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cornerstone Magazine is the official publication of Unity
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Pauline Year a Chance for Unity Timing Depends on Prayer, Charity and Faith
VATICAN CITY, JULY 6, 2008 The Pauline Jubilee Year is an opportunity to make progress toward full Christian unity, says a Vatican spokesman.Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, affirmed this in the most recent edition of Vatican Television's "Octava Dies." "The solemn opening of the Pauline year at the Basilica of St. Paul and the celebration of the solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter's Basilica, with the participation of several representatives of Christian Churches and communities and, in particular, of [Orthodox] Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, were new intense moments of ecumenical encounter," he said. "And it is, in fact, in the proclamation of the Gospel and the liturgical celebration that the degree of ecumenism among Christians can be measured, because therein is the contact with the original community and only from there can the path toward unity begin," the spokesman added. Noting that Bartholomew I also proclaimed this a year of St. Paul, the Jesuit affirmed: "St. Paul, author of the most ancient and ample writings of the New Testament, impassioned and conquered by Christ, missionary of universal horizons, has shown us how to see the Church concretely as the Body of Christ." Recalling how the Apostle asked, "How could you lacerate my body?" Father Lombardi noted how the Pope asks himself and the faithful the same question. "In the great Eucharistic celebration, the Pope and the patriarch were together near the altar for the liturgy of the word, for the homily and for the profession of faith, as well as for the kiss of peace and the final blessing," the spokesman said. "However, they were unable to be together during the Eucharistic liturgy. "Hence, the ardent prayer continues to be necessary: 'Bring us together again, Lord, from all our divisions. There is only one bread, hence we, though many, are only one body.' When will there be full communion? It depends also on our prayer, on our charity and on our faith." ZENIT, The world seen from Rome News Agency
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Unity’
the last 10 years. Dear brothers
& sisters in Christ, greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus. We would like
to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support and prayers
and to bring you up to date on what has been happening in Unity. Over
the last 10 years so many things have happened. In 1999 Ray Turner one
of the founder leaders left Unity to go and do other things for God
which left us with no music, so Dianne and my self prayed about it.
Going back 12 months to 1998 a young man named Brief history Pentecost
1995 Ray Turner, Dianne & myself put on a Holy Spirit evening out of
that evening the Lord brought the three of us together with a common
vision of Reconciliation, Forgiveness and Unity. In October of
the same year we put on a Day of Renewal called "Come Drink of
The Living Waters" at Our Lady Help of Christians, Tile Cross
Birmingham. We continued to meet and pray to find out why
the Lord had brought us together, then one evening in December 1995 the
Lord asked us to serve him, all three of us said yes before we knew what
the Lord wanted. The Lord said I want you to provide the opportunity for
my Churches to come together in Reconciliation, Forgiveness and Unity,
then in January 1996 the Lord gave us the name UNITY with the
words ‘an ecumenical group serving in the one body of Christ’. During
1996 we put on Days of Renewal. In March we went to Then
came the call to put on a monthly meeting at "Our Lady Help of
Christians" Tile Cross, Birmingham
on the last Saturday of the month During 1997 we went to The Poor Clare Colettines
Convent in Elesmere, As we
approached the end of 1997 the Lord asked us to put on a series of
Renewal Days on Disunity ‘Church, Ethnic, Ministerial, Material
Disunity and Inter-Church Families’ in 1998. 1997 First Unity Conference. On the Saturday morning of the Conference as we where getting
ready to start, we became aware that there was a group of people out
side on the pavement protesting about the conference and handing out
material against Unity of Christ’s churches and in particular one
denomination. I went out to see what was going on and who they
were, they would not say who or where they came from, but proceeded to
tell me why they where there and their objections, by using Scripture to
make their point and justify themselves. As
I listened to them my heart was breaking as I felt the anger coming from
them for this particular denomination and the unity of God's churches.
