Albert Einstein once said, "The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm, but because of those who look at it without doing anything." Can this language be applied to investment portfolios? Are investors, including corporate ones like churches, culpable for their reluctance or failure to be intentional in ensuring that their investments are more and more ethically responsible? I wondered about this as I recently re-read the 2003 Assembly Council Report.
It's a concept that's hard for Canadians to fathom, but in Malawi, where up to half the country's 12 million people don't have enough to eat, having the right to food enshrined in the constitution would be a major step forward.
The Presbyterian Church welcomed a federal announcement in late November to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which will be guided by principles established by a 1998-99 working group that explored the issue, and a financial package that will give $10,000 to every former student of Indian residential schools and an additional $3,000 for each year of attendance after the first. The deal was part of a series of initiatives to address the need for compensation and resolution in a comprehensive, fair and just manner.
The theme of the 131st General Assembly in Edmonton was Claiming the Joy of our Faith. As Moderator, visiting with congregations, agencies and organizations connected to our church I see signs of joy in the life and witness of our church all the time. One of the joys we can claim is the gift of being catholic Protestants, in that our understanding of the church catholic is to be part of the world wide, universal church of Jesus Christ. As those who confess our faith in the holy catholic church, and as part of the Reformed family, we are catholic Protestants.
The World Alliance of Reformed Churches has restructured itself in hopes of avoiding financial difficulties and increasing access to church members throughout the world.
The issue of how to set professors' salaries was back on the front burner at November's Assembly Council meeting.
(ENI) – Bishop Munib Younan, a Palestinian Lutheran bishop for the Holy Land, issued a plea after four members of the pacifist group Christian Peacemaker Teams were abducted by an Iraqi insurgent group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness brigades. He urged the kidnappers to show mercy, saying they belong to a group working for peace and to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in areas under Israeli occupation.
It's bath night. Around the world hurried and harried parents seize precious moments to rest and recharge while their children set uncontested Olympic records in the dunking and I-got-more-water-on-the-walls-and-ceiling-than-you-did events.
The Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility, along with equivalent bodies from the United States and United Kingdom, created a framework for analyzing how corporations perform on a variety of socially responsible factors. Released in 1995, Bench Marks – Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility – sets down comprehensive criteria for a corporation's commitment to its principles and bench marks for companies measuring their performance.
Leading by Design
Who's that monotheistic manifestation
The Presbyterian Church has two trust funds – the pension fund and the consolidated fund. (The Record is an investor in the consolidated fund). The pension fund – for all ministers and employees at church offices and others paid by the church and participating in the pension program – has $162 million in assets. The consolidated portfolio covers the rest of the church's available funds, with a variable market value of about $72 million-approximately $20 million of which are investments by some local churches and church organizations – with an annual indicated cash value of $2.7 million, for a cash yield on the portfolio of 3.6 per cent.
Thank you, Michael Coren for so accurately putting into words the thoughts I experience each time we are exposed to The Oprah Syndrome. Often those same people who so willingly subscribe and share the spiritual medicine dispensed by pop icons and television hosts are the ones who dismiss or are cynical of the daily acts of kindness and love performed by those less glamourous people of faith working tirelessly in their own backyards, whether they be local clergy, friends or neighbours.
I enjoyed greatly the article by Brian Stewart on St. Andrew's, King St., Toronto. While a student at Knox College, 1954-57, this was the church that I usually attended. It helped me to learn the importance of beauty in architecture, worship, music and liturgy.
Many thanks to Erin Walton's Called to Wonder, December. Along with Christmas were also Hanukkah and Ramadan and the statement, "It is important for us to respect others."
I must share an enjoyable, and uplifting, experience our congregation, Knox's Galt, Cambridge, Ont., had with Richard Schwartz. (Letter From Away, December)
Rev. Duncan Cameron, Rev. Bill Klempa and Rev. Stuart Coles sing one of Mr. Coles' hymns at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation. Mr. Coles served on the committee that drafted the historic document.
I found the responses to Andrew Faiz's column interesting (November). Sunday worship is an expression of our spirituality; not spirituality. In fact, it is a ritual based on culture and tradition. A ritual, like the proverbial cat, can be devoid of substance or it can be deeply spiritual and meaningful. It depends what a person puts into worship.
Re. The End Of Slavery letter, October
I was disappointed with Phil Callaway's A Fork In The Road. It perpetuates the stereotype of desperate housewives and raises the specter of violence with the inclusion of spanking in the daily routine. Hitting children, even if they have been ominously "warned" by a mother clearly on the edge, is not funny.