posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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Marc-Henri Vidal, who has been pastoring Saint-Luc, Quebec's largest French Presbyterian church, as well as leading several other key ministries in the province, will be assuming a new pastorate in Washington, D.C. at the beginning of July.

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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The Presbyterian Church has a new resource for kids. Pathways to Leadership teaches nine basic leadership skills including teaching a song, building a group, telling a story, negotiating with people in authority and reading scripture in worship. The intended age group is nine to 12, but can be adapted for use with teens or even adults. Written by Dorothy Henderson, associate secretary for children and youth, and June Holohan, an elder at Unionville Presbyterian Church, Pathways is designed for use at a weekend camp setting, where each child comes with an adult who made a commitment to help them with leadership tasks when they return home. Read more about it in the August PCPak, or it can be purchased through the Book Room for $12.95. Call 1-800-619-7301 ext. 239 to order. – AM

posted on July 1, 2006 in Books, Features

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I have personally accused Rev. MacKenzie of keeping me in the church with these lectures, so, let me share it with others: It was 1979, Pre-Assembly Congress; I was in my late teens, just about to start university. A secular world of liberal free-thought awaited me. But, no! Sheldon's lectures spoke to me, particularly the second on power. I recognize it now as the Spirit once more interfering with my life, messing with my plans. Rereading the lectures I learn anew their power to teach, to guide. They are a boot to the backside, a meditation on our vanities; a special reminder of our role as disciples in the world Christ left us in His name. The book itself, however, is unnecessarily humble: amateurishly produced, with no publisher named and in need of both a copy editor and designer. Write me and I'll forward your book orders to the author.– Andrew Faiz, afaiz@presbyterian.ca

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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The Canadian government is being taken to task concerning its support of several Canadian mining companies operating abroad, which are allegedly abusing international human rights law and endangering the political, social and physical environments of the areas in which they are operating. Government representatives met with people from the affected communities and with human rights advocates in April, who are calling on the government to monitor and correct the behaviour of Canadian companies working abroad.

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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The Choir of the Hungarian Reformed Seminary in Romania will be heading to Canada for a concert tour from Sept. 20th to Oct. 10th. Presented by The Presbyterian Church in Canada, the choir will visit all four Atlantic provinces as well as southern Ontario. The seminary students glorify God through joyful music, bearing witness to how God has worked to restore the church in Romania after years of persecution.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Presbytery Profile

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Four years ago not one of the six charges and seven congregations in the Presbytery of Temiskaming had a full pulpit. One of the smallest presbyteries in the church, with 301 members in 2004, was having a near-death experience.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Features

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There were more standing ovations at the 132nd General Assembly, held at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. in June, than assembly regulars remember from previous years. A discussion on sanctuary gained a little heat; there were admonitions to remember the Sabbath, concerns about declining givings to Presbyterians Sharing and questions about why seven commissioners from the Eastern Han-Ca Presbytery did not show. Still, and despite the usual battles over money and history, this was a genial gathering.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Grieving

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All in good time!” my husband used to say. “All in good time.” In our younger years this drove me crazy because I'm one of those impetuous people who make snap decisions, wondering why in the world anyone would waste time mulling over something that you already knew was the right thing to do.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Books, Features

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Tim Scorer has produced an excellent study guide and DVD combo for small groups who want to study Marcus Borg's, The Heart of Christianity. But it's a granola guide.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Books, Features

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The Presbyterian Church in Canada is a denomination of small membership churches. Approximately 40 per cent of our congregations have fewer than 50 at worship. The future of the church depends on these congregations, on their health, spiritual development and ability to function. This book is an insightful look at the joys and challenges of small church life. The authors are passionate advocates of the importance of training and equipping lay people to plan and lead worship.

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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Rev. Donald Macleod's biography of Presbyterian minister W. Stanford Reid recently received the Donald Grant Creighton Award. The citation for the award states that the book about “Reid's spiritual and intellectual journey gives a balanced in-depth critique of the man and his times, never fawning or censorious.”

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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ENI – The head of Greece's Orthodox church has urged Christians of different denominations to step up cooperation to promote unity in the face of growing secularism in society.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Mission Knocks

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When ministers are on holiday or maternity leave, at home sick in bed, or when the pulpit is simply vacant, congregations are missing a main ingredient for Sunday service. Not content to leave congregations without worship each week, the Presbytery of Cape Breton, currently faced with six vacant charges, found a solution in lay worship teams — groups of trained, educated and commissioned lay persons who conduct worship services for congregations in need. “Equipped, enabled, empowered,” is their mantra.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Features

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Karuna Roy, this year's recipient of the E.H. Johnson award, has devoted her life to working with untouchables — people who are outcast from society, driven away, rejected. After 20 years working with the Leprosy Mission in India, Roy turned her attention to a new sort of untouchable. “People with HIV are driven from their homes, and suffer and die in the wilderness,” said Roy during an address to the assembly. “God is the power that is enabling me to serve in this role. The situation is grim and bleak, but God has planted us in the right place to serve such people under atrocious conditions.”

posted on July 1, 2006 in For the Journey

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Where's Mom, Dad?” Chelsea had just poked her head into the 4×4 pickup that served as my summer office. She had a look of puzzled concern on her face.

