Wichita Eagle: Faith andamp; Values

100 Buddhas rise from vacant lots in hopes of calming city’s violence

Manya A. Brachear — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 22:51 CDT

CHICAGO — Some believe the solution to neighborhood violence is increased police presence and arrests. For others, it’s teaching parents how to raise respectful children. And then there is a small cadre of idealists who believe all it takes is art.

After all, what if the vacant lots littered with trash, the grimy underbellies of the L tracks and the public parks annexed as gang turf offered the kind of creative scenery reserved for tourists. In the urban din, could an artist’s voice make a difference?

That’s the theory behind Ten Thousand Ripples, a public art project that culminated last week when community activists installed the 100th statue of a partial Buddha head emerging from the ground beside a rose bush in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.

Hundreds mourn scholar, author Rev. Andrew Greeley

Manya A. Brachear — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 08:12 CDT

His final farewell unfolded as if he had choreographed every song and step. With people in the pews belting out the Celtic hymn “Lord of the Dance,” the Rev. Andrew Greeley was carried out of Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood for a private burial.

Hundreds of mourners, including Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, theologian Martin Marty, comedian and former parishioner George Wendt and about three dozen priests, nearly filled Greeley's first and only full-time parish on Wednesday to give him a traditional Irish Catholic send off.

But they didn't only mourn the loss of an uncle, scholar, novelist and friend. They grieved the loss of a priest whose lone voice in the wilderness forced Catholics to confront their imperfect church.

Scammers bedevil religious leaders with fake Facebook pages

Mike Hendricks — Sat, 25 May 2013 07:48 CDT

Search for the Rev. Adam Hamilton on Facebook and you’ll likely get two seemingly identical pages to choose from.

What’s different about them is that one Hamilton uses it to publicize upcoming sermons at 18,000-member United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.

The other was started by a scammer trying to con people into supporting phony church mission projects.

Iconographer paints images to inspire faithful

Colette M. Jenkins — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:22 CDT

COPLEY TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A plain white wall rose above the altar in the sanctuary at St. Demetrius Serbian Orthodox Church.

That was before its transformation.

Now that wall is covered in a brilliant blue that serves as a backdrop to a vibrantly colored icon of the Virgin Mary Mother of God with the Christ Child.

Rethinking the doctrine of atonement

Tom Schaefer — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:22 CDT

“Healing the Gospel: A Radical Vision for Grace, Justice, and the Cross” by Derek Flood (Cascade Books, 108 pages, $17)

Is God an angry God who requires sacrificial appeasement, or is that idea not only in error but ultimately destructive of people’s well-being?

Lay ministers share in pastoral responsibilities

Colette M. Jenkins — Sat, 04 May 2013 07:30 CDT

BATH TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The Stephen Ministry is looking for compassionate men and women who want to help people who are hurting.

“God is the cure giver. Stephen ministers are the caregivers,” said the Rev. Maureen Webber, associate minister of pastoral care at The Bath Church — United Church of Christ. “Stephen ministers are not counselors or therapists. They are people who are present to listen and to walk alongside someone who is going through a trial in life. It could be divorce, loss of a job, loss of a loved one, illness or other difficult situations.

“Stephen ministers live out Jesus’ commandment to ‘love one another as I have loved you.’ ”

Pagels wrestles with the Book of Revelation

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 07:22 CDT

“Revelations: Visions, Prophecy and Politics in the Book of Revelation” by Elaine Pagels (Penguin Books, 244 pages, $16)

A beast from the sea with seven heads and 10 horns.

Neighbor prays, writes letters for sick boy

Gracie Bonds Staples — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:24 CDT

It looked like time might be running out for Chip Madren.

One moment he was a normal 13-year-old, and the next, doctors were telling his parents a deadly cancer was spreading in his brain.

Lea and Ken Madren turned to their faith that day in 2010. They asked for prayers.

‘Emergence’ shows changing Christianity

Tom Schaefer — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 07:38 CDT

“The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why” by Phyllis Tickle (Baker Books, 224 pages, $14.99)

A seismic shift in the bedrock of religion in this country is occurring, and we are living in a time of significant change and realignment in Christianity driven by what’s called the Great Emergence.

Crafting leather for the soul

Caroline McMillan — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:15 CDT

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Scott Hofert’s career is a marriage of automated and manual, spiritual and tangible — a veritable workshop of internal growth and external product.

In short: church and cowhide.

Hofert, 42, is co-pastor of the church Watershed in the NoDa neighborhood of Charlotte, N.C., and the founder and owner of ColsenKeane, a custom leather goods shop located just four doors down from his church office.

‘New New Testament’: Pastor’s book may anger some, but he hopes it also illuminates

David O’Reilly — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 07:21 CDT

“In the beginning was the Word,” begins an ancient Middle Eastern text, “and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

In time its anonymous author would be assigned the name John, and his mystical story of the life and death of Jesus – whom he presents as having existed before all time – would join 26 other texts in a book that has shaped Western civilization like no other.

The New Testament is, for many millions of Christians, the inspired Word of God, sacred and immutable: the perfect account of Jesus, the perfect human.

