I'm about to close the door behind me when I take one last look into the room. It holds a million memories. Memories of days spent with people I loved, doing a job I truly loved.

The Mocha Mission Fair Trade Choir is: Stephen Kendall, Assembly Office, guitar and vocal Don Muir, Assembly Office, vocal Guy Smagghe, Presbyterian World Service & […]

It was in Japan where she grew up that Janette McIntosh first understood the connection between the environment and humanity. In the concrete jungle of Osaka, where the smell of burning rubber wafted from working class homes, McIntosh saw her neighbours struggling to make ends meet while their health deteriorated, the result of small manufacturing shops in their basements. She also remembers the fresh smell of sushi and the glorious month each summer when her family – three siblings and missionary parents Rev. Jack and Beth McIntosh – would escape to Lake Nojiri for vacation. "I realized there's a beautiful world out there of God's creation and wonder to be thankful for."

Gardening as a cure to gun crime? For Solomon Boyé, a former elder at Victoria Royce Church, Toronto, the two ideas are a match. "Nature is resilient but you have to abide by the rules," said Boyé. "If you don't weed, the plants will be choked out. If you don't water, the plants will wither and die. We use the garden to teach patience and caring."

The May 2005 issue of the Record featured a cover story on fair trade – the practice of paying farmers a fair wage for their work. The article focused on coffee (which ranks second to oil in world trade), but there are many other fair trade products available, many of which can be delivered right to your door. In an effort to encourage congregations to switch to fairly traded coffee, the Record announced a contest to award those who made the switch. The response was tremendous, with contestants submitting creative and touching artwork, poetry, essays and songs. We even heard from congregations that had undertaken fair trade projects but didn't manage to enter the contest. Leaside Church in Toronto was one such congregation. As a direct response to the Record article, Cathy Finlay, a Leaside member for more than 30 years and an elder for 20, brought the issue to session. She urged them to support social justice by serving fairly traded coffee at Sunday coffee hour. "Being a farmer's daughter, I'm concerned about farmers being treated fairly so they can have an improved quality of life," Finlay told the Record. "It's a social justice issue for me."

While concerned churches have already taken small steps to reduce their environmental footprint, most of the damage comes from the energy buildings use. Typically, the grander the architecture, the harder it is to heat, power and light efficiently. With our better understanding of environmental issues and the higher cost of fuel, many congregations would build very differently if they had a chance to start from scratch. Here are some simple steps that can make a significant difference.

The Presbyterian Church's Social Handbook

Knox, Waterloo, Ontario The original church was built in 1888. The current building was erected in 1927 and enlarged in 1957. Rev. Linda Ashfield said, […]

We hear the call of the Earth We believe that caring for life on Earth is a spiritual commitment People and other species have the […]

The average Canadian wedding costs about $20,000 and the American wedding industry pulls in about $72 billion each year. When stressed-out brides are frantically planning for the dress, the flowers, the cake and photographer, who is planning for the marriage?

Ours is a traditional marriage, nurtured and supported by participation in the Christian church and by faith that was shaped in our original family and church experiences. We met at a PYPS meeting in 1957 and married in 1962.

The artist has placed herself in the middle of this leaky boat. "There is an underlying questioning and examining of my own life and the life of my close friends and the direction of our journey," she says. Inspired, in part, by Ship of Fools by Hieronymus Bosch, the painting is filled with many biblical allusions. Note the Alpha and Omega on the sails. On the piece of paper in the bottom right hand corner are two quotations from the Book of Revelation and Leonard Cohen's song Everybody Knows. Revelation: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away."

Corporations can be rewarded for their socially responsible work through PR News, an American publication serving the public relations and communications industry. Its Corporate Social Responsibility Awards recognizes goodwill and philanthropy in corporations, non-profits and NGOs throughout the world. Maintaining a positive reputation through highlighting socially responsible initiatives is becoming increasingly important, and the awards showcase organizations that have brought such efforts into the limelight.

How do you topple a giant? As the biblical David discovered in the Valley of Elah, one little pebble can fell Goliath.

My interest in visiting the church and the Evangelical Seminary in Cuba goes back to contacts with Central American Christians beginning in the late 1980s. My then-congregation in Ottawa shared with others in the sponsorship of two families from El Salvador, whose robust faith and hope made me want to visit the places they came from and learn more about the sources of their spiritual strength, their culture and the political struggles they had faced. By 1993 an opportunity arose for me to go to Nicaragua. I served there until the end of 1996.

As a by-product of corporate disasters such as Enron, consumers care more about where their money is going and what it is supporting – be it donations given to an emergency aid agency or extra income invested in mutual funds. In the church, where ethics take centre stage, wise stewardship of both individual and church-wide resources is a particularly hot issue. Concerns inside and outside the church about corporate performance have spawned the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical or socially responsible investing (SRI) – issues that have their beginnings in the church and continue to grow.

Torture. Persecution. Imprisonment. Fleeing for your life. Most people won't experience any of these things during their lifetime. Martha Kuwee Kumsa experienced them all. She now accepts her struggles and recognizes how the perilous road of her past has shaped her identity. "The principles and values I learned during childhood, and from my family, my faith, from Marxism and animism have harmonized in a very nice way to make me who I am," she said. "I'm a life in process."

The Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility, along with equivalent bodies from the United States and United Kingdom, created a framework for analyzing how corporations perform on a variety of socially responsible factors. Released in 1995, Bench Marks – Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility – sets down comprehensive criteria for a corporation's commitment to its principles and bench marks for companies measuring their performance.

The Presbyterian Church has two trust funds – the pension fund and the consolidated fund. (The Record is an investor in the consolidated fund). The pension fund – for all ministers and employees at church offices and others paid by the church and participating in the pension program – has $162 million in assets. The consolidated portfolio covers the rest of the church's available funds, with a variable market value of about $72 million-approximately $20 million of which are investments by some local churches and church organizations – with an annual indicated cash value of $2.7 million, for a cash yield on the portfolio of 3.6 per cent.

Is Christ your financial advisor? by Amy MacLachlan As a by-product of corporate disasters such as Enron, consumers care more about where their money is […]