Trinity Hopeful for Future
The remaining congregation at Trinity, Oro, is enthusiastic, joyful and ready to re-build their church. At a congregational meeting at Trinity on Oct. 25, about […]
Magazine
Faith a hot issue
THE BARNA GROUP — American researcher George Barna has been surveying attitudes and responses to Christianity for several decades. He highlighted four major themes to emerge in recent years: “First of all,” noted Barna, “Americans are very comfortable with religious faith. Faith and spirituality remain hot issues in people's lives. (A large majority claims to be “deeply spiritual” and say that their religious faith is “very important,” but only 15 per cent of those who regularly attend a Christian church ranked their relationship with God as the top priority in their life.)
Families Like Ours
Each year I receive lengthy Christmas letters from former friends of mine and it is a little annoying to hear just how very well their lives are proceeding. Here's one example:
Merry Christmas dear friend,
2008 E.H. Johnson recipient named
The 2008 recipient of the E.H. Johnson Award is Mercy Amba Oduyoye of Ghana. The award is named for the late Rev. Dr. E.H. Johnson and is given to someone on “the cutting edge of mission.”
First Woman Elder
The first woman elder of Han-Ca East Presbytery was ordained at St. Timothy's, Etobicoke, on Oct. 28, which also marked the congregation's 11th anniversary. Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon, principal of Knox College preached, speaking about God's original intention that men and women work together as partners. From the left: Young Girl Kim (new elder), David Son (associate minister), Si Young Kim (new session member), Seung Ho Cho (Clerk of Session), In Kee Kim (senior minister), Wan Sup Myung (session member), Song Chan Chung (re-elected session member), Soo Jin Chung (associate minister), Hae Duck Yun (new elder), Dorcas Gordon, and Chang Ro Karl (session member).
A Winter Birthday
Matthew (2:1-16) and Luke (2:1-20), the Biblical nativity narrators, do not specify the date of Jesus' birth. Still, as Northrop Frye remarks in The Great Code: The Bible and Literature, “The Gospels are not biography.” John (21:25) had already concluded, “And there are many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.”
Ordaining African Women
A consultation on gender, power and leadership, sponsored in part by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, was held in Kenya over the summer. I was privileged to participate, along with 48 others from 17 countries, including seven students from St. Paul's United Theological College (the other co-sponsor) in Kenya.
Oro Decision Delayed
The Presbytery of Barrie has delayed deciding whether to dissolve the congregation of Trinity, Oro, until February. In August, most of the congregation of the church, about 100 kilometers north of Toronto, decided to leave the denomination and form a new non-denominational church.
Yoga not Christ-like
ENI — Leaders of Britain's Hindu community are expressing disbelief and outrage at claims by two English church ministers that yoga should be banned from churches. Amarjeet-singh Bhamra, a Hindu spokesperson in Britain said, “It is very disappointing that such medieval-like irrational prejudice is still allowed to flourish in the Christian church in 21st century multicultural Britain.”
Table Manners
On Friday night the community gathered in the cramped choir of the Abby Church at Iona. The order of service seemed similar to ours: familiar prayers and hymns were included; after the sermon, the feast. Following a communion hymn, a few members got up and brought to the table the ewer, the loaf and two chalices. The celebrant began with familiar words, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” After the Great Eucharistic Prayer, he turned, breaking the loaf and having eaten of it, passed halves in two directions. Each person in turn passed each piece on to the next, and it continued until all were fed. After eating, he raised the ewer with the familiar words, then poured into each of the two large chalices. No one moved from his or her place. Everyone served each other.
Secular Fundamentalism
There's been a lot of crazy, even murderous religion in the news lately. Some of it Muslim, some of it Christian, all of it nuts.
Catamount Choices
November is deer hunting season. When you live a rural lifestyle, in my neck of the woods at least, you grow most of your vegetables in a garden, gather a lot of your fruit in the bush, collect a good portion of your fish from a stream or lake and hunt for most of your meat and fowl in the woods. Anything less and you are missing out on what a rural lifestyle in the Cariboo-Chilcotin has to offer; you might just as well be living in the city. Each hunting and gathering endeavour has a month assigned to it. November is deer hunting.
Lay leader lauded
ENI — Claire Randall, a lay Presbyterian leader and the first woman to serve as general secretary of the US National Council of Churches, is being remembered for her leadership of the council during a turbulent era.
Education is Catalyst for Change
When fewer than 25 per cent of youth in one of Toronto’s most poverty-stricken neighbourhoods apply to college or university, it’s easy to understand why […]
Blessed by Prayers
St. Columba-By-The-Lake, Montreal, has meant a lot to me. It was the community into which my first-born daughter came to life, and where she was given the new life of baptism. I suppose it was also our “house of prayer,” although Presbyterian churches are rarely distinguished as prayer centres. Of course St. Columbans do pray and, like Leap year, prayer occasionally is a topic.
A Grave Sin
Authority comes in at least two guises. The first is given to a person by an organization through position and responsibility. The second is an inner gift or charism. Rev. Carey Nieuwhof was given authority by the Presbyterian Church when he was ordained a minister of word and sacrament and called to Trinity, Oro. The latter is a gift he has in spades: Tall, eloquent and bright, he is a charismatic presence leading worship.
A Closed Mind
Philosopher Karl Popper talks about having an attitude of reasonableness in a debate. The attitude of reasonableness suggests that two combatants come to the table on either side of a debate knowing that they are right, willing to convince the other person they are right, but accepting that the other person has a viable view and that they may have to adopt the opponent's viewpoint. My position is that believers have an attitude of reasonableness. Atheists do not. In fact atheists cannot be reasonable for reasons I intend to explain.
Christ the King
Gospel for Nov. 25, 2007:Luke 23:33-43
The One-Millionth Tonne
After 24 years of helping to fight hunger around the world, Canadian Foodgrains Bank has distributed its one-millionth tonne of food. That's enough to fill more than 15,000 box cars with bags of grain—a train that would stretch approximately 290 kilometres.
Museum Open on Sundays
The National Presbyterian Museum, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, is open Sunday afternoons until Dec. 16. The museum stores over 400 years of artifacts from the Presbyterian Church including missionary memorabilia, Communion tokens, books and clerical robes. It also features a reproduced minister's study with numerous out-of-print books including writings by John Calvin and Institutes of the Christian Religion, published in 1608. A small 19th-century chapel, featuring oil lamps and a pump organ, provides a place for groups to worship while stepping back in time. Admission is free though donations are appreciated. To make an appointment call 416 469-1345, or email presbymuseum@sympatico.ca. The museum is located at 415 Broadview Ave., Toronto.