Blog - Page 45 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Engaging Friends Face-to-Face

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:57-05:00January 13th, 2014|Categories: ACT 3, Friendship, Love, Personal|

One of my deepest and most personal core values is friendship. I concur with the philosopher Simone Weil, “Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys recorded by art or life.”

I have learned so much from being in growing friendships over the course of my nearly sixty-five years. My relationships with others are so important to me that I cannot imagine a lonely journey without my true friends sharing my life’s joys.

My friends include a growing number of Millennials (sometimes called the Echo Boomers for the size of this generation, a generation which ranges from birth in the early 1980s to 2004), Generation X (ranging from the early 1960s to the early 1980s), Baby Boomers (my own post-WW II generation, ranging from 1945 to 1964 ) and a few dear (older) friends from what has been called the Silent Generation (1924 until 1945). Most of my G.I. Generation friends (the generation from 1901-1924, like my parents, are now in the presence of Jesus). These friendships transcend wealth, class, gender, race and ethnicity. They push me to think […]

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2014, Part Two

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00January 10th, 2014|Categories: Church History, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Roman Catholicism, Unity of the Church|

In 1935 Abbé Paul Couturier, a priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons, sought a solution to the problem of Catholics and non-Roman Catholics observing the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity together. He found this solution in the Roman Missal as the Association for Promotion of the Unity of Christians had done seventy-eight years earlier in England. Couturier promoted prayer for Christian unity on the inclusive basis that “our Lord would grant to his Church on earth that peace and unity which were in his mind and purpose, when, on the eve of His Passion, He prayed that all might be one.” (cf. John 17:21-23). I think one of the most significant statements written, at least up until this point in the history of this week of prayer, is the expressed hope that this time would unite Christians in their prayer for that perfect unity that God wills and by the means that he wills. Like Fr. Paul Wattson, Abbé Couturier exhibited a powerful passion for unity. He sent out “calls to prayer” annually until his death […]

The War on Poverty Fifty Years Later

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00January 8th, 2014|Categories: America and Americanism, Current Affairs, Economy/Economics, Poverty|

Fifty years today (January 8, 1964), in his first State of the Union address, President Lyndon Johnson proposed a piece of legislation that came to be known as the “War on Poverty.” This legislation was proposed by the president in response to a national poverty rate that had reached around nineteen percent. The speech led the U.S. Congress to pass the Economic Opportunity Act, which then established the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to administer the local application of federal funds targeted against poverty. As a part of Johnson’s vision of the Great Society the role of government in education and health care became federal policy.

Under President Clinton this “war” ended. Aspects of the Johnson policy still remain; e.g. Head Start, Volunteers in Service to America, Job Corps, etc. Some of these programs have worked better than others. But the major aspects of the original program ended in the 1990s. I would argue that the major reason they came to an end was the factual evidence that followed their initiation in the 1960s showed […]

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2014, Part One

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00January 8th, 2014|Categories: Church History, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Unity of the Church|

The idea of a designated period of prayer for Christian unity was developed by two American Episcopalian converts to Catholicism, Father Paul James Wattson and Sister Lurana White, co-founders of the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement. This Catholic order was totally committed to the reunion of the Anglican Communion with the Roman Catholic Church. It was Wattson and White who initially led a prayer movement that explicitly prayed for the return of non-Catholic Christians to the Holy See. Needless to say, such an observance attracted very few non-Catholics. In 1907 Rev. Spencer Jones suggested to Wattson that a special day be set aside for prayer for Christian unity. Fr. Paul Wattson agreed with the concept but offered the idea of an octave of prayer between the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair on January 18 and the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul on January 25. This decision eventuated in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

When Fr. Paul and Sr. Lurana became Roman Catholics, Pope Pius X gave his blessing to the Church Unity […]

The Priority of Christ, Part Two

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00January 7th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Christ/Christology, Jesus, Lordship of Christ, The Church|

One of my deepest concern for Christians today, expressed in my post yesterday, is not widely shared by many in the North American church, whether Catholic or Protestant, mainline or evangelical. In fact, I have discovered only a few single-minded souls (e.g. friends such as Leonard Sweet, Joseph Girzone, David Bryant come to mind here) who are currently speaking prophetically to this concern. This concern is a base line, or a north star, for how I listen to, and process, the message of the church – the heart of Christian faith is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. He is everything. He is all. His supremacy is self-evident if you read the New Testament. My question, the question with which I ended my post yesterday, was: “Could we have substituted a movement in morality and ecclesial practice for Jesus?”

