Blog - Page 27 of 318 - John H Armstrong

ISIS and the Importance of Christian-Muslim Relations in the US (Guest Blog)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:13-05:00October 9th, 2014|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Freedom, Friendship, Interfaith Relations and Dialogue, Religion, The Future|

The recent 9/11 anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers in Manhattan and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. also brought with it, especially in light of the present actions of ISIS/ISIL , memories of the backlash against Muslim and even Sikh communities on our own continent. Those memories underline how important it is to build relationships with people of other faiths — especially in our efforts to help those who are the victims of such violence and to seek together the common goal of peace.

The Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) said as much when it reasserted their commitment to dialogue with other religions and Muslims in particular in a statement released August 19. The committee listed tensions between Christians and Muslims in different parts of the world as a primary reason for reaffirming the need for dialogue.

“We understand the confusion and deep emotions stirred by real and apparent acts of aggression and discrimination by certain Muslims against non-Muslims, often against Christians abroad,” the bishops wrote. “Along […]

Same-Sex Marriage Dividing a Local Parish

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:13-05:00October 8th, 2014|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Ethics, Gospel/Good News, Homosexuality, Missional Church, Personal, Renewal, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, The Church, The Future|

On the same day that I read the Associated Press report that I referenced yesterday regarding the new Pew Research about same-sex marriage there was another report from Great Falls, Montana. This story struck me as one filled with profound pain and difficulty.

Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Warfel of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings conducted a meeting with about 300 parishioners from St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Lewistown on Saturday, September 20. There is a huge controversy inside the St. Leo congregation. Fr. Samuel Spiering, the priest at St. Leo’s, has decided to prohibit a gay couple from receiving the Eucharist unless they take three steps. First, they must legally divorce. Second, they must live separately. And third, they must write a statement affirming that marriage is between a man and a woman. The 300 people from the parish who met with their bishop were said to be evenly divided about the counsel of their priest. (Note: This is not an urban center where large numbers of gays might live in communities.)

The same-sex couple, in […]

Has the Political Support for Same-Sex Marriage Leveled Off?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:14-05:00October 7th, 2014|Categories: Current Affairs, Ethics, Homosexuality, Marriage & Family, Missional Church, Politics, Religion, The Church, The Future|

Has American political support for same-sex marriage leveled off in recent months? A recent Pew Research Center poll says: “Yes.” After years of continual and dramatic growth for the support of same-sex marriage this growth may have slowed, if not stopped. The poll’s authors caution that it is too soon to make definitive conclusions about this new data. To give but one example of the data, since February this new poll reveals that support for (legal) same-sex marriage has declined from an approval of 54% to 49%. The percentage of those opposed during the same period went from 39% to 41%.

The same survey showed that religious influence in America was also declining. Yet most who were surveyed saw this decline as a negative. Interestingly, about half of the respondents said churches and houses of worship should speak out more openly on public issues. And nearly half of all respondents said businesses should be allowed to deny service to same-sex couples if the owners have religious objections.

I think the most amazing number from this new Pew Research was […]

A Week for Christian Unity on a Christian Campus

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:14-05:00October 6th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Unity of the Church|

This morning ACT3 Network begins a new ministry that is, so far as I can tell, a first. It is certainly a first for our mission. I share this news because I believe it is ground-breaking and because I humbly need your prayers. You can read an excellent article about this coming week in the Daily Herald.

Judson University (Elgin, IL) is located about a half hour northwest of my home in Carol Stream (IL). I have ministered in various contexts and ways on the Judson campus for well over forty years. It is a historically Baptist college. Judson is an evangelical Christian university that says it “represents the Church at work in higher education, equipping students to be fully developed, responsible persons who glorify God by the quality of their personal relationships, their work, and their citizenship within the community, the nation and the world.”

The Judson University website also adds, on it home page: “The Judson community experience challenges graduates to be decisive leaders and active participants in church and society, articulate proponents of Biblical Christianity, […]

Chicago Gets a New Archbishop: Does the Media Understand the Church?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:14-05:00October 3rd, 2014|Categories: Current Affairs, Ideology, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I have come to the conclusion that the media rarely gets the “tone” right when it comes to reporting on religion. This is true in reporting on all religion but in particular it is true with regard to Christianity in particular. I have some ideas about why this is so. But none of them involve conspiracies or the demonic. On the whole I believe that journalists and reporters have little or no first-hand experience of the church. They provide honest reporting with an interpretative angle that is often slanted by presuppositions about Christianity in general and the Catholic Church in particular.

