The stand

From The Economist-

IN THE summer of 1974, a 26-year-old Mayan villager lay drunk in a town square in the Guatemalan highlands. Suddenly he heard a voice that was to change the course of his life and that of his home town, Almolonga. “I was lying there and I saw Jesus saying, ‘I love you and I want you to serve me’,” says the man, Mariano Riscajche. He dusted himself down, sobered up and soon started preaching, establishing a small Protestant congregation in a room not far from the town’s ancient Catholic church.

Half a millennium earlier, a 33-year-old German monk experienced something similar. At some point between 1513 and 1517, Martin Luther had a direct encounter with God and felt himself “to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise”. His moment of being born again was private. The day on which he is said to have nailed a list of 95 complaints about ecclesiastical corruption to the church door in Wittenberg, Saxony—widely thought to have been October 31st 1517—made the private public and, soon, political. A mixture of princely patronage, personal stubbornness and chance led what could have ended up as just another minor protest in a remote corner of Europe to become a global movement.

More here-

https://www.economist.com/news/essay/21730868-stand

After 40 Girls Die in Orphanage Fire, Guatemala Asks Evangelicals for Advice

From Christianity Today-

Earlier this month, a fire at an orphanage outside of Guatemala’s capital caught international attention. Forty children died of carbon monoxide poisoning and burns; the tragic event drew worldwide condemnation.

But the aftermath of the fire has given hope to those who work with the Central American country’s orphans. As the government turns to evangelicals for help, it seems the tragedy may spark the breakthrough many have been praying for.

In some ways, the tragic blaze—set intentionally by children locked in the overcrowded facility—was not unexpected by evangelical experts. In 2006, Orphan Outreach founder Mike Douris told the Guatemalan government that the orphanage’s design wasn’t a good idea.

The government went ahead and built it anyway—another link in a chain of wrong moves. For decades, Guatemala has had some of the worst child welfare practices on the planet.

More here-

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/march-web-only/40-girls-die-orphanage-fire-guatemala-asks-evangelicals.html

With iPhone, pope starts a new era with Pentecostals

From AP-

The video, recorded on an iPhone, lasts less than eight minutes. The message is simple: We’re brothers despite our differences.

Yet, religious leaders say this informal greeting from Pope Francis has reset relations between the Roman Catholic Church and one of its fiercest competitors around the world, Pentecostals.

Recorded by a clergy friend Francis had invited to Rome, the message was directed to the spirit-filled Christians whose popular movements have for decades been draining parishioners from the Catholic Church, especially in Latin America.

Catholics often compared Pentecostal groups to cults and accused them of overly aggressive, unethical proselytizing. But Francis, saying he was speaking from the heart, said in the video made in January he yearned for an end to their separation and invited them to pray with him for unity.

More here-

http://www.thetowntalk.com/viewart/20140405/LIFESTYLE/304050024/With-iPhone-pope-starts-new-era-Pentecostals

CETALC fosters theological education in Latin America, Caribbean

From ENS-

Luisa Salguero grew up in the Episcopal Church in El Salvador. Her late father, Vicente Alfredo Salguero, worked for the church and a plaque bearing his name hangs outside the chapel at the church’s office in San Salvador.

As a teenager, Salguero spent some time away from the church, she said during an August interview in San Jose, Costa Rica, and upon high school graduation she studied law at the University of Central America and later went to work for a multinational computer technology company for six years.
Salguero, 32, said her work as a lawyer left her feeling empty, and she began spending more time at church.

“I felt like I had a hole I was filling in,” she said. “I spent all my free time at the church and enjoyed it and discovered that that was what I really wanted to do. I loved what I was doing.”

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/10/22/cetalc-fosters-theological-education-in-latin-america-caribbean/

Memo to popes: For smash debut, head to Latin America

From National Catholic Reporter-

Before another ocean of Catholic youth on Rio de Janeiro’s famed Copacabana beach – dubbed for the occasion “Popacabana” – Francis this morning delivered another simple, pastoral message, expressed in three key charges he delivered: “Go,” “Don’t be afraid,” and “Serve.”

Today is the final day of the July 22-28 World Youth Day, and Francis celebrated the concluding Mass before a crowd estimated at 3.2 million by the local mayor’s office.

Over the last two days, turnout for Francis’ first overseas trip has rivaled that for John Paul II’s initial outing in 1979, to the Dominican Republic and Mexico, when he drew an estimated 10-15 million over the course of the journey. The experience suggests a memo to future popes: If you want your debut to be a smash, at least in terms of crowds, head to Latin America.

In his homily this morning, Francis urged the participants in World Youth Day to carry its impact with them back home.

More here-

http://ncronline.org/blogs/memo-popes-smash-debut-head-latin-america

Episcopal Church Courts Latinos

From Oregon-

In Oregon, the number of Latino Episcopalians has increased more than five-fold over the past decade. Church leaders say the influx is, in part, because the denomination's worship services look and sound familiar to Hispanics raised in the Catholic Church. But Northwest Episcopal Churches are luring Latinos with a focused marketing campaign.

The 10 o'clock high mass at Saints Peter and Paul Episcopal Church in Portland, Oregon probably sounds a lot like it did when the congregation was founded nearly a century ago.

Father Kurt Neilson leads the liturgy, as he has for the past 17 years. He says attendance at the two morning services has been relatively flat. The real growth is in the afternoon.

A few years ago Saints Peter and Paul added a weekly Spanish language mass, or misa. The English-speaking members of the congregation wanted to reach out to the growing number of Latinos in this working class neighborhood. Neilson says the new service took off quickly.

"These are folks who are very unselfconscious about inviting one another to church," he says.

More here-

http://www.kuow.org/northwestnews.php?storyID=158535358

Pope's Latin America trip skips Mexico City

From Brownsville TX (AP)

Pope Benedict XVI will head to the Catholic-rich state of Guanajuato in his first visit to Mexico in March, and skip the country's heavily populated capital.

The Mexican Episcopal Conference says Benedict will arrive on March 23 in the city of Leon where President Felipe Calderon will welcome him.The organization said in a Sunday statement that Benedict also plans to greet worshippers in the city of Guanajuato.He will officiate a Mass in the city of Silao beneath a hill where a 67-foot statue of Jesus Christ stands.The pope will return to Leon to address bishops from Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean before heading to Cuba on March 26.The Vatican had said Benedict would avoid Mexico City because of its high altitude although it's the country's biggest city.The pope's visit to Cuba is far less ambitious than that undertaken by John Paul 14 years ago.

The 84-year-old pontiff will only be on the island for about 48 hours and appears to have no plans to visit important regional cities such as Santa Clara and Camaguey, both of which received John Paul. He will meet with Cuban president Raul Castro, but the Vatican has not mentioned if he will meet with retired dictator Fidel Castro.


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI will head to the Catholic-rich state of Guanajuato in his first visit to Mexico in March, and skip the country's heavily populated capital.

The Mexican Episcopal Conference says Benedict will arrive on March 23 in the city of Leon where President Felipe Calderon will welcome him.

The organization said in a Sunday statement that Benedict also plans to greet worshippers in the city of Guanajuato.

He will officiate a Mass in the city of Silao beneath a hill where a 67-foot statue of Jesus Christ stands.

The pope will return to Leon to address bishops from Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean before heading to Cuba on March 26.

The Vatican had said Benedict would avoid Mexico City because of its high altitude although it's the country's biggest city.

More here-

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/city-135369-latin-mexico.html