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

Friday 30 June 2017

Colleagues List, July 2nd, 2017


Vol. XIII No. 1

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE


Wayne A. Holst, Editor

My E-Mail Address:
 
Colleagues List Web Site
http//colleagueslistii.blogspot.com


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This e-mail is sent only to a voluntary subscriber list. If you no longer wish to receive these weekly columns, write to me personally, waholst@telus.net

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CANADA DAY EDITION

Canada 150
Canada's contribution to the World

BBC News
June 29th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/ycnbvxxz


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Dear Friends:
 
This issue of Colleagues List marks the beginning of my 13th year using a Blogger.com format. 576 issues of Colleagues List (averaging 47.9 issues per year) have been created so far. I hope you enjoy this one.
 
I have some free-flowing thoughts to share on this Canada Day Weekend and other colleagues contribute a variety of current perspectives in religion and culture as well. See the diverse collection, below. You will find Net Notes, Wisdom of the Week and other views as usual.
 
Whether you are Canadian or not - Happy Canada Day!
 
Wayne
 
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SPECIAL ITEM
 
SOME THOUGHTS ON CANADA 150
 
This year, Canada turns 150. Interestingly, I have just celebrated my 75th birthday. That means I am half as old as my native land.
 
Usually, I introduce a book in this space, but today I would like to share some thoughts on what it means to me to be a Canadian.

Over the last fifty years I have travelled, lived, studied and worked in twenty-seven foreign countries; visited 45 American states, and seen all parts of Canada except the Yukon and Nunavut Territories, and Labrador in the province of Newfoundland/Labrador. Hopefully, that gives me some credibility when writing about being a Canadian.

(I still have a bucket list, of course. My time overseas and some anticipated visits within Canada remain a work in progress).

I am grateful to live in what might be called a global "middle power." Canadians know what it means to be dependent on empire, and we would like to learn from experience. As a Canadian of Scots-Irish and German decent, I have always had a kind of love-hate relationship with the British. Canadians have no desire to create an empire of their own in the world, but we cherish the idea of demonstrating a strong, global, peacemaking influence. We have gained much from our longstanding good relationships with Britain and the United States, but we seek to pursue an independent course.

Especially now. Our current prime minister seems committed to building a strong Canada economically (the reason we are part of the exclusive G-7 Group). As our gift to the world, we seek to be a strong voice for global justice.

I am glad we are at this point on our 150th birthday. 

To be committed to global justice means we strive to keep our own house in order, justice-wise. We have many internal justice issues to work on but Canada's relationship with its first peoples is a major one. The strong influence of Canada's Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Metis) in our current anniversary celebrations demonstrates a marked improvement from 1967 when we turned 100. It is obvious that there is a lot of work ahead of us still - as the recently tabled Truth and Reconciliation Report made quite clear - https://tinyurl.com/jgsx79m

The report's 94 recommendations seem to have come at a time when many Canadians are ready to heed and act on them. May it be so.

Our history of accepting immigrants and refugees from many parts of the world, and integrating them peacefully, is something to celebrate. We have a history of prejudice about which we are not proud, but we seem to be learning from our mistakes. I live in a city that, some years ago, elected its first Muslim mayor. He has proven to be one of our most popular, and rarely is the matter ever mentioned. I am grateful that a nation which began as a French Catholic settlement - which then required the co-existence of English Protestants - can now be a nation that has learned from its early experience to grow in its ability to be multi-national and multi-faith in composition. God grant that we will continue to be an example for the world.

Rarely do religion and politics interfere with each other in Canada. This does not mean that Canadians are a-political or a-theistic. Quite the contrary. But many of us came from countries that were a caustic mix of these two powerful forces. We need to keep re-educating our new fellow-Canadians to leave behind their negative issues in the countries they departed as we have tried to do.

I have been involved in Canadian ecumenical and interfaith relations for half a century, and I am impressed by the progress we have made over the past 50 years. I view secularisation as a positive force for building good bonds within the nation, and this means including persons who claim no faith as well.

I could go on, but perhaps by now you are thinking of me as pollyanna in my Canadian assessment. Maybe I have been a bit idealistic in my comments, above. But I grew up at a time and place where bragging rights were not encouraged. I think we Canadians have just cause for some honest pride at this time in our history.

That said, I must also add some Canadian caution, and "sober second thought" as we were always encouraged to practice.

