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Christina’s Faith
As a young adult representative I came to the 2009 General Assembly expecting to be bored. I came thinking I would be too young among […]
As a young adult representative I came to the 2009 General Assembly expecting to be bored. I came thinking I would be too young among […]
Rev. Laurence DeWolfe, author of the Record’s Progressive Lectionary column, was appointed assistant professor of Pastoral Theology at the Atlantic School of Theology. He is […]
“God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame,” John Calvin wrote in a rare moment of self-disclosure, “which was […]
August 30, Pentecost 13 Song of Solomon 2:8-13, James 1:17-27, Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23 How clean are your hands, right now? What have you […]
Park calls for change Suggests the church step down from the podium and move into the community. by Emily Wierenga Power of the gospel Hans […]
I know it’s politically incorrect to admit this, but I’ve never been comfortable with the church’s fascination with inclusiveness. It’s seemed to me, we Presbyterians […]
Well, General Assembly is all finished. Young Adult Representatives sure don’t have a lot of time for blogging, it turns out. No worries, though. I’ll […]
Recently, the Lord has challenged me to reassess the way I live my faith. Yes, I’m active in my church community, I give to […]
When I was little I asked my Sunday school teacher, “What is the Holy Spirit?” “I don’t know,” she told me and I wondered, if she […]
I have the immense pleasure of being a second-year YAR. I was more than honoured when my Presbytery approached me to represent Northern Saskatchewan for […]
We will take risks and trust our loving God with the results.
The Clerk’s Rant (MP3 file) First Time Commissioner at the General Assembly Blues (MP3 file) CDs are available for sale at General Assembly and can […]
First: let me apologize to all commissioners gathered at Redeemer University last night for General Assembly’s opening worship and First Sederunt: I didn’t realize till […]
I’m Jayne and I am married to Harvey, who happens to be the moderator of the 135th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. […]
An infected person with a glowing green hand touches others who then contract glowing green hands, and who each pass along the glowing green infection to another and then another. This is often how we believe suffering operates. We implicitly assume it’s passed on like an infection, like the green hand.
Youth ministry has historically been constructed around fun and entertainment, assuming we need these things to get young people to come and participate. If they come and participate we can get them to become members of the church, to have faith, to be responsible, that is, to do what we want them to do. In youth ministry we have often seen our relationships as tools for positive influence. But this may prevent us from being with adolescents in their raw human existence, in the midst of their suffering for an identity, in the midst of suffering broken families, disappointment and fear. We might assume, because youth ministry has tried to be an influential commercial for Christian faith, that any suffering from one will infect the group. In other words: Don’t have the depressed kid come on the trip or she’ll infect the group with her suffering. Don’t ask him about the divorce of his parents because what then would I say? Don’t put two and two together that your most committed leader may be the victim of abuse because that may remind you of your own past.
Too often relational youth ministry avoids suffering, and therefore lacks the boldness and bravery to enter into the full humanity of adolescents. But suffering doesn’t work like the glowing green hand of infection. When suffering is shared, often its power to strangle is broken. Things may remain painful and difficult, but when we’re no longer alone, suffering feels (and is) no longer life-threatening. The power of suffering to determine our destiny is broken when suffering is shared in relationship. We may then argue that the heart of relational youth ministry is actually shared suffering.
The Presbyterian Church’s communications office is providing a new free web-hosting service to all recognized ministries of the church beginning in June. The service will offer a basic website that is easy to manage with no additional software or technical skills required.
“There’s something about Camp Geddie,” executive director Audrey Cameron said. “The Celts use the term ‘thin spaces’ and I believe Geddie is a thin space where heaven and earth are very close.”
That space is a little roomier as Camp Geddie in Nova Scotia makes use of over 40 acres of land added to its existing facilities.
Most of us cannot imagine being treated from birth as if we were impure, polluted and polluting to those around us. And yet, this is the daily reality for many of the world’s 200 million “dalits”.
ENI—The Toronto-based World Association for Christian Communication has called for international pressure to lift media restrictions in Fiji that prevent journalists from publishing material that portrays its military government in a “negative light.”