World Net Daily and Orlando Sentinel – An anonymous donation of $50 million is kick-starting an initiative to provide 200 million people with Bibles in their native languages by the year 2025.

It was a common message at the Life and Mission Agency's November meeting: The national church must change how it thinks about mission, or risk losing touch with congregations.

EAA – “The current food crisis is an appalling indictment of our broken food system,” stated Sam Kobia, general secretary of the World Council of Churches in opening a conference on Confronting the Global Food Challenge. With over one billion people in the world now facing constant hunger, Kobia said that such growing tragedies are “a result of the ways our societies have chosen to produce, share, buy and sell food.”

ENI – A sermon on doubt won a best-sermon competition hosted by the Dutch newspaper, Nederlands Dagblad.” Doubt can be hastily perceived as the opposite of faith and something that is not good. Yet, when I read the story of Gideon, I learned that this really is not the case. It seems that even though Gideon doubts, he also believes; doubt is a tool to a deeper relationship with God,” said the winner, Almatine Leene, a theology doctoral student from South Africa, studying in the Netherlands.

Justice Harry LaForme stepped down as chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on October 19, citing irresolvable conflict between himself and fellow commissioners Claudette Dumont-Smith and Jane Brewin Morley.

The two commissioners disputed his authority, LaForme alleged, and weighted the 'truth' side of the commission too heavily when he sought 'reconciliation.'

– The Anglican Church in Canada eliminated seven positions from its national office in November as part of a plan to slash $1. 3 million from the 2009 budget and reduce its running deficit.

One Saturday morning – at 7 a. m. – I found myself standing before an immaculately dressed and cheerful bride and groom as they prepared to take their marriage vows. I remarked to the congregation that this was the only time I had ever married anyone before breakfast. I also asked the wedding party if they had slept standing up as they were all so handsome and beautiful. No answer. But it was not atypical of Saturday mornings at Malawi's largest congregation, St. Columba's, during the wedding season – the dry months from May to October. And every wedding is the same – same music, same procession, same Scripture and vows. Only the bright young faces are different. People spend months planning weddings so that they can be exactly the same as every other wedding.

Church leaders seeking to start peer support groups can take advantage of a new fund available through national offices. Intended to cover start-up costs and minor expenses like books and transportation, the funds can facilitate the creation of a meeting group with a focus on a particular form of ministry, prayer or study.

Alberni Valley Times – The government of Prince Edward Island will continue to outlaw shopping on Sundays for five months of the year, Attorney General Gerard Greenan announced in November.

ENI – Politicians, religious leaders and royalty, gathered in Uppsala, Sweden ahead of a key United Nations conference on climate change and were reminded that faiths carry a hope that can resist despair and fatalism.

The Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul has had a website since 2001, refurbished for our bicentennial in 2003, maintained at no charge, by a devoted Presbyterian webmaster in a distant city. While he responded promptly to all requests, we found over time we needed to be hands-on ourselves.

A December conference, sponsored by Canada Ministries, brought together these participants from missions as diverse as Evangel Hall, Boarding House Ministries, Armagh, native missions, refugee ministries, camping ministries and others involved in special Presbyterian ministries across the country.

In July our watchman died. We had known Kondwani since 1980 when the Synod appointed him to keep an eye on our house. When we returned to Blantyre in 1997, Kondwani left the Synod to work full time with us. Those who have visited 'Canada House' know of whom I speak. Kondwani officially died of malaria, but everyone knew the underlying cause was HIV/AIDS. Malawians seldom mention AIDS but speak rather of 'our general disease' or 'the thinning disease.' Some years ago, Kondwani and his wife separated and eventually reunited a couple of years later. She died of 'the general disease' and so Kondwani's situation was not a surprise.

After more than six years of detainment in Guantanamo Bay, 41-year-old Djamel Ameziane is “in urgent need of protection” according to a coalition of human rights organizations. The stigma of the former Montreal resident's suspected links to terrorism put him at risk of imprisonment and torture if he returns to his native Algeria, they allege.

ENI – WCC general secretary, Rev. Samuel Kobia, told a gathering of the Bible Society in Sri Lanka's commercial capital that churches are morally bound to act to prevent conflicts and to build peace.

ENI – The United Reformed Church in Great Britain has condemned as “an offence against God” the assassination of Gayle Williams, a 34-year-old Christian aid worker in Kabul, and the chilling comments of those who said they killed her.

ENI – Hugh McCullum, a Canadian journalist who championed Africa, where he spent part of his life, is being remembered as a harsh critic of what he called the silence of the media about the killing in 1994 of 800,000 people in Rwanda.

Those who visit the denominational website, www.presbyterian.ca, regularly will have noticed that throughout October and November we made some significant changes. Most obvious is a completely new home page layout that we hope will make it easier for our visitors to find the information and resources they are looking for – and discover new things they don't even realize exist! We also made some significant changes to the navigation structure so that information is grouped more appropriately.

Constantly searching for new ways of fulfilling our vision statement of being a vital and growing community of faith, some members of Rosedale, Toronto, read Diana Butler Bass' book Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (reviewed in the Record, March 2007) over the summer to prepare for her visit with us next February. To meet her and scope out her workshop style, my husband and I went to hear her speak in October. I had identified with much of what she says in her book. I'm a liberal “quiet Christian” and a not-yet-30-year-old member of Session.

Stewardship and Education for Mission has produced an opportunity to Experience Mission in Malawi via DVD. When this issue went to print, it was slated for release in early November and featured two 10-minute segments exploring the role of Presbyterian Sharing and Presbyterian World Service and Development in ongoing Malawian missions.