Rabbis, Muslim, Archbishop to Pray at Inaugural Service

At past inaugurations, ceremonial prayers uttered on behalf of the incoming president drew about as much attention as the flags on the podium.

Not this year.

Barack Obama’s choice of clergy is under scrutiny like no other president-elect before him, alternately outraging Americans on the left and the right as he navigates the minefield of U.S. religion.

“I can’t recall any prayers drawing so much attention,” said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the First Amendment Center who specializes in religion in public life.

Gay advocates assailed Obama, while many conservative Christians were heartened, when he invited the Rev. Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist who opposes gay marriage, to deliver the inaugural invocation on Tuesday.

The tables turned when Obama asked V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, to lead prayers at Sunday’s kickoff for the inauguration at the Lincoln Memorial. Gay rights groups rejoiced, while some conservative Christians wrung their hands.

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Red Cross says Gaza humanitarian situation ‘shocking’

JERUSALEM (AFP) — The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is “shocking”, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said after a visit to a hospital in the embattled territory.

“I saw this dramatic humanitarian situation. There’s an increasing number of women and children being wounded and going to hospitals,” Jakob Kellenberger told reporters in Jerusalem.
“It is shocking. It hurts when you see these wounded people and the types of wounds they have. And I think that in addition the number of people coming to these hospitals is increasing,” he said.

The Red Cross president called for improved access for ambulances inside Gaza seeking to recover the wounded and to rescue civilians sheltering from the fighting, saying Israel’s daily three-hour pause in operations is “not sufficient.”

“It is a positive step that you have a three-hour stop in the fighting, for doing humanitarian work, but it is not sufficient,” he said.

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Scotland’s first Romanian Orthodox Church to open in Glasgow

A church in the east end of Glasgow is to be consecrated as the first place of worship for the Romanian Orthodox Church in Scotland.

Shettleston Old Parish Church will host a special inauguration ceremony at 3pm this Sunday as it becomes the home for Romanian Orthodox followers in the city.

Metropolitan Joseph Pop is flying in from Romania to bless the hall, and he will also bring with him a message from the country’s ex-King Michal.

The idea came from Romanian Daniel Manastireanu, who is training for the ministry with the Church of Scotland in the area.

He explained, “The Romanian Orthodox community approached me to ask for help in finding a space where they could start the first Romanian Orthodox Church in Scotland.

“Having already experienced the warm hospitality of Glasgow churches, I appealed to Shettleston Old Parish Church for help in this matter.

“I was overjoyed to see the minister and the elders taking on this challenge with great enthusiasm and desire to be helpful and welcoming to a migrant community in their church buildings.”

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More Americans join Orthodox Christian churches

By Tom Breen, Associated Press

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Greg Mencotti worried he would never find a spiritualhome.The Sunday school teacher grew up Roman Catholic, lost his faith and becamean atheist. Eventually, he returned to Christianity, this time as aborn-again Christian, spending years worshipping in a Methodistcongregation. Still, he felt his search wasn’t over.

That led him to the Holy Spirit Antiochian Orthodox Church in Huntington, W.Va., a denomination with Mideast roots that, like all Orthodox groups,traces its origins to the earliest days of Christianity.

Today, Mencotti is one of about 250 million Orthodox believers worldwide -and among a significant number of newcomers attracted to this ancient way ofworship. The trend is especially notable since so few in the United Statesknow about the Orthodox churches here.”I was like most Americans,” said Mencotti, who was urged by his wife to explore Orthodox worship. “I didn’t understand anything about Orthodoxy.”

Orthodoxy was born from the Great Schism of 1054, when feuds over papal authority and differences in the liturgy split Christianity into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox halves.

In the United States, Orthodox Christians are a fraction of religious believers, numbering about 1.2 million, according to estimates by Orthodox researchers.

In the past, their growth had been largely fueled by immigration, with churches forming mainly along ethnic lines. Some converts came to Orthodoxy through marriage to a church member.

But now about one-third of all U.S. Orthodox priests are converts – and that number is likely to grow, according to Alexei D. Krindatch, research director at the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, Calif.

A 2006 survey of the four Orthodox seminaries in the country found thatabout 43% of seminarians are converts, Krindatch said.

There are no exact figures on the rate of conversion across the 22 separate U.S. Orthodox jurisdictions. But when Mencotti began attending Orthodox worship, the church was packed with converts, including the church’s pastor,the Rev. John Dixon.

The Rev. John Matusiak, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Wheaton, Ill., part of the Orthodox Church in America, said his parish has grown from 20 people in the early 1990s to more than 600 today, with the overwhelming majority of new members younger than 40.

