The Weekly News In
Review
Newsletter is a
compilation of the news articles that have appeared
on the Understand The Times website during the
previous week.
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November 11 - Baptist Sunday school undergoes 'extreme makeover'
Article: Apostasy
Sunday school Superintendent
Caroline Pease, who initiated
the project, said
the main reason for the
change was to attract more children.
"Attendance was down and
the older method was
boring for kids," said
Pease, who home-schools four children of her own.
"Today's kids are
stimulated in such different ways. With all the
technology and fast-paced
lifestyles, we found the kids were having a
hard time sitting
still."
"You can really teach
according to your particular
experience," said Hand,
who
recently taught a stretching and breathing
workshop.
Pease,
a strong supporter of
multiple
intelligences theory, said
children learn through multiple pathways to
the
brain such as tactile, visual,
verbal, spatial, mathematical and more.
"This workshop method
teaches the same story
through different pathways. The more the children
hear the story in different ways,
the greater the likelihood they will
remember it," she
said.
While
the term Baptist might raise hairs on some
heads, Pease says her church is a loving,
accepting one, certainly not the
hellfire and brimstone people might
suspect.
Pease said all children are
naturally spiritual, but like
anything, spirituality must be encouraged
and nurtured to grow.
She hopes her Sunday school's extreme
makeover will do just
that.
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November 11- A Catholic Church Turns Into A Mosque
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting With Roman Catholics
Believe it or
not! A parish
Church turns into a mosque
every Friday, for the Muslims brothers and to
offer their customary
prayers. This isn't a sequence from any
Bollywood film, but a reality in
the parish of Our Lady of Assumption of
Ponzano near Venice, the
romantic city of Italy. The pastor of the
parish, Don Aldo Danieli, 69,
affirms, "It's
useless to speak of religious
dialogue and then bang the door on their
face. Pope John
Paul II addressed them as, 'dear Muslim
brothers'. How can we close our church doors
to
them?"On
Fridays an average of 200
Muslim believers gather in the
church and offer prayers. But in the
month of Ramadan, the
number swells to 1000-1200.
The decision of Don Aldo
has disturbed the peace of mind of more than
a few parishioners. The
protests of even the local bishop and priests
have reached his
ears. "I haven't
asked the
express permission of the
bishop, because it's an act of charity. No
permission is needed to do
charity. For the rest, I am older than the
bishop and been his
professor in the seminary too. Even if had
prohibited me, I wouldn't be
obliged to obey him," Don Aldo is
firm in his resolve.
He does not hesitate to
proclaim, "Better
praying Muslims than non
praying Christians. If you brand me a racist,
you are
wrong". In the last two years a Don
Aldo has received a
number of emails and letters
advising him to "remain with his own
flock". "The pope has exhorted to open
wide the
doors to Christ: Christ lives in
Muslims too."
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November 11 - Let the labyrinth take the lead
Article: Emerging Church
St. Paul's
Episcopal Church on Lower Queen Anne
offers the only 24/7/365 outdoor labyrinth in the
city. Not the mission
you might expect from an Anglo-Catholic
tradition, but Rector Melissa
Skelton says,
"Something special is
happening in this parish, and the labyrinth is a
big part of
it."Labyrinth as
community
outreach may be a particularly
vital use for one of the most ancient
physical forms known to
humankind. And maybe not such a stretch
as you might think for a church
dedicated to the beauty and mystery of
worship. Whatever the
challenges, this is one well-used in-city green
space.
Passers-by are attracted by the
splash of water
on stone, duck in for a look at
the park and plants, and end up treading
the path into the center of the
labyrinth. Cast in stone and
concrete, the labyrinth's
undulations are wreathed in a cups and cusps
design of astronomical
significance for the lunar year. In the center is
a rose form inspired by the
rose at the center of the famous labyrinth
of the Chartres Cathedral in
France.
Says Skelton:
"What's so wonderful about the labyrinth is that it
speaks to the Episcopalian
tradition and to so many others." People
coming to conferences at St.
