Women’s voices In December, 30 Christian and Jewish women met in Bethlehem to celebrate the first anniversary of the “Kairos Palestine” document on peace and human rights in Palestine and Israel. The lay and clergy participants, who came from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia and the Americas, commented that although they found the document welcoming for women, “there is much work to be done both in the churches and wider Palestinian society” to include and engage women fully.


A Christmas gift not to be forgotten K


aren and Dean Hurliman, mem- bers of Faith Lutheran Church, Burlington, Iowa, were on their favorite hike around Gladstone Lake in Henderson County, Ill., when they heard someone yelling for help on Christmas Day. A woman pleaded with them to


“Call 911, he’s drowning,” reported Wayne Weissenbuehler, pastor of Faith, where Karen Hurliman serves as church secretary.


Dean Hurliman called 911 while his wife looked for something to help pull out a man who had fallen through the ice. She used an 8-foot piece of pine and lots of encourage- ment to both the man, who was sub-


Anti-Semitism condemned Both Greece’s government and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constan- tinople (Istanbul) condemned remarks made on Greek television in Decem- ber by the Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus. Seraphim was criticized for saying the Holocaust was orchestrated by Zionists. Leaders of the patriarchate described the religious leader’s words as an “egregious anti-Semitic tirade,” saying “as persons of Greek heritage, we are appalled. ... He in no way rep- resents either Orthodox Christianity or the Hellenic ideals.” The New York Times on Dec. 24 published an English translation of Seraphim’s subsequent clarification, reiterating his views as “personal” and saying he respects “the Jewish people.”


LCMS president also ‘pastor’ “RECIPROCAL ACTIONS” BY THOMAS V. ALEXANDER; PHOTO BY JEREMY DAY/READING EAGLE


Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, noticed that church bylaws say elected officials “may be called as an assis- tant pastor, provided such services do not interfere with his official duties as


merged to his neck, and the man’s wife, who was also soaking wet. Karen Hurliman was able to lie face down on the ice, crawl across it and reach the man with the stick, with the man’s wife holding her feet. When the man told Karen Hurliman he could no longer hang on, she said to him, “You are going to have to.” The stick broke, but she scrambled back on the ice with the shortened stick.


By time the paramedics arrived,


Karen Hurliman and the man’s wife had pulled him to shore. The para- medics said the man would not have survived had he been in the ice cold water five minutes longer.


president.” Harrison approached the pastor of his congregation, Village Lutheran in St. Louis, which called, or invited, Harrison to be its assistant pastor. For the first time in 60 years, the president will not only manage the second-largest Lutheran denomi- nation in the country but will also help his congregation with preach- ing, teaching and visiting homebound members.


Quote


I’m not exactly for the use of drugs—don’t get me wrong— but I just believe that criminal- izing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot ... it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and they come out as hardened criminals. And that’s not a good thing.


Pat Robertson, speaking on an episode of The 700 Club on his Christian Broadcast- ing Network.


February 2011 13


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52