Benedictine sisters to close monastery

On Friday, it was announced that Our Lady of Peace Monastery will be closing after establishing itself in Columbia in 1969.

In their final newsletter, the sisters cite its aging membership and lacking new membership as the main factors for closing the monastery. Because of these two reasons, the affect on the monastery’s finances and the ability to function as necessary have worsened. The monastery will remain open until all the sisters successfully transfer to a new monastery and join a new Benedictine family.

Back in October, the Missourian published a piece on the declining interest in the Catholic sisterhood. The article mentions that a decline in interest is occurring worldwide, not just the United States. Some statistics show the percentage of women wanting to become nuns has decreased by 50 percent in the last 50 years. The article adds that, today, there are approximately 68,000 nuns in the United States.

In our article, Sister Agnes Schlereth of Sacred Heart Catholic Church attributes different and changing approaches of churches as the key to sustaining interest among the youth in religious vocations.

For decades, the Catholic church has seen a dwindling of interest in the sisterhood, and the reality of the changes are now apparent in mid-Missouri. You have to wonder whether it’s modern society and culture that is the main reason for what’s happening or whether the church should hold some responsibility for what is happening. Or maybe both?

Hand bells ring, are you listening?

A little late for tonight’s performance, but the Columbia Handbell Ensemble is performing its 20th annual Winter Concerts this weekend at First Baptist Church. One concert was tonight at 7 p.m., another Sunday at 2 p.m., with a third tomorrow night in Hermann. For details and more on the hand bell choir, read our story on today’s ColumbiaMissourian.com.

Hand bells make up a marvelous musical medium that is popular among churches. In the story, CHE director Ed Rollins describes the sound of hand bells as attempting to replicate, with five or six musicians, the sound of a single instrument’s melody. He explained it to me like this: “Let’s say you’re a violin player, and the violin gets the melody. So one person’s responsible for the melody. In a hand bell group, that melody is going to be split between five or six people. What you’re trying to do is make it sound … like one person is playing the music.”

That music can be quite impressive sometimes. Rollins said one of their selections for this year’s Winter Concerts was originally performed on the organ: “One is an organ transcription, and man, if you get that done well on bells, it’s so good.”

For a preview of CHE’s sound, check out this 2008 slide show of Christmas offerings at local churches, which features a snippet from last year’s CHE Winter Concerts (and which I admit I really just wanted an excuse to repost). Not to be missed if you go: The group typically does at least one sing-along number, and the effect is pretty moving.

Are religious wars now fought with words??

After learning about Nicholas Kristof in my reporting class last week through a documentary, I became very interested in reading his view point on things in his Opinion column for the New York Times. Today, while I was looking through his archive, I found an interesting article called “The Religious Wars.” Knowing that Kristof is famous for his coverage of human tragedies such as Darfur and other human rights violations in countries such as Africa, I assumed that this would be about violent religious wars and his opinion of them. Not surprisingly, I was wrong.

Kristof’s article dealt more with the idea that religious wars are now being fought through the written word, in the form of battling books that challenge the existence of God or challenge some commonly accepted religious practices. He uses several books as examples of differing viewpoints that have become mainstream novels, shaping our religious culture. Many of the examples he uses don’t follow the typical image of God as a loving father figure. Instead, they try to uncover where the idea of God comes from, and where our religion in general comes from.

What do you think of this idea that religious wars are no longer being fought with swords and armies but instead with pens and words? It is an interesting way to look at things. I don’t think I ever considered these competing books to be on opposite sides of a battle line. However, it is a more civil way to fight and express opinions.

No more Swiss minarets

I was browsing the New York Times Web site today, and found an article called “Swiss Ban Building of Minarets on Mosques” buried in the World Section. THis article about a new referendum that passed Sunday in Switzerland appalled me somewhat.

According to the article, Switzerland has a reputation for religious tolerance, yet the referendum, which bans the building on minarets on mosques in the county, passed by an overwhelming 57.5 percent majority, despite being opposed by the government.

