posted on September 29, 2011 in Called to Wonder

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You are different from anyone else in the world.Your mother is a unique individual. Your father is not like anybody else. It is because all people are different that your family is different from any other family in the entire world.

posted on September 26, 2011 in Columns, Miscellaneous, The Messy Table

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Lately, I’ve been trying to follow some advice Eugene Peterson gave about giving the Sabbath a proper centrality for the week. He said to break your week into three tasks: anticipating, celebrating, and remembering.

posted on September 26, 2011 in Columns, Patricia Schneider

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My best friend has just been put in long-term care. I remember how her and Harry cried the last time they saw each other at the hospital. I guess they knew the writing was on the wall.

posted on September 22, 2011 in Called to Wonder

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The people of our family take care of us and teach us about the world as we grow up. Our parents, brothers, sisters, and other relatives love us, watch over us, give us shelter, and protect us from harm. They offer us security, comfort, physical contact and care. Family provides a constant in any child’s life.

posted on September 22, 2011 in Called to Wonder

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To my friends,
September is an exciting time of year with the start-up of school. I have a young neighbour who started school last year. He is really excited to see his old friends again. He loves to learn and one important thing he learned in Junior Kindergarten was about families.

posted on September 19, 2011 in Columns, The Messy Table

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I couldn’t resist. Yes, the book titles were memorable enough on their own, but put them together and you get something all together inspirational. Somewhere between Agatha Christies and Wonderwoman takes on the government. Sometimes that’s just the inspiration I need.

posted on September 19, 2011 in Columns, Patricia Schneider

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It still seems strange to be alone,
When I was with you all those years.

posted on September 12, 2011 in Columns, Miscellaneous, The Messy Table

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Ten years ago, I sat by myself on a fourth-hand futon and watched the television. It was a bit strange – to watch history unravel by myself – and also strange because I had recently moved into the Blob.

posted on September 12, 2011 in Columns, Patricia Schneider

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My friend R. who was a neighbor for years, visits frequently. She is high on my list of earthly angels and helps me with my computer, (with which I have a love-hate relationship).

posted on September 9, 2011 in News

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Senior representatives of the global and United States evangelical community are urging people of all faiths to work together to bring peace and build up their communities on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States 10 years ago. Last year, protests by extremists marred the commemoration of attacks and ignited international violence. This year, the controversy surrounds the inclusion of U.S. religious leaders in the 10th anniversary ceremonies.

posted on September 5, 2011 in Columns, The Messy Table

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Today, I just want to write about tomatoes. It’s September and the season of proper tomatoes.

It’s also the week of our move, and the kitchen’s packed away. We’ve been working through the last of the pasta and frozen peas.

posted on September 5, 2011 in Columns, Patricia Schneider

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“It’s a bad day,” I’d hear you say.
“Oh, no it’s not my dear.
It is a really good day, because you are still here.”

posted on September 1, 2011 in People & Places

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Presbyterian choirs of the lower British Columbia mainland made harmony together during a praise festival at Langley Presbyterian in May. Members of the host choir were joined by vocalists from Haney, Maple Ridge; St. Paul’s, Mission; Bradner, and Calvin, Abbotsford.

posted on September 1, 2011 in Letters

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Re Jesus In Islam, July/August 2009
I guess you need strong faith to believe that this is actually happening in our denomination—rejecting the authority and infallibility of the Scriptures is the beginning of the fall of our denomination into oblivion. (Scholars would know the ‘real meaning’ of these two terms—they have nothing to do with the so – called ‘fundamentalism accusation’!)

Rev. Pieter Greyling, Online

As a Muslim, it is humbling to see the Presbyterian Record publish an article such as this. A truly unbiased article that does not judge one faith over the other but shows how religion can be a commonality among us all. Very well done, and much respect.

