Friday, February 19, 2016

Colleagues List, February 21st, 2016

Vol. XI.  No. 26

*****


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.


*****

Dear Colleagues:

My Special Item this week is my February
column for the Anglican Journal. It is a piece
I really enjoyed writing because it deals with
proto-Anglican/Lutheran ecumenical relations

"A Shared Lenten Experience"

http://tinyurl.com/zfls4bk

***

Colleague Comments - the following friends
shared letters to benefit all of us this week:

Dan Haugen (Prince Albert SK) shares the
title of a book on ministry he just published

Isabel Gibson (Ottawa ON) expresses
appreciation for several articles in last
week's issue of Colleagues List

Ontario Friend - has additional insights on
Catholic/Orthodox relations today in light
of last week's notices about Francis and Kirill.

Harry Winter (St. Paul MN) thanks me for
our efforts to promote his articles on
Catholic/Anglican relations

Thanks to all four of you for writing and
adding to our discussions.

Please scroll down to read what they
have to say.

***

Colleague Contributions -

Marjorie Gibson (Vancouver BC)
Blogs in "Marjorie Remembers" asking
"Who Is Belle?" (part four)
http://tinyurl.com/zfmgmuq 

--

Jim Taylor (Okanagan BC) takes up the topic:
"The Flaws of Either/Or Thinking"
  http://tinyurl.com/hl3ptpt

--

Michael W. Higgins (Fairfield CT) comments
on the current skirmishes between Donald
Trump and Pope Francis, plus the backstory:

"The Pope Vs. The Donald"
  http://tinyurl.com/zethnzu

"Francis and Donald: Bridges or Walls?"
  http://tinyurl.com/zum2vrj

--

Ron Rolheiser (San Antonio TX) reflects on:
"God's Inexhaustibility"
  http://tinyurl.com/zwggfg4

--

Martin Marty (Chicago IL) writes about:
"Evolution"
  http://tinyurl.com/hzoc8mg

For more detail, please scroll down.

***

Net Notes - these items caught my eye from
hundreds I noted on the web this week:

"Wheaton Controversy Ends" -  an editor
pleads for greater transparency to avoid
the tragedy that happened at Wheaton
College recently (Christianity Today)
http://tinyurl.com/gwmhl54

--


"A Disgraced Rabbi Re-Emerges" - in an
electronic age it's harder to cover one's
tracks as his past is there waiting for him
(Sightings) http://tinyurl.com/h8omtgy

--


"Dr Victor Goldbloom Dies at 92" -
a highly respected Jewish-Christian bridge-
builder in Canada died this week, and is
remembered (Anglican Journal)
http://tinyurl.com/jl9opyz

--

"Two Unseen Tolkien Poems Found" -
two poems by the great scholar/author
were discovered this week from 1936
after they had been lost (The Guardian, UK)
http://tinyurl.com/zaqvzzs

--

"It's Time to Re-Write Pro-War Hymns" -
Brian McLaren expresses concern over
the words we use in some familiar hymns
(Baptist World/Global)
http://tinyurl.com/j5z36jf

--

"The State of Religious Freedom Today" - a
helpful, global survey of the troubled places
of greatest persecution is (America Magazine)
http://tinyurl.com/go9ctxr

--

"An Ancient Faith Encounters Modernity" -
another fine article, this time assessing the
challenges facing an awakening Islam today
(America Magazine)
http://tinyurl.com/hkzwz48

--

"Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women" -
a Canadian tragedy that keeps getting more
tragic as we learn more about it
(The Guardian, UK)
http://tinyurl.com/zkd2g97

--

"JPII Had Close Relationship with Polish Woman" -
three perspectives on a long-term friendship
shared between a Polish priest and a philosopher.
(New York Times, Guardian UK, Tablet UK)
http://tinyurl.com/zpgjsxb
http://tinyurl.com/jum7y42
http://tinyurl.com/jo3xpzs

--

"Flourishing: We Need Religion in Globalized World" -
the latest book by Miroslav Volf is reviewed here
(Englewood Review of Books)
http://tinyurl.com/hv93bmo

--

Wisdom of the Week - comes to us thanks to
Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

Harper Lee, Alain Badiou, Oscar Romero and
Frederick Douglass share their insights.

