*****
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
Dear Colleagues:
Enhancing your reading experience is very
important to me.
I continue to refine and reduce the length,
but hopefully not the content and quality,
of each issue.
Please let me know how I'm doing.
--
This is the first issue of Volume XII of
Colleagues List, and I continue my bi-weekly
summer schedule.
Friend Jean Koning of Peterborough ON.
begins this issue with a personal comment.
My Special Item this week is entitled:
"My Thoughts on Attending Two Family
Nuptuals - 2010 and 2016."
Our families are changing and our wedding
ceremonies are becoming more varied.
Lorna Dueck, Martin Marty, John Stackhouse,
Jim Taylor and Ron Rolheiser provide us with
their Colleague Contributions this week.
Ten Net Notes of particular interest are
offered, as well as six wisdom selections;
and two "On This Day" historic events from
the archives of the New York Times.
Our Closing Thought is from Martin Luther
King Jr.
If you are interested, our Autumn St. David's
Adult Spiritual Development program
continues to build (see blog's end).
---
Blessings on your days. Mine are more
restful because of the time of year.
Wayne
***
COLLEAGUE COMMENT
Jean Koning
Peterborough, ON
July 4th, 2016
Dear Wayne:
(At 93) I look forward to continuing
to follow the Colleague’s List, which
remains unfailingly interesting –
many thanks for that!
Blessings,
Jean.
***
SPECIAL ITEM
MY THOUGHTS ON ATTENDING
TWO FAMILY NUPTUALS
2010 and 2016.
Salt Spring Island Wedding (2010)
Colleagues List, Sept. 20th, 2010
http://tinyurl.com/huwo7kh
Salt Spring Island Information
http://tinyurl.com/hmwatar
"Roots and Wings -
Summer Travels in Ontario and BC"
(selection)
Our visit to Salt Spring Island (BC) was prompted
by an invitation from Laura and Bascia to attend
their wedding. It would be the first time Marlene
and I would experience the vow-sharing of two
people of the same gender. Even though such
weddings are becoming more common and
families are invited to attend - the experience
is still a bit strange for many.
A whole new set of terms are required for such
ceremonies. 'Husband' and 'wife' no longer apply,
for example. Kissing was part of the ceremony -
but was there a bride? Was there a groom?...
Well... not really.
Seeing two women kissing as we did takes a
little getting used to, but we realize that is
essentially a matter of custom. Customs can
and do change. We will accept that.
The United Church minister who married them,
Rev. Bob Pollock of Vancouver, did a fine piece
of pastoral work - both in the preparation and
follow-through. It was obvious that all three of
the key persons involved in the ceremony had
put much thought and spiritual devotion into
the proceedings.
I think Laura and Bascia appreciated that we
made the effort to 'come all the way from
Calgary' as they said, to represent a number
of others in our family who did not attend for
various reasons. Frankly, as one who has
married many heterosexual couples over the
years, I felt the level of spiritual preparation
and climate of this ceremony was second
to none.
We were proud and happy to attend this service
in the back yard of a friend's house on the island,
and then to participate in the joyous reception
that followed at the Harbour House in the town
of Ganges.
We love this couple and wish them well on their
life journey. We reflect on the experience as
something taking us beyond the customary; but
one which will no doubt become commonplace
for future Canadian generations.
--
Medicine Hat Wedding (2016)
On Canada Day weekend this year, Marlene and
I attended the wedding of her niece Laurelle
Brown and her partner, Lucas Dupley. It took
place at St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church,
in Medicine Hat, AB. 300ks southeast of Calgary.
http://tinyurl.com/z4645qk
The building was constructed more than a century
ago in a neo-Gothic design popular at the time.
Both are Catholics, and the families had invested
a lot of time and energy in the church ceremony
as well as the related events. It had been some
years since we last attended a Catholic wedding,
and we both found this ceremony meaningful
and renewing.
The service was conducted by the deacon of
St. Patrick's, the Rev. Mr. Terry Olson, who
reflected spiritual and human sensitivity in
the way both the rehearsal and ceremony
were conducted. I would suggest that the
Catholic families involved were not particularly
pious, but very serious and respectful. Terry
helped to make the marriage experience deeply
satisfying and, for all who attended, memorable.
I reflected with the deacon on the fact that
this was the first Catholic wedding I had
ever attended that was conducted by a
married man! In the Catholic Church, deacons
can be married, while priests (currently)
cannot. We talked about how Pope Francis is
trying to open the diaconate to women, and
that developments in the diaconate today
may indeed eventually lead to both women
and married Catholic priests. Diplomatically,
Terry offered no opinion on the matter, but
I expressed considerable hope concerning
these possibilities.
