Latest news with #EvangelicalLutheran
Rhyl Journal
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Rhyl Journal
St Asaph Cathedral choir to perform in Helsinki Cathedral
Nearly 30 young choristers will travel to Finland for the concert tour and cultural exchange. The trip, scheduled for later this month, celebrates the link between the Diocese of St Asaph and Helsinki. The choir, composed of young people from across North East Wales, will also participate in a workshop with Finnish youngsters, perform in local churches, and visit various sites of interest in Helsinki, including the city's zoo. The trip has been made possible thanks to more than £20,000 in local sponsorship, which has helped make the trip more affordable for the young singers. St Asaph Cathedral's Director of Music, Paul Booth, expressed his gratitude, stating: "For many of these children, this will be their first time travelling abroad, offering them the chance to immerse themselves in a new culture, share their musical talents on an international stage, and forge lifelong memories. "Our choir is composed of 27 talented young singers, some of whom come from areas of deprivation where financial constraints make it difficult to afford such a trip. "I'm very grateful to everyone, including many local businesses, who have made donations to ensure our talented youngsters have this invaluable experience, enhancing their musical education and cultural understanding." The choir will be accompanied on their trip by the Archdeacon of Wrexham, the St Asaph Diocesan Children and Youth Officer, and the Diocesan Secretary. The two churches are connected through the Porvoo Common Statement, which establishes full communion between the British Anglican churches and the Evangelical Lutheran churches of Northern Europe. Last year, more than 20 representatives from the Diocese of Helsinki visited St Asaph Cathedral and churches in Wrexham, as part of the ongoing link between the Church in Wales and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. St Asaph Cathedral has had a choir for almost 800 years and recruits young people from schools across North East Wales.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Right Side of the Prairie: My Country ‘Tis of Thee
By William H. Kittelson Ordinarily I refrain from responding to the 'Left Side of the Prairie' column. However, when Mr. Lapadat felt compelled to publicize that the United Nations had once again declared Norway to have the world's 'Best Standard of Living,' I was driven to do a little research rather than rely on the likes of the sonorous, powder milk biscuit chomping, left-leaning Garrison Keillor for the last word. In the 1840s, my ancestors escaped the true drudgery of 19th century Norwegian living standards by sailing to America and settling in these parts, where we have toiled, rejoiced, and slowly reproduced ever since. Irrationally, I take pride in my Norwegian heritage – probably because I owe my strikingly handsome good looks and stratospherically high intelligence to a gene pool known for a love of fishing, farming, inhospitably cold weather, and an occasional plundering of neighboring tribes. Whatever, Norway today is full of nice people who do enjoy a very high standard of living albeit rather socialist. I don't think their standard of living is due to socialism. I think it's because Norway is chock full of small town Christians! In fact, 86 percent are Evangelical Lutheran – Norway's official national religion. Their ridiculously homogenous population numbers a scant 4.6 million, about the same as the population of Detroit. Furthermore, one-sixth of all Norwegians live in Oslo, the other 84 percent live in small towns and villages, places where people know their neighbors pretty well. Could it be these demographics go a long way toward explaining the Mayberry-like lack of crime situation alluded to by Mr. Lapadat? Maybe, but Norway is not crime-free. No sir! In fact, Norway has the eighth highest crime rate in the world, although most are petty, nonviolent crimes. And, yes, Mr. Keillor, as the world's second largest exporter of gas and oil, Norway's pension piggy bank is growing plumper every day; especially since they don't spend much to field a military capable of helping defend the Free World against groups of fanatic terrorists or supply billions in aid to third-world countries, as we do. Looking through the prism of the Heritage Foundation's 'Economic Freedom Index,' Norway ranked 30th in economic freedom with a score of 70 out of 100 points, while the United States ranked fourth (82); Hong Kong led with 89 points. So, while Norway may have the best standard of living in the eyes of the United Nations and other socialists, I still say we are the best. I believe our national superiority is built upon our basic building blocks: the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (derived from our founders' largely Judeo-Christian beliefs), private property rights, and free enterprise in a capitalist economic system. These unique qualities are why we are the best nation on earth – with a very high standard of living, to boot! Sure, we have our faults and sometimes our priorities get out of whack. The I-35W bridge collapse is a painfully tragic example of where we had, perhaps, focused too much time and money building something non-essential (the light-rail system). The billion dollars spent on light-rail serving only a few could have gone a long, long way toward making our 'structurally deficient' bridges structurally sound and reliably safe, benefiting everyone. Then, too, we allow our judicial system to boomerang on us with disastrous effects. Witness the passengers on board the airliner departing from MSP International exercising their common sense, alerting authorities to threatening behavior by a group of Muslim imams … those concerned citizen/passengers were immediately slammed with a lawsuit! Behavior such as exhibited by those imams should be just as illegal as breathing the word 'bomb' while in an airport or onboard a commercial flight, shouldn't it? Or, why should it be 'OK' to purposely desecrate the American flag, or religious artifacts from non-Muslim faiths, but maliciously submerging a Koran in a toilet is now punishable as a felony? In last month's column I referred to a pending 'potential (negative) cultural paradigm shift.' Specifically, I see an ominous clash developing in the United States between our Rule of Law and the laws expressed in the Koran: Sharia law. Muslims, mostly recent emigres, are demanding religious accommodations throughout our society. These demands would be unthinkable coming from atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Taoists, or Unitarians. Whose law is going to prevail? Ours – as codified in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, or that of the Muslims as codified in the Koran? We must decisively act in favor of our founding documents and the Rule of Law or risk the loss of our culture once the critical mass of the growing foreign element within our society becomes sufficiently large enough to abruptly – like the I-35W bridge collapse – bring an end to our cherished individual freedoms. Eden Prairie resident William Kittelson's column, 'Right Side of the Prairie,' appears on the second Thursday of the month. 'Left Side of the Prairie,' by Bill Lapadat, appears on the first Thursday.
