Off to Mexico

I am off to San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, beginning Friday, January 22. I will meet Rev. Paula Bidle and her husband, George Moore, who were mission volunteers in with the Diocese of San Cristobal in the middle 1990s. Together we will be there to represent the Illinois Maya Ministries and Rev. Felix Ortiz-Cotto, Area Executive for Latin American and the Caribbean of the Global Ministries, a partnership between the Disciples of Christ and the United Church of Christ. The specific purpose of our visit is to be present at the 50th Anniversary of Bishop Samuel Ruiz Garcia's elevation to Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, which took place on January 25, 1960. That is back when John XXIII was Pope! Above is a group photo with Don Samuel Ruiz on January 25, 1997. This delegation was present that January, and were invited to participate in the celebration that year in the Cathedral. We are, L-R, Rev. Jeff Nichols, then Conference Minister of the Illinois Conference United Church of Christ, Rev. Bonnie Beaupre, Chicago Association Minister, Rev. Michelle Prentice-Leslie, Illinois UCC Pastor, Bishop Ruiz, Rev. Juan Saavedra, a Pastor from the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church, Martha Pierce, Illinois Maya Ministry, Rev. Michael Swartz, Pastor of the Church of Peace United Church of Christ, Rock Island, Illinois.

On the visit this year George, Paula and I intend to visit several partners in the area in addition to attending the celebration for Bishop Ruiz, now retired since 2002. We will visit with SiPaz, an international group working for peace; INESEN, an intercultural institute in the area working to bring about ecumenical understanding, and Melel, a group supporting street children in San Cristobal. We also hope to visit a coffee cooperative that produces organic, bird friendly, fair trade coffee, and one of the pastors and parishes out in a more rural area.

The wonderful element in the experience in the area over these many years is that we have built relationships with some church folks of good will in the area. The faithfulness of the relationships over the years strengthens our mutual ministry.

Please pray for our little travelling group which will be in Mexico this next week or so.

Codex Sinaiticus

It sometimes seems to be an oxymoron when we talk about discoveries pertaining to ancient scripture. If it is so old, how can we "discover" something new.

Well, beginning last July (2009), anyone with access to the Internet can look at one of the oldest and most complete biblical manuscripts in the world. The document is called "Codex Sinaiticus" and can be found at its own website: http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/

A little historical background: This hand written book with a binding was found by Constantin Tischendorf (1815-1874), a professor of theology at Leipzig, in the monastery of St Catherine on Mount Sinai. On a visit in 1844 he found some leaves of the Old Testament manuscript, and in a later visit in 1859 he saw the New Testament segment. The codex, written in Greek, probably dates from the 4th century, and most scholars believe that it was written in Egypt.

Tischendorf arranged for the Czar of Russia to buy the document, and so it was acquired by the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. It was sold in 1933 to the trustees of the British Museum.

Codex Sinaiticus is considered a most authoritative text, and quite early. It was instrumental in the "Revised" versions of the scripture which were begun in 1881. This was because it pre-dates manuscripts on which many modern European editions were based before that time.

One of my personal treasures is an 1870 edition of the New Testament, in English, with comparisons between the Authorized Edition of the time with materials from the then newly discovered manuscripts, edited by Tischendorf, (pictured above.) As you might imagine, this little book was very controversial in 1870!

WELL, HERE IS WHERE WE GET TO THE "NEWNESS." Prior to this year, if one wished to see the ancient manuscript in total one would have to travel to four countries, because portions of the document are at The British Museum, the National Library of Russia, St. Catherine's Monastery and Leipzig University Library. Now all of the pages are photographed and may be examined at the above website - moving from page to page over the Internet. The project is online, and there will be further developments as time goes by. This is truly phenomenal.

So on this cold January morning, from my office in Rock Island, I was able to log on and look at the text for next Sunday in a 1600 year old manuscript! This really democratizes biblical research and makes what was very obscure immediately accessible. Wow!

Clinton Presidential Center

The highlight of our after Christmas trip was a visit to the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. We were able to walk over to the Center from our hotel, which was close by. Both are along a body of water that I thought was a riverfront, but is apparently David D Terry Lake. The locals thought it was chilly at 45 degrees. We thot is was a welcome, warm relief!

In designing the building for the Center the guiding principle from President Clinton to the architect was to make it look like a bridge, echoing his theme of "bridge to the 21st century." In this they were successful, and the site of the library is near the water and next to an old railroad bridge.

There was a quite a lot of information in the Center. Beautiful displays. Interactive locations. There was a full size replica of the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room. There were lots of helpful docents, such as the one who took a photo of our family. Once again, it is interesting to reflect again and in some detail about events which took place during one's own lifetime. We were reminded once again of what a good eight years this was for our family. Of course, these were important years for our daughters, who were then young. But it was also a time of economic growth for our family such as has not been the same since.

We got a couple of those little electronic devices that look like cell phones. When the user comes to a location there is a number, and when that number is punched into the device, there is a recording about what one is looking at. It was all Bill Clinton's voice. I think I had forgotten how articulate a person he is. Speaking easily and fluently. Sharing thoughts. While there may not be a one-to-one correlation, there is a sense that the speaker is a far more competent person when they speak clearly and articulately. Even the Romans emphasized oratory as part of the qualification for public office.