Lent begins today
It’s Ash Wednesday, the day marking the beginning of the Lenten season.For many Christians, Lent is a time of reflection and prayer in the days leading to Easter.
There are an abundance of Ash Wednesday services today, followed by a host of Lenten programs, services and activities.
Here are just a few in the Oklahoma City metro area:
– An Ash Wednesday worship service will be held at 7 tonight at Northwest Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 2828 NW 30.
The Rev. Zena McAdams, the church’s pastor, will preside over the service.
Beginning March 4, a noon prayer service will be held each Wednesday during the Lenten season, McAdams said. For more information, call 943-4477.
– Church of the Saviour will host an Ash Wednesday service and Communion at 7 tonight at 5600 NW 63. This is a special service titled “Questions for Reflection” by the Rev. Jim Newby.
And for something different:
– First Presbyterian Church is offering a free Ash Wednesday tour of the church’s stained-glass windows at 11 a.m. today at 1001 NW 25.
The tour will be about 45 minutes long. ”Lenten Journey Through Faith and Color” will be similar to a Stations of the Cross service. The tour will travel from station to station, window to window, meditating on Scriptures and relating the stories of faith. For more information, call the Rev. Matt Meinke at 525-6584 or go online to www.fpcokc.org. – Messiah Lutheran Church will host an Ash Wednesday service at noon and 7:15 tonight at 3600 Northwest Expressway.
Obama church watch
Curiousity about the eventual church home of the new president still abounds, judging by a quote from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs which was recently featured as the Religion News Service’s Quote of the Day.
“Obviously, I think given the enormous problems that the country faces, it’s quite safe to assume that prayer, even not in the confines of a church, is something that he practices regularly,” Gibbs reportedly told reporters in explaining that the Obamas have yet to find a permanent church home in Washington.
I guess the minute the First Family makes their pew arrangements permanently, it will make headlines.
(AP PHOTO: President Barack Obama speaks at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 5 in Washington, D.C.)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Gallup poll: Oklahoma among Top 10 “most religious” states
Findings from a new Gallup Poll are out and it seems that Oklahoma is among the top 10 “most religous” states in America.
However, Mississippi beat out the Sooner State and eight other states for the No. 1 spot.
The new Gallup Poll, based on more than 350,000 interviews, finds that Mississippi is the one where the most people — 85 percent — say yes when asked “Is religion an important part of your daily life?,” the Religion News Service reports.
The RNS said joining Mississippi in the top “most religious” states are other notches in the Bible Belt: Alabama (82 percent), South Carolina (80 percent), Tennessee (79 percent), Louisiana (78 percent), and Arkansas (78 percent). Oklahoma came in at No. 9 with 70 percent.
Less than half of Vermonters (42 percent) answered yes to the question at hand. New England predominated the top “least religious” states, with New Hampshire (46 percent), Maine (48 percent), Massachusetts (48 percent), Alaska (51 percent) and Washington (52 percent) following Vermont.
“Clearly, states in the South in particular, but also some states in the Southwest and Rocky Mountains … have very religious residents and New England states in particular, coupled with states like Alaska and others, are irreligious,” said Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of The Gallup Poll.
Overall, Gallup researchers found that 65 percent of all Americans said religion was important in their daily lives. The total sample of 355,334 U.S. adults, including respondents with land-line telephones and cellular phones, had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point. Some states had margins of error as high as plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Newport tol the Religion News Service he was surprised that one state — Utah — did not make the “most religious” list, given the state’s large Mormon population.
Following is Gallup’s entire list of states, as reported by the Religion News Service, in order of what percentage of respondents said religion is “an important part” of their daily lives:
— Mississippi (85)
— Alabama (82)
— South Carolina (80)
— Tennessee (79)
— Louisiana (78)
— Arkansas (78)
— Georgia (76)
— North Carolina (76)
— Oklahoma (75)
— Kentucky (74)
— Texas (74)
— West Virginia (71)
— Kansas (70)
— Utah (69)
— Missouri (68)
— Virginia (68)
— South Dakota (68)
— North Dakota (68)
— Indiana (68)
— Nebraska (67)
— New Mexico (66)
— Pennsylvania (65)
— Florida (65)
— Maryland (65)
— Ohio (65)
— Iowa (64)
— Minnesota (64)
— Illinois (64)
— Michigan (64)
— Delaware (61)
— Wisconsin (61)
— District of Columbia (61)
— Idaho (61)
— Arizona (61)
— New Jersey (60)
— Wyoming (58)
— Colorado (57)
— Hawaii (57)
— California (57)
— Montana (56)
— New York (56)
— Connecticut (55)
— Nevada (54)
— Rhode Island (53)
— Oregon (53)
— Washington (52)
— Alaska (51)
— Massachusetts (48)
— Maine (48)
— New Hampshire (46)
— Vermont (42)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Reminder: Churches OK to broadcast Super Bowl
We reported this last year, but for those churches that didn’t get the word: It’s OK to broadcast the Super Bowl game on Sunday.
