious leaders.

An unprecedented meeting between Benedict and Patriarch Kirill could begin to heal the 1,000-year-old rift between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity, which split in the Great Schism of 1054.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the Russian Orthodox Church has accused Catholics of using their new freedoms to poach souls from the Orthodox, a charge the Vatican denies.

But the biggest bone of contention concerns the fate of many church properties that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered confiscated from Eastern Rite Catholics, who worship in an Orthodox rite but owe their allegiance to Rome.

Stalin gave the property to the Russian Orthodox Church but after the fall of communism, the Eastern Rite Catholics took back more than 500 churches, mostly in Western Ukraine.

“Not very much was done or is being done in order to solve this problem,” said Hilarion, who is head of the external relations department of the 165-million-member Russian Orthodox Church and one of the closest aides to Patriarch Kirill.

“As soon as we have this understanding, we will be ready to begin preparations for such a meeting,” he said.

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My previous posts on this topic can be found here.

It seems to be an almost daily occurrence in which I read of yet another Christian website attacked by hackers. From what I’ve noticed It does seem to be predominantly Catholic websites; the most recent of which was the official World Youth Day website.

Today it was the turn of the The Irish Catholic – Ireland’s biggest and best-selling Catholic newspaper since 1888 – although it seems to have recovered now.

I do worry about hackers and as a consequence ensure that I back-up as regularly as I can be bothered. I console myself in the fact that this is such a piffling niche blog, I would seriously doubt that it would attract the ire of hackers, but you never know.

The Irish Catholic newspaper believes its coverage of Irish government tensions with the Vatican provoked a cyber attack on its website.

It is now considering contacting police over a hacking incident on Sunday, which replaced text on the homepage and referred to a “false religion”.

The replacement message read: “You. Got. Taken. Site off-line.

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In the briefest terms possible, Orthodox Christians do not believe that Christ’s death was payment to God the Father for sin, but rather that Christ has redeemed human nature by participating in it. The Incarnation was necessary because Christ redeemed our human nature and reconciled it to God by uniting it with His divinity. St. Gregory the Theologian famously stated that “That which is not assumed is not healed.” St. Athanasius the Great claimed that through the Incarnation, “God became man so that man might become deified.” Both of these expound upon St. Peter’s words that we may become partakers of the divine nature.

SOURCE

Good:

Alan Shatter, Ireland’s Minister for Justice, has admitted that despite voicing his adamant commitment in July to force priests to break the seal of confession that legislation released this autumn will not include any reference to the sacrament of Confession.

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Religious parties and candidates are not a new idea of course, and it’s fair to say that they performed abysmally in the last election, polling an amount comparable with the BNP, which isn’t saying much, when you consider that the BNP vote collapsed.

Still, there are many and varied reasons contributing to these poor Christian results, and if I may be blunt, much of this was caused by the naivety and inexperience of the Christian candidates themselves.

It’s also worth noting that these Christian individuals and parties – and those organisations supporting them -  were primarily of the Protestant and Evangelical flavour.

Anyway, today Gregg Beaman – A brief Encounter – has floated the idea of a Catholic political party.

I’ll reproduce Gregg’s blog post here, but it would probably be better for you to direct comments to Gregg’s blog. This of course doesn’t disallow you from commenting here, should you wish to do so.

I see little to appeal to me in most UK political parties, especially the big three. As we’ve seen with Nadine Dorries those who are pro-life and stick their heads above the parapet are likely to have it shot at in the most extreme and abusive manner. The message being keep your morals to yourself thank you. You only have to dip into the internet to find the kind of vile abuse hurled at Christians, especially Catholics, from enlightened progressives on a daily basis.

Somebody commented on another post that maybe a Catholic political party in Britain might be a way forward. I admit it was something I hadn’t previously considered, but it might be an idea worth floating. So that’s the aim of this post.

Setting up a political party takes work but a few enthusiastic people can do it. With the internet raising awareness of a new party is easier than it has ever been.

Any party would have to be open to members who were not necessarily practising Catholics but, as Catholic moral teaching would form the core principles those who disagree would be unlikely to join.

Then there is the question of negotiating realistic policies. When a group of people come together with something in common that is fine, but compromise in many policy areas would be essential if coherent policies were to be developed.

With no existing parties offering a moral position that I find acceptable maybe a Catholic party is the way forward. Or is it? I don’t know. But I’d be interested in hearing what people, especially Roman Catholics or those sympathetic to the position of the Roman catholic church on a range of current issues, think about the idea.

Thank you to ‘Anonymous’ for raising the idea in a comment on this earlier post.

When Christians dare to be convicted, they are portrayed as bigots. When they articulate a view with which others may disagree, they are dogmatic. When they fall short of perfection, they are pilloried and cast as hypocrites. When they defend the unborn, they are unenlightened. When they oppose animal-human embryos, they are anti-science. When they express concern over the fatherless, they are homophobic. When they speak up for the poor, they are wishy-washy liberals. When they defend faith-based education, they are intolerant. When they seek to uphold marriage, they are ‘right wing’ reactionaries.

