A document from the World Council of Churches entitled AGAPE – A Call To Love And Action, asks churches "to act together for transformation of economic injustice." The document summarizes the results of the work done by the WCC and its ecumenical partners on economic globalization since its eighth assembly in Harare in 1998.
The All Africa Conference of Churches has expressed dire concern over the escalating violence in the Darfur region, west of Sudan, where renewed fighting is forcing aid workers to flee.
I've worked as a doctor for more than 20 years, including time in Canada and Africa. I recently spent two months in Niger, and I've never felt so surrounded by suffering and death. The worst part about seeing hundreds of critically ill patients every day for weeks is that most of them are less than three years old. They are all victims of severe malnutrition.
The May 2005 issue of the Record featured a cover story on fair trade – the practice of paying farmers a fair wage for their work. The article focused on coffee (which ranks second to oil in world trade), but there are many other fair trade products available, many of which can be delivered right to your door. In an effort to encourage congregations to switch to fairly traded coffee, the Record announced a contest to award those who made the switch. The response was tremendous, with contestants submitting creative and touching artwork, poetry, essays and songs. We even heard from congregations that had undertaken fair trade projects but didn't manage to enter the contest. Leaside Church in Toronto was one such congregation. As a direct response to the Record article, Cathy Finlay, a Leaside member for more than 30 years and an elder for 20, brought the issue to session. She urged them to support social justice by serving fairly traded coffee at Sunday coffee hour. "Being a farmer's daughter, I'm concerned about farmers being treated fairly so they can have an improved quality of life," Finlay told the Record. "It's a social justice issue for me."
I was a skinny child. So skinny that I had only one vertical stripe on my pajamas. So skinny that I was swimming in a lake one summer and a dog came out to fetch me – three times. My mother used to scrub laundry on my rib cage. People looking for a toothpick at the dinner table would grab me. You get the picture.
(ENI) – With titles like Spirituality For Dummies and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jesus, user-friendly books on sacred texts, major religions, meditation and figures such as Jesus, the Buddha and Pope John Paul II are proving popular in the United States.
While concerned churches have already taken small steps to reduce their environmental footprint, most of the damage comes from the energy buildings use. Typically, the grander the architecture, the harder it is to heat, power and light efficiently. With our better understanding of environmental issues and the higher cost of fuel, many congregations would build very differently if they had a chance to start from scratch. Here are some simple steps that can make a significant difference.
(ENI) – Leaders of the major Christian churches in the Holy Land have given their support to the results of the Palestinian elections in which Hamas won legislature seats by a landslide.
In the Heart of the Temple: My Spiritual Vision for Today’s World
The ecumenical justice organization, KAIROS, of which the Presbyterian Church is a member, is urging congregations to get involved in World Water Day activities on March 22. KAIROS developed a how-to kit to help congregations and individuals plan a Walk for Water in the community. It is hoped the walk will draw attention to the need to keep water in public hands, ensuring access to all.
The Presbyterian Church's Social Handbook
"We should do something, it's in our backyard," elder Doug White insisted. And so it began: the sign says it all, two congregations, some land donated by members to grow hay, with the profits sent to Canadian Foodgrains Bank. From left, Don Raymer, CFGB's Atlantic Canada coordinator, White of St. David's, Heather Platt, CFGB's national director of resources and Earl Johnson of St. George's.
I was interested in the different reviews (December) of C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and agree with most of them. However, I disagree with Harris Athanasiadis' description of Lewis as a leftist rationalist. Politically, in addition to his socially conservative views on women and homosexuality, which were conventional for the time, Lewis was highly critical of the post-war socialist government of Clement Atlee. This becomes clear from reading his collected letters, which for anyone willing to plough through the 2,000 pages that have been published so far (up to the year 1949) make fascinating and rewarding reading. However, it is with the notion that Lewis approached Christianity primarily from a rationalist perspective that I would take issue. As one of the most distinguished literary critics of his day he was certainly an academic, and in today's climate of anti-intellectualism this may be enough to diminish his stature among contemporary post-modernists. No question he belonged to the earlier modernist tradition, which, beginning with the 18th-century Enlightenment, acknowledged human reason as an important guide to truth. After all, God endowed us with the ability to think and to use our minds in the service of science or the improvement of our world. But Lewis goes far beyond this. He seems to be following the tradition of the greatest philosopher of the Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant, who concluded that reason can conceive the existence of certain transcendental truths which are simply beyond reason's reach. Didn't Paul say more or less the same thing when he spoke of seeing through a glass darkly?
Knox, Waterloo, Ontario The original church was built in 1888. The current building was erected in 1927 and enlarged in 1957. Rev. Linda Ashfield said, […]
Just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate that column. I couldn't agree more on the subject. Every year I feel more disturbed by Christmas and everything that goes with it.
I was shocked and dismayed at the lack of respect and reverence in that column and in Rev. Marion Schaffer's January letter.
I am appalled by Andrew Faiz's December article. He refers to the birth of Jesus as "that kid that was born in that barn." How insulting and degrading can you get?
Re Andrew Faiz's article on moral choices (January)
It is appropriate for the Record to solicit charitable donations to supplement its primary income sources, subscription and advertising revenues. But, such an appeal fails to address the root cause of the financial problem – the Record's low and declining subscriber base.
“Proud and brave oh our fathers gave. For the right to think as we do. And in freedoms name we would stand again. Once more […]