It was so painful that I could not open the conference for several
minutes, until my wife prayed with me. What it did for me was to enhance
the urgency for Reconciliation and Forgiveness amongst Christians of all
denominations, Communities and Fellowships. When I read the material they were handing out a few days later, I found
out whom they were, I could not believe what I was reading or believe
that so called Christian leaders after 400 years where still instilling
this bitterness into their congregation, it is this kind of thing that
keeps Christ’s Church divided. The
speakers were Mave Winters Anglican Lay Readers she was very blessed,
Pastor Bill Hopley a Pentecostal shared the word of God, Fr. John Nolan’s
Priest of Our Lady’s, and Rev. Paul Miller from the free Church finish
the day, what anointing they all had. At the end the Lord called us to
pray with people and
there were healings through forgiveness. One lady that had traveled up
from The Conference was a great success. Thank
you to:
Rev. Brian Castle, Rev. Margaret McLachlan and the congregation of St. Peters our
Thank you for your love, prayers and blessings. We
also thank all the different Ordained Ministers from the different
denomination locally, nationally and around the world that
support us through there prayers and blessings. Ray
Turner Ray was one of the founder leaders of Unity
and head of music from 1996 to 1999 when the Lord called him out to do
other things. During his time with us he contributed a lot
to the work of Unity. Ray is very pray full and through his prayer time
the Lord spoke to him regarding His Church and the work of Unity. God
blessed and anointed Ray in many ways, especially in his music; the Lord
gave him some beautiful and anointed songs for Unity. Our many thanks; to Ray for his continued support. Bernard
Davis has been a long-standing member of Unity from the beginning in 1996 when
we first started and before when we did our first Renewal Day in October
1995. Bernard is also part of our music group. Bernard does a lot amongst
the different denomination around were he lives as well in other areas. Lorna
Smyth has also been a long standing member of Unity, Lorna for awhile was
Leader of our Intercessors group and part of the leaders team until she
took time out to serve her parish. Steven
Calland a man who as a heart and desire for Unity and loves to play his guitar
for the Lord and was part of our music group and as been with us a long
time. We
would also like to thank Pat O’Connor, Dermot O’Reilly, Mary McCourt, Muriel Springett,
Bernard Hession, Sue & Alan Walker, Gerard & Pauline Egan and
Andrew & Catherine Kenny for
there continue support. We are
very blessed to have them as part of Unity. Over
this period we have had many people come and go as God has healed them and
anointed them to do other things, like Maria Pedro, Bob Cox, Gerard
Egan, Ann-Marie Stark, Rebekah Siekierski, Ray & Joan Granner, Brian
Aurther and many more. There are those that have died like Vincent Calland who died on the 12th March 2004. Vincent was a very pray full and humble man and he loved to praise and worship God, when he attended our meetings, even during the practice time before we started he would have his hands raised high honouring God. And
there was Christine Sullivan who died on Good Friday 29th
March 2000 Christine was a very remarkable person, every day she would be
at some meeting or other, Church or none Christian place witnessing the
love of God. Christine was a very devote Catholic, But had a great desire for the Unity of
Christ body His Church, wherever she went she spoke about Unity and the
work we are doing in this area. She would take and leave information about
us, she was our publicity officer. Both are dearly missed. We
would also like to thank the many people, ordained and lay preachers that
have shared the word of God with us. Ros
Powell
(Roman
Catholic Evangelist) Charles
Severs
(Church
of England) Rev.
LeeRoy Martin
(Pentecostal) Rev.
Brian Nash
(Vine
Yard) Mike
Stevens
(Mansfeild
Christian Fellowship)
Fr.
John Nolan
(Roman
Catholic) Mave
Winters
(Church
of England Lay Reader) Rev.
Bill Hopley
(Assemblies
of God) Rev.
Paul Miller
( Ray
Granner
(C
/E & Prayer Group Leader) Captin
Joy Norman
(Salvation
Army) Rev.
Neil Johnson
(Methodist) Fr.
Gerry McArdle
(Roman
Catholic) Bishop
Joe Aldred
(Pentecostal) Pastor
David Carr
(Renewal Christian Centre) Pastor
Henry Wattis (Sutton
Christian Centre) Fr.
John Yani
(Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church) Denis
Wrigley
(Maranatha) Tom
McNulty
(Roman Catholic Lay Preacher) Revd
Bishop Derek Webley
(Chair
of the Black Lead Churches) Rev.
Mark Fisher (RUC
and former General Secretary to BCT) Meg
Burnham
(Roman Catholic & RE Teacher) Rev.
Keith Sinclair
(Church of England) Leonel
& Lindsay Pelloquin
(Interchurch
Families) We
give a special thanks to Mother Bernadett and all the Poor Clare Colettines sisters at the Convent in
Elesmere, Shropshire In
the year 2000 we launched our website and it has been very successful with
many thousands visiting it. Christians from all over the world after
visiting and reading about our vision and mission have joined Unity and
become associate members. At present we have around 19 Churches plus
individuals, which total over 1500 members. On
23rd July 2002 Rev. Chaitanya Kumar Founder and President of
Church for the Distant Ministries India contacted us and invited us to go
to After
returning we met with Denis Carlin Senior leader and shared what we
believed the Lord had said to us about Rev. Kumar, this was confirmed by
Denis, so we invited him to be our Regional Co-ordinator for Unity in Rev.
Chaitanya Kumars account of the next 14 months from October 2003 to
January 2005: Greetings
to you all in the Name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who shed His
precious blood on the Cross for our sake. God
has done wonderful and good towards all of us in 2005. He has done wonders
and miracles in After we had paid many visits to the 4 Metropolitan Cities in
They all felt that it was a unique experience and a
wonderful opportunity to share their thoughts and prayers in coming
together under the Banner of Unity to praise and worship in the one Body
of Christ. They also expressed that Unity is good and that it gave them
the opportunity for many different denominations to stand side by side on
a single platform.
Many thanks and blessings to Rev. David Raju, Rev. D. D. K
Ratna Raju, Rev. M. P. Christopher, Major. Solomon Raju, Rev. Sukumar, Rev. Sujanam and other leaders who helped and assisted
Rev. Kumar for the grand success of the Conferences. Praise God for
them; please keep praying for them and for all Christians in India to come
together in Unity.