SOURCE

Interesting programme to be aired this evening (20:oo 12th Sept) on BBC Radio 4:

35 years after the Cultural Revolution, another revolution is sweeping across China. As the Communist Party seeks to address the effects on Chinese society in becoming manufacturer to the world, combined with rampant consumerism and its own one child policy, it is turning to religion to fill the void.

In this 3 part series, Tim Gardam, Principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford, travels through this vast nation of 1.4 billion people, to explore the role of “God in China”.

Christianity & Catholicism are seen as separate religions in China. They are also treated differently to the other 3 official religions, partly because they are both still seen as Western. However, Chinese Christianity is exploding: China will soon become the largest Christian country on earth. The authorities are nervous. In this last programme Tim Gardam explores why & meets members of both the official and underground church.

Producer: Liz Leonard.

By way of background you can a read my previous post charting the growth of Christianity within China, and the impact of this on social change.

Hat-tip: Afaithtoliveby

I was in the middle of writing something on this, but it was so negative and depressing, I’ve decided to spare you:

A man has been charged with the murder of a father-of-four who was killed as he waited for a church to open.

Les Liddle, 41, received serious head injuries in the attack near the Bensham Gospel Hall in Bensham Bank, Gateshead on Wednesday night.

Mr Liddle was able to stagger to the church and was then taken to hospital, but died from his injuries on Friday evening.

Tyrone Urwin, 20, of Gateshead, has been charged in connection with the murder. Two 22-year-old suspects arrested with him have been released on bail.

Mr Liddle only started attending the church five months ago and was attacked in a neighbouring park while waiting to attend a prayer reading and Bible study session.

Church elder Jim McMaster, who called the emergency services, said: ‘I have known Les for eight or nine years but it was over the past five months or so that he had become a regular at the church. He was coming every week and was starting to change his life around.

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Interesting survey undertaken by YouGov, looking at attitudes towards Islam and Muslims in the UK, ten years post 9/11.

The full results can be seen on this link in PDF format.

BRIN have – as usual – helpfully set out the main findings, for those of us undergoing a bout of laziness – like me:

Asked about their perceptions of the relationship of British Muslims with terrorism, 15% of respondents claimed that a large proportion of British Muslims felt no sense of loyalty to this country and were prepared to condone or even carry out terrorist acts. This was only three points down on the figure for 22-24 August 2006, one year after 7/7, the terrorist attacks on London’s transport network.

[.....]

A further 63% acknowledged that, while the great majority of British Muslims were peaceful and law-abiding, there was a dangerous minority who exhibited disloyalty and sympathy for terrorism. Just 17% stated that practically all British Muslims were peaceful and law-abiding who deplored acts of terrorism. 5% expressed no opinion.

Given these perceptions, it is unsurprising that 63% of adults (a mere 2% less than in 2006) wished to see Britain’s security services focus their intelligence-gathering and terrorism-prevention efforts on Muslims living in or seeking to enter this country, on the grounds that, although most Muslims were not terrorists most terrorists threatening Britain were Muslim. This view was held by three-quarters of the over-60s and Conservative voters.

Moreover, a slight majority (51%, compared with 53% in 2006) considered that Islam itself – as distinct from Islamic fundamentalist groups – posed a major or some threat to Western liberal democracy, rising to 65% of Conservatives and 60% of the over-60s. Only 13% thought that Islam posed no threat at all.

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And in that place I saw the fountain of righteousness
Which was inexhaustible:
And around it were many fountains of wisdom:
And all the thirsty drank of them,
And were filled with wisdom,
And their dwellings were with the righteous and holy and elect.
And at that hour that Son of Man was named In the presence of the Lord of Spirits,
And his name before the Head of Days.

Yea, before the sun and the signs were created,
Before the stars of the heaven were made,
His name was named before the Lord of Spirits.
He shall be a staff to the righteous whereon to stay themselves and not fall,
And he shall be the light of the Gentiles,
And the hope of those who are troubled of heart.
All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him,
And will praise and bless and celebrate with song the Lord of Spirits.

And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before Him,
Before the creation of the world and for evermore.
And the wisdom of the Lord of Spirits hath revealed him to the holy and righteous;
For he hath preserved the lot of the righteous,
Because they have hated and despised this world of unrighteousness,
And have hated all its works and ways in the name of the Lord of Spirits:
For in his name they are saved,
And according to his good pleasure hath it been in regard to their life.

In these days downcast in countenance shall the kings of the earth have become,
And the strong who possess the land because of the works of their hands,
For on the day of their anguish and affliction they shall not (be able to) save themselves.
And I will give them over into the hands of Mine elect:

As straw in the fire so shall they burn before the face of the holy:
As lead in the water shall they sink before the face of the righteous,
And no trace of them shall any more be found.

And on the day of their affliction there shall be rest on the earth,
And before them they shall fall and not rise again:
And there shall be no one to take them with his hands and raise them:
For they have denied the Lord of Spirits and His Anointed.
The name of the Lord of Spirits be blessed.

SOURCE (Chapter 48)