posted on July 26, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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January second, Pepperfield College’s Administration Building was locked up tighter than the Masonic Lodge. Fortunately for me, I had Paige. She’d borrowed the security codes from her father, who’d taken Paige’s mom to Toronto for a theatre matinee. I wasn’t clear on whether Pepperfield was aware of his generosity, or not.

posted on July 19, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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Justin Pepperfield, killed when his tampered breaks failed, and Dillys Merryweather, Justin’s secretary, strangled, her body disposed of in another motor vehicle accident. Two murders someone tried to cover up with car accidents. What did they have in common?

posted on July 12, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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I was half way out the door Thursday morning when the phone rang. It clicked into the answering machine, then urgently shrilled again. I shouted for Dad to wait, and picked up.

posted on July 5, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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I had no office at the church, just a cubby hole and closet to store my vestments, so I used the Ladies’ Lounge for my appointments. I had to book the space well in advance. The ladies were very possessive of their plush couches and potted plants.

posted on July 1, 2010 in Allegory, Features

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illustration by Jillian Ditner

Once upon a time, there was a Christian who wanted to find a comfortable church — one that was just right. Her name was Goldilocks.

Goldilocks went to a church around the corner from her home. The pews were comfortable and the music was pleasant. People were friendly.

Unfortunately, a few weeks later, the youth led the service. They played hymns on guitars and performed a play about the Good Samaritan. They compared the injured man to the needy in her community. They talked about feeding the homeless. Goldilocks wasn’t sure about this. Nobody seemed interested when she suggested that the guitars were out of tune. The minister didn’t seem pleased when she suggested that the homeless might mess up the church. Suddenly the pews didn’t seem as soft as they had. Goldilocks decided to move on.

Goldilocks found a big new church. The people said “Amen,” a lot, but they seemed to mean it and the choir was nice. They told her they only used professional musicians to worship God. Goldilocks felt comfortable again.

Soon Goldilocks noticed some problems. The choir sang the same songs over and over. The pastor needed to stop making that funny, distracting movement to keep his glasses on his face. The Sunday school children were so disruptive when one was trying to pray! The choir director said he would be very pleased to add a new song if she had any in mind. The pastor laughed and said he’d watch his glasses. The Sunday school teachers promised to keep the children from getting so excited.

After a few weeks, more things went wrong. The choir director told her he couldn’t add all 50 new pieces she’d brought. The pastor told her he had no intention of getting contact lenses. The Sunday school teachers told her Jesus called little children to him and they weren’t going to keep the kids out of the church just because they talked a bit.

Time to move on again. This time, the church was several blocks away. It was big and old. The minister was witty (and she didn’t wear glasses). The choir director assured her that she never repeated a piece until at least a year had elapsed.

Again, Goldilocks started noticing things that bothered her. The words to the Lord’s Prayer were different. Sometimes they even referred to the Trinity as, “Parent, Child and Spirit.” She mentioned this to various people, but they just said she’d get used to the new ways. She didn’t.

This time she went halfway across town to a little church that was old and quaint. It was easy to sit and imagine one was in heaven.

Soon she noticed that some of the words they said were always the same. She asked the minister about this and he said it was called a liturgy. She suggested they jazz it up a bit. She also noticed that the building seemed older and less quaint than she’d thought at first. The walls in the church hall needed paint and the stairs had hollows where generations of worshippers had walked. Several people agreed with her and they organized a painting committee. Unfortunately the colour they used was a yellow. Goldilocks hated yellow. In a few weeks, the words in the service changed a bit. The minister said that was because it was Lent and the liturgy changed for the church season. Goldilocks didn’t like the way it changed.

For a while, Goldilocks watched church on TV. Some of the services were too excitable and some were too dull. Sometimes she didn’t agree with the sermon. Sometimes she didn’t like what the choir sang. Sometimes she just didn’t like the angle they filmed it on.

Eventually there was nothing left for Goldilocks to do but read her Bible alone. Goldilocks missed being with other people. After a while she found that there were things in the Bible she didn’t like, so she tried a different version. But the things she read were still the same even though the words were different. She was disturbed by Jesus’ friends. That Mary Magdalene might have been a prostitute! Matthew was a tax collector! What about that woman taken in adultery? She’d never noticed before what a bunch of misfits they were.

Goldilocks decided that the only way to continue was to talk to God. She told Him what she thought about the churches, the TV services and the friends Jesus had. First she waited for tongues of fire and a great loud roar. Then she waited for a still small voice. Obviously God wasn’t sure what to say to her about the mess.

At first she was angry. Then she began to feel lonely. She went back to the first church to ask the minister about it. The minister wasn’t there when she arrived, but one of the members was outside planting flowers. Goldilocks was about to walk away when she decided she just had to talk to someone.

At first the lady with the flowers looked surprised. Then she smiled. She introduced herself and said her name was Faith. Faith listened as Goldilocks talked. Finally Faith said, “I think God is telling you something. It doesn’t sound to me like anything was wrong with any of the churches. It sounds like the problem is you.” Goldilocks was so surprised she just stood there with her mouth open. Faith continued, “I don’t always understand everything God does either, but I know God cares. I also know that I’m not perfect and neither is the church. It’s made up of people like you and me. But I believe that God can work through us even if the building isn’t pretty, the music isn’t always what I like, the minister doesn’t preach like Billy Graham and the people are sometimes pigheaded.”

