Two Christmas ideas

I've had two brainstorms this Christmas season.

First, the world needs a musical staging of "Miracle of 34th Street." It's a great story with a winsome, sceptical kid, department store wars, and Santa. We need about nine good songs, etc. I've given the assignment to a talented friend, but mounting production of a musical takes money. it could be the next big holiday theater production for families everywhere.

My second idea has to do with the cookie exchanges I hear so much about at Christmas time. I don't bake, but I know a handful of people who are corralled into baking 10 dozen cookies so they can bring them to a party and swap them out with other women who also bake. I've never been invited to one of these, and I hope I never will be. But I do like cookies, especially Christmas cookies.

My idea is this: all the same women could make all the same cookies, then sell the cookies (at least some of them) to people like me and give the money to a nice charity. People who like to bake cookies could be supporting a worthy cause, and people like me could enjoy eating lots of cookies knowing that it's for the common good.

Like these ideas? I've got a million of 'em.

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 See my other blog - Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

A Messy Christmas

A nice post from "Rich and Charlie" called, "A Messy Christmas."

"If and when things don’t go as you hope and plan this Christmas, remember that Christmas is not about things going perfectly or even tolerably.  It’s about God becoming one of us to bring us back to Him."

Rich and Charlie Resources is at this link.

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See Ann's other blog: www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com

 

World AIDS Day

World AIDS Day was yesterday, but I still want to share this from the World Association for Christian Communication

WACC challenges members and partners for World AIDS Day 2012

On World AIDS Day, 1 December 2012, the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) calls on its partners and networks to integrate interfaith approaches in interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination against people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

“Getting to zero: Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS related deaths” is the theme until 2015. Anti-stigma interventions in communities where different faith traditions live side by side will increase their impact if they adopt approaches that recognize differences and leverage the strengths of an inclusive interfaith strategy.

WACC’s project partners provide many positive examples of interfaith cooperation in action. The Ecumenical Commission for Human Development (ECHD) in Pakistan brought together Christians and Muslims in Lahore in a collaborative anti-stigma initiative. It facilitated interfaith dialogue and convened an interfaith summit for youth and religious leaders.

Highlighting the importance of the interfaith approach, ECHD’s director Mr James Rehmat noted that, “Churches, mosques, temples and others work together, they can disseminate information about HIV to the broadest possible cross-section of the population, thus reducing the risk of leaving out isolated groups and eliminate inconsistency between the religions in the messages that are communicated.”

A second project underway in Lahore, Pakistan, organised by the AIDS Awareness Society is working with Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh religious leaders to reduce gaps in knowledge about HIV-related stigma and discrimination. The project is expected to reach almost 50,000 people living in the communities which these leaders serve.

In Ethiopia’s Fantalee district, the Rift Valley Initiative for Rural Advancement (RIRA) worked with Christian, Muslim and the influential Gada traditional leaders to increase understanding of stigma and discrimination in pastoralist communities. RIRA’s executive director Mr. Abdi Ahmed commented, “The Religious leaders are highly visible and have a strong impact on their respective constituents. They have helped to overcome the negative views about HIV and AIDS held by pastoralist men and herders in particular and society at large. Change is visible in their public conversation about HIV and AIDS.”

In Lagos, Nigeria, a multi-year project implemented with Hope for HIV/AIDS International (HFA) with funding from UKaid’s Department for International Development is reaching out to Christian, Muslim and traditional leaders to help overcome HIV-related stigma and discrimination. Currently in its second year of implementation, the project is providing invaluable lessons on the willingness of leaders from different faith traditions to engage positively with each other.

Mrs. Lolade Abioye, HFA project administrator, observes the lesson that, “Irrespective of religious leaning, both Christian and Muslim faith leaders recognize the oneness of God, and they also acknowledge the leaders of both faiths. In the training workshops, the imams and pastors voice respect for the beliefs of each other’s faith traditions.”

Today there is considerable evidence from around the world that communication and interfaith dialogue change attitudes when it comes to tackling stigma and discrimination. Genuine and inclusive communication can create greater understanding and relieve tension in contrast with actions that tend to isolate vulnerable groups or, indeed, to incite violence against them.

