United Church of Christ minister inspired by Pope John Paul II
The Rev. Jim Peck has an unusual background for a United Church of Christ minister.He was raised Southern Baptist, began his working career as a regional planner and was inspired to become a pastor by Pope John Paul II.
Peck arrived in Chico in May after being called by the Congregational Church of Chico. The church on East First Avenue has had an interim pastor for several years.
Peck said he's glad to be in Chico and excited about his new position. He'll be formally installed at a special service on Sept. 14.
Born in North Carolina, he later moved with his family to Atlanta, where he went to high school and college.
He and his parents belonged to a "non-fundamentalist" Southern Baptist Church, "a wonderful church with a loving, caring spirit," he said. "I got a great education understanding the Bible."
He also developed an open mind, he said, as his parents and pastor advised him, "Don't let anybody tell you it's just one way."
Peck majored in urban studies at Mercer University and then did graduate work in regional planning at Cornell.
He worked in Atlanta for 10 years, specializing in affordable housing. He was employed by the state Housing Department.
In 1990, Peck went to work as an adviser to Colorado Gov. Roy Romer. He had 28 "issue areas" on which he advised the governor. One area was "church-state issues."
"That was a great job," he said. However, he'd gone into politics with the goal of helping people and after a time, he felt he was no longer doing much of that. He began thinking of a different career — perhaps law, perhaps the ministry.
As it happened, Pope John Paul II came to Denver for a World Youth Day, and Peck was given two tickets. He and a friend went and found themselves sitting right in front of the stage. At one point they were just six feet from the pope.
It was amazing, being part of that event, where 350,000 people from all over the world were standing and singing, he said. "This clinched the deal" on a next move.
Peck said he told his friend, "I think I need to become a minister."
The vision he had was of "individual folks acting out of their faith commitments to help each other build a better world," he said.
Peck graduated in 1999 with a master's of divinity from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities.
His first position was as pastor of a Congregational church in Austin, Minn., where he served until moving to Chico.
In Austin, he profited by his involvement with other ministers, he said. "I'm from a liberal tradition, but, boy, I sure have learned a lot from listening to my evangelical colleagues."
Peck said he joined the United Church of Christ before moving to Colorado. "I needed to be in a church that was a little more attentive to social-justice issues, especially race," he said.
Members of his Chico congregation impress him with their seriousness about Jesus' commandment to "love one another," he said. "It's a good church, a good group of folks."
He added, "I like the idea of helping a small church grow and thrive."
The Church is growing in Pakistan
Vatican City, June, 21,2008 - In spite of the difficulties that the Church faces in Pakistan, it is growing, and, by forming priests and laity carefully, it is carrying forward interreligious dialogue; at the same time, by making its services available to serve the common good, it demonstrates that "the love of Christ is no mere abstraction". Benedict XVI encourages the actions of Catholics of Pakistan, "despite conditions that sometimes hinder their capacity to take root", in his address to the country's bishops, whom he received today for their five-year "ad limina" visit. "Whenever we courageously shoulder the burdens placed upon us in circumstances often beyond our control", he told them, "we encounter Jesus himself, who gives us a hope that surpasses the sufferings of the present because it transforms us from within".
In his address, Benedict XVI emphasised among other things the importance of the example of faith that the bishops and priests should offer, especially through their love for the Eucharist. Eucharistic spirituality embraces the entire Christian life, as shown by the vitality of the ecclesial movements in the country, which the pope particularly urged to grow in listening to the Gospel, which will increase their charitable concern for their neighbour.
This characteristic also marks Catholic institutions. "Those who serve in Catholic hospitals, schools, social and charitable agencies respond to the concrete needs of others, knowing well that they are ministering to the Lord himself through their particular acts of charity". "Priests, religious and the lay faithful in your Dioceses, by caring for the sick, helping young people grow in knowledge and virtue, and meeting the needs of the poor, reveal the human face of God's love for each and every person".
AsiaNews
Masochism or self-mutilation, has marked the life of the Church for two millennia
Vatican City - Masochism or self-mutilation, has marked the life of the Church for two millennia. The first was Judas, who thought it might be a good idea to make the person and the message of Jesus Christ more acceptable to worldly powers. Perhaps he did not have the time to come to know and to accept the mystery of God made man for mankind.
