Christian Unity - Dream Coming True

Published: Saturday | April 6, 2013


Pastor Brown


Could this be real? It was real. I attended a wonderful celebration just on the eve of Easter. The Seventh-day Adventists were celebrating at the Medallion Hotel their fifth year of Good Samaritan Inn at 5 Heroes Circle, Kingston, where there is a night shelter, a food line and clothes line and a training centre for the poor.

Our Missionaries of the Poor Sisters are practically next door at Holy Innocents' Home, Heroes Circle, in service of pregnant women, a clinic, a soup kitchen and Sunday worship for our neighbours. We give thanks that Heroes Circle is becoming more and more an annex of God's mercy served by Christians: Adventists who keep their Sabbath holy and Roman Catholics who worship their Risen Christ on Sunday.

"Are you a Jesuit, Father?" Pastor Everett Brown, president of the Jamaican Union for Seventh-day Adventists, asked smilingly. "No, I am a Missionary of the Poor," I remarked. "It is a Jamaican order founded in Jamaica. It is all over the world." "Where?" asked Pastor Brown. "In Uganda, Kenya, Philippines, Indonesia, Haiti, India, and USA. All for the poor in the poorest areas, for the poorest people."

"How can that be?" "Well, I was a Jesuit, and I was trained very well. But Christ was calling me to serve the poorest of people, with Archbishop Carter's blessings. He was also a Jesuit." "I began this order by God's grace, and we are now in all these countries known as the Jamaican brothers. We offer free service."

The Rev Everett Brown offered special prayers for Pope Francis, newly elected. He prayed, "We pray for his guidance and protection - that God will pour forth many abundant blessings on him and that he will do what is the Father's will."

I was greatly moved and felt deep within me a brotherhood with our Adventist Christian brothers. There were wonderful speeches and a programme led by Mrs Yvonne Lawson. There was a simple meal, solid encouragement for others to reach out to the poor, and a chance for me to share greetings.

The hatred that David Mould intended to incite, a Jamaican now a member of the Adventists in Florida, was reversed. Instead, the Lord drew good out of evil. I felt bonded to my Adventist brethren in Jamaica, whatever the differences seemed of little consequences. They thanked Missionaries of the Poor for their leadership.

I thanked them for their wonderful example of respect, discipline, beautiful music, and their cultivation of responsible youth and stable family life. Implied was their disagreement with the David Mould approach to call me "devil" as fabricating a plot to capture Jamaica in the name of Rome.

destitute and homeless

I invited Pastor Brown, president of the Jamaica Union of the Seventh-day Adventists, to visit our monastery and our homes for the destitute and homeless and share a luncheon with our brothers.

The Seventh-day Adventists also invited Missionaries of the Poor and myself to attend a service and special luncheon in the Spanish Town Seventh-day Adventist Church on the following Saturday, which we did. What a warm and wonderful man Pastor Alton Williams is! He had 12 of us brothers sit in the front seats of worship at his Spanish Town church.

We prayed, we sang, we worshipped with our Adventist brothers, honouring our one true God.

There was so much warmth, special attention and good wishes being extended to all our brothers. They were really one with us, as the Mystical Body of Jesus is intended to be. Jesus was the centre of our unity. Jesus is the foundation of our unity.

We were so glad that our Adventist brothers and sisters had invited us to yet a second gathering of Christians. Our brothers sang their hearts out. Again, Pastor Alton Williams prayed for new Pope Francis, "I pray that he will fulfil the will of God's plan for him; that he will obey the Lord and do whatever He wills." There was a moment of profound silence.

Again, I felt that something special was happening in God's Kingdom. We were all coming from different directions to the one true God on Mount Zion.

Pastor Williams called me to give a word of greeting. I prayed for Christian unity. I prayed that we would be one even as Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are one.

I prayed for our country, especially for our poor. I prayed that all Christians be one under Christ, our one Leader, in order to battle against the one common enemy, Satan.

We are all a people of love and forgiveness. We are all against abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, racism and materialism. In between, the congregation cried out, "Amen!" and "Alleluia!"

I thanked Pastor Williams and his congregation and we invited him to come and visit our centres and share a meal with our brothers and myself. I invited him to our musical productions at the National Arena which are all Christian.

The warm Jamaican congregation of Seventh-day Adventists at Spanish Town filled the brothers and myself with a sense of our mission. We are here to serve Christ, to unite Christians to serve the poorest of people.

The enemy is in the shadows. We must meet, unite, pray together, and drive out the evils that are being introduced to our deeply Christian people. Jamaicans, stand together and reject Satan!

