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The Weekly News In
Review newsletter is a service
provided by Understand The Times that is a
compilation of the news articles
posted on our site during the previous
week.
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March 3 - No Future for Methodists Unless Change Occurs, Say Leaders
Article: .Emerging Church
"There is no
future for The
United Methodist
Church in the United States unless we can reach
more people,
younger people and more diverse people,"
said
the Rev. Lovett
Weems, a researcher and professor of church
leadership at
Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington,
according
to the United
Methodist News Service.The study showed
nearly
half of American
adults said they left the faith tradition of their
upbringing and
either switched religious affiliations or left the
faith tradition
altogether. Of the 53 percent who left the Methodist
Church of their
childhood, 19 percent went to evangelical churches,
11 percent to other
mainline Protestant churches 3 percent to
historically black
churches, and 8 percent to a non-Protestant
religion. Moreover,
12 percent say they no longer are part of any
faith
group.
"For
whatever reason, a sizable
population
raised in the
Methodist tradition is no longer Methodist. Maybe we
haven't done a
good job of showing what is unique and special and
important about
being a United Methodist," said Scott
Brewer,
director of
research for the United Methodist General Council on
Finance and
Administration, which collects statistics for the
denomination,
according to UMNS.
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March 1 - Palestinians' bloodiest day as Israel kills 61
Article: Wars And Rumors Of Wars
GAZA
(Reuters) -
Israeli forces killed 61 people in the Gaza
Strip on Saturday, the bloodiest
day for Palestinians since an uprising
against Israeli occupation began in
2000.
Israel, which lost two
soldiers, seemed ready
to press home its fiercest air and ground
assault since it pulled troops
back to the borders of the coastal enclave
in 2005. It blamed rocket attacks
by the Islamist Hamas movement for
provoking four days of fighting, in which
96 Palestinians have been
killed.
U.S.
President George W. Bush
sounded more supportive of his Israeli
allies. While regretting all loss of life, his
spokesman said:
"There is a
clear distinction between terrorist rocket
attacks that target civilians and action in
self-defence."
Aides to Abbas
said fighting could
wreck new U.S.-backed peace
talks. Israeli officials said Palestinian
chief negotiator Ahmed Qurie called his
Israeli counterpart, Foreign
Minister
Tzipi Livni, to call off a meeting
due on Monday. But Abbas's aides
said no decision to suspend the process
had been taken.
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March 2 - New Bible reveals God's heart towards poverty and injustice
Article: Social Gospel
The Poverty and Justice Bible, the latest
release from Bible Society, has broken
new ground as the
first ever to literally highlight the more
than
2,000 passages that reveal God's sorrow over poverty
and
injustice, and His command to believers
to act to eradicate
them.Far from being irrelevant,
the
Poverty and Injustice Bible demonstrates that God's
Word has
"something to say about issues that
resonate today", the
bishop
added. "This Bible
connects with
the
very fabric of today's world, with all its problems and
messiness - and has something powerful
to say," he said.
Bible Society was inspired to develop
the
new Bible after Pastor Rick Warren, of Purpose Driven
fame,
admitted that had missed more than
2,000 verses that speak of
God's
heart for the poor despite studying theology and being
a
pastor
for decades. He claimed that Christians risked losing
their
credibility if they failed to speak out against poverty
and
injustice.
Christian leader and commentator
Tony Campolo added,
"Here's proof that faith without
committment to justice for the poor is a
sham, because it
ignores the most explicit of all the social
concerns of
Scripture."
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March 4 - Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher
Article: Misc.
High on
Mount Sinai,
Moses was on
psychedelic drugs
when he heard God deliver the
Ten Commandments, an Israeli
researcher claimed in a study
published this week.
Such mind-altering
substances formed an
integral part of the religious rites of
Israelites in biblical times,
Benny Shanon, a professor of
cognitive psychology at the
Hebrew
University of Jerusalem
wrote in the Time and Mind
journal of philosophy.
"As far Moses on
Mount Sinai is concerned, it
was either a supernatural
cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a
legend, which I don't believe
either, or finally, and this is very
probable, an event that joined
Moses and the people of Israel under the
effect of
narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public
radio on
Tuesday.
Moses was probably also on drugs
when he saw
the " burning bush,"
suggested Shanon,
who said he himself has
dabbled with such
substances.
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March 5 - Pope: Roman primacy is "necessary" in the Church, today as in the past
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Vatican City (AsiaNews) -
The Roman primacy in the
Church is "necessary", today as in the past
it
is "at the service of truth
and charity" and "serves
communion" in the
one Church of
Christ. Benedict XVI made the remarks
during the
illustration of the figure of St
Leo the Great, to whom he dedicated
today's address for the
general audience,
to again
assert the purpose of Petrine primacy and
to recall its existence since the
time of the undivided Church.
The affirmation comes
on the eve of a visit from ecumenical
patriarch Bartholomew I to the
Vatican, and shortly after the
Catholic-Orthodox meeting in
Ravenna, which
acknowledged the principle of
the primacy of the bishop of Rome, leaving
open the question of its
concrete exercise in relation to the role of
the synod.
Benedict
XVI recalled the best-known episode in the
life of Leo the Great, when in
452 he went to Mantua and convinced
Attila, leader of the Huns, not
to continue with his invasion. "It was
a memorable sign of the
peacemaking activity conducted by the
pontiff".