Goldilocks went home and looked at her Bible again. She noticed there were a lot of things in it about Jesus being a shepherd and looking after lost people. She wondered if she was lost and if God had sent her to Faith. Goldilocks decided to go back that Sunday. The organist hit a few wrong notes at one point, but Goldilocks was too busy thinking about the words to the hymn they were singing to notice. The pastor repeated himself a little during the sermon, but Goldilocks was so struck by his story about his trip to a local prison she didn’t really care. When they asked for volunteers to help hand out coffee to the homeless, Goldilocks volunteered. It was awful coffee, but talking to the people was wonderful. When she got home, Goldilocks felt good.

If you go to that church, you will find Goldilocks there. Ministers have come and gone, and Faith has moved out of town, but Goldilocks is still a member. The organ is broken, the church hall needs new paint, the kids are sometimes noisy and the coffee is still bad. But to Goldilocks, the church is a wonderful place full of love. It isn’t perfect, but she knows that even though she sees it in a mirror, dimly, there are still beautiful glimpses of the light of God all around.

posted on July 1, 2010 in Features, General Assembly 2010

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Commissioners at assembly

Opening worship of this year’s assembly gave us the gift of the Cape Breton Orchestra. They played an arrangement of Simple Gifts as an offertory. I was moved by such a beautiful and yet simple piece of music and thought how the gifts we bring to God as a church are simple and sure. Would the business of the assembly be so simple and sure?

Perhaps the richest gifts, the most moving gifts, are those that come to us through the tangible mission of the church. I was so moved that tears escaped as I watched the wonderful and diverse faces that appeared on the screen thanks to a PWS&D video highlighting the work that is carried out in our name and on our behalf all over the world. Those images serve to ground me and remind me of our connectedness. Those images are simple and sure.

The fact that PWS&D managed to appeal to the wider church this year and cover their shortfall and then some, is an uplifting and inspiring statement of faith from the wider church and of its tremendous support.

new Record board member Kathleen Bolton and Rev. Dr. Roberta Clare of St. Andrew’s Hall, Vancouver School of Theology

I wonder then, why it is we find ourselves in such a bind when it comes to funding regional staff? The shortfall is a mere $190,000. This seems like such a small amount when compared to the $1.5 million raised as people stepped up to the plate to ensure that the work of PWS&D would not falter. Where is the same generosity for such an important part of our church’s structure? Our regional staff are an integral part of the PCC. It was very clear from the number of overtures submitted and the lengthy debate on the floor of assembly that we want to find a solution to this latest funding shortfall. Is there more to this debate than what we were presented with at assembly? What are our priorities as a national church?

Rev. Job van Hartingsveldt

Our moderator led us into a theme of generosity and giving. His focus this year will be on exactly that, and how we can grow our generosity and sail forward into the future by practicing that generosity. I am wondering how that will surface as this need for additional funding will be an ongoing issue before the church.

Both the passion and the frustration of the church was evident throughout the debate around this issue as well as several others. At times bogged down in the finite, at times bogged down in the trivial, we get caught almost to the point of being unable to act.

As a church we are caught in an unknown and undiscovered time in our history where we all struggle to find our way forward — to grow the church forward. What this looks like is often unclear and so we struggle and that can show in loss and frustration which were evident throughout some of the debates.

The issue about lay missionaries being able to administer the sacrament of Communion has been before the court in various forms for many years and yet we still debate its merit and whether or not it’s “Presbyterian.” We claim that our strength is in not making hasty decisions but are there consequences to delaying decisions that might move the church forward in ways perhaps not yet imagined? We are a church in decline, of that there is no doubt. We are searching for a way forward and yet we seem so reluctant to take any great leaps of faith without analysis and study and process that might just kill the initiative.

Is our vision so limited? Are we so fraught with worry and control that we are unable to act? What are we trying to preserve? When do we let the Holy Spirit set a new course? Do we allow the movement of the Spirit among us at assembly? Everything is so scripted and processed. Is this stifling the Spirit under our layers and layers of control and process? We might just discover new things if we allow for that movement. As the young adult representatives reminded us — we have rules for everything!

When will we allow the wind to change our direction and sail this ship on a new course? As one of our worship leaders stated, “Are we in God’s way as barriers or with God waiting to be guided and make the changes necessary?” There were moments during the debate and subsequent process that I was not always certain.

I know our strength lies in our polity and we have good and orderly debate and we follow due process, but there is also frustration which can turn to complacency when nothing seems to move forward and it will take yet another year before there is any movement on a given issue.

I, like so many others, love this church in which I was born and raised, and I really don’t want to see it wither and fade away. Being Presbyterian is in my blood but so is a passion and desire to see radical new ways of being church and for a radical new vision for ministry. I’m not sure what that looks like. I don’t think I saw it at assembly.

I felt it now and then trying to gurgle up in some ways on the floor of assembly. Motions to be bold and plant 10 new churches in the next five years. What have we got to lose? Maybe we’ll only plant seven or eight, but maybe it will spring to life and we might just plant more! And yet there was great hesitation in committing — yes the word here is committing — the church to this action. The motions get watered down with words like encourage, suggest and invite and the frustration level rises.