Since I’ve not overly familiar with the Islamic faith, I did some research on what exactly a minaret is and why it is significant to the Islamic faith. According to an Encyclopedia Britannica online article about minarets, it is a tower from which the faithful are called to prayer by the muezzin, or crier. They are attached to the mosque, and have either a balcony or open gallery.

Several online sources say that they are rarely used for this purpose anymore, and are just symbolic. The call to prayer can be made from elsewhere in the mosque, and is sometimes done from a loudspeaker.

The referendum passed by the Swiss this weekend had little to do with the religious aspect of the minarets and more to do with political motives. The referendum was proposed by the rightist Swiss People’s Party.

According to the article, the referendum is thought to have passed because of popular fear of fundamentalist Islamic activities. However, it sends a message against the community as a whole.

What do you think about the referendum? According to the NYT article, there are currently only 4 mosques that have minarets, and only 2 more are planned to be built. The Swiss People’s Party says the minarets are a political symbol, which goes against the constitution of the country, according to a CNN article. Both the NYT and CNN articles say that the party has been responsible for a lot of anti-Islamic propaganda.

There  has been considerable backlash against the referendum. According to a Yahoo! news article, Amnesty International has the vote violated freedom of religion. They think it will likely be overturned by the Swiss supreme court or the European Court of Human Rights.

What do you think will happen to the referendum? Will it stand? Or will it get overturned? How do you feel about the obvious anti-Islamic action in a country known for religious tolerance? Will it be well received around the world? Do you think others will copy it?

Holy Goldfish

I’ve been to many different churches and faith communities in my day, 21 years to be precise. Now I realize that this may not be the longest time span in the history of the church as a whole – there are those that have attended the same service at the same church and sit in the same pew for many more decades than I have been alive – but I have observed many similarities between congregations over my short observation period.

The tradition of communion is fairly universal across the different denominations of Christianity. Some congregations choose to offer communion every day while others only offer it once a month. No matter the frequency it still exists and in many different forms. Some churches use wafers, loaves of bread or crackers while others have more unconventional methods.

During my recent trek west I took a detour across northern Missouri to visit my family. As is normal on a Sunday I went to church, which shall remain nameless at this time, with my extended family. The came the time for the trays containing the bread and wine for communion to be passed around and I expected the normal fare of small crackers and cups of grape juice. Instead there were cheese flavored Goldfish next to the grape juice.

I ended up feeling like I was 4 again and in Sunday school eating my snack in between gluing cotton balls onto a lamb and listening to a bible story. It was rather difficult to remain in a spiritual mood after fish shaped crackers appeared in the communion plate. My father said the combination of the cheese cracker and grape juice left an interesting taste in his mouth, I wouldn’t know since I can’t drink most grape juices due to a food allergy. I suppose plain flavored Goldfish may have worked better with grape juice in the long run but I understand that it is economical to use what is on hand during a time when some budgets are tight.

In retrospect I can see that there is some symbolism in having a fish shaped cracker for communion but I didn’t see that at the time since I was so taken aback by the Goldfish. In my opinion it would have been much easier to focus with neutrally shaped crackers but what do I know? Maybe there was higher reason for the fish to make their way onto the communion platter.

Local charity is still strong after 18 months

Love INC in Columbia is still going strong after being open for 18 months.

Love INC, or Love in the Name of Christ, started in Holland, Mich., in 1977.  Since then more than 140 affiliates of Love INC have open across the country, according to loveinc.org. The Columbia office is an affiliate of this organization.

It coordinates volunteers from different churches in order to better serve many different needs within the community. Using a “clearinghouse” method to screen incoming calls for aid, Love INC determines the underlying cause of need and or if the person calling needs help at all.

Love INC in Columbia is currently affiliated with 50 local churches. If the charity is unable to help people that come to Love INC through their own programs, they can be directed to different ministries at churches across the city. Love INC will even provide transportation for those who need it to get to meetings at various locations.

“Living Life for Real” is one of the programs that Love INC offers in Columbia. The program includes classes on job searching and budget management.

Love INC recently opened up a permanent location for their furniture bank and hopes to expand into transitional housing and helping refugees that have settled in the Columbia area.

