Two of My Recent Publications

Note: Recently, I have received two of the publications to which I have contributed lately. Here are a few details about each of them.

* * *

Intentional Discipleship and Disciple-Making. An Anglican Guide for Christian Life and Formation is a publication of The Anglican Consultative Council, aiming to revive interest in the ancient discipline and practice of disciple-making within the Anglican Communion.

My friend, Rev. Mark Oxbrow, asked me to write about the practice of discipleship within the Orthodox Christian tradition. My initial text had to be shortened, in order to fit a very limited space, in which a variety of topics was discussed.

I attach below my short text. Time allowing, I intend to publish on my blog a more extended discussion of this important topic.

Advertisement

Ten Rules of Engagement in Ministry with People in Eastern Europe

I have written today to an American colleague who is new in her engagement in our region.

Please find below the ‘ten rules of engagement’ that I have suggested to her. I publish them in the hope that some Western Christians working in Eastern Europe could learn something from it, if, indeed, they think they can learn something from east Europeans, which, my experience tells me, should not be necessarily taken from granted (being known that, in fact, we have ‘dropped a little bit later from the trees’). Forgive my cynicism. I can show you my scars. 😦

* * *

1. love us – we may not be too lovable, but love us anyway, as Christ loved us;
2. put your heart, not just your head to it – if there is anything we hate it is cold, dry, disheartened engagement;
3. be open and direct – I know this may be tough for an American, but we will deal with you in this manner anyway; so, you better do that too – we love having serious sparring partners; there is nothing like a good fight, among friends;

Adam Michnik in Der Spiegel: ‘We Are Bastards of Communism’

The online international edition of Der Spiegel has just published probably the most interesting interviews on post-communist Eastern Europe I have read in years. This is no surprise when the interviewee is Adam Michnik,  former Polish dissident, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, the most read Polish daily newspaper, and one of the most lucid minds in the former communist world.

Here are excerpts from this interview that, I suggest, should be read in its entirety.

* * *

SPIEGEL: Mr. Michnik, for more than six weeks now, thousands of people have taken to the streets in Bulgaria to demonstrate against their country’s rotten political system. More than 20 years after Eastern Europe’s democratic awakening, political conflicts are still characterized by turf wars and hatred. Why?

Michnik: We lack a political culture, a culture of compromise. We in Poland, as well as the Hungarians, have never learned this sort of thing. Although there is a strong desire for freedom in the countries of Eastern Europe, there is no democratic tradition, so that the risk of anarchy and chaos continues to exist. Demagoguery and populism are rampant. We are the illegitimate children, the bastards of communism. It shaped our mentality.