Abed Daggaz, Online

posted on September 1, 2011 in Letters

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Re Reconciliation Works, Community News, July/August
I want to thank the national staff for their warm welcome and the opportunity for me to lead worship and give my PowerPoint presentation talk on ‘Truth and Reconciliation the World Today’ just before General Assembly in June. My Scottish ancestors were called by many different pejorative names including, “the gypsies of the highlands,” “the summer walkers,” “tinkers,” “hawkers” or as many know them “the Scottish travellers.” Their story, like so many others is one of prejudice and being marginalized by society at large. However, ultimately it is a story of overcoming great challenges and odds to make a better life in Canada, and around the world, for them and their families. In my presentation I also speak of other groups who have been marginalized in the world, the Roma, the Jews and our Canadian First Nations. It would be my pleasure and honour, if invited, to have the opportunity to speak to any church within Canada on this very important topic. Please feel free to contact me via my email at trchilds@hotmail.com if you have any questions or for further information.

posted on September 1, 2011 in For the Journey

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Peter was a big boned guy, at least that’s what you called him if you didn’t want your face smacked. Actually he was built like a football centre, one of those guys who look big, soft and flabby but if you run into him you feel like you just ran into a train. He had invited me to go fishing with him at Fish Lake. It was a dream come true. Fish Lake was the lake that everyone talked about at high school when they weren’t talking about girls. Fish Lake was fishing heaven; with a three – pound cutthroat trout at the end of every cast and a 10 – pound char at the end of every day. Few had really ever made the trip. Most of us lived vicariously through those who had, just like with girls. Peter had made the trip, not just once but several times with his dad and brother. And now he was planning a trip with just him and me. My dad dropped us off at the trailhead up Wildhorse Creek. It was the shortest route, Peter said. It was only 12 miles of packhorse trail to the lake, eight if you climbed over the Top of the World. The other route was up Sheep Creek, not as steep but three miles longer, Peter said. He had hiked in on all three routes and it was his considerable opinion that a trail virgin like me should be able to handle the 12 – mile packhorse trail, but definitely not the Top of the World climb. And so we shouldered our Trapper Nelson pack boards loaded with about 75 pounds of assorted canned goods, hollered “see ya in a week” to Dad and marched off up the trail.
I was really looking forward to this. I played rugby. I worked out with weights at noon every day at school. I was in good shape and I didn’t like the way Peter put me down as a “trail virgin.” I was going to hike his fat fanny right into the ground. And I proceeded to do just that.
About a mile up the trail, which was pretty steep going, I cast a look behind me to see if Peter was still in sight. He almost ran over me when I paused to look. He was drenched in sweat. His face was beet red and he was breathing pretty hard. “What ya stoppin fer,” he growled.
I turned, smiled to myself and picked up the pace some more. Another mile up the trail the scene repeated itself. Again, I picked up the pace. But I wasn’t smiling to myself any more. I was not sweating too badly, and my breathing was easy but something weird was happening to my legs. By the end of the third mile they were beginning to feel like two pieces of spaghetti. By about the fourth mile they refused to support me any longer, victims of too much weight in my pack and the Rocky Mountain elevation. I collapsed at the side of the trail.
“What’s a matter?” Peter said, sweat pouring off his face.
“I gotta stop,” I said. “My legs, they won’t hold me.”
“Just another trail virgin, huh?” Peter said. He sat down beside me and took off his pack. “Take off yer pack,” he said.
I rolled onto my side and somehow slipped out of my pack. Peter grabbed my pack and opened it. He felt for the heaviest items and stuffed them into his own pack. Then he stood up and marched off up the trail, steaming and puffing like a locomotive. “Just follow the packhorse trail, you won’t get lost,” he hollered back to me. “Go at your own speed, it’s better that way. I’ll see you at the lake.”
Eventually my legs recovered somewhat and I shouldered my pack, now a third lighter thanks to Peter. I began a slow walk up the packhorse trial.
I learned two lessons that trip; about stamina in the mountains and about packhorse trails. I think the stamina lesson is self – evident and needs no comment here. Suffice it to say that Peter never mentioned my trail performance to me nor to anyone else after that. He not only had great stamina but it turned out he had abundant grace, too.
The lesson I learned from the packhorse trail still serves me well. After Peter left me and I was able to get enough oxygen pumped back into my legs so that I could stand up again, I began to freak out about getting lost. It was still eight or so miles into Fish Lake over ground I had never walked before. What if the packhorse trail petered out? What if it got dark and I couldn’t see the trail? What about some of the more dangerous bits of ground I had to traverse? Fish Lake was a range or two back in the Rocky Mountains and the terrain was challenging to say the least. I had plenty of worries to keep me preoccupied as I trudged slowly up the trail.
Most of those fears were because I didn’t know about packhorse trails. The rest of my hike into Fish Lake turned out to be a journey of discovery.
I discovered that the trail did kind of peter out when it went though easy terrain like a nice open mountain meadow. Here the trail sort of fanned out leaving all kinds of room for choice and the experience of several different mountain vistas, even the space to lay back on the grass and take a delicious daydream breather.
I discovered that in the dark spruce forest, the trail was so well worn into the ground that it was almost impossible to stray from it, even if night fell.
I discovered that the more hazardous the terrain, the deeper the trail was worn into the earth, in some places two or more feet deep. It seemed to clutch my feet like a train rail does a train wheel. In some places, as the trail traversed up a steep hill beside a creek, the trail was not only deeply warn into the soil but tree roots and large rocks seemed to work together with the dirt to form steps to ease the climb. And when the trail went along a hazardous cliff above the Lussier River, it was located meticulously to maximize safety.
When Peter left me, he knew he was leaving me to the oversight of the packhorse trail and the packer who located and maintained it. He trusted the trail with me. And, after my journey of discovery, I learned to do that, too. Over the years I have walked that same packhorse trail and others like it many times. I have learned to trust them.
Lately I have been coming to know God’s word, more specifically His commandments, as a packhorse trail for my life. The psalmist says: “Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it.” (Psalm 119:34 – 35) I have often struggled with how to relate to the commandments of God. They seem so negative, so dominated with thou shalt nots. But the writer of the 119th Psalm (the one I tend not to read much because it’s too long for the porcelain pew) has been teaching me that the commandments of God are given to me as a packhorse trail for my life. I am coming to discover that so much of what I learned about packhorse trails and mountainous terrain seems to apply to the commandments of God and the landscape of my life. I am learning to meditate upon them and trust them, for the journey.