Krindatch’s research found that one-third of the more than 200 U.S. parishes in the Antiochian Orthodox Church were founded after 1990.

Matusiak said growth is especially apparent in suburbs and commuter towns.”

People in Wheaton weren’t flocking to Orthodoxy, because there was never a church here,” Matusiak said.

Many converts credit the beauty of the liturgy and the durability of the theology, which can be a comfort to those seeking shelter from divisive battles over biblical interpretation in other Christian traditions.

Dixon, who was raised an Old Regular Baptist, an austere faith of the Southern Appalachians, said his conversion grew from his studies about the origins of Christianity as an undergraduate at Marshall University. The turning point came when he first attended services at an Orthodox church.

“As soon as I came in that day,” he says, “I knew I was home.”Convert-fueled growth, though, has its challenges.

Like converts in all faiths, the newly Orthodox bring a zeal that can be unsettling for those born into the church, who tend to be more easygoing in their religious observance. Parishes run the risk of dividing between new and life long parishioners, Krindatch says.

“Converts to Orthodoxy form their own little quasi-seminary and it’s almost a closed group,” says the Rev. Joseph Huneycutt, associate pastor of St.George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Houston, who was raised Southern Baptist then became Orthodox.

And some worry about converts’ impact on the churches. They are entering the parishes at a time when many lay activists across Orthodox denominations are pushing church leaders to let go of ethnic divisions and pool resources so they can better evangelize in the United States.

Huneycutt, author of One Flew Over the Onion Dome, a book about conversion, and the editor of OrthoDixie, a blog about Orthodoxy in the South, said he was drawn to the faith by the beauty of its rituals and its teachings.

On his first visit, he said the church was filled with the smell of incense and the sound of the chanted Divine Liturgy. The altar was largely concealed by the iconostasis, a large screen or wall hung with icons of Christ, Mary,angels and Apostles. And worshippers received Communion from a chalice and spoon.

“I had become convinced that the Eucharist was the center of Christian worship – ancient Christian worship,” Huneycutt says. “Once I had reachedthat point in my personal walk with Christ, there was no going back.”

A Jew’s prayer for the children of Gaza

There will never be peace without prayers like this one being answered.

Lord, have mercy.Lord who is the creator of all children, hear our prayer this accursed day. God whom we call Blessed, turn your face to these, the children of Gaza, that they may know your blessings, and your shelter, that they may know light and warmth, where there is now only blackness and smoke, and a cold which cuts and clenches the skin.

Almighty who makes exceptions, which we call miracles, make an exception of the children of Gaza. Shield them from us and from their own. Spare them. Heal them. Let them stand in safety. Deliver them from hunger and horror and fury and grief. Deliver them from us, and from their own.

Restore to them their stolen childhoods, their birthright, which is a taste of heaven.

Remind us, O Lord, of the child Ishmael, who is the father of all the children of Gaza. How the child Ishmael was without water and left for dead in the wilderness of Beer-Sheba, so robbed of all hope, that his own mother could not bear to watch his life drain away.

Be that Lord, the God of our kinsman Ishmael, who heard his cry and sent His angel to comfort his mother Hagar.

Be that Lord, who was with Ishmael that day, and all the days after. Be that God, the All-Merciful, who opened Hagar’s eyes that day, and showed her the well of water, that she could give the boy Ishmael to drink, and save his life.

Allah, whose name we call Elohim, who gives life, who knows the value and the fragility of every life, send these children your angels. Save them, the children of this place, Gaza the most beautiful, and Gaza the damned.

In this day, when the trepidation and rage and mourning that is called war, seizes our hearts and patches them in scars, we call to you, the Lord whose name is Peace:

Bless these children, and keep them from harm.

Turn Your face toward them, O Lord. Show them, as if for the first time, light and kindness, and overwhelming graciousness.

Look up at them, O Lord. Let them see your face.

And, as if for the first time, grant them peace.

With thanks to Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman of Kol HaNeshama, Jerusalem.

Former guard on Guantanamo ‘torture’

A former guard at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay has spoken in his first television interview about the brutality he witnessed to inmates.

Chris Arendt told the BBC what he saw amounted to ”torture” and that some of his fellow guards were so violent as to be ”psychotic.”

Daniel Sandford reports.

Watch the Interview Here

Bush, Obama teams hold disaster drill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior officials in the Bush administration and members of President-elect Barack Obama’s staff teamed up at the White House Tuesday for a rehearsal of how to handle a hypothetical terrorist attack on an American city.

During the drill, they responded to a scenario in which transportation facilities and other targets were hit with improvised explosive devices. The exercise was part of an effort to smooth the transition from the Bush to Obama administrations without jeopardizing the nation’s preparedness in case of a terrorist attack, pandemic or natural disaster. The White House said it was a realistic and conceivable scenario, but was not based on any current, credible threat.