Please scroll down to read them.

--

On This Day -

From the archives of the New York Times:

"American Marines Storm Iwo Jima in WWII"
  http://tinyurl.com/a97rnfw

"Nixon Makes Historic Trip to China (1972)"  
  http://tinyurl.com/aw2mpfh

"Burial Chamber of King Tut Unsealed in Egypt"
  http://tinyurl.com/h9g3xv9

--

Closing Thought - Pope Francis

Please scroll to the end of the blog to read him.

(end)

If you want to read about what we're doing -

Continuing Our Program Season -
Winter 2016 Adult Spiritual Development
ACTS Ministry at St. David's
United Church, Calgary

- please scroll to the end of the blog.

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

My Anglican Journal column for February:

"A Shared Lenten Experience"

http://tinyurl.com/zfls4bk

***

COLLEAGUE COMMENT

February 13th, 2016

Dan Haugen,
Prince Albert, SK

Wayne,

 I enjoy reading your regular post. You are
one of the few people I know who can get
involved with a broaderspectrum of thought
than most people.

I have never liked the labels "conservative" or
"liberal" (reminds me too much of "black" and
"white") as if there are only two perspectives
to be evaluated in all of life.  (In a multi-
dimensional world that seems pretty simplistic).

To encourage a broader exploration of issues

I always encouraged my staff (at the Lutheran
Bible Institute in Saskatchewan) to expect that
every issue has at least six sides and if we have
not seen six sides, we likely have not begun to
understand what we are dealing with.  

Of course this also makes decision making more
approximating ... Since sometimes a decision is
good from four sides and bad from two. Now
sometimes you still have to make a decision...
but one might understand that at least from
two sides, people might disagree. (More an
illustration for thought than a formula).  

I think it challenges people to deal with issues
as knowledgeably as possible and avoid the
stereotypes.

Thought I should also let you know about a

book I just got published.  

Titled "Upstream Living In a Downstream World:  
Reflections on Ministry."  

I would be happy to send you a copy, or it is
available through Amazon,Kindle etc. and
through Friesen Press (Vancouver) either in
print edition or e-book. I would be quite
interested in how this book would look
through your eyes...
Look forward to your posts.


Dan

Editor's Response:

Dan:

I would be pleased if you asked Friesen Press to
send me a review copy and I will try to present it
helpfully on Colleagues List, as I have many others.

Wayne

--

Re: Colleagues List, February 14th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zhoa96y

Isabel Gibson,
Ottawa, ON

Wayne:

Two strong pieces - Rolheiser and Wallis
(did I get that name right?  The piece in
Sojourners, anyway).

Thanks!

Isabel

--

From: Another Ontario Friend

Thanks, Wayne, for your coverage in this issue
of the meeting of Pope Francis with Patriarch Kirill,
not the first in a 1000 years as much of the news
coverage would have it - even Jonathan Luxmore
(who should know better!) in The Tablet, but the
first ever between a Pope of Rome and a Patriarch
of Moscow. But then, there's only been a Patriarch
of Moscow for 192 years of the history of Christianity
(1589-1700, 1917-1925, and 1943 to the present).


Thanks to for posting the text of the joint declaration
agreed to and signed by both Francis and Kirill.

Navigating the Vatican website is not always the
easiest of tasks, especially for those who don't do
it often. 

    
The important thing is that the meeting took place,
hopefully opening new doors towards a deeper unity
among Christians according to the mind of Christ.
For this we can all give thanks to God!


In this issue I also especially enjoyed Ron Rolheiser's
and Harry Winter's pieces.  Thanks for them too.


