“The whole three year project — everything — every single thing we’re trying to do has something to do with the community. So finally, when […]

Faced with the choice of upgrading their 1920s church or starting from scratch with a brand new building, the members of Knox in Waterloo, Ont., […]

A couple of weeks ago we went to a small village in southern Malawi. We met with Pastor Rodney who was in his early sixties […]

Presbyterian World Service and Development is involved in several development Projects in northern Malawi. The work is challenging, but as these faces show, there is […]

Malawi is plagued by drought and poverty, and its 550,000 orphans regularly struggle to find enough to eat. That's why the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, supported […]

At one o'clock in the afternoon, there is a knock on the door of the one-storey white house. Several men in their twenties and thirties walk in. They are dressed similarly, in jeans and white or light blue T-shirts. Carol Smith comes out of her office and greets the men with a wide smile. “Hi, guys,” she says. “Come on in.”

One of the men walks up to her. He is six inches taller than Smith and his chest is wide and thick. He wraps two muscled arms around her, the sleeves of his light blue T-shirt riding up to reveal heavy, colourful tattoos on his solid biceps. Without saying a word, he squeezes her. “It's good to see you, James,” she replies, hugging him back.

Sam and Deborah's faces shone with such energy and excitement, it was hard to believe that just three days before they had travelled all the way from Uganda as guests of St. Cuthbert's, Hamilton, Ont. Somehow I had expected them to appear more careworn. Both were leaving behind heavy responsibilities – Rev. Sam Lwere is the minister of St. Stephen's Anglican in Mpererwe, Uganda, and Deborah Ssengendo is chair of the Good Samaritan Orphan Aid Project, which provides a stable environment for children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic. Yet here, at a party given in their honour, his face glowing, a compactly built Sam knelt on the floor, skillfully demonstrating to us an African game, while Deborah, dressed elegantly in a long fall-dappled gown, settled comfortably on the couch and chatted with our minister Cathy Stewart-Kroeker.

Rev. Cheol Soon Park's challenge to the church is timely, relevant and very inspirational. He said there is a great demand for change within the local church. “Change is not an option anymore, it is an imperative … it is time to change our understanding of church, ministry and worship service.” His profound words were like apples of gold in pictures of silver. His idea is to challenge every session, minister and member to start one thing new this year. One thing that is necessary yet has never been tried for various reasons. He wants each local church to start one thing that would convey the message we are willing to change and serve.

Wendy Murchy, Terry Richardson and Arn Main have spent a lot of time in jail. Their experiences behind bars have had a profound impact on their lives – and on their faith.

But they are not inmates; they are three individuals who have been called to the ministry of prison chaplaincy. Rev. Terry Richardson is a Lutheran minister who is presently serving as the Director-General of Chaplaincy for Corrections Services Canada in Ottawa; Rev. Wendy Murchy is a Protestant (Pentecostal) chaplain in the Fraser Valley Institution for women in British Columbia; and Rev. Arn Main is a Protestant (Christian Missionary Alliance) chaplain in the Beaver Creek Institution outside of Gravenhurst, Ont.

Twenty five years ago when I walked through the Blantyre Mission, the school children would run toward me shouting, "How are you?" They were practicing their English, trying to get that pesky 'r' right, and they would giggle with delight when they got a response from me. Today, the children of those students look me in the eye and say, "Give me money!"

How far back in the Bible do we need to go to find the idea of evangelism? Perhaps the first moment of evangelism in the Bible can be found in Genesis 3:9. There we find God calling out to the human, "Where are you?" God's search for us, like for the hiding humans in this story, does not always seem like good news! Yet, there is no better news than God the Creator seeking us out despite our destructive tendencies. Over the last two months we looked at some of the new insights that developed on the theme of mission in the 20th-century, particularly the idea that mission is in the first place God's activity, or The Mission of God-Missio Dei. Last month we looked at definitions of mission and learned how our mission joins God's mission of peace and justice as the church crosses frontiers in humility and service and looks for the new things God is doing. Mission is the church joining the reign of God that is coming to us in Jesus Christ. In joining God's reign, working in faith for peace and

Last month, we explored the checkered history of the term "mission" and we sympathized with Bishop Stephen Neill who complained that if everything is mission then nothing is mission. This month, we will look at some helpful definitions of mission. All these definitions must be understood in the context of the idea of the Mission of God (Missio De).

Stephen Neill once said, “If everything is mission then nothing is mission.” The way we use the word “mission” around the church does perhaps reduce it to something so familiar that it loses its meaning. What is mission? In churches we speak of “mission statements,” or we talk about participation in a “mission project” when we make a trip to Central America to paint a school. Sometimes we speak of a “mission” when our congregation reaches out into the community in service and witness. Others in the church associate the word mission with something churches do overseas, and we tend to call our overseas church personnel “missionaries.”

Dr. Richard Allen is frustrated. “Canadians have the means and opportunity to learn and keep current about the situations of various countries and peoples in the world, but unfortunately they often remain uninformed,” says the Sarnia, Ont., native who has been working with the Presbyterian Church in East Africa since 1994. “One would hope that the fairly wide reporting in the media of the present Kenyan crisis will encourage Canadians and others in the future to follow similar world problems more closely.”

Congregations can become aware of their environment and reduce their dependence on oil and fossil fuels with the help of KAIROS' Re-energize Campaign. Supported by the Presbyterian Church, KAIROS has created an initiative to educate, inspire and assist congregations, groups and individuals to take action. One of the most practical – and fun – suggestions is a 100-mile congregational meal.

When the Glenview, Toronto, congregation decided to support Evangel Hall's Campaign Dignity in the fall of 2004, there were a few individuals wondering whether the congregation had taken on more of a commitment than it could handle.