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Zimbabwe opposition fears vote-rigging
Zimbabwe's election commission today began releasing a trickle of results from Saturday's presidential and parliamentary elections as the opposition voiced fears that the count was being manipulated in favour of the president, Robert Mugabe.
The Guardian
Okay, so what was I really doing during "Earth Hour"?
BTW, if you are really stuck as to how to set up some basic mixing, try this site.
No, not this kind, the other kind. For the pilgrims looking for a few extra links with background and some local info for our Footsteps of St Paul pilgrimage next month, there are a few links up here. I'll be adding a few more this week as well.
Concept of Exile in Ancient Israel & its Contexts
A Workshop: Dept of History and Classics
Ludwig-Maximilians Universität, Munich & University of Alberta, Edmonton
April 7-11, 2008 at the University of Alberta
Dept info page here.
This workshop brings together scholars from the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) and the University of Alberta, along with colleagues from other European and Canadian universities. This workshop is part of a newly founded cooperation between LMU and the UofA and is conceived as the first of two workshops. The second is planned for Munich (2009).
As Tyler said, consider this an invitation.
When I’m talking to people about the Gospel I sometimes ask them, ‘What do you think the essential message of Christianity really is?’ Far and away the most common reply is something like this: ‘Love thy neighbour’. On this understanding, a Christian is someone who loves their neighbour, tries to be a good person and so on. People will even say to me, “I don’t go to church, but I try to be a good person, and I think that’s more important’.
There’s a basic problem with this answer, and I’ll tell you what it is. In the New Testament the essential Christian message is called ‘the Gospel’, and the word ‘Gospel’ means ‘Good News’. But ‘love thy neighbour’ is not good news – it’s good advice. Quite excellent advice, in fact; the world would be a much better place if people just learned to love their neighbour as they love themselves. I don’t have a word to say against that idea; I just want to point out that it’s not the first and most important part of the Christian message. The first and most important part is not a bit of advice, but a wonderful announcement of good news.
thoughts from Tim
I know, most of you were probably spending your post/Easter web surfing looking for wholesome and encouraging sermons and such. Meanwhile, I had put on the back burner some interesting stuff which has appeared courtesy of the Faith Worship and Ministry Committee:
Making Disciples: the Catechumenate in the Anglican Church
Liturgical Rites and Formation Resources for Adult seekers coming to Baptism in the Christian Faith
The following liturgical rites have been developed from John Hill’s initial work in Making Disciples, by the Catechumenate Network of the Dioceses of Toronto, Niagara and Huron. They are offered here by the Liturgy Working Group of Faith, Worship and Ministry for the purposes of study and evaluation and, where permitted by the local ordinary, use or adaptation. We request your feedback on the rites. They have not been authorized by the General Synod or the Council of General Synod. Nevertheless, the Liturgy Working Group wishes to make these, and any other resources relating to the catechumenate, available in order to stimulate reflection on processes of adult initiation, and the rites related to them.
Catechumenal Rites (PDF file)
Rites for the Baptised (PDF file)
Just in case you were wondering, there is opportunity to give feedback in the following form:
1. Before visiting this website, were you familiar with the
catechumenate and its related liturgical rites? If so, please
describe your experience.
2. What did you find the most helpful in this section of the
website?
3. What could we do to make this section of the website more
useful?
4. Would you be willing to share your stories relating to the
catechumenal process in your parish within a “Stories” section
of this part of the website?
5. Do you have any resources which might be added to this section
of the website? If so, please include with this form if available in
digital format, or describe, including information on how the
resources might be obtained. *Be careful to ensure that any
material you send for web-posting gives account of its copyright
status and information about permissions necessary for such
posting.
EGYPTIAN-born Magdi Allam, one of Italy’s most famous and controversial journalists and commentators who renounced Islam and converted to Roman Catholicism was baptized at the weekend by Pope Benedict XVI in a sermon watched by thousands around the globe including his native Egypt.
A deputy editor at the Milan newspaper, Corriere della Sera, he has built his career crusading against what he calls the “inherent” violence in Islam and championing Israel’s existence. He has been honoured for encouraging tolerance between cultures, but his baptism angered some in the Muslim world with his high-profile conversion in an Easter vigil service led by Pope Benedict at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
story here
Saudi King Abdullah's desire to convene a meeting between Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious communities was reported today by the official Saudi Arabian News Agency.