Something similar happened following the Second Vatican Council, and after two thousand years of reflection on Jesus Christ and investigation: Karl Rahner especially took a “turning”, - which proved to be a pause and a transformation - distancing himself from earlier epochs, convinced as he was that up to then theological reflection had overlooked, or worse, forgotten the reality of man.
In what did that "turning" consist ?
To be brief: the origin of human discussion about God and divine revelation was not God Himself, instead it was man's questions about himself. Consequently, theology must always speak of man and his salvation, pose queries about the human race and the world. We know this theory met with considerable criticism: I mention that of Leo Scheffczyk, eventually a cardinal and who died a few years ago.
That position did not remain merely a “theological thought”, it became a practice which has slowly permeated many areas of doctrine and ecclesial life. One of the most clamorous consequences was the manner in which sacramental doctrine is understood: today the Sacrament is no longer lived as coming down from on high, from God, instead it has become participation in something the Christian already possesses. The conclusion reached by Häu?ling is that man in the Sacraments participates in an action which no longer really correspond to his need to be saved.
The response to this ‘sacrament’ theory, consequential to the anthropological change in a certain type of theology, was provided by Joseph Ratzinger, when he had to face liturgical deviation which tended towards separation from an act of God which is prior to every human thought and deed; tending towards separation from “before” Jesus Christ. Discussion about God and indeed even worship of God, is possible only because He addressed man first with His revelation.
The Liturgy is none other than the continuation of this Revelation, as Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI wrote in his book “Jesus Nazareth”. Without the “before”, God's descent in the Incarnation and later in the Liturgy, theological discussion and Liturgy can be alienation or a human projection.
Look at the proliferation of essays on liturgical anthropology, which go as far as reducing Sacramental signs, now preferably referred to as symbols, in today's weak sense of evocative but empty signs.
The situation is serious, not only because all this is taught even at a few theological faculties (as well!), but because it would seem impossible to engage in frank and scientifically equipped debate, without being censured.
Seeing that today the rage is to look to the 'East' – at least for the sake of ecumenical correctness – it must be said that for Eastern theology the “anthropological turn” was a wrong turn, and it was taken by Western theology.
The sole fundamental subject of all theology, at all times, is and must remain, the Incarnation of the Word, the human-divine Beginning, who came into the world "for us men and for our salvation”. Mankind, detached from God, has no chance of survival.
Persisting and concentrating almost all our discourses only on man, as it has happened, means God is left out of the conversation.
Guiding us along the timeless path of Catholic doctrine, Pope Benedict XVI is directing attention to God's “before”. This is indispensable, if the boat of Peter is to keep steady in the truth and secure in peace.
fides
Pope Benedict XVI praised the work of the Catholic Church in southern Italy
SANTA MARIA DI LEUCA, Italy — Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday praised the work of the Roman Catholic Church in southern Italy as he began a two-day visit to the impoverished Apulia region.
Tradition holds that it was here that Saint Peter, the disciple of Jesus considered the founder of the Christian Church, arrived from Palestine and headed to Rome to begin the evangelisation of Europe.
"This promontory between Europe and the Mediterranean, between West and East, reminds us that the Church has no borders, that it is universal," said the 81-year-old pontiff.
Benedict also hailed the "generosity" of the port city of Brindisi that for years took in thousands of refugees from the former Yugoslavia and Albania.
The German-born pope celebrated an open-air mass attended by several thousand people under a hot sun at a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary overlooking the sea in this town at the tip of the heel of Italy's "boot."
"Here as in all of southern Italy, Church communities are places where the young generation can learn hope, not as a Utopia but as the tenacious confidence in the force of good," the pope said.
"For the Church, geographical, cultural, ethnic and even religious borders are an invitation to evangelisation," he said.
Local Bishop Vito De Grisantis, greeting the pope, stressed the "need for rapid social, civil and economic development" in southern Italy, "especially to help families and young people for whom unemployment is an ever more serious problem."
The pope replied: "In a context in which individualism is more and more encouraged ... the first service of the Church is to educate in the social sense, towards paying attention to those around you, to solidarity and sharing."
