Tuesday, June 13, 2006

ROUNDUP: News worth knowing for kingdom players ...

HEADLINE NEWS

Renewal Movements Stir Within Mainline Churches - Christianpost
Renewal groups within the Presbyterian Church USA are joining forces to create a new inter-church fellowship focused on reviving what they call an ''aging, dying, visionless denomination.''
"The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is in a deep crisis," an invitation email to congregations stated. "We have turned our eyes inward, and we are an aging, dying, visionless denomination. We have lost the central focus of the New Testament church: its missional calling. While our own culture has become a mission field, we continue to devote all our efforts to maintaining the institution that we once were." [...]
A similar movement has already taken hold in other mainline denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church USA. In both cases, churches have come together as a "church-within-church," where member congregations would criticize some denomination-wide theologies and stances while keeping denominational identities intact.
The CRIB has been reporting on these developments for some time and extensively.


ARCHAEOLOGY

Ancient Scroll May Yield Religious Secrets - BREITBART
A collection of charred scraps kept in a Greek museum's storerooms are all that remains of what archaeologists say is Europe's oldest surviving book - which may hold a key to understanding early monotheistic beliefs.

More than four decades after the Derveni papyrus was found in a 2,400- year-old nobleman's grave in northern Greece, researchers said Thursday they are close to uncovering new text - through high-tech digital analysis - from the blackened fragments left after the manuscript was burnt on its owner's funeral pyre.
The "religious secrets" mentioned in this report are more along the lines of philisophical or mythological secrets.
Large sections of the mid-4th century B.C. book - a philosophical treatise on ancient religion - were read years ago, but never officially published.[...]

The scroll, originally several yards of papyrus rolled around two wooden runners, was found half burnt in 1962. It dates to around 340 B.C., during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great.

CHURCH DECAY

Empty Pews: Where Did All The Men Go? - WaPo
Men don't need pirates in the pews. Then again, the presence of such swashbucklers might not be the worst thing to happen to a Sunday morning.

So goes the thinking of David Murrow, author of "Why Men Hate Going to Church."
"We don't have to have hand-to-hand combat during the worship service to get men there," Murrow said. "We just have to start speaking [their language], use the metaphors they understand and create an environment that feels masculine to them."
The CRIB posted on this subject here, here, and here.


DENOMINATIONAL

"Church has fallen apart since I was in charge," says Carey - Telegraph
Lord Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has delivered a damning critique of the Anglican communion, claiming that it has fallen apart since he was succeeded by Rowan Williams.

His remarks are set to send the relationship to a new low and give encouragement to critics of the current archbishop who are ever more vocal in expressing their dismay at his leadership. [...]
He also challenged the Church of England's statement on civil partnerships by describing it as "a serious and extraordinary departure from the Church's practice". [...]
Lord Carey has had a strained relationship with Dr Williams since he blocked his promotion to be bishop of Southwark because of concerns over the Welsh cleric's liberal stance on homosexuality.

In a speech at Virginia Theological Seminary seen by The Sunday Telegraph, he expressed his anxiety at Dr Williams's impotence in the face of the American Church's refusal to heed his pleas to refrain from confirming Canon Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire.
Carey's not being truly transparent here; many of the current problems in the Anglican Worldwide Communion began on his watch, not Williams' watch.


DE "VATICAN" CODE

Polish priest investigating collaboration silenced by Rome - Radio Polonia
Father Tadeusz Isakowicz [of Poland] has decided not to publish information on priests who he says collaborated with the communist secret services, after being warned of the move by his bishop.
Contrary to expectations, one of Poland’s best known priests, former Solidarity chaplain in the Nowa Huta steel works in Krakow, has not published the information from secret service files on the clergy who had collaborated with the communist regime. The decision of Father Tadeusz Isakowicz, who himself was a victim of repression by the secret services, came after a warning from his bishop.

Father Isakowicz’s much-awaited press conference in Krakow lasted several minutes. Instead of presenting the results of his research based on his own secret police files he informed reporters that he’d been notified in an official letter from the bishop that church sanctions had been imposed on him and that he was not allowed to continue his private investigation any longer.
What do you think? Tom Hanks was right?


HISTORY (Biblical)

Darius residence unearthed? - Cultural Heritage News
Iran-French joint archeology team at Bolaghi Gorge succeeded in discovering and identifying the remains of a gigantic palace, believed to be from the Achaemenid era (648 BC–330 BC), during their second season of excavations in the area.

“Before the start of this season of excavations, our geophysical tests in area number 33 of Bolaghi Gorge had revealed to us the possible existence of a huge building near the Sivand Dam. Clay artifacts found in this area showed that this building used to be the residential palace of the Achaemenid kings. [...]
“Based on the evidence, this palace must have belonged to either Darius the Great, the Achaemenid King who ruled between 521 and 486 BC and built the famous Palace of Persepolis, or the kings who preceded him. However, it is more likely that the palace belonged to Darius,” said Ataee.
I love this stuff! Wow! Oh to be there!


POLITICS

Uneasy church-state divide in Mexico - Mercury News
Mexico's historically fragile separation of church and state is further threatened by the president's close ties to the Catholic Church and recent efforts by priests to influence voters, a watchdog group said Thursday.

The Ecclesiastical Observatory, comprising several organizations including Catholics for the Right to Decide and the Center for Ecumenical Studies, said it will distribute pamphlets at 150 Catholic parishes nationwide Sunday reminding churchgoers of their right to vote independently in Mexico's July 2 presidential election.
American Christians need to understand the implications of the election of a Communist president in Mexico ... you think we have border problems now, you've seen nothing! And consider Mexico joing the Cuba, Venezuela, and Colombia triumvirate!


RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

Engage the Christians in America or there will be no more of either! - Mission Network News (SBC)
The United States of America. It's notorious around the world for being a Christian nation. According to the most recent research available, about 80-percent of Americans consider themselves to be Christians. However, a member of the World Evangelical Alliance says if Christians don't get more engaged religious freedom is at risk.

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