Communitywide, Interfaith Prayer Service for
President-Elect Obama to be led by Bishop ClarkBishop of Rochester Matthew Clark, with the participation of other religious leaders, will preside at a special community interfaith prayer service Jan. 19 at Sacred Heart Cathedral, 296 Flower City Park, on the eve of President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration. The prayer service will begin at 7 p.m.
Prayers and readings will be offered for the president-elect and all recently elected public officials. Internationally acclaimed baritone Derrick Smith will perform. Leaders of many faith groups and public officials are expected to attend.
All are welcome.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
All are welcome
Nothing sends Catholics running for the hills like the words "communitywide, interfaith prayer service." Couple those words with "for President-Elect Barack Obama" and you very well may have a stampede. From the Communications web page for the Diocese of Rochester:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
16 comments:
Our Diocese really loves Interfaith prayer services...
From the current bulletin of one of the local hot spots of liturgical abuse, Church of the Good Shepherd:
"
Henrietta Martin Luther King Service: "The Dream Is Alive in Henrietta!"
Join your neighbors of all faiths and races as we recapture the spirit of Dr. King's dream for our time. Henrietta's 2nd Annual Interfaith MLK Service, 7:00
PM on Friday, January 16, St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 3825 E. Henrietta Rd. Rev. Karen Carter, Chaplain at Industry School/Oatka Residential Center
preaching with the Spectrum Singers, directed by our parishioner, Christine Sargent, and the town's Zoom youth program. Sponsored by Town Supervisor
Michael Yudelson and Henrietta Interracial Clergy Council.
"
Source: http://www.goodshepherdhenrietta.org/gsh/files/gsbulletin/pdf/2009/20090104.pdf
This is the second Interfaith Service advertised in a Good Shepherd bulletin within the past 3 months.
~Dr. K
Interfaith prayer service to show off the new pipe organ.
I guess I am confused by this posting and why Catholics would "run for the hills" or "stampede" from an interfaith prayer service.
Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, seems very open to ecumenical and interfaith dialogue and seems to want to improve relations with other religions.
I'd have to do more research to see what type of ecumenical or interfaith services the Holy Father has participated in during his life, but I do seem to remember him as pope celebrating vespers with leaders/representatives of other Christian religions at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls at least one year on January 25 (the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul and the last day of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity).
And did our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, not organize the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 1986 where over 100 representatives of different world religions and Christian denominations came together in prayer for global peace?
Among the citizens of the United States of America are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. At this time of an important and historic national event, the inauguration of a new president, an event which is commoon to all of us, it seems very appropriate that such ecumenical or interfaith prayer services would be held.
And for us who are Roman Catholic, with a president having been elected who is so strongly pro-abortion and whose appointments and promises (i.e. signing FOCA into law) look to perpetuate the culture of death in which we live, shouldn't we be praying for him, other government leaders, and our nation each and every day not only with fellow Catholics but with our fellow U.S. citizens?
Fr. Geoff,
It's called poking fun. Surely you are familiar with some of the excesses that have accompanied these services.
And do you really want to uphold Assisi in '86 as a model? Here is reporter Sandro Magister's account:
Even though the idea was far from John Paul II's intention, the message that came out of this meeting, for many, was one of a kind of United Nations of faiths. It seemed to speak of a multireligious coexistence in which each faith was as good as the other, and among which the Catholic Church took its place as an equal. . . .
On October 27, television stations all over the world broadcast the images of the event that the pope had so strongly desired: pilgrimage, fasting, prayer, peace among peoples and religions. John Paul II even revived a medieval tradition by invoking on that day a "divine truce," a halt in the use of arms on all war fronts throughout the world. It so happened that practically no combatants paid attention, but the symbol outweighed reality, and the image of the pope praying with the heads of so many different religions established itself as one of the most powerful signs of his entire pontificate.
But at the same time, critical reservations about the event were taking shape. The event in Assisi added fuel to the fire through some of its more excessive gestures. Some of the city's churches were allotted for the prayers of Buddhists, Hindus, and African animists, as if these buildings were neutral containers, void of any indelible Christian value. The Buddhists set up a shrine of Buddha on the altar of the local Church of Saint Peter. The absence from Assisi of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the prefect for the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was not improperly interpreted as the self-distancing of the cardinal who, by his office, is the custodian of sound Catholic doctrine. The pope himself did not escape criticism. There were those who recalled that in February of that same year, during his voyage to India, he had given speeches of unprecedented openness toward that country's religions, and at Bombay had even let a priestess of the god Shiva anoint his forehead with a sacred Hindu symbol. A few of those who complained about this were Indian bishops. One of them, from Andra Pradesh, said, "The pope knows Hinduism from books, but we, who live with it and see the damage it does to our good people, would never make certain speeches."