I’ve seen this once again in Chicago over the last two weeks as the media has covered the story of the next Archbishop of the Diocese of Chicago, Bishop Blase Cupich (pronounced sue-pitch) of Spokane, Washington. After various television and print media sources said the pope had sent a “message” by this appointment to which Bishop Cupich stated very humbly, “I think he sent a pastor not a message.” Yet the Chicago Tribune headline still read: “Pope […]

Gospel Call – A Unique Event for Local Congregations

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:14-05:00October 2nd, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Gospel/Good News, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

My friend Fr. Tom Ryan, C.S.P, partners with me in helping to facilitate an event three times each year that is co-sponsored by three or more local congregations in a town or city in the U.S. or Canada. The event is offered in both two-day and four-day versions. Please see this agenda outline for more information about the schedule, topics, and agenda offered in each version.

Available dates for 2015:
January 18-21
May 30-June 3
November 15-18

– Read feedback from Gospel Call participants

Objectives:

Provide Christian believers with an opportunity to discover, experience, and express our unity in Christ. The overarching objective of this event is to respond to the Gospel call to reconciliation with God and one another. Whole congregations of believers from different traditions are invited to experience afresh our unity in Christ through worship, spiritual growth, and mission.
Deepen Christians’ sense of solidarity with one another. By engaging together in an experience of prayer, faith-sharing, and fellowship over four days, people come to know one another better and perceive each other as belonging to the same body of Christ. By providing people with […]

An Account of the Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:14-05:00October 1st, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Many of you already know that ACT3 facilitated the recent Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical
dialogue. One of the participants, Fr. René Constanza, wrote a report of our meeting for the website of the Paulist Fathers. Fr. René’s clear and accurate repot follows. Continue to pray for the follow-up of this significant gathering. If you would like to help ACT3 cover the expenses from this event we are still about $3,500 below budget. (We paid for some to attend who could not otherwise have participated.) A video of the public meeting will soon be available on this site.

This gathering was held at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois on September 11-13, 2014. This was a gathering of 13 Catholic and 13 Evangelical Protestant leaders to discern ways in which the Lord is leading us to foster evangelization and His mission. This dialogue is part of the Lausanne Global Conversation—a catalyst in creating partnerships and alliances among Christian leaders committed to pray, plan, and work together in proclaiming the life-giving gospel in a contemporary and culturally appropriate […]

Pope’s Address to the Focolare Movement (Revised)

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:15-05:00September 30th, 2014|Categories: Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future|

The Focolare Movement, which has had a very significant role in my journey over the past three years, gathered in Italy for their annual General Assembly last week. Pope Francis used the occasion to send a special address to the members of friends of the movement. I share the English translation and encourage you to get to know this work better and to pray for the Focolare. The members of the movement have been an immense blessing to me personally.

This translation has been revised and edited by Focolare member, and ACT3 Network board member, Tom Masters. Tom is also editorial director for New City Press, the publishing house for the Focolare in the United States. The first edition of the pope’s address that I posted earlier today had some inaccuracies that Tom has now graciously corrected. An “official” translation from Italian has not yet been offered by the Vatican.

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Pope’s Address to Focolare Movement

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I greet you all, who make up the General Assembly of The Work of Mary, and seek to […]

The Reformation of the Vatican – The Sad Case of Józef Wesołowski

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:15-05:00September 29th, 2014|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs, Ethics, Pastoral Renewal, Personal, Renewal, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future|

Vatican watchers, especially non-Catholics who love the Roman Catholic Church as I do, watch and pray for further reforms that are needed inside the Church. I was pleased to read this week of the Vatican putting Józef Wesołowski, its former nuncio (ambassador) to the Dominican Republic under house arrest on Tuesday, September 23.

Archbishop Józef Wesołowski was born in Nowy Targ, Poland, on 15 July 1948. He was ordained a priest in Kraków on 21 May 1972 by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II. He was appointed as nuncio to Bolivia on 3 November 1999. On 6 January 2000 he was consecrated Titular Archbishop of Sléibhte by John Paul II. During the course of 2002 he was appointed as nuncio to the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. On 24 January 2008 he was appointed nuncio to the Dominican Republic. In 2013 he was identified by a 13-year-old boy as the man who took sexual lurid photographs of him on his cell phone. He was removed […]

ACT3 September Forum on Friendship in Diversity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:15-05:00September 25th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Orthodoxy, Personal, Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

On Tuesday, September 2, 2014, ACT3 hosted its first fall evening forum. Our subject was Christian diversity and deep friendship. I invited an Orthodox priest, Fr. Wilbur Ellsworth, and a Catholic author and editor, Tom Masters, to join me for a dialogue about how we share deep friendship and still remain committed to very different Christian traditions: Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox.

Fr. Ellsworth was a Baptist minister for decades before entering the Orthodox Church about seven years ago. He has been my friend for decades and is the former chairman of the ACT3 Network board of directors. He now pastors Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church in Warrenville, Illinois. Mr. Tom Masters is a life-long Catholic, a former teacher and the editorial director of New City Press, the publishing house of the Focolare a lay-Catholic movement I have shared a great deal with in recent years. Tom currently serves on the ACT3 board.

I, as most of you already know, am an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America (RCA). I do not currently pastor a stated congregation but […]