pope francis – UniteBoston

Dec 22 2020

Fratelli Tutti – Everyone is Connected: Brothers and Sisters, All

Sunday, January 3, 2021, 4 – 5:30pm

Online via Zoom

(Registration ends at 3pm on the day of, and the Zoom link will be sent right after that)

Fr. Tom Ryan of the Paulist Center will deliver remarks on Pope Francis’ encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, reflecting on how we can all live out the call to fraternity, social friendship, and solidarity. We could not think of a more fitting way to begin the new year. Father Tom Ryan is also a member of the UniteBoston Board of Directors. Responding to him will be Boston Islamic Seminary President Dr. Basyouny Nehela and others to be announced. Audience Q&A will follow the presentations.

Born and raised in southern Minnesota, Fr. Tom Ryan did his graduate studies in theology at the Washington (D.C.) Theological Union and the University of Geneva. He was ordained a Paulist in 1975, and served in campus ministry at the Ohio State University (Columbus) and at McGill University (Montreal, QC.), prior to directing the Montreal-based Canadian Centre for Ecumenism for 14 years and working in all ten provinces of Canada. Perceiving the need for places where Christians of different traditions could gather to share faith and life with each other as well as with members of other religions, he spearheaded the founding of Unitas in Montreal, an ecumenical center for spirituality and Christian meditation co-sponsored by eight different denominations. He served as its director for five years prior to answering the call of his community in January of 2000 to set up and develop the Paulist Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations.

Dr. Basyouny Nehela holds an M.A. in Fundamentals of Religion, and a Ph.D. with Honors in Da’wa and Islamic Culture, both from Al-Azhar University. He is currently the Dean of Academic Affairs and professor at Boston Islamic Seminary. Dr. Basyouny was previously an Associate professor at Qatar University’s Faculty of Sharia and Islamic Studies, Department of Islamic Creed and Da’wa, a faculty member at Al-Azhar University and Islamic American University, and Imam of the Islamic Society of Boston. He has also served as head, and coordinator of many academic committees covering Curriculum Enhancement, Core Curriculum, Strategic Plan, Academic Activities and Events, & Professional Development. He has taught many academic courses including Fundamentals of Dawa, Ethics, Comparative Religion, Islamic Creed, Islamic Culture, Quranic Studies,…etc.

To register, click here. For more info, please visit www.coopmet.org or email info@coopmet.org

Oct 21 2019

Greening Your Parish: Answering the Cry of the Earth, the Cry of the Poor

Find out how to promote the principles of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’ in the your parish.

Keynote: Words Matter: Communicating Climate Change to Save Our Common Home.(John Anderson, Former Director of Education at New England Aquarium)

Breakout sessions on: forming Creation Care Teams, praying in the spirit of Laudato Si’, energy efficiency and solar for parish and home, politics and policy for clean energy and environmental justice.

Learn about the Faith Science Alliance (started by Cardinal O’Malley), and the Global Catholic Climate Movement , which mobilizes Catholics around the world

Sponsored by the Boston Catholic Climate Movement. For more information and for free registration: https://tinyurl.com/greening-19-register

Mar 19 2014

Our Christian Unity Dream Starting to Become a Reality?

Today, we hear from Dick Kiernan, Field Ministry Director for Alpha New England. Dick shares his thoughts on a recent video of Pope Francis and its significance for Catholics and Evangelicals

“May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me … “ (John 17:23)

I’m not a gambler, but I bet we all know hundreds of friends of Jesus who are longing for Jesus’ prayer for unity to be answered on this side of heaven. At the end of February, a most extraordinary video of Pope Francis and Kenneth Copeland started going viral. It began when Pope Francis asked his long time Anglican friend, Bishop Tony Palmer, to deliver a video calling for Christian reconciliation to Kenneth Copeland at his annual pastors’ conference in Texas with hundreds of charismatic pastors. Kenneth Copeland reciprocated with prayers and blessings for the pope and said he was “open,” and then he ended by saying that 40 years ago this would have been considered impossible by everyone.

I sent this video link to my Alpha colleagues across the country. Some were in tears or amazed. One simply responded, “breath-taking.” A few other Evangelical friends from my local prayer networks were suspicious. After some discussion I realized that this gesture from Pope Francis and Kenneth Copeland will be misunderstood by some people and it won’t be meaningful if people don’t really live it out. So what is really happening and what is the significance?

Bishop Tony Palmer stated that there are 33,000 Christian denominations and this gesture by Pope Francis is not going to change that. However, the specific challenge that Bishop Palmer gave was for Evangelicals to sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification—also known as JDDJ. He explained that Catholics and Lutherans had resolved Martin Luther’s original protest of “salvation by faith alone,” and this joint declaration about salvation means that Catholics and Lutherans have resolved the main dividing point of the Protestant Reformation. In other words, they came to agree that salvation is by grace alone through faith resulting in good works, but the good works don’t save us–we are only saved by the merits of Christ’s crucifixion. What this means is that we agree on salvation—and we agree that there is one Gospel message. This may not be the end of 33,000 denominations, but it officially states that Catholics and Lutherans agree on this main point of division. Bishop Palmer asked the Evangelicals at this conference (and cyberspace too?) to join with Catholics, Lutherans, and Methodists in signing this joint declaration. Wow—isn’t that something?!

My friends and I started discussing it. Can you imagine Catholics, Main Line Christians, and Evangelicals signing this joint declaration? Can you imagine them changing their thinking? It would mean that Evangelicals would expect to see fruit in someone’s life as an assurance they have trusted Jesus, not “cheap grace.” It would mean that Catholics would stop thinking they get to heaven if they are “good” or perform so many good works. On another level the signing of a joint declaration should involve some dialogue and relationship and increase mutual respect, ultimately leading to authentic fellowship and unity.

Jesus said, “all will know you are my disciples if you love one another,” (John 13:34). Could we even imagine loving each other even if we don’t agree on everything? Pope Francis had recently said that this unity with other Christians must be based on essential teachings we hold in common, otherwise known as the hierarchy of truths. He also said that given the state of society Christians no longer have the option to remain divided. It seems like he really means this.

My friends also came up with a dream. What if all New England pastors and Christians started signing and living this teaching? What if they came together for 10 Days of Prayer and United Nights of Worship? What if they started reaching out to the needed or started doing Alpha together? The 500th anniversary of Luther’s protest, also known as the Protestant Reformation is coming up in three years in October of 2017. What if all New England were to come together to celebrate the end of the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of a new Reformation? Can you imagine international gatherings at Wittenburg and Rome? If this is what Jesus was praying for in John 17, then why wouldn’t we do this? Let’s live the dream—amen.

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