Several Yorkers were among a group of midstate Lutherans who left last week for a trip to the Konde Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania in eastern Africa. They'll attend the diocesan assembly there, where a bishop will be elected (or current Bishop Israel-Peter Mwakyolile reelected).
Two more York County parishes will soon offer two traditional Latin Masses a month.
The Rev. Joseph Tuscan, a priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Springettsbury Township, will celebrate the Latin Mass usually at 3 p.m. on the second Sunday of the month at St. Joe's and on the fourth Sunday at St. Mary's on George Street in York. Confessions at 2:30 p.m.
An exception is this weekend, when Sunday's Latin Mass will begin at 5 p.m. at St. Joe's.
In 2007, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades established an official "community" for Catholics who prefer the traditional Latin Mass. It meets weekly at St. Lawrence Chapel in Harrisburg.
Ten years ago, Lutherans and Catholics signed a document resolving a dispute that was at the heart of the Reformation. The issue was the nature of justification -- generally, the importance of faith and good works to one's salvation.
On Monday, the regional Catholic diocese is hosting a dialogue in Harrisburg about these issues. You can hear presenters including Monsignor John A. Radano, who recently served as staff member to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the Rev. Dr. Cheryl M. Peterson, assistant professor of systematic theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.
"This is the 10th anniversary of the signing of the document on August 30, 1999, on Reformation Sunday," said Deacon Charles Clark of the Diocese of Harrisburg. "It marked a very significant turn for the better in Catholic-Lutheran relations."
Registration is $20 and includes lunch. For details, call Clark at 657-4804.
Several clergy from York County are among 1,400 who signed a letter for President Obama earlier this month urging him to seek sustainable peace in Darfur.
The Revs. Robert Hoover, Judy McKee, Elizabeth Polanzke, Edgar Reed, Kevin Shively, Patricia Snyder, Timothy Seitz-Brown, Allan Wysocki, Paula Stecker and others emphasized the decades of war, famine and marginalization in
Sudan and urged Obama to continue efforts to enforce the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South.
The letter was delivered Oct. 2 to Josh DuBois, director of the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. It was coordinated by the faith-based Save Darfur Coalition - an alliance of more than 180 advocacy and human rights organizations.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg open its 184th academic year Wednesday with the traditional convocation at noon Wednesday, featuring a lecture by dean emeriti Norma Schweitzer Wood.
The seminary says it's the oldest institution of Lutheran higher education in the Americas.
Wood, who retired in 2003, taught in the area of pastoral counseling and specializes in the areas of marriage, family and group work in congregations. She is a licensed psychologist and certified as a pastoral counseling educator with the American Association of Pastoral Counselors.
I meant to post this a while ago: The interview that "Fresh Air's" Terry Gross did with author Patrick Radden Keefe, who recently published "Snakehead," the story of the Golden Venture that takes place in part in York.
If you missed it, here's the YDR story about Keefe's visit to York earlier this month.
Gerry Stoltzfoos made headlines recently when the Pennsylvania House refused to let him pray using Jesus' name. Rather than edit his prayer, Stoltzfoos pulled out.
"If you pray to no God, it's like a letter not being addressed to anyone," he told the AP.
The state Senate stepped in and invited Stoltzfoos to pray there instead, which he did Wednesday morning.
Check out a draft of his prayer here. Read an entry on the Pentecostal pastor's blog about the media attention the experience attracted. Read more at the jump.