Father Richard Ho Lung is founder of Missionaries of the Poor. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

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Richard Ho Lung Left The Jesuit Order And Moved Into The Slums And Ghettos Of Kingston

THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2011

What he had experienced changed everything – the poverty and want, violence and suffering on Jamaica moved  Richard Ho Lung deeply. In 1981 this Jesuit priest and university professor resigned his post and his title. He had studied philosophy, English literature and theology and had taught at St. George’s College in the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica and at the Boston College in the United States. Born in Jamaica, he had been ordained to the priesthood in 1971. "I was preaching the Word of God but not living it", recalls Father Richard Ho Lung, during a visit to the headquarters of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Richard Ho Lung left the Jesuit Order and moved into the slums and ghettos of Kingston, the Jamaican capital. "I got to know the life of the poor and saw the Beatitudes of Jesus as my mission", recalls the now 72-year-old whose grandfather originally came from China. At first the people he met were surprised and astonished by him but very soon this priest, who devoted himself to the poor, elderly and sick, became highly regarded. Others were quickly drawn by his example and joined him. A small community of four men, both priests and laity, came into being. They called themselves the Brothers of the Poor, since they were accepted as brothers by the poor.

Link (here) to read the full article at Aid to the Church in Need

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No Hatred From Seventh-Day Adventists

No Hatred From Seventh-Day AdventistsPublished: Thursday | December 20, 2012


Colin Gyles

Colin Gyles, Guest Columnist

It is contrary to the principles and ethos of Seventh-day Adventism to hate people, whether Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, atheists, homosexuals, or any other. If there are Seventh-day Adventists who hate people, it is not on account of their being Seventh-day Adventists.

I am compelled to publicly make these declarations in response to an article published in The Sunday Gleaner, December 16, questioning 'Do Adventists hate Catholics?' by no less a person than the highly respected and eminent Father Richard Ho Lung.

It is an unfortunate and gross misunderstanding that would cause anyone to even entertain a question as to whether Seventh-day Adventists hate anyone. I speak on behalf of just about every Seventh-day Adventist that I have known.

First of all, I wish to establish my authority for being able to speak in this manner and also to make it absolutely clear that I am not speaking on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church organisation. I have declared myself publicly to be of historic Seventh-day Adventist faith and also non-denominational. So I do not represent any church.

I was born and bred a Seventh-day Adventist, baptised in the church, served in various capacities, including youth leader and even elder at Kencot Seventh-day Adventist Church, one of the largest churches in Jamaica. My late father served for more than 50 years as an elder of the church, my late mother was a dedicated Adventist almost her entire life. All my siblings and close family members continue in the church and serve in various capacities, and I continue to hold to the faith.

I certainly do not hate Catholics and was never taught to do so. I have many very good friends who are Catholics. I did sixth form at St Catherie High School, a Roman Catholic school, and was even head boy there and a member of the board of governors of that school, being the student representative on the board.

I sent my son to Campion College, a school run by the Roman Catholic Jesuits, where he obtained a good education and represented the school in sports. No one can question the value added to our society and the world by Food For The Poor, a Roman Catholic-founded institution, and so many others.

Likewise, I could not hate Seventh-day Adventists, notwithstanding the well-publicised differences that I hold with respect to some of their currently held doctrines, notably the Trinity belief, which I reject and which was also rejected by the Seventh-day Adventist pioneers. To hate them would mean hating my closest family members. I was taught to love everybody.

A part of the Seventh-day Adventist philosophy is to love people, even if you disagree with their views. Even today, within the fellowship that I worship on Sabbaths, I hold different views from some of the other leading brethren. But we worship together, eat lunch together, love each other, and still vigorously advocate and defend our views in very lively theological discussions.

Where is the misunderstanding?

No one can question the value added to our society and the world by Andrews Hospital, Northern Caribbean University, and other Seventh-day Adventist institutions.

So, where does this misunderstanding arise that could possibly lead anyone to question whether or not Seventh-day Adventists hate Catholics?

I think it stems from a misunderstanding of Seventh-day Adventist theology. As someone of Seventh-day Adventist background, I know that there is a general interpretation among Adventists that certain biblical symbols represent the Roman Catholic system. It is the generally held view by Seventh-day Adventists, both historical and denominational, that Roman Catholics do not have the full understanding of spiritual truth and, like so many others in the world, could be better enlightened regarding some points of faith.

But when one feels that people misunderstand something and make mistakes because they do not know better, the feeling towards them is not to hate them, but to lovingly enlighten them.

So, I join with Father Ho Lung in encouraging not only Adventists and Catholics, but all humanity to love one another and live in harmony.

Dr Colin Gyles is a lay preacher of Philadelphia Fellowship, a historic Seventh-day Adventist Christian ministry. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and cagyles@yahoo.com.

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And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. 

- Matthew 23:9.

