Recent Posts

Most Used Categories

Category: Christian Witness

You are Here :
Christian Witness, Perspective, Political, , , , ,

Extend unemployment insurance – action needed

Leaders in the House majority plan a vote on HR 3630—a bill that would slash federal unemployment benefits in every state and cut federal UI benefits by more than half in the Renew unemployment insurance UIstates with the highest unemployment rates. Tell your Members of Congress and Congressional leaders to oppose these reckless and harmful cuts to unemployment insurance, and instead support swift action to fully renew the federal UI program through 2012.

Millions of hardworking Americans—nearly 2 million in January alone, and over 6 million in 2012—will be cut off from the emergency lifeline of federal unemployment insurance, unless Congress acts to fully renew the program before it expires December 31st. In the past three years, federal unemployment insurance has helped more than 17 million Americans while they’ve looked for work in the toughest job market since the Great Depression. Recent Census figures show that federal unemployment insurance helped keep more than 3 million from falling into poverty last year alone.

A January 2010 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) looked at a variety of strategies for increasing employment and raising the gross domestic product (GDP), which is the market value of all goods and services that reach the consumer. It noted that for every dollar in UI benefits, $1.90 in economic benefit is created. The CBO looked at a variety of strategies to boost the economy — or to keep things from getting worse — such as investing in infrastructure, reducing income taxes, or cutting payroll taxes for companies that hire new people. Increasing aid to the unemployed offered the biggest bang for the buck, according to its estimates. Other studies such as that by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, note similar results.

Congress has never cut back or allowed these programs to expire when unemployment was anywhere near this high for this long. Congress must act, and act now.

Tell Congress: Renew the full federal Unemployment Insurance program through 2012 Now! or call toll-free 1-888-245-3381.

Christian Witness, Perspective, , , , , ,

Prayer Vigil for the 1%

Interfaith Worker Justice will hold a Prayer Vigil for the 1% tomorrow, December 8th. You are invited to pray along, starting at 11 a.m., for the wealthiest Americans. We are calling on them to help us create an economy that works for 100 percent of us.

If you are on Facebook, you may RSVP to the Online Prayer Vigil. Then, tomorrow at 11 a.m., change your Facebook status to say: Praying for the One Percent: to whom much is given, more is required — Luke 12:48.

While thousands of unemployed workers and people of faith gather in Washington, D.C. tomorrow for a Flower Prayer Vigil for the 99 percent, I will be praying along with IWJ for the One Percent – the wealthiest Americans who have benefitted from unfair economic policies.

Please join in prayer, even if you’re not on Facebook.

On Tuesday, Dec. 6, IWJ’s national Board of Directors released “An Open Letter to the One Percent:”

To Whom Much Is Given, More is Required:
An Open Letter to the One Percent

During this time of financial crisis and economic disparity, we affirm the God-given dignity of every person. We believe God loves all 100 percent of us and wants to use us to create a more just society.

As faith leaders, we appreciate the generosity, charity, and commitment to the common good that many of you embody.

Still, some of you have used wealth and power to benefit the few at the expense of the many. We expect you to work with us to not only give generously, but to advocate for democracy and economic justice that works for everyone.

We call on you to:

  • Support tax policies and legislation that require more from you so our nation can create good jobs in America
  • Call for an extension of unemployment benefits for those unable to find work

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” We are in this together, all 100 percent of us.

National Board of Directors, Interfaith Worker Justice

Christian Witness, PNCC, , ,

Appointment of a reluctant bishop

From the Sun-Sentinel: Calling of a reluctant bishop

South Florida priest appointed to New England diocese, just in time for Christmas

The Very Rev. Paul Sobiechowski is a reluctant bishop. He never wanted to leave his warm little parish in Davie, where he has served for nearly three decades.

But the fourth time was the charm when the Polish National Catholic Church asked him to become a leading shepherd. This time he said yes.

Sobiechowski will say his final Mass on Dec. 11 at St. Joseph’s Polish Catholic Church in Davie, the exact 28th anniversary of his first Mass there in 1983. The next day, he and wife Karen will pack and move to Holy Trinity Cathedral in Manchester, N.H.

“I liked being a priest; I never wanted to do anything more,” Sobiechowski, 57, said after a morning liturgy at the church. “But now that I’m called to this, I just hope I can do what I need to accomplish [God’s] will.”

Sobiechowski was actually chosen in October 2010, during the general synod in Toronto. Polish National Catholic practice, though, elects qualified people before they are needed; that way, there’s always a supply. In May, he was assigned to the Eastern Diocese, 20 parishes in New England, on the retirement of Bishop Thomas Gnat.

Sobiechowski’s name had come up three times before, and he had declined. But this time, he says he heard an inner voice: “I want you to stand for election.” He accepted.

