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The Norwegian novelist, Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), baptized a Lutheran but raised by agnostic parents, and who emerged from a difficult seven-year marriage at age thirty-seven, converted to Catholicism in 1924. In 1928, she received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Shortly after, a priest in Oslo asked her why, even before her conversion, she had referred to marriage as a “sacrament” in her novels of medieval Norway, although for a Protestant marriage is only a contract. She replied that this would require a rather lengthy explanation, and she offered the explanation in an essay published in an Oslo Catholic magazine, Credo,...

The recently published LSV Bible from Covenant Press has charted a fundamentally different course than the 20th and 21st century Critical Text translations. The new Literal Standard Version is based on the Textus Receptus, in line with the earlier Geneva Bible and King James. It’s a major revision of the literal translation by Robert Young, known popularly as Young’s Literal Translation, with a relationship to Young’s that is similar to that between the English Standard Version and the Revised Standard Version or the NKJV and MEV to the King James. Readers will experience a translation that is even further along...

Documentary (appx 47 mins)

Augsburg Peace Prize awarded to Bishop Bedford-Strohm and Cardinal MarxLWI) - A strong sign for Christian ecumenism: the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, and the Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx were awarded the 2020 Augsburg Peace Prize for their “unconditional will to live together in peace”. On 11 March 2017, the then President of the German Bishops’ Conference, Reinhard Cardinal Marx, and the Chairperson of the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, jointly presided over a service of repentance and reconciliation in Hildesheim, Germany. The painful divisions between the two separated...

The comment was made during an article published in opposition to Israel's plan to extend sovereignty over parts of the West Bank. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ECLA) has spoken out against Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank in a series of articles published on their website, one of which additionally accuses Israel of having had a part in the murder of George Floyd. The comment was made in an article that mentioned a letter that the ECLA, along with 26 other churches, sent to the US congress in opposition to the annexation plan. The letter...

By now regular readers know that I am a fan of C.S. Lewis, and I was a fan of him before becoming Orthodox. In fact, I consider him one of the influences that led me to Orthodoxy, though I would not have thought of it that way before I became Orthodox. You see, it was not until I became Orthodox that I realized just how much of C.S. Lewis’ thinking reflected a more “Eastern” viewpoint, or perhaps, I had better say a more “universal” or catholic viewpoint.One of his statements has to do with the whole issue of theosis or...

Conservative Christians are using religious liberty as a basis to oppress the marginalized as well as traumatize parents of children who identify as LGBTQ, according to a retired Episcopal Church bishop and a filmmaker. Retired New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson and filmmaker Daniel Karslake were hosted for a discussion by the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN), an unofficial United Methodist LGBTQ caucus, on July 15. The bishop and the film producer equated God’s purposes with intersectional identity politics of the Left. Robinson was the first man openly in a same-sex partnership to be consecrated a bishop in the Episcopal Church and...

TUCSON, Ariz. — A local pastor says his church has had four fires since March, and he wants to know who’s responsible and why. KGUN9 checked in with the church and pastor to find out about the latest incident and what the church is planning to do next. We first met Pastor Gene Chewning at the Living Word Church at 3602 South 12th Avenue in March of this year, the church is known as a multi-denominational church in the neighborhood.--------------snip-------------Here’s a breakdown of the dates, the first fire was on March 3rd , the second set on April 17th the...

The Church of Sweden, Europe's largest Lutheran denomination, is known today for its overtly liberal position in many theological and secular issues, such as the question of homosexuality, yet has been steadily losing 1-2 percent of its worshippers every year over the past decades. For the first time in history, the number of female clergy in the Church of Sweden has surpassed that of their male counterparts, the church newspaper Kyrkans tidning reported. The share of women is now up to 50.1 percent, or 1,533, compared to 49.9 percent men or 1,527, the employers's organisation Skao reported. Among the deacons,...

Moscow, July 13, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church does not share the opinion of the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, who said amid protests against George Floyd's murder that Jesus Christ might also have been a black man. "If such rhetoric is now used to reconcile people of different races, maybe there are some good intentions behind it, but we can hardly use rhetoric of such a nature seriously," Metropolian Hilarion, head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, said on the Rossiya 24 television channel. It would be...

