FAITH
Friday, August 26, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Catholic youths make pilgrimage to Poland
Community
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
A group of 18 youths
and leaders from the Baker
Diocese — including eight
from St. Mary’s Catholic
Church in Pendleton and six
from St. Andrews Mission
— recently returned from
a 10-day pilgrimage to
Kraków, Poland.
Referred to as pilgrims,
the participants walked a
total of 70 miles, slept an
average of three-four hours
per night and attended six
mass celebrations during
the World Youth Day event,
said Jacquie Hitzman, youth
minister and group leader
for WYD 2016. Typically
organized every three years
by the Catholic church, more
than 2.5 million youths from
across the globe were in
attendance.
Highlights
included
sessions with Pope Francis,
a Stations of the Cross
re-enactment and visiting
places that are signiicant to
the Catholic church as well
as historical sites.
Participants
brought
prayer intentions from their
hometown parishes and they
left them at the altar in the
Chapel of the miraculous
image of the Merciful Jesus
and the tomb of St. Faustina.
In a garden area outside
the chapel, there was a large
image of the Merciful Jesus.
It was created with selies
St. Johns
Episcopal Church
Join Us On Our Journey With Jesus.
Scripture, Tradition and Reason
Family service 9am Sunday
N.E. Gladys Ave & 7th, Hermiston
Fr. Dan Lediard, Priest. PH: 567-6672
We are an all inclusive Church who welcomes all.
P eace L utheran C hurch
210 NW 9th, Pendleton
ELCA
Photo contributed by Jacquie Hitzman
that youths from around the
world sent in prior to World
Youth Day event.
“They were turned into
this beautiful work of art,”
Hitzman said.
Prior to the inal mass,
the group trekked 10 miles
to Campus Misericordiae
(Field of Mercy) for an
evening vigil with Pope
Francis. After camping out
with more than 2 million
youths, the pilgrims gained
words of encouragement
the following morning from
the pope. In addition, he
announced the next World
Youth Day would take place
in 2019 in Panama.
Father Kumar Udagandla
of St. Mary’s, also on the
pilgrimage, celebrated a mass
in Portland before departing
for Poland. In addition, he
made arrangements to use a
chapel in Poland’s Rzeszow
airport for a mass and to
bless religious souvenirs
before lying home.
World Youth Day was
established in 1985 by Pope
John Paul II. Its purpose is
to encourage and support the
church’s younger generation.
For more information, visit
www.worldyouthday.com.
———
Contact
Community
Editor Tammy Malgesini at
tmalgesini@eastoregonian.
com or 541-564-4539
~Come and be at Peace ~
on 1290 KUMA noon each Sunday
pendletonfaithcenter.org
NEW HOPE
COMMUNITY CHURCH
Seventh-Day
Adventist
Church
9:30
Sunday
Worship
9:30
am am
Sunday
Worship
10:30
am Fellowship
Refreshments
10:30 am
11:00 am Sunday School
& Adult Class
1350 S. Highway 395,
Hermiston
Sunday Worship Services
English- Pastor Dave Andrus
9:00 & 10:45 am
Spanish- Pastor Genaro Loredo
9:00 & 10:15 am
Classes for kids during all
services
For more information call
541-567-8441
Community
Presbyterian Church
BOARDMAN’S LIMEY PASTOR
14 Martin Drive,
Umatilla, OR
922-3250
When the light grows dim and the truth is hidden
Worship: 10 AM
Sunday School at 11:30
I
ran into an evangelist friend
The majority religion of
I know this last week. He
the Russian people is the
was walking with his wife,
Russian Orthodox tradition.
coming out of a Pentecostal
A somber, beautiful faith, it
church meeting. He is a global
seems clear that Vladimir Putin
traveler. He has traveled
is taking upon himself the role
through Africa on many
of defender of the Orthodox
occasions, and he has just come
churches. But in doing so he
back from an evangelizing visit
is taking a sharp turn away
Colin
to Russia. He shared with me
from the rich freedoms of the
Brown
that he thought this would be
West, which offer so much
Faith
his last trip there due to the
experimental and thoughtful
closing of freedom there.
variation — that offered a
The Russian government is coming
dynamic expansion of faith and joy to
down and arresting members of what
the people. I remember the hope we
are considered to be dangerous outsider all felt in Europe when the Berlin Wall
religions, such as the sect of Jehovah’s
fell, pulled apart by the German people
Witnesses, imprisoning its members
— pieces of it being sold and given
and seizing their property. Religions
away all over the world. Everyone
such as the Witnesses are seen as
helped pull down that wall. Thanks
antithetical to the core faith of Russia,
President Reagan!
against its historical groundings. Of
I visited the former Soviet Union
course, militant Islam biting at the
before it fell, in October 1980, when I
southern lanks of Russia is a spur to
was 24, visiting Moscow, where I had
these crackdowns, no doubt.
a slight run-in with the KGB due to
Other institutions that are suffering
some reading material I had. I visited
organizational persecution are
Leningrad and Communist Party
Seventh-day Adventists, Mormons,
headquarters there, where a boyish
Baptists, Pentecostals and others.
