November 26, 2010 in Latin America/Carribean, Spirituality, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation
The World Council of Churches organizes an International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Jamaica in May 2011. Here are some opportunities for young people: Read the rest of this entry →
November 2, 2010 in Church, Europe, Faith, Life, LWF, Spirituality, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation
by Dénes Horváth-Hegyi
An already five-year-long initiative in Budapest, Hungary, the Thomas Mass (Tamás Mise) borrows for the season 2010-2011 the thematic of the LWF 11th Assembly: „Give Us Today Our Daily Bread”. Rooted from Finland, the youth service uses unconventional liturgical forms to persuade outsiders that Church is able to mediate traditional christian values in a clear, comprehensible and effective way.
The appellation derives from Doubting Thomas, Jesus’ famous disciple who could believe the Resurrection only by touching and seeing. As Jesus finally let him touch his wounds, animators of the Thomas Mass let also participants experience the Gospel not only through the speech and the communion, but through many different interactive tools such as multimedia, creative animations and modernized hymns.
As the „threshold stimulus” of the Youth of today is getting higher and higher in our continuously developing world, Church can not afford ignoring modern forms. Many young people don’t even think of entering God’s house because of the society’s negative stigmatization of the Church which is usually considered as „boring”, „old-fashioned” and „totally not cool”. Also called „the searchers’ service”, Thomas Mass is an amazing initiative to break these stereotypes against the people of Christ. In a country like Hungary, where the Bible’s teaching and the faith were systematically destroyed by atheist ideas during 40 years (in communist times), Christians need to fight against Church-related prejudices after all.
The Lutheran Church in Hungary has fruitful relationships among others with Finnish congregations, and the presence of Thomas Mass shows clearly how ideas from one Church to another infiltrate by brother-like exchanges – without borders. The alternative youth worship is run by the cooperation of six congregations in Budapest, and being brought into effect in several other Lutheran communion in the countryside.
Each time that gathers (every second months) the congregation of the Thomas Mass aims to advocate with his donations a group of indigent people. October’s offering (for the second time) has been sent to children living in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. (The Daily Bread was the first theme of the season – according to the order of words of the Hungarian translation of Our Father, and referring to the Harvest Thanksgiving.)
We, the animators of the Thomas Mass, hope to become with our enthusiasm credible lights of the gospel so that to make „the doubting Youth” experience the salvation of our Christ. We ask the Lutheran youth of the world to pray for our efforts!
Dénes Horváth-Hegyi
is part of the Thomas Mass animation group
based in Budapest, Hungary
July 21, 2010 in Church, Ecumenism, Faith, LWF, Spirituality
After a week in Dresden and a weekend knee-deep in our shared Lutheran history, the participants of the Youth Pre-Assembly arrived in Stuttgart ready to get to work. While some of us are serving as stewards and some as delegates, we all came together yesterday afternoon in the Stiftskirche for a joyful worship service. The church was already crowded with cameras as more and more of our brothers and sisters from around the world found spaces in the crowded pews. In a beautiful, brass orchestra accompanied nod to our collective past worship opened with the always rousing A might fortress is our God. Our first reading was the story of Ruth, who clung to Naomi and promised, “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; you people shall be my people, and your God my God.” In a service full of moments sure to be carried in our hearts throughout the assembly, we affirmed our faith with the words of Ruth:
God creates all humanity with many languages, cultures, hopes, but one in love.
Your people will be my people. Give us today our daily bread.
Christ reconciles those who are far and those who are near throught the cross.
Christ feeds all the hungry at his table.
Christ opens the door to all who knock.
In Christ we are sisters and brothers.
Your God will be my God. Give us today our daily bread.
The Spirit draws us close into an ever-widening belonging. Even the gleaners are welcomed into the household.
Your people will be my people and your God my God. Give us today our daily bread.
We continued to echo these words throughout our prayers of intercession. We were asked to turn to one another and make Ruth’s promise to our neighbor. As we youth continue to bring our message of sustainability, gender justice, and the role of youth in enhancing the visibility of the LWF, let us live out Ruth’s promise.
July 14, 2010 in Africa, Church, Spirituality
By Rev. Jared Magero, Kenya
Karen Bloomquist is an ordained pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, where she has been professor of theology. She has also served as Director of the LWF Department of Theology and Studies. Today she presented a workshop on doing theology contextually.
I commend Karen for giving clear meaning of what it means to contextualize the message of God. According to her, to contextualize is a process of assigning meaning as means of interpreting the environment within which a text or action is executed. The term includes all that is implied in indigenization or inculturation, but also seeks also to include the realities of contemporary, secularity, technology, and the struggle for human justice. She said that theology is more than studying the doctrines that emanates from the bible, is more than ethical reflection, but it is living, dying and being damned, it is to raise questions amidst actions, it is translating what is learnt from seminaries to the present context, adding that theology needs to be dialogical, reconceptualized and interactive.
As it stands today while contextualizing theology, particular social, cultural and ecological situations must be put into account, because interpretation of Christianity’s shape and content interacts with a large number of factors in the context within which they are created.
I accept and agree with Karen that, there is dire need for contextualization in a way that it gives meaning to the present generation. But as Lutherans we have to remember that we are traditional, we are evangelical and we are reformers. We need not run away from our slogan which made us what we are, the sola scriptura which is the norma normans of all our understanding in matters that appertains to salvation of all our souls. In my own opinion, doing theology contextually should not give us room de-link from the truth of the scripture. We need to strive that we give answers to the presently emerging questions and problems without necessarily interfering with the sola scriptura slogan for it is our only pride we have; it gives us our identity.
