CHURCHES IN BRIEF
Poland: the Days of Christian Culture are ongoing “Dialogue unites families and generations”. It is the title of the initiative that for the 30th year running involves 125 thousand inhabitants of the Polish City of Gorzow Wielkopolski. For the whole month of October, in the framework of the Days of Christian Culture, inaugurated with a solemn function chaired by the bishop Monsignor Stefan Regmunt, will be held concerts and theatrical performances, debates and conferences dedicated to dialogue. Monsignor Henryk Muszynski, former primate of Poland, inaugurated the cycle of conferences with a speech on the “Christian dimension of dialogue in plural society”. “Is the dialogue of Christianity with contemporary culture possible?” is the question raised by Fr Andrzej Dragula, Professor at the University of Szczecin. “Faith is dialogue” was the title of the Report by Zbigniew Nosowski, director of Catholic magazine “Wiez” (bond). High-school students on October 15 will organize poetry and music performances, while the following day they will stage a musical recital titled “Invite me over for dinner”. During the month movie theatres will be screening films on the life of John Paul II. Slovakia: “spiritual campaign” for young people A coordinating team of the National Youth Day 2015, due to take place from July 31-August 2 in Poprad, Slovakia, has already starting preparing the event. The spiritual campaign titled “The year of purity”, currently promoted in all parishes and Catholic Youth Communities in Slovakia, inspired to the Biblical phrase “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Mt 5,8), will last ten months. Ondrej Chrvala, national coordinator of the Day, told SIR Europe that the first phase of the project “envisages a set of catechetical meetings on various aspects of purity and Christian virtues”, carried out by experts. “The package for every student who will register in this preparatory stage includes a letter, prayers, quotes from the Holy Scripture, the biographies of the Patron Saints of the Youth Day, in addition to spiritual reflections and proposals for small workshops”, said Pavol Danko, director of the program for next year’s event. The first materials are already available on the website to www.narodnestretnutiemladeze.sk. Czech Republic: a text on Christian anthropology Who is a human being? Who am I? What makes me happy? How can I live as a man or as a woman? The answers to these and to many other questions centered on Christian anthropology were inserted by the Youth Section of the Czech Bishops’ Conference in a didactic material recently published titled “In a journey to be a person”. Eleven chapters are devoted to themes such as the identity of a man or of a woman, self-acceptance, interpersonal relations, the fight for life, the spiral of virtue… Each theme includes catechesis, methodology, synthesis and a prayer. “The material can be used as a source of inspiration to prepare an encounter between young people. The methodology offers suggestions on how to tackle the text, draw reflections and put it into practice in our everyday life”, explained the promoters of the project. For further information: www.cirkev.cz. Finland: ecumenical dialogue, a seminar in Turku “Faith and works: for an ecumenical perspective of the Reform” is the theme of the study seminar to be held in Turku (October 16-17), on the initiative of the Council of Churches of Finland. Starting from a theological introduction on “faith and works” a theme dear to Luther’s thinking, the seminar will address the theme “for Grace only”, taking stock of “theological questions of the Reform in ecumenical dialogue”, in a round table with representatives of the major Christian denominations present in the Country (Father Raimo Goyarrola, Catholic, Grant White, Orthodox, and Göte Leif Björklund, Methodist). The two themes – “faith and works” – will be addressed by Doris Peschke, Secretary General of the Commission of European Churches for Migrations (CCME). The seminar will end with a pilgrimage across the city with stops in Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox churches. The seminar is part of the journey undertaken by the World Lutheran Federation with the motto “Free yourself of the grace of God” towards 2017, 500th anniversary of Luther’s Reform. In this framework on November 27 will begin the works of the Finnish Commission for Lutheran-Catholic dialogue, attended also by Msgr. Matthias Türk from the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity.
