posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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One of The Presbyterian Church in Canada's first woman elders died on June 15. Joan McInnis (nee Watkin) was an elder at St. Andrew's, Arthur, Ont. McInnis was ordained on the same day as Mrs. J.M. Thomas of Fallingbrook Church, Scarborough. They were ordained in 1966, the same year General Assembly gave the go-ahead for women to hold such positions.

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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Discussions about mission, new directions and the future of the Women's Missionary Society ensued at the WMS' annual council meeting in May. After the 2008 mission exposure tours (to India and Eastern Europe) were announced, Rev. Rick Fee, General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency, shared a vision he has for mission.

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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ENI — Church groups in Pakistan and India have condemned Britain's decision to honour author Salman Rushdie with a knighthood, and claimed it risks inflaming hatred against Christians in their countries.

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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ENI — The United Church of Christ in the United States argues it has not changed its policy on the Middle East after accepting a resolution that its executive council consider “ongoing balanced study, commentary and critique” about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

posted on July 1, 2007 in Features

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“I marvel as I look out among you at such a disparate and varied group. you are young and old, come from all corners of the nation and world, but you are also one. your passion and perception is a credit to your congregations and presbyteries.”

posted on July 1, 2007 in Features

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As a young girl, Pauline Brown dreamed of going to India. Years later, while a navy nurse, she met a man with gangrene who used to be a missionary in India. She told him of her dream to travel there, and his encouragement made the pull even stronger.

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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ENI — More people in the world are living in cities than ever before, and this is leading to renewed interest in religion, according to a new UN report.

posted on July 1, 2007 in Features

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“I want to see a mighty flood of justice; a torrent of doing good.” Amos 5:24

posted on July 1, 2007 in Mission Knocks

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Last March, five members of St. Andrew's, Streetsville, Ont., realized a dream when they travelled to Blantyre, Malawi, to see first hand the operations of the Community Based Orphan Care Centres, which is a project of the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian. This was a big undertaking as the five paid their own travel and accommodation expenses. Each of them struggled with the decision to go: could the money be put to better use for the centres? The congregation has supported the project through Presbyterian World Service and Development for the past four years, raising in excess of $28,000; and was supportive of the five people to visit and report on what they'd seen.

posted on July 1, 2007 in Sabbath

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I was supposed to be at a conference in April — Call Sabbath a Delight: Solace, Sanctuary and Space for the Soul — but, it was cancelled for insufficient registrations. In following up, the planning committee heard one thing consistently: “We're just too busy”.

posted on July 1, 2007 in For the Journey

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I stumbled over a friend at a local trout fishing hole the other day. We share shopping privileges at a local Cariboo-Chilcotin cow town and normally only get to visit at funerals and on town day. It was a treat to chat without the usual pressures. Noticing my relaxed demeanor, Randy immediately tried to steal one of my fishing secrets. Because of it, he almost came to a delightful end.

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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The 228 massacre of up to 20,000 Taiwanese by Chinese KMT troops is the defining moment of modern Taiwanese history. It gave birth to the Taiwan Independence movement, and still casts a shadow over Taiwan's politics. Canadian missionaries were among the few foreign witnesses to this tragedy, and Presbyterians among its victims. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has played a key role in helping Taiwan come to terms with this memory.

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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The Presbytery of P.E.I. is appealing an “unprecedented” decision by the province's human rights commission to pay more than $600,000 in damages to Rev. Gael Matheson — damages for which, the commission's executive director says, members of presbytery may be “personally responsible.”

