The Catholic Church, with its sheer size, promises interesting developments around the world on a daily basis. I hope to post links to some of these interesting developments whenever I come across such fascinating or informative news. For now, here are some:

• Ecumenism is more than mere theological talk and certainly more than the cultivation of a promiscuous sense of a unity which is yet to exist. However, our years of dialogue has certainly borne much fruit, particularly with the Orthodox Church. The Pope speaks on this. [ Read ]

  
  

• The Vatican launches new news portal! [ Read ]

  
  

• The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, on his new iPad 2... really cute to watch a bunch of granduncles meddling with a new toy. Hope their episcopal rings don't scratch the screen. [ Read ]

  
  

• The reflections of the Holy Father on the Eucharist continue to amaze and challenge me. Here is his homily for the Feast of Corpus Christi. [ Read ]

  
  

• As China seeks to project the facade of a new religious freedom in the country, the Communist Party continues to elude the world with empty promises. More persecution of bishops and bishops-elect. [ Read ]
  

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The posting up of photos I took during my trip to Kerala, India, in May this year is long overdue.

I've finally done it.

To view them, click here.

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Here is a paper I wrote towards the end of last year (2009), which was presented at the Second Symposium on Consecrated Life of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) and has now been published by the East Asian Pastoral Review:

The Call to Consecration: Renewing Discipleship in the Church in Modern Asia
by Sherman Kuek sfo

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My alma mater has a really cool newly designed website.

Check it out here.

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London, May. 7, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican's top ecumenical spokesman has posed a challenge to Anglican leaders, saying that the Anglican communion must decide whether it has more in common with the Catholic and Orthodox churches or the Protestant denominations.

[ Read more ]

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Most religious leaders I've met are diplomats and bureaucrats. It's refreshing to see an exception.

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 30, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A Vatican spokesman is suggesting that Benedict XVI's willingness to baptize a high-profile convert from Islam may have aimed to affirm the freedom of religious choice, deriving from the dignity of the person.

[ read more... ]

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KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's ruling coalition on Saturday suffered its biggest electoral upset ever, losing control of four state governments and failing to win the crucial two-thirds majority in parliament.

It is Barisan Nasional (BN)'s worst performance in a general election since independence in 1957.

Click here to read more.

Anil Netto prays:

Almighty God/Allah, thank you for an amazing night. You are a God of Justice, Truth and Compassion. You love especially the poor, the meek, the marginalised and the overburdened. You want your people to be ruled with Justice and Peace. Thank you for taking us a major step further in this direction. Thank you for making all of us more aware of the importance of the struggle for Justice and Truth. Let your Justice flow like a mighty river in our land. Thank you, Lord. Amen/Amin.

Likewise, as a Christian, I can say "Amen" to that prayer.

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VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday criticized a world with luxury for a few and poverty for many and called for moderate lifestyles to ensure fair distribution of wealth amid a scramble for natural resources.

Read more...

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Link: Holy Friday for Malaysians

To our friends in the West, this article somewhat explains why you'll never be able to truly understand the plethora of paradigmatic confusions we live with and why our theology will never truly be systematic the way you often seem to expect it to be.

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The grieving world continues to delude itself as the many people contained within it furiously construct new realities - countless new worlds - that they may find elusive happiness in those synthetic climates of emotional security.

Deep within, some of them grieve those things they’ve lost whilst others grieve the absence of those things they never had. Each, in his own unique way, expresses those needful things in his life. Strangely, even if many of these "needful things" are projected to take on the form of things, almost inevitably, it's a person who was once lost and caused grief.

Some say that grief is but a gradual process which eventually brings one towards wholeness, that grief eventually ceases. I beg to differ. I think the scars of our painful pasts invoke a grief which lasts throughout our lifetimes. At some point, the grief no longer paralyses us, but yet, we express that loss through certain mechanisms which generate a sense of hope just so we feel that we can perhaps cope with the grief throughout this life.

Some have grieved for so long they can’t imagine a life without it. I've lived almost all my life with people who were and are still grieving. They spend their entire lives trying to compensate that which they’ve lost. Some others even over-compensate just so they feel justified. Perhaps only then can they be somewhat convinced that this world into which they were born is a world regulated by justice. They need to know it, just so they can survive in it.

Grief produces a kind of energy, an energy which renders a certain power to the griever. This energy can either damage or develop others. Our scars can be a source from whence temporal healing is found, or they can be the ugly source from which flows the further debilitation of human life. The art of nurturing grief must be mastered creatively, craftily and delicately, lest it masters you.

