I'm a double PK (Preacher's Kid — both of my parents are ministers) and so church has been my second home. I don't go to church because I have to, or because I feel obligated to. I go because I want to be there. Being part of a church gives me a sense of community. I don't know how it is for other ministers' kids; but my congregation has been very supportive of me and my sisters.
One presbyterian congregation is taking it upon itself to help the fishing community in Sri Lanka. Bridlewood, Toronto, has launched the Sri Lanka Tsunami Fishing Boat Project in hopes of raising enough money to provide fishermen with new boats and nets, or repair old boats when possible. One well-equipped new boat costs about $5,000 Cdn.
This past year I completed a survey of 240 young adults who grew up in the church. The survey was a result of curiosity and concern. Since 1984, we have lost approximately 10,000 children from our Sunday schools each decade.
It has been nine months since massive waves devastated South East Asia in December; wiping out homes, businesses, schools, individuals, families and entire villages. Countless media stories have followed the millions in donations being made. Still, even with checks and balances and a renewed commitment to ensuring funds get to where they're supposed to go, difficulties persist. Corrupt government officials, military control, armed rebel groups and humanitarian violations all challenge aid distribution.
Sunday morning. The birds are chirping. The sun is shining. And with muttered grumblings that you'll make up for it next week, you lie down and get back to dreaming. In our world today, what does it mean to be a Christian youth? It means having to find that delicate balance between young adulthood and your faith. Contemporary adolescents are seen as restless, disillusioned, rebellious and irreverent. Adults are quick to argue that we have too much time on our hands and don't spend enough of it in the church. If that's not the case, then teenagers are anxious to believe in anything, so long as it's radically different from the faith in which they were raised. But, let's just take a quick look at our daily influences: music, television, pop culture, high school, graduation, university, girlfriends, boyfriends, sports, volunteering, summer jobs, homework and always in the background, our parents.
The Children and Worship program is celebrating 20 years of offering renewed ideas for Sunday school. Based on Montessori principles, young children are taught about God and the Bible using interactive, visual and creative methods, in an effort to help them experience the stories as well as learn about them.
A new drinking water regulation from the Ministry of the Environment will relieve many Ontario churches of costly testing and equipment requirements. The new regulation, which came into effect in June, allows churches that own and operate certain types of drinking-water systems to either post signs saying that their water has not been tested or test their water according to steps outlined by the ministry.
The Record had a strong showing at the annual Associated Church Press and Canadian Church Press awards. Amy MacLachlan beat 15 other entries to capture first place at ACP for her June 2004 news story, East Toronto Presbytery Says No to Temporary Approval of Same-sex Marriage. ACP judges Canadian and American talent.
A Presbyterian minister in Ekwendeni, Malawi, has warned male and female nursing students not to exploit the proximity of their accommodation by engaging in casual sex. "Please take yourselves as students with an agenda to fulfill," said Rev. Maurice Munthali, the acting general secretary of the Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian. "Bringing you together should not be interpreted to mean you should be engaging in sexual relationships. This is the place of God. Try to keep it holy."
The Presbyterian Church is part of the fourth largest tsunami aid project approved by the Canadian government in its tsunami matching funds program. According to the Canadian International Development Agency's website, the project in India is only surpassed by efforts led by the three aid giants — Red Cross, World Vision and UNICEF.
The Presbytery of Pickering has figured out a recipe for growth: take a strong devotion to mission, add a generous willingness to adapt to change, and sprinkle with multiculturalism. Mix well.
So another Harry Potter book is about to be published and the critical e-mails are already doing the rounds. But those who wrote the entire world about the hellish horrors of HP may well be correct. Harry, Hermione and Ron could simply be lulling us into a false sense of security before they turn us all into collective newts. Thing is, the problem goes much further than J. K. Rowling and all her sordid works.
The Canadian Bible Society is conducting a coast-to-coast bike ride in honour of its centennial anniversary. Participants will cover more than 7,800 kilometres, cycling through every province in 62 days. The ride starts July 2, 2006. The event celebrates the society workers who once travelled to communities by foot or on horseback, offering Bibles to those who needed them. The society hopes to raise $500,000 to be used for Bible translation, publication and distribution projects.
Canadian churches sent 10,000 tonnes of wheat and 1,320 tonnes of soybeans to North Korea through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Presbyterian World Service & Development is the lead agency for the shipment. CFGB member churches contributed more than $1 million,matched by more than $4 million from the Canadian International Development Agency.
You might say Waterloo North Church has already been bucking the Presbyterian trend. Rather than offering a single, lightly-attended Sunday service, it has two on Sunday — with 80 people attending in the morning and about 250 at night. The congregation also has a unique approach to mission, where Haiti is the country of choice. It stems from the idea that this developing country has no shortage of labour but needs the money and the materials to build better lives. "We're simply trying to fulfill our mission statement by being a people who continually share the good news of Jesus Christ in word and deed," said Waterloo's minister, Rev. Dwight Strain. "And that often means just giving people what they need."
"Boy did I ever get a surprise!" exclaimed Linda as she opened the door of our little travel trailer.
There are at least 1,200 Protestant churches with more than 2,000 weekly worship attendants across the United States, a study from an American seminary has discovered. The figure was nearly double the number of megachurches previously thought. "We hope and pray that we can help correct misperceptions and better network these churches with each other," said Dave Travis of Leadership Network, a partner in the project.
Moderator of the 2004 General Assembly and new General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency received an honorary doctorate from Knox College in May.
In his award-winning essay on Celtic Christianity (Presbyterian Record, April 2004), Philip Newell writes about "listening within life for the beat of God's presence." Listening is not something we do all that well in Western culture; talking and shouting is more typical. Heckling question periods in Parliament are the quintessential formalization of basketball players trashtalking.
The hardest task in this book was picking my Bible. I saw this book sitting on my editor's bookshelf and immediately accepted the challenge. I thought this would be exactly the thing to introduce me to the Bible and help me gain a nice, rounded experience of the different texts.