posted on July 1, 2007 in Features

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• Overtures regarding the Korean translation of Living Faith and The Book of Forms, and simultaneous Korean translation during future General Assemblies were referred to Assembly Council.
• The Presbyteries of St. John and Miramichi will amalgamate, effective Sept. 16, 2007. The new presbytery will be known as the Presbytery of New Brunswick.
• The Women's Missionary Society and the Atlantic Mission Society have both ushered in new presidents. Druse Bryan succeeds Margaret McGillivray, who served the WMS for three years, and Helen Humphreys will be replaced by Ann Taylor at the AMS.
• The UN policy on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) deals with the right of the international community to step into another country when it sees extreme human rights abuses taking place. The policy was adopted by the World Council of Churches last year and deals with prevention, protection and rehabilitation. After much debate, the assembly decided that presbyteries, sessions and synods be requested to discuss the document The Canadian Churches and the Responsibility to Protect and submit their comments to the International Affairs Committee by Dec. 31, 2007.
• The assembly re-iterated the fact that costs to ministers for study leave should not be considered part of the minister's stipend, but additional payment from the congregation. A sentence was removed from The Book of Forms to clarify this understanding.
• The revised policies on professorial and executive stipends — which are now separate policies — were approved. Assembly Council will recommend any future changes to the grid to the General Assembly.
• An increase in travel allowance for multiple-point charges was approved, and is effective Jan. 1, 2007. The change — an increase to 35 cents/kilometre from 30 — brings the allowance more in line with the increasing costs of travel that have taken place since 1994.
• A draft policy on racial harassment, which offers guidelines on how congregations should deal with such incidents, will be sent to presbyteries and sessions for study and report by Feb. 28, 2008.
• Any savings achieved by the reduction in the church's compensation contribution under the overall settlement agreement on residential schools will be used only for healing and reconciliation initiatives.
• The assembly endorsed the World Alliance of Reformed Churches' document Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth. The Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee was instructed to create a study guide on the long and sometimes confusing document. The church was invited to “seriously examine” the implications of the document with respect to global economics and ecological contexts.
• The history committee has been asked to discern an effective way to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth in 2009. The Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee had proposed a five-year plan, which was defeated by the assembly.
• Presbyterian World Service and Development thanked congregations for supporting its Towards a World Without AIDS campaign (which surpassed $1 million in donations), and for their overall generosity over the last year. The assembly agreed to keep the issues of HIV and AIDS before the church. Rev. Rick Fee, former PWS&D director and now General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency, was thanked for initiating the campaign, and Karen Plater, who will go from being PWS&D's communications coordinator to associate secretary for stewardship and education for mission, was thanked for her dedication and hard work.
• The Pensions and Benefits Board will not index PCC pensions in order to protect the fund's sustainability, and prevent members from having to pay pension increases that would benefit those who are retired but never had to pay the higher amounts. Also, pension plan members can now postpone receiving their pension to age 71, a change from the previous 69. The change reflects the federal government's decision to do away with the mandatory age of retirement, which was set at 65.
• Every congregation is encouraged to study the document Sunday Schools In 2007: Does It Still Work? The document notes that growing Sunday schools have good teachers, focus on connecting with families, offer staff support, offer something new, are Christ-centred and Biblically-based, and take the current context seriously.
• In a response to growing concerns about the environment and how the church can be an example, congregations were encouraged to have an energy audit of their buildings and to implement energy conservation measures that are financially feasible.
• Candidates for ministry must comply with the church's Leading With Care standards, which includes volunteer police screening checks.
• Congregations were encouraged to establish clear policies for handling planned gifts, to review these policies regularly, to share these policies with the planned giving office, and designate one Sunday during the year to planned giving.

posted on July 1, 2007 in For the Record

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The pun opportunities are endless for describing the General Assembly debate over the moderator's stole: Should each new moderator wear the same symbolic stole? Who would pay for it? Who would clean it? Should there be more than one? But that's the only smile in the story. In the end, it was a headshaking event to see approximately 300 commissioners inventing yet another camel: will that be one lump or two?

posted on July 1, 2007 in Features

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How to be a commissioner in 4 easy steps.

posted on July 1, 2007 in Features

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Photos from the 133rd General Assembly (Waterloo, Ontario June 3-8, 2007)

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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The Canadian Bible Society appointed Rev. Ted Seres as its new national director in June. Seres, former outreach ministries staff with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, envisions a new direction for the society.

posted on July 1, 2007 in News

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Born a Roman Catholic in Italy, he joined a Presbyterian church only five years ago in Montreal, and now Giancarlo Fantechi has accepted a call as minister of Word and Sacrament at La Mission St-Paul, a French outreach in Sherbrooke, Que., after graduating with distinction in the Master of Divinity program at Presbyterian College.

posted on July 1, 2007 in From the Moderator

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We live in a world of disconnections and, often, these disconnections threaten to undo our sense of community as human beings and as Christians. There are increasing disconnections between the people among whom we live or work or worship or play. These are often different people, different circles of acquaintance.