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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Rosedale Presbyterian, Toronto, will daily provide a place of sanctuary for those attending the XVI AIDS Conference and the Ecumenical Pre-Conference, August 10 – 18, in Toronto. The church, decorated with PWS&D's new posters for the Towards A World Without AIDS campaign, will be open from 2 p. m. to 8 p.m. as a place of quiet reflection for the expected 20,000 international delegates.

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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This banner was made in Sarnia, Ont., (see People and Places) and travelled to Malawi with Rev. Carol Hamilton (left) who presented it to Esther Lupafya who works in the Ekwendeni HIV/AIDS program in Malawi. Hamilton was on a PWS&D HIV/AIDS study trip.

posted on July 1, 2006 in For the Record

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Once upon a time in the Friendly Forest there lived a lamb who loved to graze and frolic. One day, a tiger came to the forest and said to the animals, “I would like to live among you.” They were delighted. For they had no tiger in their woods. The lamb, however, had some apprehensions, which, being a lamb, she sheepishly expressed to her friends.

To which one uncouth animal remarked: “How ridiculous! If you want a lamb and a tiger to live in the same forest, you cage the tiger!”

Rabbi Ed Friedman's fable is a wry observation on how society so often makes the vulnerable responsible for protecting themselves from the powerful. And it is precisely this imbalance in church and other settings that screening processes aim to address. Screening involves rating jobs according to risk. It is an assessment of power differentials in relationships.

Like many other caregivers, ministers face vulnerability in their job. But when assessed in the wider context of the community in which they minister, they also wield profound power. That power creates an imbalance in pastoral relationships, just as it does for lawyers and physicians. Add that to the inequality between adults and youth, as in the Robert Fourney sex misconduct cases, and the power differential can be disabling.

Part of the sad story surrounding Dr. Fourney, the recently deposed Toronto minister, is that he and some of his supporters mistakenly think he was the vulnerable one in these pastoral relationships that have come back to haunt him.

While Dr. Fourney will need the support of his friends, supporting a lie will help no one.

Dr. Fourney accepts the salient facts in one complaint, although he admits no wrongdoing. He disputes the others cases entirely. His defence rests on suggesting his accusers exhibit false memory syndrome — fictional memories suggested by psychotherapy.

Since none of the complaints were tried in criminal court and church proceedings were in camera, the public can't judge this.

However, more than 80 per cent of the large East Toronto presbytery was unconvinced by this line of thinking, as was the smaller investigative committee that included people experienced in dealing with these matters. Wrongful accusations of sexual assault, for whatever reason, are made in about six per cent of cases in Canada, according to police statistics.

Two criminal charges didn't make it to trial because witnesses declined to testify. This is unsurprising: the stigma is enough, the remembering tortuous. Moreover, if complainants see the accused is publicly disciplined, as Dr. Fourney has been, they may feel no need to relive what they would rather forget.

As for Dr. Fourney, he waived his right to a church trial and has filed neither a wrongful dismissal suit against the presbytery nor slander suits against the complainants.

All this shows just how important it is for the church community to wrestle with the complex question of vulnerability in ministries and it reveals why screening programs are becoming more common in society.

And the church must not forget this has been most painful for the complainants. It was their vulnerability that was exploited in the first place and they made themselves vulnerable again in testifying before the church.

Others too will feel violated and wounded by these events, especially two congregations where Dr. Fourney ministered: St. Andrew's, Windsor, Ont. and Glenview, Toronto. It was during the time he was in Windsor that the accusations arose, while Glenview only knew a successful and progressive ministry.

It will be important for those congregations to remember that because a minister has done wrong, even great wrong, does not invalidate what he did right. The sacraments administered and the pastoral care he gave were all acts of God's grace and nothing can diminish that.

