I do respect and value Dr. McMillan's reply (January) to my letter (November 2006). It is with appreciation of his long Christian quest that I test his persuasion regarding global south Christians. There are many cultural areas in our world where 19th-century (and earlier) evangelism has not been refi ned. Where well-meaning, but unsophisticated missionary zeal has been proffered and innocently accepted. I don't think women's liberation is pertinent to this issue as the Muslim women's rights movement in the West should be considered as a Christian challenge to the myriad of misogynistic fundamental Christian churches that abound in North America. Having been a rep elder to East Toronto presbytery in the early 60s when the subject of ordination of women was being debated, it now seems incomprehensible that the issue existed such a short time ago.

Re The Opinionated Masses, January

Thanks for an excellent issue on The Path to Healing: Sharing the Pain of Residential Schools (February). I appreciated the comprehensive historical overview and the detailed descriptions of our current ministries to and among aboriginal peoples. Readers are left with the feeling that though this was and is a sorrowful chapter in our church's history, nevertheless we are facing up to that experience with a truly gospel response through the confession of our complicity, compensation and practical ways of expressing our desire to walk together towards healing and reconciliation. The foundations for a new and partnered ministry are being laid in a relationship of trust building and for all of this we give thanks to God. It all makes the journey through Lent this year a much more promising Christ-walk.

I just love the title on the January cover!

During the summer we had a visitor from Lesotho, Rev. August Basson. He is working in a rural area among the people with the Africa Inland Mission. The ability of the people there to sustain themselves is in jeopardy due in part to the serious problem of erosion. We in the west have made the switch to conservation agriculture — where the soil is disturbed as little as possible. Our experience in this field has 20 years of trial and error so we have learned a lot. The main thing is that it works.

During the fall semester of 2006, I had the opportunity and privilege to take a course entitled A Global History of Christianity — a survey at Knox College, Toronto, taught by Dr. Stuart MacDonald, assisted by David Robinson.

Re Reclaiming the Sabbath, by Gwyneth J. Whilsmith, January.

Calvin Brown is right on! Jesus as fully God yet fully man is the central truth of our faith. To take this uncompromising position is to offer the truth to all around us in love and with the understanding that they too are in need of a saviour. Jesus is that saviour. Our hope rests in Him and nothing else.

Core beliefs come soaring to consciousness: the birth of Jesus, the crucifixion, the empty tomb, the ascension, the appearance of the holy spirit on the day of Pentecost, the current indwelling of the spirit in the souls of many.

I was dismayed to read in Calvin Brown's January article, Debating The Virgin Birth, that “some liberal Christians who deny the virgin birth of Jesus in any realistic sense” are undermining “the whole authority of scripture.” I understand Brown to mean that the virgin birth literally happened — it was an historical event.

I note in the Record that someone with the initials AM writes quite a few columns.

I was very surprised to see the strange version of my letter in the December issue. I certainly didn't say: “I have just finished reading John Visser's excellent biography of W. W. Bryant.” I did say: “I have just finished reading John Visser's excellent book, The Neo-Orthodox Theology of W. W. Bryden.” It is the theology that is significant, not Dr. Bryden's life, inspiring as it was.

What gives???

The Experimental Fund can only distribute income received from the annual investment earned on its capital, which now stands at just over half a million dollars, after 25 years. There have been occasions in the past where worthy projects were at hand, but sufficient income was not. As the capital grows, more income can be spent.

By establishing the Experimental Fund (December 2006 issue), Mr. van Beek gave the Presbyterian Church a wonderful opportunity to fund projects “outside the box.” He gave the money with no strings attached, and trusted that the money would be used for “new and unique ways of doing mission and ministry.” The article states that during 25 years of the fund's existence $150,000 has been given to new initiatives and $500,000 remains in the bank.

G. Jean Elliot and Robert Harvey have a right to their own opinions but not to their own facts and I think they might add to their reading some other books on the future of Christianity. The Next Christendom, the Coming of Global Christianity by Philip Jenkins, professor of history at Pennsylvania University, provides information of which the general public is unaware. Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power by David Aikman, former Beijing bureau chief for Time magazine, is another book about the life of the Church today. Jenkins also published a book in 2006, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South.

If Robert Harvey's reference is to the same Rev. Donald Kemble who was minister of the church where I was a member, and his daughter to whom I taught piano — he was not a Netherlander but a native of Chester, England.

G. Jean Elliott asks what Jesus really was like, and by implication, whether the Bible tells us enough about Jesus. Many such questions are asked nowadays (but it is nothing new!), even by devout Christians, and not only in the group who “do not attend (church) regularly now.”

New to the city of London, I went to the closest Presbyterian Church. I never realized how intimidating it is for someone new to just walk into a church they've never been to before and sit down — until I did it myself. Of all the pews we could have chosen, we sat in one that had been occupied by the same family for over 30 years! And boy did they let us know it! No kind or encouraging words there. In fact, no words at all. Just nasty looks!

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank for their development of micro credit is truly exciting as is PWS&D's involvement with microcredit around the world. Microcredit is also needed in Canada and groups in many Canadian communities are working to provide loans to those who do not meet the requirements of traditional financial institutions.