Brigadier General David Kettle, (centre, in uniform) Chaplain General of the Canadian Armed Forces, spoke to staff and students at Presbyterian College, Montreal, in January. […]

Shaping a vision for the future of the church and responding strategically to local needs is the focus of a proposed conference for the spring of 2010. The national long range planning committee is suggesting April 29 to May 2 at Nottawasaga Inn in Alliston, Ont., and has proposed the theme On the Road to Emmaus.

As convener Rev. Daniel Cho noted in his opening remarks at the Life and Mission Agency meeting in March: “Even in times like this, we have the potential to change things around in our attitude, our vision for the church, and our Christian faith.”

“We're not developing followers for mission, we're developing leaders. That's a huge difference,” said Rev. Sameh Hanna of the Arabic Outreach Ministry. “Planting a church used to mean holding a service every week. That's not true anymore. We must build bridges first – start with relationships, express love and care. A worship service will follow naturally.”

The presbytery of East Toronto approved the AOM in November 2007. Since then Egyptian-born Hanna has worked to make his group useful to individuals, families and institutions in the Arabic-speaking community. The group has held conferences, retreats and services, often with members of Coptic and Syrian Orthodox churches. Two members are licensed councilors and donate five per cent of their time to cases received by the mission.

Personal visits are common, as are private services in homes or hospital rooms. For instance, Hanna and members of his group held a communion service for a pharmacist and his wife, who was dying of liver cancer. The couple had no previous contact with the mission.

Thanks to a devoted team at St. Andrew's, a new Ten Thousand Villages store on the quaint main street of Picton, Ont., is planning to open for the May long weekend.

“Prince Edward County – and Picton especially – have become big tourist destinations,” said Rev. Lynne Donovan, who spearheaded the initiative. “So we asked, how can we take advantage of the strengths of our context to make an impact? This store was perfect.”

Ten Thousand Villages is a non-profit, fair trade organization with 49 permanent locations across Canada. Some stores are corporately owned and operated, but others function under a partnership agreement. They are staffed by volunteers working with a paid manager.

In 1885, Dr. David Watt Torrance, a 23-year-old Scottish surgeon, arrived in the Galilean city of Tiberias and began work to establish a mission hospital. Planning and permissions took some time, but on January 1, 1894, the hospital was opened ending years of working from rented rooms in the city. Herbert Watt Torrance joined his father at the hospital in 1920 and took over from him four years later. The hospital was always honest in its mission to preach the gospel of Christ and offered its service to all from the beginning, regardless of race, creed, class or colour. That same understanding of the unconditional nature of the gospel message forms the foundation of very different work today.

In 1959, the government of Israel established a public hospital nearby. The mission hospital was no longer needed. The building remained and the witness of worship remained – as did support for the Messianic Jewish movement.

The Presbyterian Record ended 2008 with its best annual appeal to date; donations exceeded $100,000, a six per cent increase from 2007 despite a six per cent drop in circulation.

UN – Human traffickers are often women according to a report released by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in February.

ENI – Australian religious leaders have committed to a unified response to the devastating bushfires that have seared across southeast Australia, particularly the state of Victoria.

ENI – Rev. Gideon Byamugisha, a Ugandan and the first African cleric to declare he was HIV-positive, has been awarded the Niwano Peace Prize.

ENI – Immigrants and minorities in affluent countries are becoming targets of exclusion as the global economic system faces strains, warned Rev. Setri Nyomi, a Presbyterian from Ghana and general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, at a meeting on February 19.

ENI – Churches in Brazil have backed a provision in the newly-passed Bolivian constitution describing water as a “fundamental human right” that may not be controlled by private companies and they say other nations should follow suit.

Fair Trade Resource Network – An American fair trade advocacy group is hoping people will take a fair trade ‘coffee break’ on World Fair Trade Day, May 9.

Canadian Bible Society – Rev. John Duff, a Presbyterian minister and president of the Newfoundland and Labrador district of the Canadian Bible Society, presented the Moravian Church in Labrador with the Inuktitut Heritage Bible at a ceremony in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland, in January.

“Since I'm a relatively recent immigrant, some people may have felt I … wasn't here, didn't know what was going on,” Rev. Cheol Soon Park, moderator of the last General Assembly, says of his experience at the Truth and Reconciliation: Healing the Legacy of Residential Schools conference held in Edmonton in January. “But I feel this … is about the dignity of humankind and the dignity of living. It's about conscience and the next generation – our children and children's children. In that sense, it is my … history, and I was there and will be there and will learn with the aboriginal people.”