2,500 residential school cases to be settled annually
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
Resolving complaints from former students of Indian residential schools is getting trickier as time goes on. The federal government has been sending out $8,000 compensation cheques to former students over the age of 65, but has rejected numerous claimants, saying there isn't any proof they attended a residential school. To make matters worse, the first of nine provincial court hearings, held in Toronto at the end of August and required to okay the federally-approved Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, criticized the process.
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
Safe water is critical for survival. That's why Water Partners: Safe Water for All invites children and youth to “board a water craft” and zoom around the world visiting Tanzania, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua and the Cariboo Region of British Columbia. At each stop, the youth will discover how five of the Presbyterian Church's partner countries are ensuring safe water, and how the church is helping them. Through Bible lessons, personal stories, crafts, recipes, music and games, young people and their leaders will raise money for water projects and learn how they can participate in keeping water safe in their own community. A water challenge, given in calendar format, helps children learn how their daily actions impact water supply and what they can do to make a difference. Written by Anne Miller, the resource was mailed free of charge in the August PCPak but extra copies of the booklet (along with a DVD or VHS) can be purchased from the Book Room by calling 1-800-619-7301. – Dorothy Henderson and AM
Women need not utter any apologies
posted on October 1, 2006 in Features
Forty years ago a major decision was made at General Assembly. After days of debate, the question of the ordination of women as elders and as ministers of word and sacrament was put to a vote. Despite a number of recorded dissents, the recommendation passed and women were able to be ordained.
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
ENI – “Why is it that religious institutions and religious leadership seem to be an obstacle for peace-building rather than a solution?” asked Rabbi David Rosen, international director of inter-religious relations with the American Jewish Committee and the International Jewish Committee at the Assembly of the World Conference of Religions for Peace in Kyoto.
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
ENI – The World Council of Churches, a grouping of 348 mainly Protestant and Orthodox denominations, representing more than 560 million Christians, concluded its central committee meeting in early September with statements on several world issues:
The Presbytery of Algoma and North Bay continues caring for others in Jesus' name
posted on October 1, 2006 in Presbytery Profile
Members of Calvin, North Bay, build a wheelchair accessible ramp as part of a community work project.
The Presbytery of Algoma and North Bay is very big — not in number of churches or ministers but in sheer physical size. The challenges are obvious — to cover a lot of real estate with a handful of people. The five constituent ministers have taken on many roles this past year, with one three-point charge, a two-point charge and five single charges. Several retired ministers have come forward to help churches in their community. “They are all hard-working and dedicated people,” says clerk of presbytery Don Laity. “Because of our small presbytery and the vast area that we deal with, they are meeting the challenge.” Even regular meetings are difficult so they use e-mail and telephone conference calls to keep each other informed.
Rev. Dan Reeves is a minister at Calvin and interim moderator for the other two churches in Sudbury. Described as “bursting at the seams,” Calvin often needs more seats added to the pews for services. Calvin is a multicultural and family-oriented church. The youth group, the group calls itself “C-SIS: Christians Serving in Sudbury” is thriving with around 25 members. The youth, ages 12 and up, have recently raised money for World Vision. Besides the need for more room, the church faces another challenge in that the building is not accessible for handicapped people, Reeves says.
Rev. Dan Reeves brings some modern music to Calvin, Sudbury.
Reeves started a Wednesday night fellowship in 2001. He admits it has poor attendance, but says it is something he and the other two committed musicians “need to do.” The idea was to attract people in the community and those in nearby public housing, but the outreach was not successful. “So now, it has carried on and basically we just get together with our instruments and we play contemporary Christian music,” he says. “We do an awful lot of laughing, which I think is important.”
Knox, Sudbury, is a downtown church that is looking at its future. Rev. George Hunter is retired, but active in the church, providing pulpit supply for the congregation.
In Sault Ste. Marie, St. Paul's and Victoria is a two-point charge under Rev. Deon Slabbert. After a five-year vacancy, the churches celebrated the arrival of Slabbert and his family from South Africa in 2004. These two churches have different characteristics, but both have century-long histories.
Victoria is a small country church whose congregation helps maintain the building. The congregation began in the homes of pioneers in the 1860s. Thirty years later, members decided to build a church, with construction in the early 1900s. The community enjoys socials put on by the church, such as the pasta suppers and WMS teas. This year over $700 was raised by Sunday school projects for the building and mission fund, benefiting Mist Kraal Primary School in South Africa.