“Whether we’re Democrats or Republicans, we will have our policy differences,” Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s incoming chief of staff, told reporters outside the White House before the event. “There is no policy difference when it comes to protecting the American people.”

Current White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten said the Bush administration began consulting with both the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns last summer on a number of transition issues, and started close consultation with the Obama team after the election.

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Patriarch Daniel: Christmas brings us strength to vanquish life’s trials

BUCHAREST, Dec 25.
(AGERPRES).

Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Daniel urges believers in the Christmas letter to vanquish life’s trials, namely the economic, moral and spiritual crisis with which the society is confronting.

The Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church Daniel says that God’s birth, which proves, God’s endless love for people, will bring the strength and hope to vanquish life’s trials.

Here follows the letter of Patriarch Daniel:

“Pious and Devout Priests,

Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ

The way in which the Holy Evangelists Mathew (1, 18-25; 2, 1-22) and Luke (2, 1-20) write about the birth of the Saviour, Jesus Christ, in Bethlehem shows how much God values the family. God the Almighty, He who created the sky and the earth descends on earth from the skies into the piousness of an Infant born not in the house of his parents, but during a journey, and not even in a guest house, but in a manger. The Son of God becomes Man, homeless, a foreigner and a traveller, to bring those alienated from Him into the house of the heavenly Father. All the people, through their passing life, are but travellers in this world, seeking peace in God, Who made them for a communion of love with Him.

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Woman slapped with fine for cursing in Romanian church

ASSOCIATED PRESS • January 13, 2009

BUCHAREST, Romanian — A woman who upset worshippers by swearing during a church service in Romania has been fined $126, about one-third of the average monthly salary in her country.

Police spokeswoman Bianca Albu said officers were called by priests and a candle seller to the service Monday afternoon at the Ascension Church in the city of Botosani to take action against the unruly worshipper.

Albu said the 50-year-old woman was cursing and insulting worshippers at the Orthodox church in northeastern Romania.The spokeswoman declined to repeat the woman’s words, saying only that she was fined by police on the spot for disturbing the public order in a special place by using unholy language.

Little more was known about the woman, including her motive.

Seat 33D

By Dennis J. Martinek

Twenty years ago, Pan Am Flight 103, flying from London’s Heathrow Airport to New York’s JFK airport, was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members over Lockerbie, Scotland.

On the ground, another 11 people from Lockerbie were killed as well, bringing the total number of victims of this terrorist act to 270.

It became known for many things, among them, the largest criminal inquiry led by the smallest police force in Britain, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary.

After a 3-year investigation, murder indictments were issued against Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer and head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA) and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah, the LAA station manager in Malta.

Eight years of sanctions against Libya led to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to hand them over to Scottish police in 1999.

Megrahi was convicted of murder and sentenced to 27 years in prison. Fhimah was acquitted. Megrahi is still appealing his conviction.

Eight seconds after the bomb exploded midair, a twenty-inch hole was punched into the side of the fuselage, by the “P” in Pan Am. The plane quickly disintegrated within seconds.

Not to get too graphic, but to ensure that no one ever forgets the impact of this horrific act, tornado force winds ripped through the fuselage, ripping the clothes off of passengers and turning otherwise everyday objects into deadly weapons.

At 31,000 feet, passengers would have quickly lost consciousness. The outside temperature at that height was -50 degrees Fahrenheit. It is reported that remarkably, the pilot, Captain MacQuarrie, may have been alive when the cockpit crashed.

When I moved to Wayland in the early 1970’s, I went to an elementary School, Claypit Hill School. I didn’t know many people at first, but as time went by, I had a lot of friends, and a lot of people that I wanted to be friends with, but was too shy to talk to.

One of those people I was too shy to approach in the 3rd or 4th grade was a little girl name Mary Johnson.

I remember Mary as being a cute little girl with dirty blonde, curly hair. I remember that her best friends were Jennifer and Julie, and for some reason, every time I saw her, I felt a flush come over me. I couldn’t find the words to even say hello.

As time moved on, I lost track of Mary. We went to different schools, but still lived in the same town, at least I did until the early 1980’s. Then I moved out of state and lost track of Mary.

It’s ironic how you never really forget some things, like the day that Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the cute little girl sitting in seat 33D, Mary Johnson, on her way home for Christmas, was murdered by a bunch of soulless sub-human beings.

Looking back, I wish that I had the nerve to tell her back in grade school that I just wanted to be her friend.

Today, I pray for her and her family.

You can read more of Dennis’ work at his blog Speak Out Southbridge

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