Author
communications

St. Columba, Blantrye, Malawi

communications

The first service, attended by more than a thousand people, started at 6:30 a.m. After the service, three hours later, Rev. Hans Kouwenberg baptized 11 children. The second service was just as long, included communion, and the induction of Rev. Glen Inglis as Synod Development Commission Projects Secretary, as an assistant at St. Columba. And then, Kouwenberg dedicated a new school building.

O-Be-Joyful Fiesta

Rev. Dr. J. H. (Hans) Kouwenberg

Margaret Avison, a much-celebrated Canadian poet described as “one of the great religious poets” of the 20th century—and who spent a while sojourning among Presbyterians at Knox, Spadina, Toronto, from the 1960s to the 1990s—passed away at age 89 on July 27 from complications following hip surgery after a fall. She won the prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize four years ago and was twice a winner of the Governor General's Award for poetry in a literary career that spanned 40 years. Her first award-winning book of poetry, Winter Sun, was published in 1960. She became what she called a “committed Christian” in 1963 by “listening” more deeply to the message of the Bible and, after that time, as is so evident in her next book, The Dumbfounding (1966), she often wrote about her deeply held, yet private, personal Christian faith. Many critics compare her work to the great metaphysical poets of the 17th century.

Code for conversion

communications

WCC — Three major Christian bodies are supporting a code of conduct to guide activities seeking converts to Christianity. The World Evangelical Alliance recently joined the World Council of Churches and the Vatican in supporting the code at an August consultation in France. The code is expected to be finalized by 2010.

Confessions of a People Pleaser

communications

This morning I awoke to the sound of a jackhammer. I thought at first I was snoozing inside a construction zone but after a few shakes of my head I realized it was our old friend Flicker. Flicker is a rather large common flicker (Colaptes auratus) who drops by from time to time to rattle our cage, literally. This morning he was doing a particularly good job of it. I threw my legs over the side of the bed and stalked out of the bedroom to peer through the kitchen window and watch him. He was standing on the board on which our bird feeder is mounted and bashing his beak against the board for all he was worth (flickers are in the woodpecker family). The board is attached to our metal deck railing and so he was setting up a vibration through it and the deck and the whole wall of the house. The wall of the house acted like a huge amplifier. The racket was so loud that the windows were rattling. But it wasn't the noise that got to me.

Covenant Renewed

communications

The Presbyterian Church was one of eight denominations to sign a covenant with Canada's First Nations at a ceremony in Winnipeg on National Aboriginal Day, June 21st. The renewed covenant acknowledges and celebrates the positive examples of cooperation between churches and First Nations since the covenant was signed for the first time in 1987.

Mission Team Attacked

communications

Ten members of Dallas's Highland Park Presbyterian Church were ambushed and robbed by four armed bandits while on a mission trip to Kenya in August. Three of the 10 members were kicked and punched by men armed with rifles and a machete. The group was travelling through remote jungle northeast of Nairobi on the way to install an irrigation system when they were accosted.

Thanksgiving Through Suffering

Rev. Dr. J. H. Hans Kouwenberg

Rev. Dr. John Gladstone, one of Canada's late princes of preachers, offers wise insight in a sermon-based on Luke 17:15, 18:11 and 22:17 – entitled Graduating In Gratitude which states there are three levels of thanksgiving. The first, most rudimentary, is basic, obvious thanksgiving for the grace of gifts and mercies experienced; the second, more problematic, is the kind of thanks which compares our fortunate condition to the less fortunate condition of others and the last, most mature thanks, is thanksgiving in the face of the world's or one's personal agonies and suffering.

A Call to Prayer

Calvin Brown

I was speaking with a commissioner at General Assembly who lamented that so much of the business seemed routine. He felt that what we needed to do was to set aside all the routine business and spend the time dealing with pressing issues like the serious and ongoing decline of the church—which wasn't even mentioned. I remember number of years ago attending The Presbyterian Church in Canada's national thinktank and one of the amazing conclusions was that there should be regular days of prayer and discernment across the whole church. For the sake of convenience and manageability, it was suggested that they be held on a regional basis. I think someone even suggested that they might take the place of synod meetings. It is hard not to agree with such suggestions. If ever we decided to do such a thing, it would take a discipline and even a depth of devotion that most are not used to. (When was the last time you and your congregation were involved in a three or

A Call for Peace in Afghanistan

communications

The Presbyterian Church is one of 12 signatories to a letter sent to the Prime Minister of Canada in August, urging the government to “focus on enhancing protection of vulnerable Afghans rather than on aggressive engagement with insurgents.

Staying Young

Phil Callaway

My mother is in a nursing home and the doctor just gave her six months to live. But when he found out she couldn't pay her bill, he gave her another year. Last night after spending some time with her, the thought hit me, “If I stay in peak physical condition, I will be a drain on the medical system.” And so I have uncovered three ways to ensure that this does not happen.
1. Change your diet and exercise habits. I exercised for the last time today. Retired my sneakers. My light weights. My pass to the exercise room. The resolve began when an acquaintance of mine dropped dead of a heart attack. When I thought of the last time I saw him alive, how he was waddling over to the Twinkies aisle in the supermarket, it hit me like a runaway grocery cart: die eating.