We're excited about the future and to make room for people to come and worship and to come to Christ,” said Rev. Sabrina Caldwell, associate minister at Oakridge, London, where nearly 600 people come to worship. The Presbytery of London's largest congregation, which already has two Sunday services and a contemporary Saturday evening service, is looking to expand its doors. “The more the merrier!”
The Far Country
ENI – Anglican Bishop Nelson Onono-Onweng has called for immediate action to bring an end to 20 years of violent conflict in his northern Uganda diocese which civil society groups say is one of the worst war zones on the planet, worse even than Iraq.
The Record's Amy MacLachlan was the big winner at the annual Canadian Church Press awards in Winnipeg in May, taking three awards for three 2005 articles. She won first and third prize in the magazine news story category, for a story on bullying she wrote for Glad Tidings and for a piece on Sharia laws in Ontario. She received another first place in the narrative category for her Israel travelogue in October. The judge noted, "It addresses many of the fears of would-be travellers and shows how open and caring she found the people to be."
It's -13 C on a Saturday morning and most streets in downtown Chatham, Ont., are quiet.
The End of Words: The Language of Reconciliation in a Culture of Violence, Richard Lischer, Eerdmans.
When I was about seven I befriended a huge brilliantly colored black and orange caterpillar. It looked like a lively fat jujube with hair. Grandma told me it would change into a butterfly. I could just imagine how big, beautiful and brilliantly coloured a butterfly it would be. With Grandma's help and the aid of a gallon pickle jar, I soon had a terrarium with the caterpillar suitably ensconced. Grandma talked me into keeping the thing in our screened porch instead of the bedroom I shared with my teenage aunt, who if memory serves me correctly, wasn't that keen on bugs and spiders.
General Assembly: June 4th–9th, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ont.
Reuben St. Louis, the youth in mission coordinator for the church is launching his first CD on June 10th at Knox, Waterloo, Ont. A freewill offering that night will be sent to Presbyerian World Service and Development's Towards a World Without AIDS campaign. For more information: www.reubenstlouis.ca.
Stories are the heartbeat of human civilization. Philosophy, politics and economics may define an age academically, but our heart and soul go to Hector, Hamlet, Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina. • So too, the most popular parts of the Bible are the stories of Moses and Joshua, the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, whose tales of plagues and crumbling walls, of sin and redemption move us in ways far beyond the complexities of Pauline theology, however important it may be.
Sympathy cards poured in after my husband died, some from people I didn't even know. The phone rang constantly, visitors were at the door and I felt surrounded by a cocoon of love and caring.
Krystal MeyersEssential Records
The Gospel According to The Simpsons, Mark Pinsky, Westminster John Knox Press.
“It's the theology, stupid!” What if it is? What if our diagnosis of the ills of the church — shrinking numbers and diminishing expectations, based on changes in social norms, charges of irrelevance and outdated sermons and liturgy and music — misses the heart of our problem: theology, doctrine, what we believe?
A Long Eclipse: The Liberal Protestant Establishment and the Canadian University, 1920-1970, Catherine Gidney, McGill-Queens University Press.
The majority of Canadians and Americans believe in the resurrection, and that salvation comes through Christ, according to a recent Ispos Reid survey. However, a significant percentage thinks Jesus' crucifixion was faked.
The Canadian government announced a final agreement concerning Indian residential schools, dropping the Presbyterian Church's liability cap from $2.1 million to $1.32 million. Rev. Stephen Kendall, the church's principal clerk, praised the announcement made in Parliament on April 25.
The benediction is always at the end.
For the first time ever, the provisional Book of Reports for this month's General Assembly were posted online (www.presbyterian.ca) during the first week of May, at the same time reports were sent to commissioners, marking a more public approach to the business of the assembly. The reports detail the work of the church's various committees and departments over the last year and include recommendations to be voted on.
Not a day goes by, it seems to me, without some newspaper of magazine article that somehow touches upon the moral, ethical, spiritual or religious zeitgeist. So, over the Easter weekend I clipped random stories. Here's but a taste of those clippings — they are a snapshot of our times, they contradict each other, they support each other, they paint a portrait of the world in which we live. I present them without comment. However, I invite you to comment on them. What do you make of it all? Send your comments, or clippings, to my attention and perhaps they too will form a time capsule.