Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2016 http://colleagueslist.blogspot.ca/

Friday 28 April 2017

Colleagues List, April 30th, 2017

Vol. XII No. 30

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor


My E-Mail Address:
waholst@telus.net


Colleagues List Web Site
http//colleagueslist2.bogspot.com


*****


Dear Colleagues:

I return to one of my favourite authors in this issue of
Colleagues List. My Special Item introduces a reprint
of one of Joseph Campbell's more interesting and important
writings - The Mythic Dimension. It is a collection of many
of his integrative essays on the meaning of global mythology.

I hope you enjoy it.

Thanks to contributing colleagues who have added to this
issue. I hope you find that my Net Notes and Wisdom of the
Week notes keep you connected to developing events and
ideas.

Spring is unfolding nicely here in Alberta. I hope that the
weather is agreeable to you, wherever you live in the world.

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notice:

THE MYTHIC DIMENSION
Selected Essays 1959-1987
by Joseph Campbell

Collected Works
New World Library, 2017
Hardcover. 348 pages. $18.35CAD
Paperback. 348 pages. $24.26CAD
ISBN#978-1-57731-594-0

(second paperback edition just released, March, 2017)

Publisher's Promo:

These 12 eclectic essays explore myth and its fascinating context
in the human imagination - in the arts, literature, and culture, as
well as in everyday life.

The most recent title in New World Library's Collected Works of
Joseph Campbell 11-volume series, this new paperback edition
features pieces that exhibit Campbell's trademark thoughtfulness
and intelligence. These essays explore the topic for which Campbell

was best known: the many connections between myth and history, psychology, and the daily world. Drawing from such varied sources
as Thomas Mann, the occult, Jungian and Freudian theory, and the
Grateful Dead, these dynamic writings elucidate the many ways in
which myth touches our lives, our psyches, and our relationship to
the world.

This second volume of Campbell's essays (followingThe Flight of the
Wild Gander) brings together his uncollected writings from 1959 to 1987. Written at the height of Campbell's career - and showcasing
the lively intelligence that made him the twentieth century's premier
writer on mythology - these essays investigate the profound links
between myth, the individual, and societies ancient and contemporary.

--

Endorsements

“Campbell has become one of the rarest of intellectuals in American
life: a serious thinker who has been embraced by the popular culture.”
Newsweek

“No one in our century—not Freud, not Thomas Mann, not Lévi-Strauss—has so brought the mythical sense of the world and its eternal figures back into our everyday consciousness.”
— James Hillman

“In our generation the mythographer who has had the fullest command of the huge scholarly literature, the analytic ability, the lucid prose, and the needed staying power has been Joseph Campbell.”
Commentary


--
 
Joseph Campbell's Words:

“Accordingly the vision and the visionary, though apparently separate, are one; and all the heavens, all the hells, all the gods and demons, all the figures of the mythic worlds, are within us as portions of ourselves - portions, that is to say, that are of our deepest, primary nature, and thus of our share in nature. They are out there as well as in here, yet,
in this field of consciousness, without separation. Our personal dreams are our personal guides, therefore, to the ranges of myth and of the gods. Dreams are our personal myths; myths, the general dream.”

—  from The Mythic Dimension

--

Joseph Campbell Bio:

John Campbell (1904-1987) wrote, among other works, the classics
The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Inner Reaches of Outer Space, and The Masks of God. A prolific writer, lecturer, and scholar of art,
history, religion, and culture, he taught at Sarah Lawrence College.

(extensive Wikipedia bio): http://tinyurl.com/l9krkbu

--

Editor's Words:

From 1959 until his death in 1987, Joseph Campbell wrote three
major works - "The Masks of God" "The Historical Atlas of World
Mythology" and "The Mythic Image". These books were not just
books about mythology; they were books about all mythology,
or large-scale attempts to comprehend the religious expression
of the human species.

