Peace and Greetings in this Holy Seasons to you all in our
Worldwide Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ!
It is my sincere prayer and hope that you are all safe and well in this time that has become so different from times past. Our Advent's reflections this year might have been different this year as we had to take into account the onslaught of the Pandemic that has taken so many lives, and shown so much suffering and makes us speechless. We ask ourselves where can there be joy that we used to had, where are the big and happy family gatherings that we always were looking forward to...? Many of our church families had to form new ways of coming together for Sunday service, or have it suspended because of the danger of gatherings that could cause harm to others spreading the covid19 virus.
An yet, in all of this we are reminded that we can still find joy that is nearer than expected, a joy that is different from just casual social happiness, it is a joy of a deeper spiritual awakening that touches our hearts and moves our spirits. It comes from a Love that God has shown throughout the centuries, a Love that needs a response from us, and here is the key that changes our so settled minds. In the Gospel of Luke the well known Magnificat of Mary shall help us. What went through Mary's mind? She, like Anna in the book of Samuel (name meaning "God heard") giving their Sons to God, not holding back, but letting God lead in it all, becoming aware of a promise that finds fulfillment.
Only in her humility can Mary accept God's will expressed by the Archangel Gabriel. The struggle of the mind is present till she speaks this YES to God's Will and it changes everything that was not planned, that makes the ordinary extraordinary. For us this YES to God will lifts also our spirit removes the veil of our blindness caused by self-absorption and confusion, the worries that overtake our daily lives, the uncertainties toward what lies ahead for ourselves and our loved ones, our communities, our world...
Mary's and our unconditionally Yes to God is the breakthrough to a inner joy that others might call crazy, useless, misguided, etc.
Only in this simple yes to God find we the true meaning of the birth of Christ: our Savior is born! All the glitter and worldly glamour that we have become so keen to, as nice as it is, will no longer be the main reason why we celebrate Christmas, but our personal relationship to the human and divine Jesus of Nazareth will be our focus. And this can and will change us and the world around us when we take these words serious and make them our own: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; because He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid." This rejoicing shall be ours in these trying times, in our loneliness, in our despair, in our personal struggles, in our quest for the answers of the meaning of life, in our search for true and unconditional love, and the list goes on...
Our Yes to God is already the answer, and to whatever calling we find ourselves in, God will give us this inner joy that helps us to walk through this dark times, and to find new longing for a better world that has written justice and peace on its banner, becoming more and more His hands of a loving people.
The Magnificat has touched me this year more than ever. Ask yourself, what word of Scripture can and will touch you to find an awakening toward God's message shown us in the birth of His beloved Son, born to bring a New Way of Life, sent to us to find meaning in His Word and Action, seeing in His suffering the agony and loneliness of the Cross, and yet in this darkest of moments the Light of that eternal Love of the Father ever present keeps the promise of the resurrection and our Salvation. You might find solace and inspiration in one of the great prophets like Isaiah, or other writings in Scripture that have changed the lives of millions of Christians in the history of Salvation.
In this year's so fast changing world, we are being reminded that fear and suffering of this eon have not the last word, but that we shall become more aware, like Mary, in her Yes to God shown in her life's experience standing by her son's suffering, as he is put to death, and resurrect from the death beyond human imagination, she realizes that God's Love is always stronger than death, greater than earthly happiness, this Love that overcomes hate, denial, injustice, wickedness, deceit, war, cruelty and destruction... This God of so many names, so many mysteries, is the one that changes us, because "He has scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. He has given help to Israel, his servant, mindful of His mercy even as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever."
From the bottom of my heart I wanted to thank you all for your great dedication in so many different services in our beloved Church, be it in the pastoral ministry, education, or social services, in the cultural and social environments we find ourselves in.
Wherever you are in this world, from the Philippines to Sri Lanka, to India, Pakistan, Europe, Africa, Latin America and North America, I want to thank you for the so many letters you have written throughout the past year, expressing your gratefulness for being in our Church, your Concerns, and your Joys. I see your love and honesty toward the hard work you are doing for the poor, the marginalized, the downtrodden, the abundant in society in building new communities, being present for the street children. I want to thank our St. Anthony's liturgical house of studies that has taken of ground and is expanding, and it will reach the ends of our worldwide church. I want to thank so many of you in your episcopal leadership of our Nuncios, and our bishops for welcoming in an ecumenical spirit clergy and faithful from other denominations finding a home in our ECCC, be it our brethren of the Orthodox Churches who have signed the Tomos with our Church, members from the Lutheran and Anglican Churches that have joined our Church, and the list goes on.
