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Rev. N. J. L'Heureux, Jr., Publisher & Editor
Rev. Pedro Bravo-Guzman, Editor-in-Chief
An Ecumenical Report of Local and Global News
in God's Household
Published by the Queens Federation of Churches
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When ‘Joy to the World' Is Hard to Capture, Blue Christmas Services Help December 21, 2007 – During these shortest days and longest nights of the year, many Episcopal Church congregations are offering services meant to bring comfort to those who struggle to find the joy of the Advent and Christmas seasons. Often called Blue Christmas or Longest Night services, many take place the evening of December 21, the night of the winter solstice, and are designed for people who are coping with loss. Those people hear the Christmas song that describes "the most wonderful time of the year with the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you ‘Be of good cheer'" but instead feel they are living the lyrics of the 1957 hit "Blue Christmas" when Elvis Presley sings "I'll have a blue Christmas without you, I'll be so blue just thinking about you." Reparation Needed to Address Transatlantic Slave Trade December 17, 2007 – Churches and society at large need to offer reparation to descendants of those enslaved, tortured and murdered by the transatlantic slave trade, says an international conference sponsored by three major ecumenical organizations. The three organizations include the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Council for World Mission (CWM). Sixty theologians, church leaders and activists from Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas attended the event called "Abolished, but not Destroyed: Remembering the Slave Trade in the 21st Century" held 10 to 14 December in Runaway Bay, Jamaica. Climate Change Action a Moral Imperative for Justice, Canterbury Says December 19, 2007, LAMBETH PALACE – The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has said that the case for action on climate change is a moral as well as a practical one, challenging the world's rich and powerful nations to act with justice toward future generations and to the world's poorest. In a Youtube video message, delivered to religious leaders meeting in the margins of the December 3-14 United Nations Bali Climate Change conference, Williams said that a purely acquisitive approach to the physical world goes against Christian ethical principles. December 21, 2007, GENEVA – The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko invites churches to enter the year 2008 with the resolve to reclaim promises made nearly six decades ago to respect the fundamental elements of every person's God-given human dignity. In his New Year Message issued in December, Noko cites human rights, illegitimate debt and protecting the earth, as some of the major challenges requiring churches' reflection and action. Hispanic Group Decries Hostile Climate for Immigrants December 19, 2007 – In an open letter to United Methodists, a church-related organization is declaring that a hostile U.S. climate toward immigrants has resulted in "millions of Latinos and Latinas living in fear, threat and intimidation." The letter from Methodists Associated Representing the Cause of Hispanic Americans – known as MARCHA – calls upon United Methodists to remember the plight of immigrants this Christmas and beyond. "During this Christmas season, when we remember the Christ child born to parents journeying in a foreign land for the sake of their survival, we invite The United Methodist Church to join MARCHA in standing against the negative and anti-Latino forces and voices around us," the letter says. Church Holds Christmas Party for Day Laborers December 21, 2007, HERNDON, Va. – Not far from the U.S. capital, where political debate rages over immigration, Floris United Methodist Church invites day laborers in from the cold for a Christmas party. Church members serve a lunch that includes tamales and beans and hand out gifts such as gloves, socks, hats, long underwear and gift cards for groceries. "These are people that are here in our community, and we should not ignore them or dehumanize them. We need to treat them as our brothers," said Mary Ann Kral, who helps organize the annual party, which is held at a local community center. Churches Remember Murder Victims, Pledge Shalom December 18, 2007, BALTIMORE – Three days after Ty'wonde Jones, 13, was stabbed to death last month, his blood still stained the grass and dirt in northwest Baltimore. Police identified Ty'wonde as the 268th of 269 homicides in the city this year, the 28th under the age of 18. Family remembered Ty'wonde as a boy who loved to read Harry Potter books. They said he had begun to hang out with a different group of friends this year in the seventh grade. For the more than 300 United Methodists who gathered Dec. 7 at John Wesley