Presbyterian History turns 50 this year, first published in March 1957. The bi-annual publication of the Committee on History has recounted the stories of Canadian Presbyterianism, including tales of how congregations got started, biographies of lay and ordained Presbyterians, and the role of Presbyterians in the history of Canada.
Clifford Bear represents everything Anishinabe wants to accomplish in its ministry. Shy, quiet and an artist, Bear used to wander the Winnipeg streets with his gang members — a rival gang, it turns out, of Lenny McKay's former posse. The two men now frequent Anishinabe at the same time; previous rivalries long extinguished.
For the past two years, David Phillips has acted as the Leading with Care coordinator for the denomination. During this time, he has visited or worked with more than 500 congregations. He is also convener of the Pickering Presbytery’s Leading with Care Committee, and serves as clerk of session, teaches the adult Sunday school class and convenes the mission committee at his home congregation.
Kouwenberg came to his current charge after 20 years at St. Giles, Prince George, B.C. He has served on a number of the church’s national committees, including the Assembly Council and the Task Force for the Revision of The Book of Praise. He has been clerk and moderator of the Synod of British Columbia and moderator of the Presbyteries of Kamloops and Westminster. Currently the convener of the Board of St. Andrew’s Hall and a member of the Committee on Theological Education, Kouwenberg has served as a member of the governing bodies of all three of the church’s theological colleges. In 2005, the Presbyterian College, Montreal, awarded him an honorary D.D. He has also been the editor of Channels and a contributing editor to the Record.
Reconciliation support members and groups…
When they got the call to go to the remote Cariboo-Chilcotin region of British Columbia, they hesitated. Rev. Shannon Bell-Wyminga and her husband Rev. Jon Wyminga had always thought they were destined for ministry in the inner city. Instead, they got dense bush, deep snow and long drives between house churches.
Iroquois peoples, the Haudenosaunee, members of the Six Nations Confederacy, entered into some of the earliest treaties in North America with European settlers. These treaties were recorded symbolically in wampum belts. The Guswenta wampum belt of 1692 records the treaty known as the Covenant Chain. A silver covenant chain was fashioned with three links representing peace, friendship and forever — the key concepts of the treaty.
Before settling in Calgary, Marple served on several summer mission fields in various provinces, and three different pastoral charges in Nova Scotia. He has been moderator of presbytery and of the Synod of the Atlantic Provinces and is presently clerk of the Presbytery of Calgary-Macleod. He has served on a number of presbytery, synod and General Assembly committees including a Rural Ministry Consultation, the Senate of Knox College and Assembly Council. He has been active in areas of social justice including advocacy for refugees as well as being involved in the establishment of a local chapter of KAIROS in Calgary. Ecumenically minded, Marple has always been involved in inter-church relations. He currently serves as president of the Calgary Council of Churches and is a Presbyterian representative on Calgary’s Muslim-Christian Dialogue.
I stood on the Saskatchewan prairie on a silent, crystal winter day. Rev. Stewart Folster had brought Montreal visitors to the Wanuskewin Heritage Park just north of Saskatoon. We had seen the videos and mock tipis and eaten bison burgers and wild rice salad. We had heard the songs and stories of people seeking shelter and sustenance in this place for 6,000 years. We had seen the massive stones waiting patiently, and felt the spirit of this ancient place.
Burrrrrrr! Where did that cold come from?” I was just in from a foray into the frozen expanses of our lakefront lot to a steaming hot cup of Linda's coffee. “It's -30 Celsius out there! How can a winter that has been so unseasonably warm turn on us like this … and so close to spring too?”
Born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, DeWolfe was ordained in 1983, and has served numerous congregations since that time, including two ordained missionary appointments at Knox Listowel, and in a team ministry in Palmerston and Drayton with his wife, Rev. Janet Allan DeWolfe. He came to his current charge in 1999. For the past seven years, he has also served as Lecturer in Homiletics at the Atlantic School of Theology.
The Presbyterian Church has its very own ambitious, aggressive human rights activist in David Kilgour, a member of parliament from 1979 to 2006, who has advocated for global social justice and peace issues throughout his time in public office. On a recent 10-country European tour he drew attention to the alleged organ harvesting of Falun Gong prisoners in China. Along with human rights lawyer David Matas, Kilgour conducted a two month investigation into this practice, uncovering evidence that Falun Gong practitioners (a banned spiritual movement in China with about 70 million members and founded in 1992) are being wrongfully imprisoned, killed and harvested for their vital organs which are sold to local and foreign patients.
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” He said “Put your hand into the hand of God; it shall be to you better than a light, and safer than the known way.”
1866 Work begins among aboriginal peoples led by Rev. James Nisbet. 1875 The Presbyterian Church in Canada is formed. In 1876, the Women’s Foreign Mission […]
Mary Fontaine had been preparing for her Hummingbird Ministries since she was a little girl. Growing up on the Mistawasis reserve in Saskatchewan, her late parents instilled in her a love for the church, as well as respect for traditional native ways.
The scene is nothing new for Rev. Stewart Folster. On the street outside his small downtown Saskatoon location, the blue and red lights of a police car are flashing once again. Some sort of physical altercation has just taken place; apparently a scruffy-looking man struck a woman as she walked past him and his dog. Various versions of the story are fed to the officer; the man denies the charges. A crowd gathers.
The present practice of The Presbyterian Church in Canada is to place retired ministers of Word and Sacrament on the appendix to the roll of presbyteries. As members on the appendix to the roll these persons have the right to speak on matters before the court but do not have the privilege of moving or seconding motions or of voting.
What we need is to find a way that we can offer all of these programs in one place,” said Rev. Stewart Folster, who became one of the PCC's earliest Native ministers when he was ordained in 1996. He is currently the director of Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry. “We need a healing centre in all major centres of Canada that offers addiction services, parenting and life skills, Native spirituality, Bible study, shelter, worship, child care, help with education and employment, with Native elders on staff as well as counsellors, therapists, parish social workers, and native artists to help in therapy. It needs government, church and aboriginal cooperation.”
ENI – Australia's religious communities have united to call for urgent action on climate change at a time when the country is facing its worst drought.
ENI – Church officials say the resurgence of ethnic fighting in Sri Lanka has stalled the tsunami reconstruction. “The situation is very frustrating,” said Rev. Jayasiri Peiris, general secretary of the National Christian Council of Sri Lanka.