The St. Paul's congregation began meeting at a local butcher shop in the late 1800s. The church was built near the end of the century and had a large attendance in those early years, as the Algoma Steel plant flourished. By 1920, a building expansion plan was underway. Today, St. Paul's faces the challenge of declining numbers. Now focusing on a future direction, the church is not giving up faith. The congregation is changing with new members and elders who will help refresh the life of the church.
St. Paul's has many programs to offer. The WMS has renamed itself The Jean Wilson WMS of St. Paul's to commemorate a former member. The M&M's: Mary and Marthas is a new women's group. There are Bible studies and plans for a second course of the Alpha program this year.
Both St. Paul's and Victoria share children's groups that feature Bible studies, crafts and discussions. The boys' group calls itself Cadets and the girls are Gems: Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour. Together these groups aim to reach into the community to young people who do not attend church. With congregational support, both groups were successful in numeric growth during their first year.
Westminster, Sault Ste. Marie, has been under the leadership of interim minister Rev. Ian Johnston. Founded in 1925 by a congregation a couple of blocks away, the church has experienced growth and decline along with the changes in the local steel industry. Johnston has helped to unofficially re-open Knox Bar River, a small church built in 1892 (closed in 1983), for monthly services.
Rev. Leslie Drayer has a three-point charge in the southeast corner of the presbytery in the towns of Burk's Falls, Magnetawan, and Sundridge. Drayer says Knox, Magnetawan and Knox, Sundridge are both growing, while St. Andrew's, Burk's Falls, is declining along with the town (population 940).
The three towns are about a 20-minute drive apart. Drayer says he gets help from previous ministers and a retired clergy couple, who assist each church to have a Sunday morning service. All three towns attract summer cottagers, which greatly increases the number of people at the Sunday services. The churches each had 125th anniversary celebrations recently that filled their sanctuaries. “All three churches support one another's events,” says Drayer, who has been a minister there for seven years.
Drayer is the presbytery's moderator. “With our presbytery being so spread out as it is, we do a lot of Internet communication,” he says. He notes that e-mails and teleconferences have worked to ensure communication is efficient. A fall retreat for the clergy and commissioners in the presbytery has fostered communication each year. “It's helped to build relationships between us all,” says Drayer. “The retreat experiences have been really good.”
The mission statement for the three churches is Growing Together, Sharing God's Love, which describes the congregation's life and mission. As a joint effort, the congregations have been sharing God's love internationally. The Presbyterian Church in Malawi has been a focus for the three churches. Rev. Wally Little and his wife, Audrey, are members of Knox, Sundridge, and were interim missionaries to Malawi in the past. The Littles helped establish the Nemo Secondary School for Girls in Malawi, and since have brought this project to their home presbytery.
Four members of Knox, Sundridge, will be going to Malawi this fall on a mission trip to help with projects. The congregations are showing their support of this trip, which will further the connection to the girls' school. WOMEN in the church have been working on a quilting project, “with the idea of trying to make a quilt for every girl in the school,” says Drayer.
Youth and children's programs at Knox, Magnetawan, include a youth group and annual Vacation Bible School. This summer, Drayer says the VBS attracted around 45 children.
There is one Presbyterian church in North Bay, led by Rev. David Jones since January 2006. Previously a minister in Brockville, Ont., Jones says he felt called to the group of people at Calvin, whose congregation has around 300 households. Though North Bay (population 52,771) is a long drive from the Sault Ste. Marie churches (about six hours), the presbytery supports its members. “When I was inducted here they came from all over the presbytery,” says Jones, “so there is a real sense of congeniality.”
The young people at Calvin are very active. This fall, the downtown church is hosting a Presbyterian Young Peoples Society event, for ages 14 to 25. The Cry of Passion is a young people's band. Though the church is struggling to appeal to young people, Jones says this music group plays once a month during the service. “There's a willingness and a flexibility to try some new things,” says Jones.
An annual August work camp in support of local mission is a community success. Around 30 members lend a hand in the one-week event to help North Bay residents who are personally unable to build or renovate their homes.
With continued projects reaching out to many people and nations, the churches in the Algoma and North Bay presbytery work towards their mission statements, while looking at future plans.
Calvin's motto is Continue the Caring of Jesus, and Jones says the congregation fully embraces this statement. He says it is found in worship, it's found in fellowship — it's even brought up at meetings for every decision.
“The motivation is to try and do things for others in the name of Jesus.”
Women’s ordination is resolved; now it’s time for other cries to be heard
posted on October 1, 2006 in Features
I was in Nigeria, working with the the Board of Missions (now the WMS) when the General Assembly made the decision to ordain women as teaching and ruling elders, and my memories of that first debate are all secondhand. I have a much clearer memory of the second debate in the early 1980s (often referred to as the “liberty of conscience” debate).
