****
HOLY WEEK 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:
I have been able to include with this issue a number
of "seasonal" contributions, and I thank those who have
shared their reflections with all of us.
My Special Item this week is a book notice on an important
subject - China. It is entitled: "The Souls of China" and offers
an in-depth perspective on the spiritual aspects of what is happening
in that vast land today.
I have replaced, in this issue at least, the "On This Day" material
from the New York Times with "Moment in Time" from the Globe
Mail. See what you think of it.
May your Passion journey this coming seven days, leading to the
celebration of Easter, be spiritually rewarding for you.
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notice -
THE SOULS OF CHINA
The Return of Religion After Mao
by Ian Johnson
Random House Canada Pantheon
Publication date: April 11th, 2017
455 pages. Hardcover. $30.00 CAD.
ISBN #978-1-101-87005-2
Publisher's Promo:
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, a revelatory portrait
of religion in China today—its history, the spiritual traditions of its Eastern and Western faiths, and the ways in which it is influencing China’s future.
The Souls of China tells the story of one of the world’s great spiritual revivals. Following a century of violent anti-religious campaigns,
China is now filled with new temples, churches, and mosques - as well as cults, sects, and politicians trying to harness religion for their own ends. Driving this explosion of faith is uncertainty—over what it means to be Chinese and how to live an ethical life in a country that discarded traditional morality a century ago and is searching for new guideposts.
Ian Johnson first visited China in 1984; in the 1990s he helped run a charity to rebuild Daoist temples, and in 2001 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.
While researching this book, he lived for extended periods with underground church members, rural Daoists, and Buddhist pilgrims. Along the way, he learned esoteric meditation techniques, visited a nonagenarian Confucian sage, and befriended government propagandists as they fashioned a remarkable embrace of traditional values. He has distilled these experiences into a cycle of festivals, births, deaths, detentions, and struggle—a great awakening of faith that is shaping the soul of the world’s newest superpower.
--
Author's Words:
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Chinese patriots ...
worried that their country was so backward that it would be torn
apart by foreign powers... Those who sought reform of China's traditional culture, especially its systems of belief, (targeted) superstitious relics that dulled people to the potential of science and progress...
Out of these struggles for a new identity, based on the best of the past but also open to the future... is coming something more than the hyper-merchantilist, fragile superpower that we (currently) know. It is a country engaging in a global conversation that affects all of us: how to restore solidarity and values that have made economics the basis of most decisions. Perhaps because Chinese traditions were so savagely attacked over the past decades, and then replaced with such a naked form of capitalism, China might actually be at the forefront of this worldwide search for values.
These are universal aspirations, and like people elsewhere in the world, Chinese people feel that these hopes are supported by something more than a particular government or law. They are supported by heaven.
- from the introduction to "The Moon Year" and the Afterword
--
Author's Bio:
Ian Johnson is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books and The New York Times, and his work has also appeared in
The New Yorker and National Geographic. He is an advising editor f
or the Journal of Asian Studies, and teaches a course on religion in Beijing. He is the author of two other books that also focus on the intersection of politics and religion: Wild Grass: Three Stories of
Change in China, and A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and the
Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West. He lives in Beijing.
Christianity Today Interview of the Author (short):
http://tinyurl.com/lob6ds8
My Thoughts:
Like many foreign observers of Chinese society today, I am both intrigued and baffled by what is going on there. The miracle of religious revival or of the growth of new faiths like Christianity, is simply amazing. At the same time, solid predictions are hard to come by and it is difficult to describe the future of that great nation. One thing is certain, what happens in China will have global ramifications.
I have tended to approach the subject of China's souls from a religious perspective. But much of what lies at the heart of China's people are spiritual traditions quite different from what we have experienced in the west. Why, for example, is there so much animus to the nation and spirituality of the little country of Tibet? Why the bitter resentment to such internal Chinese movements like Falun Gong?
What is similar in all this are the common hopes and aspirations that influence and affect all humans.
We in the west are only beginning to scratch the surface of what is actually taking place in China today. People like me have been
approaching the subject from a very limited perspective - such as
more recent historical encounters through the prism of colonialism
and modern missionary Christianity.
What we need right now are venturesome scouts and interpreters like
Ian Johnson, who can provide a bigger picture and deeper awareness.
Thank God we are no longer dealing with the fears and biases that early guides like the Canadian Chester Ronning had to face fifty years ago! We now stand at a stage of serious human-to-human encounter that could not have happened before the era of the cold war or the ubiquitous, global presence of Chinese tourists!
Many more of us need to be reversing current behaviour and making China one of our personal travel goals. I have a number of friends who have done just that. Perhaps there is still time for me too!
"The Souls of China - The Return of Religion After Mao" is a book that will require attentiveness and concentration - as well as conversations with those Asian friends who may be in as much need for enlightenment about the real China today as non-Chinese might be.
There is much more to this book than a rich resource on the miraculous growth of Christianity in China. But that story is also present here as marvelous testimony to the role of religion in modern societies.
This book is one with shelf-life and would be well worth the investment - either now, or during the next few years - for those who take the future of our world, its people and spirituality seriously.
***
Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/l6pqr6x
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Marjorie Gibson,
Vancouver, BC
"Marjorie Remembers"
April 7th, 2017
"Night Has Fallen"
https://tinyurl.com/l8a77qx
--
Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg. MB
"In Transit"
April 6th, 2017
"Footcare"
https://tinyurl.com/mp55g6w
--
Martin Marty,
Chicago. IL
"Sightings"
San Antonio, TX
Personal Website
April 2nd, 2017
April 2nd, 2017
Jim Taylot,
Okanagan, BC
--
Thomas Ryan,
Boston, MA
The Prairie Messenger,
Muenster, SK
"The Goal of Easter: To Bing Us New Life"
****
NET NOTES
RISING ABOVE RACISM
- from the Globe and Mail,
April 5th, 2017
“This is what I say to myself every day...