Lots of churches offer Super Bowl watch parties to bring congregations together and also as an outreach opportunity to football fans in the surrounding community.
The Religion News Service sent out a brief today noting that the Rutherford Institute, which joined members of Congress in challenging the National Football League’s previous rules, has reminded churches that they can host viewing parties on Sunday on large-screen televisions in their buildings.
“As long as they follow the basic guidelines set forth by the NFL, churches can now rest assured that they are free to have football parties and show the Super Bowl game,” said John W Whitehead, president of the Charlottesville, Va.-based civil liberties organization, told the RNS.
The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals face off in Super Bowl XLIII in Tamp, Fla., on Sunday.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the modified policy eliminated past rules regarding the size of the screens on which the game is shown.
McCarthy said the only thing his organization asks is that churches not charge admission and that they hold the parties at locations they regularly use for large gatherings.
McCarthy told the RNS that his New York offices continue to receive calls from churches about the policy. “We had always had calls throughout the history of the Super Bowl,” he said. “It hasn’t been that substantial this year.”
Members of Congress and church leaders objected to the NFL’s previous ban on widescreen televisions. The league had said churches could not hold Super Bowl parties featuring TV screens larger than 55 inches, even though sports bars routinely did.
Last February, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sent NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a letter with a series of questions about the policy, and Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., introduced legislation that would permit churches to show the game on widescreen TVs.
Goodell wrote back to Hatch to inform him of the rule change and noted that the league believed the legislation was not necessary.
(AP PHOTO above)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
A sermon to make you squirm …
How many of us have heard sermons that made us squirm uncomfortably?I’m talking about those sermons that challenge the way we do things or those that force us to confront our apathy on certain issues.
Geez magazine is sponsoring a contest for pastors who preach those sermons that make people squirm.
It’s called the Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest.
The 2009 contest builds upon last year’s “”30 Sermons You’d Never Hear in Church Contest.”
“The world needs bold voices of spiritual depth,” Geez publisher Aiden Enns said in a news release.
”But maybe the message can have an element of holy mischief, a smirk instead of a furrowed brow, and, at the same time, more connection to the pressing issues of the day.”
The Daringly Awkward Sermon Contest invites entries that explore the aspects of social change that make folks squirm, things like privilege, the drunk stranger in the back pew, guilt feelings, or litter in the poor part of town.
The leaders at the magazine said constructing a more fair and compassionate world involves awkward people, pauses and topics, and “we want to find the wisdom in the awkwardness.”
The top three sermons will receive $400 each. The winners plus a selection of other entries will be published in the Spring 2009 issue of Geez. Deadline for entries is February 28, 2009. Word limit is 800.
Enter the contest at contest@geezmagazine.org.
Incidentally, the Winnipeg, Canada-based Geez Magazine is a self-described ”quarterly magazine of spirit and social action.”
Go online to www.geezmagazine.org to see what else the magazine is up to.
(Photo above was taken from the Geez Magazine Web site)
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
New information surfaces about Haggard
“The Trials of Ted Haggard,” a HBO documentary about disgraced evangelist Ted Haggard, has caused a firestorm of sorts for Haggard’s former congregation, New Life Church of Colorado Springs, Colo.
The Religion News Service — and a host of other news media outlets — is reporting that there is a new sex scandal involving Haggard and the church.
New Life Pastor Brady Boyd, according to the RNS, reportedly told the New Life congregation that the church’s insurance company arranged a settlement with a young man who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Haggard, who was forced to resign in 2006 after a male escort came forward with charges of gay sex and drug use.
Boyd told worshippers that none of their weekly offerings had been used to pay the settlement, and admitted that church leaders had long known about the allegations.
“For the last two years, we carried the burden, the weight, of this information to protect you,” Boyd said. “We’ve been diligent, faithful, pastoral, honest … every step of the way.”
