Displaying items by tag: Religion

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is very important in Mexico. Processions and passion plays take place throughout the country, with different areas and communities celebrating in varying ways and varying degrees of lavishness. On Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos) processions re-enact Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and woven palms are sold outside churches. Celebrations on Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo) include visiting seven churches to recall the vigil the apostles kept in the garden while Jesus prayed before his arrest. There are foot-washing ceremonies, and of course Mass with Holy Communion. On Good Friday (Viernes Santo) there are solemn religious processions in which statues of Christ and Mary are carried through towns. People often dress in costumes to evoke the time of Jesus. Passion plays are presented in many communities. The largest is south of Mexico City, where over a million gather. Some places burn an effigy of Judas on Holy Saturday. There are no Easter Bunnies or chocolate eggs in Mexico. People go to church and families celebrate quietly.

There are 3,300 Americans, 7,600 Danes and 44,000 Eskimos in Greenland. Although they profess to be a Christian country, the most important Greenland holiday is National Day followed by Arctic Palerfik (an April dogsled event) and the Polar Circle Marathon. At Easter homes and shops are decorated in green and yellow with branches and daffodils. The Easter symbol is the egg, and a tradition is sending teaser letters. In the weeks before Easter people cut out elaborate letters, on which they write a so-called teaser verse. The anonymous letter is signed with a number of dots corresponding to the number of letters in the sender’s name. The recipient must guess who sent it. The pledge is a chocolate Easter egg redeemed at Easter. The letter is accompanied by a snowdrop, the first flower of the year.

New Catholics are traditionally baptised on Easter Sunday. In recent years, there has been a large increase of baptisms in Catholic churches at Easter time. Chinese Catholic churches don't have an official connection to the Pope. Some established churches treat Easter like a mini Chinese New Year, complete with red paper slogans called chūnlián (春联) on the church building and in the homes. There can be special music and decorations, with Easter eggs given as gifts or sold outside the church. Smaller Christian home groups celebrate, as family or friends quietly or even secretly say simple prayers, talk and meditate on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Finally, after years of apathy and inaction, Washington is extending its hand to help Christians in the Middle East. US president Donald Trump recently announced that persecuted Christians will have priority when it comes to accessing refugee status. Christians and Yazidis are exposed to genocide at the hands of IS and other Islamist organisations which are moving into a vast campaign to enslave non-Muslim minorities and destroy their cultural heritage. Finally, self-interest and oil interests will take a back seat, with the UN and the USA showing solidarity with Middle East Christian refugees.

Phil Togwell from Prayerspaces in Schools writes, ‘In the UK last year, more than 200,000 children and young people visited a creative prayer space in their school, and many of them tried praying for the first time in their lives. One 10-year-old wrote in the feedback book, ‘It was fun, and I now see God everywhere I look. God has spoken to me.’ Unless we become like little children ...

Schools are queuing to hear the message of Easter creatively told in an interactive, child-friendly way. Primary pupils in Doncaster - a town statistically at the bottom of the church attendance league table, at just 2% - have been discovering the amazing story of the death and resurrection of Jesus over the past seven years. Christians around the country have been taken by surprise at the openness to the Gospel now found in the teaching establishments of this northern metropolitan borough – geographically the largest outside London but with a population of only 300,000. For the eighth successive year a project known as ‘the Easter Journey’ is being offered to Key Stage 2 pupils, and Tuxford in Nottinghamshire is also now benefitting. 1,300 pupils from eight schools will experience the unique journey through five stages of the Easter story – Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Cross and the Resurrection.

Two devout evangelical Christians whose 10-year-old son is in intensive care with a brain tumour are in a High Court battle with doctors. Specialists want a judge to allow them to limit the treatment they provide to the youngster, saying the boy cannot recover and should be made as comfortable as possible without further ‘invasive’ procedures. The boy's parents, who are separated, disagree and say doctors should not limit treatment options. They ‘lavish’ the youngster with love, and play gospel music to him. The judge began considering evidence in the family division of a high court on Tuesday. Lawyers representing the boy's parents said life was ‘precarious and uncertain’, and people sometimes made unexpected recoveries. The parents believe there are things that could be done, but that doctors are giving up.

Since its launch last December, Clergy Hosting has attracted eleven clergy to take up the challenge and to offer hospitality to destitute migrants and asylum-seekers. They know through conversations that there are many more clergy and lay people who want to open up their homes and provide this vitally needed welcome. They are hosting an information evening in London on 20 April where clergy who are already hosting guests will be sharing their experiences alongside those being supported by Clergy Housing. People who attend this or any other open evening will learn how the Housing Justice scheme works and be able to ask questions about it.

This year Germany will have elections at the national and local state level. There is one decisive factor that we can pray into. It is the preamble of the Federal Constitution (referred to as the Basic Law of the German Federal Republic), which reads as follows, ‘In awareness of their responsibility to God and man, the German people have drawn up for themselves this constitution.’ Such a reference to ‘God’ by political leaders is very unusual in Europe. It originated in 1949, after the Nazi period. The Germans know what happens when politicians take responsibility for their work only ‘before man’. Also, once a month members of parliament from a cross-section of all parties meet at a prayer breakfast before the start of the parliamentary sitting. In this place of prayer they always have the example of the person Jesus of Nazareth before them. May Germany’s politicians powerfully meet Jesus in these meetings.

82% of Venezuelans live in poverty. Opposition lawmakers attempted to fire judges accused of a judicial ‘coup’ to keep socialist President Nicolas Maduro in power. Youths build barricades, burn rubbish and hurl rocks at soldiers and police, who respond with tear gas and water cannon, in the political turmoil. This violent political crisis is raising concerns for democracy and stability in this volatile major oil-exporting country. While Venezuelan churches usually ask parishioners to help spread peace and love throughout their communities, now in Caracas the Episcopal Church’s bishops are calling parishioners to support violence against the government. They handed out leaflets last Sunday, calling on members to participate in civil disobedience against President Maduro and the ruling United Socialist Party. The leaflet said, ‘It is time to ask very seriously and responsibly if civil disobedience, peaceful demonstrations, just claims to national and international public powers, and civic protests are not valid and timely.’ The Church called the government ‘morally unacceptable and therefore reprehensible.’ See