On World AIDS Day, WACC encourages its members, partners and networks to explore and seize opportunities to create spaces for interfaith collaboration with the aim of reducing stigma and discrimination against people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

The WACC project partners mentioned above were supported with funding from Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED), Germany, and Stichting Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

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Worldly Holiness

Andrew Larsen publishes a beautiful calendar featuring his own amazing photographs. Check it out: http://andrewlarsenphotography.com/ 

Read more about Andy's work here.

Andy writes, "I wanted to share a little more with my readers this week an explanation to a short reference I made last week about "visual peacemaking." Its no mystery to most that I love photography. It's even become a "spiritual discipline" for me. What's that all about you say? I've had the wonderful opportunity to begin to talk with groups about photography as a spiritual discipline, but in two different, though related ways. Photography has become both an inward, as well as an outward spiritual activity. Call it part of my growing expression of a spiritual discipline that has become like two sides to the same coin.

"The inward may be obvious. Photography helps refresh me in my journey. Doing work with my camera, sizing up a landscape, noticing nuances of light, pattern and color help ground me in God's amazing and faithful presence in my life. The grace of this activity shows up in renewed hope and perspective, in good times and bad, irrespective of my success or failure. In fact it helps pull me out of my self absorption and consider God's sufficiency, for all the pieces of my life. The Psalms, especially verses like psalm 19:1-2 often swirl around in my heart when taking pictures.

"The second movement, outward, is also a spiritual discipline. I think that if this second movement is missed, the former movement inward for me is empty, if not incomplete. The greater purpose for living God's way in this world is missed. I become spiritually fat and happy, if that, in my own self contentment. This is where my photography is slowly maturing into an outward expression of this spiritual discipline, corresponding to the inward movement as well. And this is where I believe visual peacemaking is emerging as a manifestation of this second movement for me.

"I've found photography as an incredible tool in building bridges between cultures and people, helping me tell stories back and forth across a divide that normally is posted with a huge "NO TRESPASSING" sign. In a world where divisions seem to be growing and prejudices hardening, I'm finding this work of visual peacemaking critical. One example is this picture below from Hebron, where I served for 3 months last year. Tour groups that visit the Holy Land are often told not to go to Hebron. Its dangerous. The people are to be feared. Its a shame because the truth is so far from this caricature. My time in this Palestinian, and Muslim majority context, was rich with friendships, conversations, great food and many positive experiences. By the way, this year's calendar, Wordly Holiness, features some of these people that I met. But since I know most folks like beautiful landscapes, the majority of the larger featured photos each month are of my award winning landscapes. But the people also show up in little thumbnails throughout the pages."

[Read more here]

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See Ann's other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Transformation and Transcendence: The Power of Female Friendship

Read Emily Rapp's amazing essay, Transformation and Transcendence: The Power of Female Friendship.  I was working at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Chicago when Emily went to work in Geneva. I didn't know her - she was young - but I knew her mom, and I think I wrote to Jeanne congratulating her on her daughter's early success. I hope I wrote that letter; I meant to. The world has turned around many times since I was 45 and envying the opportunity afforded a 22-year-old.

There is more than enough pain. Emily points to one of the ways through: women's friendships. I pray that we all might have such friends. Thanks to Emily for exquisitely writing something I've always wanted to say.

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Transformation and Transcendence: The Power of Female Friendship, by Emily Rapp
[Read the entire essay at the link above]

In 1997 I arrived in Geneva to work for a year at the headquarters of a relief organization. Feeling overwhelmed by my job and lonely in a city of overworked expats passing through for two to three year stints at the United Nations or other organizations with the rather nebulous goal of “changing the world,” I made friends with a group of women. I was 22, and all three women — one American, one German, and one Argentinian – were 30 years older than I and had worked for the same organization in various administrative capacities for the length of time I’d been alive. After one lengthy, boozy dinner of fondue and buckets of white wine, they quickly took me into their friendship fold and jokingly referred to themselves as “the Wrinklies.” We met once a week for dinner, and saw one another every day at the espresso machine in the hallway, in the fabulously lush cantina, on the expertly-tended grounds of our superluxe office building outside the city limits. We had inside jokes and secret looks. We gave each other little gifts: a cookie, a note, a bar of chocolate, a little token of affection spotted at a shop and slipped underneath an office door. 

