It's also known as the Thinning Disease.
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
In July our watchman died. We had known Kondwani since 1980 when the Synod appointed him to keep an eye on our house. When we returned to Blantyre in 1997, Kondwani left the Synod to work full time with us. Those who have visited 'Canada House' know of whom I speak. Kondwani officially died of malaria, but everyone knew the underlying cause was HIV/AIDS. Malawians seldom mention AIDS but speak rather of 'our general disease' or 'the thinning disease.' Some years ago, Kondwani and his wife separated and eventually reunited a couple of years later. She died of 'the general disease' and so Kondwani's situation was not a surprise.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Features
I grew up in Panaehperkho, a village in the mountainous regions of Karen State, Burma. Our village was one of several in the area.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Features
There's no Christmas in Taiwan, or at least no Christmas in the same way you think of it here. Only five per cent of the population is Christian; the rest are Buddhist or atheist, so there's no national recognition and no big celebrations. It's not a national holiday (although a party holiday happens to coincide with it) and celebrations are modest even among Christian communities.
Guantanamo inmate needs protection.
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
After more than six years of detainment in Guantanamo Bay, 41-year-old Djamel Ameziane is “in urgent need of protection” according to a coalition of human rights organizations. The stigma of the former Montreal resident's suspected links to terrorism put him at risk of imprisonment and torture if he returns to his native Algeria, they allege.
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
ENI – WCC general secretary, Rev. Samuel Kobia, told a gathering of the Bible Society in Sri Lanka's commercial capital that churches are morally bound to act to prevent conflicts and to build peace.
A series on religion and theology will begin in January.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Theology 101
Think of it as a Christmas present from the Presbyterian Record to you – an opportunity to spend 2009 with two eminent Presbyterians, one a philosopher, the other a theologian, discussing some interesting questions like Who is God?
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
ENI – The United Reformed Church in Great Britain has condemned as “an offence against God” the assassination of Gayle Williams, a 34-year-old Christian aid worker in Kabul, and the chilling comments of those who said they killed her.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Features
I grew up in Denmark, and that means I grew up Lutheran (although I admit that my family wasn't the most conscientious of church-goers).
It's all about the right ingredient.
posted on December 1, 2008 in For the Journey
“How come you're eating two bowls?” Linda scowled at me over the top of her half-reading glasses. “You don't usually eat even one full bowl of my pea soup.”
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
ENI – Hugh McCullum, a Canadian journalist who championed Africa, where he spent part of his life, is being remembered as a harsh critic of what he called the silence of the media about the killing in 1994 of 800,000 people in Rwanda.
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
Those who visit the denominational website, www.presbyterian.ca, regularly will have noticed that throughout October and November we made some significant changes. Most obvious is a completely new home page layout that we hope will make it easier for our visitors to find the information and resources they are looking for – and discover new things they don't even realize exist! We also made some significant changes to the navigation structure so that information is grouped more appropriately.
A child of the rectory remembers Christmas in Nova Scotia.
posted on December 1, 2008 in For the Record
To all those readers who were surprised and offended in any way to receive a recent mailing from an insurance company in a Presbyterian Record envelope, my profound apology for not having adequately explained the circumstances.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Progressive Lectionary
Ryan Evans, 8, London, Ont.
Christmas and December 28:
Galatians 4:4-7 / Luke 2:22-40
Paul writes of God's Son, “born of a woman, born under the law.” In the first three verses of our Gospel, Luke mentions the law three times. He sounds more like Matthew here! Luke's likely Gentile audience isn't concerned about the Law of Moses, but Luke still wants to show where the Saviour of the world came from. Luke echoes Paul, driving home the truth that Jesus came into the world and began his life as a good Jewish son of faithful, if humble, Jewish parents.
We know nothing of Jesus' Galilean or Judean grandparents. Joseph's father has two different names in the gospel genealogies. Tradition assigns names and stories to Mary's parents. But Gabriel speaks to Mary by her own name, in her own right when he visits her in Nazareth. We only know that Joseph is a descendant of David, and some of his family live in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem on their own. They go up to Jerusalem as a family of three. At the temple they meet two wonderful spiritual grandparents.
Simeon and Anna are often overlooked. Their story comes up on one of those Sundays when many of us take a holiday from church. Christmas is exhausting! We need a break! Mary and Joseph are tired, too, as they trudge toward the temple. Ignored by congregations then and now, Simeon and Anna shuffle on and off the stage. Shouldn't the last act of our Christmas pageant be their shining moment? (For that matter, shouldn't John the Baptist have Act One, all to himself?) Simeon and Anna remind us, no matter how often we say it's so, Christmas isn't for the children.
Spiritual grandparents. They welcome Jesus into the family. They bind him with a cord of love that connects him to all the generations of his nation. With wisdom and insight they look ahead as only grandparents can, with both anticipation and warning. Both to be heeded!