Paul's tour the labyrinth,
parishioners walk it with
regularity, especially when anticipating major
life changes. "It helps us
to figure out where our feet should go,"
says Skelton.
Hammond concludes:
"You start into the
labyrinth and it takes you into
another world . . . If you let it."
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November 12 - Cloning: a giant step
Article: Cloning And Genetic Engineering
A technical
breakthrough has enabled scientists to create
for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from
adult monkeys, raising the
prospect of the same procedure being used to
make cloned human
embryos.
Attempts to
clone human embryos for research have been
dogged by technical problems
and controversies over fraudulent research
and questionable ethics. But the new technique
promises to revolutionise the
efficiency by which scientists can turn
human eggs into cloned
embryos.
Scientists
who know of the research said it was the
breakthrough that they had all
been waiting for because,
until
now, there was a growing feeling that there
might be some insuperable
barrier to creating cloned embryos from adult
primates - including humans.
"Mitalipov's data confirms this.
They have the skills necessary
and we can now move on to consider what
might be able to be achieved
in humans."
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November 12 - "Evangelization depends on an encounter with Christ," says Pope
Article: Roman Cathlic Church And The Last Days
The
Pope emphasized the need to
incorporate the
"faithful into community life."
He mentioned
the necessity of
changing the "manner of organization of the
Portuguese
ecclesial community and the mentality of its
members," to
ensure "that the Church marches to the
rhythm
of Vatican Council
II and that the functions of clergy and laity
remain clearly
established," at the same time bearing in
mind
the fact that "we are all one since we were
baptized and
integrated into the family of the children of God, and
we are all
responsible for the growth of the Church."
"The
evangelization of
individuals and of
communities depends on ... the encounter with
Jesus
Christ," said Benedict XVI, recalling
how
"Christian
initiation normally takes place via the Church."
"Faced with the large number of non-
practicing
Christians in your
dioceses," said the Pope,
"it might be
worthwhile to verify 'the effectiveness of current
approaches to
Christian initiation, so that the faithful can be
helped both to
mature through the formation received in our
communities and
to give their lives an authentically Eucharistic
direction, so that
they can offer a reason for the hope within them
in a way suited to
our times'."
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November 12 - Pope: Indonesia Is Key for Interreligious Dialogue
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other Religions Uniting With Roman Catholics
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 12, 2007 (Zenit.org).-
Benedict XVI says Indonesia is
a key nation for promoting
interreligious dialogue, given that it has the largest
Muslim population of any
country.
"Dialogue, respect for the convictions of others,
and collaboration in the
service of peace are the surest means of securing
social concord,"
Benedict XVI said. "These
are among the noblest goals
which can bring together men and women of good
will, and, in a particular way,
all those who worship the one God who is the Creator
and beneficent Lord of the
whole human family.
"A promising development in this regard is
represented by
the growing instances of cooperation between
Christians and Muslims in Indonesia,
aimed particularly at the prevention of ethnic and
religious conflicts in the
most troubled areas."
"As Indonesia now sits as a non-permanent
member of the United Nations Security
Council," the Pope continued, "I take the
present occasion to express my
confidence that the principles
which inspire your own
national policies of pacification, dialogue and
tolerance will enable Indonesia
to make a fruitful contribution to the solution of global
conflicts and the
promotion of a peace based on international solidarity
and concern for the
integral development of individuals and
peoples."
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November 8 - Look to the Church Fathers to shed light on modern problems, writes the Pope
Article: Rman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Comment from Understand The
Times:
While Pope Benedict
XVI has called the
world to focus on the
"Roman Catholic" church fathers in order
to
resolve today's problems, he
should have considered pointing the world
to the Bible and the inspired
scriptures.
Rome, Nov 8,
2007 /
03:00 pm
(CNA).-
The Holy Father
marked the 16th centenary of the death of St. John
Chrysostom today
with a letter in which he
pointed to the
saint's "shining figure," and
proposed his example
"for the joint
edification" of the universal Church.