If we’re on a boat called Generosity this year, we’d better know that we need a big tugboat full of faith! I don’t think God cares so much about how “Presbyterian” we are, but God does care about our faithfulness.

posted on July 1, 2010 in Features, General Assembly 2010

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“It is very difficult to go back to that five year old that I left … I know for many years I blamed the church. I blamed the government. I blamed a religion, I blamed all the religions. In fact I even blamed God. But it’s not God. It’s not the religions. It’s not the churches that did this. It’s people. It’s people like you and I who had a different belief about us. People who believed we were less than they were — nothing more than animals — but here we are. Ready to forgive. And live, side by side. And today, I can say to you, and I can say to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, that I’m not only a survivor. I’m a witness to this horrible history.”
— Terry Paul, Chief of the Membertou First Nation and a residential school survivor

“Accept that you may not get forgiveness. We have heard from people all across the country that they aren’t ready to forgive. They may never be ready to forgive. For them, it’s forgiveness of self. Forgiving themselves for believing what they were told about their parents, about their culture, about their ancient spiritual beliefs and the beliefs of our Christian tradition. Don’t get hung up on that point if forgiveness is not forthcoming … Be the one who says it isn’t over now. We need to keep listening until they’re done talking.”
— Marie Wilson, Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner

“There is a need to move away from theology as the realm of experts to something that the common people understand, taking ownership over its transmissibility. It encourages the community to learn discernment so as to pass on the story to subsequent generations.”
— Rev. Terry LeBlanc, founder and chair of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies and winner of this year’s E. H. Johnson award for cutting-edge mission

“Vilification of persons because of who they are, as opposed to what they have done, is a bright line that separates legitimate speech, which is just about everything, from hate speech. The public interest requires that we denounce true hate speech wherever and whenever we hear it.”
— Eric Vernon, director of government relations and international affairs with the Canadian Jewish Congress

“There is a gift in this moment, it is a refining moment. A moment of change. We are becoming forced to become a Kairos that is clearer than ever of why we’re doing this work. It is God’s work, and requires theological courage. We are in a moment of disaster. We have to be passionate.”
— Mary Corkery, executive director of Kairos: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives

“It is not a natural disaster in Gaza, but a human-made disaster, dependent on the demonization of the people there … Gaza is the world’s largest prison, hemmed in all sides. People there are denied the very necessities of life…
“Any desire for an exclusive possession of the land will always ensure a conflict will ensue … It is God’s land, and therefore it must be a land of reconciliation, peace and love. God gives us the capacity, if we have the will, to live within in it, to establish justice and peace, and make it, in reality, God’s land.”
— Rev. Robert Assaly, Canadian Friends of Sabeel

“It’s about building disciples not only to serve within the church, but also in the community, at home and abroad. How should the church combat the ever-competitive secular world? How do we promote better discipleship and stewardship?”
— Wendy MacWilliams, student representative from Presbyterian College, Montreal

“The more I study our God and His holy word, and the more I observe the reign of God through the work of the church, the more I realize it’s not about me. It’s about God. It’s about the other … Thus, I have been encouraged by you, inspired by God, to see how, although we are all different, we are willing to go forward on the same boat … I have been strengthened by you, inspired by God, to see how, although we have different expertise and gifts and talents, yet we are willing to gather our thoughts, wisdom and resources to make our sailing on the boat adventurous and miraculous.”
— John Hyunjoon Park, student representative from Knox College, Toronto

“I learned from one of the bus drivers here that most of the fishermen in Cape Breton don’t know how to swim. I don’t know how to swim, but I don’t think I’ll fall overboard because God is guiding us with that sail. God is carrying us forward.”
— Leah Yoo, student representative from the Vancouver School of Theology

posted on July 1, 2010 in Features, General Assembly 2010

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Lori Ransom, the PCC’s healing and reconciliation animator, Rev. Gordon Williams, Terry Paul, Chief of the Membertou First Nation, Marie Wilson, commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Rev. Terry LeBlanc, chair of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies.

The church as a community has often failed Gordon Williams, but he has never failed to see the church through the eyes of Jesus, his Lord and Saviour,” Rev. Andrew Johnston, minister at St. Andrew’s, Ottawa, told assembly, noting that Williams was once referred to as a “savage” by a member of the Presbyterian Church.

Williams schooled at the Presbyterian-run Birtle Indian Residential School, located west of Winnipeg. He endured the isolation imposed at the school, followed by the frustrations that came with being the only aboriginal student at the University of Manitoba, and then at Presbyterian College, Montreal. He was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and served congregations in Peace River and Medicine Hat, Alta. But when he sought a call in Ontario, he was told “that parishioners east of Manitoba were not ready to accept Christianity from a ‘savage.’”

He left the ministry and embarked on a 25-year career with the Canadian government. Today, he chairs the Indian Residential School Survivor Committee, and is recognized as a spiritual elder by aboriginal communities across Canada. This was the first assembly he had been invited to attend, having never been sent as a commissioner.

At the opening worship in Cape Breton, outgoing moderator, Rev. Harvey Self apologized to Williams. “Gordon, we are sorry. We apologize. Your church apologizes to you and asks your forgiveness.”
Williams spoke at Tuesday evening’s Truth and Reconciliation event, which also featured Membertou Chief Terry Paul, who was sent to a Catholic residential school at the age of five. With emotion cracking his voice, he thanked the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “We believe it’s an important part of the process of healing. It is an important part because we want to make sure the people in this country hear our voices. Hear what was done.”

Rev. Terry LeBlanc, this year’s E.H. Johnson award winner, also spoke. He talked of the need for aboriginal theological education that weaves together native world views and context. “That aboriginal people were considered ‘godless heathens’ by theists who considered God omnipresent is an idea I think is a little contradictory … I believe the church needs aboriginal people doing theology because I believe the premises on which we base our theology are different.”

Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Marie Wilson gave the assembled a sense of the first national Truth and Reconciliation event to be held the following week in Winnipeg.

