CANADIAN LABOUR DAY WEEKEND EDITION
*****
GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address:
waholst@telus.net
Colleagues List Web Site:
http://colleagueslist.blogspot.com
"Quicklinks" are included with many items
at the beginning of this issue. To get a more
complete picture, however, scroll down to
find your special selection in the body of
the blog.
Note that not all items here have links.
*****
Dear Friends:
I now begin my fall schedule of weekly
Colleagues List mailings and hope you
will enjoy them.
My Special Item this week is a book notice
for the two volumes we will be using for
our Monday Night Study Series at St. David's
Calgary this fall.
Our focus will be on Native Spirituality -
"A Fair Country" by John Ralston Saul
http://tinyurl.com/pvs5e3w (and)
"Medicine Walk" by Richard Wagamese
http://tinyurl.com/o95nho4
Scroll down to read my thoughts on these books
--
Colleague Contributions - this week are from:
Lorna Dueck (Toronto ON)
"Christianity and the Good Death"
http://tinyurl.com/mddjvv9
Jim Taylor (Okanagan BC)
"Old Prejudices Die Hard"
http://tinyurl.com/n46q537
Ron Rolheiser (San Antonio TX)
"Fearing Our Own Maturity"
http://tinyurl.com/lp7su8j
--
Net Notes -
"Evangelical Essentials" - what does
an evangelical Christian believe?
Here are the basics (Evangelical
Fellowship of Canada website)
http://tinyurl.com/mequ7lz
"Seamus Heaney Reads Poetry" -
a year ago this week, the famous
Irish poet died, and we missed noting
that then - now we compensate
(Englewood Review of Books)
http://tinyurl.com/qhh3em7
"Dominicans Want Local Justice" -
the papal ambassador (nuncio) to
the Dominican Republic has been
charged with sexual abuse, but will
the Vatican move go protect him?
(New York Times, Global Catholic News)
http://tinyurl.com/kngopak
http://tinyurl.com/ktsoj8a
"Photos of the Week August 24-29" -
an interesting potpourri of global news
and human interest events this week
(The Atlantic Online)
http://tinyurl.com/q2jh9hg
"Where Do the World Religions Live?" -
a helpful comparison of where each of
the great faiths have their centres
(Pew Research Center)
http://tinyurl.com/mqw36d4
"Seen on the Ground in Israel and Gaza" -
a helpful exposure to what is actually
happening now in the Holy Land
(New York Times text and photos)
http://tinyurl.com/nn7k2fg
"Seattle Megachurch Pastor Steps Aside" -
another story in the continuing saga
of the hubris and demise of big box
church leaders (Religion News Service)
http://tinyurl.com/lr5cuwb
"Anti-Gay Law is Struck Down in Uganda" -
perhaps second thoughts on the gay issue
are indeed possible on the African continent
(America Magazine)
http://tinyurl.com/o24v6ta
"Jordan's Christians, Muslims Stand Together"
- a good news story of interfaith solidarity
in the Middle East (The Tablet, UK)
http://tinyurl.com/l5e3yff
"China Broadens Crackdown on Missionaries"
- an extensive and well-documented story
on the current persecution of Christians in
China from the secular press perspective
(The Globe and Mail)
http://tinyurl.com/mr299y4
--
Wisdom of the Week - comes to us courtesy
of Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
Oscar Arias Sánchez, Jane Addams,
Anne Lamott, Mairead Corrigan,
Oscar Romero and Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Scroll down to read these quotes.
--
On This Day -
from the archives of the
New York Times -
"Allies Liberate Paris from Nazis"
http://tinyurl.com/kqnkjv
"MLK Gives "I Have a Dream" Speech"
http://tinyurl.com/lnac6d3
"Communist Party Suspended in Russia"
http://tinyurl.com/o77sjun
--
Closing Thought - Eleanor Roosevelt
To read this, please scroll down.
--
If you celebrate Labour Day in your part
of the world, I hope you will reflect on
the spiritual value and meaning of human
labour as I will here in Canada.
Wayne
(end)
Fall 2014 Adult Spiritual Development
ACTS Ministry Programs at St. David's
Church with university studies to come.
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notices
A FAIR COUNTRY
by John Ralston Saul
Penguin Canada, 2009
Paper. 342 pages. $20. CAD
ISBN #978-0-14-316842-3
Publisher's Promo:
In this startlingly original vision of Canada,
renowned thinker John Ralston Saul argues
that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily
influenced and shaped by Aboriginal ideas:
Egalitarianism, proper balance between
individual and group, and a penchant for
negotiation over violence are all Aboriginal
values that Canada absorbed. An obstacle
to our progress, Saul argues, is that Canada
has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial
non-intellectual business elite that doesn't
believe in Canada. It is critical that we
recognize these aspects of the country
in order to rethink it's future.