posted on September 1, 2011 in Pop Christianity

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I had lunch once with a very successful documentary filmmaker. We talked about the business side of making documentaries in Canada—there are a lot of barriers, it’s a lot of work, there’s very little money. He uttered a line that afternoon that for me has been a sort of mantra. I asked him if the trick is finding the right story, the right idea—that with the perfect idea, the process would somehow be easier. His response was, “The perfect idea is the one that can get funding.”
One could write a PhD thesis unraveling this idea but here it is in a nutshell: If the idea that you love is getting no response, then it may not be the perfect idea you think. Seek out the idea to which people respond, perhaps that is the perfect one. (There are many other shadings here, of course, but let’s ignore them for now.)
I was reminded of this mantra while reading the following letter from Rev. Jeremy Bellsmith, minister at Burns, Ashburn, Ont. Bellsmith worked at the national office at the Vine for a while till he answered the call at Burns about a year ago. He is here responding to several articles, including mine, about the vision thing, in the July/August Record:
“We don’t need vision, but we do need it articulated. I appreciated the calls for vision and rethinking our structure at this year’s General Assembly. It seems many want to know where our national church is headed and how we’re going to get there. But, it’s better to discern what God is already doing instead of trying to hear what God wants to do.
“Many congregations have already asked the second question. Across this country, Presbyterians are engaged in mission, responding to the vision God has given. Each mission – shaped expression may look different from neighbouring congregations, but God’s vision given to Presbyterians unites them all.
“Since God’s vision is alive and being enacted in many Presbyterians, we can’t say we lack it. The cry for a national vision can be answered by studying these local expressions as a whole. What are the similarities? What do the differences say about God’s call to all of us? Once we know what God is doing among us, we’ll see both where God’s leading us and what needs changing to get us there.
“This grassroots approach to visioning fits for our polity better. Top – down visions—whether doubling in the ‘80s or the Flames initiative that followed—didn’t receive large – scale buy – in. Even the broadest top – down vision only articulates the voices of a few. We are diverse across regions and the theological spectrum so, excluding any voices can be injurious. We miss important parts of what God is saying to us. By hearing the stories of what God is already doing, not only is our variety affirmed as a gift from God, but each of us are encouraged to find our place within the work God does through Presbyterians.
“Our friends in the Church of England discovered this to be true. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, heard God speaking through local initiatives. He appointed a person to build a team that would gather these stories. The team saw in these efforts a movement and named it Fresh Expressions. From it, they gained a sense of direction and shared this vision with the national church. Then they linked it to their distinctive theology and made changes to the institution’s structure that would facilitate everyone finding their own place within what God was doing.
“The Assembly Council has been charged with discerning vision, using broad consultation. Whatever form that process takes, I pray it will be a time of discerning what God is doing and letting it point the way forward. The resulting vision will be filled with hope: despite declining attendance, God is at work among us. This kind of vision focuses our activity on our purpose: continuing Christ’s mission from our backyard to the ends of the earth. And, this vision assures every Presbyterian that they have a unique part to play in Christ’s work around them.”