“My hope and prayer for us all, from wherever we come, is that we would recognize that we are one people with one Creator and one Great Spirit, that we would all recognize we’re on that long road of learning and we will never cease to learn as we walk along that long road,” concluded the moderator, Rev. Dr. Herb Gale.

posted on July 1, 2010 in Features, General Assembly 2010

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Unable to Act
A report from the 136th General Assembly.
by Ruth Houtby

Voices

Healing in our Midst
Assembly listens to residential school experiences.
by Connie Purvis

Dragging the Anchor
If Assembly never met again, would anyone notice?
by Calvin Brown

Business News
More committees, more studies, more status quo.
by Connie Purvis, Amy MacLachlan

Identity Crisis
Thoughts on the 136th General Assembly
by Andrew Faiz

Business in Brief – June 11, 2010
by Connie Purvis

Business Briefs – June 10, 2010
by Connie Purvis

Business in Brief – June 9, 2010
by Amy MacLachlan

Business in Brief – June 8, 2010
by Connie Purvis and Amy MacLachlan

Daily Digests
A run-down of each day provided by the Communications office.

136th General Assembly Makes Headlines
Local press picks up stories of church’s national gathering.

posted on July 1, 2010 in Features, General Assembly 2010

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Sailing Into The Future was the theme chosen for the 136th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, to reflect the Cape Breton heritage where it was held. The nautical theme was maintained and referred to in the daily worship times and by numerous report-givers. The theme hymn for the assembly was Will Your Anchor Hold? I couldn’t help tying the theme and the hymn together and it gave the strange image of a ship sailing out of the harbour while dragging the anchor. The picture gets worse for not only is the ship slowed by the dragging anchor but the ship actually begins to go in circles as the anchor line tied to the rock holds the ship from moving out of the harbour.

I don’t want to speak negatively about assembly. In truth, it was a profitable time of fellowship and a joy to meet old friends and new and to discover some interesting and faithful ministries that are being carried on across the country. I have been attending every assembly for the last 15 years as part of my work with Renewal Fellowship but the same question strikes me year after year: If assembly never met would it make any significant difference to Canada and the world we live in? That strange image that came to mind of ships and anchors may be an expression of the situation we find ourselves in as a church.

In this image, importantly, the line is not attached to the Rock of Jesus, but to the rock of tradition (the way we’ve always done things). We spend much of our time going in circles, and much of our effort in trimming sails and fine tuning engines or swabbing the deck, but the ship just keeps going around and around and we don’t sound the alarm. It seems we don’t even mind too much because we have never actually decided where it is we want to go. As someone put it, if you don’t know where it is you want to go then it doesn’t really matter which route you take to get there. In our case it doesn’t much matter if we keep doing the same things year after year. We keep getting the same results — declining membership and declining financial support. There may be leaks in the boat but they don’t threaten to actually sink the ship, for a while.

The new image we need is one where Christ is the compass — directing where we should go — and the Spirit is the wind that takes us where God has told us to go. But to live in that image means we need to give more passionate attention to where the compass (Jesus) is pointing us. We will need to be moved by the wind of the Spirit and we will need to listen intently to where the ship owner (God) has told us to go.

We need two things to overcome our deadly apathy: The first is to put greater effort into discerning where the ship owner is sending us. Can you imagine spending the bulk of our time at assembly praying, listening to scripture and in the most profound earnestness seeking the Lord’s orders? I don’t mean the orders about maintaining the ship but the orders to go places and do things like we’ve never imagined before. The second is to have such a passion for the cause that we train and prepare our young people so they can participate with full excitement that this life and death issue requires. There is no program or quick fix that is going to change things around for us. Our only hope is to heed the call, to seek renewal, and to commit ourselves totally to seeking first the kingdom of God believing as we sail on that “God has not promised us a quiet journey but a safe arrival in Jesus Christ.”

posted on July 1, 2010 in Features, General Assembly 2010

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Rev. C. Joyce Hodgson, Presbytery of Lambton-West Middlesex

Living Faith in Korean

The General Assembly endorsed the Korean translation of Living Faith, commending it for use within the church.

“You are seeing the changing face of the Presbyterian Church in Canada and we rejoice in that diversity,” said Moderator Herb Gale.

The Korean Living Faith joins its French counterpart, Foi Vivante, as the second non-English version of the subordinate standard to be created and commended for use in Presbyterian churches.

Rev. Andrew Johnston of the Presbytery of Ottawa

Committee to Explore Han-Ca Presbyteries

A special committee was struck to study the life of the Han-Ca presbyteries, consisting of two members from the two presbyteries, and three members from the church at large.

The 2002 assembly ended the trial period for the church’s Korean presbyteries, but recommended striking such a committee in 2010 to review the 2002 report, and to survey both Han-Ca and non Han-Ca presbyteries about how they have addressed concerns raised in the report. The committee will bring their findings to the 2012 assembly.

The committee’s scope enlarged with two amendments proposed by Rev. Peter Bush, commissioner from the Presbytery of Winnipeg, and approved by assembly. The consultations will include presbyteries that contain Han-Ca churches within their geographical boundaries. The committee will also explore how congregations within Han-Ca presbyteries might transfer to geographic presbyteries, and how congregations in geographic presbyteries might transfer to the non-geographic Han-Ca presbyteries.

Rev. Peter Bush, Presbytery of Winnipeg.

The vote was a close one, with Han-Ca members arguing that their presbyteries should be able to discuss such details on their own, without the influence of other presbyteries, and that such discussions could prove divisive within the Han-Ca presbyteries.