--

Re: Colleagues List, February 14th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zhoa96y

February 17th, 2016

Harry Winter,
St. Paul, MN

Many thanks for including the Anglican Ordinariate
item in your Colleagues List last Saturday. 

(Harry's article in the US Oblate e-journal referred
to a more 'palatable' Vatican ecumenical reception
for Anglican priests desiring to become Catholic
priests.)

I appreciated especially your lead-in...
Continued prayers, Wayne, for you and Marlene and
your ministry.

Harry

***

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Marjorie Gibson,
Vancouver, BC

Who is Belle? (part four)
http://tinyurl.com/zfmgmuq

Belle is a pioneer Alberta woman, and daughter
of a Danish Lutheran pastor. She was one of
many Alberta pioneers who migrated here from
the American Midwest more than a century ago.

Marjorie, now in her 90's, continues to write
regularly and lucidly, and we enjoy getting the
perspective of another early Alberta woman of
Danish Lutheran heritage herself, whose family
homesteaded east of Calgary near Standard AB.

This column from her "Marjorie Remembers" blog
comes to us assisted by her daughter Isabel Gibson
of Ottawa (see above), Thanks, Marjorie and Isabel.

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
February 17th, 2016

"The Flaws of Either/Or Thinking"
  http://tinyurl.com/hl3ptpt

--

Michael W. Higgins,
Fairfield, CT

Globe and Mail,
February 18th, 2016

"The Pope Vs. The Donald"
  http://tinyurl.com/zethnzu

Huntington Post/Politics
by Jim Wallis, Sojpurners
February 19th, 2016

"Francis and Donald: Bridges or Walls?"
  http://tinyurl.com/zum2vrj

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site
February 15th, 2016

"God's Inexhaustibility"
  http://tinyurl.com/zwggfg4

--

Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL

Sightings
February 15th, 2016

"Evolution"
  http://tinyurl.com/hzoc8mg

***

NET NOTES

Articles that caught my eye this past week:

WHEATON CONTROVERY ENDS
Editor Pleads for Greater Transparency

Christianity Today
February 8th, 2016 

http://tinyurl.com/gwmhl54 

--

A DISGRACED RABBI RE-EMERGES
His Past is there Waiting for Him

Sightings
February 18th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/h8omtgy

--

DR. VICTOR GOLDBLOOM DIES AT 92
Jewish-Christian Bridge-Builder

Anglican Journal
February 17th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jl9opyz

--

TWO UNSEEN TOLKIEN POEMS FOUND
School Journal Recorded Them in 1936

The Guardian, UK
February 16th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/zaqvzzs

--

IT'S TIME TO RE-WRITE PRO-WAR HYMNS
For Example - "Onward Christians Soldiers"
by Brian McLaren

Baptist World/Global
February 18th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/j5z36jf

--

THE STATE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM TODAY
A Global Peril

America Magazine
February 29th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/go9ctxr

--

AN ANCIENT FAITH ENCOUNTERS MODERNITY
Islamic Awakening

America Magazine
February 29th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/hkzwz48

--

MISSING, MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN
Their Numbers in Canada Could Top 4,000

The Guardian, UK
February 17th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/zkd2g97

--

JPII HAD CLOSE RELATIONSHIP
WITH POLISH WOMAN
Long-term Friendship
With Philosopher was Honourable

New York Times
February 16th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/zpgjsxb

The Guardian, UK
February 15th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jum7y42

The Tablet, UK
February 18th, 2016

"Heart Has Its Reasons"
  http://tinyurl.com/jo3xpzs

--

FLOURISHING: WHY WE
NEED RELIGION IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD
New Book by Miroslav Volf

Englewood Review of Books
February 19th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/hv93bmo
 
***

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojurners and the Bruderhof
online:

The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority 
rule is a person’s conscience. 


- Harper Lee

--

Love proves itself by permeating desire.

