Friday, May 31, 2024

SojoMail - The family secret that shattered my faith

In this week’s SojoMail, Diana Keough writes that she lost faith when lies and AIDS brought her parents’ facade of superiority crashing down – but grace found them all:

I believed in God as a child and deeply felt Jesus was my friend, responding to an altar call when I was 6. But Mom smugly told me Jesus could never love a naughty, backsliding little girl like me. Because of that, I was never sure my salvation stuck, so I made at least half a dozen more trips down the aisle.

My teenage years and early 20s did little to reassure me of God’s love. I didn’t want to go to hell. It seemed like a scary place. But when I was 25, hell found me anyway.

On Jan. 7, 1988, after three weeks of hospitalization and testing, my father was diagnosed with AIDS and given six weeks to live. Three weeks later, my mother tested positive for HIV. My dad — church leader, regular host of JBS meetings, and senior partner in Milwaukee’s largest law firm — had been living a double life. He had been having sex with men for more than 27 years and unwittingly infected my mother with HIV. My parents had six grown children, eight grandchildren, and had just celebrated their 38th wedding anniversary. I was their fifth child, newly married, and the mother of a 6-month-old son.

Overnight, our family gained modern-day leper status. My parents’ washed-in-the-blood church friends scattered like cockroaches when the lights came on.

Drowning in grief, I told God I didn’t believe anymore. If my dad could be such a liar, God was just one big, cosmic joke.

“If you’re real, you’re going to have to prove it to me,” I dared God.

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WCC NEWS: Embracing diversity at global gathering in Ghana

Global Christian Forum secretary, Rev. Dr Casely Essamuah in conversation with participants at the Fourth Global Gathering in Accra, Ghana. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC

30 May 2024

With a heart full of gratitude to God, for a time that became a sacred encounter with Christians from all over the world, Global Christian Forum (GCF) secretary, Rev. Dr Casely Essamuah, is pleased with the Fourth Global Gathering, which took place in Accra, Ghana, in April. He is also strengthened in his belief that the GCF plays an increasingly important role in bringing people from different denominations together at the same table to exchange views from different standpoints.

“That is precisely what this organization is about. We are not a legislative body and we do not initiate programmes. We offer a neutral arena, where Christians from all over the world can network and deliberate together, regardless of their affiliations,” he explains.

Focusing on women and youth

At this gathering, which also marked the 25th anniversary of GCF, special focus was on engaging more youth, women, migrant- and mega-churches – categories which have been underrepresented in the past. That strategy appears to have worked out reasonably well. For more than 70 percent of the 240 participants, it was their first global gathering. Furthermore, a majority of the speakers at the event were women. And a special youth gathering prior to the main event attracted an additional 20 dedicated youth –a category widely regarded as critical to the future of the church.

“Instead of having mainly church leaders at our table, we now have a more diverse group of representatives. Whom, we invite to the table, determines the extent to which we are an agent for change. We come together to live the Gospel in unity, and to let the world know that we have a powerful message to share. This is key,” Essamuah says, alluding to the theme of the gathering; “That the World may know.”

Being an agent for change

Being an agent for change thus means keeping an eye on who is missing at the table and making sure that they are reached out to in the future. Migrant churches, made up of people who have relocated from their home countries but who want to continue worshiping the way they are used to, is another category where progress has been made. Five migrant churches from Europe were at the table in Accra, which is an improvement. Attracting mega churches, on the other hand, remains a challenge, Essamuah admits. And a growing number of independent churches, with fresh expressions of faith to which people are more loosely connected, should also be taken into consideration.

“We must continue to break down barriers and be tireless in our efforts to let the world know,” Essamuah says.

The main message of living the Gospel in unity was also echoed in the opening address of the event by the general secretary of World Council of Churches (WCC), Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, who underlined “the profound significance of our shared commitment to Christian unity and cooperation.”

A dynamic and thriving environment

The choice of Ghana as location for the fourth GCF Global Gathering, was no coincidence. Christianity has long been thriving and dynamic here and the country has always been a significant part of the global south. Ghana also happens to be the native country of the GCF secretary himself.

“For that reason, meeting here was of course special, and it has been a privilege indeed to host the event in this familiar context. Everywhere in Ghana, church life is vibrant and there are churches on just about every street,” Essamuah explains.