Vision
fulfilled in In
1996 the Lord gave Unity a vision showing all the different
denominations in and around people
to make a commitment to work together as one body. Below
is how this came about. Last
year 2005 the Anglican Church in Birmingham celebrates it’s
Centenary and as part of the celebrations, His
much-loved art of storytelling helped us to discover God and the spiritual
meaning of the 10 Commandments in a way that makes it clearer the need for
them today in our society. Both
Dianne and I knew that this was the fulfilment of a vision the Lord had
given us in 1996, a vision of all the Churches from all denomination
in and around On
Thursday the 7th of April 2005 Birmingham Just10 started and would go on
until the 9th June. The
message J. John shared with us was inspiring, challenging and anointed. This
was shown by the amount of people that attended and came forward at
the end of each evening responding to God’s call. Dianne
and I were on the prayer team that meet every evening before the
start and part of the response team, and then afterwards with others
people doing some of the follow up calls. It was wonderful and
encouraging to hear the enthusiasm and excitement in their voices as
they shared what had happened to them. Dianne
and my-self were the Just10 Co-coordinators for Thursday evening
9th June
Just 10 finished, and it was amazing; the place was full, more
people came for the first time and responded to God's call at the end of
the night. Before
the evening began Then
the Roman Catholic Christian
Centre Prayed for God’s blessing on the Churches and the lay for the
commitment they had made and the work ahead. It
was during this time that the Lord
reminded me of the vision he had showed us and said: ‘it is
fulfilled’, now the healing of my Church and my
people here in What
joy and excitement came over us as we watched them make this
commitment. A dream
and prayers answered. The
Commitment. We
commit together, above all, To
seek the Ø
Pray for Renewal Ø
Seek the Kingdom Ø
Share the Good News Ø
Search for the Truth Ø
Serve our Neighbour And
follow Jesus Christ in his suffering love for the salvation of all people. It
will not be easy for us, but as long as we keep focused on Christ and the
commitment we have made, honouring and respecting each others traditions
we will see Christ and God's Kingdom alive here in Since 1996 when Unity was formed and called to provide the
opportunity for all Christians to come together in Reconciliation,
Forgiveness and Unity we have been meeting every last Saturday of the
month to pray for Unity of Christ Body, and taking the message of Unity to
wherever God sends us. We
would like to take this opportunity to invite you to join us if
you are able on the last Saturday of the month, if not then we ask
you to pray with us daily for the continuing healing of Christ Church
and unite with us in spirit on the last Saturday of each month.
MISSION AFRICA and the P
HILIPPINES
We have been
invited to Ghana
, Kenya
and the Philippines
Dear Ray, Please I hope you will be able to visit
us here in Kumasi
Yours faithfully, The different denominations are
anxiously waiting for us to come to preach the Gospel of Unity and to launch
Unity there in Ghana. The
invitation to
Hello Ray, thankful to God for that. We still love
you with the love of God. I believe on God's timing you will be able to
come and minister here in Eldoret Please keep In-touch. God bless, Rev. Mathews Ongere.
Dear Sir, Greetings from the mission, my name is Fernando Diaz Impang, jr
presently ministering in the island of Bohol, were standing with you in
you mission and pray for us in the Philippines. Fernando diaz Impang,jr
We have meeting bi-monthly with pastors in the
island and we do praises and small meditation and prayer. We have once a
month prayer and fasting every last Monday of the month.
Most
people in To be
able to respond to these calls we need your help, the mission cannot
happen unless the generosities of people like yourselves bless us with
financial support and prayers. We are unable to offer you anything in return
except our gratitude and prayers that God will bless you in abundance for
your generosity. Please pray about this and ask the Lord
what to do. If you are called to help us financially then there are two ways’, in
which you can make your gift donation, every penny you send will be used
for the work of God in Unity.
(2) You can send your gift donation by Cheque/Bankers Draft or Postal Order made payable to: Unity African
Mission 27 Heathgreen Close, Chelmsley Wood, Birmingham B37 6UH
England.
We would like to take this opportunity if you are not already, to invite
you to be a Friend in Unity, Friends in Unity are an associate
membership of people that have a desire in there heart for Unity of Christ Body
and feel called by God to be part of this ministry and
its evangelical vision, serving and supporting UNITY in practical
ways that are suitable to your way of life. Details
can be found on our website or we can send you a hard copy.
Cornerstone will be used to
proclaim the word of God, by what is going on in our lives, in our Church,
Parish, Town, Country, around the World in the work of reconciliation of
God's people the Church. We would like you to share with us
what God is doing with you. If you have a testimony of what God has done
or is doing in your lives or Church and would like share it with others,
then let us have it. It is only by sharing
what God has done that those in the church and those outside will come to
know that God has not forgotten us. So let us have your Good News and give
Glory to God.
Please give us your views on
weather you would like to see a quarterly edition of Cornerstone If we receive a good response we will produce a quar | |||||||||||||||||||||
