Seattle Metro Church

From the Save Darfur Coalition:

National Weekend of Prayer and Reflection for Darfur
July 15th, 16th and 17th 2005

The families of Darfur, Sudan are suffering. An estimated 400,000 Darfurians have been killed since February 2003 and over 2.5 million people’s lives remain at risk today. Over 500 innocent people die each day from violence, malnutrition and disease. By working together, individuals and faith communities can bring this to an end, but we must act now.

Join millions of Americans in praying for the innocent people of Darfur on July 15th, 16th, and 17th. Declared a National Weekend of Prayer and Reflection for Darfur by the United States Senate (S. Res. 172) and House of Representatives (H. Res. 333), the weekend coincides with the one-year anniversary of the Congressional declaration of genocide. Please use this opportunity to reflect on the plight of Darfur’s children and their families and respond as your faith and religious traditions call you.

The people of Darfur need our help. We hope that you will join us.

For more info, visit SaveDarfur.org

New Monasticism suggests these 12 signs of a new monasticism, with which we resonate in many ways:

1) Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.

2) Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.

3) Hospitality to the stranger

4) Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.

5) Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.

6) Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate.

7) Nurturing common life among members of intentional community.

Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.

9) Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life.

10) Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.

11) Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18.

12) Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life.

May God give us grace by the power of the Holy Spirit to discern rules for living that will help us embody these marks in our local contexts as signs of Christ’s kingdom for the sake of God’s world.

What ideas do you have on how to live this out?

We will be watching Grave of the Fireflies on June 11 at 7:30 PM at Lukas’.