Putin was at the time. The party’s
All of these seen as evangelizing,
committee and my troupe of British
as moving in on Orthodox turf and
travelers had a fairly wide-ranging
causing the loss of the inherent
discussion about the changes of
national depth of ancient Russian
openness that were coming to them.
Christianity.
We said to them that if they gave
people freedom they would not wish to
leave, they would stay and thrive.
Leningrad, now returned to its
former name of St. Petersburg, is
possibly one of the prettiest cities in
Europe. It was certain that freedoms
would not cause a rush to leave, but
would open up the doors to modernity
and also a lowering of traditional
life — which is what happened. In my
visit, I also visited Soviet Armenia,
where there is a fabulous ancient
monastic tradition, and the oil-rich
state of Azerbaijan on the border of
Iran. I also visited Tblisi, the capital of
Soviet Georgia, which was, for some
reason, a knock-off of California with
champagne parties going on under the
stars. Russia was about to bloom!
So I am very sad that the curtain
of darkness is descending again in
the former Soviet empire. Although it
sometimes has an effect of awakening
a longing for freedom that has been
submerged (sometimes this can
happen), I pray that Americans will
raise up Russia in their prayers and
honor our own churches by attending
them. It can go dark very quickly
sometimes.
■
Pastor Colin Brown of Boardman’s
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on
Locust Road.
2 nuns killed in
Mississippi; signs
point to home
break-in
DURANT, Miss. (AP)
— Two nuns who worked as
nurses and helped the poor
in rural Mississippi were
found slain in their home,
perhaps victims of a break-in
and vehicle theft, oficials
said Thursday.
Authorities would not
say if they have a suspect
or what kind of vehicle was
missing from the home.
They also did not release a
cause of death, but the Rev.
Greg Plata said police told
him the sisters were stabbed.
The nuns were identiied
as Sister Margaret Held and
Sister Paula Merrill, both 68.
Their bodies were taken to a
state crime lab for autopsies.
The women, both nurse
practitioners, were found
Thursday morning when
they didn’t report to work at
a nearby clinic, where they
provided lu shots, insulin
and other medical care for
children and adults who
couldn’t afford it.
“They were two of
the sweetest, most gentle
women you can imagine.
Their vocation was helping
the poor,” said Plata, who
oversees a 35-member
Catholic church the sisters
attended.
Maureen Smith, a
spokeswoman for the
Catholic Diocese of Jackson,
said there were signs of a
break-in at the home and the
nuns’ vehicle is missing.
Authorities didn’t release
a motive and it wasn’t clear
if the nuns’ religious work
had anything to do with the
slayings.
“I have an awful feeling
in the pit of my stomach,”
said Durant Assistant Police
Chief James Lee, who is
Catholic.
Police Chief John Haynes
said oficers are canvassing
the area and checking video
from surveillance cameras
in town to see if they spot
anything unusual.
Merrill had worked in
Mississippi for more than
30 years, according to
the Sisters of Charity of
Nazareth in Kentucky. She
was from Massachusetts and
joined the order in 1979.
Nonbelievers sue
over Pennsylvania
House’s opening
prayers
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)
— A group of people who
don’t believe in God iled a
federal lawsuit on Thursday
seeking to change how
prayers are handled before
sessions of the state House
of Representatives.
The lawsuit in Harrisburg
federal court said House
oficials have denied
their requests to make an
opening invocation, arguing
nonbelievers are treated like
a disfavored minority who
can be discriminated against.
“Like theists, the
plaintiffs are capable of
giving inspiring and moving
invocations, similar to
nontheistic invocations
that have been given in
other communities across
the United States,” the
lawsuit said. “There is just
one signiicant difference
between people whom the
defendants allow to give
opening invocations and the
plaintiffs: the former believe
in God, while the plaintiffs
do not.”
Five people and three
organizations — the
Pennsylvania Nonbelievers
Inc., the Dillsburg Area
Freethinkers and the
Lancaster Freethought
Society — sued House
Speaker Mike Turzai,
R-Allegheny, House
Parliamentarian Clancy
Myer and ive lawmakers
who represent districts
where the plaintiffs live or
meet.
A spokesman for the
Republicans who have
majority control of the
House said they believe
their policy is constitutional
and comports with U.S.
Supreme Court rulings about
prayer during government
meetings. None of the
ive lawmaker defendants
returned phone messages
Thursday.
The plaintiffs also said
two of them were pressured
by the speaker and security
oficers to stand during an
opening prayer.
The policy of making
people stand, they said,
violates the Establishment
Clause of the Constitution’s
First Amendment by
coercing people to
participate in prayer.