We’ve been down this path before.
Most people at their core are inherently good.
We fear what we don’t know and the only way
to defeat racism is to get to know each other,
whether through our neighbours, colleagues,
teachers, students, books, plays or television shows.
A hundred years ago, no one would have believed
that two men of Irish heritage, Brian Mulroney and
Ronald Reagan, once part of a despised minority,
would be leading their respective countries.
Racism is part of human nature, and will always be
with us – just ask black people in the United States –
but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to rise above it.”
- Zarqa Nawaz, creator of "Little Mosque on the Prairie"
and the author of "Laughing All the Way to the Mosque"
Read the full column: http://tinyurl.com/lc9b9po
--
PROTESTANTISM AT 500
Half the World's Protestants
Will Live in Africa by 2040
Christianity Today
April 4th, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/m6wr4f5
--
CATHOLICS SURGE IN AFRICA,
Global Priest Shortage is Acute
Religion New Service,
April 6th, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/nx9amzt
--
Joan Chittister on America Now
National Catholic Reporter
April 6th, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/men9kwn
--
FROM SALT WATER TO DRINKING WATER
Scientists Find Inexpensive Way to Help Millions
BBC News
April 3rd, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/kya3yrh
--
NEPAL'S TRADITION OF ISOLATING WOMEN
Menstruation Considered Unclean
UCA News
April 5th, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/khbhhsy
--
RUSSIA MOVES TO BAN JEHOVAH WITNESSES
They are Considered to be "Extremists"
New York Times
April 4th, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/mmtduxr
--
MUSLIM BABIES TO
OUTNUMBER OTHERS BY 2035
Pew Study Suggests Future
Global Religious Shift
New York Times
April 5th, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/l35tncz
--
ERDOGAN REFERENDUM
THREATENS TURKISH DEMOCARCY
AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
America Magazine,
April 4th, 2017
http://tinyurl.com/k96eu7p
--
DALAI LAMA AND GUARD WHO HELPED HIM
HAVE AN EMOTIONAL REUNION
The Guardian,
April 3rd, 2017
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
I wonder how many people I've looked at
all my life and never seen.
- John Steinbeck
--
We must have faith during the period of our grief.
We think that our afflictions will be greater than
we can bear, but we do not know the strength
of our own hearts, nor the power of God.
- François Fenelon
--
And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question, and
God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all
truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him
is the real death, that to die with him the only life?
- Frederick Buechner
--
You cannot get through a single day without having an
impact on the world around you. What you do makes a
difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference
you want to make.
- Jane Goodall
--
Of all forms of slavery there is none that is so harmful and
degrading as that form of slavery which tempts one human
being to hate another by reason of [their] race or color.
One [person] cannot hold another [person] down in the ditch
without remaining down in the ditch with [them].
- Booker T. Washington
--
The resurrection hope finds living expression in men and
women when they protest against death and the slaves
of death. But it lives from something different – from the
superabundance of God’s future. Its freedom lives in
resistance against all the outward and inward denials
of life. But it does not live from this protest. It lives from
joy in the coming victory of life.
- Jürgen Moltmann
--
The risen Jesus had appeared, not to rulers and kings,
nor even first of all to his male disciples, but to a woman
whose love had held her at the cross and led her to the grave.
Mary Magdalene, a person who had been afflicted by demons,
whose testimony would not have held up in court because she
was a woman, was the first witness of the resurrection.
Once again, God had revealed himself to the lowly, and it would
only be the humble whose hearing was sharp enough to perceive
the message of his love.
- Ann Spangler
--
This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of
nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments
and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote
itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life
belongs to the community and as long as I live, it is my
privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly
used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.
Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make
it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future
generations.
- George Bernard Shaw
--
“This is no easy mission. But its difficulty is not our concern;
we did not create the mission, and we cannot change it.
The word ‘mission’ derives from the Latin root missus –
which means ‘sent.’ We have been sent – to seek God,
study the world, and serve humanity.”
- Fr. John Jenkins on what the university should be in his
inaugural address as president of Notre Dame University,
quoted by Richard John Neuhaus in "First Things" Dec. 2005
Forwarded by colleague Isobel Gibson of Ottawa.
*****
MOMENT IN TIME
From the Globe and Mail
Jazz songstress Billie Holiday is born
April 7, 1915: Billie Holiday wasn’t born to sing the blues. It just
worked out that way. A Philadelphia native, she was raped at 10
years old and subsequently sent to a home for wayward girls.
In her teens, she was jailed for prostitution. But by the mid-1930s,
Lady Day was at the top of the jazz-singing game, a swaggering
vocalist in genius command of an agonized voice described by one
critic as “acid against velvet.”
Addled by self-destructive tendencies and pursued by a racially bent Federal Bureau of Narcotics, she spent time behind bars again in the late 1940s. She emerged to sing again, but was never the same. Billie Holiday died at the age of 44 in 1959 of cirrhosis of the liver. She left behind memorable classics such as God Bless the Child, a song no one had sung for her.
- Brad Wheeler
****
CLOSING THOUGHT - Maya Angelou
Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not
solved one yet.
(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.
Seven months from now we leave for South Africa!
Contact Rostad Tours: http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7
Follow our notices for weekly updates.
*****
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