posted on March 1, 2005 in News

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The questions kept coming. And coming. For an hour, Rick Fee, director of Presbyterian World Service & Development, assured the female caller that her donation would be well spent. Her concerns are not unique. Other PWS&D staffers fielded similar calls. After giving nearly $926,000 to tsunami relief, Presbyterians want to be certain their money is well spent.

posted on March 1, 2005 in News

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I fled both the church and the small town in which it was located as soon as I graduated from high school. I looked back with disdain upon the rather simple activities of the church, the uncritical acceptance of what I perceived to be church members' idiosyncrasies and the dogged determination to keep the dwindling congregation alive.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Presbytery Profile

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The Presbytery of Kingston is like The Little Engine that Could. Sandwiched between two presbyteries (Lindsay-Peterborough and Seaway-Glengarry) whose numbers and geography dwarf it, Kingston has watched its membership dwindle.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Features

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Everything a church does is ministry. Everything. Everything a church does is mission. Everything.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Michael Coren

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We've all been supremely generous over the suffering in southern Asia and the tragedy has moved individual and government alike. So let's all go a little further and be just a little more generous. Let's insist that our governments forgive Third World debt.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Mission Knocks

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Grace Presbyterian, Calgary, is a growing congregation in the heart of the city. The downtown church with a membership of almost 600 grossed $24,000 last year with its annual Christmas cake fundraiser. The popular project sells nearly 5,000 pounds of cake to parishioners and non-church goers alike. Going strong for about 40 years, the cakes require a mammoth amount of ingredients, including 100 kilograms of sugar, 145 kilograms of butter, 270 kilograms of raisins, 454 kilograms of almonds and 250 cartons of eggs.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Features

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Godspell, the musical, has a rock-like score which speaks to teens' high energy level. Its humorous rendition of the gospels allows them to have fun while learning more about Jesus. Its high level of improvisation releases their imaginations. Godspell is a great way to capture the imagination and encourage the faith of teenagers.

posted on March 1, 2005 in For the Journey

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"Dad! Mom just flushed the toilet and it's filling up the basement bathtub again. The sink is gurgling like it just had its throat cut too." There was panic in our 13-year-old daughter's voice so I knew better than to make one of my lame attempts at pastoral jocularity.

posted on March 1, 2005 in News

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Congregations who fail to implement the church's proposed volunteer screening and training policy may find themselves without insurance to cover abuse claims. The warning comes from Michael Petersen of Marsh Canada Insurance. Petersen said the coverage "is not a warranty" against possible slip-ups or oversights in abuse protocols. He said the possibility exists for a congregation to make a claim and, if found not to be in full compliance with the guidelines, refused compensation.

posted on March 1, 2005 in News

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Congregations contributed more than $8.7 million to Presbyterians Sharing for 2004 — an increase of $7,000 from the previous year. Gifts from individuals helped the ministry surpass its target of $8.8 million.

posted on March 1, 2005 in For the Record

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You can always tell people who are about to become parents: they're the ones buying How to be the Most Fabulous Parent and How to Streetproof Your Infant. There's little jest in that: There is a serious book published on how to keep your children tobacco-free "for parents of children ages 3 to 19." Three? "Starting prevention efforts early is the key," says the publisher's blurb.

posted on March 1, 2005 in TV

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Amber Tamblyn stars as Joan Girardi on Joan of Arcadia. © 2004 Sony Pictures Television Inc.

There is a fable about three old monks living in a small monastery. Their home was falling into ruin and they knew that once they were gone it would be lost with no younger monks to care for it. Looking for ideas to save their home, they consulted a wise friend who told them the astounding news: One of you is God.

Not knowing which one of them was God, the awed monks started to treat each other as if they were God. Soon word spread of the tiny monastery where the inhabitants were so good to one another, and people began to travel to see it. In time, the monks were famous and the monastery was saved.

