Ask average Presbyterians in Canada what the normal model for ministry is, and they will inevitably describe a self-supporting congregation with its own full-time paid minister. These clergy have one calling, one vocation, to the single congregation they serve.
When I first met Sue, her shaved head highlighted her great smile. Later, when her hair re-emerged, it was purple before she settled on a more mature fluorescent pink. She liked to saunter around the church in ostentatiously bell-bottomed jeans and an array of crazy colourful clothes.
God certainly is a surprise. It began with a dream by an elder long, long ago to one day have a Christian educator work in the congregation. The dream was mentioned now and then, but in a medium-sized rural church of 300 members (100 attending on Sunday), many thought it was unrealistic. Then, in the last six years, this village of 500 outside of Pictou experienced a baby boom. There were more and more babies around, including twins and triplets, with quite a few young families coming to church.
It is normally thought, certainly was by Mel Gibson, that Christ spoke Aramaic, the Semitic tongue believed to have displaced Hebrew as the Jewish vernacular. Latin is usually ruled out. It was used in the East mainly for administrative purposes; the Romans never forced it on their subjects — hence the bad grammar joke in Monty Python's Life of Brian.
“We often get the feeling that the presbytery is dysfunctional, until we talk with colleagues in other presbyteries,” admits Rev. Bob Geddes, minister at South Gate, Hamilton and member of the Presbytery of Hamilton, the largest presbytery in the country by number of charges with 32 (tied with Montreal and Barrie). “Within this era of change, with efforts to grow, and worship wars, we spend a lot of time in reaction mode, and this is very draining on members of presbytery, clergy and elders. In recent years there have been moments when we have more commissions going on than the General Assembly. However, presbytery meetings are quite collegial, and there are many positive things going on within the presbytery.”
Canada is said to be an urban country and the census data bear out that description. Three of every five Canadians live in cities with populations over 100,000. Not surprisingly, then, urban issues and urban values dominate Canadian public discourse.
I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive — but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don't wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.Revelation 3:1-3
Archivist Kim Arnold gives the past a permanent home
God of grace and God of glory. On Thy people pour Thy power; Crown Thine ancient church's story, Bring her bud to glorious flower, Grant […]
Clifford Bear represents everything Anishinabe wants to accomplish in its ministry. Shy, quiet and an artist, Bear used to wander the Winnipeg streets with his gang members — a rival gang, it turns out, of Lenny McKay's former posse. The two men now frequent Anishinabe at the same time; previous rivalries long extinguished.
Reconciliation support members and groups…
When they got the call to go to the remote Cariboo-Chilcotin region of British Columbia, they hesitated. Rev. Shannon Bell-Wyminga and her husband Rev. Jon Wyminga had always thought they were destined for ministry in the inner city. Instead, they got dense bush, deep snow and long drives between house churches.
Iroquois peoples, the Haudenosaunee, members of the Six Nations Confederacy, entered into some of the earliest treaties in North America with European settlers. These treaties were recorded symbolically in wampum belts. The Guswenta wampum belt of 1692 records the treaty known as the Covenant Chain. A silver covenant chain was fashioned with three links representing peace, friendship and forever — the key concepts of the treaty.
I stood on the Saskatchewan prairie on a silent, crystal winter day. Rev. Stewart Folster had brought Montreal visitors to the Wanuskewin Heritage Park just north of Saskatoon. We had seen the videos and mock tipis and eaten bison burgers and wild rice salad. We had heard the songs and stories of people seeking shelter and sustenance in this place for 6,000 years. We had seen the massive stones waiting patiently, and felt the spirit of this ancient place.
1866 Work begins among aboriginal peoples led by Rev. James Nisbet. 1875 The Presbyterian Church in Canada is formed. In 1876, the Women’s Foreign Mission […]
Mary Fontaine had been preparing for her Hummingbird Ministries since she was a little girl. Growing up on the Mistawasis reserve in Saskatchewan, her late parents instilled in her a love for the church, as well as respect for traditional native ways.
The scene is nothing new for Rev. Stewart Folster. On the street outside his small downtown Saskatoon location, the blue and red lights of a police car are flashing once again. Some sort of physical altercation has just taken place; apparently a scruffy-looking man struck a woman as she walked past him and his dog. Various versions of the story are fed to the officer; the man denies the charges. A crowd gathers.
The present practice of The Presbyterian Church in Canada is to place retired ministers of Word and Sacrament on the appendix to the roll of presbyteries. As members on the appendix to the roll these persons have the right to speak on matters before the court but do not have the privilege of moving or seconding motions or of voting.
What we need is to find a way that we can offer all of these programs in one place,” said Rev. Stewart Folster, who became one of the PCC's earliest Native ministers when he was ordained in 1996. He is currently the director of Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry. “We need a healing centre in all major centres of Canada that offers addiction services, parenting and life skills, Native spirituality, Bible study, shelter, worship, child care, help with education and employment, with Native elders on staff as well as counsellors, therapists, parish social workers, and native artists to help in therapy. It needs government, church and aboriginal cooperation.”
On Sunday morning, Rev. George Yando drives his van past two houses, picking up people who can't drive to the reserve on their own. Seated comfortably, the three elderly men and women talk candidly, laughing about their week and the rutted road that takes them to the small white church on the Mistawasis reserve.