How to Sponsor a Refugee
Congregations wishing to sponsor a refugee should first contact Presbyterian World Service & Development. Expertise will be invaluable as you walk a path strewn with paperwork and pitfalls.
Magazine
Reconciled to God
At one o'clock in the afternoon, there is a knock on the door of the one-storey white house. Several men in their twenties and thirties walk in. They are dressed similarly, in jeans and white or light blue T-shirts. Carol Smith comes out of her office and greets the men with a wide smile. “Hi, guys,” she says. “Come on in.”
One of the men walks up to her. He is six inches taller than Smith and his chest is wide and thick. He wraps two muscled arms around her, the sleeves of his light blue T-shirt riding up to reveal heavy, colourful tattoos on his solid biceps. Without saying a word, he squeezes her. “It's good to see you, James,” she replies, hugging him back.
One in the Spirit
Sam and Deborah's faces shone with such energy and excitement, it was hard to believe that just three days before they had travelled all the way from Uganda as guests of St. Cuthbert's, Hamilton, Ont. Somehow I had expected them to appear more careworn. Both were leaving behind heavy responsibilities – Rev. Sam Lwere is the minister of St. Stephen's Anglican in Mpererwe, Uganda, and Deborah Ssengendo is chair of the Good Samaritan Orphan Aid Project, which provides a stable environment for children orphaned by the AIDS pandemic. Yet here, at a party given in their honour, his face glowing, a compactly built Sam knelt on the floor, skillfully demonstrating to us an African game, while Deborah, dressed elegantly in a long fall-dappled gown, settled comfortably on the couch and chatted with our minister Cathy Stewart-Kroeker.
Diary of a Church Deputy
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A year or so ago, as in-country missionaries, Linda, Chelsea, Bud the Lab and I were asked to do two weeks of mission deputation to parts of Ontario. Our task was to share our mission work with the church and to promote Presbyterians Sharing. Not being one who relishes anything that smacks of a boondoggle in the name of Christ, I found the deputation tour ended up being a real eye-opener. I thought it might be time, in an attempt at being prophetic, to share my journal entry upon our return.
Invisible Arms
Project Ploughshares – Project Ploug-shares, an ecumenical agency of the Canadian Council of Churches, is calling for more transparency regarding Canada's military exports.
Cultivating Community
“Even if it fails horribly, its better that we try something,” says Rev. Kerry McIntyre, minister at St. Andrew's, Duncan, B.C., referring to two very different mission projects begun by the congregation. “We want to experiment and find out what works and what meets people's needs. Even if some things don't work out, somewhere along the lines we'll do something right.”
Journey to the Centre of our Faiths
For many years, especially after performing the hajj in Saudi Arabia, I had a passionate desire to visit Jerusalem. For me, it became all the more urgent because in my interfaith work, I speak about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam flowing from the same source and that despite our differences and challenges, we are the children of Abraham.
And, when we ask, God answers. All of a sudden there was an opportunity to go. My husband and I decided that a visit to the Holy Land must be shared with those who have similar dreams. So we invited our dear friends Jim Evans, a United Church minister, and his wife Karen to come along.
It's All About Relationships
It's all about relationships.
He Hung Up His Bow
March 1, 2009 (Lent 1): Genesis 9:8-17
Christians have wasted a lot of time arguing over supposed scientific proofs that stories like Noah's really happened. Whether or not they are factual by our measure, such stories are true. They communicate greater truth than anything we can prove.
Noah's story echoes other ancient stories. So, maybe, something happened thousands of years ago that wiped out the only world some people knew, in what is now Iraq and Syria. Maybe Noah's story answers the how and the why of a rainy-season flood of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Sudden climatic changes and extremes are nothing new. Noah's story, from the first time it was told, has invited people to look up from their everyday lives and see something of the mystery of God's ways with the world.
It tells us that, a long time ago, God voluntarily disarmed. No truce. Absolute surrender. Noah's story tells us that the violence humanity made on earth broke God's heart. In agony, God said, “I'm sorry I created any of them. I wish I hadn't made this world!” (Genesis 6:5-13) God chose the way of violence, to end human violence. And when God saw the results, God repented. God told Noah, “I've hung up my bow, and I'll never take it down again. Whenever I see it, I'll remember my promise.”
The Canadian Religion
Université de Montreal – A new course at the Université de Montreal's faculty of theology is casting light one of Canada's most popular religions – hockey.
New WARC secretary
WARC – A Canadian United Church member, Kristine Greenaway, has been appointed executive secretary for communications by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC). She began work at the organization's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland in January.