Except for the fact that she talks to God, Joan Girardi, of Joan of Arcadia, is a typical teenager. She teases her brothers and gets teased back, suffers and smiles with her friends and fights and makes up with her boyfriend. She manages to survive school with no more and no less grace than the rest of us, and her trials and triumphs are just as big to her. And, as it is for any typical teenager (if there really is such a thing), Joan faces a lot of choices.
Some choices are easy: Will she go on a Real Date with Adam? Heck, yeah! Some are hard: What to wear? Better ask Judith. Others are insurmountable: Can she manage to go on living after Judith's death?
Most of all, Joan and the other characters face moral choices like us. When her Aunt Olive makes her life more miserable than ever, Joan could have been miserable right back at her. She chose to be patient and eventually found understanding.
Joan, of course, does not always make the right choice. Spying on Adam one day, she sees Judith hug him and jumps to conclusions that make her sorry later. Lessons are learned, truths revealed and apologies made, but the hurt is still there.
God used to appear to Joan in every episode of the show's first season. This year, he has been appearing less often, but she continually watches for Him in the strangers she meets. Sometimes she mistakes ordinary people for God, but oddly enough, she seems to hear God's messages in their words anyway.
So maybe that's the answer. We, like the monks, like Joan, must learn to see God in everyone. It saved the monastery. Maybe it can save our world. After all, God made everything so there must be a bit of Him within everything: In stray cats and crabby aunts, and in the disasters — accidents, deaths, losses — that strengthen our bonds with others. He is in our pain, which teaches us to appreciate our joy, and in our nightmares that promise an awakening. God can even be found in alcoholism, because it can be overcome and the sheep that is found is counted more blessed than the sheep that never strayed. He is in our fear that lets others know the peace found in comforting someone else, and especially in our love. No matter where we look, God is there. He is even in death; through death He brings us home.
I said Joan mistakes ordinary people for God. Maybe there are no 'ordinary people' and Joan was right to see Him in them. Maybe everyone is God in a way, with a little bit of Him shining through. Shouldn't we all be like Joan and the monks, seeing and hearing God everywhere?
God is in everything. We forget to look for Him in the guy who cuts us off at the intersection, the ditzy waitress who mixes up our order, that crabby bus driver, our political leaders. God must be in them too, if we only look deep enough. We can choose to look for the Good in everyone, the God in everyone. What if God is one of us? Maybe He is.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Features

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Reaching out in dynamic new ways doesn't always require leaving the church building. Unique ministry can happen where you worship — you just have to figure out how to use what you've already got.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Features

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For over three decades Reginald Bibby has been monitoring the religious and spiritual pulse of Canadians as a demographer and statistician. He has always maintained a distance, befitting his profession as a social scientist, from his data. But his latest book, Restless Churches: How Canada's Churches Can Contribute to the Emerging Religious Renaissance is more personal. Bibby speaks directly to churches, arguing they can win back their lost members, if they want to.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Features

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I love to tell stories — all varieties. Always have; I still have a comic book on subscription. I have been a youth leader for many years and over those years I have struggled to find ways to tell Bible stories. With my comic books as inspiration, and a Rabbi for guidance, I've developed a story telling method; one I find works very well, which I call the Rabinnical.

posted on March 1, 2005 in News

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Once the debris is cleared away, bodies are buried, emergency food and supplies are handed out and immediate wounds and illnesses are tended to, the long process of rehabilitation and reconstruction to tsunami-ravaged countries must begin. "We're well into rehabilitation now," said Rick Fee, director of Presbyterian World Service & Development. "We're beginning to look at more long-term issues."

posted on March 1, 2005 in News

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A private Christian graduate school has received permission to grant masters and doctoral degrees in philosophy. Established in 1967 the Institute for Christian Studies describes itself as, "a school in the Reformed tradition, committed to self-critique and continual change." Pursuing a Christian approach to philosophy, the humanities and social sciences are the school's main endeavours.

posted on March 1, 2005 in From the Moderator

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A profound sadness visits me each time I hear a reference to the Holocaust, the systematic killing of six million Jewish people during World War II. I wonder what can be said or done to commemorate that event today? We read books and study history. But is there something more that we, as Christians, should be doing?

posted on March 1, 2005 in News

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Among these seven follicly blessed students at the Toronto School of Theology in the mid-seventies are a future moderator and two bishops. From left, the dapper Rick Fee, PCC Moderator; Heather McGregor, now a YWCA Toronto executive; Caroline Lockerbee, Presbyterian minister in Burlington, Ont.; Jack Archibald, Ottawa Presbyterian minister; Colin Johnson, Anglican bishop of Toronto; David Danner, Episcopal priest in Massachusetts; and Jim Wingle, Roman Catholic bishop of St. Catharines.

posted on March 1, 2005 in Pop Christianity

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In 1999, Jerry Falwell issued a warning, through a magazine he oversaw, that Tinky Winky might be a gay role model. According to his National Liberty Journal, "[Tinky Winky] is purple — the gay pride color; and his antenna is shaped like a triangle — the gay pride symbol…. These subtle depictions are no doubt intentional and parents are warned to be alert to these elements of the series."