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Do Adventists Hate Catholics?

Published: Sunday | December 16, 2012

Richard Ho Lung, Contributor

I did not understand that Roman Catholics are considered the Antichrist, the evil enemy of true Christianity, by the Seventh-day Adventists. I did not take it seriously that the Pope is considered by the Adventists as the Devil himself. I thought that all this was the idea of some fanatic few from the Adventists. Finally, I did not know that Adventists were taught to hate Catholics.

It grieves me, since Christian unity is such an important matter for our times in a world so fragmented by hatred and violence. But I also understand that it is part of the Adventist belief that all attempts at Christian unity are to be regarded with distrust, as an attempt to water down the scriptures. It was predicted that there would be an attempt to unite all religions, including pagan beliefs, in order to dilute and eventually destroy Christianity.

CHRISTIAN UNITY

I, for one, will continue to work for Christian unity; it is the only way to address the terrible destruction of morality in the West and in the world at large. There is a secular materialism which contrives to destroy the world, headed by extreme feminism, abortion, an exaggerated emphasis on sexual promiscuity, the disbelief in the soul and everlasting life, the rejection of ascetic spirituality, the never-ending variety of material pleasure, suicide, and euthanasia.

I admire Adventists for their strictness in living out the Word of God. I am comforted by their love of the Bible and moral principles that are according to the natural law of God. I love their singing and preaching, and their sense of respect in their dress and their language, and their sense of fellowship. I have enjoyed the company of Adventists at our monastery, though I've never been invited to their church.

Let me explain to my Adventist brethren three points that seem to be major issues. Roman Catholics do not worship Mary, the mother of Jesus. We honour her; she is the virgin mother of Jesus and, therefore, the mother of God. Though she is the mother of Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, she is not a goddess, she is not divine as Christ is. She is co-redemptrix in so far as she consented to be the mother of the Lord by her faith-filled 'fiat' as she encountered the angel Gabriel.

Mary has been chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus; therefore, she is the most blessed of all women. There is no other like her. In so far as she said yes to being Christ's mother, she agreed to the Redeemer's birth through her, and, in this sense, is considered co-redeemer. However, it is not the same as being Christ the Redeemer.

The second point is the fidelity of Roman Catholics to the Pope. Pope means 'pappa', not Father as in the sense of Abba. There is only one Father in heaven: God the Father. The Roman Catholic 'pappa' is equivalent to Peter, who made his profession of faith to Jesus: "You are Christ, the Son of the living God." Because of his great faith, Christ tells Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom." (Matthew 16:16-19) Therefore, a succession of Popes or 'pappas' have been appointed by the Church historically and sequentially to be chief shepherd.

Our Adventist brethren see in the Book of Revelation many indications of 666 pointing to the Roman Catholic Church and its leader. I am not able to agree on that point, though, honestly, I know of past historical errors or sins of the past leaders of the Catholic Church. Still, the system is true and good, as it is the only system in the world, whether secular or sacred, that has lasted more than 2,000 years, despite its ups and downs.

Even in the case of Peter, our first pappa, the Lord reprimanded him right after being appointed the first shepherd who would follow after Him. Christ announced that He would be crucified, and Peter rebuked Him, "God forbid! This shall never happen to you!" Jesus replied, "Get behind me, Satan, you are a hindrance to me!"

THE CHURCH WILL PREVAIL

The Church - its leaders and other members - is weak and sinful. Still, as a deposit of truth, the Catholic Church is systematic, traditional, and a great source of God's abundant works of mercy, spiritual, as well as corporal. Are there sins and weaknesses? Yes, there are, even as in the case of Peter. But it is founded by Christ, and it will prevail.

Just as you and I are sinners, but somehow by His love and mercy, He has appointed us to be special servants of His kingdom. Likewise, He has appointed the Roman Catholic shepherd, the Pope. All that we can do is to move forward in humility and a sense of astonishment at God's calling despite our sins.

As for the Sabbath being Saturday, that it is kept as the holy day is a beautiful matter, but other Christians worship the Lord on a Sunday because it is the day of His Resurrection. It doesn't seem to affect the essential nature of the Christian faith. It really ought not to divide us or cause us to hate and mistrust one another.

There is much to do in order to battle the Evil One today. Let us not battle and tear down each other. The world is in jeopardy; there is much darkness and sin. I believe that soon there will be the Second Coming of Christ.

Let us be attentive to the work at hand. The Word of God is more than we could ever agree on and fulfil in our allotted time on earth. Let us be one by the power of the Word, and prepare for the coming of the Lord.

Fr Richard Ho Lung is founder and superior general of the Missionaries of the Poor. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and mopfathergeneral@missionariesofthepoor.org.

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