posted on June 1, 2005 in News
Four Christian publications for women are combining their resources to publish a special issue devoted to women and peace, in preparation for the International Day of Peace on Sept. 21. Glad Tidings magazine, published by the Presbyterian church's Women's Missionary Society, is the only Canadian church publication chosen. Horizons (published by PC(USA)'s Presbyterian Women), Lutheran Woman Today (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and Response (United Methodist Women) are also involved.
posted on June 1, 2005 in News
Most Rev. Donald Theriault, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Military Diocese and Roman Catholic Representative Interfaith Committee on Canadian Military Chaplaincy and Col. David Kettle, Director of Chaplaincy Administration, Education and Training lead an ecumenical group gathered, appropriately enough to bless a new baptismal font, at 8 Wing Trenton Chapel, in Ontario. This marks the first time, in a Canadian Forces Chapel, that all forms of baptism can be performed at one font. Water flows constantly into the tank symbolizing the living waters of Christian faith.
posted on June 1, 2005 in News
The Christian Reformed Church is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a Sea to Sea cross-Canada bike tour beginning June 23. One hundred and sixty five cyclists have entered, with 97 scheduled for the entire Vancouver to Halifax trek. The event is intended to foster Christian unity and raise money for the church's Deep Roots, New Branches program that supports church planting across the country. Each cyclist has committed to raising $10,000, for an expected total of $1.2 million after expenses. Although no Presbyterians are on the roster that includes eight denominations, celebration rallies will be held every Sunday in cities along the route, where supporters can join with cyclists for worship and fellowship. The tour wraps up Sept. 4. For more information, visit www.seatosea.org. — AM
posted on June 1, 2005 in Poetry
In every living human,
posted on June 1, 2005 in News
A Mexican town has been spared potential damage by a Canadian mining company, thanks in part to Canadian church leaders. For more than 10 years, the residents of Cerro de San Pedro had been fighting Canadian-owned Metallica Resources' plans to start an open-pit gold mine in their town. To help them in their plight, KAIROS (Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives) sent an ecumenical church leaders' delegation to Mexico in March to investigate the situation. Former Presbyterian moderator, Rev. Mark Lewis, reported on the visit in May. "When we left the little town we promised the people we would do all we could to prevent a Canadian company from doing such harm on foreign soil," said Lewis. "I have never seen faith move a mountain, but now I have seen faith keep a mountain in its place."
Northern Ontario is at the heart of local and international mission
posted on June 1, 2005 in Presbytery Profile
Four of the Presbytery of Superior's five churches are located in Thunder Bay (established in 1970 when the towns of Port Arthur and Fort William amalgamated), which was crowned a cultural capital of Canada in 2003. Rather than stifling each other's creativity, the closeness of the congregations fosters cooperation and new ideas. "We've been talking lately of pooling our mission resources," said Rev. Harold Hunt, minister at Lakeview, Thunder Bay "There's wonderful, open communication. You can say what you need to say. It's like opening a window, and letting in the fresh air."
Harrowing story of a boy left for dead should be a moral tale for all
posted on June 1, 2005 in Michael Coren
The following is one of the most significant stories I have ever heard. If its moral and morals were followed to a lesser or greater extent by the world's governments, leaders, businesses and citizens the entire universe would change immediately, and change for the better.
posted on June 1, 2005 in News
The Presbyterian church is willing to send more funds to India to help with the legal expenses of 13 Bhil Christians who were arrested following a local uprising last January. International Ministries already sent $5,000. Of the 13 arrested, eight were charged with the death of a Hindu man. He was killed while Christians were protecting their homes and a church that were damaged during the attacks. Trial hearings have been repeatedly postponed because judges and witnesses fail to appear in court.
posted on June 1, 2005 in News
Samantha Edwards has joined the Record as its new art director. She brings more than 12 years experience in editorial design, and has worked for Rogers Publishing designing advertising supplements and promotions for Today's Parent, Chatelaine and Canadian Business. She lives in Don Mills with her husband and two children, and looks forward to sharing her ideas with the Record.
Scottish services draw crowds from across country
posted on June 1, 2005 in Mission Knocks
A special Scottish service has captivated two congregations on two sides of Ontario. St. Columba, Dalkeith, about an hour's drive from Ottawa, and Knox, St. Thomas, just minutes south of London, are home to an annual service celebrating the traditions of its Scottish founders. Kirkin' O' the Tartan has been going strong at St. Columba for 27 years, and at Knox for four. The special service commemorates the hardships their highland ancestors endured after their defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. "It's a time to remember our heritage and what our Scottish ancestors went through," said Joslyn MacGillivray, a member of St. Columba for 12 years.
posted on June 1, 2005 in Poetry
I know that flowers fade
Sharing our life in the Holy Spirit also demands sharing our wealth
posted on June 1, 2005 in For the Journey
It sure is awful darn cold!" exclaimed Linda as she opened the door of our little travel trailer.
posted on June 1, 2005 in News
The church's Moderator has sharply criticized the federal government's refusal to increase its foreign aid to the United Nations standard of 0.7 per cent of national GDP. "It's regrettable that when we're so privileged in Canada, we cannot even meet a minimum goal that was set many years ago," said Moderator Richard Fee. "One has to question priorities and how those priorities are being set."
posted on June 1, 2005 in Poetry
I feel the hand of evil clutch
posted on June 1, 2005 in News
"What I would expect as we go about our work on mission and evangelization in the 21st century is that we recognize the diversity of the multi-faith reality of the world today," said Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of World Council of Churches which met in Athens in May. Warning against "religiously-fuelled racism, culture wars and the clash of civilizations," Kobia said many exponents of particular religions intentionally discounted people of different beliefs and encouraged aggressive behaviour towards them. He noted that interfaith dialogue would be a priority for the WCC.
posted on June 1, 2005 in For the Record
You're getting younger and we're getting better!