In them, Campbell introduced many facts, stories, images, and
ideas to serve his larger argument, only to let them go after they
had served their purpose... During these most productive years
of his career, however, Campbell did write about much of the
material that he only touched on in his major works. He lectured
prodigiously and wrote numerous essays that were either early
explorations or of mature reflections upon material that appeared
in his larger ventures. These essays were published in small-
circulation magazines and journals, or in introductions to chapters
in others' books. The best of them are collected (in this book.)

(Campbell writes about the historical development of mythology
and the mythological themes dating from early times that inform
our lives today. This book contains many of those foundational
essays linking his major themes to inform us of how myth addresses
the universal concerns of human consciousness)...

(These essays help to tie together the themes of his major works,
as he wrote during the height of his powers and then during the
period of his life when he sought to integrate and emphasise the
key learnings of his unusual career.)

--

My Thoughts:

Joseph Campbell was a prolific and profound writer who was
always venturing into new subjects, then integrating what he
discovered into his earlier understandings.

This book is a reflection on the integrational aspect of his teaching,
and continues to stand out as new generations become aware
of his significant contribution to human understandings.

A review of the thematic contents page of this book reminds us
of the breadth of his learning and the way he continued to weave
new discoveries with older understandings.

In the first part of this book he writes of the expanding nature of comparative mythology across global cultures; the historical
development of mythology, rituals that emerge from myths; and 
the goddess theme in myths.

In the second part of this book, he writes of mythology and the
arts - and of how myths are communicated verbally and symbolically.
His ability to understand this theme through creative literature
and art can help us to understand how myth is so much part
of the world of the arts in every era. He not only deals with myths
of the past, in other words, but with how myths continue to
be reconstituted in every era of human history, including our own.

The book contains an excellent index of themes appearing here,
and an extensive list of his writings.

The new paperback edition, just published, is an indication of
the timeliness and continuing appeal of Joseph Campbell for
new readers as well as veterans returning for another drink
from the well of one of the twentieth century's great minds.
___

Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/n7crlhk

Buy the book from New World Library:
http://tinyurl.com/k8uaun6

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

John Stackhouse Jr.
Moncton, NB

Context Insider
March 30th, 3017

"Mike Pence and the Liberal Moral Police"

  http://tinyurl.com/l2wxpfw

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
April 26th, 2017

"The Risks of Unknown Goals"

   http://tinyurl.com/m4sx3sa

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio TX

Personal Web Site
April 24th, 2017
   
"Becoming a Holy Beggar"

  http://tinyurl.com/n7mckoj

*****

NET NOTES

A WONDER OF NATURE
Newfoundland Iceberg Loams 15 Stories Tall

New York Times (video)
April 23rd, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/lan7al3

--

THE PAPAL VISIT TO EGYPT
Francis Expresses His Hopes (video)

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
April 27th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/m7zbdvp

"Pope Faces Another Dangerous, Delicate Task"
 - commentary

Religion News Service
April 26th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/lzx4x7d

"Francis Arrives in Cairo With Message of Peace"

New York Times
April 28th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/lbjncbu
 
--

TO STAY MARRIED, EMBRACE CHANGE
Long-Term Relationships Require Adaptability

New York Times
April 24th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/lbshm5n

--

WHAT IS FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION?
What does it have to do with Islam?


Religion News Service,
April 27th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/k9yd5gv

--

ALVIN PLANTINGA AWARDED TEMPLETON PRIZE
Noted for Human Progress in Faith and Spirituality

Publisher's Weekly.
April 25th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/mbbg99h

--

CONFRONTING TRUMP IN MODERN AMERICA

"Mormon Scholars Challenge Travel Ban
  Claiming Similar Discrimination LDS Once Experienced"

Religion News Service
April 27th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/l7h47bs

"Christians Can Stop Trump's Wall"

Sojourners Online
April 26th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/ls4yap6

"Canadian Margaret Atwood Book
   Contains Eerie Dystopian Similarities"

Sojourners Online
April 25th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/kgung4z