Presbyteries Urged to Plant Churches and New Ministries

In what became a highly debated motion, Rev. Peter Bush asked the assembly to urge all presbyteries to “be bold in taking risks in seeking the advance of the reign of God” and, more specifically, asked the Presbyterian Church to “commit itself to the vision of planting 10 congregations each year over the five years,” from 2012 until 2016.

The assembly voted to split the motion into two, endorsing the call to be bold in taking risks, but debating the church-planting clause.

Bush defended his motion’s 10-per-year figure, comparing setting a numerical goal with setting a wedding date; he suggested it was more likely to happen if there was a clear goal ahead. He emphasized that such planting did not need to be done in “traditional ways,” but could be done in “new and innovative ways” which may not need a lot of money to begin, and which can reflect new forms of ministry and new definitions of “church.”

“We have to focus on the dream, not the outcome,” argued Rev. Derek Macleod of the Presbytery of East Toronto, who suggested attaching numbers to a dream was not in the spirit of the recent Emmaus Project conference.

An amendment aimed at adding “alternative ministries” to the 10-per-year goal was eventually replaced; the final motion eliminated the numerical goal entirely. In the end, assembly passed a motion to “encourage presbyteries to be bold and imaginative in the development of new ministry opportunities, including the planting of new congregations.”

Members of the WMS and AMS promoting the upcoming promoting the upcoming national women’s conference

Committee to Review Funding Formula for Regional Staff

A special committee will review the funding formula used to allocate funds for synods’ regional staff, and will report to the next assembly.

The motion was made by Rev. Dr. Gerard Booy of the Presbytery of Westminster, a commissioner whose synod was hardest hit by funding cuts. Under a new funding formula, which will take effect in 2011, the grant to the Synod of British Columbia is set to fall by $74,000 — about 50 per cent of its total grant in previous years.

Regional staff are overseen by synods and supported by block grants from the Women’s Missionary Society and the Life and Mission Agency; the two organizations pooled their resources and personnel to create the regional staff model in 1994. Beginning in 2009, the WMS was forced to halve its original $390,000 portion of the grant to $200,000 yearly. The LMA covered the shortfall for 2009 and 2010 by drawing funds from undesignated bequests. A new formula — developed at a meeting of synod conveners in September 2009 — would provide each synod with enough money to support at least one regional staff person, with the remainder divided among the synods based on their membership.

“In making this amendment we’re not trying to be difficult,” said Booy. “We certainly understand that the LMA is in a difficult situation when it comes to the funding … I just think it’s not time to draw a line and say this is a done deal.”

“Synod conveners were asked for their direct participation in re-jigging the formula,” said Rev. Daniel Cho, outgoing convener of the LMA. “This is their product; for the court to ask the LMA to disregard the formula and come up with a new one is impractical. A lot of care has been taken in the process up to this point.”

John Hyunjoon Park, student rep for Knox College

Rev. Heather Vais of Oak Ridges presbytery described the two days of prayer and debate with synod conveners that led to the new formula, arguing that the decision was not made lightly. “The real problem is not the formula,” she told the court. “It’s the money, man. Give us the money and we’ll do something with it.”

The motion passed by a slim margin, and the new committee’s mandate will include seeking out ways to fill the shortfall. Vais, who was named convener, called on the members of the court and the church at large to help the committee find new sources of funding for “a ministry the court seems to think very important.”

Longtime Missionary to Nigeria Honoured

Assembly offered a minute of appreciation and a standing ovation for Rev. Arlene (Randall) Onuoha, who served as a missionary with the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria since 1978. Cho, outgoing convener of the LMA, called Onuoha “one of the living links of the partnership in mission of our two churches.”

“Sometimes I have seen things that look like they’re going to die — like projects, like people, like faith — because we start trying to figure things out for ourselves too much, and forget that we are in God’s hands,” an emotional Onuoha told the assembly. “And when we get to a point where we see that it is not us, it is God in us that we accomplish things, and we are able to let go and proceed in faith with the gifts God has given us, then I have seen things take off.”

Onuoha noted that during her send-off in Nigeria, they said they were sending her to Canada to be a missionary here. She will search for a call within the PCC.

Mary Corkery, Kairos

Communion and the Laity

A major topic of debate at the 2009 assembly returned in 2010 as the Clerks of Assembly presented possible legislation which would allow ordained elders commissioned by their presbyteries to administer communion within specific congregations.

The legislation was accompanied by a study paper, and the clerks recommended that the report be referred to sessions, presbyteries, the committee on theological education and the committee on church doctrine for study and report. Another report will come before the assembly next year.

Rev. Terry LeBlanc, E.H. Johnson award recipient

Christian Palestinian Document Worthy of Study

A document crafted by Palestinian Christians sparked debate when the ecumenical and interfaith relations committee recommended it be sent to congregations, presbyteries and appropriate committees for study and discussion.

The document, titled A Moment of Truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering, and also commonly referred to as the Kairos Palestine Document, includes language some commissioners worried was too strong, and which some organizations, including the Canadian Jewish Congress, have criticized.

“Kairos can’t be sent on its own,” said Rev. Mark Lewis of the Presbytery of Waterloo-Wellington. He suggested the Presbyterian Church in Canada may choose to formally adopt the document in the future, and secular society will ask if the church considered dissenting voices as it came to its decision.

Following discussion, assembly chose to include several additional documents intended to give context to the Kairos Palestine statement. These include: a cover letter and study guide from the ecumenical and interfaith relations committee, and the responses of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, the World Council of Churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Canadian Friends of Sabeel.