Probing the history of the heart of Canadian Presbyterianism
posted on October 1, 2006 in Books
No Small Jewel: A History Of the Synod Of Southwestern Ontario
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
ENI – The Rev. Soritua Nababan, a Christian leader in the world's most populous Muslim nation, says the stereotyped idea of Islam tied to “oil and terror” should be rejected and he believes strengthening Muslim moderates in their own communities through dialogue can help reduce conflict.
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
ENI – The World Summit of Religious Leaders, the largest interfaith gathering to meet in Russia since the time of the Cold War, closed its July meeting by passing a resolution condemning terrorism, economic inequality, environmental abuses and the denigration of moral values in the modern world.
Bryden calls out a challenge to the church today
posted on October 1, 2006 in Books
This is a top-notch piece of historical scholarship. But it leaves me haunted by a disquieting question — so what?
The book evaluates Bryden insightfully and highly as a prophetic presence and a dynamic teacher across the second quarter of the 20th century. But Vissers seems constrained to leave that life and that work lying in the past tense. I write these lines for two reasons:
Read more on He's dead but he won't lie down…
The Woods family uses fiddle music to help churches
posted on October 1, 2006 in Mission Knocks
A father's death. A mother's mission. A family's desire to share its music with others. Put these ingredients together and you get The Scott Woods Show — a six-person ensemble playing old-time fiddle music, helping churches raise money, and hopefully drawing non-church-goers into a sanctuary for the first time. “This is music that brings fellowship, and brings people together who may not otherwise come to church. It's uplifting, and maybe we're making things seem a little brighter, and maybe people leave with a bit of inspiration,” said Scott Woods.
posted on October 1, 2006 in Features
Esther Lupafya wakes up around six o'clock every morning. Before an hour has passed, before she can have her morning shower, several people have already knocked on her door seeking money, medicine, guidance and food.
'We have seen the enemy and he is us'
posted on October 1, 2006 in For the Journey
Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like bald eagles as a species, I just don't care for their personalities. They tend to be eaglemaniacs. Let me give you a case in point.
Past abuse inspires one woman to fight for girls' rights
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
“I saw a lot of girls reflected in me,” Betty Makoni of Zimbabwe told the Record during a visit to Canada last year. “Exactly what they worried about was what once worried me. It was hard to explain why I wanted to do this, but in my heart, I felt that if I accomplished this mission, then I will have lived life to the full.”
posted on October 1, 2006 in News
On the verge of recommending a synod of Korean-only presbyteries, the church polity committee of the Presbyterian Church (USA) had second thoughts. “Creating a separate synod based on ethnicity would open the door to Pandora's box,” said Tres Adams III, a theological student advisory delegate from Pittsburgh Seminary.
John Visser's biography of Walter Bryden is an important book for our times
posted on October 1, 2006 in Books
The Neo-orthodox Theology of W.W. Bryden
posted on October 1, 2006 in For the Record
At the recent international AIDS conference held in Toronto, speaker after speaker pointed out that AIDS need not be nearly so widespread and destructive as it is. • Why then is AIDS so widespread and spreading? • The answer you get depends on who you ask, as Andrew Faiz's in-depth report in this issue reveals. Some people blame poverty, some politics. Some point fingers at homosexuals, others at prostitutes and intravenous drug users.
A women-only retreat helped her find the stillness in her life
posted on October 1, 2006 in Spirituality
I am not a retreat kind of a person. At least, that is what I thought before my recent experience at the Presbyterian Women's Weekend Retreat at Camp Kannawin. Located on Sylvan Lake in central Alberta this retreat gave me a safe and beautiful environment to explore my own spirituality. I learned how to express my faith and it helped me find ways to incorporate worship into my daily life. The theme was taken from Psalm 103:1: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name.” By looking at my gifts and then exploring new avenues for personal and congregational worship, I finally understood that by engaging in active worship on a daily basis, I can inspire others.
'HIV/AIDS is simply a mirror to look closely at the world we live in. HIV/AIDS is not the sin: it is stigma.'
posted on October 1, 2006 in Features
Christo Greyling is a tall man with a ready smile. He moves with the easy grace of an athlete and speaks with the soft lilt of his South African roots. Standing in front of a crowd or speaking one-to-one, Greyling conveys the impression he is deeply interested in the welfare, ideas and conversation of others. But, mostly it's that smile that lights up a room.