United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Ty'wonde was a name read and honored by Bishop John R. Schol. He was a child of God. Chaplains Reach out to Many at Christmas December 18, 2007, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Christian Reformed Church chaplains will be ministering this holiday season to people facing many challenges in a wide range of settings. Chaplains will, for instance, be reaching out to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, prisoners in Guatemala, to factory and white-collar workers in Michigan, and to those suffering from depression and loss in California and elsewhere. Although chaplains are active throughout the year, Christmas can be an especially rough time for people – and a particularly busy and demanding period for the chaplains. Britain Celebrates Charles Wesley's Life, Legacy December 19, 2007, LONDON – Three-hundred years to the day since prolific hymn writer, poet and priest Charles Wesley was born, worshippers gathered at St. Marylebone Parish Church to celebrate the life of a man whose 7,000-plus hymn legacy has shaped Christian worship ever since. Like his older brother John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, Charles was ordained in the Church of England and remained an Anglican all of his life. When he died in 1788, he was buried in the St. Marylebone's churchyard. At the Dec. 18 evening service at the church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams, and the president of the British Methodist Church, the Rev. Martyn Atkins, were among those who acknowledged Wesley's substantial contributions. December 17, 2007, LOUISVILLE – Intimate stories of the journey of five gay and lesbian people and their parents, coupled with analysis of what the Bible says about homosexuality and how that has been interpreted, are the foundation of a new film being released nationwide. For the Bible Tells Me So, produced and directed by Daniel Karslake, first premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and is now rolling out in cities across the country, including in San Francisco, Tulsa, OK, and Omaha, NE. In early November, the film was shown at the Covenant Network of Presbyterians' conference in Atlanta, where viewers said they were touched by the poignant stories. Santa's Sleigh Raises Money for Mission Work December 17, 2007, GREENVILLE, S.C. – Dressed in a Santa suit, Mitch Mitchell hops into his makeshift "sleigh" to treat kids of all ages to open-air rides along the streets of Greenville. For a mere $5, the riders listen to Christmas carols and take a spin in a souped-up Chevrolet Astro Van driven by the jolly old elf. Mitchell considers himself a Santa's helper, giving all proceeds of his Santa's Sleigh service to support mission trips led by Buncombe Street United Methodist Church, where he is a maintenance worker. ‘The Great Debaters' Movie Spotlights Black Colleges December 21, 2007, LOS ANGELES – On the 14th floor of the Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel, Denzel Washington sits back in an armchair surrounded by lights and cameras and promotes his latest film project, while also putting in a word for historically black colleges. "The Great Debaters," opening Dec. 25 in U.S. theaters, is a fictionalized account of the remarkably successful 1935 debate team at Wiley College, a small United Methodist-related, historically black school in Marshall, Texas. The film is nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best motion picture drama. The story focuses on four young debaters and their mentor, Melvin Tolson, who taught at Wiley and coached the champion debate team. Washington directed the film and also stars as Tolson, a poet and author. Congregation Turns Parsonage into Group Home December, 18, 2007, GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A wonderful – perhaps even groundbreaking – example of a church reaching out to people with disabilities came to life this year at Westview Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich. Faced with the question of what to do with their empty parsonage, Westview members decided to transform the spacious, four-bedroom structure into a group home for six women, most of whom have Down Syndrome, says Rev. Mark Stephenson, director of the CRC's Disability Concerns office. "This is a good model of what a church can do," says Stephenson. "They looked at their resources and saw a huge need for comfortable, adequate, caring housing for people with disabilities." Supported by a grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Stephenson is working with Westview to help determine how the congregation can build bridges between the church and the women in the nearby group home. December 19, 2007, A self-selecting group of clergy and lay people announced late on December 18 that they had "created the structure necessary for building a federation of orthodox Anglicans in North America." Meeting in Orlando, Florida, the Common