From Ray McGinnis

In 2019, the song “7 Rings” by Ariana Grande has held the #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for six non-consecutive weeks. The song has also climbed to the top position on the pop charts in Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and England. It’s in the Top 5 in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany Italy, Mexico, Spain, and Venezuela. “7 Rings” also set the record for the most “streams” – 16.9 million – in one week.

The lyrics describe someone who believes money can solve all their problems. They also believe that “happiness is the same price as red bottoms.” They go to the Blue Box Café at Tiffany’s jewelry store for breakfast. Tiffany & Co. on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was the first-ever retail dining concept restaurant. In 2019, breakfast at Tiffany’s costs $32 U.S. The shopper in “7 Rings” brags that they also bought “bottles of bubbles” – so at least two bottles of champagne. These cost $70 US to $130 US per bottle. That’s one expensive breakfast.

The song's protagonist boasts about buying diamonds, getting their eyelashes done, decorating their neck and hair with jewelry, buying houses and a jet. Their god is retail therapy and their mantra is “I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it.” In the video, Ariana Grande pours bottles of wine over the heads of her friends.

In the Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber writes about the inspiration for the song. Ariana Grande had been engaged to comedian Pete Davidson. “After calling off their engagement, she went with six of her best friends to Tiffany’s, got drunk on champagne, and bought everyone in her posse her own engagement ring. It’s a tale of mega-wealthy indulgence that’s both charming and sickening, a combination that Grande tacitly acknowledges with this song. She’s bragging, not apologizing, about doing something wasteful – an empowering rebellion, supposedly.” Others in the media have suggested that “7 Rings” is a “women’s empowerment anthem.”

Explore…Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

• What is a prodigal? What does the prodigal son do while he is away from his father and brother? Why does the father welcome his prodigal son back and throw a party?
• What do you think the song “7 Rings” about? Why do you think it is such an international success?
• Do you think “7 Rings” is a song of women’s empowerment, or celebration of wasteful excess?
• Do you think God cares how we spend our money?

Prayer…

God of family, relationships, and community, we each try to find ways to experiment and express our unique individuality. Help us to discern our freedom to express ourselves and the way our actions affect our relationships with others. Help us to walk in your way. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• “How Ariana Grande fell off the cultural-appropriation tightrope” 
•  “Ariana Grande reveals some of her favorite things in new women empowerment anthem ‘7 Rings’”
• Breakfast menu at Blue Box Café at Tiffany’s
• Lyrics “7 Rings,” by Ariana Grande 

From Fraser Macnaughton

The comparison between the UK and Irish governments over the vexed questions of returning women and children from ISIS were made stark recently. Young women, often teenagers, were invariably groomed and radicalized into leaving their Western European homes and heading off to Syria to join ISIS fighters and marry them. While some may say this was taking the “idealism of youth” too far, in a sense these young girls are now in exile as the so-called ISIS caliphate collapses and they end up in refugee camps.

The Home Secretary of the UK government has meanwhile stripped the citizenship from one teenager who wanted to return home with her new baby. A few days after the announcement, her family received news that the baby had died, the third child the now 19-year-old Shamima Begum has lost. Shamima’s mother has now written to the Home Secretary asking him to reconsider his decision as an “act of mercy.” Home Secretary Sajid Javid has come in for severe criticism from many quarters with his opposite number Dianne Abbott describing the baby’s death as “a stain on conscience of UK government.” She went on to comment that “It is against international law to make someone stateless, and to leave a vulnerable young woman and an innocent child in a refugee camp, where we know infant mortality to be high, is morally reprehensible.”

By contrast, across the Irish Sea the Prime Minister of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, has said that a suspected ISIS member will be allowed to return.

Lisa Smith is currently being detained in Syria accused of being a member of the extremist group. As an Irish citizen, Smith will have the right to return to Ireland as will her child, who is an Irish citizen. Varadkar noted, “this is an Irish citizen and we don’t believe that removing an Irish citizen’s citizenship from her or her child and rendering her stateless would be either the right or compassionate thing to do.”

While the UK government has been accused of pandering to right-wing populism and opening itself to maneuverings by potential leadership candidates for the as-yet-not-vacant post of prime minister. While no one would want to agree with Begum’s extremist position there seems also to be a divergence in government policy in allowing men to return in similar circumstances from Syria and Iraq, while acting illegally in stripping a 19-year-old girl of her citizenship.

Explore…Isaiah 55:1–9

• How might you react to former ISIS supporters or fighters returning to your community?
• How might your faith group reach out to the despised or outcast in your communities in ways that demonstrate justice and compassion?
• What is your take on the contrasting behaviours of the Irish and UK governments in this story?

Prayer…

Often it is so hard to remain faithful to the gospel of love and compassion when it is counter-cultural to the community in which we live. But sometimes we have to be prophetic, to speak out for right and justice even at cost to ourselves. May the Spirit sustain us when we are called to do so. Amen.

Read more…

• Lisa Smith…can return to Ireland with her child 
• Shamima Begum’s mother asks Home Secretary to show mercy 

From Fraser Macnaughton

One of the world’s most longstanding evictions has been that of the Chagos Islanders, for whom the “Journey towards Trust” has been tortuous. And yet the islanders and their descendants have kept the faith that their forcible eviction could be righted.

This took a turn for the better recently when the International Court of Justice ruled that the UK’s decolonization of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean was unlawful and it should immediately end its administration of the archipelago that is now home to the Diego Garcia U.S. military base. The World Court said the UK acted illegally when it divided the territory from Mauritius in 1965 and later displaced thousands of islanders.

The Chagos Islands are currently part of British Indian Ocean Territory. British authorities evicted 2,000 people from the islands during the 1960s and 1970s so the U.S. could build its strategically important military base. Many of the evicted islanders were sent to Mauritius and the Seychelles but eventually resettled in the UK. For decades, islanders and their descendants have been campaigning for the right to return home. Olivier Bancoult, chairman of the Mauritius-based Chagos Refugees Group, said the ruling made him “so happy.” “It is a big victory against an injustice done by the British government for many years. We people have been suffering for many years – I am so lucky today.”