Kosher, in tasty new translations

Jessica Gelt — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 08:37 CDT

Mounds of juicy meat glisten in hot pans and on nicked carving boards in the dining room of the Mark on Pico Boulevard. Braised sirloin with oregano and onion; Santa Maria tri-tip with garlic, molasses and chutney; rich flank steak tacos with lime and salsa; English roast with horseradish; bone marrow with red wine and olive oil; and piles of filet mignon, New York strip and rib-eye are all on offer.

Lining up for service are more than 100 Jews, most of whom have kept kosher for life. Due to the rules governing kashrut (Jewish dietary law), these enthusiastic dinner guests have never before eaten meat from the hindquarters of a cow (the sciatic nerve must be removed to make it kosher, an involved process).

However, on this night they can, thanks to a 17-month-old kosher foodie group called Beverlywood Supper Club. Founded by a food enthusiast named Eddie Fox, the club arranged to fly out a New York City rabbi, Avidan Elkin, to supervise the slaughter and preparation of the animals for this event. He’s one of the few rabbis in the country certified to do so.

Priest blesses, then rides, the waves

Tom Berg — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 07:32 CST

The story goes that in 2011, a holy man saved the “Gathering of the Tribes” longboard contest at Trestles beach.

The day was cloudy and breezy. The waves small.

Then an elderly man in a robe and sandals stepped onto the beach.

Gestures of faith: Chicago church reaches out to deaf and hard of hearing

Lolly Bowean — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:07 CST

In American Sign Language, there is a finger combination for the word “love.”

There’s also a sign for the word “God.”

And when Melinda Gerstein beats her hand harshly against the wooden lectern as she’s teaching from the Bible, her movement needs no interpretation. When she holds her arms out straight in front of her chest, her palms facing the audience of Praetorium Sign Language Church of Chicago in a gesture of surrender, the meaning is understood.

Renovated cathedral in downtown Wichita keeps its classic grandeur

Fred Mann — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:37 CDT

The historic building at Central and Broadway in downtown Wichita is safer, brighter, more accessible and more user-friendly.

But after its 18-month, $17 million renovation, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception still has the look and feel of a century-old structure.

“It’s really more of a preservation,” Monsignor Robert Hemberger said Friday. “The original architect would be very proud of what has become of his original concept. It is faithful to the integrity of original design “

Latin gains critical Mass among some Catholics

Brian Burnes — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 07:31 CST

At first, they couldn’t explain the voices.

Barely audible, the murmurs began while contractors, not long ago, were installing new microphone wire in the former Westwood Lutheran Church in Westwood Hills, down the street from the University of Kansas Medical Center.

For 18 months, members of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne have been working to turn the 1940s-era Protestant church into a new home for what sometimes is called the “old” Catholic Latin Mass.

Texas woman doesn’t let her circumstances impede her ministry

Terry Evans — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 08:14 CST

Susan Slade is certain that she’s on earth to help people find what they need.

“My purpose is to encourage people to find their purpose in God and to express it,” she said.

But Slade’s done so much more than that since she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Oral Robert’s University in Tulsa, Okla., then became an ordained minister. She has performed weddings, made inspirational videos, appeared on television, preached from pulpits to hundreds at a time and used a prophet-like insight to find meaning in Scripture.

As churches grow in the South, stained-glass windows from the North follow

Richard Stradling — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:47 CST

The Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, N.C., is still months away from breaking ground on its new cathedral off Western Boulevard, but already it has bought the windows.

Forty-two stained-glass windows are being removed from a church in Philadelphia and painstakingly restored so they can be installed in Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh. The 85-year-old windows from Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church tell the story of Jesus’ life, from the angel’s visit to Mary to the resurrection and ascension, in vivid colored glass held together by lead.

Ascension of Our Lord closed Oct. 1, one of countless once-thriving churches and synagogues in the Midwest and Northeast whose congregations have shrunk as members move to the suburbs or beyond. Their buildings are often filled with ornate windows, statues, carved woodwork and other works of art that sometimes find new homes in the growing churches of the South.

‘Prophetic Imagination’ challenges believers’ complacency of faith

By Bookmarks — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 16:50 CST

“The Practice of Prophetic Imagination: Preaching an Emancipating Word” by Walter Brueggemann (Fortress Press, 149 pages, $25)

Don’t read this book if you’re a pastor, priest or rabbi uninterested in prophetic preaching.

Ministry guides homeless by example, expectations

Kate Santich — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 07:47 CST

ORLANDO, Fla. – Take equal parts Dr. Phil and Mother Teresa, stir in a youth tainted by dysfunction, drugs and living on the streets, and you have the man behind one of the fastest-growing, most successful homeless programs in Central Florida.

Pastor Scott Billue – a high-speed, tough-love 50-year-old with a boy-band haircut – is founder of the 21/2-year-old Matthew’s Hope program in Winter Garden, Fla., run with the support of 50 churches, hundreds of volunteers and scores of local businesses.

Sprawled behind the Church of Christ of West Orange, the operation began as a freeze shelter where those who lived in the woods could seek refuge from the nighttime cold. Now it’s a full-time operation with 1,500 clients. At Matthew’s Hope, the homeless can get groceries, clothing, medical and mental-health care and eye exams. They also can tend an organic garden and get help finding jobs.