It began with Pierre Berton's 1965 book The Comfortable Pew, commissioned by the Anglican church, which had chapter headings such as Pretensions to Absolute Rightness, The Lukewarm Pulpit and The Ecclesiastical Caste System. It was a hot-button book at the time, much discussed and debated, in which Berton laid out “some of the areas in which I see the church going bankrupt.” The United Church of Canada produced Why Our Sea is Boiling the same year, seeking to refute Berton's claim, if only for that denomination. But, what of the Presbyterian Church?

Jesus: "Turn around, and believe the good news"

Albert Einstein once said, "The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything." Can this language be applied to investment portfolios? Are investors, including corporate ones like churches, culpable for their reluctance or failure to be intentional in ensuring that their investments are more and more ethically responsible? I wondered about this as I recently re-read the 2003 Assembly Council Report.

The attitude the letter displayed, reminds me of two young men who once attended worship in the congregation where I choose to worship. One member made it clear to them that "we do not want your kind here." Now we are all being told in print, by the writer of the letter, that he is obliged to speak on behalf of Almighty God, in order to set the church straight. How presumptuous to state that he is doing this before it is too late.

In the April Record Ms. Eileen Shaw of Hamilton said in a letter that we need a more openness to worship and prayer. I agree with her on this point because when we open our hearts and minds in worship, we automatically become closer to Jesus Christ.

The London bombings clearly illustrate that a war is going on. This war is fuelled on the one side by religious fanatics who use, really abuse, religion for their own misled conception of the world divided between the righteous and those outside the bounds of righteousness. Political and other differences with the non-righteous justify, in these fanatics' eyes, mounting massive attacks to specifically drive the point home to their adversaries that there is no geographic or time limit in the ongoing war.

I was intrigued by the laudatory words for the ecumenical pope in the May and June issues. As an activist and international trainer in conflict transformation and economic literacy, I have a snapshot or two that suggest a less praiseworthy impact of John Paul II's pontificate on ecumenical relations. The anti-communist passions that supported the rise of Solidarnosc and the fall of totalitarian communism in Poland and elsewhere were manifest in Latin America in a hard-edged suppression of liberation-theology-inspired dissent; Leonardo Boff and Archbishop Romero of El Salvador come to mind. Under John Paul II, progressive Catholics lamented his intransigence, even retreat, on several issues, one of them being ecumenical relations.

The number of Presbyterian churches in London, Ont., has not changed in at least a decade and the collective roll from 1999 to today shows a downwards trend, but the city's population is larger. We're not only losing ground numerically, we're serving a significantly smaller percentage of the population. In the lingo of business, we're dying!

"Holy books never laugh" – Baudelaire "The total absence of laughter from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature" – […]

The mood at the Presbytery meeting is a mixture of anxiety, confusion, and suspicion. Attempts at jocularity have little effect on the proceedings. One or […]