Doctrine Committee Explores ‘Supersessionism’ and ‘Inerrancy’ of Scripture

A report on supersessionism — the belief that the Christian New Covenant replaces or fulfills the Jewish Mosaic Covenant — will be sent to sessions, presbyteries and national committees who are urged to study the document and report back to the committee on church doctrine.

The 58-page report, titled One Covenant of Grace: A Contemporary Theology of Engagement with the Jewish People, contains a thorough overview of Old and New Testament principles as well as the views of prominent theologians throughout the centuries. It concludes with a proposed statement on the relationship between Canadian Presbyterians and the Jewish people who, it suggests, both “worship and serve the One Living God.”

In response to a question about the “literal inerrancy of scripture,” the committee suggested that while Christians should certainly read the Bible, it must be studied in light of the particular time it was written, and that “research into historical and cultural context is valuable for biblical interpretation in our own time … We need to understand practices and customs and languages not our own if we are going to be responsible to the authoritative text of the Bible.”

The words used to describe the Bible in Living Faith and A Catechism for Today are, “necessary,” “sufficient” and “reliable,” but not “inerrant.”

No to Biennial Assemblies

Without debate, the court reaffirmed the practice of annual assemblies.

“It must be Friday morning,” joked Rev. Bert Vancook, convener of Assembly Council, who expected more discussion when the issue came before the court.

posted on June 28, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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“Dillys Merryweather just called.” Paige sounded excited. “She says she wants out, and she needs money to do it. She knows where Justin’s BlackBerry is. She’ll hand it over for a price. She sounded scared.”

posted on June 21, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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I stalked out of Willcot Pepperfield’s office, exasperated by my lack of progress. I knew little more than when I’d entered.

posted on June 14, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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Paige inspected me for signs of life. “What happened?”

posted on June 7, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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“Son!”

“Hold your breath, Dad. Tread water. I’ll have you out in a minute.”

posted on June 1, 2010 in Features

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A survey of the Six Nation Indian lands completed in 1821. The image depicts the lands granted to the Six Nation Indians along the Grand River in Upper Canada.

From just beyond the doors of Central Presbyterian Church, a statue of Joseph Brant (the Mohawk chief who leant his name to Brantford, Ont.), ringed by six First Nations chiefs, stands at the centre of the downtown’s Victoria Square. Although this public square is mere paces from the doors of three churches and the Brant County courthouse, its peace has been punctuated by occasional protests, but not by preaching.

Rev. Mark Gaskin, now minister at St. Andrew’s Galt in Cambridge, Ont., admits that in the 14 years he ministered at Central, he never preached a sermon about the protests that have been happening, in some cases, right outside the door. He hasn’t been afraid to tackle other political topics from the pulpit; he admits he’s talked about the situation in Afghanistan because “we can all agree on that.” But when it comes to aboriginal land rights, he thinks the topic is still rarely broached at coffee hour, although it may crop up in the parking lot or over the morning paper.

“Why don’t we talk about it?” he asks. “If you’re too passionate about it you end up sounding like a racist, I think. And I know you’ll hear from someone else that it’s not about race, but I just don’t feel comfortable, as a white guy, talking about it. We’re all just hoping it’ll go away, which I know is different from the official position of our church.”

“If I’m really honest,” Gaskin says, “I’ve gotta say that, as far as church is concerned, this all might as well be happening on the other side of the world. We just want it to go away, and it’s hard to say we have much sympathy.

“My house is on the land they’re claiming. The church is on the land they’re claiming. I think there’s the sense that, if you show too much sympathy, people will ask, ‘well, are you willing to give your house back?’”

There are five Presbyterian churches in Brantford. They are all modest, with devoted congregations and a handful of community ministries including food banks and Bible studies. As at Central, aboriginal concerns make for uncomfortable conversations, and none of the churches are involved with ministries aimed to improve relationships between the aboriginal and non-aboriginal communities.

“I’ve only been here four years and am just learning the history of the area and the aboriginal folks’ position,” says Rev. Rod Lewis of Alexandria. “I find it a very difficult position for everybody.

“Opinions are sort of divided, or at least mixed. Some may comment about having a sensitivity, but then may qualify that by saying, ‘but that’s preventing the city from moving forward,’ or something like that.”

Joseph (Thayendanegea) Brant fought alongside the British against the Americans during the War of Independence; he met the king of England and the president of the United States. For his loyalty and for his losses, the British granted him and his Mohawk nation 10 kilometres of land on both sides of the Grand River. The area where his allies crossed the river from what is now New York State was known as Brant’s Ford. The Crown also established an Anglican church on the land, in honour of the religion to which Brant had converted.

Just south of Brantford, as city streets give way to fields of aboriginal peoples’ land, the steeple of Her Majesty’s Royal Chapel of the Mohawks, the oldest Protestant church in Ontario, rises above the trees. The white chapel, shading the tombs of Brant and his son, is all that remains of the Mohawk village that once stood nearby. Today, the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve sits on about 46,500 acres, or about a third of the original grant.

What happened to Brant’s land? A succession of native leaders (beginning with Brant himself) chipped away at its edges, selling off parcels to non-aboriginal people. Developers and squatters knocked off other sections, sometimes with blessings from governments and courts. Three centuries later, Brant’s legacy is complicated — each acre of land, given or taken, is hotly debated, protested, questioned in court. But one thing is certain, in their own minds, native and non-native peoples are convinced they are protecting their own promised lands.

The Haldimand Treaty granted Joseph Brant and his Mohawk Nation 10 kilometres of land on either side of the Grand River. Photo by Connie Purvis.

