Colleagues List, August 21st, 2016

Vol. XII.  No. 4

*****

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.

--

I want to begin this issue with thoughts
and prayers for Calgary Muslim friend,
Imam Davud Hanci. We were considering
involving him in our ACTS programming,
but he was arrested during a recent trip
to visit family in Turkey. His wife and
children have returned safely to Canada
but he remains a prisoner of the Erdogan
regime on unspecified charges associated
with the recent military uprising.

http://tinyurl.com/zbdaju6

"Wayne please pray for us" - his Calgary
friend Malik Muradov recently wrote me.

--

For my last summer issue I share my
August column, appearing this week
in the Anglican Journal. It celebrates
the life and work of a deceased mentor
of mine, William Hordern of Saskatoon.
He was a pioneer Canadian theologian
and his writing continues to inspire.

This issue also includes a number of
interesting contributions from colleagues,
and special articles I have gleaned, over
the past two weeks, from the internet.

Wisdom of the week is offered by several
people - past and present - whose thought
is worth considering, and I conclude with
important historical events from the archives
of the New York Times.

If you are interested, note how our autumn
adult spiritual development ministry program
is evolving at St. David's United, Calgary.

My next Colleagues List issue will appear
September 4th, when we return to our
regular weekly schedule.

Blessings to all,

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

My Anglican Journal Column for August:

"William Hordern - Canadian Theologian"

http://tinyurl.com/zz5lecj

***

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON

Personal Blog
August 19th, 2016

"Sabbath" Olympics Reflection

http://tinyurl.com/jrnys9x

--

Thomas Ryan,
Boston, MA

Paulist Fathers
August 2nd, 2016

"The Reformation - The Differences
  Weren't as Deep as We Thought"

http://tinyurl.com/h4xpos9

--

Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL

August 15th, 2016

"Success and Truth in Religion"
  http://tinyurl.com/jchk3t7

(related article)

Religion News Service,
August 10th, 2016

"Why a Stout Theological Creed
  is not Saving Evangelical Churches"

http://tinyurl.com/hogmyq9

--

Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB

'In Transit' Blog
August 8th, 2016

"Love Story"

http://tinyurl.com/mkrsuut

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX.

Personal Web Site
August 15th, 2016

"A Happy Death"

http://tinyurl.com/gqhybzz

***

NET NOTES

I AM A WOMAN
But the Church Rejects My Gifts

Christian Week Online
August 4th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jyozre4

--

CATHOLIC CHURCHES IN BEIJING
A Gallery of Pictures

UCA News
August 11th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/gwj3exn

--

LATTER DAY SAINTS IN THE NEWS
The Changing Face of Mormonism

"Hillary Pitches the Mormons"

Religion News Service,
August 11th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/j7sdrqj

"I Am Not a Mormon" - An LGBT Protest

The Guardian, UK
August 15th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jbscmc3

"Lesbian Salt Lake City Mayor Marries"

Religion News Service
August 17th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/zejo4ry

--

INDIA'S INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
URGED TO UNITE
Movement Focuses
on the Rights of First Peoples

UCA News
August 10th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/hksngsf

--

JOINT COMMEMORATION
OF THE REFORMATION
Global Events Involving
Catholics and Lutherans
As 500th Anniversary
Approaches in 2017

Lutheran World Federation
August 8th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/zfrvk8k

"US Lutherans Adopt
  Historic Agreement" A Healing
   of Major Reformation Differences

Religion News Service
August 15th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jcbq9n7

--

FRANCIS INVITES
SYRIAN REFUGEES TO LUNCH
Again, the Pope Seeks
to Set an Example

Religion News Service,
August 11th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/z5nc2kr

--

AMERICAN EVANGELICALS
AND DONALD TRUMP

James Dobson Explains His
'Baby Christian' Remark

Most Americans Not Buying it

Christianity Today,
August 4th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/zaaatjb


Trump-Loving Evangelicals
Owe Bill Clinton an Apology


Forgiveness Requested vs.
Forgiveness Spurned

The Atlantic
August 10th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jssz3zy

--

MANY NEW CANADIANS ARE
PASSIONATE ABOUT SPIRITUALITY
Vital Contribution to Canada's Churches

Vancouver Sun
August 8th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/z6yj35n

--

SOME VANCOUVER EVANGELICALS
AND CATHOLICS OPPOSE HIS VISIT
Franklin Graham Described as
"Incendiary and Intolerant"

Vancouver Sun
August 17th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/hv5bzn2

--

WOMEN ARE READY
FOR THE DIACONATE,
IS THE CHURCH READY
TO RECEIVE THEM?