Editor's Note: This is a related article worth reading and pondering over.

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The two-day event organised by emergentMalaysia, Friends in conversation: A quiet revolution of hope, has ended successfully. Influential author and speaker Brian McLaren, and other local conversation partners have exchanged their perspectives on four main issues; gospel, church, discipleship and world.

Link: Read the report on this event published by Christian Today

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Link: James Cameron Finds Jesus?

I don't have a sense of protectionism over my faith. It's open to be examined. If it's found unreasonable, I'll leave it.

It's just that up until now, no one has succeeded in convincing me otherwise. Yet.

The Christian faith must never be afraid to stand up to scrutiny.

Now read here. See what I mean?

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For the first time in Malaysia, influential speaker and author Brian McLaren and Conversation Partners touch on challenges and opportunities facing the 21st Century Church. Join the conversations on:

Gospel - more than we imagined it to be

Church - ways forward beyond forms and technique

Discipleship - tired of shortcuts and superficiality

World - being ready for active engagement

For more information, click here.

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Here is a very profoundly excellent reflection on True Greatness in relation to questions of eternity.

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It's been humbling for me to read some reflections posted up by a sister after our journey of learning theology together over a period of six days:

Christian Theology 1: Day 1

Christian Theology 1: Day 2

Christian Theology 1: Day 3

Christian Theology 1: Day 4

Christian Theology 1: Day 5

Christian Theology 1: Day 6

Truly, how can theology be the exclusive language of anyone other than a community of friends reflecting upon its collective engagements with God.

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My "secret" is now leaked out in Two Becoming One!

Someone had to do it, I guess.

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Having been in the pastoral ministry for a while, I've come to realise that urban Christian parents can be a most troublesome lot in the church community. It's difficult to entertain their demands on their children and on the rest of the Christian community.

Read this honest blog entry from a youth worker: Christian Parents

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Link: I Wonder (A Poem on the Church)

An extremely brilliant poem by Janelle on how different people may differently perceive the function of the Church. Is it a convenience store? A theatre? A bus stop? A coffee shop? Or neither of these?

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Does studying Theology ruin your faith?

Please read the above entry. Especially if you're one of those friends/students of mine who think that theology is a big threat to the steadfastness of your Christian faith. Yeah, read it!

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A good entry - packed with theological thought - on how right sportsmanship may help enhance one another's participation in the dream of God. Read Daniel Ng's entry on the Beauty of Sports.

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Shared my ideas on Postcolonial Orthodoxy with some friends at the Emergent Malaysia Open Meeting yesterday. Alwyn's commentary on my thoughts is intriguing: read it here.

Sometimes I wonder why people ask me to share these thoughts when it's so obvious they can articulate them even better than I can! Thanks Al!

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Link: Respectable Apologist Fried for "Inflammatory Remarks"

Without any derogatory intentions whatsoever, I find this to be an an article of interest. It just so happens that one reflection question I've given to my students this semester is:

What, in your assessment, is the role of apologetics today in the proclamation of the Christian message?

The following is an answer extracted from one of my students' papers:

Propositions are secondary to a personal encounter with the Truth because the Truth is a person. It is and must be personal and relational knowledge. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were not ignorant of truth as revealed through Moses' laws. Yet Jesus' harshest words were directed at them. They knew truth but did not know the Truth! Truth came as a person, the person ofChrist. The Word became flesh. Mere apologetics, however logical and brilliant, is insufficient.

Brilliant answer. Deep and thoughtful. An insightful point which certainly deserves the points. We don't see apologetics with disdain, for it constitutes a part of the Christian tradition. However, we need to face the reality that we now live in a world that criticises the inadequacy of mere propositional truth. Truth alone isn't enough, they say.

Whilst the apologist proclaims truth to the world, the world says truth isn't enough. We can either keep loud hailing what we deem to be proclamations of the truth, or we can start focusing on the sacramental embodiment of relational truth. We may defensively claim that the two aren't mutually exclusive, of course, but the medium of proclamation inevitably betrays our bias.

If we don't start getting our art of apologetics right, we may end up having more apologising to do.

Note from the Editor: Just for the record, I wanted to clarify that I have heard this apologist speaking in person and have met him face-to-face before. I have also read almost all his books that were available to me. And I believe I've heard almost every single one of his messages that have been aired on radio before. Just in case I'm deemed to be critiquing from afar...you never know!

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Having a boring day? Read this poem; it'll make your day.

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