Theses on Worship

The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod adopted theses on worship in late September. This document was created after two years of discussion regarding the issue of different worship styles.

This document has spurred quite a bit of discussion on the Facebook group for the church. Some see the document as a justification to bring back more traditional forms of worship; others see it as a justification for more contemporary worship styles.

Dave Benson, senior pastor of Campus Lutheran Church, sees the theses as a justification for the blended worship styles his church offers.

It will be interesting to see how this document will affect churches across Missouri, if at all.

Coming up at Missouri United Methodist

If you’re looking for something to do this Sunday (Nov. 29), Missouri United Methodist Church is offering various events for people of all ages. The church is located at 204 South Ninth Street.

BLOOD DRIVE: from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the CLC first floor hall

ADVENT CRAFT FESTIVAL: Children aged pre-school to 5th grade are invited to participate in the craft festival from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Whittler Hall.

HANGING OF THE GREENS: The Hanging of the Greens service will be at 6:30 p.m. in the sanctuary.

The Fort Hood shooter: Just how big a deal WAS his faith?

Much has been made over the role of Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan’s deep Muslim faith in the mass shooting at Fort Hood earlier this month, in which he opened fire at the massive Texas installation and killed 13 people. The day after the shooting, the Washington Post ran quite a long profile of Hasan, paying a great deal of attention to his faith and how it shaped his life and military service. More recently, NPR aired a story this week on a damning evaluation Hasan received from the Army in 2007, which made mention of his habit of proselytizing to patients — a habit that makes sense in light of a comment in the WaPo story that “his faith was the only outgoing thing about him” — among a laundry list of reasons why the evaluator felt he lacked professionalism and a work ethic. Several news outlets have wondered whether Hasan’s faith was the primary motive for his rampage; their claims are reinforced by eyewitness accounts that told of Hasan shouting, “Allahu akbar!” (“To God be the glory!”) as he opened fire with his personal handguns.

But, as with any situation, there is another side to consider. Shortly after the shooting, the Missourian’s Jeremy Essig wrote an analysis of news coverage of Fort Hood up to that point, questioning the validity of featuring Hasan’s faith so prominently in the news and adding, “Jason Rodriguez killed one person and injured five others in a mass shooting on Friday in Orlando, Fla. Who knows Rodriguez’s religion?” And the religion section of the La Canada (Calif.) Valley Sun assembled a panel of local clergy to debate whether too much had been made of the issue of Hasan’s faith.

But all of those are just others’ opinions. What do you think, dear reader? Should the media be focusing on and analyzing Hasan’s faith? Are they doing too much of it?

An early Thanksgiving at Paquin Tower

Last night, Thanksgiving came a week early for the residents at Paquin Tower, and the festive smorgasbord did not disappoint. Neither did the entertainment and good company. Yes, I said entertainment.

A trio of men from Karis Community Church, whose members provided the meal, played a lovely mix of songs on various stringed instruments. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a cover of Ryan Adams, my all-time favorite musician, mixed in with some Christmas songs and bluegrass medleys.

I had never been to Paquin and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know some new people. Since moving to Columbia this summer, I have been attending Karis and was happy to know this was the second year for the church to provide the holiday meal at Paquin. From what I was told, the City of Columbia used to provide the meal but withdrew its support due to budgetary constraints. Last year, Karis adopted the program.

What impressed me the most about the event was how everyone took the time to get to know each other. I spent most of the evening talking to a man who said he had lived in Paquin for about two years. I mentioned to him that I was from Memphis, and he said he had been there to see doctors at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He has sickle cell anemia and currently is without a job.  I was thankful to make a genuine connection with a complete stranger and learn more about his life, interests, struggles and joys.

I also met a man who has lived in Paquin for 20 years and said he is currently the longest-running resident. Later, I practiced a little of my Spanish with a resident who was originally from Colombia.

There was also handful of willing helpers from the Evangelical Free Church of Columbia, and I appreciated talking to a few of them. Needless to say, I left feeling thankful. Thankful for human connections. Thankful for the hands that prepared the wonderful meal. Thankful for a night of good music and new friends.