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Sept. 17,,2012 - Sept. 23,,2012
News In Review
Vol 7, Issue 30
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This newsletter is available online by
clicking here. The archived newsletter are also available by
clicking here.
The News In Review newsletter is a service
provided
by Understand The Times that
is a compilation of the news articles
previously posted
on our site . Understand The Times does not
endorse these events but rather is
showing the church the current events.
The
purpose of posting these articles is to warn the church of deception from a
Biblical perspective.
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September 16 - Pope: Lebanon can be beacon of religious co-existence
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting With Roman Catholics
At his departure
from Lebanon, Pope Benedict XVI said
the religious co-existence the people of
Lebanon showed during his three-day apostolic visit can become an
inspiration and model for the rest of the Middle East.
"In these troubled times, the Arab
world and indeed the entire world will have seen Christians and
Muslims united in celebrating peace,"
said the Pope at Beirut's Rafik Hariri Airport
September 16.
"I
thank in particular representatives of the Muslim communities.
Through my stay here, I have noticed how much your presence has
contributed to the success of my journey."
Throughout Pope
Benedict's apostolic visit he has
been welcomed by both Christians and Muslims at all his public
events. The Lebanese population is 39 percent
Christian and 60 percent Muslim.
The Pope thanked God for these occasions and
thanked everyone in Lebanon and the Middle
East for their prayers, "whatever their origins or religious
beliefs."
Pope Benedict
prayed that Lebanon would "continue
to be a place where men and women can live in harmony and peace with
each other" so as to witness to God's presence in the world and also
to the communion between people "whatever their political, social,
or religious standpoint."
Read Full Article....
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September 13 - Intel: Your Hand Is The Password Of The Future
Article: Technology For Global Monetary System
Passwords for online banking, social networks and email
could be replaced with the wave of a hand if prototype technology developed by
Intel makes it to tablets and laptops.
Aiming to do away with the need to remember passwords for
growing numbers of online services, Intel researchers have put together a tablet
with new software and a biometric sensor that
recognizes the unique patterns of veins on a person's palm.
"The problem with passwords -- we use too many of them,
their rules are complex, and they differ for different websites," Sridhar
Iyengar, director of security research at Intel Labs, said at the annual Intel
Developer Forum in San Francisco on Thursday.
"There is a way out of it, and biometrics is an option."
Iyengar demonstrated the technology, quickly waving his hand
in front of a tablet but not touching it. Once
the tablet recognizes a user, it can securely communicate that person's identity
to banks, social networks and other services where the person has accounts,
he said.
Read Full Article....
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September 17 - From shrines and battlefields, Christians and others to pray for peace
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Christianity Uniting With Other Religions
At a
place called Antietam, 23,000 soldiers died in the bloodiest day of the
American Civil War. More than 150 years later,
20 different religious traditions will gather on this battlefield in
Maryland, United States as part of the 2012 International Day of Prayer
for Peace to share prayers and songs of peace.
The
event, involving Christians, Muslims,
Jews, Buddhists and Baha'i is one of the hundreds of ways churches and
others in various regions of the world are observing the 21 September as
an international day of prayer for peace.
In
Davao City, southern Philippines, civic organizations are staging a
day-long Peace Fair celebrating six
paths to peace, namely: cultivating inner peace, dismantling a culture
of war, living with justice and compassion, building intercultural
respect and solidarity, promoting human rights and living in harmony
with the earth.
The
Church of South India is praying for
solidarity with the Palestinians, "peace with our earth", and building
relations between Christians, Hindus and Muslims -
three issues brought home from the WCC International Ecumenical Peace
Convocation (IEPC) in May 2011 in Jamaica.
Read Full Article....
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September 16 - Pope: May the Virgin Mary inspire and accompany Lebanon's Christians and Muslims
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting With Roman Catholics
"The Virgin
Mary, venerated with devotion and tenderness by the faithful of the
religious confessions here present, is a sure model for going forward in
hope along the path of a lived and authentic brotherhood. Lebanon understood
this well when, some time ago, she proclaimed 25 March as a holiday, thus
allowing everyone to live more deeply their unity in serenity. May the
Virgin Mary, whose ancient shrines are so numerous in your country, continue
to accompany and inspire you!" Benedict XVI ended his
last speech in Lebanon with this invocation
to Our Lady on behalf of all Lebanese, Christians and Muslims.
For Benedict XVI,
the country and Christian-Muslim coexistence are an even more urgent message
for the international community. "In these troubled times, the Arab world
and indeed the entire world will have seen Christians and Muslims united in
celebrating peace."
