Coptic Style Icons

By Dr Stephan Rene. And fine Icon writing he does indeed:

Further to a recent posting about a Coptic style Stella Maris icon, here are two more icons by Dr Stephane Rene in his ‘neo-Coptic’ style. St Joseph of the House of David and Mary Mother of the City are in St Joseph’s Catholic church, in Bunhill Row in the City of London. I remember this Church because it is just around the corner from the offices of the Catholic Herald, where I once worked. They come courtesy of a NLM reader who brought them to my notice. So if you’re reading thank you Martin Pendergast and Sr Jean for supplying the images.

The name, St Joseph of the House of David, is a reference to the fact that St Joseph, although poor, was of the Royal House of David. There are four narrative scenes from the gospel in each corner. The one of the Holy Family in a boat is depicting them on the Nile – representing the period of exile. Notice also the beautiful patterned border the Dr Rene has designed.

In this huge icon (3 metres x 2 metres). Mary is shown coming from an enclosed garden (a reference to the sybolism in the Song of Songs). The peacock is a traditional symbol of eternal life. The stream flowing from a cave represents the womb from which Christ emerged to live among us and give us the living water.

Above and below are in situ photographs (kindly taken especially for this by Mr Pendergast) to give a feel for the scale of the icons.

Fantastic!

The Stella Maris icon can be seen here.

Coptic tradition icons are always special.

Addiction or Sinful Habit?

Is gambling an addiction or a sinful habit? What about pornography? Overeating? Drinking? Shopping? Checking email? Texting? Watching television? Playing video games? Working? They’ve all been called addictions. Is that really what they are?

You’re challenged to give the above a read here.

On the Separation of Church and Faith

Joseph Black, who blogs at Onesimus Online - it’s a good blog (and even better now that he has converted to Orthodoxy) - has an interesting post on the  separation of Church and faith.

This excerpt is the conclusion:

… Now before you think I’m about to launch into some ‘Protestants are bad and Orthodox are great’ routine, we Orthodox are far from perfect.  I think theologically the Orthodox have managed to maintain the balance between faith and church (here’s where being allergic to change helps!), but the local parish reality often falls short.  But I am very new and hardly know what I am talking about.  However, I was a Protestant for many years, both a pastor and a theological educator, and my experience was that the trajectory within Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, Presbyterianism and on the mission field was/is not a good one with respect to the relationship between church and faith.  The ‘churches’ that we are producing are fundamentally flawed and weak.  The Christianity that we produce may be vigorous, but our gatherings and communities are too often hardly the sort of demonstration of transformed lives and agape love that the NT seems to indicate is normative.  It is beyond time for us Christians to think again about the purpose of our salvation with respect to the local church and to regain a Biblical vision and passion for what God is up to with both gospel and church.  Failure to bring the two back together will eventually result in the irrelevancy of both, in my opinion at  least.

 

But do read the whole post here.

Still More on Egypt

In this rather dramatic video showing thousands of protesters clashing with Egypt security forces in Cairo:

The Church of the East

Here’s a really informative piece that looks at the Church of the East, which is an oft unknown Christian Traditions to those of Western Christian formed beliefs:

As you may be aware, several Christian churches in Kirkuk, Mosul, Basra, and Baghdad, as well as throughout the rest of Iraq, cancelled their festivities this past Christmas. Ever since the massacre of worshippers in Baghdad’s Church of Our Lady of Salvation last November—followed by attacks on Christian neighborhoods in the city—the Christians of Iraq have been living in a state of unrelieved terror, and they simply do not dare celebrate their faith too openly right now. Moreover, there is no reason to imagine that their situation will become any more tolerable in any conceivable near future.

There are beleaguered Christian communities throughout much of the Muslim world, of course, but it is quite possible that the last remnants of ancient Persian Christianity in Iraq and perhaps Iran will disappear in our lifetimes. If so, and if Persian Christianity is largely reduced to a fragmentary diaspora community, it will mark the end of yet another tragic episode in one of the more extraordinary tales in Christian history—though it is a tale regarding which most Christians know absolutely nothing…

Do read on here.

