~ Members of the Hindustani Covenant Church (HCC) in India are living in refugee camps established after Hindu extremists attacked their villages and church buildings. Covenant World Relief (US/Canada) has jumped in to help with relief. -- Link
The HCC is an interesting group. Started by the Mission (Covenant) Church in Sweden in the 1930's, they are a holistic witness in one of the poorest parts of India.
~ Woe be the spiritual elitists -- Rich Mouw on the upside of spiritual consumerism -- Link
~ Orange County's new $480 million microfiltration system that turns sewage into drinking water -- Link
~ The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has decided to join the Covenant -- sorta. They want every one of their 6,000 congregations to plant another. The goal of doubling in size isn't unrealistic but the goal of each congregation planting a new church is. It's more likely that 5% of the churches will plant at some point and those new congregations will do the multiplication -- if they don't get caught up in the LCMS infighting that seems to be a part of the denominational DNA. I think it was Samuel Shoemaker, the great 20th century Episcopal rector (and co-founder of AA), who said, you don't want to leave newborn chicks under a dead hen.
~ "A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon..." -- Link
The Guam EPA needs to talk these guys into setting up an operation on the island. There is so much vegetative debris here that there is an unending source of biomass.
I suppose that the Iowa corn farmers aren't going to be too happy about this.
1 comment:
The difference between a catholic deciding to become a Franciscan or a Dominican and a Protestant deciding to serve a Charismatic or a Reformed congregation is that Catholicism, by its very nature, is "both-and;" and Protestantism, by its very nature, is "either-or."
Both-and allows for unity in diversity; either or only allows for diversity.
As Louis Bouyer, himself a former Lutheran, point out, for Catholicism, it is both scripture and tradition; both faith and reason, both grace and works. But for us as Protestants, if we are true to our birth, it is sola scriptura; sola fides, sola gratia.
There is no "universal" to subsume the individuals for us as protestants. Denominations are the closest thing we have, and they are straining under the burden.
For the Catholic above, his decision is analogous to deciding whether to be a "cat" or a "dog." Cats are notexactly the same as dogs, but either way, both are animals with fur and four legs. For the genuine Protestant, the decision must be categorical: either be a cat or a snowtire; either be Reformed or Charismatic.
It is my deepest hope that before I die, we protestants will have discovered the poverty of either-or theology and eccelsiology. Indeed, I was amazed to read an article in the Feb. 2008 issue of CT suggesting as much. See "The Future Lies in the Past," by Christ Armstrong.
The lines are getting blurry, making "either-or" thinking difficult. But this doesn't mean everything necessarily collapses into a monism. Distinctions are possible, they just aren't debilitating.
Is 21st century Protestantism in the process of withering away, like Karl Marx had hoped would happen to the 19th century State? Are we ready to move from "either-ors" to "both-ands?"
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