--

CHRISTIANS - WORLD'S MOST PERSECUTED GROUP
Three Responses to Religious Violence

UCA News
April 25th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/m8365mt

--

CHINESE CHRISTIANS WANT TO RE-ERECT CROSSES
Official Responsible for Removal Resigns

UCA News,
April 28th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/k48sut8
--

CHURCH ATTENDENCE DECLINES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Cultural Shift Impact on Families Seen as Major Cause

UCA News
April 25th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/mqqpejr

--

CANADIAN COPTS PONDER FUTURE OF CHURCH IN EGYPT
They Recognize Their Freedoms, and the Lack Back Home

Religion News Service
April 25th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/llq85om

*****

A MOMENT IN TIME
From the Globe and Mail
April 27th, 2017

South Africa holds first multiracial elections

April 27, 1994: Nobody was quite certain if South Africa could pull

it off. In the lead-up to its first multiracial elections, the signs were ominous. White extremists were planting bombs across the country. Zulu militants and right-wing Afrikaners were threatening an election boycott. Protests had erupted into bloodshed and there were warnings of civil war. It was the charisma and diplomatic shrewdness of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela that finally turned the tide. He pleaded for peace and reached out skillfully to the angry militants. On election day, millions of South Africans queued patiently in the sun. Despite bomb threats, ballot shortages and logistical chaos that forced the election to be extended to three days, the voting was largely peaceful.

Mandela won an overwhelming victory and became the first black president of the new “rainbow nation.” Today, April 27, is an annual holiday known as Freedom Day. – Geoffrey York

*****


WISDOM OF THE WEEK

From Sojourners and the Bruderhof onine:

Religion is one of the safest places to hide from God.

- Richard Rohr

--

"If there is anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always
kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me.

But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are
always kept in that same precious love."

- Julian of Norwich

--

When you refuse to take steps to reverse climate change,
you are therefore endorsing more floods, more famines,
more extreme weather conditions, more droughts, and all
of that is going to have an impact on the world food supply,
particularly in areas that are already challenged ... and
climate change is one of the biggest threats to world peace.

- Margaret Atwood

--

The Bible leaves no doubt at all about the sanctity of the act
of world-making, or of the world that was made, or of creaturely
or bodily life in this world. We are holy creatures living among
other holy creatures in a world that is holy. Some people know
this, and some do not. Nobody, of course, knows it all the time.
But what keeps it from being far better known than it is?

Why is it apparently unknown to millions of professed students
of the Bible? How can modern Christianity have so solemnly
folded its hands while so much of the work of God was and
is being destroyed?

- Wendell Berry

--

You must know that there is nothing higher and stronger
and more wholesome for life in the future than some good
memory, especially a memory of childhood, of home.

People talk to you a great deal about education. But some
good, sacred memory preserved from childhood – that is
perhaps the best education. For if a man has only one good
memory left in his heart, even that may keep him from evil.…

And if he carries many such memories with him into life,
he is safe for the end of his days.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

*****

MOMENT IN TIME

Provided by the Globe and Mail

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - Eddie Huang

To this day, I wake up at times, look in the mirror,
and just stare, obsessed with the idea that the person
I am in my head is something entirely different than
what everyone else sees.

That the way I look will prevent me from doing the things I want ...

(end)

*****

For Those Interested -

ST.DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS PROJECT, 2017

South Africa has been chosen as our destination!

We plan a nineteen-day tour that combines a focus
on faith, social justice, culture, and nature, and it

will begin October 21st 2017.

A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints has been published.


http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7

Our optimal group size for maximum trip meaning
and value is 28-29 persons.

Twenty-Six persons have either put down deposits
to claim a special saving (or intend to do so.)

 
WE ARE CLOSE TO REACHING OUR DEPARTURE GOAL.

YOU CAN STILL REGISTER. When we have 29 deposits
you will be added to a waiting list and still join us 
in the event someone has to drop out.


We have installed a South Africa Spiritual Travelers
discussion list group to being building community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.

We hope to name a tour reporter who will report
each day's activities so everyone can enjoy the
experience, if not directly, then indirectly.

Seven  months from now we leave for South Africa!