Boyd, according to the RNS, said church leaders were forced to keep quiet because of the settlement’s terms, and also because “I have to use discretion, our staff has to use discretion, and sometimes we have to use confidentiality … especially when it concerns people we’re trying to help heal. There’s nothing being held secret here.”
“There’s no secret. I’ve known every single bit of information for 18 months as your pastor. I’ve held it. I know how to handle it. I’ve walked it out.”
The RNS reported that Boyd, who took over after Haggard resigned in disgrace, apologized for the new round of allegations against Haggard.
“It’s been my hope as your pastor for the 18 months I’ve been here that this wound would heal and we wouldn’t have to revisit the unpleasant parts of our past, but unfortunately this week we’ve had to do that,” he said, adding later, “The wound will not always be with us, the wound will not always define us.”
“The Trials of Ted Haggard” documentary is scheduled to air on Thursday
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Obama inauguration: What do Wright and Robinson have to do with it?
Yesterday, the Rev. Kathy McCallie, pastor of Church of the Open Arms, joined me in the OPUBCO video studio to discuss prayer at the inauguration with another local pastor, the Rev. Paul Blair, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond.
I promised McCallie that I would try to find some information about the prayer offered by V. Gene Robinson (pictured at right), the Episcopal Church USA’s first openly gay bishop, who was asked to offer a prayer at the inauguration kick-off concert on Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial.
The Religion News Service sent out excerpts of his prayer, which I share here:
Robinson prayed that Americans may be “blessed” with anger at discrimination and with “freedom from mere tolerance.” Robinson also prayed that God would help Obama “to remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.”
“Please, God, keep him safe,” Robinson prayed for Obama. “We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking far too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe.
“Hold him in the palm of your hand — that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.“’
Meanwhile, who doesn’t remember the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s former preacher at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ? Obama ended up denouncing some of Wright’s imflammatory comments and ultimately severed ties with Wright during his candidacy for president.
Well Wright was in Washington D.C. where he preached at a chapel service at the historically black college Howard University.
According to the Religion News Service, Wright told those gathered at the service that he sees Obama’s inauguration as a sign of God’s providence and the fruit of “the faith of Rosa Parks and the blood of Martin Luther King Jr.”
“The Lord stepped into a scrawny black kid’s ability,” Wright, who is now pastor emeritus of Trinity, said in his sermon. “The Lord stepped into his story and gave him a new attitude. The scrawny kid with the big ears said. `Yes we can. I got a new attitude.“’
Both Robinson and Wright have been controversial for various reasons and yet they have had their say in D.C.
Stay tuned for commentary on Rick Warren and his invocation prayer …
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
How to pray for Obama
Beliefnet.com features “How to Pray for Obama,” written by preacher and author Max Lucado especially for today — Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration day.
If you’ve been watching TV this morning, then you know that Obama’s big day has already begun with much fanfare.
See what Lucado has to say about offering prayers for the new president: “How to Pray for Obama.”
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Finding room at the inn
The Rev. George Back and his book “Christmas Joy: Let Heaven and Nature Sing” came into my life at just the right time.
If you’ve ever had something happen that you can’t quite define as coincidence, you will understand what I am saying.
Due to an upcoming assignment and the very premise of Christmas, I had been thinking of Joseph and his pregnant wife Mary and their search for shelter thousands of years ago.
The phrase that kept ringing in my mind as I have heard the story told through songs and oration, “Is there room in the inn?”
One particular day, it struck me personally, that Christ asks on a daily basis “is there room” in one’s heart for Him?
Then I picked up Dean Back’s book and it opened to the page that included the following essay:
“Baby Jesus as Spiritual Guide”
The Gospel of Luke tells the story about how Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus into the temple when he was eight days old. Many old people like Simeon and Anna came to the temple in order to spend their final days in the presence of God, then to die and be buried in that holy place.
When Jesus was brought as a baby into the temple, old Simeon and old Anna immediately saw what their souls yearned for. They had come to the holy polace to complete their lives, and in looking at this newborn, they saw fulfillment of life.
“Now let your servant depart in peace,” proclaimed Simeon.
What he meant was, “I have seen God’s presence in this baby and now I am ready to be born from above.”
Birth and death, breathing in and breathing out, beginning and end, new and old — all these counterparts belong to one spiritual stream of divine grace.