America Media
August 5th, 2016

http://tinyurl.com/jsdobyb

***

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

[The Gospel] is a royal summons to submission,
to obedience, to allegiance; and the form that
this submission and obedient allegiance takes
is of course faith.

- N.T. Wright

--

The Holy Scriptures were not given to us
that we should enclose them in books, but
that we should  engrave them upon our hearts.

- St. John Chrysostom 

--

The whole modern world has divided itself
into Conservatives and Progressives.

The business of Progressives is to go on
making mistakes.

The business of the Conservatives is to
prevent the mistakes from being corrected. 
 
- G.K. Chesterton

--

A simple prayer, is like a soft sighing,

like a child’s prayer, keeps us alert.

Has not God revealed to those who
are little, to Christ’s poor, what the
powerful of this world have so much
trouble understanding?

- Brother Roger

--

There are those who give little of the
much which they have – and they give
it for recognition and their hidden desire
makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and
give it all. These are the believers in life
and the bounty of life, and their coffer
is never empty.

- Kahlil Gibran

--

We are guilty of many errors and many faults,
but our worst crime is abandoning the children,
neglecting the fountain of life.

Many things can wait. Children cannot.
Right now their bones are being formed,
their blood is being made,
and their senses are being developed.

To them we cannot answer, “Tomorrow.”
Their name is today.

- Gabriela Mistral

--

The most precious things of life are near
at hand, without money and without price.
Each of you has the whole wealth of the
universe at your very door...

So, on a large scale, the student and lover
of nature has this advantage over people
who gad up and down the world seeking
some novelty or excitement: he has only
to stay at home and see the procession
pass.

The great globe swings around to him
like a revolving showcase; the change
of the seasons is like the passage of
strange and new countries; the zones
of the earth, with all their beauties and
marvels, pass one’s door and linger long
in the passing.

- John Burroughs

--

Bach Invention

If I could live as finished as this phrase,
no note too strong; each cadence purposed,
clear, the logic of the changing harmony
building and breaking to a major chord
strangely at home within a minor web
of music; if I could define my end,
from the beginning measures trace my course,
I might be old and prudent, shown by laws
how to devise a pattern for my days
and still be free, unhampered, yet refined.

He sat before the keys and turned the notes
into a fabric of design and peace;
here are the notes, the keys, my fingers free
to run them through their course, and here
my mind seeing his wisdom work within
the chords, finding his knowledge in
the finished line.

I would be wise if such restraint were mine.

- Jane Tyson Clement

***

ON THIS DAY

From the archives of the New York Times:

"Woodstock Festival Concludes"
  http://tinyurl.com/3xlysla

"India and Pakistan Become Independent
    After 200 Years of British Rule"
    http://tinyurl.com/ghyu3

"Nixon Resigns Due to Watergate"
  http://tinyurl.com/haobkg9

"US Drops First Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima"
  http://tinyurl.com/dhzpn9
   
***

CLOSING THOUGHT - Henri J. M. Nouwen

For a long time, I sought safety and
security among the wise and clever,
hardly aware that the things of the
kingdom were revealed to “little
children”; that God has chosen
“those who by human standards
are fools to shame the wise.”

But when I experienced the warm,
unpretentious reception of those who
have nothing to boast about, and
experienced a loving embrace from
people who didn’t ask any questions,
I began to discover that a true spiritual
homecoming means a return to the
poor in spirit to whom the kingdom
of heaven belongs.

(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 researched with 
Rostad Tours of Calgary. 

We have selected South Africa as our location!

We plan a seventeen-day trip that combines a
focus on faith, culture, and nature, and it will
take place in October of next year.

Cost and itinerary will be published this autmn. 
Follow these notices for weekly updates.

*****