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/19632?eng=y
Moreover, given the woeful state of the Diocese of Rochester -- its bizarre liturgical practices, the open dissent spoken by its priests and "lay ministers," the cheerleading its functionaries did for candidate Obama -- Catholics have reason to be wary of this service.
Fr. Geoff, ah, the voice of innocence. You clearly are unfamiliar with the diocese of Rochester.
Yes, there is a time and place for an interfaith service. In Rochester, however, it's yet another example of energy expended for "Catholic" in cherry-picked terms only and invariably means anything and everything other than orthodox Catholicism.
There will probably be a few interfaith prayer services in Washington a couple of days after the inauguration in connection with the annual March for Life. And yes, my children and I will still pray for the President every night. As Fr. Geoff notes, he needs our prayers more than he knows.
My personal favorite prayer of intercession at mass was during the Clinton impeachment hearings, when the lector led us in praying for "an increased level of mortality" in politics. I'm pretty sure he was supposed to say "morality", but I liked it the way it was read.
As Mary Kay observes, context is a big part of this post. In the abstract, I certainly commend Fr. Geoff's call to prayer; President-Elect Obama was in our intentions this evening.
Mary Kay and Rich -
Besides what I know about Servant of God Archbishop Fulton Sheen, I know nothing of the Diocese of Rochester except I was present (with my ordination classmate and friend, Fr. Kyle Schnippel) at the 2007 National Catholic Youth Conference in Columbus, Ohio where Bishop Matthew Clark of Rochester presided at the convention Mass.
As far as poking fun, well I guess "egg is on my face" for taking the posting too seriously. I'm still kinda new at all this blog-stuff!
It was not my intent to hold up as a "model" what actually happened in connection with the 1986 World Day of Peace in Assisi. I actually had no knowledge of all the behind-the- scenes activities. All I remember was the news coverage. I was using the concept of such a gathering called by a pope as an example to show apparent papal desire for ecumenical and interfaith dialogue leading to improved relations between the religions of the world.
As far as the account of Sandro Magister, it is disturbing. But I also don't know how objective and unbiased a reporter he is. So I will research other accounts of what actually happened on and aournd that October 1986 gathering in Assisi. As a history buff, I always believe in reading many different versions of historical events. Often facts and circumstances unknown to one author are uncovered by another. I find taking different perspectives into account is rarely a waste of time or effort.
Fr. Geoff...keep reading and you'll see what we're faced with in the DOR. It's shameful. Google, or search this and other blogs, for [Sister] "Joan Sobala" for starters. There are a lot of strong opinions and many more under-formed and lost souls resulting from Bp. Clark's tenure here.
I'm wondering what songs Mr. Smith will be performing. Religious? Patriotic? Maybe neither.
The citizens of the U.S. could use some prayers as well these days.
Can anyone recall if Bishop Clark or any other community faith leaders held a prayer service in honor of George W. Bush? They had eight years to do so! Maybe it was because of his views on abortion and other life issues that were not in line with their own??
What will they pray FOR?
Will there be censorship of prayers aimed at Obama's conversion to a particular faith? Obviously, since that would offend the participants who aren't that faith.
Will there be censorship of prayers aimed at an end to abortion. Obviously.
What does God do with ambiguous, fluffy prayers?
Magister on Assisi is perhaps interesting. Probably more interesting is Pope Benedict himself on Assisi and on a subsequent, related event.
There seems to be ample reason to be wary of the Rochester service (it sounds, in fact, more like a celebration of Obama than anything else). But given what the Church teaches and practices in the area of interfaith relations/prayer, I wonder whether seeming to poke fun at interfaith prayer events per se is a good idea.
Still, even though I wouldn't attend (even if I were anywhere near Rochester), I suppose that there'll be prayers that Obama will be a good president - and I think that God knows what to do with such prayers, even if they're ambiguously worded.
Fr. Geoff,
It is very unlikely that Bishop Clark would have said or done anything blatantly dissident during the CYO conference. The single best way to get a picture of the Rochester diocese is to look up Spiritus Christi. Ten years ago, then Cardinal Ratzinger told Bishop Clark to intervene. While nothing as blatant since then, the dissent continues. The diocese is in need of much prayer.
Post a Comment