"The life and
doctrinal
teaching of this
saintly bishop and Doctor ring out in every
century,"
the Pope writes, "and even
today they still
induce universal admiration. The Roman Pontiffs
have always
recognized in him a living source of wisdom for the
Church and their
interest in his teaching became more intense over
the course of last
century."
The Pope also explained that
"For John
Chrysostom the ecclesial unity achieved in Christ
finds
unique expression
in the Eucharist."
Benedict XVI expressed his
hope that this
centenary will be a good occasion to increase studies
on the saint,
"recovering his teachings and encouraging his
devotion."
"May the Fathers
of the
Church," the Pope
concludes, "become a
stable point of
reference for all Church theologians." And may
theologians
themselves discover "a renewed commitment to
recover the
heritage of
wisdom of the holy Fathers. The result can only be a
vital enrichment of
their ideas, even on the problems of our own
times."
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November 12 - Volcanoes could have caused dinosaur deaths
Article: Creation/Evolution - Misc.
Instead of being driven to extinction by
death
from above, dinosaurs might have ultimately
been doomed by
death from below in the form of monumental volcanic
eruptions.
The suggestion is based on new
research that is
part of a growing
body of evidence indicating
a space rock alone
did not wipe out the giant reptiles.
Both an
impact from
space and
volcanic eruptions would have injected vast clouds of
dust
and other
emissions into the sky, dramatically altering global
climate and
triggering die-offs. Keller's collaborator,
volcanologist
Vincent Courtillot at the Institute of Geophysics in
Paris, noted
upcoming work from her collaborators suggests the
Deccan eruptions
could have quickly released
10 times more
climate-altering emissions than the nearly
simultaneous
Chicxulub impact.
Although paleontologist Kirk Johnson at
the
Denver Museum of
Nature and Science called
these new findings
"significant," he noted a
great deal of evidence connected a
single
massive impact
with the K-T extinction event. He suggested
that advances in radioisotope dating
could now
hone down when
the Deccan eruptions occurred to within 30,000 to
65,000 years.
"That could help put to bed some of the disputes
regarding the
issue," he said.
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November 13 - Man in India Marries Dog to Atone for Stoning to Death Mating Canines
Article: Misc.
As an 18-year-old he had
stoned and clubbed to death two dogs he
found engaged in mating. He then
hung their carcasses from a tree.
That's when his personal
suffering began. "After that my legs
and hands got paralyzed and I lost
hearing in one ear," Kumar told the
Hindustan Times newspaper.
Kumar, now 33 and
living in the southern Indian district
of Sivaganga, could no longer take the
physical pain of the "dog curse,"
so he sought the advice of an
astrologer.
Her cure for his maladies?
"Marry
a dog." Which is just what Kumar did
on Sunday.
Kumar, sitting
beside his bride, recited his marriage
vows, declaring, "I will take care of it until its
death." Then, the
"couple" was declared married.
Deeply superstitious
people in rural India sometimes
organize weddings to dogs and other
animals, believing it can ward off
certain curses.
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November 13 - The "Eucharist as Communication" is theme of the next Bishops' Meet
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
The
meeting, which is organised by the Office
of Social Communication of
the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences,
will enable participants to
reflect upon the
relationship between the
Eucharist and Asian cultures.
Bangkok
(AsiaNews)
- The
"Eucharist as Communication" is the
theme of
this year's Bishops'
Meet. Organised by the Office of Social
Communication of the
Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC), it
will be held at Bangkok's
Gabrielite Center from November 26 to December
1.
The press release issued
announcing the event indicated that the theme
was chosen in view of the next
FABC Plenary
Assembly which will take
place in early 2009 on the theme the "Living
Eucharist in
Asia."The upcoming 12th annual
Bishops' Meet
will start from the Eucharist as
the "most intimate form of communion
between God and men
possible in this life" (Communio et
Progressio, 11), and
them move to explore the "Role of Meals and
Celebrations in Asian
Cultures," the "Communication Dimension
of
Liturgy" and the "Eucharist and
Inculturation."
