FAITH
Friday, October 13, 2017
East Oregonian
LIMEY PASTOR
BRIEFLY
In between time:
moments of grace,
melodies of God
Poles pray en
masse at border;
Some see anti-
Muslim agenda
T
ime to plan anew. The word from my former
church, Good Shepherd on Locust Road in
Boardman, is that the gifts of the people of
God are being put to work, preaching, witnessing
and singing joyfully on that blessed Locust Road.
God is living, is present and is calling anew.
Thanks are to him and his living word!
My newly borning church, down in the
Willamette Valley in Aurora, is in the planting
phase. We are worshiping on Friday evenings so
that people who work on the
weekend will have a church to
be at when most other sounds of
worship are silent. It should have
an appeal to those who seek
different worship patterns and
different traditions, particularly
those who seek an angled
entryway into soulful peace.
I am looking at using the
Colin
Taize services, founded in
Brown
France, that is filled with that
Faith
sought-for soulful silence and
prayer-filled melodies. My
former pastor, Pastor Craig from Christ Lutheran,
and I would sometimes head out to the Taize
services held at the St. Francis of Assisi Church
in Wilsonville and share in afternoon worship in
the Taize style. This was a service founded in the
bitterness of wartime in the town of Taize, where a
monk called Brother Roger sheltered refugees from
the fires and wrath of World War II that pursued
these wretched people like barbarians at the gate.
(The pursuers were barbarians at the gate).
Using patterns of music that included simple
chant, biblical texts, short heartfelt prayer and
places where silence gathers and distills the dew
of prayer from the garden of the Lord, we invite
his Sabbath to rest upon us and we rest in him.
Beginnings are delicate places and I want this
first “do” of the octave of worship (so to speak)
to be felt as a true invitation into God’s presence,
a ladder into peace.
Many years ago I was graced enough to be
provided with a spiritual director called Father
Bernard, who was the abbot at Our Lady of
Guadalupe Trappist Abbey down at Lafayette
in Oregon. He was a contemporary and friend
of the marvelous monk Thomas Merton. I had
been sent there to learn some things about
the mystical path of faith, which is of interest
to me. He recommended to me the spiritual
letters of John Chapman, who provided many
useful recommendations for pursuit of this
quiet exploration of God’s world, and I would
recommend this work to all Christians (both lay
and religious) who like to sit alone in prayer and
reflection.
I asked Father Bernard why he had become a
monk. He looked at me and said “It was God ...
or ... at least I think it was God.” And he smiled.
Faith is like that. We think it is God we seek,
with our limited instruments of mind, and we
move into the darkness, his holy darkness. In his
35th letter, Abbot John Chapman speaks of this.
It is a question of living in the fundus animae, or
apex, or center (or whatever you like to call it),
which seems a very frail lifeboat in a stormy sea.
But provided we stop in the boat and not in the
sea, it is all right.
I think that the Taize service is like that, it
provides an experience of the boat and allows us to
rest in that very central place where God is with us.
Be at peace, O our souls.
Amen.
■
Colin Brown is the former pastor of Good
Shepherd Lutheran Church in Boardman.
AP Photo/Andre Penner
This Sept. 28 photo shows the façade of what once was the Stylofino picture frame
factory owned by members of Rhema Community Evangelical Ministry, affiliated with
the Word of Faith Fellowship church, in Franco da Rocha, Brazil.
Brazil branches of U.S.-based
church target of many probes
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO —
Every day before work,
Liliane Souza says, she and
three dozen fellow workers
at a Brazilian picture-framing
factory affiliated with the Word
of Faith Fellowship church
were obligated to pray.
When workers made a
mistake, such as cutting a frame
too short, she says they were
screamed at and sometimes
even hit to expunge the “devil”
behind the error. And when
Stylofino stopped paying its
workers for months, Souza said
the company’s co-owners —
members of a Brazilian branch
of the U.S.-based church — had
a ready explanation.
“They said the business was
struggling because we were
sinners,” she said.
The business and its labor
practices are under investiga-
tion by Brazilian authorities
— just one of several inquiries
launched into a pair of churches
connected to Word of Faith
Fellowship, a secretive evan-
gelical sect based in Spindale,
North Carolina.
