posted on January 1, 2009 in Called to Wonder
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Click here for this month’s Called to Wonder.
posted on January 1, 2009 in News
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World Net Daily and Orlando Sentinel – An anonymous donation of $50 million is kick-starting an initiative to provide 200 million people with Bibles in their native languages by the year 2025.
Seeking Proactive Strategies
LMA discusses the future of the Church.
posted on January 1, 2009 in News
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It was a common message at the Life and Mission Agency's November meeting: The national church must change how it thinks about mission, or risk losing touch with congregations.
posted on January 1, 2009 in News
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EAA – “The current food crisis is an appalling indictment of our broken food system,” stated Sam Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches in opening a conference on Confronting the Global Food Challenge. With over one billion people in the world now facing constant hunger, Kobia said that such growing tragedies are “a result of the ways our societies have chosen to produce, share, buy and sell food.”
Curriculum : The Church Must Teach – Or Die!
James D. Smart and a revolutionary curriculum.
posted on January 1, 2009 in Features
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Sixty years ago this fall, the Presbyterian Church USA's Christian Faith and Life Curriculum was launched. It became the most successful Christian education program in the history of American Protestantism. In his A Religious History of the American People, the eminent historian Sydney Ahlstrom gives this program pride of place in his discussion of the impact of neo-orthodoxy, the movement initiated by the renowned Swiss theologian Karl Barth, on the American churches in the 1940s and 1950s. Neo-orthodoxy, he notes, moved into the seminaries and from the seminaries into the churches and then into its Sunday schools.
Curriculum : The Whole Church Teaches
Reflections on Educational Ministry Today.
posted on January 1, 2009 in Features
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Dong-Ha Kim, a recent graduate from Knox College, while updating a 22-year-old video for our denomination, made an interesting observation: “Twenty-two years ago there was an underlying assumption that children and families wanted to be in church.”
Curriculum : Young Children and Worship
A tactile curriculum for the young faithful.
posted on January 1, 2009 in Features
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“This is the best program I know that provides a spiritually formative setting which is age-appropriate for young children,” says Marcia Floding, a Christian education consultant for the Reformed Church in America, of Young Children and Worship, a curriculum used internationally including the Presbyterian Church in Canada.
“Young children are tactile, they love to play, they are concrete, yet they are capable of experiencing God and knowing Him. Children and Worship takes into account what children are, and presents the spiritual nurture they need at their development level.”
Requiem to Jim
A friend, like Jesus, first believes in you.
posted on January 1, 2009 in For the Journey
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I got the call on Monday. She said her husband had passed away a couple of days before and she couldn't find a preacher to come out to her rural community to do the funeral. Her sister-in-law had told her about me.
Saturday found me and Larri in the local Legion set up on a stage opposite the bar. As a troubadour for the Lord, most often it's just me and my guitar representing Christ and his church in these rural, remote Cariboo communities. There was a sizeable crowd out, about 150, a good portion of the surrounding community. I had worked hard over the past days travelling out to the community, getting to know the deceased, his family and some of his friends, and developing the service. In true Presbyterian fashion though, most of my efforts had gone into my sermon. I was convinced that my exposition of the biblical text was just what everyone needed to hear. And so Larri and I launched into the first hymn, country style.
posted on January 1, 2009 in News
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ENI – A sermon on doubt won a best-sermon competition hosted by the Dutch newspaper, Nederlands Dagblad.” Doubt can be hastily perceived as the opposite of faith and something that is not good. Yet, when I read the story of Gideon, I learned that this really is not the case. It seems that even though Gideon doubts, he also believes; doubt is a tool to a deeper relationship with God,” said the winner, Almatine Leene, a theology doctoral student from South Africa, studying in the Netherlands.
Truth and Reconciliation Chair Resigns
Churches support commissioners.
posted on January 1, 2009 in News
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Justice Harry LaForme stepped down as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on October 19, citing irresolvable conflict between himself and fellow commissioners Claudette Dumont-Smith and Jane Brewin Morley.
The two commissioners disputed his authority, LaForme alleged, and weighted the 'truth' side of the commission too heavily when he sought 'reconciliation.'
Meeting inmates with love
Prison Chaplains are on the cutting edge of mission.
posted on January 1, 2009 in Mission
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Wendy Murchy, Terry Richardson and Arn Main have spent a lot of time in jail. Their experiences behind bars have had a profound impact on their lives – and on their faith.
