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.
To all those readers who were surprised and offended in any way to receive a recent mailing from an insurance company in a Presbyterian Record envelope, my profound apology for not having adequately explained the circumstances.
Christmas and December 28: Galatians 4:4-7 / Luke 2:22-40 Paul writes of God's Son, “born of a woman, born under the law.” In the first […]
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.
Every December, I am very busy for a special reason. The first day of month we sing Happy Birthday to my wife Karen. While the familiar song still lingers in my ears, our wedding anniversary comes up three days later. So it becomes “a very Happy Anniversary.” Then after three weeks, Merry Christmas arrives. I guess I didn't know better about the implication of these special days before I got married. I feel sorry for my children as I see them preparing cards and gifts one after another, and their wallets getting thinner. (Fortunately, none of them were born in December.)
One of the keys to John Calvin's enduring influence is his practical advice on Christian living. He understood ordinary people in the midst of ordinary life. “If we live, we must use the necessary instruments for life. We cannot avoid those matters which serve our pleasures rather than our needs. But that we should use them with a pure conscience, we should observe moderation.” Calvin did not advocate withdrawal from the world. He built no monasteries – no wandering the highways with a begging bowl. He was a city man, and projected a way of life for urban men and women. As a devotional writer, he can speak to a modern world.
The Life and Mission Agency and Project Ploughshares appointed Janna Payne to an eight-month internship based in Waterloo, Ont. She began work in October, and is the second of three interns to be hired in the joint program.
We had Christmas Trees; a Fir tree, most likely, my mother recalls. But to get to us in Karachi or Lahore it would have traveled a long distance from the Himalayan Mountains. We would cover it with the usual baubles; along with hand-made paper chains and other decorations. Under it would be the presents. And then Father Christmas would come late one night after church and a sumptuous meal of curries and rice.
In rural Jamaica, where I grew up seven decades ago, going to church was at the heart of Christmas in my family. In my memory the night was moonlit or bright with stars, the air warm and soft, as we walked home together after the midnight service on Christmas Eve. Sounds of merriment were distanced by the hilly country as our neighbours set off fireworks in celebration. I felt secure and satisfied because the preparations were over, the baking and preserving done, gifts of new clothing and food distributed to the poor, and our parents, who taught school and served in church and community, were at leisure at last. The feasting and visiting could now begin.
ENI – Christian communities should improve their knowledge of Islam, be good neighbours to Muslims and bear witness to their faith in an appropriate manner, 50 church leaders and experts said in a joint statement.
ENI – People in the poorest countries are being forced into poverty by having to repay hundreds of millions of dollars of illegitimate loans from wealthy Western countries to greedy dictators, an international meeting has heard.
It is usually an expression of genuine incredulity – you celebrate Christmas?
Dear friend,
I hope you enjoy this gift box. It comes with my love to you. I am sick and very weak now, so do not write well. I have three granddaughters and seven grandsons and I love them all. My prayer is that they will all come to know Jesus as their Saviour. I believe they have accepted Him, but not all are living for Him. I pray you will accept Him too. I am your new Grandma – I'm 85 years old.
As a child growing up in rural Jamaica, I found Christmas a very exciting time – a lot of fun. I looked forward to getting a new dress to wear to church on Christmas Sunday. Christmas chorals would be coming from every radio as early as November. The men would be standing or walking with their transistor radios on the highest volume. One could feel the fever in the air. It was a time of getting together with families and friends to celebrate more than just material things, of which we didn't have much, but rather life. The Christmas story was a meaningful and essential part of my life as a child. While we knew that our little gifts did not come from Santa Claus, because we did not know such a person, we knew that Jesus was the reason for Christmas.
All files linked below are MP3 files.
Advent is a strange season in some ways because its focus is both looking backwards and looking forwards as we stand in the present. It is a time when we look back to remember that God's people looked with anticipation to the coming of the Messiah (the actual birth of the saviour which we celebrate at Christmas time). But Advent is also the time of year we are to begin life anew with the deep awareness that Jesus Christ will come again in a surprising future to judge the living and the dead as the Apostle's Creed reminds us.
R. G. Mitchell Family Books, Canada's largest Christian book wholesaler and retailer, declared bankruptcy in early September leaving over 150 unsecured creditors and $9 million in liabilities. The 74-year-old company has remained tight-lipped about reasons for the closure, and its sudden shutdown left many booksellers scrambling to find alternative distributors.
Precious in the sight of the Lord [is] the death of his saints.Psalms 116:15