All three women (and myself as well) were unmarried, living alone, and working to assist people in real need in countries around the world.  Despite the fact that I immediately felt accepted, supported, challenged and nurtured by each of them, when I first joined their weekly dinner group, I felt sorry for them. They weren’t married, they weren’t mothers – and at this time, and up until very recently, I clung to the belief that this constituted some failure on their part. They found me equally mystifying. Was I really worried about the size of my ass or trying to finagle a recent date with a man they thought (from my description) was boring and slightly odious? (He was.) Was it a good use of my time, they wondered, to hang out in bars getting smashed and looking to score and by doing this (they were rightfully doubtful) find “the love of my life” when I said I wanted to be a writer? Sure, sure, I said, but I dismissed their concerns, and mourned what I interpreted as their missed opportunities to have a real life, which I assumed would only start for me when I was married and a mother. I loved them, but in my mind I was remembering that old phrase I’d heard for most of my life, in hushed and shameful tones: old maid. I was also keen to make my life look “normal” and “acceptable” in some way because I have a disability; if I didn’t get the body part right, I reasoned (irrationally, although it seemed quite rational at the time), I could get the “what your life looks like” part right. While I was obsessing about how I looked and who would love me, these women were helping to save the world – not in a way that would win them accolades, certainly – but the work they were doing was important and life-giving. And there I sat, foolishly pitying them. 

One afternoon at work while I was chain-smoking through my open window into a cloudy sky, there was a flurry of activity in the hallway. A few harried shouts. Running feet. The quick shuffling of paper. Someone working in one of the countries was attempting to obtain medicine for a child who was sick with what appeared to be a form of strep (I’ve forgotten in which country or if it was indeed strep). The child’s mother, calling to ask for help from what was apparently a decrepit payphone, was trying to get the antibiotic medication from a corrupt doctor who demanded a bribe, an insane amount of money that this woman would never make or likely ever see in her lifetime. My three friends were literally running up and down the hallway, in and out of their offices on my floor, faxing and calling, shouting into the phone, trying to find another person to shout with more authority into the phone to try and help this desperate mother, this helpless child. The medicine was right there. For hours they labored, trying to find a way to make it right in a place where mail was sent in bags labeled only with numbers, and where children died frequently from diarrhea and the flu and the various effects of hideous wars and wrenching poverty. I think we’re going to get it, I think it’s going to be okay, one of my friends said through my open doorway as she sprinted off to the fax machine. But it was not okay. It was too late, perhaps it was always too late. The baby died. 
 
A year ago, when my then nine-month-old son Ronan was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, an always-fatal illness that would land him in a vegetative state before his likely death before the age of three, the first person I called was a friend (my mom).
[Read the entire esssay at this link.]

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Read my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

ELECTION DAY 2012

ELECTION DAY 2012

Thanks to my church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, for sending its members this prayer on election day.


Lord God, you call your people to honor those in authority. Help us elect trustworthy leaders, participate in wise decisions for our common life, and serve our neighbors in local communities. Bless the leaders of our land, that we may be at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

-          Evangelical Lutheran Worship, pg. 77


Voting is one aspect of faithful citizenship; the ELCA e-Advocacy Network reminds you to cast your ballot tomorrow, if you have not already. If you need assistance finding your polling place, checking your voter registration information, or confirming what types of voter identification your state requires, this site may be able to help.

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See my other blog: www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com

The Holy Spirit in our hearts calls out to God

"In the middle of trials and conflicts, it's difficult to call out to God, and it takes a lot of effort to cling to God's Word. At those times, we cannot perceive Christ. We do not see him. Our hearts don't feel his presence and his help during the attack. However, in the middle of [this], the Holy Spirit in our hearts begins to call out, "Abba! Father!" And his cry is much stronger and drowns out the powerful and horrible shouts of the law, sin, death, and the devil. It penetrates through the clouds and heaven and reaches up to the ears of God." Luther's commentary on Galatians 4:6

Signs of Hope in the Ecumenical Movement

The Rev. Walter Altmann points to signs of hope in the ecumenical movement. 

