posted on October 1, 2005 in News

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Knox, Stratford, hosted a photo exhibit in August and September to raise awareness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Towards a World without AIDS: The Beauty and the Tragedy showcased the work of Carl Hiebert, who travelled to Malawi on behalf of Presbyterian World Service & Development. His pictures chronicle the lives of people living with the disease.

posted on October 1, 2005 in News

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The Presbyterian Church USA is responding to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, one of the United States' worst-ever disasters. Through its relief arm, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the church is coordinating volunteer efforts, donating money and supplies, reuniting displaced parishioners and pastors and helping congregations get back on their feet.

posted on October 1, 2005 in News

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Twenty-five years is a long time for a minister to stay at one church, especially when he didn't actually receive the call to serve there. This was the case with Rev. Dr. Alan McPherson, who recently retired as minister of Central Presbyterian Church in Hamilton, Ontario. The courier service somehow lost the pertinent documents in transit to his home in Scotland. Alan likes to quip that he came anyway.

posted on October 1, 2005 in Presbytery Profile

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Comprised mostly of small churches in rural areas or small towns, the Presbytery of Grey-Bruce-Maitland's outreach projects epitomize small-town living and the closeness, cooperation and interdependency found among the residents there. "It took me a while to sort of find my way here," said Rev. Jeremy Sanderson, presbytery clerk and minister at Knox, Walkerton. "Since then, they've been the greatest bunch of people in the way they relate to each other and support one another. It's a really great place to be."

posted on October 1, 2005 in Michael Coren

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This summer NDP MPs Charlie Angus and Joe Comartin claimed to have been deeply hurt by the Roman Catholic Church. The first was told that he could not receive communion. The latter has been prevented from teaching marriage classes in his local church.

posted on October 1, 2005 in Features

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Experiencing a sunrise Easter service while the ground was covered with snow is not the only thing Rev. Colin English will take back to his New Zealand parish. He'll tell stories about the people he met in Canada, the welcoming arms of his host congregation, and the realization that the Presbyterian churches in Canada and New Zealand wrestle with similar issues. "It was great to be able to observe what's happening in society on a political level, in particular with same-sex marriage. It's similar to the issues at home," said English, speaking from Trinity, Kanata, Ont. "And I read about reparation with First Nations peoples and coming to grips with things that happened in the past."

posted on October 1, 2005 in Youth

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The Montreal Chinese Presbyterian Church has a very special organist. She is over 90 years of age and although she does not speak or understand Chinese, Sunday by Sunday, she plays for the services — unpaid!

posted on October 1, 2005 in Mission Knocks

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How do we love others? That's the question we at Knox, Wallaceburg, Ont., asked ourselves. Motivated by our church's mission statement of Here We Grow In Christ, we were challenged by our minister's recent proclamation that church is "all about relationships — relationship with God, His Son, the Holy Spirit and other people." We informally adopted this new commandment, reflecting Jesus' thoughts on the most important call for Christians. Through this call to serve others, Christ opened our understanding to the truth that loving God and others is what gives life its purpose.

posted on October 1, 2005 in Features

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The tantur ecumenical institute is situated on a hilltop overlooking Bethlehem, the road to Jerusalem, the Arab village Beit Safafa and the Jewish settlement Gilo. From its roof the security barrier being constructed by the Israeli government can be traced winding in and out around Bethlehem. Tantur is an ideal spot for Christians to come to learn about this land that is holy for Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. Tantur sponsors such ecumenical and inter faith studies, and I attended a panel discussion there in June where a Jew, a Christian and a Muslim together discussed current efforts for peace in the Middle East.

posted on October 1, 2005 in For the Journey

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The old girl came out onto the power line about a thousand metres down wind from me. She just sort of popped out of the brush and was suddenly there in my binoculars. She was not alone. Her young cub of six months was comically gamboling along beside her as she ambled determinedly, in typical black bear fashion, down the edge of the power line towards me.

posted on October 1, 2005 in News

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Azucena Zelaya Antunez doesn't think of nutrition as only a health issue, but also a political force. In developing countries, like her native Nicaragua, good nutrition can give women the energy to take charge and assume a leadership role in their communities. "We're already seeing changes!" she said during a visit to church offices in May. "Many women are making their own decisions and growing new foods, giving them an income."

posted on October 1, 2005 in News

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Nigerian churches, amongst them the Presbyterian, urged the country's government to immediately suspend its membership of the Islamic Development Bank. Christian Council of Nigeria said in a statement that the issue is "explosive, corrosive and suggestive of a subterranean move to Islamise Nigeria."

posted on October 1, 2005 in For the Record

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Almost every schoolchild reads Lord of the Flies, but as hurricane Katrina proved a few weeks ago, it takes little to turn novelist's dystopias into tragic reality. From Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake to José Saramago's Blindness; the writer's imagination is little exaggeration on reality. Curiously, the illness that overturns world order in Saramago's novel is a "white blindness." In the case of New Orleans, it's difficult not to assess the post-storm debacle as a serious case of "black blindness": the vast majority of those affected by the storm being black (and poor), an indictment of a nation's insistent blindness to the racism that shackles its black population.

posted on October 1, 2005 in Features

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I spent eight exhausting days in the Holy Land as a guest of Israel's Ministry of Tourism; a strategy of the government's to balance the reporting on the country and hopefully to entice others to travel there. During our first dinner, at a restaurant in Tel Aviv, the ministry's branch director of hosting operations, Benjamin-Gad Ninnayi, presented his case passionately: "Why look elsewhere? This country is a diamond, a treasure. There are beautiful things all over the world, but they can't compare to Jerusalem."

posted on October 1, 2005 in Speaking Up

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The attitude the letter displayed, reminds me of two young men who once attended worship in the congregation where I choose to worship. One member made it clear to them that "we do not want your kind here." Now we are all being told in print, by the writer of the letter, that he is obliged to speak on behalf of Almighty God, in order to set the church straight. How presumptuous to state that he is doing this before it is too late.

posted on October 1, 2005 in Youth

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James Wing is my grandfather and the senior elder of the congregation, who came to Canada in 1923 at the age of 11. He was compelled by the Canadian government to pay a head tax of $500 in order to stay in the country, as were most Chinese people.

posted on October 1, 2005 in Features

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If Mary and Joseph were to arrive in Bethlehem late at night to find all the local hotels full in 2005, Jesus would more likely have been born in the corner of a stone building or plaza.

posted on October 1, 2005 in News

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Presbyterians are helping raise money for starving families in Niger, where drought and a locust plague have left the West African country in a severe state of famine. Presbyterian World Service & Development is supporting a major relief effort through Action by Churches Together. ACT members Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS) and Lutheran World Relief have already distributed more than 1,000 tonnes of food to about 60,000 people.

posted on October 1, 2005 in News

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Marion Boyd "did not find any evidence to suggest that women are being systematically discriminated against as a result of arbitration of family law issues." She believes that arbitration should continue to be allowed in family law cases, and that the Arbitration Act should continue to allow arbitrations using religious law — both of which would be subject to the safeguards she recommends in her report. Some of these safeguards include:

posted on October 1, 2005 in From the Moderator

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I have just returned from an exciting weekend with Knox, Sundridge, Ont., on the occasion of their 125th Anniversary. The sanctuary was overflowing with people, and also with faith, hope and love. From my vantage point in the chancel, the scope of ministry at Knox, and throughout our denomination, was dramatically portrayed by the baby, weeks old, on the far right of the front pew and a senior member of the congregation in her wheelchair on the far left. It is a symbol of the church* the very young and the very old glorifying and enjoying God.