posted on September 1, 2011 in Cover Story

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Last Spring, more than 550 Presbyterian women from across the country and around the world gathered near Toronto to “Look in, Shout Out.” For four days they talked, they listened, and they learned, and were both inspired and challenged to use that which bound them to each other—as women, and as Christians—to stand up and speak out for change in their churches and their communities.

Looking In, Shouting Out

A Long Journey

Hope and Healing

posted on September 1, 2011 in Letters

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Marshall McLuhan, born in 1911, coined the phrase “The medium is the message.” There is general agreement that McLuhan’s statement is very significant but I have never understood exactly what it meant. Now, I think I know. Harold Adams Innis, who was a mentor to McLuhan and also a partner, in The Bias of Communication stated: “any channel of communication will eventually affect that which issues from it, and the result will be confusion leading to the disintegration of societies.”
This is evident in the difference in news reports. TV reports on what is available in pictures and newspapers also use pictures but give a more complete story. Listeners to a speech on TV and to the same speech on radio give quite different evaluations and interpretations of the same speech. On TV, appearance is more significant than content; on radio everything depends on words and content.
People who are immersed in TV gradually lose the ability to distinguish reality from fiction. Years ago when the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth was presented on TV some asked, “Who played the part of the Queen?” They didn’t recognize reality! When actors representing TV personalities were displayed on TV and viewers were asked if the personalities were real or fictional, 65 per cent thought Malcolm Muggeridge was a real person.
William Blake (1757 – 1827) foresaw this when in Songs of Experience he wrote:
This life’s dim windows of the soul
Distort the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And lead you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro’ the eye.
The camera can inform but it can also deceive. All this has tremendous implications for the church. How can we communicate the historic gospel to people who find it difficult to distinguish between what is truth and what is fiction? Accommodating communication to people accustomed to electronic communication may not be the answer. Seeing “with, not thro’ the eye” may lead to misunderstanding the Message. I don’t think anyone has found a way to overcome this challenge.
A common youth culture is developing all over the world. This culture is more different from that of the older generation than at any time in history. Some years ago, the BBC sent a crew to a number of countries to discover what people were watching on TV. They found suitable pictures in the desert, in the jungle, the tops of mountains, in plains and swamps. What they discovered was they were all looking at the same programs, at that time, “I Love Lucy,” “Wagon Train” and “Peyton Place.” One time in Kenya, when I turned on the TV in my hotel room I saw “Little House on the Prairie.” Today, every imaginable facility for making ourselves heard and seen are everywhere. But have we anything to say? It may not make any difference for it is the media this is creating in young people a demand for change and creating the “Arab Spring” and other revolutions.
The greatest of all changes are the changes technology has made to the human brain. The left side of the brain is where we think logically, evaluate information, know what is right and wrong and live more or less rationally. We read, discuss, debate, make decisions, think abstractly. The right side of the brain is devoted to feelings and emotions. It gathers information by impressions and images. We use the left side of the brain when we read, listen to lectures and think. We use the right side of the brain when we are entertained by movies, singing and all that has to do with impressions. This has been praised as being “refreshingly uninformative.”
It is no secret that people are no longer getting information from reading and lectures but from “sound bites,” talk shows, movies and all that is communicated with technology. Talk shows are largely a pooling of ignorance and opinions. The supreme virtue is no longer truth but tolerance. When we believe nothing is true, tolerance is easy. What is really happening is that our civilization has moved from being left brained to right brained and we have lost the capacity for abstract thinking and sustained thought.
This has tremendous implications for the church, which has lived in a right – brained society that was concerned with theology, creeds, truth and a rational faith. The “book,” the Bible, which was read to discern what is true, is no longer read. Many modern churches do not have a pulpit with a Bible, but a stage and the service has become a performance. Now, the most popular preacher in the U.S.A. is Joel Osteen who never attended a seminary or studied theology but who is a motivational speaker. His church was a sports arena and he has 40,000 in his congregation. In many evangelical churches “worship” now means one thing—music. A band has replaced the organ. The result is a whole generation of “Christians” who have very little knowledge of the Christian faith. In such a situation, spirituality is popular and Christianity, which is rooted in the church which Christ said is the Body of Christ, is not needed. So we have the situation where only 20 per cent feel the need to be involved with “organized religion” and where the majority of the population claims to be Christian.
One could sum up the challenge the church faces today: finding a way to communicate the historic faith to a right – brained society when its history, in recent centuries, has been rooted in left – brain thinking.