Egypt Shuts Down the Internet

The Telegraph reports:

Organisations that track global internet access detected a collapse in traffic in to and out of Egypt at around 10.30GMT on Thursday night.

The shut down involved the withdrawal of more than 3,500 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes by Egyptian ISPs, according to Renesys, a networking firm. Only one ISP out of 10, Noor Data Networks, appeared largely unaffected. It connects to the outside world via an undersea cable operated by Telecom Italia.

According to BGPMon, another networking firm, 88 per cent of Egyptian internet access was successfully shut down, however…

The Egyptian government’s action is unprecedented in the history of the internet. Countries such as China, Iran, Thailand and Tunisia have cut off access to news websites and social networking services during periods of unrest, as Egypt did when it cut off Facebook and Twitter earlier this week.

The ongoing attempt by the Egyptian government to shut down all online communication is, however, a new phenomenon. It not only prevents ordinary Egyptian internet users from accessing any websites, it cripples Tor, an anti-censorship tool that technical experts and activists were using to circumvent the Facebook and Twitter blocks.

The action puts Egypt, temporarily at least, in the company of North Korea, which has never allowed its citizens access to the internet.

Well that’s one way of doing it…

See also CNBC with: Egypt Shows How Easily Internet Can Be Silenced.

Catholic Bishops Praying for Nelson Mandela

Catholic bishops in southern Africa were praying for the speedy recovery of former president Nelson Mandela, who was spending a third day in Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg on Friday.

“On behalf of the bishops, clergy, religious sisters and brothers as well as the Catholic Church in Southern Africa, the Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa extend to President Mandela and his family our prayers for his speedy recovery,” said Cardinal Wilfred Napier.

He said Mandela means different things to different people. To his family he was a caring patriarch and to the nation a “great and inspiring leader”. “Tata, you are in our prayers.” 

He was released from hospital earlier today and is back at home, as is reported here by Associated Press:

Johannesburg (AP) — Former South African President Nelson Mandela went home from the hospital Friday after suffering an acute respiratory infection. Officials said the 92-year-old was joking with his wife and nurses, and handling the difficulties of old age “with the greatest of grace.”

Surgeon-General Vejaynand Ramlakan told reporters that the anti-apartheid icon would now receive care at home after about 48 hours in Johannesburg’s Milpark Hospital.

“It comes to us this afternoon with great joy to hear that he’s been discharged,” grandson Mandla Mandela told reporters at a hospital news conference that included Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe.

Soon afterward, a convoy of security vehicles and a military ambulance carrying Mandela left the hospital, reaching his nearby home in minutes…

A dearth of updates since Mandela was admitted Wednesday afternoon had led to speculation and concern about his condition. Journalists have been camped outside the hospital and outside his Johannesburg home. Officials said Friday that Mandela’s office has received more than 10,000 messages of support and well wishes, including from President Barack Obama.

Motlanthe, who is acting president while President Jacob Zuma is traveling abroad, said in retrospect communications should have been better.

“Madiba has received similar checkups in the past and it’s never raised the same public panic it has now,” Motlanthe said, explaining why officials had not been prepared. South Africans affectionately call the 92-year-old Madiba, his clan’s name.

Ramlakan, the surgeon general, said Mandela was in stable condition and had not been on a respirator.

Mandela also had a respiratory infection eight years ago and contracted tuberculosis in 1988 while in prison, Ramlakan said. He added Mandela takes medication for a chronic, unnamed condition, and needs help to walk.

“Despite all of this, his amazing positive attitude allows him to cope with the difficulties of old age with the greatest of grace,” said Ramlakan, who is the South African army’s top doctor. The army is charged with the care of former presidents in South Africa.

Ramlakan would not say whether Mandela’s most recent infection was in the upper or lower regions of his respiratory tract. A lower tract infection could have signaled more serious problems than an upper respiratory problem.

“We are at the end of the day talking about somebody who is 92 years old,” Ramlakan said. “When you are 92 years old, what is routine is very different from when you are 19.”