Well I posted the first two so I might as well post the third one. I hope people have a chance to watch the video. As I have said before, I don't agree with everything Dr. Hagee has said. But I do agree with the general outline he gives here. So, FWIW.

So this was released when CHAZ/CHOP had been going on. In this video Pastor Hagee discusses the Democrats war on the police, Jerusalem, the Rapture, the two witnesses of Revelation 11, the Antichrist, President Trump moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem (thank you President Trump!) and more. No doubt some will be offended. Nobody made them watch this video. So watch the video at your own risk (haha). The video is 28 and a half minutes long. Again, I don't always exactly agree with what Dr. Hagee teaches but he has always been kind and gracious when I met him....

(click link upper left-hand corner for video) The video is just over 28 minutes long. I believe that many of the topics Dr. Hagee discusses will ring a bell with God-fearing conservative FReepers.

'No absolute religious freedom since Henry VIII' LONDON (ChurchMilitant.com) - Protestant England never enjoyed absolute religious freedom since Henry VIII broke with Rome, a top evangelical leader is conceding, as 25 Christian leaders — including a Catholic theologian — challenge the churches' lockdown as a breach of the Magna Carta. Church leaders who have launched a judicial review of the lockdown are contending that the state criminalized Sunday worship for the first time in centuries — despite the government allowing churches to reopen July 4 under strict guidelines. Churches should never have been shut in the first place and "this...

Germans leaving Church at record rate Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, the newly elected chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, at a press conference on his election this year. Michael Debets/Zuma Press/PA Images The German bishops’ conference announced on Friday that a record 272,771 people left the country's Catholic Church in 2019. The number represented an increase of more than 56,000 on the 216,000 who left in 2018, and exceeds by a large margin the previous record of 218,000 leaving in 2014. The figures are part of a growing countrywide exodus from the Christian Churches. The German Protestant Church saw a similar...

Wisdom From Oswald Chambers Is He going to help Himself to your life, or are you taken up with your conception of what you are going to do? God is responsible for our lives, and the one great keynote is reckless reliance upon Him. Visions Becoming Reality ____________________________________________________ The parched ground shall become a pool… —Isaiah 35:7 ____________________________________________________ We always have a vision of something before it actually becomes real to us. When we realize that the vision is real, but is not yet real in us, Satan comes to us with his temptations, and we are inclined to say...

St. Alban's installs 'black' Jesus Last Supper in BLM madness YORK, England (ChurchMilitant.com) - England's oldest northern cathedral has said it never considered culling the statue of Constantine, after cathedral officials were pilloried for engaging in an "orgy of buck-passing" and "hiding behind a wall of waffle." A day later, the former Catholic cathedral — which came under Protestant control in 1567 — denied reports of complaints but confirmed that a review of all monuments was underway in response to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. "Contrary to what has been reported, we have not received a single complaint about...

June 11, 2020 Barnabas, Apostle Dear Siblings in Christ, Care for God’s people, bear their burdens, and do not betray their confidence. So, discipline yourselves in life and teaching that you preserve the truth, giving no occasion for false security or illusory hope. Witness faithfully in word and deed to all people. Give and receive comfort as you serve within the church. And be of good courage, for God has called you, and your labor in the Lord is not in vain. I’m reminded of the words above from the service of ordination as the COVID-19 crisis continues … and...

LONDON (Reuters) - The Church of England must review statues and monuments in its places of worship to ensure that any with links to slavery are removed or are given appropriate context, its spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, said on Friday. The Anglican Church, a central part of English public life and governance for centuries, is the latest institution to reflect on its role following worldwide protests inspired by the death of George Floyd in police custody in the United States. Welby, the most senior cleric in the worldwide Anglican communion, which has some 85 million followers in...

The Church of England has again apologised for its links to slavery, after a report revealed nearly 100 clergymen were paid compensation after its abolition. The state church said on Thursday that its ties to slavery were a “source of shame” after a University College London report revealed that 99 of its clergy had received compensation for lost property and earnings in slave colonies. The money was paid out in accordance with the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 when the UK government bought the freedom of every slave in the British Empire, and banned the practice. However, the compensation...