He was
"a theologian and pastor, at the service of
communion and a tireless promoter of Roman
primacy, showing himself an
authentic heir of the apostle Peter, and the
Eastern bishops also showed
in their awareness of
this".
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March 4 - Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu Leaders to Meet With Pope Benedict XVI in Washington
Article: One World Religion
WASHINGTON,
March 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ - Jewish,
Islamic, Buddhist,
Jain and Hindu communities will meet with
Pope Benedict
XVI April 17, at the
Pope John Paul
II Cultural Center during the April 15-20
papal visit to the
United States.The
meeting will
include a papal address,
greetings from
inter-faith leaders and the presentation of symbolic
gifts by young
members of each community.
Bishop Richard Sklba, chair of the
United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee
on
Ecumenical and
Interreligious Affairs, noted that
the theme Religions Working
for Peace
will run through the
meeting, to which 200 leaders have been
invited.
The cry for peace in
our
world calls for
religious bodies to come together, Bishop
Sklba said. This
meeting denotes the Holy
Fathers belief in
the need for religious bodies to stress the goal
for peace which
lies at the heart of all religions. It exemplifies
what must happen
all over the world.
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March 4 - Muslim scholars, Vatican officials talk
Article: Ecumenical Movement - Other religions Uniting With Roman Catholics
VATICAN CITY -
Muslim
scholars who have called for greater
dialogue with Christians began two days
of talks Tuesday with the Vatican to
prepare for what church officials say
will be a historic audience with Pope
Benedict XVI.
The group
includes representatives of 138 Muslim
scholars and intellectuals who wrote to
Benedict and other Christian leaders
last year urging
Christians and Muslims to develop
their common ground of belief in one
God.
Tauran himself
has said the planned papal
audience, which Benedict proposed as
part of his official response to the
Muslims' letter,
could start a "historic" dialogue
between the faiths.
The Vatican has welcomed
the Muslim letter as an encouraging sign,
eager to improve relations with
moderate Islam ever since
Benedict angered many in the Muslim world
with a 2006 speech about Islam and
violence.
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March 5 - United Methodist Church Groups Targeting Israel
Article: Israel And The Last Days
WASHINGTON,
March 5 /Christian
Newswire/
-- Several groups within the
7.9 million member
United
Methodist
Church are targeting Israel
with divestment proposals and
hostile publications.
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The
United Methodist Board of Church and Society
(GBCS),
the church's official
Washington-based lobbying office, is
urging church
members and church agencies to divest from
Caterpillar,
Inc. Their resolution, which will go before the
United Methodist
General Conference in April 2008,
accuses Peoria-based Caterpillar of
facilitating
Israel's destruction of Palestinian
property.
Five regional annual conferences within United
Methodism have
passed similar resolutions.
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The
New York-based United Methodist Women's Division
has published a
children's book containing
anti-Israel themes,
"From Palestine to Seattle; Becoming Neighbors
and Friends."
The booklet portrays
Israel as an oppressor of
Palestinians while
omitting nearly all mention of terrorism.
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The
Washington-based Methodist Federation for Social
Action (MFSA), a
liberal caucus group within United Methodism, has
outdone the
church's official lobby office by
calling for
divestment against ALL "companies supporting
the Israeli
occupation of
Palestinian territories and other violations of human
rights in
Israel/Palestine."
-
The
United Methodist Women's Division also has
released a
mission study for 2007-2008
that
portrays
Israel as
virtually the sole aggressor in the
Middle East.
The study is for use by nearly
700,000 United
Methodist Women's members across the nation.
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March 7 - Israel on alert after deadly Jerusalem attack
Article: Israel And The Last Days
Comment from
Understand The Times:
Last night
from our hotel room in Jerusalem,
we heard machine gun shots
then a
few minutes later the sound of many sirens as police
and
ambulance vehicles rushed to the scene.
Our hotel room was just
two
blocks from the location where this terrible senseless
shooting took place.
Our tour group
had
spent the afternoon touring the Jewish Holocaust
museum and
witnessed the atrocities that took place
during the Second World
War as
the world stood back and watched and did nothing.
One of
the
events that proceeded the Holocaust was the
boycotting of
Jewish
businesses by so-called Christian churches.
A few days ago we
posted
an article indicating churches are doing the same
thing
in our
day. Last night's slaughter near our hotel was a
grim
reminder that we are in perilous times and
that history is being
repeated.
As the Jews are
being
slaughtered the church is once again boycotting the
Jews.
The
Bible indicates this is just the beginning of what to
expect.
Understand The
Times
will do all we can to support the Jews as the Bible the
teaches.
JERUSALEM (AFP) -
Israel went on alert on
Friday as crowds
mourned eight teens killed by
a Palestinian at a Jewish religious school
in Jerusalem in an attack that
threatened efforts to mend faltering
peace talks.
Eight students -- most of them
15 or 16 years old -- were shot
dead late Thursday at the Merkaz
Harav Yeshiva, a seminary in
predominantly Jewish west Jerusalem.
Another nine were
wounded.
A Palestinian from east Jerusalem had
entered the school with an
assault rifle and headed for the library,
where he opened
fire.
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We hope the Weekly News In Review has been a
blessing to you.
In Jesus,
Roger Oakland
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