Every minister, every human, is a sinner. But the Spirit works in all of us despite that. May the Spirit work this summer to bring healing to the church.

posted on July 1, 2006 in Features

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An interfaith committee meets at the Olympic village for the last formal meeting before the games begin. The Mohammed caricatures controversy is in full swing. The two Islamic leaders arrive one hour late and are greeted warmly by the rabbi. The meeting begins and takes two hours — mostly because the members keep taking calls on their cell phone. Just as I get judgemental, my own one rings. Hoist by my own petard.
Timings of services are discussed. The Buddhist is anxious because his service of contemplation is at the same time as the Protestant worship. Although he is in the next room, he feels that rambunctious hymn singing would destroy his meditative hour. Everyone is sympathetic and the Protestant time is changed.
I go back in the evening to await the vast crowds coming for the Protestant Bible study. No one shows. The Romanian Orthodox priest turns up early and begins the service. For Orthodoxy, worship is an end in itself: to worship even with only the priest is normal. Lack of a congregation is of no great import — although he does have one: me, the Catholic priest and the volunteer minding the door. He chants and sings, sometimes accompanied by a man he has brought with him, kisses the cross and the icons, blesses the room by sprinkling water from a small dried bouquet of something (he later tells me it is dried basil; that in Romania it is used for sacred purposes while in Italy — he chuckles — it is added to tomato sauce to mix with your pasta. Each to their own.) I find it strangely moving. He blesses the three of us individually, shaking the basil leaves and spraying us with the water. I do feel blessed. He kisses my cheeks and I feel neighbourly, brotherly. This is surely what church is about. Where two or three are gathered…

Opening ceremonies take place tonight. Tickets can be as much as 800 euros. The church puts the events on the big screen and we watch them there.

In the evening, to Torre Pellice for the annual bonfire celebration to mark the 1848 Edict of Toleration for the Waldensians. (The Reformed Church in Italy — founded in Lyon around 1175 as a movement of itinerant preachers, they adhered to the Reformation in 1532, having been variously excommunicated, persecuted, ghettoized, tortured and murdered by the thousands by various Catholic rulers in Europe. Miraculously they survived. They were given civil freedom in 1848 and recognized as a church in 1984… things take time in Italy. The religious freedom also included Jews.)
The moderator cleverly reworks the Olympic slogan, Passion Lives Here. Passion does live here, a passion for freedom, for justice, for human rights and human dignity; not just religious freedom, but also freedom from hunger, from want, from war, from tyranny of any sort.

I get back in time to go to ice hockey — one of the chaplains has been able to get some free tickets. It's Italy vs. Germany, so perhaps not the highlight of hockey prowess, but at least they are fairly evenly matched and it is a tight game. My colleagues have kept the Canada tickets for themselves!

For the first time in Northern Italian Church history, all the Protestant churches have organised a day conference of lectures and singing to culminate with a Christian concert in the evening. There is a great buzz and people are really engaged. All this has come about because the churches have been working closely together over the past four years preparing for the Olympics. It is a positive result: Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, Adventist, Salvation Army all coming together. Guiseppe Platone, pastor of the Waldensian Tempio in Turin and head of the interfaith committee for the Olympics, is delighted and intends to follow-up with further joint endeavours with the minority Protestant community. It is important in a country where Catholicism is part of the social fabric. As one person reminds me, “the Pope just visits your country. He is at home here.”
There is a group here from Vancouver to see how Olympic chaplaincy is organized in preparation for the 2010 games in Vancouver-Whistler. Mostly they are from the Salvation Army and have some experience in this type of organizational structure and sports ministry.
They are staying in the Waldensian guest house in Torre Pellice, the Vatican of the Reformed Church here. Until 1848 the Protestants were confined for hundreds of years to the mountains. They could not live any lower than Torre Pellice. After 1848, they built a church, Synod Hall, church offices, a school and cultural centre in this gateway to the mountains.

The joint service of the English, French and Italian congregations is well attended. The Vancouver representatives give a brief presentation. As a Confession of Faith to recite together, I have abridged the Accra Confession from WARC 2004. It fits in with our theme of freedom. The whole service works really well and we are all pleased with the mix and the very good-sized congregation.

Some of the teams have brought along chaplains and this seems to me a better way of doing ministry with the athletes — these chaplains can build relationships with the teams over years of accompaniment and be much more engaged in offering support than a random stranger sitting in an interfaith centre for two weeks.

The closing ceremony is an extravaganza, and I am happy to have been invited. Full of action, music, fun as well as Olympic ideals (if you suspend your cynicism and ignore all the corruption at the heart of the IOC over the years) it is a magnificent farewell from Torino to the 20th Winter Games. After so much questioning and soul searching, the city really embraced the Games and gave a very warm welcome to all the visitors: the Italian people were full of enthusiasm and excitement during the 16 days of the games. And the city has looked great too — and what a fantastic buzz has been going around with all kinds of languages spoken and people dressed in their national colours — there were seas of red and white. The hope of many is that it will continue and Turin will develop and prosper for the future.

Read more on Diary of an Olympic chaplain…

posted on July 1, 2006 in News

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ENI – Clerics have not been spared in Malawi's spiralling of armed robberies and the situation is so severe the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian says it will allow some clerics to own at least one firearm for personal protection.