Blog - Page 62 of 318 - John H Armstrong

Day Two of the Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation in Mundelein

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:41-05:00April 24th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Culture, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional-Ecumenism, Mysticism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, Unity of the Church|

On the second day of our Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation last week we spent Friday morning sharing, praying and seeking to love one another as new friends in Christ. In a group of twenty-five people, many of whom only met the day before, this is not easy to do. Indeed, at one level this effort can only go so far. But we began to sense the presence of the Spirit in our deliberations as time went along. The night before many of us had shared with one another until late in the evening over food and drink. (Some of the Protestants were amazed that a bar was a staple in this Catholic retreat context!) This beautiful evening of conversation helped to get us talking. This conversation clearly carried over into Friday morning. After we shared another meal at breakfast we went into our large circle. We then had a long break at 11:00 a.m.

Before lunch we were all invited to chapel for a Mass led by Francis Cardinal George. It was a twenty-fifth anniversary celebration for the class of 1988. The chapel was packed with students, faculty, […]

Talking Points from Our Catholic-Evangelical Conversation in Mundelein

By John Armstrong|2013-04-23T04:00:36-05:00April 23rd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Current Affairs, Discipleship, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

In our Catholic-Evangelical Conversation at Mundelein Seminary last week Doug Birdsall, the former chairman of the Lausanne Movement, helped us to focus our attention on the major purpose of our gathering by reiterating the six core principles of the Lausanne Movement that came out of the global Cape Town gathering in October, 2010. These six are:

The uniqueness of Christ and the Holy Scripture in a growing global context of pluralism.
Seeking Christ’s way of reconciliation in a broken world.
Unity and partnership between all Christians.
The great need for Christian humility, integrity and simplicity (H.I. S.)
The reality and power of globalization.
Our response to other faiths as faithful witnesses to Christ as Lord.

Doug reminded us that when these six principles were shared with Catholics, and leaders from the Orthodox Church, at Cape Town again and again they spoke of their agreement. Cardinal Kasper made it clear these were his priorities as a Catholic leader.

One of the major things we discussed in Mundelein was what we called “The Christian Moment.” We believe that the church faces a series of challenges like never before yet we also believe the opportunities we have […]

The Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation: A Report

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:41-05:00April 22nd, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Current Affairs, Evangelism, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Many of you prayed for me and the twenty-four people who shared with me in our first ever Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation on the campus of Mundelein Seminary held last week, April 18-20. I begin today’s blog with a huge, heart-felt “thanks” to everyone who interceded for me, and this event, during recent days. Your prayer was truly important. I do believe that God did bless us with his presence.

We began this unique “first-ever” Lausanne meeting on Thursday, April 18, at 3:30 p.m. We faced a huge problem before we even began. Storms had begun to hit Chicago the day before creating major flooding throughout the region. This changed thousands of flights into Chicago for more than 24-hours, starting late on Wednesday evening and lasting all day through Thursday and into wee hours of Friday morning. Because of this huge storm center we began our meeting with about half of the people who had planned to attend. By the evening about twenty of our group were present and by the next day, at breakfast on Friday, we were […]

"The Landscape Has Forever Changed"

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:41-05:00April 19th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Church Tradition, Current Affairs, Homosexuality, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

On Wednesday, April 10, I slipped out of the National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU) in the morning in order to visit the campus and faculty of Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus. One of my roles, in partnering with Acton Institute, is to meet faculty and seminary leaders in various contexts. I visited three seminaries on this recent trip to Ohio. At Trinity I met the dean, several faculty members and some students. I also enjoyed worship at the eucharistic chapel service at 10 a.m. The campus is attractive and the school’s worship had a very positive sense of community about it. Sadly, Trinity’s enrollment is in decline like that at most mainline seminaries. It faces some serious challenges in the coming years. It seems likely that several ELCA seminaries will need to close. Trinity is engaged in a full-court effort to find a new president by July. (I met the interim president who is actually a member of the faculty at Hope College, the Michigan school connected to my own denomination, the Reformed Church in America.)

When […]

Mary in Ecumenical Perspective

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:41-05:00April 18th, 2013|Categories: American Evangelicalism, Church History, Church Tradition, Creeds, Liturgy, Missional-Ecumenism, Orthodoxy, Patristics, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

I mentioned yesterday that I attended two seminars at the National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU) in Columbus, April 8–11. The second was titled: “Mary in Ecumenical Perspective.” It was taught by one of the leading liturgical scholars in North American Christianity, Dr. Maxwell Johnson, Professor of Liturgical Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Johnson was marvelous. He was engaging, interesting, lucid and very funny. No one seemed bored for one moment and the room was alive. When he was done the questions flowed out of his outstanding presentation. Let me explain, very briefly, his thesis.