Simeon is “righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rests on him.” He keeps the Law of Moses. He answers its call to prayer and sacrifice. He holds the hope of the prophets. We don't know if he's a prophet himself, or a priest, but the Spirit is upon him. He's the ideal elder of Israel, and he speaks and acts as both prophet and priest. Can we imagine Simeon acting out our first reading? Let's put Isaiah 62:1,2,3 in his heart, if not on his lips.
Anna is triply honoured. She has lived beyond the psalm's four score years! She has lived at least 60 of those years in the temple! She is recognized as a prophet! In Luke's telling, the shepherds are the first evangelists, in and around Bethlehem (2:20). Anna becomes the first evangelist to the temple and the city.
Mary and Joseph are “amazed at what was being said about Jesus.” Despite all they've heard about their son so far, could this be the first time they see the path they have to travel with him? Amazed? Scared! They need a blessing. They need assurance. They need vision. Who better to provide those necessities than Simeon and Anna? Grandparents indeed.
“The fullness of time …” When the time was right. Paul's words ring poignantly through this story. The time is right for Jesus. The time is right for the world. But it's the right time for Anna and Simeon to leave the stage. Simeon says it so well. “Let me go, Lord. You've given me everything I could ever have hoped for. And more.” Anna preaches the good news. That's the joyful end of her story. We hear no more of her.
As I write this I've just returned from a congregational retreat at our beautiful Synod camp. Over the weekend we thought about family trees, and the genealogies that are ours by birth and in the Spirit. The grandmothers among us helped us live what we were learning about. Our spiritual grandparents help us understand what Paul means when he says we're children, heirs and heiresses, of God.
Diana Butler Bass encourages churches to look ahead.
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
Constantly searching for new ways of fulfilling our vision statement of being a vital and growing community of faith, some members of Rosedale, Toronto, read Diana Butler Bass' book Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (reviewed in the Record, March 2007) over the summer to prepare for her visit with us next February. To meet her and scope out her workshop style, my husband and I went to hear her speak in October. I had identified with much of what she says in her book. I'm a liberal “quiet Christian” and a not-yet-30-year-old member of Session.
Travel by DVD to Blantyre and Livingstonia.
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
Stewardship and Education for Mission has produced an opportunity to Experience Mission in Malawi via DVD. When this issue went to print, it was slated for release in early November and featured two 10-minute segments exploring the role of Presbyterian Sharing and Presbyterian World Service and Development in ongoing Malawian missions.
Give a gift that can save lives.
posted on December 1, 2008 in From the Moderator
Every December, I am very busy for a special reason. The first day of month we sing Happy Birthday to my wife Karen. While the familiar song still lingers in my ears, our wedding anniversary comes up three days later. So it becomes “a very Happy Anniversary.” Then after three weeks, Merry Christmas arrives. I guess I didn't know better about the implication of these special days before I got married. I feel sorry for my children as I see them preparing cards and gifts one after another, and their wallets getting thinner. (Fortunately, none of them were born in December.)
John Calvin saw evidence of God's goodness in all things.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Calvin
One of the keys to John Calvin's enduring influence is his practical advice on Christian living. He understood ordinary people in the midst of ordinary life. “If we live, we must use the necessary instruments for life. We cannot avoid those matters which serve our pleasures rather than our needs. But that we should use them with a pure conscience, we should observe moderation.” Calvin did not advocate withdrawal from the world. He built no monasteries – no wandering the highways with a begging bowl. He was a city man, and projected a way of life for urban men and women. As a devotional writer, he can speak to a modern world.
posted on December 1, 2008 in News
The Life and Mission Agency and Project Ploughshares appointed Janna Payne to an eight-month internship based in Waterloo, Ont. She began work in October, and is the second of three interns to be hired in the joint program.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Pop Christianity
We had Christmas Trees; a Fir tree, most likely, my mother recalls. But to get to us in Karachi or Lahore it would have traveled a long distance from the Himalayan Mountains. We would cover it with the usual baubles; along with hand-made paper chains and other decorations. Under it would be the presents. And then Father Christmas would come late one night after church and a sumptuous meal of curries and rice.
posted on December 1, 2008 in Features
In rural Jamaica, where I grew up seven decades ago, going to church was at the heart of Christmas in my family. In my memory the night was moonlit or bright with stars, the air warm and soft, as we walked home together after the midnight service on Christmas Eve. Sounds of merriment were distanced by the hilly country as our neighbours set off fireworks in celebration. I felt secure and satisfied because the preparations were over, the baking and preserving done, gifts of new clothing and food distributed to the poor, and our parents, who taught school and served in church and community, were at leisure at last. The feasting and visiting could now begin.
