Author: ppadmin

A Cuban pastor responds to President Obama’s visit

Shortly after President Barack Obama’s historic visit to Cuba, Rev. Eduardo Gonzalez, pastor of Iglesia Enmanuel in Ciego de Avila, Cuba, wrote a letter to his congregation’s “partner,” Northminster Church in Monroe, Louisiana, and copied others here in the US who have visited. Here is the text, along with a brief response of my own.

         “Dear brothers and sisters

         “For many years our brothers and sisters from Northminster Church have been asked by their fellow citizens what kind of mission work they come to Cuba to do. It has been hard for their inquirers to understand that they do not come to build schools, because we have schools and education, available for everyone, that they do not come to do medical work, because we have free medical service, that they do not come to evangelize, in the traditional sense of the word, because we have pastors and preachers that can do that.

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My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

New lyrics to an old hymn

by Ken Sehested

My Shepherd will supply my need; Beloved is God’s name
In pasture’s fresh now I shall feed, Beside the living stream
You bring my wandering spirit back, When I forsake the Way
You gather me, for mercy’s sake, In paths of truth and grace

When shadows cast the shade of death Your presence is my stay
One word of Your supporting breath Drives all my fears away
Your hand, in sight of all my foes, Does still my table spread
My cup with blessings overflows, Your oil anoints my head

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  1 April 2016  •  No. 66

Abbreviated issue

This edition of “Signs of the Times,” (and next week’s) is abbreviated to clear space for hiking in Arches National Park in Utah. (You’ll be jealous when you view these National Geographic’s photos of the park.)

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Weeping may linger

A litany for worship inspired by Psalm 30

by Ken Sehested

Discard your reluctance, you saints and you sinners:
Shout vowels of praise, sing consonants of delight.

On you, Dear Beloved, have I cast my care and
entrusted my fare. Let none rejoice over my sorrow;
let none reprise my grief.

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Easter’s affection

May Easter’s affection
spawn many children
who know
            despite the trouble
            the toil
            the rubble strewn soil
the way of the cross leads home.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

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Both enchantment and chore

A poem about vocation

by Ken Sehested

Our vocation entails both enchantment and chore;
beatific vision and mundane devotion;
reverent rapture and disciplined restraint;
the dissolution of the ego’s ravenous edge and
discovery of the true self’s Center,
which combined provide
the joyful and fearless freedom necessary
to live in Creation’s broken and bruised places
to declare that another world
is not only possible
but is promised.

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  21 March 2016  •  No. 65

Special "Good Friday" edition

¶ Recommended music for Good Friday. Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony, Opus 36 (“Symphony of Sorrowful Songs”), second movement (“Lento e Largo,” 9:10).
        “No, Mother, do not weep, / Most chaste Queen of Heaven / Support me always.”
        This is the opening line to the Polish prayer to the Virgin Mary. The prayer was inscribed on wall 3 of cell no. 3 in the basement of the "Palace," the Nazi German Gestapo's headquarters in Zadopane, Poland. Beneath is the signature of Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna, and the words "18 years old, imprisoned since 26 September 1944."
        You can listen to the entire symphony here. (56:13)

 

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Prisoners of hope

Letter to a friend kidnapped in Iraq

by Ken Sehested

Introduction: On 27 November 2005 a group of four members of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) were kidnapped by a jihadist group following a meeting in a mosque in Baghdad, Iraq. One of the four was a personal friend, Norman Kember, a 74-year-old peace activist from England. I wrote the reflection below the next day. Having traveled in Iraq twice, once with CPT shortly before the 2013 US invasion, I took the news pretty hard.

Right. CPT kidnap victims (l-r): Tom Fox from the US, Norman Kember from the UK,  and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Singh Sooden.

I NEARLY GAGGED ON MY GRANOLA  when I saw your name, about 10 paragraphs into a story summarizing the weekend’s violent episodes in Iraq. Having been among the references for your application some months ago to join the delegation, I knew, but had almost forgotten, you were there.

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News, views, notes, and quotes

Signs of the Times  •  21 March 2016  •  No. 64

Early and abbreviated issue

This edition of “Signs of the Times” is both early and abbreviated—to clear space for another major writing assignment followed by hiking in Arches National Park in Utah. (You’ll be jealous when you view these National Geographic’s photos of the park.)
        This week’s edition, and those of the next two weeks, will be brief.

Call to worship. “Easter resurrection is never as assured / as the arrival of Easter bunnies. / Clothiers and chocolate-makers alike yearn / for the season no less than every cleric. / And yet, in my experience, the Spirit / rarely blows according to the calendar, / much less on demand.” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Easter’s aftermath”

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Christ has risen

A litany for Easter morning, inspired by Psalm 118

by Ken Sehested

Leader: Let all that breathes declare the good news.

Children (arms raised): Christ has risen!

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