Author
Erin Walton

Challenging Assumptions

Will Ingram

Philip Jenkins should be read by anyone interested in the future of Christianity. In The Next Christendom, Jenkins called attention to the fact that the growth of the Church in the “global South” was a phenomenon that had been largely overlooked but which will have dramatic effects upon the future of our faith. “In our lifetimes,” he observes in the earlier book, “the centuries-long North Atlantic captivity of the church is drawing to an end.”

Mullin a Woman of Distinction

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Rev. Margaret Mullin, executive director of Anishinabe Fellowship Centre, part of Winnipeg Inner City Missions, was honoured with the 2007 YMCA/YWCA Manitoba Women of Distinction award. Mullin won in the Arts and Culture category, held at a gala dinner in Winnipeg in May.

Food Tours, Fiddling and Finances at CFGB

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Study tours hosted by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank have been announced for 2008. Tentative destinations include: West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia) or Central America (Nicaragua, El Salvador) in January and February, and a youth tour to Honduras in February. It is not too early to apply for one of these educational trips, where participants get to experience how CFGB is impacting communities. Visit CFGB's website at www.foodgrainsbank.ca for more information.

Marketing Spirituality

Joel Coppieters

Walk Through the Bible founder Bruce Wilkinson may not have been a total unknown when he wrote The Prayer of Jabez, but the little book's nine million sales were certainly helped by marketing creativity. The list of spin-offs include three children's versions, The Prayer of Jabez Journal, The Prayer of Jabez Devotional for Children, The Prayer of Jabez Devotional for Adults, The Prayer of Jabez Bible Study, The Prayer of Jabez for Women, a 90-minute audio version, a video, the musical companion The Prayer of Jabez Music … A Worship Experience, backpacks, jewellery, Christmas ornaments, vanilla-scented candles, mouse pads, and even a framed painting of Jabez. After refusing a proposal for Jabez candy bars, licensing agent Leslie Nunn Reed told the Los Angeles Times, “We want to be careful about not over-commercializing this.”

Eternal Mystery

Fairley Ritchie

Joan Chittister writes that friendship “colours the very air we breathe. We can see it in the eyes of old women, in the kitchens of the women they love. We can hear it in the voices of one young woman giggling to another over the phone. We can feel it beating in our own hearts on lonely rainy days in faraway places.” It has fascinated philosophers, spiritual teachers and mystics, artists and poets, yet remains “eternal mystery, eternal desire.” Chittister draws in threads from classical scholars such as the author of Ecclesiastes, Cicero, and Ælred of Clairvaux, “who wrote a theology on friendship founded on the belief that 'God is friendship.'” But these views of spiritual life faded. “In a world dominated by war, famine, plague, and oppression, the God of Love lost out to God the Judge and Jesus the Lord.”

We are all Virginians

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ENI — “The escalation of gun violence compels us to call for an end to the manufacture and easy distribution of instruments of destruction,” said Rev. Robert Edgar, the general secretary of the US National Council of Churches after the killings at Virginia Tech University. “A faith that expresses compassion for all God's children is opposed to violence in all forms.”

Yodeler's Patience

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I could sense his presence long before I could see him. The spring sunshine had a cast to it that seemed to make my binoculars crystal clear. Feeling his presence, I slowly glassed the meadow all around me, then the forested edge and finally the steep hill behind the small marsh to the east. There were birds everywhere, but I sensed something more than birds. Letting the field glasses dangle around my neck, I sat back on my heels in the cover of some willow scrub at the meadow's edge.

Canadian Presbyterian at International Reformed Meeting

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A gathering of 30 pastors from 16 countries met in Geneva in April to forge connections, reignite relationships and discuss the role of large, influential congregations in today's Reformed churches. Rev. Dr. Richard Topping, minister at St. Andrew and St. Paul, Montreal, lecturer at The Presbyterian College, and co-author of Together in Ministry: The Theology and Practice of Ministry, attended the meetings on behalf of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Nova Scotia Gets Canada's First Fair Trade Town

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Canada's first Fair Trade Town is Wolfville, N.S., as designated by TransFair Canada, an organization that certifies fair trade products. The idea was adapted from an initiative in England started in 1999. It didn't take long for the idea to spread, and the UK now has more than 200 of these towns, with more sprinkled throughout Europe and the United States. Fair trade ensures farmers (often living in developing countries) are paid a fair price for their product.

Pen, Passion, Poetry

Pieter Wyminga

 As a kid I remember we went on short vacations to countries neighbouring our native Holland. In France I would see quite a number of men with missing legs. How come? I would ask. Then my mom would explain to me the results of the First World War. These horrid wars have continued. The killings today are just as mean as then. We see the news or read it regularly. The Presbyterian Record keeps us up to date. And I hope it moves us all. But I also find there is a callousness amongst people; Darfur is miles away from us, why should we be so concerned?