Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category
Carnival, the Greatest Show on Earth! From Fabric Workers to Presidents!
“This thing here friend, is a little bit of Brazil!”Oh how beautiful is Carnival in Brazil! From the Galo da Madrugada in Recife, to the Trio Elétricos in Bahia, the return of the small carnival groups and their special songs on the streets, and in every corner of the cities throughout Brazil, carnival is a celebration of joy that insists to linger even amidst the misfortunes and social injustices of daily life. In Sao Paulo, in these past two days, samba schools were making the greatest show on Earth and showing us a delightful storytelling through all of the senses and fascinating imaginaries and music.
Each school tells us about a different theme: among them, love, the history of Brazil and the world, about women, African culture and religions, about Candomblé, mothers, about the artistic movement called Tropicália and the artists Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Rita Lee, about the Brazilian writer Jorge Amado, the world as seen through the lenses of our hands, the history of Lula and a final beautiful song about peace.Where do we find such explosion of beauty and brilliancy and excitement and collective work when around 3 to 4 thousand dancers, musicians, most of them “regular people” go to the avenue telling a different story through a whole lot of joy? There can’t be books, essays or treatises that can create or even translate what goes on that night at the Carnival avenue!
Last night, in the midst of such abundance of beauty and joy and excitement beyond words, a fascinating gesture was done during the parade, speaking of the possibilities of changes in history and social transformation: 300 percussionists of the “Faithful Hawks” exchanged their fantasy in the middle of the parade! They started dressed up as workers, and in the middle of the song, they changed clothes and became presidents of Brazil’s nation!
What they showed was the real possibilities of real democracy in this country, that a fabric worker, an almost illiterate person could be elected president of a nation. When the percussionists change cloths in the middle of the parade, they show us that changes in our lives and country are possible! They showed us that when we fight against the powers that be and the few forces that hold us hostages to ourselves can be overcome, that we cain make changes. The social change with Lula as elected president, now is deeply rooted in the social conscience and imaginaries of this country and can help us hope and dream that people can fight back and become the owners of their own destinies, their own lives and histories! Lula elected as president of Brazil is this sign and symbol of this possibility now stuck in the minds and hearts and souls of the people.
A worker who never got any school diploma in his life, one day, after much struggle, walks up the ramp of the presidential palace to receive the first diploma of his life: the diploma of the President of the Federative Republic of Brazil!
May these dreams and real events in life keep us in the struggles of day to day life, without moving from the trenches where the fight is done and must be faced! For if a worker can become president of a nation, our country may also one day be a place of justice and equality for all!Let us go to the parades and dance the carnival! Let us celebrate the possibilities of life! Let us then anticipate the coming of full justice for this and all countries around the world! May joy be the proof of our right path, and may the greatest show on earth continue to make us dream and rejoice!
See below the video when Lula receives his diploma as president of Brazil and cries:
Photo: Adriano Vizoni/Folhapress and others
The End of Church, Diana Butler Bass
Something startling is happening in American religion: We are witnessing the end of church or, at the very least, the end of conventional church. The United States is fast-becoming a society where Christianity is being reorganized after religion.
In recent decades, untold numbers of people have left the Roman Catholic Church. In a 2008 survey, Pew research found that one in 10 Americans now considers themselves an ex-Catholic. The situation is so dire that the church launched a PR campaign inviting Catholics to “come home,” to woo back disgruntled members. There was a slight uptick in Catholic membership last year, mostly due to immigrant Catholics. There is no data indicating that Catholics are returning en masse and much anecdotal evidence suggesting that leaving-taking continues. Catholic leaders worry that once the new immigrants become fully part of American society they might leave, too.
The end of church, however, is not merely a Catholic problem. For decades, mainline Protestants have watched helplessly as their membership rolls dwindled, employing program after program to try to stop the decline. In the last 15 years, conservative Protestant denominations have witnessed significant erosions in membership, money and participation — with some of the greatest drops in groups like the Southern Baptist Convention that once seemed impervious to decline. In a typical week, less than a quarter of Americans attend a religious service, down from the half of the population who were regular churchgoers a generation ago.
Intolerance / Intolerancia
”Intolerance is not just a sin of ecclesiastical conservatism, but of liberalism”
(F.J. Vitoria Cormenzana)
“La intolerancia no es sólo un pecado del conservadurismo eclesial,
sino también del progresismo”
“A intolerância não é apenas um pecado de conservadorismo eclesiástico, mas do liberalismo”
Frank Yamada says church must focus on multiple futures – McCormick President’s Powerful Inaugural Address
Frank Yamada, 10th president of McCormick Theological Seminary
Courtesy of McCormick Theological Seminary
February 13, 2012, Chicago - Presbyterian News Service, Jerry L. Van Marter
By 2040 there will be no majority racial ethnic group in the United States, so theologians and seminaries must lead the way in “helping us see our futures in the plural lest we die in our lack of understanding of each other,” said the Rev. Frank Yamada in his inaugural address Feb. 8 as the 10th president of McCormick Theological Seminary here.
Speaking to a crowd of several hundred McCormick supporters that was nevertheless dwarfed by the cavernous Apostolic Church of God where the inaugural was held, Yamada said the coming egalitarian demographic “is good news,” adding, “It doesn’t mean racial inequality will vanish and racism will end, but that diversity will no longer be a goal or an ideal but a reality ― a more diverse image of who we are as a people.”
Yamada said “our attempts to make futures a singular future is our problem. There is something alluring about trying to reduce life to the singular.”
Evensong – “In peace I will lie down …” (Psalm 4: 8)
Before the sunset, and my body finally rest at night,
may I wake up just to see your face.
I ask you, o God, humbly
that your peace flood my life and my family, the lives of my friends and neighbors …
I pray, with all my strength, that the same peace blossom forth
in my city and my country, on this continent and in the world
And if in your infinite goodness
You give me the opportunity to see a new day,
give me courage to work with all your sons and daughters,
arm in arm, heart to heart,
until your peace become a reality among all beings who inhabit this earth. Amen.
(Elizabeth Hernandez, Mexico. Taken from the Book of Worship of the Board of ClaI V)