Contact Rostad Tours: http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7


Follow our notices for weekly updates.

*****

Friday 21 April 2017

Colleagues List, April 23rd, 2017

Vol. XII No. 29

****


POST-EASTER 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//colleagueslist2.bogspot.com


*****


Dear Colleagues:

My Special Item this week is my column
just now appearing in the Anglican Journal.

It focuses on the expansive role women have
played in the Canadian churches during the
last half-century and is entitled:

"Canadian Churches moving from uniformity
to diversity."

I hope you find it a helpful reflection-piece.

Many of the themes and links I point you to
are "post-Easter" in nature, as a focus on
the world of religion and culture.

Please continue to suggest names of those
who might appreciate receiving Colleagues
List - and mail to: waholst@telus.net

Good wishes to all of you.

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

My April Anglican Journal column:

"Canadian Churches Moving
   from Uniformity to Diversity"

http://tinyurl.com/k7c3r4m

--

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Philip Yancey,
Colorado

Philipyancey.com
April 14th, 2017

"Now You See Him"
  https://tinyurl.com/kp2kss4

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Weblog
April 17th, 2017

"Turning Shame into Celebration"
  http://tinyurl.com/mcoz3hv

--

Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL.

Sightings,
April 17th, 2017

"Generosity Revisited"
  http://tinyurl.com/l9w7hbu

--

John Stackhouse Jr.
Moncton, NB

Personal Blog
April 15th, 2017

"Evangelicals. Elites and Alternative Facts"
  http://tinyurl.com/km652tb

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Website
April 17th, 2017

"Five Hundred Years of Misunderstanding"
 http://tinyurl.com/lm3jpar

*****

NET NOTES

MALALA'S MUM
Out of the Shadows

BBC News
April 18th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/n6nxtfv

--

POLITENESS IS A FORGOTTEN VIRTUE
An Important Form of Societal Charity

America Magazine,
April 19th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/mfplwby

--

TRUMP MORE RELIGIOUS AS PRESIDENT
At Least in Terms of His Rhetoric

Politico.com
April 16th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/mxcb5xd

--

USING FEAR TO SELF-PROMOTE
The Fox News O'Reilly Phenomenon

Washington Post,
April 20th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/l5oxcv2

--

FRANCIS' GOALS FOR HIS EGYPT TRIP
Helping Weary Christians, Reaching Out to All

America Magazine
April 20th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/n74x5ox

--

RADICAL SPIRIT - BY JOAN CHITTISTER
"Twelve Ways to Live a Free, Authentic Life"

Religion News Service
April 19th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/kgof9ml

--

TENNESSEE AMISH ROBBED AT GUNPOINT
But Their Neighbours Want to Protect Them

WSMV TV Nashville (video)
April 19th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/kb7yk8s

--

THE HARD-EDGED HOPE OF WENDELL BERRY
His Vision for the World is What We Need Now

Christianity Today,
April 17th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/k2vmr7z

Biographical Info on Wendell Berry
http://tinyurl.com/mrbvkgw

--

TURKEY VOTES FOR A VIRTUAL DICTATORSHIP
Nation Now Less Likely to be Admitted to the EU

New York Times
April 17th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/mgwt4ae

--

PEACE CAN BE REALIZED IN THE HOLY LAND
But Only if Israel and Palestine Work Together

Religion News Service
April 19th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/ldaaz5z

--

MORE CANADIANS ARE VIEWING
DIFFERENT RELIGIONS POSITIVELY
A Healthy Societal Trend in Canada

Anglican Journal Online
April 18th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/mhuychs

*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

From the Bruderhof and Sojourners Online:

God, give us true words to pray for one another.
Let genuine love provoke in us words of blessing.

- adapted from Common Prayer

--

God’s love tears down walls. No longer religion against

religion, Christians against non-Christians, but justice
against sin, life against death. Therefore, every person
you encounter should be your concern. Do not settle f
or less.

- Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

--

I have experienced many human weaknesses, many

human frailties, and I still experience them. But we
need to use them. We need to work for Christ with a
humble heart, with the humility of Christ. He comes
and uses us to be his love and compassion in the world
in spite of our weaknesses and frailties.

- Mother Teresa

--


We cannot interfere in one area of the ecosystem without
paying due attention to both the consequences of such
interference in other areas and to the well-being of
future generations.

- Pope John Paul II

--

Easter comes out ringing in terms that we all hear if we
seek
to hear it, that the soul of man is immortal.

Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have fit testimony
that this earthly life is not the end, that death is just something
of a turn in the road, that life moves down a continual moving
river, and that death is just a little turn in the river, that this
earthly life is merely an embryonic prelude to a new awakening,
that death is not a period which ends this great sentence of life
but a comma that punctuates it to more loftier significance.

That is what it says. That is the meaning of Easter.
That is the question that Easter answers –

that death is not the end.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

--

In honesty you have to admit to a wise man that prayer is not

for the wise, not for the prudent, not for the sophisticated.

Instead it is for those who recognize that in face of their

deepest needs, all their wisdom is quite helpless. It is for
those who are willing to persistin doing something that is
both childish and crucial.

- Frederick Buechner

--

But now the power of Easter has burst upon us with the

resurrection of Christ. Now we find in ourselves a strength
which is not our own, and which is freely given to us
whenever we need it, raising us above the Law, giving
us a new law which is hidden in Christ: the law of his
merciful love for us. Now we no longer strive to be good
because we have to, because it is a duty, but because our
joy is to please him who has given all his love to us!

Now our life is full of meaning!

- Thomas Merton

***


MOMENTS IN TIME
From the Globe and Mail

Stirrings of dissent in the Red River Colony

April 17, 1867:
It would be two years before the Red River Rebellion broke out in
what is now Manitoba, but in the spring of 1867 there were already
stirrings of dissent in the colony. The Globe, in a reprint of an article
from the Nor’Wester newspaper, noted that citizens were considering
taking over the local government from the Hudson’s Bay Co., which
was still in charge and heartily disliked. Indeed, the report said “that
a fur-trading monopoly can have any interest in common with a farming, grazing and mining community is felt to be impossible.


… The political condition of the country is simply this: 10,000 people
are ruled by the committee of a fur-trading company; they are allowed no voice whatever in the government.” The situation boiled over in 1869, when the Métis under Louis Riel declared a provisional government to negotiate Manitoba’s entry into Confederation.

– Richard Blackwell

--

Queen Elizabeth II is born

April 21st, 1926
Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary – "Lilibet", as she was known as a child – would have been just another lesser royal if fate hadn’t intervened. How she rose to the solemn duty imposed upon her by circumstance will always be the central narrative of her life. Her father, Prince Albert, was the spare to the heir.

For the first 10 years of her life, she had the perks of being a royal
but not the pressure of a certain future. It was her uncle who would
become monarch when her grandfather, King George V, died in 1936.
But then, the shock. King Edward VIII abdicated so he could marry
Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. Princess Elizabeth’s father
became King George VI, putting her next in line to the throne that she
has occupied for 65 years, the longest-reigning monarch in British history.


– Sarah Hampson
--

ON THIS DAY
From the New York Times

"Historic San Francisco Earthquake Does Major Damage"
  http://tinyurl.com/67ormh

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - Frederick Buechner

All Is Well


Anxiety and fear are what we know best in this fantastic
century of ours. Wars and rumors of wars. From civilization
itself to what seemed the most unalterable values of the past,
everything is threatened or already in ruins. We have heard
so much tragic news that when the news is good we cannot
hear it. But the proclamation of Easter Day is that all is well.


And as a Christian, I say this not with the easy optimism of
one who has never known a time when all was not well but
as one who has faced the Cross in all its obscenity as well as
in all its glory, who has known one way or another what it is
like to live separated from God. In the end, his will, not ours,
is done. Love is the victor.

Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives

through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty,
mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever
dared to dream. Christ our Lord has risen.