The Associated
Press
has learned that Brazilian
prosecutors also are looking
into possible improprieties in
a land deal involving one of
the churches. And education
ministries in two Brazilian
states said they are investi-
gating allegations that church
schools physically and psycho-
logically abused students and
redacted textbooks in violation
of state policy.
The investigations were
spurred by AP stories in July
detailing allegations that Word
Seventh-Day Adventist
Church
Saturday Services
Pendleton
1401 SW Goodwin Place
276-0882
Sabbath School 9:20 am
Worship Service 10:45 am
P eace L utheran C hurch
210 NW 9th, Pendleton ELCA
FAITH LUTHERAN
CHURCH
Join us Sundays
9:30 am Sunday Worship
9:30 am Sunday Worship
10:30 am Fellowship
11:00 am Sunday School & Adult Class
in Mission for Christ LCMC
Sunday Worship.........9:00 AM
Bible Study......10:00 AM
~Come and be at Peace ~
Red Lion Hotel
( Oregon Trail Room )
www.faithpendleton.org
on 1290 KUMA noon each Sunday
of Faith Fellowship created a
pipeline of young congregants
who say they were brought to
the U.S. from Brazil and forced
to work at church-affiliated
businesses for little or no pay.
The stories also documented
how the church steadily took
over the two Brazilian congre-
gations, instituting a funda-
mentalist vision that included
verbal and physical abuse
aimed at expelling devils.
Pastors at the Word of
Faith Fellowship branches —
located in the Brazilian cities
of Sao Joaquim de Bicas and
Franco da Rocha — have
issued statements denying
the accusations, but did not
respond to numerous interview
requests from the AP.
After the stories about
the Brazilian churches were
published in July, authorities in
both Brazil and the United States
launched investigations into
the allegations of abuse, forced
labor and visa fraud. Investiga-
tors told the AP that interviews
stemming from that ongoing
probe led them to scrutinize the
conditions at Stylofino.
The small factory in the
Sao Paulo suburb of Franco da
Rocha was opened in 2000 by
Gerson Jose Garcia and Juarez
de Souza Oliveira, according to
tax records.
De Souza Oliveira and wife
Solange Granieri founded
Ministerio Evangelico Comu-
nidade Rhema, or Rhema
Community
Evangelical
Ministry, in 1988. Garcia is
a long-time member of the
church, which includes an
adjoining school.
Eight
former
factory
workers interviewed by the
AP described a rigid working
401 Northgate,
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Redeemer
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241 SE Second St. Pendleton
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www.pendletonepiscopal.org
Sunday Holy Communion 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday Holy Communion Noon
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567-9497
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Worship - 10:45 AM
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Wed Prayer & Worship -
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Worshiping God
Loving People
108 S. Main • 276-9569
14 Martin Drive,
Umatilla, OR
922-3250
Worship Service: 10:30am
Sunday School: 9:30am
Worship: 10 AM
Sunday School at 11:30
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Methodist
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Sr. Pastor,
Ray O’Grady
pendletonfaithcenter.org
St. Johns
Episcopal Church
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Family service 9am Sunday
N.E. Gladys Ave & 7th, Hermiston
PH: 567-6672
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who welcomes all.
Pendleton
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Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
Rev. Dr. Jim Pierce, pastor
The Salvation Army
Center for Worship & Service
Sunday worship at
11:00 AM
420 Locust St. • Boardman, OR
541-481-6132
Colin Brown, Pastor
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
-Presbyterian Church (USA)-
201 SW Dorion Ave.
Pendleton
Sunday Worship Service
9:30 - Sunday School
COME AS YOU ARE
Service of Worship - 10:00 am
Children’s Sunday School -
10:20 am
Fellowship - 11:00 am
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150 SE Emigrant
(541) 276-3369
Open Hearted...