Time to Pray
“So, what do you do during weekdays?” He looked at me with a mix of curiosity and sympathy as he threw this question. He was new in town, opening a retail business and I was on my visitation – a kind of welcoming visit as the pastor. Obviously he was not a Christian.
Teaching the Teaching Elders
John Calvin arrived at his convictions concerning the need for a learned leadership honestly. In the first place, Calvin himself was a thoughtful and thoroughly educated minister. In addition to his training as a lawyer, he was steeped in the best of Christian humanist learning. And he was a reformer who understood the importance of education in consolidating the gains of the Protestant Reformation in Geneva. Above all else, he thought this meant that the people of God needed to know their Bibles. Catechizing, or teaching, became paramount because the Christian citizens of Geneva were expected to have more than a passing acquaintance with holy scripture and the doctrines of the Reformed faith.
Reaching Out
Alain* has been on the run since childhood. When he was nine, his sister and father, a Hutu and minor government official, were slain by a Tutsi rival. Ethnic fighting ravaged his native Burundi; his mother was likely killed in the conflict a year later. His elder brother was forced to become a child soldier – a fate Alain narrowly escaped.
Loaves & Fishes Work
From my window on to our church I see a very dynamic denomination. Or more accurately, I see many very dynamic, progressive, theologically sound, daring, Christ-like silos within our denomination. I see congregations, small and large, engaged in their community, and in the world. And, though I realize it is not fashionable to say so, I see cutting-edge work being done within the national church. Presbyterian World Service and Development, Presbyterians Sharing, International Ministries, Canada Ministries, Education, the Vine Helpline, Stewardship, Ministry and Vocation – all the many and varied branches under the Life and Missions Agency, along with Assembly Council, do Loaves-and-Fishes work, taking small resources and multiplying them many-fold to reach almost every corner of the planet. It is quite breathtaking to see the work being done.
The Mighty Widow
Christian Newswire – A low-budget movie made by 19-year-old writer and director John Moore of Kaufman, Texas, left the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival in January with $101,000 cash, the largest cash prize ever to be awarded by a Christian film festival.
KAIROS clinic destroyed in Gaza
KAIROS – Missiles demolished a church-run health clinic near downtown Gaza City in January.
Two Kinds of Knowledge
Both religion and science begin with a kind of faith: the scientist's belief in an orderly universe is like religious trust. Einstein made this clear: “I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and the noblest driving force behind scientific research. … The basis of all scientific work is the conviction that the world is an ordered and comprehensive entity, which is a religious sentiment.” This relates to the “intuition” Einstein credits with being a formative influence on his development of the relativity theories. So: science must assume order but cannot explain where it came from. If a scientist tries, he becomes a philosopher – or theologian!
Ed’s Last Chance
One month before Christmas, Ed sat in disbelief listening to a doctor's shocking news. At the age of 49, he had colon cancer. The words struck him over and over like a baseball bat: “The cancer is very advanced. I've seen other cases like this and it's highly unlikely that your body can fight it more than six months. We'll do all we can to help you, but you had better get your affairs in order. I'm so sorry.”
Driving home through the blinding tears, the disbelief turned to shock. As one of Canada's most successful oil executives, Ed was accustomed to controlling things. With a spacious office high atop a Calgary skyscraper, everything he could ask for was waiting to be summoned. He wondered how he would tell his wife. They'd hardly spoken all week. All year, for that matter.
As he cradled her in his arms and told her the diagnosis, she broke down and wept. After a sleepless night, Ed called the office. For the first time in 17 years, he would not be at work. His work meant everything to him, what would he do without it? He could have retired long ago, but it kept him from facing a string of broken relationships.
UnTerror Cells
Just after Christmas, the violence of war was once again used in Gaza and Israel to try to bring about peace. Weaponry was used to stand up for good goals. Hamas wanted the economic restrictions of Gaza to be stopped so they launched rockets into civilian areas of Israel. The Israeli government had the goal of making sure their people could live in safety. So, they launched an offensive with their army in order to stop Hamas from being able to launch their rockets. As a result, before there was a ceasefire in mid-January, over one thousand Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. This war is just one example of why I believe that we need to find another way to handle the crises that happen in our world.
Brian McLaren in his book, Everything Must Change looks at how our world society functions based upon three interrelated systems. The Prosperity System is the way we build our wealth in order to live. Our Equity System helps us to distribute our wealth. The Security System seeks to protect us. McLaren believes that the dominant framework story which humans use to run these three systems is unsustainable, and ultimately suicidal.