(end)


*****

For Those Interested -

ST. DAVID'S ACTS MONDAY NIGHT WINTER STUDY

A Ten Week Series January 23rd - March 27th, 2017
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"How Jesus Became God -
  The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee"


http://tinyurl.com/gqzkcbx

Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00

35 copies were secured for sale.
All copies have been sold.


THIS COURSE HAS BEEN COMPLETED
JOIN US AGAIN MID-SEPTEMBER, 2017

Our Evolving Course Design:

http://tinyurl.com/j3nv7nd

--

Here is the total course content from our
completed Monday Night Autumn 2016 Study:

"Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious
  World" by Bishop John S. Spong


http://rtb.stdavidscalgary.net/

Check our entire archives for all 48 books
studied since 2000:

http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh 

During the 2016-2017 two session-term -

Total class registrations: 70
Total books sold: 75

Our best year ever, since 1998!

***

ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING STUDY

Ten Sessions February 2nd - April 6th, 2017

"Joshua and Judges" - Formative Hebrew History

Ten sessions 10-11 AM
Gathering at 9:30 AM
In the St. David's TM Room.

No charge


THIS COURSE HAS BEEN COMPLETED
JOIN US AGAIN MID-SEPTEMBER, 2017

Study resource -

"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
  Edited by John Bowker


http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q

***

ST.DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS PROJECT, 2017

South Africa has been chosen as our destination!

We plan a nineteen-day tour that combines a focus
on faith, social justice, culture, and nature, and it

will begin October 21st 2017.

A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints has been published.


http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7

Our optimal group size for maximum trip meaning
and value is 28-29 persons.

Twenty-Six persons have either put down deposits
to claim a special saving (or intend to do so.)

 
WE ARE CLOSE TO REACHING OUR DEPARTURE GOAL.

YOU CAN STILL REGISTER. When we have 29 deposits
you will be added to a waiting list and still join us 
in the event someone has to drop out.


We have installed a South Africa Spiritual Travelers
discussion list group to being building community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.

We hope to name a tour reporter who will report
each day's activities so everyone can enjoy the
experience, if not directly, then indirectly.

Seven  months from now we leave for South Africa!

Contact Rostad Tours: http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7


Follow our notices for weekly updates.

*****

Friday 14 April 2017

Colleagues List, April 16th, 2017

Vol. XII No. 28

****


EASTER 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//colleagueslist2.bogspot.com


*****


Dear Friends:

Holy Week and Easter are the themes
of most of the material in this issue of
Colleagues List this week. I hope you
will find at least some help from my
selections to support your current
spiritual growth and experience.

My "reflection" for Holy Week and Easter
is, in fact, some of the music I am
listening to, to help me centre on the
religious significance of the season.

I hope you might take the time to
click the links to four major Bach
selections, presented on Youtube
by two choirs from the UK, one from
Japan and one from Belgium. This is
an international seasonal celebration
which I hope you will enjoy, even use
as background music for the weekend,
or anytime for that matter.

There are many other good items to
consider here, but please take some time
with colleague Isabel Gibson's testimonial
on behalf of colleague Ron Rolheiser, below.

Both Ron and Isabel have been friends
for many years, but here is praise for
one colleague of another.

A blessed season to all of you.

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

MUSICAL HOLY WEEK AND EASTER REFLECTION

Suggested Bach Music for Passiontide and Easter
by the BBC Classical Music Magazine
Featuring Four Youtube Productions

St. Matthew Passion
Monteverdi Choir, UK
http://tinyurl.com/l8gqek6

St. John Passion
Bach Collegium Tokyo
http://tinyurl.com/kpvg4ql

Easter Oratorio
Monteverdi Choir, UK
http://tinyurl.com/kz79jlh

Magnificat in D
Ghent Collegium Vocale
http://tinyurl.com/klvxebe

--

COLLEAGUE COMMUNICATIONS

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log

April 12th, 2017

"The Man Who Didn't Die"
  http://tinyurl.com/mrhm75b

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Website
April 10th, 2017


"The Empty Tomb"
  http://tinyurl.com/mtm9r5t

--

Isabel Gibson,
Ottawa, ON.