Altmann affirms signs of hope in the ecumenical movement

29.08.12

Walter Altmann, moderator of the WCC Central Committee, speaking at the meeting in Greece. “The WCC can be and still is prophetic today,” said the Rev. Dr Walter Altmann, moderator of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee, reflecting on highs and lows in the ecumenical movement and on the identity of the WCC. 

In a Central Committee session on 29 August, Altmann spoke of “sailing” the ecumenical movement, traditionally symbolized as a boat, and how its journey continues towards “transformation and overcoming injustice”. The 150-member Central Committee is currently meeting at the Orthodox Academy of Crete in   Kolympari, Greece. 

The AGAPE (Alternative to Economic Globalization Addressing Peoples and Earth) study process of the WCC, said Altmann, has proved that “the major global economic structure shows a reality that excludes most, benefits a few privileged” people and destroys the earth’s natural resources. He stressed that outcomes of the AGAPE study are significant amidst the current European financial crisis.

“We are meeting in Greece, the country hardest hit by the crisis in the Euro community. Regardless of the errors that may have been committed by the political practice of Greece, there is no doubt that they came associated with a global policy of unfettered markets and limitless financial speculation,” he said. 

Altmann added that “many, if not most, of the statements of the AGAPE background document about the ongoing and potential consequences of economic injustice were sadly proven in recent years.”  

Speaking on the churches’ calls for a strong and effective Arms Trade Treaty, Altmann expressed hope for the process despite negotiations being postponed at the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in July this year. He led the ecumenical delegation at the UN conference in New York.

“For decades, churches around the world have been calling for an Arms Trade Treaty that would protect people from irresponsible arms transfers. We will not let go of this demand,” Altmann observed, quoting the WCC general secretary, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from his message following the ATT conference. 

Similarly, Altmann shared the frustration felt by many over the lack of strong commitments at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+20. Even so, he spoke about positive aspects of the conference.

“The WCC, alongside other partner organizations, such as the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance and ACT Alliance, underlined the positive aspects of the outcome document of Rio +20. These included the adoption of language that values rights, including very specific ones, such as the right to water and sanitation,” he said. 

He went on to say that the Rio+20 document does offer “material for our organizations to continue their advocacy work around the intertwined themes of human and environmental rights”. 

Altmann also expressed appreciation for the Second Vatican Council in his report, saying, “There is no doubt that the Second Vatican Council was nurtured largely by the ecumenical biblical and theological research of those recent years, including discussions about Tradition in the Faith and Order Commission.” 

He called ecumenical initiatives with the Roman Catholic church important steps towards mutual recognition along the way to Christian unity. 

Commenting on struggles of churches for justice, peace and transformation, Altmann reflected on the theme of the WCC’s upcoming 10th Assembly in Busan, Korea. 

“The theme ‘God of life, lead us to justice and peace’ is an invocation of God, knowing that we are in the midst of a journey and we cannot stand still, and we must not resist. On the contrary, we must let God push us further on the path of justice and peace.” 

Full text of the moderator's address 
More information on the Central Committee meeting 

High resolution photos available via photos.oikoumene.org

Easter - the whole world is new and full of love!

The Easter Message of the Heads of Churches of Jerusalem

We, the Heads of Churches in the Holy Land, bring you our Easter greetings from  Jerusalem, the City of the Resurrection, hope, and peace.  

Every year The Feast of the Resurrection revisits the church, the holy people of God everywhere. The faithful, through their Lenten journey and pilgrimage, walk in faith toward the empty tomb so that they may be filled with grace through the Risen and Triumphant Lord. The message of Easter speaks through the living church in the here and now; through their hopes and fears, joys and sorrows.

The people of God, the “Living Stones” of the holy lands, anticipate through prayer and fasting to behold the joys and victories of the Risen and Triumphant Lord Jesus Christ. Christians in the region are continuously walking in the ‘Way of the Cross’. Injustice, oppression, incitement and subjugation are evil powers that require our diligent prayers and intentional advocacy. Our hearts are drawn in intercession for peace based on justice toward the people of Palestine and Israel, respect of human rights in Syria, Egypt, and the rest of the Middle East. 