Motlanthe said Mandela was joking with his wife and nurses before being released Friday…

The Collapse of Cultural Catholicism

Fr Dwight Longenecker writes:

SheryWeddell at the St Catherine of Siena Institute reports that 32% of Americans raised Catholic abandon the identity altogether by their mid twenties. An additional 38% retain the identity but rarely practice their faith. 30% of those who call themselves Catholic attend Mass only once a month. On a given Sunday only about 15.6% of American Catholics attend Mass.

What is the reason for these disastrous statistics? Basically because for the last forty years Catholics themselves have not taught Catholicism to their children. They’ve taught ‘American Catholicism’ which is a watered down blend of sentiementalism, political correctness, community activism and utilitarianism. In other words, “Catholicism is about feeling good about yourself, being just to others and trying to change the world.” The next generation have drawn the obvious conclusion that you don’t need to go to Mass to do all that. You can feel good about yourself much more effectively with a good book from the self help shelf, or by attending a personal development seminar. You can be involved in making the world a better place without going to church.

If only 15% of Catholics go to Mass on a given Sunday, look around and see how many of them are old. Even the 15% who are there won’t be there for very long.

The solution is simple: we must return to the supernatural realities of the historic faith and evangelize like the Apostles of old. The big difference is that the Apostles knew their targets were pagans and the pagans knew they weren’t Christians. We’re dealing with a huge population of Americans (Catholics and Protestants alike) who are pagan but who think they’re ‘good Christians.’ It is very difficult to evangelize people who already think they’re fine just as they are. We don’t know what we don’t know, and the vast majority of poorly catechized, lazy and worldly Catholics aren’t aware that there’s anything wrong.

What will it take for us to wake up?..

What indeed…

Afghan Man and Woman Executed for Adultry Despite Wishes of Villagers

Warning: Very graphic!

Graphic Video of Fatal Stoning Shows Taliban’s Strength

abc News brings us this video and the news:

About 200 people listen to a Taliban mullah describe why a man and woman deserve to be killed. A few dozen spectators – people from the local community – start throwing rocks at the woman, who had already been placed in a 4-foot-deep hole. They throw with relish and yell, “Allah akbar.”

At one point a large rock strikes her head and she falls down, her burqa red with blood. After the rock throwing ends, a few people debate whether she should be shot. Eventually one of the spectators shoots her with an AK-47. She falls into the hole, out of sight. There is a short period of absolute silence, and then the spectators turn to each other and start talking.

Then the man is brought into the crowd and blindfolded with his own tunic. The same scene proceeds, but with larger rocks and more abandon. He cries as he is killed…

More here.

Compare the above barbaric actions to that of our Lord’s gracious response in John 7:53-8:11

Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

World Muslim Population Doubling

Report projects. CNN has more:

Twenty years ago, the world had about 1.1 billion Muslims. Twenty years from now, it will have about twice as many - and they’ll represent more than a quarter of all people on earth, according to a new study released Thursday.

That’s a rise from less than 20 percent in 1990.

Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as home of the largest number of Muslims, as its population pushes over 256 million, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life projects.

The number of Muslims in the United States will more than double, to 6.2 million, it anticipates…

Israel will become nearly a quarter Muslim. The Palestinian territories have one of the highest growth rates in the world…

And two western European countries - France and Belgium – will become more than 10 percent Muslim…

The Muslim share of the global population will rise primarily because of their relatively high birth rate, the large number of Muslims of childbearing age, and an increase in life expectancy in Muslim-majority countries, according to the report, “The Future of the Global Muslim Population.”

Conversion will play relatively little part in the increase, the report anticipates. It says little data is available on conversion, but what little there is suggests Islam loses as many adherents via conversion as it gains.

While the Muslim population is set to grow at a faster rate than that of the world as a whole, the rate of Muslim growth is slowing, Pew says.

“Growing but slowing” is the key phrase…

Despite the rapid growth of Islam, Christianity seems set to remain the biggest religion in the world for the next 20 years. There are currently more than 2 billion Christians – 30 to 35 percent of the global population – making it very unlikely that there will be fewer than 2.2 billion Christians in 2030.

“There is nothing in these numbers to indicate that in 2030 there would be more Muslims that Christians,”…

In fact, both Christianity and Islam could be growing, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the whole…

Read the whole thing here.