From March 18 – 6 June in Wroclaw, Poland will take place ecumenical music workshops. The idea is to sing songs from different religion traditions. Four directors will try to lead this ecumenical choir through Jewish, orthodox, protestant and catholic traditional singing. Choir is meeting two times a week and it’s mainly for youth and young adults. At the end there will be a concert and participants will sing with professional choirs. This workshops are part of bigger program called “Children of one God” and part of European Year Of Intercultural Dialogue 2008. I think that’s great idea to get to know “the Other”, his traditions, his believes and himself. It is also a possibility to get to know how christian music developed through ages. If anyone of you lives in Wroclaw – don’t missed it! More information (in polish at http://www.naszaparafia.pl/wydarzenia/). If you are from different part of the world maybe you can organized something like this in your city or parish!
Monthly Archives: March 2008
Ecumenical singing in Wroclaw, Poland
Posted in Church, Ecumenism, Europe, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation
Ecumenical Youth Gathering in Rwanda begins!
The Rwanda Youth Gathering opened today in a colorful ceremony presided over by Bishop George Kalisa of the Lutheran Church in Rwanda, at the Presbyterian centre Itito Isano.
Bishop Kalisa in his opening speech stressed the importance of the gathering since it brought together other youth from other countries. Bishop thanked the conveners who made it possible for the conference to be held in Rwanda. He went further to say -‘the youth are the art of the World’, and urged the church to hold such meeting/ conference annually noting that such conference offered opportunity for youth growth.
The head of the Lutheran Church in Rwanda recognized the presence of other youth from Catholic, Anglicans, Presbyterians and Islam who had been invited in the conference. He sighted the conference as inter-faith youth gathering geared towards finding a lasting solution to peace and reconciliation.
Youth can transform the World….
Posted in Africa, Ecumenism, Justice, Youth participation
Tagged Africa, ecumenical, peace, reconciliation, Rwanda
Mission
Every group, business and organization in the USA seems to have a mission statement these days. It usually says something about what that organization is and what it does.
Since its beginning, the church has also had a sense of mission. Unfortunately, our understanding of mission has often not always been molded from the gospel, but from our greed for power. From the crusades, inquisition, and our desire to ‘convert the heathen’, the history of Christian mission is a painful one that has caused the church and the people of the world more harm than good. This is not the Good News!
Even today, mission is understood in different ways. To ask a Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness what mission is, they will say that it is knocking on doors and converting people. Many Pentecostal Christians understand it as seeing how many people you can ‘save’.
So what do we do with this word? Should we, as Lutherans, abandon the use of the word? Or should we stand up and reclaim it, in the way we feel called to do? Continue reading
UN World Water Day 2008
Today marks the UN World Water Day 2008 while 1.2 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water.
The UN estimates that half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon says, ‘When you look at the health and development challenges faced by the poorest of the world’s population – diseases like malaria or TB, rising food prices, environmental degradation – the common denominator often turns out to be water.’
Passion and Easter
This is a time for silence…, to remember what Jesus has done on the cross. This is time to calm down all emotions… and busy doing…. to follow the way to the cross. This the time to forgive and to forget all heartsick, scare and painful mind, to have true-reconciliation with myself, others and also with God. This Passion season let us meditate what we have done and later we will see… God has risen yes indeed God is risen… (Batak Language: “Kristus Nunga Hehe…, Olo Tutu Nunga hehe Kristus”). When I wake up in the morning, I see the sunshine smiles at me while saying: “Go and tell others the greatest love of Jesus, cause you are loved!”
Selamat Paskah buat kita semua (happy Easter for all of you my friends…Horas… in love and pray; Benny Sinaga
Posted in Life
Valentine’s day
I know that the world celebrate Valentine’s day every on 14 Feb. maybe this is too late but I want to share this experience to you all.
Valentine’s Day
There are many stories about Valentine’s Day. But this is a phenomenon that almost the parts of the world celebrate Valentine’s Day every year. Some countries in Asia, take the meaning of Valentine’s Day as the day to show love among people especially to the beloved one, to the boyfriend or girlfriend. Usually the young people do love this moment. They will buy a good present or gift to show love. So there are many shops sell the good things as a present on the Valentine’s day 14 February, are like chocolate, pink or red rose, Teddy Bear, love pillow etc. In Hong Kong you can see all pink color and red color in every corner of the center of the market, street and every where. People in Hong Kong celebrate this moment is so special. In Indonesia also people celebrate this event, in some church the youth celebrate it with some program by reading a story of St. Valentino who died as martyr. Continue reading
Posted in Life
DUST DAY
Dust Wednesday
(Indonesia: Hari Rabu Abu)
We are HKBP as Lutheran never celebrates “Dust Day” or “Dust Wednesday”. But I do really interest in a celebration of Lutheran calendar which is called “Dust Day” and this celebration I experience when I was in Hong Kong. This celebration reminds me about the nature of human being who created by God form dust. So one day in one sermon in my Seminary in Indonesia I preach about this Dust Day to them. Here you are my sermon.
Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken; you are dust and to dust you shall return!” (NRSV)
Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
When I read this text, I remember about one thing that I ever experienced in the past. It is about yearly church celebration in a Lutheran church which is called “Ash Day!” I think this celebration is never be done in our church HKBP. “Ash day” is a celebration to remember that human being is dust. Adam is from dust. In that celebration, as a symbol, they took dust and mixed with oil and then one by one, the congregation came forward and received the blessing from the Pastor while saying: “you are dust and to dust you shall return!” or “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return!” and marked a cross on the forehead of the congregation with the dusted oil. This celebration was so touching to me because, it teaches me about the nature of human being who were taken from dust and shall return into dust.
Posted in Life
Engage: LWF Global Training for Young Leaders, Asia, Bangkok, Thailand
Hello everyone…from THAILAND!!!We are the Asia-Pacific group in the leadership training program. We come from India, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Australia, Bangkok and Israel. The training and staying at the Bangkok Christian Guest House in the centre of the big city!For the past two days we have gotten to know each other and learned about each others countries and cultures.The first day we focused on analysis with simulation games where we were given a situation commonly found in developing countries and played different roles. This was interesting because it allowed us to recognise how actors in a society communicate about issues affecting a community.We have been eating many traditional Thai dishes that have been very tasty and different from what most of us are used of.The markets are amazing in Bangkok and for most of us are inexpensive compared to our home countries. Continue reading
Posted in Asia/Pacific, LWF, Youth participation
Be in one
During the Intern Retreat, We had a ‘Intercultural Talent Show’ performed by interns from all regions of the world.
What I chose to present was the Chinese calligraphy.
For about 3000 years, Chinese people were using a special kind of pen – usually made with a bamboo stick and hair from animals like wolves, along with the black ink.
The picture below is a Chinese calligraphy performed by the interns and staff from various ecumenical organizations – WSCF, ACT, WCC, YWCA, YMCA and LWF.
Intern Retreat in Louverain
Interns from YWCA, YMCA, WSCF, ACT, WCC and LWF spent three days last week in an Internship Retreat in Louverain, Switzerland.
During the Retreat, One of the major focus for us was to reflect on the callings God has given to us.
Facing the beautiful snow mountains, the lake, along with the birds’ singing, I have a precious moment with god. Looking at the footstep on the snowy ground, I was thinking about the footstep Jesus has demonstrated for us to follow.
The thing right in my heart was the mission in the mainland China.
Posted in Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Faith, Life, LWF, Spirituality, Youth, Youth participation