He added: "The Church can have a positive influence, especially on the social level," because it fosters "open and constructive human relationships, respectful of the service of the humblest and the weakest."
Later Saturday, at a vigil with young people in nearby Brindisi, the pope warned against "the temptation of easy profits."
The Church and several humanitarian groups offered "refuge and help, despite the economic difficulties that continue to affect this region in particular," he said.
The pontiff was set to celebrate another open-air mass in Brindisi on Sunday.
AFP
Zimbabwean church groups are in danger of police interference
Cape Town, South Africa , June 10, 2008 (vaticans.org) - Zimbabwean church groups are "in danger of police interference at any time," a Catholic official said after the Ecumenical Center in the capital, Harare, was raided June 9."No one is immune to these raids," Alouis Chaumba, head of Zimbabwe's Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, said in a June 10 telephone interview from Harare.
Chaumba said he is "afraid of what may happen to me and my family and my friends," noting that he knows many people who have been injured or had their property destroyed in the violence that followed late-March elections.
Harare's Ecumenical Center houses a variety of groups, including the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance.
"Heavily armed members of the police, central intelligence and military personnel" raided the center and arrested five staffers, including the Student Christian Movement general secretary, Prosper Munatsi, the movement said in a June 10 statement.
Offices in the center were ransacked and computers, digital cameras and a minibus were confiscated, the statement said.
Also June 9, police "raided an organization that looks after orphans and the homeless and said it must close shop," Chaumba said.
Police are visible all over Zimbabwe, he said, noting that there are "roadblocks everywhere" with some rural areas impossible to reach. Police officers "make you get out of your vehicle and take everything out before they start searching, which can take hours," he said.
The Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe is the national office of the Geneva-based World Student Christian Federation. The Zimbabwe Christian Alliance was formed in 2005 to help the estimated 700,000 Zimbabweans who lost their homes and livelihoods in a government campaign in which riot police demolished homes and vendors' stalls in shantytowns around major cities.
The Student Christian Movement statement said the arrests and raid were aimed at hindering its work, which is "fully geared toward sensitizing Christian students and youth on their rights and responsibilities in the face of a break-or-make presidential runoff" election scheduled for June 27.
In the March elections, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai garnered 47.9 percent of the vote, leading President Robert Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since 1980 and is widely blamed for the country's economic crisis. The runoff was scheduled because a minimum of 50 percent plus one vote was needed to win the presidency in the first round.
A report on postelection violence in Zimbabwe by the Solidarity Peace Trust, an ecumenical group of church organizations from Zimbabwe and South Africa, said, "There needs to be a general recognition that Zimbabwe is sinking fast into the conditions of a civil war, propelled largely by the increasing reliance on violence by the ruling party to stay in power, and the rapidly shrinking spaces for any form of peaceful political intervention."
The report, released in Johannesburg, South Africa, May 21, contained about 50 eyewitness accounts of orchestrated beatings, torture and the destruction of homes and shops.
The Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe said it viewed the June 9 "arrests and detentions as part of the broader campaign of intimidation orchestrated against defenseless citizens," noting that the government "has abdicated its duties by declaring war on its own people and creating an atmosphere of general insecurity among the populace."
It is "our sacred duty as civil society and opposition forces to continue fighting for the opening up of democratic space and justice in Zimbabwe," the statement said, noting that the time has come for church groups "not only to speak but also to act against injustice, oppression and corruption."
Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate -- more than 100,000 percent -- an unemployment rate of more than 80 percent and severe shortages of basic foods and fuel.
Chaumba also said that Anglicans in Zimbabwe "are being beaten up in their churches and are bearing the brunt of the lack of freedom of worship" in the country.
Anglican bishops from Botswana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe said in an early June pastoral letter that members of the Harare Diocese are being barred from praying in their churches, which "mirrors the persecution of Christians of the early church, and in this context we remind the perpetrators that then, as now, God still triumphs over evil."
The people of Zimbabwe are living in "an environment devoid of any resemblance of justice and peace," the bishops said.
They called on perpetrators of "the immoral and criminal activities" to respect the rule of law which safeguards and preserves human life and dignity, noting reports that "people are being maimed, killed, and denied decent burials."
CNS