It ought to be a simple truism that a lively concern for the gospel and the Christ-event, as it is centered in the life and person of Jesus of Nazareth himself, is the marrow of all true Christian faith and […]

The Priority of Christ, Part One

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00January 6th, 2014|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Biblical Theology, Christ/Christology, Jesus, Lordship of Christ, The Church|

In 1956 a group of British theologians chose to honor the twentieth century’s greatest theologian, Karl Barth, with a collection of Essays in Christology. They chose this theme because Barth was a champion for high Christology but also because but because the editors and contributors believed the very heart of Christian theology was Christology, the doctrine of Christ. I believe we can learn something vitally important for this decision.

Interestingly, in 1966 the same group, now including English-speaking colleagues from around the world, decided to honor Barth’s eightieth birthday with a collection of essays. This volume was on diakonia, or the service and ministry of the church. The order of these two major works is critical, at least to my mind. First comes Christ, always and in every circumstance. Second, comes the church, its service in mission and orderly arrangement and practice.

Make no mistake about what I am saying here. These two truths – Christ and the church (its order and mission) – cannot be separated. Nevertheless, the first ought to always precede the second in our thinking and teaching. […]

The Sunday Assembly – A Non-Theist Response to Religion

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00January 1st, 2014|Categories: Culture, Current Affairs, Free Speech, Personal, Postmodernity, Religion, Social Networking|

For well more than a century freethinkers, and religious skeptics, have gathered, talked and participated in various forms of social interaction without any expression of formal religion. In 1882 the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago was founded to provide a meeting and fellowship for just such a gathering.

The Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago describes itself as a democratic fellowship and spiritual home for those who seek a rational, compassionate philosophy of life without regard to belief or non-belief in a supreme being. According to their website they value “the importance of living an ethical, responsible, and joyful life [and] promote intellectual, philosophical, and artistic freedom, avoiding dogma and rigid creed.” They also say of themselves: “While respectful of the faiths and traditions we have been born to, we serve as a new religion or as an alternative to religion.” A full-blown description can be seen on their very attractive website.

A new movement, similar in many ways, began in January a year ago in London and now already has over thirty meeting places in the United States. This […]

The New Ecumenism of Pope Francis: “An Ecumenism of Blood”

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00December 31st, 2013|Categories: Current Affairs, Death, Love, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

Vatican Insider is a project run by the daily newspaper La Stampa. The website provides comprehensive information on the Vatican, the activities of the Pope and the Holy See, the Catholic Church’s presence on the international scene and on religious issues. It is an independent multimedia tool, produced in three languages: Italian, English and Spanish and is distributed through the website www.VaticanInsider.com. It boasts a staff of qualified Vatican correspondents, flanked by some of the most prestigious international names in the field of religious and Vatican-based information.

It provides free news and in-depth reports seven days a week and offers its partners exclusive journalistic services, inquiries, interviews and information packages. In the December 14 issue there is an interview with Pope Francis, titled” Never Be Afraid of Tenderness.” This interview includes some insights about Pope Francis’ views of ecumenism and mission. Because of my calling to this specific vocation I share this excerpt:

Question – Is Christian unity a priority for you?

Yes, for me ecumenism is a priority. Today there is an ecumenism of blood. In some […]

The Hope of My Life: “God-Love”

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00December 30th, 2013|Categories: Books, God's Character, Love, Personal, The Church|

If you go to the very heart of what God has revealed of himself to us, looking at the central theme of Holy Scripture and Christian faith, you will very soon discover what is patently clear–God has revealed himself to us as love.

The apostle John writes: “Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8, NRSV) and “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16, NRSV).

The late Chiara Lubich has so powerfully influenced my journey into the love of God. With this influence she has helped to shape the book I am now writing titled: Our Love Is Too Small. Chiara gave her life to understanding and living this holy love like few people I have read and followed in recent years. As I have read her work over the last two-plus years I have come to believe that her experience of this love is the one thing most lacking in our time. Further, when we come to the Christian […]

Pray for Sister Madge and the Mission of Christ in South Africa

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:14:58-05:00December 27th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Current Affairs, Education, Friendship, Leadership, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Roman Catholicism, Spirituality, The Church, The Future|

Sister Madge Karecki is a dear friend to me and many others. Madge knows how to make and enjoy deep friendships like few people that I have met in the last several years. Sadly, at least for her scores of friends here in Chicago, Madge was called to be the president of the only Catholic college in the nation of South Africa. At the end of November she left Chicago for her new appointment. (The photo below was taken at a Midwest Missions Fellowship meeting where I spoke the day before Madge left for South Africa!)

Madge Karecki, OSC, is a Franciscan Sister (Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis) who was born in Chicago, Illinois. She has degrees in both spirituality and missiology from St. Bonaventure University in New York and The University of South Africa. She was a missionary in South Africa for 21 years. Before returning to the USA in her response to the continued call to Christian mission, she was an Associate Professor of Missiology and Christian […]