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The Weekly News In
Review newsletter is a service
provided by Understand The Times that is a
compilation of the news articles
posted on our site during the previous
week.
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August 11 - Multi-Religious Retreats Offer Variety in Faith
Article: One World Religion
Comment from
UTT:
The following article
explains the trend
that is now currently underway that will
eventually bring all
religions together for the cause of peace and
set up a one world
religion. The consequences of the post modern
emerging church
propaganda are now clearly being revealed as we
move
further and further
away from a faith founded on the Word of God.
Religious retreats are traditionally
focused on
strengthening a
particular faith, but a new
type is cropping up
where believers of a variety of faiths are
worshipping
together. Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Zoroastrian, Judaic,
Christian and
Islamic texts are read aloud during the same Sunday
service at a
Muslim Sufi religious retreat in New York,
according to The
Associated Press. The Sufi Muslim retreat leader
speaks about Jesus and the peace
that he has
inside.
This is the scene at Abode of the
Message in New
Lebanon, New
York, about 25 miles southeast of Albany.
At this retreat center, guests are
invited to
deepen their faith
without converting. There is a woman who even
described herself
as a Sufi Christian.
Nearby, the Buddhists at Zen Mountain
Monastery
say they see no conflict with Buddhist
practice and a
person's search for God.
During instruction, guests are taught
how to sit, breathe, and meditate.
Buddhist
leaders at the
temple consider the mind a sense organ and believe
people spend their
lives daydreaming or worrying about the same
thing instead of
living in the moment.
Likewise Elat Chayyim Jewish Retreat
Center in
Falls Village,
Connecticut, welcomes
"seekers
who have walked
other spiritual paths" and those with no Jewish
eduction.
Perhaps the multi-
faith
retreats are part of
the increasing openness Americans have towards
their personal
faith. A landmark survey released in June
found that
although America remains a deeply religious nation,
most Americans don't believe their
religion is
the only way to
eternal life.
"There's a
growing
pluralistic impulse
toward tolerance and that is having theological
consequences," he said.
Eighty-three percent of mainline
Protestants, 59
percent of those at
historic black Protestant churches, 79 percent
of Roman
Catholics, 82 percent of Jews, and 56 percent of
Muslims
said many religions can
lead to
eternal life.
Read More ....
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August 8 - A Further Step Forward for Muslim-Christian Relations
Article: One World Religion
Comment from
UTT:
The road towards
towards a
"common
understanding" is quickly being established
between
"Christians" and Muslims. The
following article was posted at Tony
Blair's "Faith
Foundation" website commenting on the
conference that
took place on
Islamic-Christian relations at Yale University.
Christian-Muslim
relations were high on the agenda last week when
the world-wide
debate launched by
A Common
Word took a
further step
forward with an international conference at Yale, one
of the world's
leading universities.
The
conference was co-hosted by Professor Miroslav Volf
of
Yale's
Divinity School and
Center for
Faith and Culture and by HRH
Prince Ghazi bin
Muhammad bin Talal of Jordan. It attracted
an impressive array of Christian,
Muslim and
Jewish religious
leaders, scholars and intellectuals from around the
word. The Tony
Blair Faith Foundation was pleased to be represented
at the
meeting.
In his opening
remarks last week Professor Volf drew attention to
the Christian-
Muslim tensions which menace the modern world, but
also sensed
that a wind of hope was
beginning
to blow and new
light penetrating the darkness, of which the Yale
conference was a
further manifestation.
The
conference was dedicated to
deepening
understanding
between the two faiths, a deepening which is
absolutely
necessary in a world where faith remains of
vital
significance to
billions of people -how they think, how they behave,
how they interact
with each other. And in a globalised world where
travel,
communications and migration are constantly
pushing diverse
people closer
together, such understanding becomes urgent.
Religion is not simply a private affair,
a
common
misconception in the West in particular, but a force
with
profound
implications for the public arena. Indeed,
this is precisely
what motivated Tony Blair to establish his
Foundation in the
first place.
Prince Ghazi
stressed that this was not an attempt to create an
artificial union
between the two faiths but an
endeavour to find
an essential common ground, the better to ensure
that religions are
part of the solution and not an impediment.
Although
primarily focused on Christian-Muslim relations,
a number of Jewish representatives
were
present, because
of the appropriateness of including insights from
the third and
oldest of the Abrahamic religions.
Momentum on
A Common Word will be maintained through
further meetings at Lambeth
Palace and
Cambridge
University in the UK, the Vatican, Georgetown
University
in the USA and
Jordan over the next year, demonstrating the
seriousness with
which the Common Word process is being taken.
The Yale
conference was an important
milestone in the
dissemination and reception of A Common Word. And
A
Common Word,
and the dialogue flowing from it, offers an
important
opportunity to help turn conflict into co-existence and
suspicion into
respect.
Read More ....
