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Reflecting on Lent – and on violence against women

February 2, 2010 in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Faith, HIV/Aids, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Middle East, North America, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, Spirituality

Lent starts on 17 February 2010. Here is a guest post by our friend Maryann Philbrook reflecting on Lent. She co-developed a bible study series for the season that you find here and that is highly recommended.

I’ve been thinking about Lent 2010 for a long time.  This is not a season that snuck up on me this year.  The main reason is that I’m part of a team that developed “Cries of Anguish, Stories of Hope: A Lenten study on the Worldwide Struggle to end Violence Against Women.”   (You can check out the study http://women.overcomingviolence.org).

When I told some of my friends at Church here about this project, one quipped that “you’ve found a way to make Lent evenmore depressing.”  Lent is depressing, but it’s depressing because our world is depressing.  Lent is the time when we focus on the sins of this world.  Lent is a time to understand our own complicity to these problems.  Lent is a time where we look for Jesus’ love despite these problems.  We look all the problems square in the eye and say “you cannot win.”

During my research and planning for this project I have learned about atrocities all over the world.  Human trafficking is the most profitable black market industry in the world – with estimations going as high as $32 billion a year with over 27 million people currently enslaved.  On average in South Africa a woman is raped every 26 seconds.  In India there are 21 women of the Dalit Caste (“untouchables”) are raped each week.    In the UK, the police estimate that 95% of rapes are never even reported.  In the US, it is estimated that between 2 and 4 million women are assaulted every year by their partners.   I did this research – I found all this information, yet the image that I see when I close my eyes is a girl in a pink shirt playing in the dirt in front of her hut in the Democratic Republic of Congo while you can hear her father saying that she will have to be a prostitute because no man will want to marry someone who is tainted.  She was raped while gathering firewood.   Her attacker, while jailed for a few months, will go free.  I see her face and her tears every time I close my eyes to think about violence against women.  Hers is the story that I cannot forget.

Yet, as much as these stories are appalling what I am struggling with is my own place in the picture. Read the rest of this entry →

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Become a fan – LWF Youth on Facebook

May 22, 2008 in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Europe, Latin America/Carribean, LWF, Middle East, North America, Youth, Youth participation

The Lutheran World Federation is about community. People from all over the world who belong to a host of churches on all continents say: We belong together. I care what happens to sister or brother in a far away country. We are connected in Jesus Christ.

That is really not a new idea. Christians from the very beginning have said exactly said and Paul put it in a beautiful language for example in 1 Corinthians 12: 14-26; we are the body of Christ and individually members of it. That is true even though we might not experience it. It is true even if we don’t see it.

What is different today is: It has become easier to experience that we all belong to one body of Christ and that we can laugh and celebrate with the other members far away. This blog is an example. Another example is our new stronger involvement on facebook.com.

This week, we have started a page on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/LWF-Youth-The-Lutheran-World-Federation/11307734826

This should be a point were young Lutherans and other friends can meet and voice their interest. They can interact with each other very easily. And it can be the starting point for other activities like starting discussion groups and promoting causes in the Lutheran Communion.

Therefore, please visit the page and become Fan! Then also invite others that might be interested.

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“A Generation of Volunteers” – UN World Youth Report presented

April 4, 2008 in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America/Carribean, Middle East, North America, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth, Youth participation

Yesterday, Francis and I went to the Presentation of the World Youth Report 2007. For the main website of LWF (www.lutheranworld.org) I put together a formal report. Here is it:

“There has never been a generation that was more likely to volunteer and be involved in community causes than this one,” said Patience W. Stephens, the head of the UN focal point on youth introducing the United Nations World Youth Report 2007. She spoke at a presentation organized by the Youth Committee of CONGO (Conference of NGOs at the UN). Youth is defined by the UN as 15-24 years old. In 2007, more than 1.2 billion people belonged to this age group. That was 18 percent of the overall global population and 25 percent of the working age population.

Stephens explained that young people are the least likely to be content with bad living conditions and little opportunities. Communities worldwide could use the immense energy of young people to break through to new stages of development. For this, they would need to let young people fully participate and give them good opportunities. Many young people – including those from poor backgrounds – are willing to be highly involved in community activities.

However, Stephens pointed out if young people are not given good opportunities Read the rest of this entry →

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Annapolis

November 27, 2007 in Justice, Middle East

Only 45 minutes from my home, in Annapolis, Maryland, leaders from Israel and Palestine, along with ministers from other states, will meet and begin their conference on the future of Palestine and Israel and the entire region.  The expectations for this meeting are low, but the hope is that this will help jump start a new round of negotiations that will lead to a Palestinian state by 2009.

As usual, the Palestinians are the underdogs.  The conversation will focus, as it always does, as to whether Israel will actually comply with international law and therefore end the occupation of territories it has conquered.  Somehow, Palestinians are expected to make concessions and agree to relinquish control over territories that they have a right to, including parts of East Jerusalem and the entire old city.

Of course, the United States is not an honest peace partner.  Especially during this current administration, they have unequivocally supported Israel even as it blatantly defies international law by expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank.  Israel has been in violation of multiple UN resolutions for over 40 years, engaging in one of the longest running occupations in the world today.  If it were Iraq, or maybe Iran, then this could mean war.  But if you are our allies, then it is acceptable, and even encouraged.

Read the rest of this entry →

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