The treasure of a pilgrim’s soul lies in the immensity of its immaturity. Within this immaturity lies the possibility for freedom, growth and development.
Babies rejoice in spiritual incompleteness; they don’t worry about their weakness and incompetence. A baby enjoys being merely a baby.
Likewise, we should let our souls rejoice that we have so far to grow.
When Mary realizes that she is pregnant with God she sings the first Christmas carol. It is the song of one who is mired deep in a poverty of spirit, but who then recognizes the immense possibility of God alive within her. Like Anna and Simeon who came to die but see abundance of life, Mary sees the glory of god springing forth from the depths of her humility. So it is that Mary sings the words we now call “The Magnificat”:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he regards the lowliness of his handmaiden (Luke 1:46-47).
The spiritual pilgrim will see in the baby a helpful guide. Babies live by grace, not by competence. They ask for food from the center of their hunger.
Jesus teaches his followers to pray to his Father in heaven, who knows how to give good gifts to us. In Gospel parables he urges us to pester God — like the persistent widow who nags the dishonest judge, or like the host who annoys his neighbor in order to provide hospitality for a guest.
Do not attempt to speak to God from a posture of confidence in your worthiness, but from your spiritual, intellectual and emotional neediness.
Like Anna and Simeon, seek God in your dying. Like Mary, the unmarried-yet-expectant mother, seek God from your humiliation.
Like a baby, cry deeply from an empty stomach, to be filled with the presence of God.
——-
Dean Back’s book is available at the St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral bookstore and Full Circle Bookstore in 50 Penn Place.
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
Some clergy still concerned about immigration law
When the first anniversary of
But Pruett, pastor of St. Peter Catholic Church in Guymon, said the law still engenders widespread fear among immigrants in his
He said the anxiety level is such that Hispanic immigrants are continuing to leave Guymon in droves.
“With the possibility of being discovered, there is fear,” Pruett said.
House Bill 1804, authored by Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, became law on Nov. 1, 2007. The law makes it a felony to knowingly transport illegal immigrants, creates barriers to hiring illegal immigrants and requires proof of citizenship to receive certain governmental benefits or a driver’s license.
Terrill could not be reached for comment for this posting.
Meanwhile, a
Still, the Rev. Perla Martinez-Goody, an associate pastor at San Mateo Fellowship, a Hispanic ministry of First United Methodist Church of Pauls Valley, said many immigrants have left her city, pulling their children out of school and heading back to their native lands or other states.
She said the exodus due to fear is almost as bad as deportation.
“It’s sad to watch them dismantle their homes.”
The Rev. Leonel Blanco, pastor of Santa Maria Virgen Mision Church in south
Recently the Episcopal priest said members who chose to leave the state are greatly missed because many of them had been with the ministry for a long time and were heavily involved in the church.
Blanco, originally from
The clergy members said they see the immigration reform law as punitive and uncharitable to hardworking people trying to make a better life for their families.
“I see the faces behind the word ‘immigration’ — women, children, men, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. People seem to forget that,” Martinez-Goody said.
Pruett and Martinez-Goody said they hold out hope the law will be repealed and another solution more in keeping with biblical principles of compassion will be found.
“The immigration system needs an overhaul from top to bottom,” Pruett said. “Hopefully whoever gets in the White House will have the courage to do that.”
Martinez-Goody said: “I still pray that the Lord will touch the hearts of the politicians.”
Blanco said more than ever, he is encouraging Hispanic Americans to vote to make sure their voices are heard on such issues as immigration reform.
“That’s the only way our voices are going to be heard,” he said.
BACKGROUND
Last year, clergy opposition against House Bill 1804 gained momentum as the bill was set to become law.
– A council of priests with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City presented Gov. Brad Henry’s office with a signed “Pledge of Resistance,” expressing their opposition to the immigration reform law, a few days before it went into effect. The pledge, also signed by Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran, was crafted by an
– The Catholic Diocese of Tulsa hosted a special Mass the day before the bill became law to pray for Hispanic families concerned about its implementation.
– The Oklahoma Conference of Churches, representing 16 Christian faiths, issued a statement of opposition to the law on the day it went into effect. Conference leaders said the law was unjust.
– About 350 people attended an Interfaith Vigil for Undocumented Persons at an Oklahoma City Catholic church on the day the bill became law.
– The Baptist General Convention of
Carla Hinton
Religion Editor
