The World Council of Churches calls for repentance at Pentecost

Repentance in today’s world will involve:

·Corporate managers recognizing their errors, publicly confessing them and making reparation.

·All of us who are responsible for the degradation of the ecosystem mending our ways and making efforts to reduce all forms of pollution.

·Those who instigate violence being encouraged to become gentle and tolerant, consistent with our prayer that the ecumenical “Decade to Overcome Violence” which is drawing to a close will not have taken place without having some impact upon us.

The repentance proclaimed by Christ and strongly restated at Pentecost is a force for spiritual transformation, for change and for renewal. Human beings must seek to be reconciled with themselves, with one another, and with their environment, and churches too must go on seeking reconciliation. This is the challenge of our gospel of reconciliation, and it is raised again this year in the United Nation’s International Year of Reconciliation, 2009.

May we all find the strength and the will to give new meaning to the claim, “Yes, we can!” Anything is possible for those who believe.

This Obama inspired “yes we can” repentance is easy on those of us who are not violent, corporate manager eco-system degraders; and I spent 3 minutes reconciling with myself over coffee this morning, so all is well.

Notably absent is any mention of sin, which is a considerable relief since, as far as I am concerned, it is the one thing that actually does give me some trouble; someone should have told St. Paul about this.

But let’s continue giving evil corporate managers a rough ride: public confession and humiliation for trying to make a profit, a show trial at the UN and forced re-education at an Anglican Poverty Justice Camp should straighten them out.