Belle River's Derek Congram says he cries when he watches documentaries about mass graves and ethnic cleansing but he's all business when he's the one at the bottom of a freshly dug pit surrounded by skeletons and rotting corpses.
Canadian Presbyterians immediately responded to cries for help from the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, donating more than $77,000 as of September. The money will help Church World Service and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, the relief wing of the Presbyterian Church (USA), clean up the devastated areas, meet the immediate needs of survivors and assist in the rebuilding process.
Purpose Driven Life, What on Earth Am I Here For? Rick Warren Zondervan Press, $18.50 Heart of Christianity, Rediscovering a Life of Faith Marcus Borg […]
Multiculturalism isn't something one historically equates with the Presbyterian church. But the Presbytery of West Toronto is changing that. It boasts four congregations that cater to distinct groups — Ghanaian, Hungarian, Spanish and Portuguese. Several other congregations have significant multicultural contingents. They even have a church in Bermuda. "The Presbyterian church is currently holding services in 17 languages on a typical Sunday," said Gordon Haynes, associate secretary for Canada Ministries. "That's phenomenal. And West Toronto has picked up on that."
The first question is why Celine Dion was on the Larry King show at all. Presumably Larry's team of producers did not sit around all day discussing who would be the most astute commentator on the New Orleans disaster, settling not on a state governor or a Nobel laureate engineer but on a singer from Quebec.
Horn Lake is my favorite place in the entire world. It is three hours to the west from the nearest village of Williams Lake. It forms the headwater of the west branch of the Homathko River or Mosley Creek on the very western edge of the dry interior Chilcotin Plateau. It is 80 kilometres from the Pacific Ocean where the Homathko empties into the deep fiord of Butte Inlet whose entrance is just north of Desolation Sound and guarded by Quadra and Cortez Islands. Once thought to be the best option for a rail-linked seaport with the rest of Canada, the Chilcotin-Homathko-Butte Inlet alternative lost out to the much longer and more difficult route through the Fraser Canyon and the much lesser natural harbour of Vancouver in Canada's most famous political scandal called the C.P.R. The results were that the rough gravel road now ends just beyond Horn Lake and access to Butte Inlet is still by water or ancient Indian trail.
Rev. Richard Fee was formally inducted into his new position as General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency on Sept. 28. He succeeds Rev. Ian Morrison, who has retired. Fee was previously executive director of Presbyterian World Service & Development.
Losing a minister is never easy. Losing three is even worse. That's exactly what happened at St. Andrew's, Kitchener, Ont. Despite the setback, the congregation is regaining its footing and looking to the future. "The dust has settled, people got to speak their minds and got questions out of their hearts," said Rev. Aubrey Botha, interim moderator. "They're ready to move on; to start being new and doing new things. They're very excited."
"We have to be Canadians first, and then other things are secondary or third degree. Multiculturalism up to now has been fantastic, it has brought us to a very important level, but we now have to take this to the next stage."
In the multicultural post-Christian era, theological schools across the country are taking a long look at how they prepare students for active ministry — changing not only the curriculum, but also how it is delivered to a widely diverse group of students.
Mysteries abound in a sad story concerning vandalism in a once-Presbyterian cemetery in southern Ontario. In mid-summer, vandals toppled 31 headstones in Primrose Presbyterian Cemetery and two other closed cemeteries. No one knows who the perpetrators are, but neither does anyone seem to know who even holds the deed to the property – and therefore, the repair bill.
Food aid agencies like the Canadian Foodgrains Bank can now use 50 percent of their federal funding to purchase grain from developing countries. Prior regulations allowed only 10 per cent of these funds to be used for foreign grain. The announcement was heralded by CFBG executive director Jim Cornelius.
I never really understood the power of Remembrance Day until I led a service in a long-term care centre on November 11. Paying attention to Remembrance Day has been part of my life since I was a child either by attending services at school, or at the local cenotaph. Church services that I have attended, or led, early in November, always had at least a portion dedicated to remembering the lives of those who died in war, and also included prayers for peace. Those services have been memorable and important for me, but not transforming. Perhaps it was because there was always a distance, a chasm, that separated me in time and experience from the pain and suffering of war. When called to remember, I was casting back over decades in an act of respect.
Under the influence of Marxism, Cuba was an atheist state. Constitutional reforms in 1992 made it secular. This opening of the churches has created a sudden growth. Pastor Dora Valentin, middle, of Iglesia Presbiterina Reformada, Luyano, has seen her congregation grow 200 per cent over the past quarter century. According to her, there is a well-educated generation but it knows nothing about the church. Church is something to which they feel called, but of which they have no experience. Of the 600,000 church goers on the island, half are Protestant, though most were born Roman Catholics. Presbyterians are an active presence in this new Cuba.
I received letters in response to my July/August column. Some were offended I would suggest Sunday morning service is often a waste of time. Others agreed. I present one of these letters in place of my column this month. It is by Rev. Laurence DeWolfe, of Saint David's, Halifax. He also teaches preaching at the Atlantic School of Theology.
Project Ploughshares, an ecumenical peace agency of the Canadian Council of Churches, is launching a campaign advocating the control of the sale of small arms and light weapons. The public awareness and education campaign is designed to inspire Canadians to call for greater governmental commitment to control small arms and deal with the underlying conditions of the weapons problem. "We're hoping that Canadians will see that these weapons need to be controlled and in places where they are already causing problems on the ground, that the government is making an effort to fix the problem," said Lynne Griffiths-Fulton, program associate at Project Ploughshares.
The World Council of Churches has urged nations to strive for a world without poverty as it called for an International Day of Prayer for Peace on September 21, the same day as the United Nations International Day of Peace.
I have been a husband for nearly 10 years now, so needless to say I know virtually everything there is to know about my wife's needs. For instance, I know that she can get by without food for 40 days and 40 nights, but definitely not without chocolate. I also know that she needs clean laundry, flowers, nurturing, romance, protection, a listening ear and clothes that fit. Whereas my basic needs are…well, pizza.
Years ago when I watched the movie Schindler's List, I wondered how a ranking German officer came to be such a courageous man of conscience in saving a thousand Polish Jews from the fate of Hitler's final solution. What propels a person to live out ethical principles when the stakes are so high and the prevailing culture so seductive?
The Ontario government has banned the use of sharia law and other religious tribunals, including Jewish and Christian. "There will be no religious arbitration in Ontario," Premier Dalton McGuinty told the Canadian Press. "There will be one law for all Ontarians." New legislation prohibiting religious arbitration could be introduced this fall. It is still unclear exactly what the ban will entail, and how it will be implemented and enforced.