The move will end his work not only in his parish but the community. He was a member of the Davie-Cooper City Rotary Club and a board member of the EASE Foundation, which serves the poor in western Broward.

For 20 years, he and Karen coordinated an annual Advent candlelight service for neighborhood churches. The evening included choirs, sacred dancers, instrumentalists and a buffet. Also included was an offering for Sunset School, a center for special needs children.

Sobiechowski also headed the ecumenical chaplaincy at Memorial Pembroke Hospital, and served as state chaplain for the Polish Legion of American Veterans. And Oct. 18 was declared Bishop Paul Sobiechowski Day in Davie.

He shepherded the church and the 35 residents in its retirement home through three hurricanes and a tornado. Wilma dumped four feet of water on the center of the property. The land has lost some 200 trees altogether; Sobiechowski says he once blew out an arm trying to cut up fallen trees with a 20-inch chainsaw.

“Typical priest work,” he says with a smile.

He considers the stresses worth it for the 150 parishioners, who he says show a “cornucopia of nationalities”: Polish, African American, Asian, Caribbean, several kinds of Hispanic. Sobiechowski says the Spanish-language Mass is the best attended.

More than diversity, Sobiechowski has enjoyed the family atmosphere. “If someone gets sick, everyone is on the phones. If someone gets a birthday, everyone sings ‘Happy Birthday.’

“I love being a priest. You’re always with the people. You get to know families. As a bishop, it’s not just you and the community. It’s 20 communities.”

Even the rectory will expand. He and Karen have become accustomed to living in 800 square feet. He says the bishop’s rectory in Manchester is more than four times larger.

He still sees some pluses to his new home. He likes lobster. He’ll be an hour from Boston. New Hampshire has no state income tax. And people are people, in every state.

“God looked at his creation and said it’s good,” Sobiechowski says. “And if the winters are cold [in New Hampshire], the warmth of the people has to be exceptional.”

“Whatever challenges you have, somehow, with God’s help, we always survive,” he says. “We always pray, ‘Thy will be done.'”

Art, Christian Witness,

Art for the Second Sunday of Advent and the Commemoration of St. Barbara

Saint Barbara, Jan van Eyck, 1437

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. — Isaiah 40:9-11

Art, Christian Witness,

Art for Thanksgiving

Noah's Sacrifice of Thanksgiving, Kaspar Memberger the Elder, 1588

In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God said to Noah, “Go forth from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh — birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth — that they may breed abundantly on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.” So Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. And every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves upon the earth, went forth by families out of the ark.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing odor, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” — Genesis 8:14-22

Art, Christian Witness, PNCC,

Art for All Saints Day

Synaxis of All Saints, Russian Icon, early 17th century

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:9-17

Art, Christian Witness,

Art for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Burden, Honoré Daumier, ca. 1850

Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” — Matthew 23:1-12

Christian Witness, PNCC, , , ,

From the Consecration of the Rt. Rev. Paul Sobiechowski

On the Feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist, our Holy Church entered into a new reality. The Very Rev. Paul Sobiechowski was consecrated to the office of bishop in the Holy Polish National Catholic Church. Bishop elect Paul chose Rev. Stanley Bilinski and Rev. Raymond Drada as his chaplains. The principal consecrator was the Most Rev. Dr. Anthony Mikovsky, Prime Bishop of the PNCC. All bishops of the PNCC, active and retired were co-consecrators. Prime Bishop Mikovsky celebrated the Holy Mass assisted by Rev. Bruce Sleczkowski as deacon and Rev. Gregory Młudzik as subdeacon of the Mass. The readings and Holy Gospel were proclaimed in English, Polish, and Spanish. As part of the consecration rite, bishop-elect Paul chose to sign the Declaration of Scranton, which was first signed by our organizer, Bishop Francis Hodur, and signed by every bishop candidate ever since. Over 400 faithful participated in the Holy Mass.

Significant not only in its ritual and celebration, the Holy Rite was witnessed by ecumenical clergy from various jurisdictions from around the globe: Bishop TIKHON of the Orthodox Church in America; Most Rev. James C. Timlin, retired bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, Scranton diocese; Rt. Rev. Richard W. Lipka, from the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA), with whom we have recently sought dialogue; and Abbot-elect Luis A. Gonzalez, OSB, also of ACNA, whom Bishop Paul will witness his installation at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Bartonville, Illinois. These present were significant in showing the viability the PNCC has within the ecumenical world, as well as its place in the community of Christian Churches.

The ritual was performed with the utmost dignity and jubilation. It was my personal honor to be of assistance to the National Liturgical Commission helping in procession and sanctuary logistics.

Following his consecration, Bishop Paul becomes the Diocesan Ordinary of the Eastern Diocese. He plans to be in residence sometime prior to the Christmas holiday.

Please continue to pray for him, his family, and his ministry.

All Right Reserved © 2005 - 2023