posted on October 28, 2009 in Letters
Re Godincident, Letters, September
Zander Dunn continues to fall into the trap identified by Augustine ages ago — that if one believes what one likes about the gospel and rejects what one doesn’t like, it’s not the gospel one believes but oneself. Theology that begins in opinion rather than revelation is bound to find itself at odds with the gospel, the Bible, and the church that proclaims both. The fact that two of Zander’s paragraphs begin with the word “I” gives a strong indication of the source of his theology. It does not help his cause to quote Bible passages that seem to imply universalism without also dealing with the many that don’t. If one quotes the Bible as an authoritative source, one needs to deal with the whole thing. Neither does it help to point to people like Origen as a way of suggesting that universalism was always a Christian option. Origen’s theology was recognized by the early church as often being unbiblical and is recognized today as being influenced as much by Platonism and Gnosticism as by scripture. The Christian church exists, not as a collection of people who say “I believe,” but as a community of faith that says “We believe” and on the basis of that shared faith proclaims Jesus to a world that is perishing without him.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
It was our final night in Jordan. We sat in the hotel bar in the still-warm evening, reflecting back on a week spent roaming through the deserts, ruins and breathing cities of a country little-known and less understood by the inhabitants of our homelands. And as with most reminiscences, the stories twisted back on themselves, away from these final moments and toward the beginning of our journey.
A tour guide, a Palestinian Jordanian, and a man of stories.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
Our guide for the week was Ali Abu Shakra, the son of a Palestinian father who fled Israel during the occupation of Gaza. As a 12-year-old boy he boarded a bus, not knowing where he was bound. In the early morning, he stepped off on a street corner in Amman, Jordan.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
Modern Amman is home to an estimated 2.5 million people, or 40 per cent of Jordan’s total population. The city has grown from its initial seven hills to sprawl across more than 40 in endless waves of sandstone houses and tentacle-like roads that have a disconcerting tendency to veer off in unexpected directions.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
“I believe we have a responsibility to emphasize the role of Arab Christians,” Father Nabil Haddad tells us. “I’m a very selfish Arab Christian. I think we can do much better than we have in the past. We’re able to understand; we all share a tradition, a civilization. We shouldn’t sit back and be a disgruntled little minority. We should be a very prominent element. We’ll never stop being the witnesses and the peacemakers.”
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
His Royal Highness Prince Hassan is a keen-eyed, mustached man whose duel Oxford degrees and near-encyclopedic knowledge of European and Middle Eastern history are enough to intimidate the finest journalist. But throughout his multi-tiered arguments, the under-girding realities were clear: what matters at the end of the day is a commitment to the sanctity of human life. We suffer from little nationalisms, from polarizing fundamentalisms (with the caveat, he added, that nothing is religiously fundamental), and breakdowns of governance because of “bad bedside manner”—an inability to relate to people in psychological, linguistically meaningful ways.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
His Excellency Akel Biltaji is King Abdullah II’s advisor on Tourism Promotion, Foreign Direct Investment and Country Branding, and an appointed senator in the upper house of Jordan’s government. We expected his briefing to be over-spiced with positivity and glowing recommendations that might bring our readers—and their tourist dollars—to Jordan.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
Behind barbed wire, a grand baptismal complex dominates Israel’s riverbank, and beyond it a lookout sits on the crest of a hill. Near the place where the Prince of Peace may have been baptized, a soldier with a machine gun watches us impassively, and steps away from any cameras that happen to point his way.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
The town of Gadara was decimated by earthquake in the eighth century. Much of it was rebuilt in the Ottoman period, but the ruins of a theatre, nymphtaeum and mausoleum date back to Roman times. The ruins of a sixth century basilica also boast an unusual octagonal interior sanctum. According to our guide, such sanctums were exclusively used in churches built where Christ had spent time during his ministry.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
Once the chariot-rutted streets of Gerasa bustled with life and commerce and its buildings were adorned with painted facades. From the days of Alexander the Great, the city rose in size and brilliance, until the Muslim conquest in 636 and a massive earthquake in 747 destroyed many of the structures.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
Some scholars suggest the parting of the Red Sea may have arisen from a mistranslation of the Hebrew yam suph, meaning God parted not the Red Sea but a more modest Reed Sea. But the parting of the Red Sea has featured prominently in religious tradition and imaginations for centuries. It is named for its crimson coral reefs, which sometimes reflect the light of the sun and make the water seem red.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
After following a seemingly endless, twisting road up mountains and past desert vistas, one can’t help finding a new appreciation for a 40-year-long journey through such rugged land. Even from a cushy air-conditioned bus it looks formidable. And from the top of Mount Nebo, one can imagine 120-year-old Moses, sinewy, sun-darkened, leaning heavily on his staff and shading his eyes as he finally views the Promised Land.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
The Nabataean city of Petra is the best-known historical site in Jordan. It’s kilometers of rose-coloured sandstone has been hewn into countless tombs and intricate water systems which once served a city of about 30,000 people. Today only heaps of rock mark the place where their dwellings stood, but the tomb city remains an enduring monument to their honoured dead and their ingenious artisans.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
This expanse of desert and rock once sheltered the well-known British officer T. E. Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, who helped lead the Arab Revolt from 1916-1918. Evidence of ancient peoples, including the Nabataeans, can be found in images or scripts carved into stones.
posted on October 21, 2009 in Blogs, Connie Purvis
With spas, pools, and plenty of mud to make our skin silky-smooth, it was a relaxing end to a fast-paced, whirlwind tour of the country. But it was a little strange to end our trip by this lake where nothing can live, and at the lowest point on Earth still on dry land.