Phil Race considers himself a bit of a speculator. The former adherent of a Presbyterian church in Brantford bought a nine-acre plot of land near the Grand River in 2005, planning to build a service station just south of Highway 403. Plans changed, and in 2007 he sold three acres to become the site of a new Hampton Inn.

“Here’s the only letter I received when we were going through the rezoning process [for the service station],” he says, pulling out a paper emblazoned with letterhead from the Six Nations Council, an elected governing body created under the Indian Act. “Basically, it says they recognize the land was sold and patent in 1842. They’re recognizing the transfer but litigating on behalf of the money. This is the same land where they then proceeded to tie the hotel up for months. So I have, in writing from the Six Nations, a document recognizing the legal transfer of the property. But native protestors came and stopped construction.”

A striped couch, containers of toilet paper, the ripped remains of garbage bags and long poles that used to support a tipi were left on the hotel site for a long time after aboriginal protestors were ordered off of the property by an injunction from the city. The protestors allied themselves with the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, a then newly created branch of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council, a traditional governing body chosen by clan mothers. In the constant toing-and-froing of opinions, the province of Ontario rejected the HDI’s authority to negotiate in the fall of 2007.

While the protests were relatively mild, locals remembered the 2006 highway barricade at nearby Caledonia over a proposed subdivision. Various levels of government bickered over who had authority and responsibility for the land claims, an elderly couple was harassed, non-natives showed up in later months to protest the native people. A decade earlier, similar cycles of acrimony and mistrust did lead to violence when Ontario Provincial Police shot Ojibwa Dudley George, during a protest at Ipperwash Provincial Park. That death led to a public inquiry.

Lawsuits, injunctions and compromises are by now a typical tangle of the development process. Race still owns almost six acres of property that he plans to develop if he can find the right opportunity. For the moment, he has no choice but to wait.

“Anytime you sit down with the natives, and especially the Six Nations, there’s the hereditary council, the elected council … and then you have the splinter groups, the HDI,” Race says, expressing his frustration and confusion. “Who can make a decision that will bind the Six Nations? … It’s a very difficult situation for the federal negotiators. Are the people who can bind the Six Nations sitting across the table?”

Not surprisingly, then, confusion and frustration are not limited to one side of the debate. Keith Jamieson is a Mohawk historian and adjunct professor of Indigenous Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Brantford campus. He argues from the native perspective: he considers the Crown an ally — not a superior — to the Six Nations, and calls the Haudenosaunee Confederacy a “moral compass” which has been given authority to set priorities for the community. “The HDI is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction,” he admits, calling it a “first shot” at creating an administrative arm for the traditional body.

“We don’t see this as a protest. We go and cause inconvenience. It’s not a land claim, it’s reclamation. And retribution.”

A representative of STM Construction tried to stop native protesters from taking down a locked gate in Brantford, July 2007. Photo by CP Images / The Canadian Press / The Expositor - Brian Thompson.

Amy Lickers, community planner for the Six Nations Council, maintains a spirit of optimism. She suggests many aboriginal people aren’t opposed to development as long as the community is consulted first. “At the very beginning stages, when you’re gathering information, it’s okay for you to send in your worker people, but in the long run we don’t want to see your worker people here because they can’t do anything. We want to see your decision-makers and your money people and whoever else needs to be here at the table because that’s who we need to be consulting with.

“A lot of times we find out about development as an afterthought. [You can't consult when] your shovels are in the ground; you need to get here before that. … Once you’ve already started to develop, where’s the room for the consultation? There is no room.

“Sometimes there’s been a feeling of hopelessness, and so far the protests have been the only things that have been able to get any action. Because it’s not like our concerns for land claims are new. This has been going on for a long time, but it’s not until recently that people have started to take notice of it.”

As a community planner, Lickers deals with development on reserve lands, but also works with municipalities and developers whose projects may impact the Six Nations, or which are taking place in disputed areas. According to the Supreme Court, the Crown is required to consult and accommodate aboriginal peoples when projects could affect their interests.

“People in places like Brantford have experienced what native peoples have,” says Lori Ransom, the Presbyterian Church in Canada’s healing and reconciliation animator. “They’ve had their land occupied. They’ve felt unsafe in their communities. Both sides have — as protests and counter-protests have occurred nearby. So there’s healing needed on two levels for both sides: historic and recent.”

Ransom is a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation, and worked in the department of Indian and Northern Affairs for more than 20 years before taking on her current role.

“The whole idea of making amends for historical wrongs is fairly recent. We don’t have a lot of precedents to look back on, or examples that we can point to and say ‘this is how it’s done.’ We’re all groping through this. But I think it’s a sign of health and maturity that we’ve reached a place where we can say, ‘There’s been an injustice and I’ve benefited from it. How can I make amends?’”

On the level of courts and governments, there are negotiations which may one day attach monetary settlements to historical injustices. And, she suggests, although money or land may be a tangible part of an apology — of saying I was wrong and I’m willing to give something up as part of my act of apology — it won’t heal the hurts or the spirits of individuals and communities.

“People may need to ask: What’s at issue? What’s at stake?” she suggests. “Church members may have been wronged in their own lives, or in the lives of their parents or grandparents. What’s wounded is the relationship, and to restore a relationship both parties need to work together to rebuild trust. We have to ask, how we can love our neighbours when they seem like our enemies — whom Christ also told us to love?”

Rev. Stewart Folster, a member of the Eagle Clan, describes his experience as a member of the Brokenhead Ojibway Nations’ reserve in Manitoba. Under a May 1997 agreement aimed at fulfilling the Crown’s treaty obligations, his nation received 4,344 acres of federal Crown land, a federal payment of $350,000 and $3.68 million to purchase additional land from willing sellers. But he grew up on the reserve as a “non-status Indian,” feeling that he didn’t belong. His grandfather sold his treaty rights in the early 1900s, and they were only restored to the family when Bill C-31 passed in 1985.