The freedoms, beauty and harmony I have celebrated (above) are not our's by right. Only by constant vigilance and hard self-assessment do we have any real hope of promoting these blessings for the next century and a half. Even then, there are no guarantees. That should give us pause. I will leave the self-criticism for another time, however.

I think the world needs Canada, and we need to set a good example for the world. We may not be the "city set upon a hill" as the New England preachers and writers would say, but we are proud to be Canadian, in a typically Canadian way of putting it. And we too have a manifest destiny, after a manner of speaking.
 
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COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Angus Reid,
Vancouver, BC

Canada at 150
RELIGION HAS PLAYED A POSITIVE ROLE
IN RURAL AREAS OF THE COUNTRY
Less So in the Nation as a Whole

Angus Reid Institute Website,
June 29th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/y9tnjbhj

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John Stackhouse Jr.
Moncton, NB

Personal Blog/Context Website
June 26th, 2017/
June 29th, 2017
 
"Confederation: A Miracle Worth Celebrating"

"Anti-Americanism: Insecurity? Paranoia? Racism?"
   https://tinyurl.com/y6unlk6l

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Isabel Gibson,
Ottawa, ON.

Marjorie Remembers Blog,
June 28th, 2017

"Now, We Remember Marjorie"
  https://tinyurl.com/yat9ew8p

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Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
June 26th, 2017

"Hate Crimes - Retaliation Ignores the Golden Rule"
  https://tinyurl.com/ya2q7yvz

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Michael Higgins
Fairfield, CT.
 
Globe and Mail,
June 29th, 2017
 
"Cardinal Pell's Assault Charges
  Will Ripple Through the Vatican"

“The no no nonsense and often blustery style of the cardinal, coupled with his arch-conservative views on matters ecclesial and political, have earned him a formidable cohort of critics only too keen to see him humbled. His cavalier dismissal of theological perspectives at odds with his own, his intolerance for dissenters and his undiminished clerical hauteur, have all contributed to the wide feeling of schadenfreude among his opponents.” – Michael W. Higgins"
 
Cardinal Pell: The Church Will Also be on Trial"
  The Tablet (UK) June 30th, 2017


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Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site
June 26th, 2017

"To Whom Shall We Go?"
  https://tinyurl.com/y9x4gfh2

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NET NOTES

ON DEPORTING CHRISTIANS TO IRAQ
A Moment of Truth for American Christians

Religion News Service,
June 27th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/y9sjund5

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AUSTRALIANS DITCH RELIGION AT RAPID RATE
Nation is Becoming Much More Diverse

CNN
June 27th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/y79uyhgf

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STEMMING THE TIDE OF HATRED WITH KINDNESS
Finding "Life Itself"

Religion News Service,
June 23rd, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/ycnr9d83

Globe and Mail,
June 26th, 2017

"Kindness is the enemy of extremism"

“The arc of xenophobic terror – whether ‘inspired’ by the Islamic State or white supremacists – has recently increased in frequency and
breadth. Within the past month alone, Flint, Portland, suburban Virginia, London, Manchester, Brussels and Paris have all witnessed acts of violence intended to maim, kill and sow division. While governments have the responsibility to protect their citizens, there is much that each of us can and must do to ensure that our social fabric is not ruptured by the nihilistic ideology of a few.” – Sheema Khan

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INFLUENTIAL CHRISTIAN SOCIOLOGIST DEAD AT 88
Peter Berger Specialized in Sociology of Religion

The Christian Post,
June 29th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/ybbwppda

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A CHURCH THAT BELIEVES YOUR STORIES ARE SACRED
Rites of Unburdening are Part of the Religious Ritual

Sightings,
June 29th, 2017

http://tinyurl.com/y9xlzw4b

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MORMONS CHANGING TUNE ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Younger Mormons Tend to Follow Societal Trends

Religion News Service,
June 28th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/yas7muyt

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THREE THINGS CHRISTIANS DO
THAT NON-CHRISTIANS DISPISE
Here is a DON'T DO List

Christian Week,
June 26th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/yatc758o

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DESPITE DISCRIMINATION,
GIRLS IN INDIA ARE EXCELLING
Many No Longer Accept Glass Ceiling

UCA News
June 27th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/yc6377gc

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TRUDEAU URGED TO INTERVENE ON BEHALF
OF CANADIAN PASTOR IN NORTH KOREA
Family Fears Same Fate as American Prisoner

National Post
June 27th, 2017

https://tinyurl.com/y7jxv3ob

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Globe and Mail,
June 29th, 2017