But they are not inmates; they are three individuals who have been called to the ministry of prison chaplaincy. Rev. Terry Richardson is a Lutheran minister who is presently serving as the Director-General of Chaplaincy for Corrections Services Canada in Ottawa; Rev. Wendy Murchy is a Protestant (Pentecostal) chaplain in the Fraser Valley Institution for women in British Columbia; and Rev. Arn Main is a Protestant (Christian Missionary Alliance) chaplain in the Beaver Creek Institution outside of Gravenhurst, Ont.
133 and growing
The Record seeks to create a conversation within the Church.
posted on January 1, 2009 in For the Record
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Welcome to the 133rd year of publication of the Presbyterian Record. It's still fall as I write this – despite the snow – but we already have a full line-up of stories and features for 2009 – not to mention covering the news as it happens.
A Saviour with Dirty Feet
Baptism of Jesus.
posted on January 1, 2009 in Progressive Lectionary
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January 11: Mark 1:4-11
One day, soon after we got our Samoyed, Dexter, from the shelter, I took him to a park where dogs are allowed off leash. Mistake number one. He's uninhibited, curious and affectionate. He doesn't stay on the path. He doesn't cling to my side.
Mistake number two was letting him go down a path beside a pond. He looked good, standing there in the water, barking his head off. His own beam of sunlight made him look oh-so-white and, well, canine.
Then he realized he was wet. Out he came. Snow white on top. Pitch black on the bottom.” Here I am! Aren't I great? I'll just rub myself all over your pants, and sit down here on your foot! Woof!”
posted on January 1, 2009 in News
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- The Anglican Church in Canada eliminated seven positions from its national office in November as part of a plan to slash $1. 3 million from the 2009 budget and reduce its running deficit.
Order and Harmony
Getting married in Malawi.
posted on January 1, 2009 in News
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One Saturday morning – at 7 a. m. – I found myself standing before an immaculately dressed and cheerful bride and groom as they prepared to take their marriage vows. I remarked to the congregation that this was the only time I had ever married anyone before breakfast. I also asked the wedding party if they had slept standing up as they were all so handsome and beautiful. No answer. But it was not atypical of Saturday mornings at Malawi's largest congregation, St. Columba's, during the wedding season – the dry months from May to October. And every wedding is the same – same music, same procession, same Scripture and vows. Only the bright young faces are different. People spend months planning weddings so that they can be exactly the same as every other wedding.
posted on January 1, 2009 in People & Places
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You can’t party enough when celebrating your centenary. The Order of Diaconal Ministries cracked open the cake at the Atlantic Synod in October. At the cake are Rev. Shirley F. Murdock and Rev. Cheryl MacFadyen. Looking on are Synod moderator Rev. Dr. John Crawford and Rev. Bonnie Wynn of New Brunswick. Look for more Diaconal centenary news next month.
posted on January 1, 2009 in People & Places
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What were three angels doing at St. Timothy’s on Thanksgiving Sunday 2008? The Angels of Thanksgiving Present, Past and Future were among the large cast participating in the drama, Thanksgiving is Thanksliving, written and produced by June Stevenson. The angels helped the minister, the Rev. Dennis Cook, pictured first row, right, to see the many things he and the congregation have to be thankful for.
posted on January 1, 2009 in People & Places
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Medicine Hat was just a hamlet when the first Presbyterian congregation met in G. F. Tupper’s tent store on June 3, 1883. (Alberta wasn’t yet a province.) Lina Flaig, a couple of years shy of her centenary, started attending St. John’s in 1912. One Hundred and Twenty-Five years later, the church flourishes.
posted on January 1, 2009 in People & Places
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Rev. Dr. Dale Woods joined the faculty of Presbyterian College, Montreal, last September. He’s the one in the colourful stole with principal Rev. Dr. John Vissers.
posted on January 1, 2009 in People & Places
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The Record‘s designer Caroline Bishop has brought a lot of verve and energy to the magazine’s pages the past two years. She has helped to change the look and feel of the publication. But not as radically as Alex, the young man in her arms, has changed her life. Here’s a sleep-deprived but ecstatically happy mom with her five-week old.