For the
pontiff, the Bible best illustrates this unity. Indeed,
when King Solomon planned to build the temple in Jerusalem, he called upon a
Lebanese, Hiram of Tyre, to send cedar wood and furnishings, with garlands
of sculpted flowers (cf 1 Kg 5:22; Kg 6:18).
Read Full Article....
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September 17 - UK Churches Fear Being 'Forced' to Perform Same-Sex Ceremonies
Article: Perilous Times
As the debate
over same-sex marriage continues in the U.K., leading
conservative policy makers are once again highlighting the need
for some protections for churches.
There are concerns that churches may be
punished for not consenting to gay marriage ceremonies in their
churches should a law be passed redefining marriage.
The Church of
England, the Roman Catholic church, and a host of prominent
conservative and religious leaders are continuing
to advocate the need for certain legal protections to prevent
those religious institutions from being forced to oversee
same-sex ceremonies by the European Court of Human Rights.
"There are legitimate fears of European
Court of Human Rights challenges and churches being forced down
the line to conduct such ceremonies against their wishes,"
Eric Pickles, Communities Secretary, told
The Telegraph. "These concerns
need to be explicitly addressed in any legislative reform to
provide safeguards against such coercion,"
he added.
These
warnings follow highly publicized court proceedings by the
European Court of Human Rights
over the termination of four separate individuals over the
wearing of religious items and objections due to conflicts with
religious beliefs.
Read Full Article....
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September 19 - Pope: Christianity and Islam witnessing together against divisions, violence and wars
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting With Roman Catholics
"The world
today needs clear and strong sign of dialogue and cooperation" and " seems
to me the time has come for Christianity and Islam to give a united, sincere
and decided testimony against divisions, violence and wars. "
On his return from Lebanon, the subject of his reflections to eight thousand
people present at the general audience at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI
repeated his call for dialogue and coexistence
launched several times over the weekend from the Land of
the Cedars.
It "was a moving ecclesial event and, at the
same time, a provident opportunity for
dialogue lived in a complex but emblematic country for the entire region,
because of its tradition of coexistence and fruitful cooperation between the
different religious and social components. In the face
of the suffering and tragedies that continue in that area of the Middle
East, I expressed my heartfelt closeness to
the legitimate aspirations of those dear people, bringing them a message of
encouragement and peace. I am thinking in particular of
the terrible conflict that torments Syria, causing, in addition to thousands
of deaths, a stream of refugees that pours into the region desperately
seeking security and a future; neither have I forgotten the plight of Iraq
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The "main" aim of the visit was to give the Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia
in Medio Oriente to the Churches of the region,
" to reach all the faithful of that dear land, to support them in their
faith and communion and encourage them on the path of the much hoped for new
evangelization"and the very first appointment of the first day was in fact
the signing of the document in the Greek-Catholic church of St. Paul in
Harissa. " On that occasion I invited Catholics in the
Middle East to fix their gaze on Christ Crucified to find the strength, even
in difficult and painful contexts, to celebrate the victory of love over
hate, forgiveness over revenge
and unity over division. I assured them all that
the universal Church is closer than ever, with affection and prayer, to the
Church in the Middle East: they, despite being a "little flock", need not
fear, knowing that the Lord is always with them. The Pope does not forget
them".
Read Full Article....
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September 18 - Europe's most powerful countries call for elected EU president
Article: One World Government
In a document
released on Tuesday after a meeting
between 11 foreign ministers in Warsaw, the bloc, which includes all
the largest European countries outside Britain, charted a vision for
the "future of Europe".
As well as
calling for a single, elected head of
state for Europe, the bloc demanded a new defence policy, under the
control of a new pan-EU foreign ministry commanded by Baroness
Ashton, which "could eventually involve a European army".
In
order to "prevent one single member state from being able to
obstruct initiatives", a reference to British opposition to a
European army, the German-led grouping demanded an end to existing
national vetoes over foreign and defence policy. This would give the
EU the power to impose a decision on Britain if it is supported by a
majority of other countries.
The plan,
which has the
backing of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Holland, Austria,
Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Portugal the plan, is likely to
fuel calls for a British referendum on membership of the European
Union.
The document
also proposed sweeping new powers
for the European Parliament and further splitting of the EU by
creating a new parliamentary sub chamber for the 17 countries of
the eurozone.
Read Full Article....
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
Sincerely,
Roger Oakland
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