Magazine

133rd General Assembly : Get yer YARs Out

Allyssa de Bruijn

Being a Young Adult Representative at this year's General Assembly is one of the most unexpectedly enjoyable things I have done in my life. In all honesty, I had no idea what to expect. I was being thrown into the inner workings of the church I had grown up in, and I did not know if I would come out the other side. I felt unprepared and inexperienced and I was starting to get uneasy about the whole affair. Fortunately for me, when I arrived at the beautiful campus at Waterloo, my uneasiness was quenched when the smiling face of John-Peter Smit, a YAR group leader along with his wife Tori, greeted me. He took me to a magical land where there were 15 other young people, all of whom were quite confused. That was the beginning of our adventure. We were told about the procedure of assembly and the general order of things, but there is a big difference between being told what will happen and experiencing something as it is happening.

Common Acts of Living

Lorraine Johnson

“One day we stuck a shovel in the ground, and we never looked back,” says Pastor Mike Mills of Advent Lutheran, Toronto, telescoping the church's speedy decision-making process into an even speedier description. “The congregation held a vote on Sunday. By Wednesday, we were mapping out plots, and by the following Sunday we were digging.” Nestled in an island of land — locally nicknamed the “peanut” — created by a split in Don Mills Road north of Sheppard Avenue in Toronto, the grounds of Advent in early spring look much like the grounds of the highrise apartments that dominate the neighbourhood. Yellow dandelion flowers poke up through the newly greening lawn; tiny blossoms on maple trees dangle from branches turning lush with leaves. But tucked among the traditional lawn landscape of this church are dozens of freshly dug garden plots. Some fan out in a circle, others line up in a neat soldier row. Some are lined with wooded dividers; others have narrow paths of grass between them. But come summer, all will be overflowing with vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers.

Challenging Assumptions

Will Ingram

Philip Jenkins should be read by anyone interested in the future of Christianity. In The Next Christendom, Jenkins called attention to the fact that the growth of the Church in the “global South” was a phenomenon that had been largely overlooked but which will have dramatic effects upon the future of our faith. “In our lifetimes,” he observes in the earlier book, “the centuries-long North Atlantic captivity of the church is drawing to an end.”

Mullin a Woman of Distinction

communications

Rev. Margaret Mullin, executive director of Anishinabe Fellowship Centre, part of Winnipeg Inner City Missions, was honoured with the 2007 YMCA/YWCA Manitoba Women of Distinction award. Mullin won in the Arts and Culture category, held at a gala dinner in Winnipeg in May.

The Worst Stories Ever Told

amymaclachlan

Are there women out there who actually enjoy reading books that target Christian women living cookie-cutter lifestyles where men are hopeless and helpless, and women must tend the family and keep the home fires burning? What about books like Alice Munro's Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, where a mind is challenged, lives are deep, dynamic and multi-faceted, and not everything has a happy ending? Even for those who like their fiction “lite,” surely there are plenty of worthy novels out there to entertain.

Food Tours, Fiddling and Finances at CFGB

communications

Study tours hosted by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank have been announced for 2008. Tentative destinations include: West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia) or Central America (Nicaragua, El Salvador) in January and February, and a youth tour to Honduras in February. It is not too early to apply for one of these educational trips, where participants get to experience how CFGB is impacting communities. Visit CFGB's website at www.foodgrainsbank.ca for more information.

Marketing Spirituality

Joel Coppieters

Walk Through the Bible founder Bruce Wilkinson may not have been a total unknown when he wrote The Prayer of Jabez, but the little book's nine million sales were certainly helped by marketing creativity. The list of spin-offs include three children's versions, The Prayer of Jabez Journal, The Prayer of Jabez Devotional for Children, The Prayer of Jabez Devotional for Adults, The Prayer of Jabez Bible Study, The Prayer of Jabez for Women, a 90-minute audio version, a video, the musical companion The Prayer of Jabez Music … A Worship Experience, backpacks, jewellery, Christmas ornaments, vanilla-scented candles, mouse pads, and even a framed painting of Jabez. After refusing a proposal for Jabez candy bars, licensing agent Leslie Nunn Reed told the Los Angeles Times, “We want to be careful about not over-commercializing this.”

Japan needs Youth Missionaries

amymaclachlan

Rev. Ron Wallace remembers Japan well from the 1970s, when there were 2,000 missionaries working in that country. He calls those the glory days for mission work in Japan. He was a missionary there from 1976-1981 (and was one of nine Canadian Presbyterians there).

Sights, Sounds and Smells of India

Amy Maclachlan

As I begin to discover this country of a billion people, it doesn't take long before my mind is whirling. India is full of complexities and contradictions, of old and new, of beauty and disgust, of excess and absence. I'm travelling with three Presbyterian Church representatives: Wilma Welsh, the moderator, has been here several times before. The warm embraces and knowing smiles she receives make it seem like she is returning home. Ron Wallace, associate secretary of International Ministries, has also visited in the past, often knowing what to expect at each destination and rhyming off historical facts during long and brutally bumpy drives. And Sarah Kim, director of the Women's Missionary Society, is an India first-timer like me, hesitant as we strike out to new places, yet still enjoying what the country offers. In two weeks' time, when Sarah and I get to go home, Ron and Wilma — a moderator's work is never done! — will head to the country's north for a partner's meeting in Kashmir, where border disputes with Pakistan make the area vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Eternal Mystery

Fairley Ritchie

Joan Chittister writes that friendship “colours the very air we breathe. We can see it in the eyes of old women, in the kitchens of the women they love. We can hear it in the voices of one young woman giggling to another over the phone. We can feel it beating in our own hearts on lonely rainy days in faraway places.” It has fascinated philosophers, spiritual teachers and mystics, artists and poets, yet remains “eternal mystery, eternal desire.” Chittister draws in threads from classical scholars such as the author of Ecclesiastes, Cicero, and Ælred of Clairvaux, “who wrote a theology on friendship founded on the belief that 'God is friendship.'” But these views of spiritual life faded. “In a world dominated by war, famine, plague, and oppression, the God of Love lost out to God the Judge and Jesus the Lord.”

Giving the Gift of Language in Rural China

amymaclachlan

“An increased education opens doors and opportunities,” said Debbie Burns, who had no prior experience as a teacher, before going to China last summer to teach English. “It can change lives. It can make a difference. Getting an education is a big benefit in rural areas.”