Reconciliation and Peace are the ultimate consequence and fruition of the Resurrection. Peace is no mere Easter greeting, but a call upon the church to strive for justice, equality, and reconciliation among all nations and peoples. We call upon the leaders of the nations to empower the peacemakers within their communities and countries, so that a generation of peace may arise and the light of peace may shine from this region to the whole world. 

Our celebration of the Resurrection is the joy of the light that shines on in the darkness, and our hope for the whole world is to be aglow with the radiance of God’s peace and life. As an Easter hymn goes: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.” Alleluia! Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed. Alleluia!  

+Patriarch Theophilos III, Greek Orthodox Patriarch
 +Patriarch Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch
 +Patriarch Torkom II Manoogian, (Archbishop Nourhan Manoogian, Patriarchal Vicar), Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Patriarch
 +Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, ofm, Custos of the Holy Land
 +Archbishop Anba Abraham, Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, Jerusalem
 +Archbishop Swerios Malki Murad, Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate
 +Archbishop Abouna Matthias, Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarchate
 +Archbishop Joseph-Jules Zerey, Greek-Melkite-Catholic Patriarchate
 +Msgr. George Shehan, Maronite Patriarchal Exarchate
 +Bishop Suheil Dawani, Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East
 +Bishop Munib Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
 +Bishop Pierre Malki, Syrian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate
 +Bishop Joseph Kelekian, Armenian Catholic Patriarchal Exarchate

(Easter 2012) 

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To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Acknowledging Climate Change Doesn’t Make You A Liberal

by Paul Douglas, via neorenaissance
I’m going to tell you something that my Republican friends are loath to admit out loud: climate change is real.

I am a moderate Republican, fiscally conservative; a fan of small government, accountability, self-empowerment, and sound science. I am not a climate scientist. I’m a meteorologist, and the weather maps I’m staring at are making me uncomfortable. No, you’re not imagining it: we’ve clicked into a new and almost foreign weather pattern. To complicate matters, I’m in a small, frustrated and endangered minority: a Republican deeply concerned about the environmental sacrifices some are asking us to make to keep our economy powered-up, long-term. It’s ironic.
The root of the word conservative is “conserve.” A staunch Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, set aside vast swaths of America for our National Parks System, the envy of the world. Another Republican, Richard Nixon, launched the EPA. Now some in my party believe the EPA and all those silly “global warming alarmists” are going to get in the way of drilling and mining our way to prosperity. Well, we have good reason to be alarmed.

Read the entire article here.


To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/ 

`They Keep Watch' outlines work of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel

           Tammie Danielsen from Austin, Texas, spent the winter in Hebron as an ecumenical accompanier with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). She walked children to school to be a presence to prevent violence from Israeli settler attacks and lived in solidarity and community with the local Palestinian residents.

I was honored to write Tammie's story for this month's issue of The Lutheran magazine

Hebron has been divided into two zones since 1997. The area under the control of the civilian Palestinian Authority is populated by some 120,000 Palestinians. The zone under Israeli military control is home to 30,000 Palestinians and 500 Israeli settlers. The settlers – and military stationed there to protect them (!) - have free access to areas. But some 1,830 Palestinian shops in the city center have closed due to restrictions on Palestinian movement, curfews and the sealing off of entire streets to Palestinians by the Israeli military.

EAPPI is an effort of the World Council of Churches, begun in 2002 in response to the Jerusalem heads of churches' request for Christians to “come and see” what was happening in the Holy Land. Volunteers spend three months in one of seven sites accompanying the local residents as they work for peace and justice and an end to the occupation. For more information about the US program, see http://www.eappi-us.org.

Especially if you're a Lutheran, please share this note with your networks and with leaders. Feel free to send your comments to the editor and/or place them in the comments section on the web.

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International Women's Day Pledge

International Women's Day Pledge - March 8, 2012

Sign the International Women's Day Pledge!

March 8 is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate and honor women across the globe.  NP works every day to protect women in conflict zones, a task that would be impossible without our own extraordinary women peacekeepers.  So, on March 8, we would like you to commend our women peacekeepers with a message, and pledge to advocate for women in peacekeeping roles! Please sign our International Women’s Day Pledge, and encourage the remarkable women in your own life to get involved with peacekeeping!