Traditional Iconoclast
April 3rd, 2016

"Ron Rolheiser, National Treasure"

  http://tinyurl.com/mwepvtm
 

*****


NET NOTES

MEDITATION FOR GOOD FRIDAY

"From Death to Resurrection"

Alban Congregations -
Faith and Leadership Journal
April 18th, 2017


https://tinyurl.com/m8srqma

--

MEDITATION FOR EASTER SUNDAY

"Good Vs. Evil - The Answer
  is Found in Easter Itself"

Colleague Lorna Dueck
Globe and Mail
April 14th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/krxraxr
 
--

WHILE THE MEN WERE IN HIDING
Women Delivered the Greatest News

Sojourners
April 13th, 2017


https://tinyurl.com/lqser7k

--

WHY IS EASTER CALLED EASTER?
And Other Facts About the Season

Religion News Service
April 14th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/kh26jno

--

SCOTLAND COULD JOIN CANADA
BUT SHOULD IT?
Some Comments

BBC News,
April 13th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/kba478j

"Vimy Ridge - A Key Symbol for Canada"

New York Times
April 9th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/l9z6nhh
 
--

MALALA BECOMES HONOURARY CANADIAN
Pakistani Muslim Author Welcomed to Canada

The Canadian Press/CTV News
April 12th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/lj3neuy

--

THE BROKEN GRACE OF LEONARD COHEN
Popular Music Intersects with Religion

Sightings,
April 13th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/n2ptkwc

--

UNITED CHURCH OBSERVER INTERVIEW
WITH JIM WALLIS OF SOJOURNERS
Canadian Interest in a Voice from 
Progressive American Evangelicalism

The United Church Observer,
April, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/ly3x3d6

--

CHINA IS WORLD'S BIGGEST EXECUTIONER
Amnesty International Annual Survey Report

UCA News
April 13th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/jw9qgjm

--

VIDEO OF EGYPTIAN CHURCH BOMBINGS

New York Times
April 10th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/l5ewj3h

"Who are the Copts?
  Why are They Persecuted?"

Religion News Service
April 11th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/ks95bbr

"Canadian Churches Send Condolences
  to Coptic Christians in Egypt and Canada"


UCC Website,
April 13th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/kf9cot2

"South Asian Christian Minorities
      React to Explosions in Egypt"

UCA News
April 12th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/ms2c7qe
 
--

CANADIAN KEEP THE FAITH
TO VARYING DEGREES
A Spectrum of Spirituality,
But Few Reject It Entirely

Angus Reid Institute
April 13th, 2017


http://tinyurl.com/n2arqnx

****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof:


Good Friday is not about us trying to
"get right with God."

It is about us entering the difference between
God and humanity and just touching it for a
moment. Touching the shimmering sadness
of humanity's insistence that we can be our
own gods, that we can be pure and all-powerful.

- Nadia Bolz-Weber

--

Honor the hands that harvest your crops.

- Dolores Huerta

--


Whoever enters discipleship enters Jesus’ death, and
puts his or her own life into death; this has been so
from the beginning. The cross is not the horrible end
of a pious, happy life, but stands rather at the beginning
of community with Jesus Christ.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1)


We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims
beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a
spoke into the wheel itself.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2)

--

I am interested in people living in the margins of society,
and I do have a mission to tell the stories of women of
color in particular. I feel we've been present throughout
history, but our voices have been neglected.

- Lynn Nottage

--

All that the friends of Christ did for him in his lifetime,
we can do. Peter’s mother-in-law hastened to cook a
meal for him, and if anything in the Gospels can be
inferred, it surely is that she gave the very best she had,

with no thought of extravagance. Matthew made a feast
for him, inviting the whole town, so that the house was
in an uproar of enjoyment, and the straitlaced Pharisees
– the good people – were scandalized.