French lawyers
seek overturn
on burkini bans;
verdict Friday
PARIS (AP) — Human
rights groups challenged
the legality of municipal
bans on full-body burkini
swimsuits before France’s
highest administrative court
Thursday, a practice that one
lawyer iercely denounced as
relecting “a relex of fear.”
The three-judge Council
of State heard arguments
from both sides and said it
would issue its ruling Friday
over whether to overturn
the locally ordered bans.
They have elicited shock
and anger worldwide after
photos this week appeared to
show police instructing one
Muslim sunbather to remove
her body-concealing tunic in
Nice, scene of last month’s
truck slaughter.
The legal ight over the
right of Muslim women
to wear burkinis has ired
a national debate over the
place of Islam in France, a
strictly secular country, and
fueled concerns at home and
abroad that some French
mayors are overstepping
their powers.
Pleading in a courtroom
packed with journalists,
legal experts and ordinary
citizens, the lawyers for
two human rights groups
expressed fears that the bans
on wearing any religious
garments on beaches, if
upheld by the court, would
be extended to other public
places.
Saturday Services
Pendleton
1401 SW Goodwin Place
276-0882
Sabbath School 9:20 am
Worship Service 10:45 am
First United
Methodist
Church
Pendleton/Hermiston
352 SE 2nd Street, Pendleton OR
Sunday Worship 9am • 541-276-2616
191 E. Gladys Ave, Hermiston OR
Worship Broadcast on
KUMA 1290 @ 11am
Sunday Worship 11am
541-567-3002
Worship Livestream at herfumc.com
Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
Rev. Dr. Jim Pierce, pastor
Grace Baptist Church
Sunday Worship 10:00am
Wednesday Bible Study 6:00pm
Youth Classes: Nursery - 6th grade Sun & Wed
Jr & Sr High Discipleship Program Wed
Overcomer’s Outreach
Tuesday at 6:00pm - Annex
A Christ-centered, 12-Step
Sharon Miller, Pastor
401 Northgate, Pendleton
541-278-8082
www.livingwordcc.com
555 SW 11th, Hermiston
567-9497
Nursery provided for all
services
Sunday School - 9:30 AM
Worship - 10:45 AM
6:00 pm
Wed Prayer & Worship -
7:00 PM
“Proclaiming God’s word,
growing in God’s grace”
585 SW Birch,
Pilot Rock, OR 97868
(541) 443-2500
prbconline.blogspot.com
Sunday School: 9:30 am
Worship Service: 10:45 am
Kids’ Club: 6:00 pm
Wednesday Services:
Youth Group: 7:00 pm
OPEN HEARTS – OPEN DOOR
www.graceandmercylutheran.org
Sunday Worship 9:00 a.m.
Sunday School 10:00 a.m. (Nursery
Provided)
Fellowship, Refreshments & Sunday School
Check Out our Facebook Page or Website
for More Information
541-289-4535
Tom Inch, Pastor
Grace and Mercy Lutheran Church, ELCA
164 E. Main St. / P.O. Box 1108
Hermiston, Oregon 97838
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
-Presbyterian Church (USA)-
201 SW Dorion Ave.
Pendleton
BRIEFLY
Worshiping God
Loving People
108 S. Main • 276-9569
Sunday Worship
10:30 am
Sr. Pastor,
Ray O’Grady
Join us Sundays
A group from the Baker Diocese recently attended World Youth Day in Kraków, Po-
land. In addition to Oregon and United States lags, they carried a Pendleton Round-
Up windsock as a way to represent their community.
Faith Center Church
Service of Worship - 10:00 am
Children’s Sunday School -
10:20 am
Fellowship - 11:00 am
www.pendletonpresbyterian.com
Open Hearted...
Open Minded
Redeemer
Episcopal
Church
241 SE Second St. Pendleton
(541)276-3809
www.pendletonepiscopal.org
Sunday Holy Communion 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday Holy Communion Noon
Weekly Adults Spiritual Life Group
All Are Welcome
Come meet Jesus at
PENDLETON BAPTIST
CHURCH
3202 SW Nye Ave Pendleton, OR
541-276-7590
Sunday Morning Worship 11:00 AM
Sunday Bible Classes 9:45 AM
Sunday Youth Group 6:00 PM
Mon. Community Women’s Study
9:30 AM & 6 PM
Awana Kids Club (K-6th grade)
Wed Men’s Study 6 PM
MOPS meeting the 1st Thur of the Month 6 PM
FIRST SERVICE 8:30 AM
SECOND SERVICE 10:30 AM
712 SW 27 TH ST.
541-276-1894
www.fcogpendleton.com
FAITH LUTHERAN
CHURCH
in Mission for Christ LCMC
Bible Study.........9:00 AM
Sunday Worship......10:30 AM
Red Lion Hotel
( Oregon Trail Room )
www.faithpendleton.org
To share your worship times call
Terri Briggs
541-278-2678