Click here to add your message and advocate for equal gender representation in peacekeeping.  Our goal is 1000 signatures!

Nonviolent Peaceforce’s women peacekeepers are now more necessary than ever. In contemporary conflicts, it is estimated that as many as 90% of deaths are civilian; many of these deaths are women and children.  However, death is not the only consequence of war for women – sexual violence is widespread and unchecked, and rape is often employed as a tool of war. Women who have been victims of war violence are often uncomfortable seeking help from male officials; for that reason, we want to emphasize the importance of women in peacekeeping roles, and urge women everywhere to get involved in creating peace!
Because women are especially at-risk of violence during wartime, we want to thank our women peacekeepers for helping civilians, communities, and refugees in times of need.  We hope that you will thank them too, and use International Women’s Day to honor all the women heroes that have made a difference to you.

In honor of International Women’s Day, add your name to our letter and send a personal message to peacemaking women around the world.

On March 9, we will submit your name and/or message to our women peacekeepers in the field.

Thank you for supporting these remarkable women.  From the Nonviolent Peaceforce.

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To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Pastoral message to the churches in Syria extends solidarity

WCC Executive Committee sends message to Syrian churches

For immediate release: 20 February 2012

The members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Executive Committee have sent a pastoral message to the churches in Syria extending solidarity as they face enormous challenges due to the ongoing violence in the country.

The message comes at a time when the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate. The situation was discussed in a meeting at the WCC headquarters in Geneva in late December 2011, in which some twenty Syrian church leaders from various Christian traditions in Syria participated.

The message was crafted by the Executive Committee during their meetings last week from 14 to 18 February in Bossey, Switzerland. In the message they expressed hope for an end to violence and a national dialogue to emerge from the conflict, based on peace with justice, recognition of human rights and human dignity and the need to live together in mutual respect.

The message also strongly supported a joint letter from the three heads of churches in Syria sent out to congregations in the country in December. In the letter they condemned "the use of any type of violence" while encouraging their members "not to fear and not to lose hope".

It also called on WCC member churches to "engage in concrete actions of solidarity" during this time of difficulties. Quoting the WCC constitution the message read "as a fellowship of churches we are to express the common concern of the churches in the service of human need, the breaking down of barriers between people and the promotion of one human family in justice and peace".

Read full text of the WCC Executive Committee message to the Syrian churches

WCC leader calls for an end to Syrian violence (WCC press release of 9 August 2011)

WCC member churches in Syria

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To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

 

USA's worldview? I hope it's not true.

Sorry, I don't know who should be attributed for this cartoon.

To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/



Luther on the Holy Spirit

"In the middle of trials and conflicts, it's difficult to call out to God, and it takes a lot of effort to cling to God's Word. At those times, we cannot perceive Christ. We do not see him. Our hearts don't feel his presence and his help during the attack. However, in the middle of [this], the Holy Spirit in our hearts begins to call out, "Abba! Father!" And his cry is much stronger and drowns out the powerful and horrible shouts of the law, sin, death, and the devil. It penetrates through the clouds and heaven and reaches up to the ears of God." Luther on Galatians 4:6



To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Souper Bowl of Caring - An Opportunity to Alleviate Hunger

Each NFL Super Bowl Sunday, many people host or attend parties with abundant food, friendship, and fellowship. At the same time, over 1 billion people around the world go hungry.

On Feb. 6, Super Bowl Sunday, please join more than 2,000 Lutheran youth groups to do something to change all of that. Learn how to be involved at this ELCA link.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is a youth-led ecumenical and grassroots movement that unites youth under a single cause: to end hunger. Collectively, this movement raised over $10 million for hunger-related charities in 2010. And ELCA Lutherans raised nearly $800,000! But that’s not all. Youth across the country also collected more than 4.5 million pounds of food and provided countless hours of service.

Please forward this email to your youth leaders and others involved in world hunger projects. Forward this message to a friend

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To see my other work or to receive regular bulletins concerning justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, sign up at my other blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/