We may not be known for it, but we can do it.
posted on October 19, 2009 in In Song
A Presbyterian minister told me—back in the early 80’s—that the Presbyterian Church is not known for its music. Being both true and not true, the statement stuck with me.
And a missed opportunity.
posted on October 15, 2009 in Wondering Wanderer
At lunch with lifelong friends, talk turned to the church which accepted my hesitant application for membership 10 years ago. They’re mildly puzzled. What about all the terrible things that God allows to happen? Look at all that has been done or not done by those who claim to follow Jesus Christ.
A semi-monthly diary of a spiritual searcher.
posted on October 2, 2009 in Wondering Wanderer
I approach church hungry for nourishment of the spirit, more filled with disturbing questions than easy answers.
The church needs to be flexible.
posted on October 1, 2009 in For the Record
“We’re prudent people. We don’t make decisions easily, carelessly. We delay the process, postpone the sederunt. We’re practical.”
That comment on the ethos of Canadian Presbyterianism comes from the sermon at General Assembly’s opening worship this year by Rev. Cheol Soon Park, moderator of the 134th assembly.
Mr. Park had set himself a challenge: “I knew I would be speaking to many ruling elders and many teaching elders,” he said. “I wondered, how can I move their hearts?”
How can I move their hearts? What a profound question to set as a task before the church’s annual governance meeting, full, as always, with details of money, proper consultation and following of rules.
“I’m impressed and blessed by the structure, system and protection we have,” he said. “We’re not used to making mistakes, especially from unpreparedness. We don’t like the unexpected—something surprising.”
But then he paused. “Zacchaeus,” he said, “was not a Presbyterian.”
Mr. Park was referring to the evening’s scripture reading from Luke’s gospel about the despised tax official of Jericho who is deeply moved by Jesus unexpectedly inviting himself to dinner at the official’s home.
After years of observing the church, including the last one from the position of moderator, Mr. Park was suggesting that simply being a well-oiled machine is not all that God requires.
“Maybe we’re being caught up by our almost perfect system,” said Mr. Park. “Our own tradition. Our norms and standards and ways of doing things.
“We’re highly trained polity people. We try to be practical, and most of all biblical. But Zacchaeus tells us one thing as a Christian who experienced vast love and acceptance—we should be willing to try something unthinkable. Something impractical, unacceptable. Something past where we drew the limit of where we were willing to go. Something we’ve delayed many times.”
Mr. Park’s challenge is something the church as a whole, not just the General Assembly, needs to consider deeply. Because even the best skeletal structure becomes nothing more than brittle bone if it is not nourished by the flesh it is designed to support.
Good bones are only good so long as they fulfill their purpose of carrying the rest of the body. Which is what makes the story on pg. 12 of a failed amalgamation in Stratford, Ont., so discouraging.
According to the reports, after three year’s work had been done to bring two congregations to worship and work together, one backed out because too many people could not abandon their building. That might have only been deeply unfortunate were it not the case that the building needs costly repairs and the congregation is also hugely in debt.
Not a congregation of Zacchaeuses apparently.
In our cover story on pg. 18 this month, Rev. David Webber argues that this is more than the story of isolated congregations here and there. An invitation to David from the church in New Zealand to tell them about the innovative work of his ministry team in Cariboo, B.C., led to as much learning for David as the Kiwis.
His conclusion is that Presbyterians in New Zealand show flexibility where he finds rigidity in the Canadian church. We certainly hope there will be discussions on this analysis in forthcoming issues of the Record and we encourage your thoughtful reflection.
But here’s the crunch, if you’ll pardon the expression. Bones need to be flexible. When they lose that, they break. There are obviously problems: crumbling, indebted, nearly empty churches offer no glory to God, only to our vanity.
The church desperately needs to find a way to move forward. It needs to build new churches where there is a good prospect of successful ministry and close places where there is not and realize the value of the assets for redeployment.
Fortunately, as Andrew Faiz points out in his Pop Christianity column, Zacchaeus’s spiritual descendants are at work in the church in other ways.
As Mr. Park said: “When we’re willing to lose something in God’s name, a miracle occurs. Even in our age. Even in the Presbyterian church.
“Start something unthinkable in God’s name.”
posted on October 1, 2009 in News
istockphoto.com
As American media and lobbyists pointed northward to criticize proposed changes to the U.S. heath care system, the Canadian Council of Churches defended Canadian health care, calling it a system guided by “affinity with the love of neighbour.”
In letters to three of the U.S.’s largest church bodies, the CCC suggested health care advocacy is directly related to “God’s call to discipleship” and Canadian churches have played a role in shaping Canada’s system.
“Over the years, we’ve had all kinds of conversations here through our ecumenical heath care network and with the Canadian government, and we thought we had experience and wisdom to share if it would be helpful to our American brothers and sisters,” said Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, general secretary of the CCC. “We believe Canada is well-served by the kind of health care we have, especially if it continues to make changes that churches believe are important for justice and equity.”
The letter was directed to the National Council of Churches, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Association of Evangelicals.