Concrete proposals underway

The Fourth Global Gathering, and the common challenges that were raised there, are now under evaluation by a specially appointed task force. Conclusions, along with more concrete proposals on how to proceed, will be presented at the next GCF international committee later this year.

“Meanwhile, we shall continue to share our message of Christian unity and encourage dialogue between Christians from different traditions around the globe,” Essamuah concludes.

Global Christian Forum shares message that we will “act for the restoration of the world” (22 April 2024)

Read in full: Message of the Fourth Global Gathering

”From a place of brokenness to a place of healing and reconciliation” – the Global Christian Forum 25 years in (19 April 2024)

WCC general secretary underlines “shared vocation to participate in the prophetic mission of Christ” as Global Christian Forum opens (17 April 2024)

Photos from Global Christian Forum 2024

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 352 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.

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EarthBeat Weekly: Latino communities as leaders on environmental issues

Latino communities as leaders on environmental issues

Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

May 31, 2024

Georgetown University hosted a Latino Leader Gathering Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Washington. (RNS/Aleja Hertzler-McCain)

"Latinos are poised to be leaders in their communities and nationally on environmental issues," said Mark Hugo Lopez, the director of race and ethnicity research for Pew Research Center, during a panel May 22 at Georgetown University.

The "Latino Leader Gathering" sponsored by Georgetown's Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life featured a panel including Lopez alongside: Elena Gaona, communications director for the Chispa branch of the League of Conservation Voters; Washington Auxiliary Bishop Evelio Menjivar; Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, Washington; and Silvia Foster-Frau, a reporter at The Washington Post.

"Three-quarters of Latinos who are religiously active tell us that they hear about climate activism in their sermons where they go to church," Lopez said during the Georgetown gathering, citing a November 2022 Pew Research Center survey on how religion intersects with Americans’ views on the environment. And, he said, "Three-quarters of Latino adults say that their communities are impacted at least some by environmental issues."

Drawing on examples from her reporting, Foster-Frau said that despite facing barriers to civic engagement, she has found Latinos effectively organizing for better environmental conditions.

"The power of community can really make change in ways that nobody expects," she said.

For more on how U.S. Catholics feel about environmental issues, revisit these EarthBeat stories from the past year:

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WCC News: German church declaration rejecting Nazi policy remains inspiration, says WCC general secretary

On the 90th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration where members of Germany’s Confessing Church condemned Nazi incursions in church life, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has praised it for helping Christians since then combat oppression and injustice.

Photo: WCC

31 May 2024

“The Barmen Declaration has served as an inspiration to Christians facing tyranny, injustice, and discrimination of the need for the church to reject the claims of oppressive regimes and to combat heretical tendencies within its own ranks,” Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay stated in a message to the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD).

The declaration was issued on the last day of a synod from 29–31 May 1934 which met in Barmen, a district of the city of Wuppertal in the Rhineland. It was an appeal to Protestants to reject the policies of the so-called “German Christians” who supported National Socialism and its policies in church life.

“Precisely because we want to be and to remain faithful to our various confessions, we may not keep silent, since we believe that we have been given a common message to utter in a time of common need and temptation,” the synod stated in its declaration.

“We are bound together by the confession of the one Lord of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church,” it affirmed.

Pillay, who comes from South Africa, recalled how in his country the Barmen Declaration helped inspire the theological resistance to apartheid.

This also found expression in the Kairos Document of 1985, whose anniversary the WCC will commemorate in 2025 when its central committee meets in Johannesburg.

The Barmen Declaration, Pillay said, was a “truly ecumenical event,” since it was the first common statement by representatives of Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches in Germany since the time of the Reformation.

“Today, the Barmen Theological Declaration reminds us of the inextricable link between the search for the unity of the church and the need for a common message on the basis of our faith against tyranny, war, and injustice,” Pillay wrote in his letter to Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber, head of the EKD’s Department for Ecumenical Relations and Ministries Abroad.

WCC message to the Evangelical Church in Germany on the 90th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration

Text of the Barmen Declaration

More information about the Barmen Declaration

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration in 2009, the WCC published a special issue of its journal, The Ecumenical Review, on the contemporary challenge of the declaration in a globalized era as well accounts of its influence in situations including Europe, Cuba, the German Democratic Republic, Indonesia, and South Africa. Articles are freely available to read or download HERE.