Britain has apologized several times for the “shameful” way the evictions were carried out, but it has consistently refused to allow Chagossians to return. In another twist, however, evidence is emerging that third-generation Chagossians who were settled in the UK are now being subject to the Home Office “hostile environment” policy that has so badly come unstuck in reference to the “Windrush generation” – people from former British colonies who were encouraged to come to the UK in the 1950s and ’60s, some of whom now face deportation due to the fact of non existent paperwork giving them a right to remain. It would appear the some Chagossians may fall into the same category.

Explore…Genesis 15:1–12, 17–8

• What other groups around the world are you aware of for whom the road to justice is a long journey?
• Can you think of resources and tools which help such groups to keep faith in trust on their journey?
• Are there biblical examples you can think of that might inform you better as to the challenges faced by some groups to maintain and trust in “trust”?

Prayer…

May we do what we can to support those who quest for justice, those who keep faith in the idea of trust. Help us to learn from their fortitude and endurance. Amen.

Read more…

• Britain should give “colonized” Chagos Islands back to Mauritius 
• Chagos Islanders treatment leads to fears of new Windrush scandal 

By Fraser Macnaughton

In normal society one would perhaps expect that care homes for the elderly would be model places of “justice and grace.” The UK has a world-class national health service, full of the most fantastic doctors, nurses, and support staff. It is a testament to the NHS that, for decades, life expectancy has increased across the country. With increasing life expectancy, however, there is also a growth in degenerative diseases such as dementia. Many families are increasingly reliant on extra care facilities and nursing homes to manage the healthcare needs of their elderly and vulnerable relatives. While the majority of those working in the care sector are wonderful people, there are, as a Member of Parliament has found out, some who are not. Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan said her father, who has dementia, suffered an appalling catalogue of injuries while staying at an extra care facility last year. Dr. Allin-Khan who also works as a trauma doctor, said that her father was so traumatized that he took to sleeping in the communal area rather than in his own room.

Despite good reports from the Care Commission for the facility, the local council and the private company contracted to run the facility failed to provide an adequate explanation for the situation. The MP claimed that the director of adult social services at the local council refused to look at photos of her father’s injuries and declared the dementia sufferer had sustained them because he “had asked for it.”

Acknowledging her own distress that she, an educated and respected doctor and MP, had to go through, she said, “I fear deeply for the elderly in our community. We must give our vulnerable a fair chance at ageing safely and gracefully and their voices must be heard.”

Her father has since been moved to another care facility.

Explore…Deuteronomy 26:1–11

• In what ways can we inform ourselves of situations where justice and grace are missing?
• Can you think of other vulnerable groups in society who would relish places of justice and grace?
• What models of justice and grace in faith communities could be replicated into wider society?

Prayer…

May we always be mindful to hear the voices of the voiceless, to understand the oppression of the oppressed, the injustice of the wronged, and to seek to bring grace wherever it is needed. Amen.

Read more…

• Labour MP details injuries suffered by her father 

At the end of the carnage of the Great War in 1918, when more than 16 million people lay dead and the great nations of Europe had either disappeared of were ghosts of their former selves, the nations of the world sought not only peace but a way of maintaining peace. And so was born The League of Nations. While it was doomed from its inception for, among other reasons the turn to isolationism by the United States, the dream of transforming relationships between states did not die.

Nearly 30 years later, out of the horror of yet another world war, 51 nations of the world founded the United Nations. Since that first meeting in San Francisco in 1945 the UN has grown to a membership of 193 member states.

The United Nations, with all its faults and failings, could be seen as a contemporary example of the story of the Transfiguration in Luke’s gospel. The Transfiguration brought together visions of hope from the past; Moses and Elijah with hope for a glorious future in which the divine and the human were deeply connected; exemplified in the radiant light surrounding Jesus.

The UN Charter itself plus the UN’s declarations of Human Rights, the Rights of the Child, the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – and all the others – attempt to call on our history as one human community and our hopes for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world.

Perhaps the founding and development of the United Nations is our experience of Transfiguration.

Just as the disciples, having experienced the Transfiguration, wanted to revert to old ways of doing things almost immediately – building shrines and monuments and trying to control the moment – so the UN and many of its members have tried, and very frequently succeeded, in flouting UN resolutions in their desire to put nation above united nations.

However, a lack of goodwill, courage, and vision does not stop the Transfiguration being a foundational story for the gospels and for the church, as we seek to live into the truth of God’s incarnation in Jesus and, in keeping with the creation story in Genesis, all of creation. Perhaps, too, the United Nation’s and its member nations’ failures need not dim the hope of the world that is contained in the first words of the UN charter: “We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom…”

Explore…Luke 9:28–36 (37–43)

There are lots of details in this story. Why do you think it is important to know that Jesus’ disciples were “weighed down with sleep,” and why do we hear that Peter did not know what he was saying?

What might it mean for us today that verse 43 tells us that, “all were astounded at the greatness of God”?

Moses and Elijah were central figures in Israel’s history and culture. If the Transfiguration had taken place in your city or town, which figures important in your culture might have been present with Jesus on the mountain?

Prayer…

God of all hopefulness, for all that has been done to create peace and security across the world, we are thankful. For all that must yet be done, we are hopeful. Give us courage and perseverance to live and work in faith so that all the world might be transformed. Amen.

Read more...

The United Nations

More on the United Nations

News about the UN from the New York Times

From Paul Turley

In the next few days, Jared Kushner, special advisor to the President of the United States and the president’s son-in-law is expected to visit the Middle East to unveil the U.S. government’s peace plan for Israel and Palestine.

The plan, two years in development, is an economic and political plan for the region. “Jared is going to present the economic plan to the region. The economic plan only works if the region supports it,” a senior administration official said Tuesday. “We understand that if the political aspect of it is not solid, the economic aspect is meaningless. But at the same time the political aspect will not succeed without a proper economic plan.”