The ceremony focused on promise and
commitment. It was helpful that the person
advising the young couple was able to speak
from his own experience as a married person.
In an age when young couples seem to try
to compete with each other on attempts to
devise "creative" vows and marriage locations,
I found it refreshing that this couple seemed
most satisfied with traditional values promoted
through a very simple but profound ritual, and
held in a traditional location.
This example, I thought, should give some
pause to many of the Protestants present.
No married couples attending could experience
this ceremony without reflecting on their
own marital commitments and blessings.
--
Marlene and I are proud to live in a country
where human rights are taken seriously and
churches/officiants are willing to act on those
values. Even though we need to respect religious
differences - we are happy that no particular
religious/moral perspective is permitted to
control the majority.
It is a privilege for me to be part of a family
that celebrates diversity and individual
differences in a respectful way.
***
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Lorna Dueck
Toronto, ON
Colleague Lorna Dueck is
Appointed CEO of Crossroads
Christian Communications
Enhancing Her Influence as an
Evangelical Voice in Canada
Christian Week Online
June 27th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zqd224z
--
Martin Marty
Chicago, IL
Sightings
June 29th, 2016
"Brexit: Convulsive In-gatherings"
http://tinyurl.com/zcyneql
July 5th, 2016
"A Holy and Small Great Synod"
The Orthodox Meeting in Crete
http://tinyurl.com/jlsj27j
--
John Stackhouse Jr.
Moncton, NB
JohnStackhouse.com
July 1st, 2016
"Canada: Getting Worse and Better"
http://tinyurl.com/ztgpngk
--
Jim Taylor
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
July 3rd, 2016
"When Sleep Becomes a Commodity"
http://tinyurl.com/jm6usse
July 6th, 2016
"The Hard Choice of Forgiving"
http://tinyurl.com/h7m9j63
--
Ron Rolheiser
San Antonio, TX.
Personal Web Site
July 4th, 2016
"Struggling With Grandiosity"
http://tinyurl.com/jbhy4gf
***
NET NOTES
ELIE WIESEL DIES
Holocaust Survivor "Bore Witness"
New York Times Video
July 2nd, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zs92z9v
Religion News Service (via)
Christian Conflict and Change Blog
by David Gushee
July 5th, 2016
"What Elie Wiesel Meant to Me"
http://tinyurl.com/glczjq3
Other Tributes:
http://tinyurl.com/hbsx3db
--
THE THEOLOGY OF DONALD TRUMP
His is a Worldview Incompatible
With Christianity
New York Times
July 5th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zskblrm
"Is Donald Trump
Now a Born-Again Christian?"
Religion News Service
June 27th, 2916
http://tinyurl.com/gt8t4uv
--
UNPACKING THE TERM 'MERCY'
Pope Francis' Favorite Word
America Magazine
July 6th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/z4vs8fb
--
NEW MOSQUE IN SAINT JOHN NB
Created for Recent Syrian Refugees
CBC.ca News
June 24th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/hz6x88q
--
'ATHEIST' MINISTER
DEFENDS HER VIEWS
Colleague Gretta Vosper
Faces United Church Court
CTV.ca News
June 29th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/z4r4mlj
--
TRINITY WESTERN LOSES
ONTARIO COURT APPEAL
Rejection of Law School Grads
Case Likely Going to Supreme Court
Christian Week/
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
June 30th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/jfuslr7
--
LUTHERANS AND MENNONITES
FORGING STRONGER RELATIONS
Closer, Practical and Grassroots
Lutheran World News, Geneva
July 2nd, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/grg8vhw
--
REFUGEES ENCOUNTER THE
WORD 'WELCOME' IN CANADA
As Nation Celebrates 149th Birthday
New York Times
July 1st, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/gqdtb4g
--
CANADIAN UNITARIANS LOSE
THEIR CHARITABLE EXEMPTION
Revenue Canada Rejects Hazy
Description of Their Mission
CBC.ca News
July 3rd, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/ju4twv2
--
ISSUES IN THE FUTURE OF
AMERICAN EVANGELICALISM
Challenges Affecting the Movement
Christianity Today
June 29th, 2016
http://tinyurl.com/zunm796
***
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Sojourners and the Bruderhof Online:
Here is the mystery, the secret, one might
almost say the cunning, of the deep love
of God: that it is bound to draw on to itself
the hatred and pain and shame and anger
and bitterness and rejection of the world,
but to draw all those things on to itself is
precisely the means, chosen from all
eternity by the generous, loving God,
by which to rid his world of the evils
which have resulted from human abuse
of God-given freedom.
