posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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Want to know what's going on in the world and how you can help? Go to www.presbyterian.ca, click on Our Mission, in the top left hand corner, click on Presbyterian World Service and Development, and from the menu on the right side click on Emergency Appeals.

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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“We have to re-formulate our identity,” Rev. Daniel Cho told the Life and Mission Agency Committee in March. “And how it is articulated and communicated to ourselves and others, because that perception will reflect and influence our work.”

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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ENI – The moderator of the Church of Scotland, Rev. Sheilagh Kesting, has warned that anti-English bigotry in Scotland is akin to sectarianism and should not be tolerated. She stirred a recent heated debate in the Scottish press when she said that anti-English banter during sporting events between the two countries could be harmful and might lead to more sinister behaviour.

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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ENI – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to the “Stolen Generations” – Indigenous people removed from their families under old policies aimed at assimilation – in February. Church leaders applauded the apology and called for practical steps to address Indigenous disadvantage.

posted on April 1, 2008 in Passages

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They are found on nearly every winding back road in this country, nestled amid hay fields and headstones: the white clapboard country church. With historic downtown churches throwing open their doors and modern churches thriving in the suburbs, the small white country church could be a quaint footnote in the story about church survival – until you meet the members of St. Andrew's, Riverview, Nova Scotia.

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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ENI – “The fact that a newspaper needs a short sentence, or that radio stations have only a few minutes in which to report, often does not fit in with how we talk in church. A sermon lasts at least 15 minutes, and a theological lecture at least 45,” German Lutheran Bishop Margot Käsmann said in a speech at the Protestant Media Academy in Berlin.

posted on April 1, 2008 in Environment

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Congregations can become aware of their environment and reduce their dependence on oil and fossil fuels with the help of KAIROS' Re-energize Campaign. Supported by the Presbyterian Church, KAIROS has created an initiative to educate, inspire and assist congregations, groups and individuals to take action. One of the most practical – and fun – suggestions is a 100-mile congregational meal.

posted on April 1, 2008 in Mission

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When the Glenview, Toronto, congregation decided to support Evangel Hall's Campaign Dignity in the fall of 2004, there were a few individuals wondering whether the congregation had taken on more of a commitment than it could handle.

posted on April 1, 2008 in For the Journey

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Photo - David Webber

I am not sure if it was all the unresolved pastoral concerns we were leaving behind, or if we were all burned out from months of preparation, or if it was some kind of spiritual premonition. But whatever it was, on the morning that we left for our two-week Ontario deputation tour and cross-Canada voyage last April, we were all in tears.
Neither Linda, Chelsea, nor I wanted to leave the morning of April 27. We all felt terribly vulnerable. In much trepidation, we packed the last of the stuff for the trip on the morning of our departure. I was checking the house for any last bits of musical equipment that we might need and I passed by Chelsea's piano. Somehow I knocked an item off the top of the piano and it fell behind. I crawled up on the piano, wedged my head up against the wall and tried to peer between the piano and the wall to see what it was that I had knocked off. Wedged between the piano and the wall was Great Grandpa Charlie's little old Haida basket. One of his parishioners had given it to him about a hundred years ago when he was a missionary amongst these coastal people. Knowing if I left it there I might well forget where it was when I got back from our journey, I went through considerable antics to retrieve it. That being done, I placed it back in its place on the piano top and turned to get
back to my sorrowful and reluctant packing.
Something stopped me dead and seemed to say: “Go back to the little basket.” Not being one who is particularly prone to spiritual nudges, it was strange and out of character for me to comply. But I did, and stared at the little basket.
It was like an inner voice said, “See?” And I did, almost instantly, See. I began to giggle. Linda and Chelsea came from where they were doing their last-minute preparations and stared at me.
“What's wrong with you?” Linda said. “Get on with it, man. We've got to get on the road.”
“Right,” I chortled, “I'll tell you as we drive.” About an hour later, after some prayers and tears, we started down the road. As we drove, I said: “So, do you want to hear what had me giggling back there?”
“Do we have a choice?” Linda said, her eyes still blinking back tears.
“Probably not,” I said. I proceeded to tell how I had knocked off Great Grandpa Charlie's Haida basket from the top of the piano, and how after I retrieved it, it seemed to communicate something to me. I told how I stood there gawking at the basket remembering how God had led my great-grandparents to leave their safe homes in merry old England and drag their family to live as missionaries at Cape Scott on the most northern tip of Vancouver Island amongst a few Scandinavians and a whole mess of cougars (this time I didn't tease Linda, who is Norwegian, about the cougars being the friendly residents). I told how I realized how God had been with Charlie and Agnes through it all, most notably Charlie's frequent mission trips up and down the treacherous coast of B.C., which included one sinking off Haida-Quay and a thousand near misses as he ministered amongst the isolated coastal communities, including the Haida people where the basket had come from. I told how it came to me,
clear as a bell, clear as spoken word, as I stared at the little basket, that God was saying to me, “David, if I could handle all of that journeying for Charles and Agnes in the days of horse and sail, I quite possibly can handle your little trip across Canada in your day of high-tech diesel pickups and fancy travel trailers. Get over it, get on with it, I am with you.”
God speaking to my trepid little heart as I stared at that Haida basket not only encouraged my faith greatly, but the way it did made me giggle. I felt my story so connected to the likes of Joshua and numerous others in the biblical story. Over and over again, God calls people to take some simple thing and set it apart as a memorial. For Joshua, it is stones from the middle of the Jordan River (Josh. 4:22ff). For others it's an altar perhaps, or broken bread and poured-out wine. The point is not in the memorial itself, but that the memorial would cause the deeds of God to come to life again on the lips of His people. The memorial was about telling. And so spoken, these deeds of God, with and on behalf of his people of the past, would speak powerfully into the lives of his current children to give them courage and hope and faith to go on.
And so we went on, all the way to Ontario and then to the Maritimes. My best friend Jim died suddenly and unexpectedly while we were away on our trip. We found out about it via cell phone. The shock of Jim's death was devastating, but to find out about it in the middle of Montreal traffic, a city I had never been in before, whilst dragging a 26-foot travel trailer, dealing with traffic signs in a language I don't speak and drivers who like to signal with both hands; well, it defies description. But what defies description more than anything else was that in all the years of our friendship, one in which we talked at least two or three times a week, I had never taken the time to clearly tell Jim about God and me; about what God was doing with me and for me and through me. Yes, he knew I was a Christian, of course he knew that. And he even knew quite well what I believed as a Christian, the theology and doctrine of it all. But I never really and clearly told him why I
believed what Christ had done and was doing in my life. For some reason this personal telling seemed too difficult for me. The occasion just never seemed right.
And you know, it would have made such a difference at so many levels to tell that story. I wonder now if a few stones or a basket or something would have helped? Some kind of talking memorial thing that would have caused Jim to say, “Dave, what do these stones mean?” Something that would have given me the occasion and reminder to say, “Jim, do you want to know what these stones mean?” I am sure it would have been the catalyst for telling the story about God and me, a kind of talking memorial. It would have meant the world to me to tell that story. I am pretty sure that it would have meant the world to Jim too.