Cause Leadership Council said in a news release that the council, composed of three delegates from each of the Common Cause partners, elected Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop Bob Duncan as its "moderator." Duncan is also the moderator of the Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes (NACDP), known as the Anglican Communion Network. Duncan and the NACDP have been major organizers of the Common Cause movement. December 21, 2007 – All editions of the Fresno Bee and the Los Angeles Times on December 22 are scheduled to carry a display advertisement detailing the "historic, continuing mission" of the Episcopal Church in the state's six dioceses. Placed by the Office of Public Affairs at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, the half-page advertisement features websites and photographs reflecting ministries in the dioceses of California (based in San Francisco), El Camino Real (based in Monterey), Los Angeles, Northern California (based in Sacramento), San Diego and San Joaquin (based in Fresno). Due to recent legislative actions in the Diocese of San Joaquin, web addresses point to the organization "Remain Episcopal," and Holy Family Church, Fresno. The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations December 17, 2007 – The Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Ecumenical Relations (IASCER) met in Cairo, Egypt, from Wednesday, 5th to Monday, 10th December 2007, under the chairmanship of the Most Revd Drexel Gomez, Primate of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. The Commission is charged with reviewing current international ecumenical dialogues involving Anglicans, and provincial and regional initiatives towards unity with other Christians. Distinguen Con La Orden Metodista Al Obispo (E) Aldo Etchegoyen 20 diciembre 2007, BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – El Presidente del Consejo de Iglesias Evangélicas Metodistas de América Latina (CIEMAL), Obispo Paulo Lockmann, hizo entrega de la Orden Metodista Latinoamericana – Caribeña al Obispo (E) metodista Aldo M. Etchegoyen el pasado domingo 16 en el templo de Primera Iglesia Metodista de esta capital. Del emotivo acto participó también la Obispa de la Iglesia Evangélica Metodista Argentina (IEMA) Nelly Ritchie. El obispo Lockmann contó a ALC que la Orden del Mérito Latinoamericano nació en la Asamblea ocurrida en 2003 en Piracicaba, en la sede de la Universidad Metodista. Crean Científicos Israelíes La Biblia Más Pequeña Del Mundo 20 diciembre 2007, LA HABANA, Cuba – Un despacho de la agencia francesa de prensa AFP, fichado en Jerusalén, da fe de que científicos israelíes anunciaron esta semana la creación de la Biblia más pequeña del mundo, la cual ha sido conseguida "condensando una versión hebrea del libro sagrado en un chip de silicona recubierto en oro cuyo tamaño es más pequeño que la cabeza de un alfiler." Según el despacho, "Investigadores de Technion, el Instituto de Tecnología de Israel, consiguieron empaquetar las 308.428 palabras de la Biblia hebrea (más conocida para la mayoría como el Antiguo Testamento) en un cuadrado de 0,5 milímetros, dijo a AFP Ohad Zohar, director del proyecto." Contar Las Cosas Como Fueron: Evangelina Corona, Una Militante Presbiterina 19 diciembre 2007, CIUDAD DE MÉXICO, México – La vida de Evangelina Corona Cadena, militante presbiteriana de larga trayectoria es expuesta en este libro de una manera tan abierta, apasionada y sin concesiones, que le hace plena justicia al título de la obra: las cosas se cuentan tal como fueron, esto es, desde una perspectiva íntima, personal y profundamente subjetiva. La Iglesia Metodista De Perú Estudia La Creación De Su Propia Universidad 17 diciembre 2007, LIMA, Perú – La Iglesia Metodista de Perú, a través de su oficina de Prensa, informó la conformación de la Comisión Organizadora de la Universidad Metodista del Perú que tendrá la tarea de diseñar el proyecto de creación. En un comunicado firmado por el Obispo Rev. Jorge Bravo Caballero, con fecha 11 de diciembre, se detallan las tareas que tendrá la comisión. Las mismas van desde el estudio de los documentos referentes a la creación de una universidad, hasta el plan curricular, sin dejar de lado lo edilicio, lo financiero, el apoyo de otras universidades metodistas y la oración. Prisoners in U.S. Suffer Discrimination Based on Race, Gender & Sexual Orientation December 18, 2007, PHILADELPHIA, PA – The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and a coalition of more than 80 prison activists and human rights organizations have issued a report detailing the systemic racism and other forms of discrimination routinely experienced by people of color, women, and sexual minorities in U.S. prisons. The report, issued to commemorate International Human Rights Day, is part of a larger effort spearheaded by the U.S. Human Rights Network (USHRN), which coordinated the work of more than 250 human rights and social