Our colleges aren't what they once were
posted on June 1, 2005 in Features
When I graduated from Knox College in 1967 there was no dean, no female professors and almost no female students. Now at Vancouver School of Theology the academic dean/vice principal is a woman, an Anglican priest, a first-rate academic and administrator; about half the faculty are women and half the student body is female. That's just the beginning of the changes.
Standford Reid engaged a lonely battle against the 20th century church
posted on June 1, 2005 in Books, Features
My memories of Stanford Reid are not happy ones. As a young teenager at St. Paul's, Ottawa, I remember dismissing the anniversary speaker as tiresome and old. Ten years later, that impression was not remedied when I heard him holding forth at Knox College on the ordination of women, the WCC program to combat racism and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is with some surprise, therefore, that I found Donald MacLeod's biography of the man to be a very good read (sic).
The re-mythologized Jesus matters, but not the way Tom Harpur argues
posted on June 1, 2005 in Books, Features
The Pagan Christ – Recovering the Lost Light
Tom Harpur
Thomas Allen Publishers
There is, it seems, in popular culture a sense that when it comes to religion we have been cheated. The church has lied to us, has betrayed us, and has held the story of Jesus hostage. But, the story is a universal story; the story is ours. The church does not own it. Recently, books like The Pagan Christ, The DaVinci Code and others have brought that deeply held suspicion and conviction to the surface and have got people talking. These books and the many, many web sites that exist on this topic, offer a new way of experiencing good news that is despite the church and apart from it. For many (though by no means all) middle class, relatively wealthy (by world standards) North Americans, there is a strong sense of being oppressed by the church, and the possibility of 'taking back the story' from the church is attractive. It symbolizes breaking the church's hold on spirituality.
The Pagan Christ – Recovering the Lost Light marks a huge shift in Harpur's own faith journey. A once passionate evangelical professor at Wycliffe College in Toronto, he now argues that Jesus never existed. Beginning in the second century, the church sought to capture and control a story that it inherited from ancient sources, particularly from Egyptian mystery religions. In Harpur's view, the story of Jesus is not history, but an archetypal myth.
(Curiously, Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code also argues that the church co-opted the historical Jesus for its own paternalistic power grab. In his own way, Brown believes he is clarifying the true Christ.)
Joseph Campbell has said, "Myth is what never was, yet always is." The debate about the Bible's approach to fact has had a thorough airing over almost three centuries from the pioneer studies of Hermann Reimarus in the early 1700's to the Jesus Seminar of recent years. This debate has sought to disentangle the Jesus of history from the layers of myth that have accumulated in scripture and over the centuries of Christian history. It has also led to wrestling with issues from the literal story of creation in six days, to the role and ordination of women, to same-sex orientation. Not a pretty picture. In moving in the opposite direction, Harpur offers a much more appealing path through the debate by re-mythologizing the whole story. There is no need to seek the historical Jesus, or the historical Moses, or David for that matter, because they never existed. What is important is to find in these stories the spiritual truth, which links them to the universal myth, which can be found at the heart of all religion.
Yet, when Christianity has been spiritualized – severed from a historical connection to a Jesus who actually lived, died violently and who, Christians believe, defeated death by rising from it to proclaim newness of life – then it has been co-opted by the powerful to justify oppression and impoverishment. It suggests that Jesus didn't mean it when he stood against authority, oppression and suffering in the here and now; that Christianity is all about the next life; that this evil world will pass away and we must not concern ourselves with the messy realities of injustice.
It is interesting to note that in impoverished communities in Latin America, Asia, and Africa the effort has in many cases been one of re-claiming the story from a spiritualized captivity of those in power and the religious leaders who blessed that oppressive and unjust power. For these people it is the historicizing of Jesus that is freeing.
In both cases it is about re-claiming the story.
All in all, this seems to be an important and worthwhile conversation to be having. Not one that is relegated to the fringes of polarized frenzy. Can thoughtful people find another path through the reception of Harpur's book, and others? The New Testament credits the Nazarene whom Harpur denies existed with affirming a seminal insight: it is truth that makes us free, you and me. While the truth involves risk, often costly risks for today's church, and the people within them, Jesus is also reported to have said, "do not be afraid".
A group of us gathered for lunch at a Toronto eatery to talk about this book. For better or for worse, there was no one sitting at the next table. But we tried to imagine what the conversation might have been if this group of church people had engaged a group of non-church people on the common ground of The Pagan Christ. At the very least, we could say that some of us are reading that book too, and open to what is challenging there, but also to what can be challenged.
posted on June 1, 2005 in Speaking Up
The mood at the Presbytery meeting
is a mixture of anxiety,
confusion, and suspicion.
Attempts at jocularity
have little effect on the proceedings.
One or two offer weak smiles in
response.
Cheeks aglow, a woman stands to
report on unlikely love
in all the wrong places.
Faint hope stirs in the pews.
A booming voice praises the institution.
The compliments wedge themselves into the situation,
like a woman attempting to squeeze her feet
into shoes two sizes too small.
On the stage,
positions are assumed.
(The missionary position is favoured)
A thin civility
brackets the opinions.
Screams have long since been
deemed uncivilized.
It has not been announced,
but permission to speak has
secretly been denied.
Principalities and powers suck the movement
Backward,
Downward.
The votes are cast.
Some win, some lose.
All go home empty-hearted.