While Kushner’s visit will include many of the important nations in the region, it will not include Israel or Palestine. While Donald Trump is calling the plan “the deal of the century,” Palestinian leaders have refused to participate in the U.S.-led effort since December 2017, when the Trump administration turned its back on decades of U.S. policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv. Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, has said the plan was “dead on arrival.”

While the White House team visits this month, many commentators agree that little is likely to happen before the outcome of Israel’s elections on April 9, with some suggesting that with the U.S. gearing up for its own presidential election at the end of 2020, there is no likelihood of the plan seeing the light of day in any meaningful way.

Nikki Haley, previously the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, is one of the few administration officials to have commented on the plan. At the end of 2018 she said, “Unlike previous attempts at addressing this conflict, this plan is not just a few pages, containing unspecific and unimaginative guidelines – it is much longer. It contains much more thoughtful detail. It brings new elements to the discussion, taking advantage of the new world of technology that we live in. It recognizes the realities on the ground in the Middle East have changed – and changed in very powerful and important ways. It embraces the reality that things can be done today that were previously unthinkable. This plan will be different from all previous ones. The critical question is whether the response will be any different…Ultimately, as always, the final decisions can only be made by the parties themselves. Israelis and Palestinians will decide their own futures.”

However, while the U.S. administration finishes the plan Palestinian leaders continue to assert that the plan is not genuine. “It’s really a lie,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian politician. “Everybody is working on this fictitious concept. [The US] became partners with Israel and they are implementing Israeli policies. All we see are unilateral measures by the U.S. and by Israel…The reality on the ground is now being engineered.”

Explore…Luke 6:27–38

• How does Jesus’ exhortation to love our enemies extend, in a practical sense, the Golden Rule as quoted in verse 31?
• What do you think needs to happen to bring peace between Israel and Palestine and how might those thoughts and principles play out in your community?

Prayer…

God of peace, we know only too well our capacity for inflicting pain and suffering on ourselves and others. We preach your peace week after week but we so often don’t translate our words into love. Make us patient with each other and give us the wisdom and courage to build our capacity for peacemaking. Amen.

Read more...

• Kushner to visit Mideast for peace plan push 
• What are the chances of Trump’s plan getting off the ground 
• Why Trump’s peace plan is just a sideshow

From Paul Turley

In the last few days, the Australian government has announced that the remaining asylum seeker children and their families incarcerated in detention centres on the small island nation of Nauru will be freed from the island and resettled in the United States. While this still leaves hundreds of adult asylum seekers in legal limbo on Nauru and on Manus Island, a small island in Papua New Guinea, and, while the lives of refugees and asylum seekers continue to be used as pawns to the political fortunes of Australia’s two main political parties, this does not diminish the good news for the four children and their families who will soon finally leave detention.

While the Dutch government continues to struggle with a growing political opposition to the welcome of refugees and asylum seekers and is making it harder for asylum seekers already in the country to gain refugee status, and while many would-be refugees have had their claims for asylum rejected by the Dutch government and, unable to return to their country of origin remain in limbo, a church in the Hague has been able to make a difference for one refugee family. Invoking a medieval law that bars entry to a church by authorities while a service of worship is in progress, the congregation of the Bethel Church held a continual worship service for 96 days to protect the Tamrazyan family who fled persecution in Armenia. The Dutch government has agreed to not immediately deport the Tamrazyans and other families with roughly 700 children between them and to review their cases. While these families have not yet secured settlement in the Netherlands, they are at least protected from immediate deportation. For the church in the Netherlands, “this is just the beginning. “I hope it’s a new way of being a church — a new way of having an impact on society, a new way of standing up for vulnerable people,” said Derk Stegeman, one of the organizers of the Bethel service.

As we contemplate the sayings of Jesus that begin with “blessed are,” we can be overwhelmed with the immensity of the number of situations where blessings seem to be few. And we should be. But at the same time we can be encouraged by the blessings that are experienced by individuals and families who, in the midst of this mass upheaval of people around the globe, move a little closer to those blessings spoken of by Jesus.

Explore…Luke 6:17–26

• What does verse 20 tell you about Jesus’ understanding of the kingdom of God that it is contrasted with poverty?
• What do you think it means for the contemporary church to take seriously Jesus’ woes when people speaking well of us, and blessings when people “hate” us?

Prayer…

God of the longed-for coming new world, we know that many cry out with the words of the psalmist: “How long, O Lord, how long?” Give us strength and endurance to be faithful and hopeful as we tell the story and live the life of your new world. Amen.

Read more...

96 days later, non-stop church service finally ends 

Last remaining asylum seeker children to leave island of Nauru 

Why refugees in the Netherlands fear the status quo 

From Sandra Rooney

This past week was World Interfaith Harmony Week, observed annually around the world since 2011. First proposed by King Abdullah II of Jordan at the UN General Assembly, September 23, 2010, its intent is to promote harmony between all people regardless of their faith. In 2018, 1,232 events were recorded to have been held around the world.

Jordan plays a special role in the Middle East with its commitment to and practice of interfaith dialog. The royal family is recognized as descendants of the prophet Muhammad and the country’s Christians and Muslims citizens have lived side by side for centuries. In a region fraught with interfaith and political conflict, interfaith harmony is Jordan’s foreign policy, and interfaith forums, conferences, and dialogues take place regularly. “We are not promoting an ideology, it is about creating a common venue and safe space where people can communicate, celebrate common values, and acknowledge and respect our differences,” says Wajih Kanso, director of the Royal Institute of Inter-Faith Studies, one of three interfaith institutes in the capital.

In the wake of 9/11 and the violence and terrorism triggered by the Iraq War, King Abdullah crafted and promoted a document known as the “Amman Message,” clarifying the central tenets of Islam. It rejects terrorism, extremism, and violence, and denounces the practice of declaring other Muslims as “apostates.” Five hundred Islamic leaders signed on, agreeing on clear guidelines regarding the issuing of fatwas and denouncing intra-Muslim violence and acts of terror.