- N. T. Wright
--
In making a choice it is not so much
a question of choosing the right as of
the energy, the earnestness, the passion
with which one chooses.
This is how personality is consolidated.
Even if a person chooses the wrong, he
will nevertheless discover precisely by
reason of the energy with which he chose,
that he has chosen the wrong.
- Søren Kierkegaard
--
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it
so deep within us that no sign of it appears
on the surface, we are implanting it, and it
will rise up a thousand fold in the future.
When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers,
we are not simply protecting their trivial old age,
we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice
from beneath new generations.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
--
We are a spiritually impoverished generation;
we search in all the places the Spirit ever flowed
in the hope of finding water. And that is a valid
impulse. For if the Spirit is living and never dies,
it must still be present wherever it once was
active… It is like a small but carefully tended
spark, ready to flare, glow, and burst into flame
the moment it feels the first enkindling breath.
- Edith Stein
--
It is not how much we are doing but how
much love, how much honesty, how much
faith is put into doing it. It makes no
difference what we are doing. What you
are doing, I cannot do, and what I am doing,
you cannot do. Only sometimes we forget
and we spend more time looking at
somebody else and wishing that we
were doing something else. We waste
our time thinking of tomorrow, and today
we let the day pass, and yesterday is gone.
- Mother Teresa
--
The present form of the world passes
away, and there remains only the joy
of having used this world to establish
God’s rule here.
All pomp, all triumphs, all selfish
capitalism, all the false successes of
life will pass with the world’s form.
All of that passes away.
What does not pass away is love.
When one has turned money, property,
work in one’s calling into service of
others, then the joy of sharing and the
feeling that all are one’s family does
not pass away. In the evening of life
you will be judged on love.
- Oscar Romero
***
ON THIS DAY
From the archives of the New York Times:
"Hong Kong Reverts to Chinese Rule
after 156 Years as a British Colony"
http://tinyurl.com/pf6xaxq
"Treaty of Versailles Signed in France,
Ending WWI"
http://tinyurl.com/zjqez6e
***
CLOSING THOUGHT - Martin Luther King Jr.
I prayed a prayer and I prayed out loud that
night. I said, “Lord, I’m down here trying to
do what’s right. I think I’m right. I think the
cause we represent is right. But Lord I must
confess that I’m weak now. I’m faltering ...
I’m losing my courage.”
... And it seemed at that moment that I could
hear an inner voice saying to me, “Martin Luther,
stand up for justice, stand up for truth. And lo
I will be with you, even to the end of the world.”
(end)
*****
For Those Interested:
Beginning Our Program Planning Season -
Autumn 2016 Adult Spiritual Development
ACTS Ministry at St. David's United Church, Calgary
FALL 2016 MONDAY NIGHT STUDY
This series begins in September
Theme: "Rediscovering the Bible for Today"
Book: "Reclaiming the Bible
for a Non-Religious World"
by Bishop John Spong
http://tinyurl.com/jfanqdp
A ten-week introduction to the entire Bible
with help to engage it meaningfully, today.Ten Monday evenings, 7-9PM
In the St. David's TM Room
September 19th - November 28th, 2016
Excluding Monday of Thanksgiving Weekend
Books and Registration/Hospitality - $60.00
Books only - $20.00
Total book sets made available for sale: 35.
All sale books have now been secured.
Now beginning eighteen years
of Monday Night Studies
Our thirty-fifth series of
(usually) ten week sessions!
Course design: TBA in September
Check our complete archives
for all 48 book studies since 2000:
http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh
***
THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
Theme: TBA in September, 2016
Group Decides Theme at First Meeting
Ten sessions 10-11 AM
Gathering at 9:30 AM
In the St. David's TM Room
September 15th - November 24th.
No charge.
Study resource -
The DK Complete Bible Handbook
http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q
(copy available in our church library)
***
NEW SEASON,
NEW ST.DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVEL PROJECT
The Planning Cycle for a 2017 Tour Continues.
The Travel Destination has been selected
with Rostad Tours. It is a seventeen-day trip
which will take place in October of next year.
Location, cost and itinerary will be made
available summer 2016. Promotion will begin
in September. Follow these notices for
weekly updates.
*****
No comments:
Post a Comment