“As of yet, my family has never benefited from any of that money,” he says. Folster is an ordained Presbyterian minister and pastor of the Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry–an outreach to Saskatoon’s inner-city population, offering meals, worship services, fellowship, healing ceremonies, spiritual counselling and prayer.

“Truth and reconciliation means that you want to restore the relationship between sisters and brothers,” he says. “You want to learn about each other. It’s time. It’s time to live together. I also work with non-native people in my ministry and they come to worship and they take part in our ceremonies.

“Tears have to be shed. Anger and resentment and fear have to be addressed. God will be there. My elders have some beautiful teachings to give you, not just you, but to the entire world. Reach out to the Six Nations. They are created in God’s image and we are all related. Some of them will be angry at your interest in them but show them that you want to get to know them. The reason we have conflict is because we don’t sit down and get to know one another.”

Ultimately, reconciliation may not be about agreeing, or about fixing hundreds of years of historical problems. Perhaps it is the small, yet sincere steps that can actually mean the most. As Ransom suggests: “It’s about finding ways to live well in the meantime.”

posted on June 1, 2010 in Features

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Last November I travelled to Orillia to be part of the Equipping Ambassadors of Reconciliation Conference, which was led by First Nations people who are part of the Presbyterian, United and Anglican Churches. There were over a hundred of us there: female and male, native and non-native.

On Thursday evening, our group participated in an exercise that helps people understand our shared history. Blankets were laid on the floor in the middle of where we were sitting in a circle that was two rows deep. An invitation was shared to come stand on the blankets. Those of us who came into the center represented the millions of people who lived in this land before the Europeans arrived. We were part of distinct self-governing societies that made up hundreds of nations. At the start, we were able to walk freely among the blankets. We smiled and kibitzed together. By the end, I was back sitting in the circle because I had been among those who represented Native people who had been killed by diseases brought when the Europeans came. Those people still in the middle of the circle were left on small pieces of blanket, isolated from one another.

During the blanket exercise we heard that the British North America Act, that helped establish Canada, declared that aboriginal people were under the protection of the Dominion. The Canadian government’s goals were assimilation, enfranchisement and civilization. And these goals are still with us today. They are the foundation of the Indian Act that still helps to govern our relationship with First Nations today.

When we struggle with understanding why the residential school system that our church helped run went so very wrong, and caused such overwhelming hurt, the answer becomes clear. For all of our good intentions and for all the benefits that our culture shared with the Native culture, we sought to absorb them, so that they would no longer exist as a distinct group of people.

So, residential schools are not an isolated act that we can apologize for and get on with life. They represent a dominant way that my European ancestors entered into relationship. This means that the seeds planted by the BNA and by residential schools are still with us today. The distrust and the anger that I sense in myself towards Native peoples come from those thorny seeds planted generations ago. And we need to root these thorns and thistles out of the garden so there is more room for fruit bearing plants. But how do we do this?

On Friday morning, Elder Grafton Antone shared seven traditional teachings: honesty, humility, wisdom, courage, respect, generosity, love. He then told a story, that I will share:

The Creator sends an angel to the Ojibway, for there is fighting and disharmony in the community. The Creator tells the angel to look for the one who will share the true teachings and help bring peace. So the angel flies down, passing over all the old ones (the elders), but the right one is not among them. The angel goes back to the Creator. “I cannot find the one who will bring peace.” “Go back down. Look some more,” says the Creator. So, the angel flies over the parents, the uncles and the aunts. Disappointed, he reports back to the Creator. Again, the angel goes out. This time the angel flies to the youth, to the children, and finally a newborn baby. “Ah! Here is the one!” The baby receives the wisdom that the Ojibway need. By the time he has received it he is old, and has long, white hair. Yet, when he returns to his community, his parents are still there, and all the people welcome him.

Elder Grafton’s message to us in the church: give back the wisdom you took away by actions like the residential schools.

But how are we to do this?

On Saturday morning, I listened intently to Marie Wilson, one of the three Truth and Reconciliation commissioners. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is part of a court settlement in response to a class action suit of residential school survivors. The other parties involved are the Canadian government and the churches that ran the schools: Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United.

Over the five year mandate, starting last June, the commissioners will lead the effort to gather and document the history of residential schools. They will gather experiences from those who went to the schools, those who ran them, and from the second and third generations of people who have been affected. The commission will seek the safe keeping of hard materials like documents and pictures. There will be a final report with recommendations to all the partners: the government, the churches and the survivors

Marie Wilson shared that the three commissioners begin their meetings together with prayer. Each one has sought out spiritual guides for themselves. They are working together in a spirit of cooperation. Their goal is healing of First Nations people and of those who immigrated to this land. It is their hope that the commission can help us to build communities of peace and cooperation together.

As I learn about our shared history and the relationship of native and non-native peoples in this land, I feel much sorrow and regret. I am tempted to give up, keep my distance, and resign myself to the status quo. But, as I experience the leadership found among the First Nations people, I realize there is much reason for hope and healing for us all.

posted on June 1, 2010 in Features

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Click here for the 2010 Graduates.

posted on May 31, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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“Someone’s been following us since we left Pepperfield,” I said.

posted on May 24, 2010 in Caught Dead, Features

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Justin’s tampered brake line confirmed our suspicions: his death wasn’t accidental. It was murder.