In October 2007, again led by King Abdullah, an open letter, “A Common Word Between Us and You,” was sent from Islamic leaders to church leaders. It called for peace and love between the world’s two largest faiths based on their common values of “love of God” and “love thy neighbour.” Hundreds of Christian leaders and Jewish figures have since signed “A Common Word.”

This past December, King Abdullah received the prestigious Templeton Prize, awarded annually to someone who, “through insight, discovery or practical work,” has helped to affirm life’s spiritual dimension.” Abdullah is known for his tireless work to promote peace and mutual respect both within Islam and between Islam and other religions. In accepting the prize, he announced that he would use the prize proceeds for renovations of both the Holy Sepulcher and Islamic sites in Jerusalem.

Explore…Luke 5:1–11

• What does this passage say to you?
• Who have you seen accept a challenge and then surprise themselves and others by the results?
• When have you felt called to step out in faith not knowing what would happen?
• When has your faith community taken collective action and been amazed by the response?
• What experience have you had with interfaith dialogue or gatherings?

Prayer…

Oh God, may we have the courage to step forward in faith into the difficult situations of life, to offer our gifts, not counting the cost nor knowing what the future will bring. Amen.

Read more

• World Interfaith Harmony Week
• King Abdullah II receives 2018 Templeton Prize 

From Sandra Rooney

Just a month ago, Pope Francis, speaking to diplomats at the Vatican, lamented the aggressive, warlike talk and isolationism that has emerged in the U.S. and European countries where populist governments have come to power. He noted that the League of Nations, formed after WWI, failed largely because countries were not willing to work together. He said he saw the same attitudes today threatening major international organizations and he urged European countries to remain united in the face of “temptation to erect new curtains.”

The Pope’s remarks hit a nerve, especially in Italy, where the populist government, along with many other European countries, has been cracking down on immigration. One example making news headlines has been the plight of migrants stranded on Sea-Watch 3, a rescue ship owned and run by a small German charity, which had rescued the migrants from their flimsy rubber dinghy back in December. Because of the hard line being taken against migrants, the rescue boat had been denied safe harbour for over two weeks as weather conditions worsened, forcing the 32 migrants below deck, where they crowded into a single small bunk room designed for only eight people.

Last June, Italy’s right-wing interior minister Matteo Salvini ordered his country’s ports closed to migrants rescued outside the maritime border and ordered the Coast Guard not to take part in rescues. This action emboldened neighbouring Malta and other countries to take similar actions. A number of Italian bishops and cardinals have urged the authorities to allow the migrants to dock in Italy, even offering to take them into their parishes. Francis himself appealed to European leaders to “show some concrete solidarity.”

After 19 days at sea, the migrants were allowed to be brought ashore, but only after France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania and the Netherlands agreed to share responsibility for them. However, Joseph Muscat, the Maltese prime minister, said in a statement, “I reiterate, as I did before, that this case shall not act as a precedent.” And Mr. Salvini said he would refuse to authorize Italy’s involvement.

Explore…Luke 4:21–30

• How do you think those who heard Jesus in the synagogue felt when Jesus began drawing great crowds to hear what he had to say?
• Who is telling us things we might not want to hear?
• When have you found yourself upset by something your pastor said? Why?
• Where do you feel following Jesus might mean leaving your comfort zone, taking risks?
• When has someone you respect challenged some long-held belief or cherished tradition?

Prayer…

Oh God, as we face troubling times and difficult circumstances at home and around the world, may our hearts and minds be open to hear the prophets of today and not turn away. May we respond to their challenges as they call us to faithfulness, even when that may mean leaving our comfort zones in order to reach out with compassion to those who are hurting. Amen

Read more…

• Pope appeals to European leaders
• Rescued migrants…struggle to reach a new life 

From Sandra Rooney

A month ago, as we celebrated Christmas in all the traditional ways, many Chinese Christians were forced to meet in small, informal gatherings in the homes of friends and relatives. Some members of Early Rain Covenant Church, in the southwest city of Chengdu, have been worshipping on the banks of a river near the church’s former headquarters since early December, when police shut down the church. They confiscated Bibles, closed the school and seminary run by the church, and detained the pastor on charges of “inciting subversion,” punishable in serious cases by at least five years in prison. In September, authorities in Beijing closed the 1500-member Zion Church, one of the largest unofficial churches in the capital.

The government requires religious groups to register, but many still worship in unofficial churches, sometimes called underground or house churches. Many party members believe that Christianity, which by some estimates is China’s fastest-growing religion, promotes Western values and ideals that conflict with the aims of China’s authoritarian government, and with President Xi Jinping’s embrace of traditional Chinese culture and Confucian teachings that emphasize obedience and order. Sermons in state-sanctioned churches are often tightly scripted. From independent churches often come messages indicting corrupt officials and calls to protect the rights of the poor.

Experts believe there are as many as 60 million Christians in China, with roughly half worshipping at unofficial churches, against which Mr. Xi has campaigned aggressively. The government has banned online sales of the Bible, burned crosses, demolished churches, and forced the closure of places of worship. The effort to control religion across China has included the detention of thousands of Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang as well. Renee Xia, international director for China Human Rights Defenders, explains that the government has focussed on unofficial Christian churches because they tend to promote ideas such as social justice, or are critical of the party.

In the words of one member of Early Rain church, “We will not forfeit our faith because of suppression by the authorities.” After church members were asked to sign letters stating that they no longer believed in Christianity, another member said they had no choice but to continue in secret. “We have moved underground,” he said.

Explore…Luke 4:14–21

• What words in this passage stand out for you? In what way do they resonate today?
• What would you do if the government tried to censor your pastor’s sermons?
• What about contemporary life challenges your faith the most these days?
• What action might you take in response to one of these challenges?

