News

228 Remembered

Michael Stainton

The 228 massacre of up to 20,000 Taiwanese by Chinese KMT troops is the defining moment of modern Taiwanese history. It gave birth to the Taiwan Independence movement, and still casts a shadow over Taiwan's politics. Canadian missionaries were among the few foreign witnesses to this tragedy, and Presbyterians among its victims. The Presbyterian Church in Taiwan has played a key role in helping Taiwan come to terms with this memory.

Minister awarded 10 years back pay

amymaclachlan

The Presbytery of P.E.I. is appealing an “unprecedented” decision by the province's human rights commission to pay more than $600,000 in damages to Rev. Gael Matheson — damages for which, the commission's executive director says, members of presbytery may be “personally responsible.”

Mission at CBS

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The Canadian Bible Society appointed Rev. Ted Seres as its new national director in June. Seres, former outreach ministries staff with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, envisions a new direction for the society.

Extending outreach to French Quebec

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Born a Roman Catholic in Italy, he joined a Presbyterian church only five years ago in Montreal, and now Giancarlo Fantechi has accepted a call as minister of Word and Sacrament at La Mission St-Paul, a French outreach in Sherbrooke, Que., after graduating with distinction in the Master of Divinity program at Presbyterian College.

Knox College strengthens a Cuban partnership

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Knox College faculty visited the Evangelical Seminary of Theology in Matanzas, Cuba, in May to discuss a renewed partnership between the two schools, including a yearly trip to Cuba that will help students from both schools gain a broader perspective on the role and struggles of the church around the world.

133rd General Assembly : We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This

Calvin Brown

Assembly is a good time for meeting friends and sometimes saying goodbye to them. One friend from my intervarsity days is annemarie Klassen, who is stepping down from her good work as associate secretary of stewardship and education in mission; another is Pauline brown, who is nearly a legend as a missionary, serving over 55 years in India and who has always encouraged me through my years at the renewal Fellowship. Pauline, although retired, will return to India and continue to do the work she has been doing, now on a volunteer basis. The three or four standing ovations indicated the high respect, love, and deep honour the church holds for her. another friend in the leaving mode is Jim Czegledi who worked as associate secretary of evangelism and Worship for most of the last decade. Others and I have deeply appreciated his leadership in this field. Finally, my friend Hans Kouwenberg was elected moderator of assembly and we wish him every blessing in the year ahead as he emphasizes grass root ministry in congregations as the core ministry in the church's mission.

133rd General Assembly : Establishing Peace

amymaclachlan

Dr. Ernie Regehr's passion for his peace-building work was shown with tears while accepting the E.H. Johnson award for being “on the cutting edge of mission.” His emotions were evident when he recounted a conversation he had with a sudanese refugee during the north-south civil war — a time when outside aid was so non-existent that the thousands of squatters had no food, not even tea. The young man asked Regehr why no one had stepped in to help. “The desolation haunts me in a more visceral and immediate way than do the scenes of the inhuman physical hardship and deprivation that are strong and present there. The reality of utter abandonment was something that E.H. Johnson knew very well — and he refused to tolerate it.”

Pushing G8 leaders

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The Presbyterian Church's Rev. Rick Fee was one of more than 570 religious leaders and activists who signed a letter to the heads of the G8, asking them to act on the promises they made in 2005 to help eradicate HIV and AIDS.

CFGB welcomes new partners

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The Canadian Foodgrains Bank welcomed Catholic and Anglican agencies into its membership, making it one of the most ecumenical organizations in Canada working to end world hunger. It now represents almost all Christian denominations in the country, including 15 evangelical, mainline protestant, and catholic churches, with more than 17,000 congregations and parishes connected to the effort.

Lutherans, Anglicans reject same-sex blessings

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Rev. Susan Johnson was named the first female national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. “I'm just overwhelmed by this incredible honour,” Johnson said after her election in June at the denomination's national convention in Winnipeg. She will succeed National Bishop Raymond Schultz, who will retire in September.

40th Anniversary

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Rev. Linda Ashfield of Knox, Waterloo, Ont., spoke at the 174th anniversary dinner in May at St. Andrew's, Cobourg, Ont., about the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women in The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Ashfield was among the first women to live at Knox College. She was ordained in 1979.

The dramatic Bible

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ENI — A Japanese theologian has made an unlikely connection between the Bible and the classical Japanese drama form called Noh. In Noh Drama And The Bible — Stories Of Women That Resonate With Each Other, Yuko Yuasa identifies five heroines of Noh drama who, she says, are related to female characters in the Bible.

133rd General Assembly : Get yer YARs Out

Allyssa de Bruijn

Being a Young Adult Representative at this year's General Assembly is one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable things I have done in my life. In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect. I was being thrown into the inner workings of the church I had grown up in, and I did not know if I would come out the other side. I felt unprepared and inexperienced and I was starting to get uneasy about the whole affair. Fortunately for me, when I arrived at the beautiful campus at Waterloo, my uneasiness was quenched when the smiling face of John-Peter Smit, a YAR group leader along with his wife Tori, greeted me. He took me to a magical land where there were 15 other young people, all of whom were quite confused. That was the beginning of our adventure. We were told about the procedure of assembly and the general order of things, but there is a big difference between being told what will happen and experiencing something as it is happening.