While many Protestants believe Mary presents a rather significant barrier to Christian unity Dr. Johnson believes the exact opposite is the case, both in our respective church traditions and in a growing awareness of Mary’s role in Christian life and devotion. A major source for Johnson’s argument was rooted in Martin Luther. This was the strength of his paper since he is a Lutheran himself. He showed, quite plainly, how Luther honored Mary and retained all the ancient-faith […]

The Role of Catechesis, Adult Conversions and Assimilation

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:42-05:00April 17th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, American Evangelicalism, Church Tradition, Discipleship, Evangelism, Liturgy, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

The National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU) adopted as its theme for this year’s gathering in Columbus, Ohio, “What Does God Requires of Us?” (Micah 6:6–8). A variety of speakers addressed plenary sessions including Dr. Karen Westerfield Tucker, Professor of Worship at Boston University School of Theology; Ms. Kathryn Lohre, Director for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious for the ELCA and the President of the National Council of Churches; Bishop Emeritus Don McCoid (ELCA) and Rev. Leo Walsh (Catholic). Nine different seminars were also offered. (Attenders could only go to three over the course of two full days.)

The various denominational networks, listed in yesterday’s post, met during the day on Monday. The opening session of the NWCU was on Monday evening, April 8, at St. Joseph’s Cathedral. St. Joseph’s is the cathedral church of the diocese of Columbus. This magnificent service of worship was one of the best ecumenical liturgical services of worship I have ever attended. Representatives of many churches contributed. The sermon, based on the theme text in Micah, was delivered by the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, the […]

The National Workshop on Christian Unity

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:42-05:00April 16th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Renewal, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future, Unity of the Church|

Last week I attended the National Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU) in Columbus, Ohio. The NWCU exists for “Equipping Church Leaders in the Quest for Christian Unity.” Until the fall of 2012, when my friend Fr. Tom Ryan, C.S.P., invited me to attend this event, I had never heard of the NWCU. What is this annual meeting and why did I decide to attend it in Ohio last week?

In 1963 a group of Roman Catholics, in the context of Vatican II, saw a need to equip local leadership for the task of ecumenical ministry. They held their first workshop in 1964 in Baltimore. The theme was: “Vatican II and the Ecumenical Movement.” Some of the issues addressed in that first meeting were inter-confessional scholarship, evangelism and ecumenism, Eastern Orthodoxy and ecumenism, joint worship, social problems and ecumenism and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an event that has now taken place around the world for over one hundred years. In 1965 the workshop was held in Boston and addressed developments in Protestant theology, religious education and […]

The Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation This Week

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:42-05:00April 15th, 2013|Categories: ACT 3, Christ/Christology, Discipleship, Gospel/Good News, Missional Church, Missional-Ecumenism, Personal, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, The Church, The Future|

This new week might well bring about one of the most important ministry opportunities I’ve every been asked to lead as the president of the ACT3 Network. I referred to a public part of this opportunity in a blog I posted a few weeks ago. Today I would like to tell you much more and ask, with great earnestness, for your prayers. On April 18 we convene the first-ever Lausanne Catholic-Evangelical Conversation, to be held here in the Chicago area. Today I share more of how this event came about and why I desperately need your prayer for me and all who attend.

In March of 2010 my book, Your Church Is Too Small: Why Unity in Christ’s Mission Is Vital to the Future of the Church (Zondervan), was released. At the time it was published I understood that it would never be a big-seller. I also knew that it had incredible potential to touch lives and to bring about small changes that could have wide-scale consequence. I never imagined how my story would unfold through the book […]

My Sisters the Saints (6) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:42-05:00April 13th, 2013|Categories: Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Friendship, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future, Women in the Church|

Colleen Carroll Campbell’s journey to femininity did not lead her to embrace a kind of Catholic “fundamentalism” with regard to the social, professional and economic gains that she had previously experienced because of feminism. John and Carroll Campbell clearly share a marriage of mutuality. They have just as clearly learned how to sacrifice and give up their personal agendas, one for the other. For those on the far right, who think the only way to respond to modern feminism is to throw “the baby out with the dirty bathwater” her conclusion will not satisfy you. At the same time if you want a radical feminist perspective that leads to a profound fear and loathing of men and motherhood then you must look elsewhere.

As Colleen read Edith Stein, and Pope John Paul II, she concluded that men are called to loving communion with others just as much as women. But Edith Stein believed that a man was called, more than a woman, to “action, work, and objective accomplishments. A man is less concerned with problems of being, whether […]

My Sisters the Saints (5) – An Inspiring Journey in Faith

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:15:42-05:00April 12th, 2013|Categories: Books, Church Tradition, Contemplation, Discipleship, Faith, Feminism & Women, Marriage & Family, Mysticism, Prayer, Roman Catholicism, Sexuality, Spirituality, The Church, The Future|

As Colleen Carroll Campbell tried to settle into her new work at the White House she found that she had never been so profoundly challenged in her work but so deeply dissatisfied with her life in general. She writes:

I wanted to blame patriarchy for my conundrum., blame my job, blame John. Deep down, though, I knew something else was pulling me home [i.e. back to St. Louis]. It was the force of my own desires, desires that sprang form a soft, passionate, feminine part of me that I thought I had smothered with résumés and credentials long ago. Decades of perfectionism and compulsive achievement had not managed to kill her off. Now she was daring me to reject the smart move and take a chance on love (79).

Trying to work her way out of this she turned to prayer. She turned to the Divine Mercy chaplet, the prayers that came from the journals and insights of Faustina. Don’t misunderstand. She was reading Scripture daily and meditating in the written words of the Holy Bible. Psalm […]