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Behind These Stone Walls Beat the Hearts
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Sunday School: 9:30am
Worship: 10:40am
Fellowship to follow
Offi ce 541-276-5358 M-F, 8:30-12:30
www.fccpendleton.org
Supreme Court
asked to review
prayer ruling
WASHINGTON (AP)
— A North Carolina county
will ask the Supreme Court
to review a ruling barring it
from opening its meetings
with Christian prayers.
The First Liberty
Institute, representing the
Rowan County Board of
Commissioners, filed papers
Thursday with the high court
asking it to consider the case.
In July, the 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in
Richmond ruled 10-5 against
the county. The judges said
that while prayer itself is not
unconstitutional, the commis-
sioners’ practice of leading
the prayers themselves and
inviting the audience to join,
always in the Christian faith,
violated the First Amendment
by establishing Christianity as
a preferred religion.
OPEN HEARTS – OPEN DOOR
www.graceandmercylutheran.org
Sunday Worship 8:45 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
(First United Methodist Church)
191 E. Gladys Ave. / P.O. Box 1108
Hermiston, Oregon 97838
PENDLETON
LIGHTHOUSE CHURCH
Sunday Service: 10am & 6pm
Tuesday Kingdom Seekers: 7pm
Wednesday Bible Study: 7pm
We off er: Sunday School • Sign Language
Interpreters • Nursery • Transportation • & more!
Pastor Dan Satterwhite
541.377.4252
417 NW 21st St. • Pendleton, OR 97801
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Sunday Worship 9am • 541-276-2616
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GDANSK, Poland (AP)
— Polish Catholics held
rosaries and prayed together
Saturday along the country’s
3,500-kilometer border,
appealing to the Virgin Mary
and God for salvation for
Poland and the world in a
national event that some felt
had anti-Muslim overtones.
The unusual “Rosary to the
Borders” event was organized
by lay Catholics but was also
endorsed by Polish church
authorities, with 320 churches
from 22 dioceses taking part.
The prayers took place from
the Baltic Sea coast in the
north to the mountains along
Poland’s southern borders
with the Czech Republic and
Slovakia, and all along the
border of this country of 38
million where more than 90
percent declare themselves
Roman Catholics.
Organizers say the prayers
at some 4,000 locations
commemorated the centenary
of the apparitions of Fatima,
when three shepherd children
in Portugal said the Virgin
Mary appeared to them.
But the event also
commemorated the huge
16th-century naval battle of
Lepanto, when a Christian
alliance acting on the
wishes of the pope defeated
Ottoman Empire forces on
the Ionian Sea, “thus saving
Europe from Islamization,”
as organizers put it.
Prime Minister Beata
Szydlo showed her support
by tweeting an image of
rosary beads with a crucifix
and sending greetings to all
the participants.
Come meet Jesus at
Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church
10:30 - Worship Service
Grace Baptist Church
environment that mirrored the
religious fervor of the church
and school. Only members of
the church could work there:
Leaving the church meant
leaving the job.
The employees said they
were paid minimum wage and
worked most national holidays,
late at night and on weekends,
but never were paid overtime.
They were pressured into
signing falsified time sheets
that reflected vacations never
taken and only the limited
hours they were supposed to be
working, they said.
They also said they were
not provided lunch stipends or
allowed to sell a portion of their
holidays for pay, both of which
are mandated by Brazilian law.
Three of the former workers
said they began part time while
in high school, working off the
books as “volunteers” for no
compensation.
Andre Oliveira said he
started at the factory in 2007
while still in high school and
continued into 2009 about
eight months after graduating,
working almost every day from
1 p.m. to 6 p.m. for no pay.
“I never received even a
cent,” said Oliviera, who broke
with the church last year and
now lives in the United States.
He said he feared that
refusing to work would have led
to being kicked out of church or
“blasting,” a practice in which
followers surround a congregant
and scream, often for hours.
The workers told the AP
that, beginning in 2011, many
employees were not paid their
regular salaries for more than a
year, instead receiving payments
months late or just a portion of
what they were owed.
Worship
Community
352 SE 2nd Street, Pendleton OR
401 Northgate, Pendleton
Page 7A
FIRST SERVICE 8:30 AM
SECOND SERVICE 10:30 AM
712 SW 27 TH ST.
541-276-1894
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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