Prayer…

We ask for blessings over that which calls us out of comfort, that which we cannot ignore, that which requires us to do or be more. And we give thanks for those who taught us, challenged us, named us as children of God. Amen.

Read more…

• As China cracks down, Christians declare “We will not forfeit our faith” 

From Ray McGinnis

Based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel If Beale Street Could Talk, the 2018 film of the same name revolves around 19-year-old Tish and her romance with a 22-year-old sculptor named Fonny. Fonny and Tish are in love, and this protects them from their respective families and the outside world. They decide to get engaged and soon after she becomes pregnant. Everything is unfolding as it should until Fonny is wrongfully accused of the rape of a Puerto Rican woman named Victoria Rogers. Fonny has been accused of this crime by a racist police officer. He is sent to prison and held before trial. When Tish discovers she is pregnant, her family decides to support her during her pregnancy. They also choose to help her get a lawyer to defend Fonny. They cross their fingers that the lawyer can make a persuasive case at the trial where it is Fonny’s word against the police officer. It doesn’t help that the woman who was raped by someone else has returned to Puerto Rico.

Type: Crime-Drama

Director: Barry Jenkins

Film company: Anapurna Pictures

Release date: December 14, 2018

Starring: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Ed Skrein

Focus:

Tish and Fonny fall in love. They have long conversations in restaurants, run to meet each other, and walk in the rain. Discovering she is pregnant, they plan to get ready to welcome a new baby into their lives. Then Fonny is arrested on a rape charge. Tish visits Fonny in prison. She reflects on how you see people differently when times are hard. Though your mind is preoccupied, she ponders, “at the same time, and even on the self-same day…you see people like you never saw them before. They shine as bright as a razor. Maybe it’s because you see people differently than you saw them before your trouble started.”

Explore…John 2:1–11

• What happened at the wedding to the water? Is this a magic trick or a miracle? Does it matter?
• How are Fonny and Tish tested by Fonny’s arrest and being falsely charged with rape?
• How are patience, love, and beauty able to transcend despair and hatred?
• Where do you expect the new places and new ways that God’s work will be revealed?
• Where would you be surprised to encounter God’s transforming works?

Prayer …

God of miracles, we pray for your works to be revealed where it is needed to bring justice where there is despair, to overcome hate with love and for hearts to be united in love so strong it lures us to a wedding feast. In Christ we pray. Amen.
 

Read more…

• If Beale Street Could Talk: A perfect love meets an imperfect world
• If Beale Street Could Talk: Beautiful adaptation speaks to love and injustice

From Ray McGinnis

The Green Book is a film about African-American classical and jazz pianist/recording artist Donald Shirley, and his deepening bond with the Italian-American bouncer from the Bronx he hires to be his chauffeur and bodyguard on a tour into the Deep South in 1962. Tony “Lip” Vallelonga has recently lost a job as a bouncer at the Mafia-connected Copacabana on East 60^th Street in New York City. Lip responds to an ad for a driver placed by a Dr. Shirley. Tony has problems with “eggplants,” his nickname for African-Americans. When his wife, Dolores, hires two blacks to repair her kitchen Tony tosses the glasses they drank from into a trash bin.
 

Although Tony Lip is uncouth, the ostentatious Shirley hires the bouncer because of Lip’s reputation for having an “innate ability to handle trouble.” Trouble comes in several forms. In one town south of the Mason-Dixon Line, Don Shirley walks from his coloured-only motel to a bar for a drink. He gets roughed up and Lip has to intervene by pretending to have a gun in his pocket.  
Shirley is refused access to a restroom in a clubhouse since it is for whites only. At a Birmingham establishment, he is not allowed to eat at the club. Despite these and other challenges, he succeeds in winning over his audiences through the genius of his musical talent.
 

Type: Comedy-Drama
Director: Peter Farrelly
Film company: Universal Pictures
Release date­­: November 16, 2018
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini

 
Focus:
The Negro Motorist Green Book or Negro Travelers’ Green Book was an annual guidebook published between 1936 and 1966 for African-American travelers listing the businesses, restaurants, gas stations and lodgings they could use in order to avoid being refused service because of the colour of their skin. In one town in the Deep South, Lip is pulled over by the police for driving a black man after sunset. They discover they have violated the “sundown town” laws that forbid African-Americans to be outdoors at night. The police arrest Shirley and Lip. Shirley uses his one phone call to speak with Attorney-General Robert F. Kennedy. The befuddled police realize Shirley isn’t a typical black person and the pair are released from jail.

Explore… Luke 3:15–17, 21–22

• What were people expecting from their encounter with John the Baptist?
• What did the baptized people witness when Jesus came out of the water?
• What did wealthy white Americans generally expect of African-American musicians in 1962?
• What did Don Shirley’s musical performances inspire in his audiences?
• Who or what is a sign of God’s promised reign of love and justice for you today?

Prayer…

O God, too often we get ahead of ourselves filled with anticipation and the word about who others are before we meet them in person. Help us to set aside preconceived notions about who is in front of us, so that we may witness what your Spirit is doing in our midst. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• Green Book Review: Winning film hits the right notes of humor, tenderness and dignity 
• Green Book is part road trip, part buddy film, and entirely heartwarming 

From Ray McGinnis

The frontman for the rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury, was born in Zanzibar, Africa. At birth, he was given the name Farrokh Bulsara. He and his parents were ethnic Parsi, descendants of the Zoroastrians who fled Persia for India beginning in the 10th century due to Muslim persecution. In 1964, Bulsara’s family fled to Great Britain during the Zanzibar Revolution when thousands of ethnic Arabs and Indians were being murdered. When he arrived in Great Britain at the age of 17 he was routinely insulted as a “Paki.”

By 1970 he decides to pursue his passion for music and after being in several bands forms Queen in 1971. At that time he changes his name to Freddie Mercury. He arranges to meet with Elton John’s manager and pitches Queen’s niche playing “for the outcasts in the back” of the concert hall. As someone who has been an outcast and discriminated against based on his ethnicity and sexual orientation, Freddie Mercury sees his band as breaking barriers. Naming the band Queen is also a nod to a common slur against “homosexuals” in Great Britain, whose sexual expression had been decriminalized only a few years prior to Queen’s formation.