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August 13 - Bishop of Fort Worth met with Episcopal delegation to discuss full communion, prelate confirms
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Protestants Uniting With Roman Catholics
Comment from
UTT:
The following article
is a
preview of what to
expect in the near future as the separated
brethren begin to
come home to Rome. Notice that the focal point of
unity is
communion (the Eucharist).
Fort Worth, Aug 13, 2008 /
07:00 pm (CNA)
.-
A senior Episcopal
prelate recently confirmed
that a delegation of
Episcopal priests from Fort Worth visited the
Catholic bishop of
the diocese, Most Rev. Kevin Vann,
to discuss how
their diocese might enter full communion with the
Catholic Church.
While the seriousness of the discussion is not yet
known, a
document presented by the priests claims an
overwhelming
majority of clergy in
the Episcopal diocese favor pursuing plans to
bring the diocese
into the Catholic Church.The Rev.
William Crary, who
is senior rector of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort
Worth, confirmed
that he and three other Episcopal priests met with
Bishop Vann on
June 16. They presented the bishop with
a document that is reportedly highly
critical
of the Episcopal
Church and the Anglican Communion.
The Dallas
Morning News says the
document
claims an
overwhelming majority of Episcopal clergy favor
pursuing
an
"active plan" to bring the diocese into full
communion
with the Catholic
Church. The document also reports
that Episcopal
Bishop of Fort Worth Jack Iker is supportive of the
effort.
Rev. Courtland
Moore, retired rector of St. Alban's Episcopal
Church in
Arlington, said there is a
"very
serious
attempt" on the part of clergy in the Episcopal
diocese to
"petition
Rome for some kind of recognition."
"They make it clear that they no
longer
believe there is
truth in the Anglican Communion, and the
only way they can
find truth is reunion with Rome,"
he
stated.
Read More ....
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August 13 - Visits by McCain, Obama to Orange County church underscore Pastor Rick Warren's prominence
Article: One World Religion
Comment from
UTT:
The definition of what it
means to be a
Christian is in the process of being redefined. Those
who promote a
social gospel and forsake the gospel according to the
scriptures are
becoming the majority, led by a pied piper that wants
to bring a
P.E.A.C.E. Plan to the world for the sake of
change.
Both MCCain and Obama
support
Rick Warren's
P.E.A.C.E. Plan. Will the next President support the
P.E.A.C.E. Plan
with taxpayers funds? That is the question!
The secular press is calling
Warren "one
of the significant evangelists of this generation."
What
is he an evangelist
for?
Warren's three legged stool
is in the making -
remember the third leg is made up by "the
churches" -
government, the private sector and "the
churches." Also,
remember, you
don't have to be a Christian to qualify as a
contributor to the
P.E.A.C.E. Plan.
Also note, the former
prime
minister of
England (who now heads an his own interfaith
foundation), will be
coming to Saddleback next. Who will be next -
the Dalai Lama?
Could the
purpose-driven
P.E.A.C.E. plan be a stepping stone for
"evangelicals" towards a
global one world religion?
When John McCain and
Barack Obama appear on the same stage Saturday at
the sprawling religious
campus of Orange County's Saddleback Church,
their
presence will vividly underline the reach
that has made Pastor Rick
Warren among the most significant evangelists
of his generation.
But Warren's willingness to soft-pedal
political
issues once central to U.S.
evangelicals, such as opposition to
abortion, has opened him to
criticism that he has strayed from his
calling to spread the
Gospel.
The 54-year-old pastor, they
say, is emblematic of
a new breed of evangelicals
who put social justice ahead of partisan
politics. Some go so far as to
call the plain-talking Warren, a bear of
a man who prefers bluejeans
to business suits, the Billy Graham of his
era.
"He's a guy whose
message has met the right moment,"
said Richard
Land, a leading authority with
the
Southern
Baptist Convention, the
denomination to which Warren's church
belongs.
"You know that I never
endorse, nor campaign for, political candidates.
Neither is it my role to give
political advice.
But I am a cultural observer
and I do understand the unique stresses and
responsibilities of public
leadership, so I try to help leaders when
asked."
Warren now wants to mobilize
1 billion Christians to attack what he
calls "five global
giants": spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership,
poverty, disease and illiteracy.
His church has already dispatched more
than 7,000 volunteers to
dozens of developing and Third World countries.
Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame,
has spoken of his
country becoming "the
first purpose-driven nation."
Warren
is playing an increasingly prominent role
on the international stage.
Former British Prime
Minister Tony Blair
is scheduled to
speak at Saddleback Church next month. And
Warren plans to visit Kenya, at
the invitation of its parliament, to
conduct a training
session.
His growing portfolio has
attracted criticism.
"It's not our business to
make friends with all of the political leaders
of the world," said
Bob DeWaay, an evangelical minister from
Minnesota whose book,
"Redefining Christianity: Understanding the
Purpose Driven
Movement," critiques Warren's work.
"We have a message
about how people get right with God, not about how
the world is going to get rid of
its problems," DeWaay said.
Read More ....
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
In Jesus,
Roger Oakland
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