- Dorothy Day

--

I cannot help wondering whether in these days when so
large a proportion of humanity is submerged in materialism,
God does not want there to be some men and women who
have given themselves to him and to Christ and who yet
remain outside the church. What frightens me is the church
as a social structure. And not only on account of its blemishes.
Insofar as the church is merely a social structure, it belongs
to the prince of this world... I do not want to be adopted into
another circle, another human milieu. I want nothing else
but obedience – even unto the cross.

That is the true haven, as you know: the cross.

- Simone Weil

*****


A MOMENT IN TIME
From the Globe and Mail

Yuri Gagarin becomes first human in space

April 12, 1961: America may have had the right stuff,

but the Russians were first to send a man into space.

The former Soviet Union had a head start in the space race
with the 1957 launch of Sputnik 1 – the first man-made satellite
which set off the reach-for-the-stars competition between the two superpowers.

Soviet Air Force pilot Yuri Gagarin, 27, was pressed into service

as a “cosmonaut” and, soon after, the Vostok 1 spacecraft blasted
off from its launch site in Kazakhstan. Over 108 minutes, the craft
made a complete orbit of Earth and attained a maximum height of
327 kilometres. Three days after Gagarin’s return to terra firma,

Russians celebrated his flight by dancing in the streets of Moscow.


Three weeks later, the United States caught up when Alan Shepard
piloted the Mercury capsule Freedom 7 on a successful suborbital flight.
 

– Andrew Ryan


--

ON THIS DAY
From the New York Times

Abraham Lincoln Shot by an Assassin
http://tinyurl.com/dfzm5s

****

CLOSING THOUGHT  - Franklin D. Roosevelt

No democracy can long survive which does not accept
as fundamental to its very existence the recognition of
the rights of its minorities.


(end)

****

For Those Interested -

ST. DAVID'S ACTS MONDAY NIGHT WINTER STUDY

A Ten Week Series January 23rd - March 27th, 2017
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"How Jesus Became God -
  The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee"


http://tinyurl.com/gqzkcbx

Author: Bart D. Ehrman
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00

35 copies were secured for sale.
All copies have been sold.


THIS COURSE HAS BEEN COMPLETED
JOIN US AGAIN MID-SEPTEMBER, 2017

Our Evolving Course Design:

http://tinyurl.com/j3nv7nd

--

Here is the total course content from our
completed Monday Night Autumn 2016 Study:

"Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious
  World" by Bishop John S. Spong


http://rtb.stdavidscalgary.net/

Check our entire archives for all 48 books
studied since 2000:

http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh 

During the 2016-2017 two session-term -

Total class registrations: 70
Total books sold: 75

Our best year ever, since 1998!

***

ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING STUDY

Ten Sessions February 2nd - April 6th, 2017

"Joshua and Judges" - Formative Hebrew History

Ten sessions 10-11 AM
Gathering at 9:30 AM
In the St. David's TM Room.

No charge


THIS COURSE HAS BEEN COMPLETED
JOIN US AGAIN MID-SEPTEMBER, 2017

Study resource -

"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
  Edited by John Bowker


http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q

***

ST.DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS PROJECT, 2017

South Africa has been chosen as our destination!

We plan a nineteen-day tour that combines a focus
on faith, social justice, culture, and nature, and it

will begin October 21st 2017.

A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints has been published.


http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7

Our optimal group size for maximum trip meaning
and value is 28-29 persons.

Twenty-Six persons have either put down deposits
to claim a special saving (or intend to do so.)

 
WE ARE CLOSE TO REACHING OUR DEPARTURE GOAL.

YOU CAN STILL REGISTER. When we have 29 deposits
you will be added to a waiting list and still join us 
in the event someone has to drop out.


We have installed a South Africa Spiritual Travelers
discussion list group to being building community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.

We hope to name a tour reporter who will report
each day's activities so everyone can enjoy the
experience, if not directly, then indirectly.

Seven  months from now we leave for South Africa!

Contact Rostad Tours: http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7


Follow our notices for weekly updates.

*****