Mercury struggles with demons of isolation and alienation. He uses drugs recreationally and explores bi-sexuality in an era before “safe sex.” Insofar as the film gives a nod to his promiscuity, it suggests that he slept around in part because he never wanted to be alone. The love of Freddie Mercury’s life was Mary Austin, who he had a relationship within the early 70s.

Mercury also bridged musical mediums offering up both rock and opera in songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which record companies at first refused to release as a single. One of the film’s messages is that rock can be a haven where outcasts and others on the fringes of society can feel at home.

Type: Drama

Director: Brian Singer

Film company: Fox

Release date: November 2, 2018

Starring: Rami Malek, Aidan Gillen, Mike Myers, Tom Hollander

Focus:

Farrokh Bulsara is in his parents’ home having a passionate discussion with his father. He tells his father he is changing his name to Freddie Mercury and is going to devote his life to rock ’n roll. His father lectures him that to follow an exemplary path Freddie needs to pursue “good thoughts, good words, good deeds.” This is a credo from his parents’ religion. Freddie views the path his father has been on as failing to overcome prejudice and as a barrier to advancement. So he says to his father, “And how has that worked out for you?” His name change from Farrokh Bulsara to Freddie Mercury is a sign of inner transformation and his belief that he can become a star.

Explore… Matthew 2:1–12

• What is the significance of a star rising in the east for the three wise men? Why are they overwhelmed with joy when the star stops over the stable in Bethlehem? What is the significance of their gifts?
• Why does it matter that Farrokh Bulsara changed his name to Freddie Mercury?
• Does Freddie’s ethnicity and sexual orientation make him a likely candidate for stardom?
• How is Freddie Mercury a star to guide us? In what ways does his star miss the mark?

Prayer …

O God, while modern Herods’ frighten us, we long for a star to guide us home, to fill us with overwhelming joy, to help us feel the ecstasy of living, and encountering you. May our own yearning to follow the star guide us to new experiences of you. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• In “Bohemian Rhapsody,” Freddie Mercury is more interesting than his music
• Bad mistakes, it makes a few – but Bohemian Rhapsody comes through

From Paul Turley

Thanks to global warming, the world is experiencing more heatwaves. “The logic that climate change will do this is inescapable – the world is becoming warmer, and so heatwaves like this are becoming more common,” said Friederike Otto, at the University of Oxford.

While this is having a devastating impact on what crops can be grown where, a recent study is discovering that climate change is also affecting insect reproduction. Heatwaves are leaving male beetles “virtually sterilized” according to the study published in the Nature Communications journal. The research found that exposing beetles to a five-day heatwave in the laboratory reduced sperm production by three-quarters; females were unaffected.

“Beetles are thought to constitute a quarter of biodiversity, so these results are very important for understanding how species react to climate change,” said Kris Sales, at the University of East Anglia, who led the work.

Other research has shown that heat can damage male reproduction in humans as well as cows, sheep, and other mammals.

“There could be relevance for human fertility,” said Prof Matt Gage, co-leader of the UEA research group. “The paradox is that one of the reasons the climate is warming up and we are having more heatwaves is there are too many humans. So maybe this is a leveller.”

Other research has found that in the last 40 years the sperm count amongst Western men has fallen by more than half. While researchers aren’t yet sure why this is the case, this latest research into the fertility of beetles might point the finger at climate change and global warming.

While much research has been directed to sperm counts and fertility in warm-blooded creatures. Little has been done in cold-blooded creatures. “There is a big gap, as most of life on Earth is cold-blooded and it is much more directly affected by temperature variations,” said Gage. How the heat damages the sperm is not fully understood, though the researchers noticed damage to sperm membranes. It is likely that the DNA in the sperm is also damaged, meaning harm can be passed to offspring.

Explore… Psalm 148

• What does it mean to you that Psalm 148 speaks to the elements of the earth asking them to respond?
• In the midst of catastrophic climate change, how do we experience verse 6, “He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed”?
• What can you do in your faith community to live into the experience of Psalm 148?

Prayer…

God of all the universe and all created things, we live in your abundant world with gratitude and with joy. May we live knowing that everything you have made is precious. May we live knowing ourselves to be an intricate and deep part of all that you have made. May we live with humility and care. Amen.

Read more...

• Heatwaves wipe out male insect fertility 
• Heatwaves halve male insect fertility 

From Paul Turley

Seven weeks ago, the faithful at Bethel Protestant Church in The Hague, Netherlands, began a worship service. And it’s still going.

The congregation is conducting the ongoing service in support of an Armenian family who face expulsion from the country by the Dutch government, even though the family had received death threats for their political activism. Even though the family have lived in the Netherlands for nine years. And even though the Dutch courts had granted them asylum status, the Dutch government appealed the ruling and won the right to expel the family.

The Bethel congregation had other ideas. They invoked a law on the books since the middle ages that forbids police from entering a church while a service of worship is in progress. So for the last almost two months the congregation has worshiped non-stop in an attempt to protect the family and force the government to change its mind.

“The Protestant Church of The Hague respects court orders, but finds itself confronted with a dilemma: the choice between respecting the Government and protecting the rights of a child,” the church said in a statement.

Last week Axel Wicke, the minister with the congregation, tweeted, “We evaluate regularly, with the team and also with the family. So far, we still receive massive support and can fill the rota pretty well. So we keep going, also because there still are many talks going on with politicians behind the curtains, some of which give reason to hope.”

One of the things that gives Wicke hope is how many Christians who wouldn’t normally meet together are willing to put aside theological differences in the greater need of this and many other families and individuals. “Here in the Netherlands, we have a huge amount of different Christian confessions, some of which originating in very ugly theological or liturgical fights. However, here at the church asylum in Bethel, none of this matters and everyone is working together. Very often, one pastor hands over the service to another colleague, with whom he would never be able to share anything else, either theologically or liturgically.”