- Alain Badiou

--

God is not failing us when we don’t feel
his presence. Let’s not say: God doesn’t
do what I pray for so much, and therefore
I don’t pray anymore. God exists, and he
exists even more, the farther you feel from
him. God is closer to you when you think
he is farther away and doesn’t hear you.

When you feel the anguished desire for
God to come near because you don’t feel
him present, then God is very close to

your anguish.

- Oscar Romero

--

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and

yet depreciate agitation, are men who want
crops without plowing up the ground. They
want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar
of its many waters.

This struggle may be a moral one; or it may

be a physical one; or it may be both moral
and physical; but it must be a struggle.

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will.

- Frederick Douglass

***

ON THIS DAY

From the archives of the New York Times

"American Marines Storm Iwo Jima in WWII"
  http://tinyurl.com/a97rnfw

"Nixon Makes Historic Trip to China (1972)"  
  http://tinyurl.com/aw2mpfh

"Burial Chamber of King Tut Unsealed in Egypt"
  http://tinyurl.com/h9g3xv9

***

CLOSING THOUGHT - Pope Francis

Let us together ask our God for the gift
of conversion, the gift of tears, let us ask
him to give us open hearts like the Ninevites,
open to his call heard in the suffering faces
of countless men and women.

No more death! No more exploitation!
There is still time to change, there is still
a way out and a chance, time to implore
the mercy of God.


(end)

***

Continuing Our Program Season -
Winter 2016 Adult Spiritual Development
ACTS Ministry at St. David's
United Church, Calgary

WINTER 2016 MONDAY NIGHT STUDY

Theme: "The Other Two Religions of Jerusalem"
                Judaism and Islam

Books: "Chosen? Reading the Bible
              Amid the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"
              by Walter Brueggemann

             "Islam: A Short History"
               by Karen Armstrong
              
http://tinyurl.com/jzbybmj
http://tinyurl.com/hr4ohvd
A  ten-week investigation into the religious 
sources of modern global unrest centered
in the Mid-East:

Ten Monday evenings, 7-9PM
In the St. David's TM Room
January 18th - March 21st, 2015
Including Monday of Family Weekend

Books and Registration/Hospitality - $60.00
Books only - $35.00

Total book sets made available for sale: 32.
All sets have now been sold.

Now beginning seventeen years
of Monday Night Studies
Our thirty-second series of
(usually) ten week sessions!

Course design:
http://chosen.stdavidscalgary.net/

Check our complete archives
for all 46 book studies:
http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh

***

THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY

Theme: The Book of RUTH and other
Hebrew Bible themes of justice for
vulnerable people in society

Five sessions 10-11 AM
Gathering at 9:30AM
In the St. David's TM Room
January 28th - February 25th.

No charge.

Study resource -

The DK Complete Bible Handbook
http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q

(copy available in our church library)

The Bible Study Group provided the
service reflection Sunday, Jan. 17th, 2016
and it was well received.

*****

ACTS LENTEN RETREAT, 2016

Something to Anticipate This Year

Mount St. Francis Retreat Centre
Cochrane, Alberta
http://www.mountstfrancis.ca/

Mark your calendars!

Sunday February 28th
11:30 AM - 4:00 PM


Theme: "Opening the Jubilee Door:
A Focus on the Ecological Spirituality
of St. Francis of Assisi"

Registration, including lunch and
refreshments during the day - $35.00

Reflections will be led by Susan Campbell
enthusiastic, qualified and new MSF director;
and will include a nature walk.


***


ST. DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS

Coming Soon - our "Memories Project" --
Sight and Sound Packet contributed by those
taking the "Jerusalem and the Lands of Three
Great Faiths" tour last October and produced
by Jock McTavish. 12,000 pictures were offered
and processed.

Available free to all who took and tour with
additional packets at a modest price for those
interested.

--

New Project Later This Winter --

"Where Would You Like to Travel Next?"

Beginning our process to find a destination
for a trip somewhere in the world in 2017.

*****


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