"I invite representatives of all the monotheistic religions to meet with their brothers in faith," the king was quoted as saying. The theme of the expected conference was reported to be "respect among the religions."
The news agency reported that senior Muslim leaders authorized the idea and consultations would be made with Islamic religious authorities from other countries. The king went on to say that "with God's help we will meet our brethren from other religions, including those who believe in the Torah and in the Gospel, in order to find ways to defend humanity."
full story from the Jerusalem Post
While I had not planned it to be so, I find myself blogging of Dante's final descent into the center of Hell on Holy Saturday. There is a timeline in the poem: Dante's journey with Virgil in the underworld takes place over several days in holy week. In the story of the poem, it is on Holy Saturday that he makes the final descent to the very presence of Satan at the center of Hades. And so, fittingly, here we are.
In Canto XXXI Dante and Virgil make their descent from the malbowges of Circle VIII into the depths of the Well (Circle IX) with the aid of the Giants. These are the great primordial figures of ancient myth. These are the ones who rebelled against the gods, and by showing such uprising against the divine, are now at the entrance to the final geography of Hell. Virgil points out one of the giants to Dante:
"So proud a spirit was this", my leader said
"He dared to match his strength against high Jove
And in this fashion his reward is paid."XXXI, 91-93
The giant is compelled to lower them to the Xth and final Circle of Hell - the frozen lake of Cocytus. Here Dante and Virgil encounter the Treacherous: those who were traitors to their family, their country, their guests, and finally, those who were traitors to their lords. At the center of Hell is Satan, who was the first Traitor to his Lord.
Both Sayers' and Charles Williams' notes capture the essence of the frozen center of Hell:
Beneath the clamour, beneath the monotonous circlings, beneath the fires of Hell, here at the centre of the lost soul and the lost city, lie the silence and the rigidity and the eternal frozen cold. It is perhaps the greatest image in the whole Inferno. "Dante", says Charles Williams, "scatters phrases on the difference of the place. It is treachery, but it is also... cruelty; the traitor is cruel." (The Figure of Beatrice, 143). A cold and cruel egocism, gradually striking inward till even the lingering passions of hatred and destruction are frozen into immobility - that is the final state of sin. (Sayers, 275)
In Canto XXXiii we see that even the traitors' tears are frozen. They cannot even express that most basic of human expressions. All that is human has died - frozen forever.
At the very center of Hell we find Dis (the classical name for Satan), the Devil, devouring the shades of three traitors to their Lords - Judas, Brutus and Cassius. Perhaps we will better understand the placement of traitors to their Lords at the bottom is we understand that the whole medieval society was based upon some form of allegiance to one's lord.
To understand more fully the placement of Satan at the bottom of Hell, we need also remember that Dante knew that the earth is a sphere. In constructing his vision of Hell, he places Satan at the center of the earth - a place where there would be no gravity. And here we might understand Hell more fully if we consider the famous lines from Augustine's Confessions - "my love is my weight". At the center of the earth, at the bottom of hell, there is no weight, hence there is no love. It is a masterful image, drawing on Augustine's well known text to inform the reader.
At another level, while we might think we have escaped the condemnation of the upper regions of Hell, we have all been Traitor to our Lord. For every sin is a treachery against Christ. And so each one of us must, like Dante, descend to that place: we must see what it is to betray (like Judas) our Lord. It is to be devoured by Satan.
(We have just returned from celebrating the Great Vigil of Easter)
As they climb over the huge body of Satan at the center of the earth, a marvellous thing happens: Virgil instructs Dante that as they finish climbing down, there will come a point where they must (at the center of the earth) turn themselves wholly upside down, at which point they will begin to ascend out the other side of Hell. It is an image of the repentance of the soul - that point of descent and then wholly turning its orientation.
Gustave Dore's image of Dante and Virgil walking on the frozen center of the Inferno.
for us he was unto thee both the Victor and the Victim,
and therefore Victor, because he was the Victim
for us he was unto thee both the Priest and the Sacrifice,
and therefore the Priest, because he was the Sacrifice
...I meditate upon the price of my redemption
Confessions X, xliii
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