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Bishop Love: Fast for our brothers and sisters in Sudan and Nigeria

From today’s Diocesan Update from Bishop Bill Love of Albany:

I have been particularly grieved by the reports coming out of the Diocese of Maridi in Southern Sudan, as well as those from the Diocese of Jos in Nigeria, where our brothers and sisters in Christ have come under attack and persecution, primarily because of their faith in Christ.  Following is an excerpt from an email I just received from Bishop Justin Badi, Bishop of our sister diocese of Maridi:

“Last night (January 1st) the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) came in Nzumara village which is three miles south of Maridi town.  They chopped seven people to death, destroyed properties, tortured people and have taken over twenty to the bush.  It is a very miserable situation here in Maridi.  We very much value your prayers for us.”

Bishop Justin and his wife, Joyce, visited the Diocese of Albany a few years ago and attended our Diocesan Convention.  Karen and I were blessed with being able to spend time with them last summer at Lambeth.

In a similar report, Archbishop Ben Kwashi, Archbishop of Jos,  recently spoke of the attacks directed primarily against Christians in and around Jos, a few weeks ago.  He stated, “From amongst our own members, nine were killed, eight injured, 42 adults displaced, three churches destroyed, 56 homes destroyed or looted, 57 businesses destroyed or looted, and 26 vehicles destroyed.” Archbishop Ben has stated that much of the reporting on the situation in Jos by international media is inaccurate and full of propaganda.  Like Bishop Justin and Joyce, Archbishop Ben and his wife Gloria are also friends of the Diocese of Albany.  We were greatly blessed by their visit and powerful testimony at last summer’s Diocesan Convention.

I ask all the clergy and laity of the Diocese of Albany to join me in fasting and holding our brothers and sisters in Christ from the dioceses of Maridi and Jos up in prayer, asking our Lord Jesus Christ to send His holy angels to watch over, protect and minister to them.  May the Holy Spirit come upon them mightily, giving them the strength, courage, wisdom, comfort and faith they so desperately need during this very difficult and uncertain time.  May the Lord give them His perfect peace.  Amen!

In addition to praying and fasting, I would invite anyone who can, to make a financial gift in support of the people of the Dioceses of Maridi and Jos.  All financial gifts may be sent to the Diocese of Albany individually or through your parish.  Upon receipt at the Diocesan Office, they will be forwarded to special accounts that have been set up for the two Dioceses.  Please make all checks out to the Diocese of Albany, annotating in the memo section what it is for.  Any gift you can make is greatly appreciated.

Even if you are not from the Diocese of Albany, please join in upholding these Christian brothers and sisters whose faith may cost them their lives.  If you know of others in these for whom we should pray, feel free to leave some info in the comments.

What Andrew said!

Those of you who read these posts via RSS or email may not notice the side column section titled “Others’ View”.  It contains items from blogs I regularly read that I find interesting or challenging, and I share them through my Google Reader’s shared items function.  You can visit the site, or subscribe to that RSS here, or Google users can connect with me to see my shared items in their own GReader.

Moments ago I shared an item called “The Pope’s Comments About Gays and Lesbians” from Andrew Marin’s blog Love is An Orientation.  I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with Andy, he’s the real deal.  A Bible-believing, passion-driven human who can’t stand the injustice he sees perpetrated by Christians against one small segment of the population who are same-sex attracted.  I can’t wait to read Andy’s book, coming from IVP in April 2009, and also called Love is An Orientation.  I think it’s a HUGE, much needed, paradigm shift in the “no, my way” “no, my way” conversation (can you even call it a conversation?) that rages in the Church.

Please go read the post.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Click here… go read it!

Advent: decorating

When I was growing up the Christmas tree - a real one - was procured the weekend before Christmas and stayed outside until Christmas Eve.  In it would come, it would be placed into the tree stand and watered (and watered, and watered). And that’s how it would stay… an evergreen in a stand in front of the living room’s picture window.  The decorations, you see, were part of the Christmas morning surprise.

I really don’t know how my parents managed to do that.  I know that there were toys to assemble and packages to wrap.  Add all the decorations, including the single-strand-at-a-time tinsel placement and I just don’t think they slept!

In our little corner of the family, we’ve settled into getting the tree done in time for Christmas (bonus, right?), but usually not a lot ahead of time.  In my “perfect” scenario, the tree gets decorated on this day, the 4th Sunday of Advent, a symbolic last official act of readiness for Christmas to come.  This year it worked!

Enjoy these photos of the tree and a few of the many, many ornaments (nearly half didn’t even make it onto the tree because I got tired of finding spots for them!).  I collect nativities, and some of them are ornaments.

(as before, click to see a larger version of the photo, click a second time to see the full-sized version)

How much do you have to hate someone?