posted on September 1, 2011 in Cover Story, Features

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Women from every province and from 12 PCC – partner countries journeyed to Richmond Hill, Ont., in May for the National Presbyterian Women’s Gathering. Hosted by the Atlantic Mission Society and the Women’s Missionary Society (and thanks to grants from various church funds), the inaugural event was, by all accounts, a great success.
“The conference reminded me again of how important it is for women to meet together,” said Rev. Karen Horst, who emceed the event. “Women have fought and continue to fight for equal opportunities and a way to lead in the world that is authentic. Because of the quality of this conference both in content and design, capable women were given a forum to dialogue and encourage one another.”
Women chose from nearly 30 workshops with topics as diverse as Caring for Creation, Nurturing a Christian Family, Muslim Women—Myths and Facts, Yoga as Christian Practice, Bullying in Canada, and Women in Poverty.
For Horst, who admits “the entire conference was a highlight,” did have a couple stand – out moments: one was “having the privilege of announcing that we had raised over $14,000 in one weekend for Afghanistan.”
The offering—which was danced to the front during a worship service led by visitors from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria—will support a girls’ education project in Afghanistan, through Presbyterian World Service and Development.
Inspiring stories were commonplace at the event. Stevie Cameron is a member of St. Andrew’s, King Street, Toronto. About 20 years ago, she and a group from the congregation created the Out of the Cold program, which provides a warm meal and quiet respite for people living on the streets. Cameron is also a journalist and award – winning author, and she shared insights gained from her latest book, On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women.
It was, in fact, her transforming experience with Out of the Cold that led her to write the book—a nine – year journey that resulted in new friendships with residents of Vancouver’s downtown east side. “Out of the Cold taught me about hunger. It taught me about abuse, poverty, illness, addiction, loneliness, and the longing in every human heart for love, family, home, health, work and something better than the streets. So that’s why I said yes … And it was one of the best decisions I ever made.”   
Rev. Margaret Mullin, executive director of Winnipeg Inner City Missions, spoke about her work and how a group of WMS women in the 1960s were responsible for creating Flora House, now a part of WICM. “[Those] women had a vision for children in the north end of Winnipeg … When they saw the kids, when they saw the need, when they looked through the eyes of Jesus and felt Jesus’ compassion in their hearts, they could not, not do something about it.”
Dr. Margaret Somerville, author, professor and founding director of the Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, Montreal, spoke about religion in the public square.
“It occurred to me that the title of your conference, ‘Look In, Shout Out,’ states in a nutshell what I believe is the proper role of religion in the public square: Religion requires us both to ‘look in’ and to ‘shout out.’ Either without the other is, at the least, inadequate or even dangerous.”
Rev. Sarah Kim, executive director of the WMS, said it is likely another event will be held in three years’ time.
“The whole event was such an elated experience … when the program actually started on Friday afternoon, I felt shivers go through my body and there was a moment of joy and excitement that it had finally arrived.”
Find photos and Dr. Somerville’s addresses at womensgathering.ca.