Lent: Always we begin anew

Photo credit Mazur/catholicchurch.Org.Uk

"So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes." Daniel 9:tiga

Anglicans who regard themselves as 'Catholic and Reformed' face a new dilemma this Lent now that the Anglican Church which provided themiddle way for themdeclared itself to be hell-bent on reducing the once great Established Church of England to the status of a protestant sect on the wane.

John Henry Newman was a committed Anglican who made a conscious decision to leave the Church of England and tread a new path to spiritual fulfilment. Today, for many cradle Anglo Catholics, the way is not so clear cut after finding that their church has left them, creating a sense of abandonment.

ThePersonal Ordinariate launched under the patronage of Blessed John Henry Newman is the obvious starting point for those seeking a new spiritual home in the Apostolic Church. For Anglo Catholics able and willing to make the journey, this Lent will have an added poignancy as they strive to reconcile their 'reformed' beliefs with the demands that separate them from their Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. Failure to do so will leave them effectively un-churched.

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Into Lent

For many Christians Lent begins with the sign of the cross, in ashes, generally on the forehead. Less fortunate Christians around the world from Ethiopia to the Philippines have ashes all around them, their churches burned to the ground often with mosques built on the hallowed ground. There is a good review of the situation here.

I reflected on the horrors being inflicted on fellow Christians after the penitential rite when the celebrant read the commandment:

I am the Lord your God:

You shall have no other gods but me.

You shall love the Lord your God

With all you heart,

With all your soul,

With all your mind,

And with all your strength.

How can the perpetrators of these crimes believe in one God, the God of Abraham? There is a useful explanation in thisanalysis. So why are we forced to support the implied legitimacy of another god by being surreptitiously soldhalal food, even to Church of England schools? The barnabasfund is taking up this fight through its Operation Nehemiah.

Christians can make their mark to assert that there is no other god by signing thispetition.

Keep the faith, spread the Word and have a good Lent.

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Thought for Lent (2)

"Have faith, and let faith be your guide."

Pope Benedict XVI

JESUS of  NAZARETH

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Welby's view

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby                                        Source: Reuters

"In Muslim countries, Archbishop Welby said, ?It is often pointed out to me that only one Muslim country was not colonised by Western powers in the 19th century: Saudi Arabia. By 1920, the world?S principal ruler of Muslims was King George V.? The Archbishop added that western attitudes to the Prophet Mohammed and ?The media perception of the Muslim community? Were ?Often mentioned to me with savage and bitter anger?."

Perhaps if Muslims had confined their activities to Saudi Arabia instead of seeking to convert mankind to Islam the world would not have been fighting against colonisation for 1400 years.

Christians were living peacefully in the so called Muslim lands well before Islam came on the scene. Of course the Muslim community shows savage and bitter anger against Western attitudes because they believe that they are above objective scrutiny.

While Christians journey through Lent to prepare for the Resurrection, Muslims confidently claim that Christ did not die on the Cross and even that Jesus was a Muslim.

Should we agree with that too, wiping out 2,000 years of hope through Christianity?

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Christian leaders endorse Islam

Religious and civic leaders, interfaith Itfa, St John's Wood Synagogue, 2018    Source: Church Times

Acting LibDem Leader Sir Ed Davey appeared on Twitter a few days ago announcing that he was preparing for his first ever fast in the holy month of Ramadan prompting Adrian Hilton (AKA Archbishop Cranmer) to respond:

"Forgive me, I'm curious. Did you fast during #Lent? I'll understand if you did but didn't signal it. But did you tweet about fasting or #HolyWeek? Did you express empathy with Christians in isolation over Easter, the holiest time in the liturgical year?

Along with other religious leaders the Archbishop of Canterbury has made a habit of identifying with Ramadan, eg, here and here. In this year's excruciating contribution here Archbishop Justin Welby implies that all religions are the same with some differences in theology but the god of Islam who demands submission could not be more different to the Christian God who sent His Son into the world for our salvation.

For years the BBC have been squeezing Christianity. This year they have been broadcasting the Islamic call to prayer, the adhan, prayed in Arabic:

Allah is greater (Allahu besar ); intoned four times.

I testify that there is no God but Allah (Ashhadu anna la ila ill Allah); intoned twice.

I testify that Mohammed is Allah?S Prophet (Ashhadu anna Muhammadan rasul Allah); intoned twice.

Come to prayer (Hayya alas salah ); intoned twice.

Come to security/salvation (Hayya alal falah); intoned twice.

Allah is greater (Allahu akbar); intoned twice.

There is no God but Allah (La ilah ill Allah); intoned once.

Dr. Gavin Ashenden, a former Chaplain to the HM the Queen, resigned his position in protest against a Qur?An reading in a Scottish church. In response to the BBC's decision he observed in Frontpage Mag, ?The Muslim call to prayer is a dramatic piece of Islamic triumphalism. It proclaims Islam?S superiority over all other religions, and in so doing casts Jesus in the role of a charlatan and a liar. The Muslim god, Allah, is unknowable and has no son. Jesus was, therefore, a fraud in claiming He and the Father are one.

"Is the BBC, the government-funded broadcasting agency of an ostensibly Christian land, really wise to broadcast a declaration of the superiority of another faith, one that directs its adherents to make war against Christians and subjugate them as inferiors under the hegemony of believers (cf. Qur’an 9:29)? Is the BBC wise to broadcast the cry “Allahu akbar,” beloved of jihad terrorists the world over?"

Nobody is suggesting that all Muslims are evil but people quickly forget the victims of a political ideology that seeks to subjugate others.

In Germany the trial has begun of a 27-year-old Iraqi national, charged with membership in a foreign terrorist organization, crimes against humanity, human trafficking, and war crimes, including the murder of a five-year-old Yazidi girl.

According to the indictment, in the summer of 2015, Taha A. J. “purchased” and enslaved a five-year-old Yazidi girl and her mother, and he and his wife held them captive at their residence in Fallujah, Iraq, where they forcibly converted them to Islam. Taha A. J. beat the captives and one day chained the child outdoors, leaving her to die of thirst in scorching temperatures."

There is hope. Inanother story of "God at work around the world", this time from a man who grew up Muslim having memorized the majority of the Qur’an. He was warned by his grandmother to “Watch out for the infidels, and don’t befriend or associate with them; they are a disease on society.”

He started reading the New Testament and fell in love with the character of Jesus. Within months he had read the Bible in its entirety. When his Muslim family found out that he had become a Christian his uncle called him with a warning: “Gather your family, pack your bags, and move out of the house because your grandfather is going to terrorist groups, and if they find you, they will kill every single person in the house.”

Today, he works for a ministry that "shares God?S love with Muslims, presenting Christ in a way that connects with their cultural background and speaks to their interest in themes of shame and honor ."

Our Christian leaders would do well to remember that "No-one comes to the Father except through me". (John 14:6)

Postscripts

[03.05.2020]

VATICAN URGES CATHOLICS TO SHARE RAMADAN

Throwing in the towel!

[06.05.202]

Food aid in exchange for converting to Islam: violence against the poor, in times of pandemic

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