Each department at church offices must find ways for aboriginal ministries' healing and reconciliation to become a permanent part of their mandate, according to assembly.

"The church likes the moderator. They really do," Rick Fee told Jean Morris. "They see the moderator as somebody through whom they can show appreciation to the church."

The first non-European general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches was honoured at General Assembly with the E. H. Johnson award. Ghanaian Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi made it clear why he is on the cutting edge of mission. "We must respond to others in the midst of suffering and engage with them in mission and cooperation," he said. "Never again should the church be silent or inactive when things around us lead to suffering and death.

When I graduated from Knox College in 1967 there was no dean, no female professors and almost no female students. Now at Vancouver School of Theology the academic dean/vice principal is a woman, an Anglican priest, a first-rate academic and administrator; about half the faculty are women and half the student body is female. That's just the beginning of the changes.

Is Wittiness UnChristian?

Knox College, The Presbyterian College, Vancouver School of Theology

The green hills and fertile coffee fields of Colombia seem worlds away from the busy roads, cold pavement and towering skyscrapers of Toronto. But the congregation at Glebe Church made the connection. Being small, they wondered what one congregation could do to help the plight of coffee farmers and their families. They didn't have to look far to discover a solution, and began selling fair trade coffee a year ago. Glebe doesn't make any profits from the sales — they simply want to promote the coffee and increase awareness of the issues surrounding it. "Farmers selling coffee get a fair price so they can educate their children, feed their families and improve their land," said Bob Elliott, an elder at Glebe.

St. Columba by the Lake, in Pointe Claire, PQ has been operating a fair trade store for nearly a decade. Over the years they have acted on scripture, raised their community profile and tripled their sales to about $400,000 a year. "We have our building on a very forgotten back street of suburban Montreal. We have very little visual prominence in the community, which is symbolic of what's happened to many suburban Christians. Their faith is private and hidden away," said Rev. Ian Fraser. "But we decided we wanted to be more prominent in what we believe and get the church back on the main street of the community."

The best sellers from Ten Thousand Villages

Andrew Bloomfield's hearing and comprehension are acute — it is only the method of communicating that needs to be facilitated.

"Time to wake up, girls!"

Ethics don't have to be expensive, it's just a matter of shopping around. Just let your taste buds and your budget decide.

I was in Mexico as part of a delegation to investigate accusations against Metallica Mining Co., a Canadian company operating through its subsidiary Minerala San Xavier. A sign meant for Minerala declared, "Foreigners go home — Traitors to the people — Go home now!" In the tiny village of Cerro de San Pedro (The Hill of Saint Peter), the company's presence has thrust residents into conflict. One-third of the town is in favour of the mine, the other two-thirds are opposed.

Fair trade began about 50 years ago in Africa and Europe when small farmers began working with international aid organizations. The cooperation helped protect farmers against fluctuating market prices and crooked intermediaries, and guaranteed them a dependable market. Alternative trade organizations soon evolved, run mostly by volunteers, where fairly traded products were sold. For-profit companies soon followed, and fair trade became a staple in many countries.

Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops from east and southern Africa, meeting in Nairobi for April's Global Week of Action on Trade, have joined farmers, workers, traders and civil society groups by calling for fair international trade.

Tomato farm workers in Florida won their battle for higher wages and better working conditions thanks to a mass rally in March. Workers, union members and faith-based supporters converged at Yum! Brands' headquarters in Louisville, Ky., Taco Bell's parent company. The agreement ended a consumer boycott of Taco Bell which began in 2001.

A petition supporting fair trade and signed by more than 180 religious leaders was presented to the World Trade Organization in April by Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary for the World Council of Churches. "We seek a world where global trade systems give priority to people who live in poverty," said Kobia.

"God hates religion" trumpets the website of The Meeting House, one of Canada's fastest growing churches. But don't apply the label "church" too freely: this particular gathering of Christians based in a converted movie theatre in Oakville, Ont., styles itself as "a church for people who aren't into church".

Sheila Conkey, daughter of Frank, a retired Presbyterian minister, and the late Agnes, a diaconal minister, was born in 1957 and knows more about the Presbyterian Church in Canada — through ministers, members and adherents — than the average Presbyterian. Sheila has lived in congregations in Cape Breton, Scarborough, Pickering Village and Ajax, Ont., where her father was minister. With her parents she has also visited many congregations around the country, with dad as special speaker, visiting friends and making new ones. Her numerous adopted aunts and uncles are mostly church people, part of Sheila's vast extended family, crossing not only Canada but into the United States and over to Britain.

Like most women doing a new thing, Dr. Alison Elliot wants to be remembered for her achievements as a human being, not as a woman. However, her gender is always mentioned in each introduction, from church chancels and AIDS hospice steps, to European political and church council lecterns, south Asian post-tsunami gatherings and Canadian academic auditoria. She is the first female moderator in the 445-year history of the Church of Scotland (and the second lay person, the last was named in the early decades of that history). She is the embodiment of the profound changes in her church. Professionally and personally she is comfortable with the change she leads, and the change she represents.