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November 13 - Celebrations organized for the 150th anniversary of Lourdes apparitions
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Vatican City,
Nov 13,
2007 / 11:21 am
(CNA)
.-
A press
conference took place in the Holy See Press Office
this
morning to
discuss the program of celebrations organized to
mark the
150th anniversary
of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to
Bernadette
Soubirous in Lourdes, France.
Bishop Jacques Perrier of Tarbes and
Lourdes
indicated that for
the 150th anniversary a Jubilee Year will be
held, due to run
from December 8, 2007, Solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception, to
December 8, 2008, and "to take place
within the context
of the new evangelization."
"The mission of the Church in
each of these
fields,"
he added, "will
become
apparent during
the Jubilee Year with pilgrimages, meetings and
initiatives."
For example "the mission of the Church
to the
sick will be made
manifest thanks to the UNITALSI (Italian National
Union for
Transport of the Sick to Lourdes and International
Shrines)
pilgrimages,"
and missions are also envisaged with volunteers,
with
young people, with
the disabled, to appeal for unity among
Christians, to call
for conversion, for peace, etc.
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November 13 - Catholic University to Give Award to Goddess-Worshipping Theologian
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Miami,
November 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)
- The Department of Theology and Philosophy of Barry
University which is run by
the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, will give an
Award for Theological
Excellence in January to radical feminist theologian
Sister Elizabeth A.
Johnson, a professor at Jesuit run Fordham
University.
Sister Elizabeth is a radical
feminist theologian who
advocates goddess worship, actively dissents from
the Church's infallible
teaching on the invalidity of women's ordinations and
promotes the cause of
world government and a one-world religion.
In her book She Who Is (Crossroad, 1993) Sister
Elizabeth announced
"that the time has come to stop addressing God
as Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
and to begin addressing Him as 'She Who Is.'"
For this she won awards and a
promotion to "Distinguished" Professor of
Theology at Catholic Fordham
University.
She bemoans the church statements forbidding the
ordination of women, that in
her words, "locate the
image of Christ in the male body
rather than in the whole person being made
christomorphic by entering into the
dying and rising of Christ." That Jesus Christ
was a man seems to elude her.
When asked for
a comment on the award
being given to Sr. Elizabeth, the office of the
Archbishop of Miami had
difficulty finding someone who would make a
statement.
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November 13 - Conference Rethinks Methods, Not Gospel Message
Article: Apostasy
Comment From Understand The
Times:
While Robert Schueler's
upcoming "Rethink
Conference" may sound like an effort to make
Christianity
relevant for the twenty-first century, based
on his
previous
promotion of purpose-driven-emerging ideas, it would
appear
that what is
coming in the near future will be a return to
Romanism
and
Babylonianism.
Of course this should be no
surprise for
Christians who
base their faith on Scripture. The Bible teaches that
in the last days
there will be many deceived by many (Matthew
chapter 24) as
teachers suggest that Christianity needs to be
re-
invented.
GARDEN GROVE, California,
November 13 /Christian
Newswire/ --
Rethink, a groundbreaking
conference scheduled for January 17-19 at The
Crystal Cathedral in Garden
Grove, California, is
being attacked from some
corners of the country. Some media outlets are
using inflammatory words like
"heretic" and "apostasy" to
describe
Rethink host Dr. Robert H.
Schuller and his ministry, while other
bloggers and talk-show hosts
are decrying Rethink's convergence of some
of the most influential
Christian and global thinkers, innovators, and
leaders.
For three days,
leaders of communities,
businesses, churches and culture will be
immersed in the latest
thoughts of well-known and respected icons in
media, politics, faith, science,
business and technology. making some
religious pundits very, very
nervous. The organizers also
hope to challenge the way that
leaders relate to culture, social change
and world events.
Despite the criticism
and detractors, we are not
dissuaded from our goal: to harvest the very
best perspectives,
discoveries, strategies and action plans to empower
people to reach their greatest
level of service.
even if those elements come
from some unexpected sources."