This video blew me away. It’s an episode of “Penn says”, the podcast of Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller, in which he tells about an encounter with a man after a show, and that man’s gift of bible to Penn.  A kick in the guts quote:

I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize I don’t respect that at all. if you believe that there’s a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, or not getting eternal life, or whatever, and you think well it’s not really worth telling this because it would be socially awkward…how much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life was possible, and not tell them that?

Watch the whole video below.

HT to Mark, Chris

We still have power

Much of the Capital Region has no electric power this morning and is experiencing falling trees, bad roads and more due to about 24 hours of freezing rain that continues mixed with a bit of snow as I write.  I stepped outside my house moments ago (yes, in my pjs and slippers) to capture a glimpse of the iced over landscape.

You can click on the thumbnail to see a larger version. [edit - it appears the wp gallery feature makes you click twice to get to the full-size pic... apologies]

Advent: Returning to the Way

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

One of the beautiful realities of life in the seasons of the church is the opportunity to renew our understanding, our commitment, to the way of Jesus.  During this second week of Advent, I have been reading through the prophets who called God’s people back to him and foretold the coming of Christ.

Of course, the prophets spoke as they were led, not fully knowing how God’s word would be fulfilled; not fully knowing the time or place of that fulfillment; not fully knowing the implications of the words they spoke with boldness, in obedience.  So it is with us as we return to the prophet’s words for assurance that our obedience in speaking God’s Word boldly will lead where God intends, via a route and to a destination which only God can know now.  Yet, we are called to heed the words of the prophets, to set aside our sins and seek a life with our Coming Savior - we are called to return to the Way.

“My daddy and a blue truck”

2 minutes that will change your day for the better, even if you’ve seen it already.

This military mom can’t get enough of that sweet little face when she sees her daddy. Use it as a moment to remember all the military families, and other service families of police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel, who routinely spend holidays and special days apart.

One Day for Human Rights

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  One of the amazing things about the internet, to me, has been the ability for people in all sorts of circumstances to communicate them to the world.

I am mindful that what I’m doing right now - typing my thoughts for a blog post - is a life-threatening activity in some countries!  Remember how vital it was that local bloggers got the word out about the situation in Burma? Those courageous individuals alerted the world to the abusive government’s actions, and that information spread far and wide, focusing world attention on the issues there.  In response, the government there began to tightly control access to the internet and prosecute those individuals who would dare to oppose the government policies.  BBC news recently reported that one blogger in Burma was sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a political cartoon! [click here to read that report]

There are far too many examples of abuses of human rights taking place around the world - from the billions of dollars behind the global problem of trafficking young girls and women for sexual abuses, to the government sponsored violence in places like Sudan, and far too much more - there is a movement to refocus the attention of every government on the tenets of the UDHR by having them printed in passports, a government document common to all nations, thereby representing their assent to the document.  There is an online petition you can sign to support that effort - click here to go to the petition page.

I learned about this campaign via @HumanRightsDay on twitter.  They also have a website you can visit to learn more at www.onedayforhumanrights.com.

He gets an A for effort

In the midst of the New York State budget mess, brought to us by the credit crisis-fueled melt down on Wall Street, the State University system made the decision to raise tuition in the middle of the budget year.  The leaves every student facing a larger bill this winter, even while the institutions themselves are cutting back on services to make ends meet.

One UAlbany student chose to handle his shortfall in a rather creative way:

The e-mail solicitation looked like yet another cyberhoax. It wasn’t.

There really is a Nicholas Szwaba — a bitter University at Albany biology major with a $310 budget gap, courtesy of the State University of New York’s mid-year tuition hike.

But instead of forking it over, the 21-year-old from Staten Island fired up his PayPal account. He e-mailed more than 5,000 people this week, many of them UAlbany faculty and staff, asking each for $5 toward the increase.

And the total reward for his entrepreneurship? Not one cent.

Read the rest of the story here.

For the record, I agree with Nicholas Szwaba - it’s unfair to raise tuition mid-year.  In fact, it may be a breach of the agreement made with each student at the outset of the academic year, upon which their financial aid and attendant borrowing was based.

Busyness

I was going through my email tonight and discovered that a project I wrote for the fine folks at Simply Youth Ministry, for the quarterly Simply All Access program, is now available as a stand alone 4-week small group bible study!  Pretty exciting!

From the description:

It’s no secret that we live in a fast-paced world. And with technology constantly improving, chances are fast-paced living will kick into overdrive. In this 4-week small group study, you’ll help your students examine the problems that stem from busyness, then discover how a life with Jesus can help you avoid burnout.

You can get more information, and a sample lesson from the Busyness series, here.