Religion Offerings: 10-19

10/19/2013

Please forgive us

October 20-26 is forgiveness week, and Oct. 26 national forgiveness day, according to the Positive People Partners of Liberty Center, which also declared October as forgiveness month. Bob Moyers is president of Positive People Partners and founder of national forgiveness day. In a press release, he said, “We hope that people will join us during Forgiveness Week by forgiving God on Sunday, forgiving our spouses on Monday, forgiving our parents and children on Tuesday, forgiving our relatives on Wednesday, forgiving our co-workers on Thursday, forgiving our friends and enemies on Friday, and forgiving ourselves on Saturday which is National Forgiveness Day.”

10% of death sentences are wrong

The “One.for.Ten.Tour” raises awareness of death penalty mistakes by presenting speakers who appeared in online films in the “One.for.Ten” series, documentaries that tell the stories of people exonerated from death rows in the U.S. The title comes from the statistic that one in 10 people on death row have been found to be wrongfully convicted. On the tour, sponsored by Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, three speakers will appear in northwest Ohio: Joe D'Ambrosio, Damon Thibodeauz, and Delbert Tibbs, former death row prisoners in Florida, Louisiana, and Ohio, who were all exonerated.

All presentations are free. On Monday, the tour is at the Franciscan Center at Lourdes University, 6832 Convent Blvd., Sylvania, at 11 a.m., then at First Unitarian Church of Toledo, 3205 Glendale Ave., at 7 p.m. Tuesday the tour stops at the University of Toledo McQuade Law Auditorium, 1825 W. Rocket Dr., at noon, and at Saints Peter and Paul catholic Church, 510 Columbus Ave., Sandusky, at 6:30 p.m.

The Impact of impacts

Toledo might appear much more broken during Team Impact's presence in the city Wednesday through Oct. 27. That's because the team members, men who have been weightlifters, WWE wrestlers, and football players, do such things as breaking concrete slabs with their arms and breaking baseball bats with their hands. Sponsored by the Church on Strayer, Team Impact will appear in 45-minute assemblies in 40 area schools; the team members will give motivational words in addition to displaying their destruction abilities. "Coming to Toledo is a huge thing. I didn't think that we could get them," the Rev. Tony Scott, the Church on Strayer's pastor, said.

Team Impact's aim is to raise student awareness of the dangers of alcohol, drugs, and bullying; to promote racial reconciliation and making good choices; and to inspire the children's dreams. Besides their school appearances, they will also spend a lot of time in church. They will be at the Church on Strayer, 3000 Strayer Rd., Maumee, Wednesday through Friday at 7 p.m.; Oct. 26 at 6 p.m.; and Oct. 27 at 9 and 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Confessing for unity, justice, and reconciliation

The Confession of Belhar will be discussed Friday at 1 p.m. at Christ Presbyterian Church, 4225 W. Sylvania Ave. That confession, which was professed in apartheid-era South Africa, has a focus on unity, justice, and reconciliation. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is promoting church-wide study of the Belhar Confession. Guests at the event Friday include the moderator of the church's general assembly, the Rev. Neal Pressa; a member of the general assembly's committee on the Belhar Confession, the Rev. Cynthia Holer Rich; and the coordinator of the assembly's advisory committee on social witness policy, the Rev. Christian Iosso. To register, contact Janet Fehlen at j.fehlen@synodofhtecovenant.org or call 800-848-1030.