Bill Hybels,
Founding Pastor of Willow Creek Community
Church near Chicago, says,
"I listened to Dr. Schuller's lectures about
the kind of faith it takes to do
something that you believe God is
calling you to do. And no one
will ever know, truly, the impact of Dr.
Schuller on my life in those
early days. He bolstered my fledgling faith
and he led me to believe that a
21-year-old Dutch kid could start a
church in a movie theatre and
I'm grateful ever since."
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November 13 - Osteen brings upbeat take on faith to Plano
Article: Apostasy
Comment from
Understand The
Times
In
the Old Testament,
we see that the
Children of Israel
wanted to hear a
positive message.
They did not want
to hear the
negative message
that because of
their sin,
judgement was coming.
When the prophets
told them the
truth, they wanted
to destroy the
prophets.
The prophets
prophesy falsely,
and the priests
bear rule by their
means; and my
people love [to
have it] so: and
what will ye do in
the end thereof?
Jeremiah
5:31
PLANO - The phenomenon
that is Joel Osteen touched down
in Collin County Monday, with
hundreds of people
crowding into a Christian
bookstore to have him sign
copies of his new
book.
"My gift is to
encourage and plant a seed of
hope," he said
before the signing.
"I figured out
through reading his book that
the only thing holding me
back was me," the
Tarrant County woman said.
When his
father, Lakewood's founder,
died in 1999, Joel Osteen
stepped in as pastor,
though
he had no seminary training
and almost no experience
preaching.
Dr.
Lawrence said
Mr. Osteen is part of a tradition
of famous pastors -
including Robert H. Schuller,
Norman Vincent Peale and
Father Divine - who have
emphasized positive thinking
over a
"substantive" presentation of Christian
faith.
"These are
people who essentially are
saying that what you've got
to do is take charge of your life,
think good thoughts
and you will be able to
overcome adversity," Dr.
Lawrence said. "That's just
inconsistent with what people
like me believe is true
about the Gospel and the
critical realities of life."
"When I preach
the fact that God is on their
side, that he's a good God
and has a good plan for them,
that no matter the
mistakes they've made in the
past they can have a new
beginning - seems to me like
that's what draws people to
know the Lord,"
he said.
"He makes religion a
pleasure," she said, "and
we all need
that."
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November 14 - Interreligious Dialogue Is Working, Says Scholar
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Misc.
ROME, NOV.
14, 2007 (Zenit.org).-
Interreligious dialogue should extend
to daily
relationships, but it is bringing
good fruits, said the director
of the Pontifical Institute for
Arabic and Islamic Studies.
Drawing from the Second
Vatican Council declaration "Nostra
Aetate,"
Father Ayuso explained that
"the cooperation
between cultural and religious
groups is absolutely necessary to
overcome all forms of
community tension and to be able, therefore, to
live in hopes of camaraderie
and peace."
"Some of this new millennium's
events -- Sept. 11,
Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle
East, etc. -- have clouded over the world,
already seen as a global
village thanks to human progress, and it has
been placed in a delicate
situation demanding everyone's collaboration
at all levels to assure world
peace," he contended.
"It's obvious that religion has a
fundamental role
in this process of integration,
coexistence and peace."
"In this sense, they
have marked three perspectives for the future:
education, seeking common shared
values and
reciprocal cooperation in the
building of our future."
"We need a common platform
to develop
interreligious relationships in
daily life, in interreligous
cooperation, and in theological
reflection, as well as in a spiritual
encounter," Father
Ayuso continued. "Our times, ever more
globalized every day, urgently
need harmonious dealings that promote
religious freedom, healthy
reciprocity and the promotion of peace."
Quoting Benedict XVI, he
proposed that "all this must happen by means of
intercultural and interreligious
dialogue, with optimism and hope,
simply because this dialogue can't be reduced to
something added or optional;
on the contrary, it is a vital necessity on
which is dependent a good
part of our future."
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