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UCC in the News
News about the UCC from various sources.
Commentary found in this blog does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the national setting of the United Church of Christ, its Conferences and Associations, its local churches or its member organizations.
World Council of Churches
Saturday January 16, 2010
Posted by: Rev. Chuck Currie at 8:57PM EST on January 16, 2010
From the World Council of Churches: At least once a year, many Christians become aware of the great diversity of ways of adoring God. Hearts are touched, and people realize that their neighbours' ways are not so strange. The event that touches off this special experience is something called the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Traditionally celebrated between 18-25 January (in the northern hemisphere) or at Pentecost (in the southern hemisphere), the Week of Prayer enters into congregations and parishes all over the world. Pulpits are exchanged, and special ecumenical worship services are arranged. Ecumenical partners in a particular region are asked to prepare a basic text on a biblical theme. Then an international group with WCC-sponsored (Protestant and Orthodox) and Roman Catholic participants edits this text and ensures that it is linked with the search for the unity of the church. The text is jointly published by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unityand WCC, through the WCC's Commission on Faith and Order, which also accompanies the entire production process of the text. The final material is sent to member churches and Roman Catholic dioceses, and they are invited to translate the text and contextualize it for their own use. Theme for 2010
Luke 24 : 48 (NRSV) The theme for 2010 was chosen in Scotland, where churches were, at the same time, preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the 1910 World Mission Conference on the theme "Witnessing to Christ today", which marked the beginnings of the modern ecumenical movement. Brochure for 2010 in pdf formatTuesday December 22, 2009
Posted by: Rev. Chuck Currie at 11:31PM EST on December 22, 2009
Light is the radiant image of God’s goodness, in creation and at Christmas. The Creator commands, “Let there be light!”1 – and the universe takes form. At the nativity of Christ, light breaks forth in the midst of darkness – and the darkness can never overcome this glowing testament of the living God.2 Christmas is a season to sing praises,3 yet in our time the reality of environmental destruction undermines the doxology of creation. The singing of the spheres is obscured by pollution and manufactured noise, the rhythms of the sea are disturbed by climate change, the beauty of many manifestations of life is disfigured by abusive practices rooted in greed. And as the earth suffers, so must its inhabitants. Already, the poor and other socially marginalized people find it ever more difficult to lift their voices in song. In the days of Mary and Joseph, the emperor Augustus believed power rested in his hands alone. He decreed that “all the world” (the biblical word is oikoumene)4 should be taxed, and an obscure couple made their way toward Bethlehem. Yet God had another purpose in history, and now we realize that thrones, dominions, rulers and authorities were acting unwittingly in fulfillment of prophetic imperatives. It is Christ, not the emperor, who is truly “before all things, and in him all things hold together”.5 Biblical scholar Barbara Rossing suggests that the old, imperial oikoumene of Caesar – along with modern economic, military and political empires – is perishing. Yet the prophets and apostles assure us that God’s creation – a true oikoumene comprising the household of God – will be transformed.6 And so we pray for change and offer ourselves as instruments of transformation.7 We live in faith that, in the coming of Jesus Christ, there is a new creation in which the hope of the angels’ song comes to fruition – God, humanity and all of life shall be reconciled.8 Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia Footnotes |
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