The Presbyterian Church in Canada's website will feature a link to a new online questionnaire for the 2006 Census of Population, handled by Statistics Canada. The link will be available beginning May 2, while the census officially starts on May 16.
The last few days I have been subtly but powerfully reminded of the wisdom of our church in its decision to ordain women. This year marks the 40th anniversary of General Assembly acceding to the ordination of women within The Presbyterian Church in Canada. Recently, I have been in the presence of women teaching and ruling elders, in diverse contexts of ministry, across the regions of our country and have been very thankful for their gifts.
After several years of planning, studying, researching and debating, Assembly Council adopted several recommendations from the Healing and Reconciliation Design Team to establish a national Healing and Reconciliation initiative called Walking Together. The new commitments are as follows:
A preacher who concerns himself with how a medium can increase his audience will miss the significant question: In what sense do new media alter what is meant by religion, by church, even by God?– Neil Postman
The Canadian Bible Society is celebrating 100 years of reaching “every man, woman and child with the life-giving Word of God” by distributing, translating and publishing the Bible in Canada and around the world. The Canadian Bible Society has translated Scripture into 134 languages, including 23 aboriginal languages. It also offers Bibles in large print, Braille and on tape. The society distributes New Testaments to prisons and the Canadian Forces, Scripture readings to hospitals, nursing homes and funeral homes, and offers 100 free Bibles to churches destroyed by fire.
Presbyterians are responding to the disaster left by Hurricane Katrina by volunteering their time and energy for short-term mission trips to Mississippi and Louisiana. A 26-person team from Ivy Presbyterian in New Tecumseth, Ont., will be making its way to Baton Rouge in August to rebuild homes that were destroyed by the hurricane. Ages of the mission-goers range from 12 to 70-something.
Of all the bad habits I've ever acquired, golf is not the worst. But it's close. I wrote a little golf book lately and I've been surprised at the response. Millions of people golf. And they write me letters about this bad habit. For me, golf is a marvelous and maddening game that combines three favourite pastimes from my childhood: doing poorly at mathematics, taking long walks to get away from people and hitting things with a stick. Not everyone loves golf. John Wayne gave it up out of frustration, I'm told. It's amazing that a man who drew a six-shooter with lightning speed, won the battle of Iwo Jima almost single-handedly and recaptured Bataan could be defeated by a four-inch hole in the ground. But he was. One columnist wrote that golf is “the most useless game ever devised to waste the time and try the spirit of man.” Once, after shanking five balls into a murky creek, I tended to agree with him. But mostly I've found the opposite to be true — golf is a useful game that teaches us more about life and faith than we think, if only we will listen.
(ENI) — Israel is set to relocate a jail in Megiddo after an ancient church was discovered on its grounds last November. Although the historical claims have been debated, it is believed to be the oldest church ever found in the Holy Land.
I was hungry and you fed me,
(ENI) — “To be at peace with God means knowing that we do not have to strive all the time for power over each other,” said Rowan Williams, while dedicating a new cathedral in southern Sudan.
The Presbyterian Church in Canada is in the midst of revising its residential schools agreement with the federal government, dropping the cap for compensation from $2.1 million to $1.32 million. Although not finalized, Rev. Stephen Kendall, principal clerk, told Assembly Council he is optimistic and, at press time, was looking forward to final approval from Cabinet in April.
Up until last summer, I never understood the Bible's hatred for darkness. Every second passage seemed to be praising God for giving us light, singing songs of hope for morning and proclaiming daytime to be better than night. Why? I thought. I like nighttime. I love to hide in the shadows and wonder what unseen things might be hiding there with me. So what's the deal with these Bible people obsessing over having oil in their lamps?
AIDS has become a gender-based disease in Africa where women and girls are most at risk. In Malawi, women represent 56.8 per cent of HIV-positive adults. In many parts of Africa, girls are born into a society where they have no rights. Many face marital rape and men refusing to use condoms.
Presbyterian World Service & Development has a new long-term agreement with the Canadian International Development Agency that will increase its funding for development programs by 15 per cent.
The problem of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa is gigantic. It is difficult for Canadians to comprehend the enormity of the situation. Both adults and children can be infected with HIV, but if just adults are considered, the numbers infected in some of the southern African countries have reached as high as 30 or 40 per cent. Infection rates in East and West Africa are less than these figures but still remain very high. Canadians can only imagine how they would feel if a third of adults on their street or a third of their extended adult family were infected with HIV.
Thank you for the collage of essays and articles highlighting environmental awareness issues in the March issue. It was an insightful and thoughtful piece.
Presbyterians and others gathered for the dedication of Evangel Hall's brand new $13-million facility in downtown Toronto on February 5. Construction began in June 2004 and replaces the building the mission had been using since 1913. The new six-storey facility includes 84 low-income housing units, as well as a medical clinic, commercial kitchen, counselling space, expanded thrift store, chapel and wheelchair accessibility. About 50 – 200 people drop in for meals daily, with many more gathering for fellowship, worship, addiction support, community dinners and special outings and activities. All programs started running in the new building in mid-February, with residents moving in by March. About 200 people attended the service at the new drop-in centre.
I wasn't going to look inside the March issue once I had seen the exclusive sentence on the front cover. Why would a Christian magazine in the 21st century choose to print boldly the pronoun “His” instead of the word “God's”?
This is a great article. Why can't intelligent people see and tell it like it is? I had not thought of the fact that such violent behaviour is much less common among other visible minorities who for the most part have and practise a strong sense of family!
By asking the questions and giving the answer “others are frightened of even considering,” Mr. Coren implies that his article is an act of courage. Mr. Coren condemns members of a community with his charge that they are lazy, greedy, incapable and nothing more than breeders. Courageous, Mr. Coren? Perhaps ignorant. What I find most offensive about Coren's piece is that he presents it as a call. He presumes to tell me that I, as a Christian, must do the same as he. Mr. Coren, it is Christ whom I will follow. Christ calls us to the communities in Toronto to face the pain, hostility and