This is one shining example of “lifting up the lowly” (Luke 1:52).

Explore… Luke 1:39–45 (46-55)

• Why do you think Mary’s song is in the form of a psalm?
• How would you put Mary’s phrase, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” into contemporary language?
• What are some of the ways we can understand verse 52 today?

Prayer…

God of all, in this season where money and what it can buy seems to be the measure of the season, remind us that there is another economy at work in the world, an economy that values people over laws and the lowly over the powerful. Give strength to our sisters and brothers in The Hague and give us courage to do what is merciful and right. Amen.

Read more…

• Dutch church holds non-stop service for nearly 800 hours… 
• Dutch church month-long “marathon mass”… 
• Dutch asylum service nears 1,000 hours… 

From Fraser Macnaughton

The UK is gripped – some might say paralyzed – with the ongoing preparations for leaving the European Union (EU) next March. The narrow result of a referendum in 2016 (52% to 48%) to leave the EU has polarized the country in ways unforeseen. People have become more engaged with politics as they begin to ask what should be done, as it becomes more clear how difficult it is to extricate the country from a political, economic, and social union that has been in place for 45 years.

The situation is not helped by the fact that there is a minority government in power because it does not have the required numbers to legislate change. Also, within the governing party there is a diversity of views on the whole matter. This has led to a chorus of voices demanding a second referendum. Or not to leave at all because it is too difficult a process. Or just to leave with no agreement whatsoever. These discordant tunes lead to great uncertainty, which affects financial markets and the performance of the currency. Manufacturing and services are starved of investment. Into the vacuum come ever more strident voices, whipping up populist shibboleths, such as immigration and discrimination.

There is indeed an imminent collision coming with a promise kept, in large part due to and aggravated by media sound bites and slogans that oversimplify what was always going to have been a very complex process. The promise to leave the EU, in keeping with the result of the referendum, is proving devilishly difficult to keep. Whether the issue is the place of Northern Ireland, customs controls, the movement of migrant workers, common security, patenting of medicines, supply chains for basic necessities, and on and on, now that people realize how entwined the UK is with EU, the severity of the collision with the promise is looking more and more drastic. Perhaps unlike for the people who asked John the Baptist “what should we do?,” the challenge for people today is lack of positive and strong leadership across the board.

Explore…Luke 3:7–18

• At this stage in your life, to what extent is a change of direction something you can contemplate?
• How do you discern what the Spirit may be calling you to at this point in your life?
• What techniques do you employ to sift out what you see as truth from the clamour of voices seeking your attention and action?
• How much easier or more difficult do you think it is to hear the voice of the Spirit from a position of ease and comfort rather than hardship and distress?

Prayer…

Our faith teaches us that we cannot know everything about God. We cannot know everything about church, or about the work the Spirit does throughout creation. But when we do hear and when we do know, may we be brave enough to speak out when required, to inform and educate others when needed, and to pray in solidarity with our brothers and sisters. Amen.

Read more…

• Every kind of Brexit will make people worse off 
• Democratic Unionist Party (DUP/Northern Ireland), plotting to abandon Theresa May if… 

From Sandra Rooney

Terrible things are happening to people in our communities and around the world. Yet there are those who have lived those situations and are courageously stepping up, speaking up and seeking change.

Just weeks ago, Desmond Tutu presented the 2018 International Children’s Peace Prize to survivors of the deadly shooting in March in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 students and teachers dead. In the aftermath of the shooting, Stoneman Douglas High School students organized March for Our Lives and went to Washington to rally for stricter gun laws in the U.S. That event was just one of hundreds planned across the country, the students calling for a ban on assault rifles and universal background checks. In response, more than 25 states, including Florida, have passed legislation supporting the organization.

The students inspired thousands to attend their Washington, D.C., march and last summer they helped register young voters and spoke about gun violent in 80 communities and 24 states. It’s also worth noting that the students did not back down when the National Rifle Association mocked them, claiming they were being manipulated by millionaires and Hollywood types, using them to attack the Second Amendment. The students responded by conducting media interviews and they stood up to lawmakers about gun reform and galvanized supporters all across the country. In presenting the award to the organizers, Tutu described March for Our lives as one of the most significant youth-led mass movements in living memory and called its founders “true change-makers.”

Earlier this fall, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was announced. It went to Nadia Murad, 25, who has become the voice and face of women who survived sexual violence by the Islamic State; and to Dr. Denis Mukwege, 63, who has treated thousands of women who were victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, most of the abuses committed during the country’s long civil war that has cost more than six million Congolese lives. This year marks a decade since the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1820, which determined that the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict is both a war crime and a threat to international peace and security. Both laureates have helped give greater visibility to war-time sexual violence, so that the perpetrators can be held accountable for their actions.

Murad is a member of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, where she lived with her family. She is just one of an estimated 3,000 Yazidi girls and women who were victims of rape and other abuses by the Islamic State army. Murad has refused to accept the social codes require women to remain silent and ashamed of the abuses they suffered. As difficult as it has been for her, she has spoken about her own suffering and on behalf of other victims.

Explore…Luke 1:68–79

• What truths from from Zechariah’s prophecy might we see in today’s world?
• What are some of the challenges from which we must not turn away?
• Who is offering hope in the face of terrible circumstances?

Prayer…

God of our joys and our sorrows, our triumphs and our failures, may we listen to the call to step out of our comfort zones, to speak out against complacency, to challenge injustice, to shine a light in the darkness. Amen.

