A Peaceful Perspective... June 13, 2011

In this edition...

• Column: The Unknown God
• The season of reason is gone: The alternatives to debate are fury, insults and violence
• Challenge injustice and violence to find unity
• Oxfam calls for global food-system reforms as churches demand food and fuel price cuts
• Sudan avoids return to war, but violence leaves thousands homeless
• Message of the WCC presidents at Pentecost 2011

Column: The Unknown God

According to Matthew’s gospel, prior to his Ascension, Jesus commissioned his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, and promised them that they would receive the strength and guidance of his Spirit in doing so. Thus the disciples became apostles – those who are sent – and soon the Christian mission began to spread across the Mediterranean world. To begin with, the target audience for the message was confined to Jews, but it was not long before Gentiles became converts. This raised several problems. One of these was whether male converts should be circumcised, and live according to the Jewish Torah, in order to be Christians. This problem confronted the apostle Peter at Joppa and, as we saw a few weeks ago, led to the incorporation of Gentiles into the church without them having to become Jews first. A second problem was how to communicate the gospel to people whose worldview was not shaped by the concepts and language of the Old Testament but by other religious systems and philosophies that prevailed in the Hellenistic world. This problem confronted the apostle Paul when he arrived in Athens on his second missionary journey. And it remains a problem for Christians today, living as we do in a pluralist society characterized by many different and conflicting religions and worldviews. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

The season of reason is gone: The alternatives to debate are fury, insults and violence

It all started as a civil discussion on my Facebook page. The student posed a question about a problem on campus, and I answered him as gently as possible, careful not to overplay the professorial hand. He followed up with another question. I asked for clarity, probing his assumptions. All of this in an effort to raise the level of the dialogue I was beginning to enjoy with this bright young mind. Then the unexpected happened. He lost his temper, started to swear, and I was forced to look for that useful button on my Facebook facility called "unfriend". I was not offended - at least not any more - for I have increasingly encountered this bizarre behaviour among students. The student is not angry with me, his interlocutor. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Oxfam calls for global food-system reforms as churches demand food and fuel price cuts

As Global South church leaders heighten demands on governments to lower food and fuel prices, a U.K. charity has called for urgent reforms of the global food system. "For too long governments have put the interests of big business and powerful elites above the interests of the 7 billion who produce and consume food," said Jeremy Hobbs, Oxfam's executive director, in a 30 May press statement. "Governments must also ensure that women, who produce much of the world's food, have the same rights to land, resources and opportunities as men." Decades of progress against hunger are being reversed by a broken food system and environmental crises, the charity said in its latest report, "Growing a Better Future." The report supports African church leaders' demands on governments to safeguard civilians against rises in fuel and food prices. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Message of the WCC presidents at Pentecost 2011

Power from the Holy Spirit, drawing on “the uncreated energy of God” and revealing the Word of God in Jesus Christ, is the divine blessing for which Christians give thanks on the Sunday of Pentecost. The eight presidents of the World Council of Churches, in their annual Pentecost message, write that this holy day “offers a new opportunity to each church community and to each of us” to celebrate “the advent and gift of the Holy Spirit, to renew our trust in the Spirit’s power.” They invite us to pray for grace to become witnesses to Christ’s cross and resurrection as well as “to justice, peace and hope” in the world. In 2011, Pentecost falls on Sunday 12 June. The day occurs fifty days after Easter and marks the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower the church. The biblical description of the event appears in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Challenge injustice and violence to find unity

Wealth and property shape a “false reading” of human value, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said recently at a Protestant convention in Germany. “Property and possessions have purpose in as much as they help us to live as the people God called us to be and no more,” Tveit said in a Bible study at the German Protestant Kirchentag which met in Dresden 1-5 June. Every two years the Kirchentag gathers over 100,000 Christians in Germany for common worship, celebration, discussion, rededication and renewal. In Dresden there were more than 7,000 international participants at the event. Tveit was speaking on the Bible text - “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). This was also the motto for this year’s Kirchentag, which gathered over 120,000 participants. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

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Sudan avoids return to war, but violence leaves thousands homeless

Sudan's north and south have reached a deal to avoid returning to war over the disputed oil-producing city of Abyei, which is due to come under temporary joint administration next month. But the agreement comes too late for tens of thousands who fled the city as northern troops invaded in May. “The south is very unhappy that the north has occupied the area,” said Stephen Hilbert, the U.S. Catholic bishops' foreign policy advisor for Africa. “Now that they occupy it, they are basically allowing people to come in and loot the place.” “It's very unfortunate, and it's very destructive to the peace deal,” Hilbert told CNA on June 2. more >>
Source: ANiSA News