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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ENI – At 2.25 per cent, Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States experienced the largest percentage increase in membership among the top 25 denominations, according to the US National Council of Churches' 2008 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. Jehovah's Witnesses are the 25th largest church in the States with 1,069,530 members.

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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About a year ago, a group of female students at Presbyterian College, Montreal were discussing how we managed our lives outside of school. We shared our experiences of answering God's call by meeting the demands of student life while also being wife or mother, single woman or friend, and in many cases, living far away from home in order to do so. We laughed and groaned as we swapped stories. Yet as we witnessed a new sense of solidarity emerging, we learned that we were not alone.

posted on April 1, 2008 in For the Record

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Forty years ago I remember doing elementary school projects on pollution, cutting out pictures from Time and the other news magazines that came into our house.

posted on April 1, 2008 in Discernment

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When the church seeks to discern its way, people like Walter Bryden and Stanford Reid challenge us to examine our deepest convictions. They prod us to recover something of the creative dynamic of our Reformed heritage. They believe that theology is not only essential but eminently practical.

posted on April 1, 2008 in Progressive Lectionary

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Matthew 28:1-8 (9-20)Easter Day, March 23, 2008

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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The Group of Eight countries have made a lot of promises “in good faith” a political science professor said at a public gathering in Winnipeg, but they “have now fallen badly behind. However, they have delivered big in the past and still control their own fate. But from their people they now need a push and advice on what their priorities and path should be.”

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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Teenager Beth Yando spent part of February in Geneva, Switzerland, as a steward at the World Council of Churches' central committee meetings. The committee meets occasionally between assemblies to further discuss the council's policies, programs and budget. For Yando it was an eye-opening experience as she joined young people from around the world with very different points of view but all committed to ecumenism. “The very process of dialogue enables each of us to become more comfortable in our own faith stance and secure enough in our relationship as Christian churches to open ourselves even further in inter-religious dialogue and relationships.”

posted on April 1, 2008 in From the Moderator

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I am writing this column before I participate in a national aboriginal and church leaders tour to highlight the need for healing and reconciliation between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. From March 1-10 we are scheduled to visit Ottawa, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Vancouver. (There will be extensive coverage of the tour in next month's Record.)

posted on April 1, 2008 in News

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The Ontario branch of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a celebration on June 22 to be held at Country Heritage Park near Milton, Ont. A catered chicken and rib barbeque will be served at 5:30. Seating is limited and tickets are available before June 8 for $30.

posted on April 1, 2008 in Pop Christianity

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My shirt bears the logo of a popular designer who came to the fore 20 years ago. I paid about $30 for it at a discount clothing store which sells overruns and the previous year's fashions. The shirt would have cost me about twice as much if I had bought it in season. It was “tailored” in Indonesia. I have no idea where the cloth was made, where the button were manufactured, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't in the United States where the company which slapped on the logo is based.

posted on April 1, 2008 in Features

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As stewards of the earth, Presbyterians are increasingly becoming aware of our need to walk more gently on the earth, to use energy wisely and not squander the financial resources we have been given. But while most citizens of Canada have been pushing governments to move toward sustainability, many congregations have been reluctant to invest in measures to save energy. However, now that energy prices have begun to increase at rates far above inflation, congregations and individuals have begun to realise the value in energy conservation and renewable energy sources. Congregational budgets are already tight enough without paying higher heating bills.