justice organizations in preparing a shadow report rebutting the U.S. State Department's (DOS) periodic report on compliance with United Nations Committee on the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), to which the U.S. is a signatory. ELCA Synod Bishop, Other Faith Leaders Urge Reauthorization of PEPFAR December 18, 2007, WASHINGTON – The Rev. Richard H. Graham, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod, joined with other faith leaders and government officials on Capitol Hill Dec. 13 in advocating for robust funding and improved policies in the reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR is due to expire in 2008 and discussions are under way regarding its reauthorization. Lutherans worldwide have been responding to HIV and AIDS in the world actively through advocacy and prevention education, treatment and care for children and families most affected by the disease. December 18, 2007 – Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts Bishop Thomas Shaw SSJE told a Congressional hearing December 18 that "too many Episcopalians did not raise their voices" against slavery "when God would have wished them to do so." "Episcopalians were owners of slaves and of the ships that brought them to this land," Shaw told the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties' oversight hearing on the legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. "Episcopalians lived in the north and in the south and, as a privileged Church, we today recognize that our Church benefited materially from the slave trade." December 20, 2007, SABAH, Malaysia/GENEVA – "Coming from the Munda indigenous people and a theologian, I have always been concerned about issues on indigenous people. This is the first consultation in the Asian region, which really met some of my expectations – carefully chosen and meaningful themes, and dynamic participation – although some people could not articulate their issues due to language limitations [...]" remarked Ms Elina Horo, a representative of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in India, following her participation in a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) regional consultation on indigenous people's rights. A Hundred Participate in Historic 11-Day Nigeria Peace Walk December 18, 2007, GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Amazingly, eighty-year-old George Maiangwa walked for 11 days straight, starting before dawn and continuing until nightfall each day, often holding a banner that read, "The church says no to violence, yes to peace." Maiangwa is the oldest of 137 participants, most aged 16 to 60, in an historic and successful first anniversary celebration of the November 28, 2006, Takum Peace Agreement in South-central Nigeria. The walkers sang and danced their way across 200 miles of dangerous roadways and farm fields, and fording rivers to promote peace in their war-torn communities. Ecumenical Initiative to Accompany Churches in Conflict Situations December 20, 2007 – A new World Council of Churches (WCC) initiative aimed at supporting Christians living in conflict situations around the world has begun. "When one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers with it," Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, general secretary of the WCC said in a videotaped address to experts in international relations and ecumenical partners at a recent consultation held in Geneva, 8-10 December. Many situations of conflict today have some basis in religion, he said, adding that providing support and accompaniment includes finding creative methods to engage other religious leaders in finding strategies that lead to justice and peace. ELCA Supports Relief Efforts in Dominican Republic, Sri Lanka, Mexico December 21, 2007, CHICAGO (ELCA) – In an effort to help meet the basic needs of people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) provided $25,000 after Tropical Storm Noel left 116 people dead and destroyed land on the Caribbean islands. Lutherans provided another $50,000 for emergency relief in Sri Lanka, after a year of intense armed conflict there. Coordinated by ELCA Global Mission, ELCA International Disaster Response channels its funds through international church organizations and relief agencies. Funds provide for food, medicine, drinking water, emergency shelter and other materials for survivors of disasters. December 18, 2007, GENEVA – "Melting Snow on Mount Kilimanjaro: Christian Witness Amidst the Suffering Creation" is the theme of the 2008 meeting of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Council to be hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT). The Council meets from 25 June to 1 July 2008 in Arusha, Tanzania, dates agreed by the LWF governing body at its March 2007 meeting in Lund, Sweden. The theme is developed in consultation with the Council host church. 
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