Read more…

• Desmond Tutu awards Parkland activists 
• Here’s what the NRA had to say about the March for Our Lives 
• Nobel Peace Prize 2018 
• 2018 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Yazidi activist and Congolese doctor 

From Sandra Rooney

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders, was issued two months ago.  The report suggests there is a strong risk of crisis conditions as early as 2040.  While the challenges are daunting, people around the world are stepping up.   Three examples: 

• Half the world’s population is under 30 years of age, and climate organizations led by youth are springing up around the globe.  Youth are becoming involved in lawsuits, peaceful protests, and environmental action events.  They say their concerns stem from personal experience of climate change and worries about their future.  One thing they want to do is hold their governments accountable for failing to act.  One example: Dejusticia, a Colombian youth organization, sued the government for its failure to stop deforestation in the Amazon – a driver of climate change –which they said violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment.  The organization had an unprecedented victory, when the country’s highest court ruled the government must take urgent action to stem rising deforestation.

• Women in Zanzibar have been particularly affected by climate change, which is threatening the seaweed industry, where most of the farmers are women.  The warming waters create conditions conducive to plant diseases, which stress the seaweed, making it susceptible to bacteria. One woman estimated she’d lost 80 percent of her crop.  New research shows that seaweed farming could actually moderate the effects of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. Seaweed farms serve as carbon sinks, increase oxygen levels, and in other ways foster diverse marine environments.  Flower Msuya, a senior researcher and seaweed expert at the University of Dar es Salaam, is working with Swedish researchers to find native seaweed species that can withstand higher temperatures.  Using the women’s experience, they are also exploring the possibility of farming the seaweed in deeper water.

• Fighting desertification is another global cause.  Desertification usually means a dry area that becomes drier and drier, losing water and arable land, as well as plant and animal life.  The U.N. estimates that some 12 million hectares of land are lost to desertification each year.  In the driest areas of the world, millions of man-made lakes support whole populations. The lakes are often made by damming rivers, but that’s a problem.  Rivers naturally pick up and carry large amounts of sediment, eventually dropping it into a delta or the ocean.  When you dam a river, it slows down and the sediment settles to the bottom.  To keep lakes healthy, they must be dredged, hauling up large amounts of sediment.  In Dubai, an NGO,  Afforest4Future, is using existing dredging companies to implement its plan for spreading dredged sediment over land as topsoil in desertified areas. A depth of five centimeters is enough for people to plant all kinds of local crops, like moringa, a drought-    tolerant plant native to South Asia and East Africa that is considered to be a superfood.  Other crops can also thrive in this lake-dredged topsoil, including legumes, some native grains, date palms, or clover, which replenishes nitrogen back into the soil.

Explore…Jeremiah 33:14–16

• How would you characterize the challenges faced in Jeremiah’s day and our own?
• Who are the prophets of our day?  What are they saying?
• Who is speaking words of hope?
• What does it mean to live faithfully today?

Prayer…

Gracious Creator, you have placed this earth into our hands, to tend and care for.  May we see beyond our own years and live lives of justice and faithfulness.  Amen

Read more…

• Major climate report describes risk of crisis 

• Youths take up activism 

• Warming waters hurt Zanzibar’s seaweed 

• Garbage soil helps trees grow in the desert

From Sandra Rooney

Speaking truth to power can be a dangerous thing in any age. Among those who choose to speak and act on behalf of justice and compassion are artists, who are, in fact, often the most subversive in their approach. An interesting case in point is that of Kirill Serebrennikov, one of Russia’s leading stage and film directors. He has been under house arrest in Moscow for over a year, awaiting trial on corruption charges that his supporters see as political retaliation for producing a provocative work that raised the ire of Russia’s ruling elite.

Serebrennikov is accused of helping to embezzle state funds, a charge he calls nonsense. While he isn’t really considered a dissident activist, his plays and films have touched on sensitive topics in Russian society, including antisemitism, religious fanaticism, and sexism. Serebrennikov is known for edgy, contemporary stagings, including a version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel that was a vicious satire about the current Russian elite, at the Bolshoi in 2011. Although subsequently produced, his production of Nureyev, a ballet of the life of Soviet dance star Rudolf Nureyev, was postponed at the last minute by the Bolshoi last year. Rumour has it that the production’s gay themes had offended the theater’s powerful patrons.

At the time of his arrest, Serebrennikov was preparing a new production of Così fan tutte to premiere at the Zurich Opera House. And here’s the unusual twist. As rehearsals for Così fan tutte got under way a few weeks ago, the production’s director was sitting more than 1,000 miles away, confined to his Moscow apartment. He is banned from using a telephone or the internet and can only converse with his lawyer, but he is allowed to use a computer. So, at the end of each rehearsal a video is sent to his lawyer, who puts it on a USB stick and delivers it to the director at his Moscow apartment. He sends back his written or video comments, again via the lawyer.

Two years ago, Andreas Homoki, director of the Zurich Opera, commissioned Serebrennikov to direct the new production of Così fan tutte. When the arrest took place Homoki assumed the detention would be temporary and decided to go ahead with the production. As the house arrest dragged on, he became increasingly worried. Although he had contacted another director if the case wasn’t settled by February, he ultimately decided to go ahead with Serebrennikov as director. And so that’s how it’s been since the rehearsals for Così fan tutte began. The show premiered earlier this month and will run through the early December.

Serebrennikov is well known for his efforts to rebuild a struggling Soviet theatre, and while he is not overtly political, those who know him say the trial is clearly connected to his work and the way he touches on matters of politics, personal life, and sexuality. According to Valery Pecheykin, a playwright at the Gogol Center, where Serebrennikov’s works are often produced, “Kirill always charted a course that was perpendicular to official cultural policy. He’s paying for that now.” 

Explore…John 18:33–37

• In what ways do you think Jesus was speaking truth to power?
• In what ways do you see people speaking truth to power today? What have been the consequences of their actions?
• In what ways might each of us might be more forthright in addressing situations of injustice?

Prayer…

Holy God, your reign is one of justice, truth, and compassion. Give us the courage to speak for and act on behalf of your vision of love and grace with our whole lives. Amen.

Read more…

• Lawyer in blasphemy case flees Pakistan 
• Russia lockedhim up. But he’s directing an opera 1,400 miles away 
• Zurich show goes on despite director’s Moscow house arrest