Saturday, 27 Jun 2009

A Good News Commentary...

Dear Friends,

This coming Tuesday an interesting, perhaps even exciting new venture takes place in the life of the Church in Australia — A national E-Conference to explore the relevance of St Paul to our lives today. I've written the lead commentary today and in it I give some background to this Conference, which is sponsored jointly by the Broken Bay Institute and the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, and also some interesting stuff the Archbishop of our Capital Diocese, Mark Coleridge, is doing in the realms of adult faith development. I don't think any of it is going to make substantial inroads against the weight of the systemic failings that are holding Catholicism back in this nation but nevertheless they are exciting developments.
<Read today's commentary>
www.catholica.com.au/gc0/bc2/056_bc_270609.php

Absolute Truth! In lieu of a lead commentary today, we draw attention to a review of the television series, Absolute Truth, which PeterR dug up from The Tablet and published in the forum. <more>

The Death and Preservation of Paul… Here's how Dr Elmer introduces his commentary today: "We have no direct information concerning the circumstances of Paul's final sojourn and death at Rome. Acts ends with a brief account of Paul's two-year house arrest in the imperial capital (28:14b-31) where, according to Luke's report, Paul continued as an active missionary for "two full years" (28:31). What happened after that time is a matter of some conjecture; and the issue is bound up with the equally contentious issue of the authorship of the later Pauline epistles, Ephesians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus." <more>

Reporting on his Aussie Pigrimage #4 Tom McMahon continues his impressions of Australia and the people he met on his journey. Today he shares some of his observations of similarities and differences between the United States and Australia. <more>

Healing the division between East & West... Last week, you will recall, Dr Andrew Kania provided us with a gutsy commentary examining the disunity in Christianity between the Catholics and the Protestants. Today he provides what is possibly a more powerful essay examining the root causes of the division between the Eastern and Western lungs within Catholicism. Many Latin Church readers will perhaps not have seen arguments like this presented from the Eastern perspective. <more>

18.1: Consolidation of Church and State! Tom Lee's series of commentaries gets more gripping with each instalment. Today's excerpt is particularly packed with interesting history from that early phase under Constantine when the bishops began to learn the value of patronage in a big way. <more>

A follow up to the Melbourne conversation... Today's Sunday Forum is a follow-up to a discussion paper circulated during the week to participants in the conversation held in Melbourne Satuday week ago convened by Catholics for Ministry. There is a hunger in society for forms of spirituality more responsive to people's real needs. The institution seems incapable of delivering it. What's the alternative? <more>

Best wishes for a great day wherever you happen to be ... in life or in our world!

Brian Coyne
Editor and Publisher