IN AMERICA, THE LESS YOU KNOW THE COOLER YOU ARE

“Newspapers keep publishing lists of the President’s latest lies. In a speech Mr. Trump gave at an ego-stoking mass rally in Iowa last week, The New York Times found a dozen. Nobody cared. It was consistent with his batting average. Lies aren’t news any more. Fiction is to be expected. Fiction wins.” - Lawrence Martin

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MOMENT IN TIME

Globe and Mail,
June 27th, 2017

Sudanese Ebola outbreak begins June 27, 1976: The symptoms were mysterious and terrifying. In a cotton factory in southern Sudan, near the Zaire border, dozens of factory workers were falling sick. The first was a storeroom worker, known in the medical literature as YG, who complained of a severe fever and headache. On the fifth day of his
illness, he suddenly began to bleed profusely from his nose and mouth. Five days later, he was dead. It took months to learn the truth, but YG is now considered the world’s first identifiable Ebola case.

He may have caught the virus from bats in the ceiling of the cotton factory’s storeroom, although the theory has never been proven. A few weeks later, hundreds of people began dying from a similar virus in northern Zaire (now known as Democratic Republic of the Congo). Scientists named the virus after the nearby Ebola river. – Geoffrey York

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ON THIS DAY

From the Archives of the New York Times

"Treaty of Versailles Signed in France -
   An Unsettled End to World War Two"
   https://tinyurl.com/qa7p57x

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WISDOM OF THE WEEK
From Sojourners and the Bruderhof Online:

Patience and Gentleness is Power.
 
- Leigh Hunt

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And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

- Raymond Carver

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More than ever before in human history,
we share a common destiny.

We can master it only if we face it together.
And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations.

- Kofi Annan

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Like craftsmen working on a great cathedral, we have each been given instructions about the particular stone we are to spend our lives carving, without knowing or being able to guess where it will take its place within the grand design. We are assured, by the words of Paul and by Jesus’ resurrection as the launch of that new creation, that the work we do is not in vain. That says it all.

That is the mandate we need for every act of justice and mercy, every
program of ecology, every effort to reflect God’s wise stewardly image  into his creation.

- N. T. Wright

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I feel that we too often focus only on the negative aspect of life – on what is bad. If we were more willing to see the good and the beautiful things that surround us, we would be able to transform our families.

From there, we would change our next-door neighbors and then others who live in our neighborhood or city. We would be able to bring peace and love to our world, which hungers so much for these things.

- Mother Teresa

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If everyone abandons you and even drives you away by force, then when you are left alone fall on the earth and kiss it, water it with your tears, and it will bring forth fruit even though no one has seen or heard you in your solitude. Believe to the end, even if all people went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness.

And if two of you are gathered together – then there is a whole world, a world of living love. Embrace each other tenderly and praise God, for, if only in you two, his truth has been fulfilled.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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CLOSING THOUGHT - Bayard Rustin

We are all one — and if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way.
 
(end)

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For Those Interested -

ST. DAVID'S ACTS MONDAY NIGHT FALL STUDY

A Ten Week Series September 18th -November 27th, 2017
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"CONVICTIONS - How I Learned What Matters Most"


http://tinyurl.com/ybyu3msx

Author: Marcus Borg
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00

35 copies of the book have been secured for sale.
Registration and Book Sale Begins - August 27th


Read my background information on the study book:
http://cep.anglican.ca/convictions/

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Here is some course content from our
completed Monday Night Winter 2017 Study:

"How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a

Jewish Preacher from Galilee" by Bart D. Ehrman
https://tinyurl.com/j3nv7nd
 
Check our entire archives for all 49 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!

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ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING STUDY

Ten Sessions September 21st- November 30th, 2017

Biblical book(s) to be studied this autumn to be determined

by the classat the first session of the term, Thursday, Sept. 21st.

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

No charge


Study resource -

"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
  Edited by John Bowker


http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q

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ST.DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS EVENT, 2017

South Africa has been chosen as our destination!
We plan a nineteen-day tour that combines a focus
on spirituality, social justice, culture, and nature,
and it will run October 21st thru November 8th.

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.
To date, twenty-five persons have put down deposits
to claim a special saving.

 
WE ARE CLOSE TO REACHING OUR DEPARTURE GOAL.

YOU CAN STILL REGISTER. After 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 begin building community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.

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

Six months from now we leave for South Africa!

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

Follow these notices for weekly updates.

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