Contents
- Home
- News
- Jubilant bishops greet first black US president
- ‘Hope and healing for the world’
- Knife-crime conference: ‘We all have a part in this’
- Aid agencies warn of humanitarian disaster in DRC
- Dr Billy Graham at 90. ‘He just preached the gospel’
- Chocolates for the elect show Calvin’s soft centre
- Zero tolerance failing, says research
- Bakare given Swedish award
- Fairtrade tea slow to come to the boil
- I’m not defunct, says nun, aged 92
- Cray to move
- Beware relentless pressure of a security State, says DPP
- Dawkins and Lennox debate
- Soldiers outside St Peter’s
- Hanging on
- Oxford ‘not wise’ about Christmas
- Adjudicator exonerates church schools
- Scratching the surface
- Deportation family reprieved
- I didn't really realise ...
- Canadians view ban liberally
- Vatican to test for ‘stable masculinity’ in ordinands
- News in brief
- Mystery wall painting found
- Charity accuses Government of U-turn on marriage policy
- Question of the week
- Comment
- Letters
- Real Life
- Copy of Features
- Faith
- Humour and crossword
- Pastimes
- Books
- Arts
- Media
- Gazette
 back to News |
 previous story
|
next story 
|
‘Hope and healing for the world’
by Pat Ashworth
 Songs of praise: Patricia Emerson Lee celebrates at Bethel Church, Baltimore PA |
| SUPERLATIVES surrounded Senator Barack Obama’s landslide victory on Tuesday. The Revd Jim Wallis of the Sojourners described the election as a “watershed moment in the life and history of the US; a milestone the whole nation could celebrate and embrace as a profound opportunity for deeper reconciliation and social justice”. It was also a moment that demanded prophetic leadership and the power of a faith-inspired movement, he said. “The best movements have spiritual foundations.” Both parties had Christian supporters. Campaigners from the “Episcopal Church for Obama” announced that they had hosted 491 events, attended 3466 events, made 10,498 phone calls, and raised more than $29,000 — some measure of the work that had gone on behind the scenes in small organisations. Hopes have been expressed of a new international vision to tackle world poverty. The Roman Catholic development agency Progressio described the victory as “a momentous day”, in a year “when the tectonic plates of international relations shifted and hope for a new world order was reborn”. Hopes were high, too, in Kenya. The Archbishop of Kenya, the Most Revd Benjamin Nzimbi, said before the election that an Obama win would be “a great victory to the forces of change across the world”. He had prayed that the American people would be guided into making a good choice. Commentators have pointed out that US assistance in the battle against HIV/AIDS is crucial to its relations on the continent. The Bishop of Maseno West in Kenya, the Rt Revd Joseph Wasonga, told Ecumenical News International: “I want to congratulate Obama. I think his winning will bring hope and healing to the whole world. His election has shown that America is truly democratic. . . I hope he will be able to challenge bad governance in Africa.” |
 PA PHOTO |
|
The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, has invited the US President-elect to visit his ancestral home at Moneygall in Co. Offaly, after research by the Church of Ireland Rector found familial ties with the parish writes Greg Ryan Canon Stephen Neill, Rector of Cloughjordan (above) in neighbouring Tipperary, which includes Moneygall as a parochial union, discovered that Mr Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, Fulmouth Kearney, hailed from the village and is recorded in the parish records as having emigrated to the United States in 1850. Canon Neill said on Tuesday that it felt as though the parish was “on the cusp of history. There is much to celebrate” |
