Author
Joanne MacOdrum
Minister, St. James' Forest, ON

To Be Sent

Charles Fensham

Stephen Neill once said, “If everything is mission then nothing is mission.” The way we use the word “mission” around the church does perhaps reduce it to something so familiar that it loses its meaning. What is mission? In churches we speak of “mission statements,” or we talk about participation in a “mission project” when we make a trip to Central America to paint a school. Sometimes we speak of a “mission” when our congregation reaches out into the community in service and witness. Others in the church associate the word mission with something churches do overseas, and we tend to call our overseas church personnel “missionaries.”

Way off on Bruxy Cavey

Rick Maranta

Hi Andrew, I just read your online article in the Record on Bruxy Cavey. Are you sure you have done your homework on him? I know him for almost 10 years and worked closely with him on his book and I can say you are way off. Grab a coffee with him sometime and I think you will be surprised. Have a listen to his sermons, they are all online.

Lent strictly Roman and Anglican

Prof. A. K. Maconochie (Retd. McGill)<br>Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC

It was with a certain amount of wry amusement that I read about anti-English attitudes by the Scots when “Kesting (Moderator, Church of Scotland) made her remarks in an address for Lent after visiting London.” ('Scots perpetuate sectarianism' PR April) I am seventy-seven and in my young day in Scotland we neither observed nor celebrated Lent. It was a strictly Roman and Anglican event. I checked with a contemporary friend from Aberdeen and she agreed. Nor for that matter did my wife, a Canadian from Ontario, remember Lent being observed. Back in the 16th century John Knox did not observe Lent because it was not mentioned in Scripture.

Good at raising questions, not good at answering them

Geoff Johnston<br>

The April issue was reasonably good at raising questions but not very good at answering them. David Harris began with a critique of the church's approach to the environment, to which I thought he gave rather short shrift. The Old Testament passages to which he refers, in Genesis and the Psalms, are in my view the ones with which he must begin. The New Testament references are not much help. John 3:16-17 does talk about God loving the world, but unless you believe that polar bears and palm trees are capable of repentance, “world” means society rather than creation as a whole.

Rice crisis spiritual

communications

ENI – The rice shortage, which the Philippines, an agricultural country, has been experiencing since March, is not only a matter of scarcity but also the result of a spiritual crisis, says an activist Roman Catholic priest.

Return on his wager

Rev. Rod Lamb,<br>Kenora, Ont.

While I don't always agree with the Record's editorials, editor David Harris deserves the return on his wager for God's Creation in April. He is right in saying we have been “sinfully selective” in “our own culpability” regarding abuse of the environment.

Astounded and shocked

John Vaudry,<br>Montreal

I am astounded and shocked at Laurence De Wolfe's January article on the baptism of Jesus. De Wolfe tells us that the first Christology was adoptionist. What about Paul in Philippians 2 and 2Corinthians 8? De Wolfe informs us that the Gospels are hopelessly full of contradictions and that “different New Testament communities had different ideas about where Jesus came from and what that meant.” Many students of the Bible, however, will feel that the differences should not be exaggerated and that there is a marvelous unity in the New Testament portrait of our Lord.

On metaphor and more

Rev. Mark Tremblay,<br>Kingston, Ont.

It is difficult to understand the intent of Duncan Cameron's letters (March '08 and April '07) as he ends up agreeing with what he seems to be trying to attack or correct. Duncan forgot that Zander Dunn's letter (March 2007) was responding to Calvin Brown's (January 2007) narrow interpretation on the virgin birth. Duncan agrees with me that if we are able to carry on a vibrant conversation then our denomination could be challenged; neither of us could accept a denomination that would not. However, I am not convinced we currently have that open climate; especially when statements like “must be believed by Christians,” and not sharing a belief in the virgin birth “undermines the whole authority of scripture” are used. Diversity of opinion I will celebrate, blind insistence on seeing things only from a perspective that mollifies a minority I cannot support – and neither could Luther nor any of the Reformers.