--
Review Comment:
In the first of three sections of this book,
"A Metis Civilization" Saul makes a strong,
if counterintuitive case that Canadian culture
owes more to its native roots than to the
European settlers and their Judeo-Christian
belief system. He even says that the idea of
multi-culturalism was alive and well centuries
ago among the First Nations, where communities
with different languages and traditions
co-operated with one another and lived
side-by-side.
- Quill and Quire Literary Journal
Dan Rowe
The goal of this book is to show that we are
not just different from the Americans, but
different in a way that matters, that makes
Canada distinct, coherent, necessary and
good... He claims we are far more aboriginal
than European, and our failure to recognize
this is what prevents us from becoming the
strong, confident and progressive country
that is our birthright... the First Nations
(are indeed) the founding pillar of our
civilization...
We may disagree fundamentally with a lot
of what Saul is saying, but we have to admit
that he is saying it better than anyone else
in the country.
- Literary Review of Canada
Andrew Potter
--
My Thoughts:
After several centuries of interpretation
of our history and identity through both
Euro-Canadian and American lenses we
have something unique here - a book
that tells our story from the perspective
of our First Nations. Of course, we still
have a Euro-Canadian telling it, but the
time when native Canadians start writing
their perspectives for all to discover is
not far off. In fact, that time has come.
This is an important book to help
create for us (what we used to call) a
paradigm shift, or way of seeing things.
Saul is a public intellectual, and not one
with a mass following in Canada. Still,
he has gained a lot of respect for his
writing and more needs to be done to
translate his creative ideas into a
language that more of us understand.
Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/pvs5e3w
--
MEDICINE WALK
by Richard Wagamese
McClelland & Stewart, 2014.
Hardcover. 246 pages. $29.95 CAD
ISBN #978-0-7710-8918-3
Publisher's Promo:
A stunning new novel that has all the
timeless qualities of a classic, as it tells
the universal story of a father/son struggle
in a fresh, utterly memorable way, set in
dramatic landscape of the BC Interior.
For male and female readers equally, for
readers of Joseph Boyden, Cormac McCarthy,
Thomas King, Russell Banks and the general
public.
Franklin Starlight is called to visit his father,
Eldon. He's sixteen years old and has had
the most fleeting of relationships with the
man. The rare moments they've shared
haunt and trouble Frank, but he answers
the call, a son's duty to a father. He finds
Eldon decimated after years of drinking,
dying of liver failure in a small town
flophouse. Eldon asks his son to take him
into the mountains, so he may be buried
in the traditional Ojibway manner.
What ensues is a journey through the rugged
and beautiful backcountry, and a journey into
the past, as the two men push forward to
Eldon's end. From a poverty-stricken
childhood, to the Korean War, and later the
derelict houses of mill towns, Eldon relates
both the desolate moments of his life and
a time of redemption and love and in doing
so offers Frank a history he has never known,
the father he has never had, and a connection
to himself he never expected.
A novel about love, friendship, courage,
and the idea that the land has within it
powers of healing, Medicine Walk reveals
the ultimate goodness of its characters
and offers a deeply moving and redemptive
conclusion.
Wagamese's writing soars and his insight and
compassion are matched by his special gift of
communicating these to the reader.
--
Review Comment:
In a recent conversation with Shelagh Rogers
and Joseph Boyden about storytelling as
redemption, Richard Wagamese spoke about
the role of stories in his life. Throughout his
writing career, first as a journalist and then
as a novelist, he said he’d sought clarity and
connection between native people and settlers.
"The story of Canada is the story of her
relationship with native people,” he said.
“If we lean over the back fence and share
part of that story with the person on the
other side of the fence, we bring each other
closer.”
- Globe and Mail
Christine Fischer Guy
Wagamese artfully blends North American
indigenous and Judeo-Christian religious
imagery to enrich a moving story about a
dying man's confession to his teenage son...
Wagamese transforms the dying father
into a kind of spiritual pilgrim, awakening to
his personal failures before death claims him...
The son plays the role of reluctant, skeptical
witness to this final act of conscience, and in
turn is forced to face his own bitterness at
his father's betrayal of him and (the others
who were forced to raise him when he
abandoned them.)
- Toronto Star
James Grainger
--
My Thoughts:
Wagamese is an emerging Canadian writer
who speaks to all Canadians, and not only
those who have a particular interest in
native culture and spirituality.
He stands on the shoulders of several
First Nations and other Canadian writers
who have been part of a movement during
the last half century to bring a sense
of universality to the field of Canadian
literature.
Wagamese's books reflect a high-
water mark in our nation's literary
accomplishments and he certainly
deserves an important place in any
future edition of such respected
resources as The Oxford Companion
to Canadian Literature.
But even more importantly, he deserves
an honoured place on the bookshelves
of many ordinary Canadians who are
just struggling to find their way in
an age of moral and spiritual confusion.
Here is native spirituality that connects
to all of us.
Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/o95nho4
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
LORNA DUECK
Toronto, ON
Globe and Mail
August 28th, 2014
"Christianity and the Good Death"
http://tinyurl.com/mddjvv9
--
JIM TAYLOR
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
August 24th, 2014
"Old Prejudices Die Hard"
http://tinyurl.com/n46q537
--
RON ROLHEISER
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
August 25th, 2014
"Fearing Our Own Maturity"
http://tinyurl.com/lp7su8j
*****
NET NOTES
EVANGELICAL ESSENTIALS
Basic Themes Reposted
Evangelical Fellowship
of Canada Website
August, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/mequ7lz
--
SEAMUS HEANEY READS POETRY
We Note One Year Since His Death
Englewood Review of Books
August 29th, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/qhh3em7
--
DOMINICANS WANT LOCAL JUSTICE
West Indian Island Nation Claims
Rome Protecting Vatican Ambassador
New York Times
August 23rd 2014
http://tinyurl.com/kngopak
"Vatican Declares Nuncio Not Immune"
EWTN Global Catholic News Network
August 24th, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/ktsoj8a
--
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK 08/24-08/29
Unique Pix from Around the World
The Atlantic Online
August 29th, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/q2jh9hg
--
WHERE DO WORLD RELIGIONS LIVE?
Majorities of Each Exist in a Few Countries
Pew Research Center
August 27th, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/mqw36d4
--
SEEN ON THE GROUND IN ISRAEL AND GAZA
As Yet Another Ceasefire is Called
New York Times
August 29th, 2014
(Text and Photos)
http://tinyurl.com/nn7k2fg
--
SEATTLE MEGACHURCH PASTOR
STEPS ASIDE
Claims He Has Character,
Not Sexual, Problems
Religion News Service
August 24th, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/lr5cuwb
--
ANTI-GAY LAW IS STRUCK DOWN
IN UGANDA
Nation Takes Steps to
Guarantee Human Rights
America Magazine
September 1st, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/o24v6ta
--
JORDAN'S CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS
MARCH SIDE BY SIDE
Public Demonstration
of Mutual Support
The Tablet, UK
August 28th, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/l5e3yff
--
CHINA BROADENS CRACKDOWN
ON FOREIGN MISSIONARIES
Growing Efforts to Locate and
Remove Foreign Religious Influence
Globe and Mail
August 24th, 2014
http://tinyurl.com/mr299y4
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
"Peace is a never ending process...
It cannot ignore our differences or
overlook our common interests.
It requires us to work and live together."
- Oscar Arias Sánchez
--
"Social advance depends as much upon
the process through which it is secured
as upon the result itself."
- Jane Addams
--
It’s funny: I always imagined when I was
a kid that adults had some kind of inner
toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of
discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the
sandpaper of patience. But then when I
grew up I found that life handed you these
rusty bent old tools – friendships, prayer,
conscience, honesty – and said “do the best
you can with these, they will have to do”.
And mostly, against all odds, they do.
- Anne Lamott
--
"Every day there are people in our world
that do absolutely amazing things. People
of all ages are very capable of doing
tremendous, courageous things in spite
of their fear."
- Mairead Corrigan
--
I don’t want to be an anti, against anybody.
I simply want to be the builder of a great
affirmation: the affirmation of God, who
loves us and who wants to save us.
- Oscar Romero
--
It is really so simple! The main thing is to
love your neighbor as yourself. Once you
do that, you will discover at once how
everything shall fall into place.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*****
ON THIS DAY
From the archives of
the New York Times
August 24th-31st
Allies Liberate Paris from Nazis
http://tinyurl.com/kqnkjv
MLK Gives "I Have a Dream" Speech
http://tinyurl.com/lnac6d3
Communist Party Suspended in Russia
http://tinyurl.com/o77sjun
*****
CLOSING THOUGHT -
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
"The future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their dreams."
(end)
*******
Fall 2014 Adult Spiritual Development
ACTS Ministry Programs at St. David's:
MONDAY NIGHT STUDY (Ten Weeks)
September 15th - November 24th
7-00-9:00PM TM Room
(Thanksgiving Day exempted)
"A Fair Country" by John Ralston Saul
http://tinyurl.com/pvs5e3w
"Medicine Walk" by Richard Wagamese
http://tinyurl.com/o95nho4
Led by Jock McTavish and Wayne Holst
Registration, Books, Hospitality - $60.00
Books Only - $40.00
(now on sale in church lobby)
--
MONDAY NIGHT 'BOOKENDS EVENTS'
September 8th and December 1st
7:00-9:15PM TM Room
Sponsored by the Bible Study Group
"From Jesus to Christ" -
How Jesus Became God
A PBS Video Series
(total of four hours in length)
Hospitality and discussion
Led by Jock McTavish and Wayne Holst
All welcome. Hospitality donation only
--
THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
(Twelve Weeks)
September 18th - December 4th
10:00-11:00AM TM Room
"From Jesus to Christ II -
A Study of the Book of Acts"
Led by Wayne Holst
No charge.
--
(Fall university studies to be announced)
*******
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