At this moment, let our entire Church pray for our Synod in Italy that started in September 2020. It has been in preparation for quite some time. May it bear lots of fruit! God given, I shall be there for the Concluding Session in June of 2021.
Wishing you all a Blessed and Joyous Feast of our Savior's Birth.
May He be reborn in our hearts, so that we can see anew with the eyes of Love.
And as this Pandemic has hopefully changed the way of living and thinking of so many in the World, may the New year bring for all of us and all of humanity a better and deeper understanding of a world where we are all God's Children that belong to each other.
May God give the Grace to see each other again and the so many I have not met yet.
With my Apostolic Benediction
Yours
Servus Dei
+Karl Ecumenical Primate
USA:
The Ecumenical Primate, Dr. Karl Rodig has recommended that Fr. Dr. Tom Roberts be the new Chancellor for our St. Anthony's Cathedral Liturgical House of Studies, and Archbishop Dr. Sunny Alappat from India to be on the Board as well.
We have a new Seminarian joining our ECCC in California, Brother Alexey coming from Utah, he will be trained and guided under the auspicious of our Metropolitan Archbishop for California, ++Dr. Tony Scuderri in Sacramento.
Our Parish in Los Angeles, Archangel, with pastor, Fr. Jacob, is under Archbishop ++Dr. Tony Sucerri's episcopal and diocesan leadership.
I want also to congratulate Archbishop Tony for his new book he just published, "And What Peace Can I Receive From God: The Miracle of Francis and the Leper"
Despite the Pandemic, our Cathedral of St. Anthony in Detroit, Michigan, has been distributing clothes and food for many homeless. We also have prepared Christmas gifts for over 50 Children.
Our Cathedral was hit by a heavy storm in November of this year, it has ripped of the roof of one of the Bell towers, and also damaged some of the upper windows. We have organized a fundraising to help pay the repairs.
These are also encouraging news from the reform movements around the world of which we are also a partner:
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The 2022 Synod must be expanded to include lay people, especially women and young people |
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At this special time of our liturgical year we are urging you to take some action steps to help move our church forward Pope Francis has repeatedly said he wants us to be a "synodal" church. Understanding synod to mean “walking together,” it is our expectation that any coming synod will mean that lay people and especially women and young people are going to be walking together/side by side with the bishops and priests in this assembly.. But our fear is that they will be walking behind (two tiers, two rows, front and back) as has always been done in the past. In the Synodal Path assembly held in Germany this year, the bishops and lay people walked in side by side in a genuine synodal style. Pope Francis has called for a Synod in 2022. Our concern in advance is that this Synod will not be “the whole Church walking in a synodal way.”
At this moment, the Lineamenta (the preparatory document for the Synod) is already being drafted. Our concerns: Are lay people/women involved? Or is the document from the top down? Who is being consulted? Where is the distribution of the Lineamenta taking place? Is it going directly to a wider, inclusive group? In the old model, it went to the Conferences of Bishops, to the Pontifical University, and to the Union Superior Generals of men. But is it going to the Union Superior Generals of women or to International lay groups? Let us do all in our power to ensure that, finally, voting participants in this Synod will be more inclusive!
When the Lineamenta came out in Vatican documents on young people, there was no reference to the term “LGBT+” (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered, etc.). Young people requested that it be included in the document. It is a reality in our world and in humanity. On the synod floor, there were many disputes over this issue. African bishops declared they had no gay people in their country. When young people were asked what is missing from our Vatican documents, they said reference to sexuality. Rome is frightened of addressing this issue. When Francis came out with his Apostolic exhortation, these topics were left out. It was felt they were too controversial.
Our Opportunity to participate in submitting issues we want to see included in the 2022 Synod agenda What can we do to address our concerns about the preparation for the October 2022 Synod? ln the name of our being a Synodal church, along with other reform organizations, let us commit to submitting our suggestions for agenda topics and positions to be addressed at this Synod. We insist on having lay people, especially women and young adults, included both in this process and in the right to vote.
Tomas Halik, Peter Neuner, Anna Hennersperger, and Paul M. Zulehner (from Austria) have created a survey and have invited all of us to take part in it. The survey is designed to give the Synod organizers a sense of the views of the People of God and encourage the participants to make bold deliberations and decisions. We strongly encourage every one of us to take the survey. Here is the link in English: https://survey.zulehner.org/index.php/514332?lang=en. Please pass this onto to your membe |
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