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

Friday 9 June 2017

Colleagues List, June 11th, 2017

Vol. XII No. 36

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE


Wayne A. Holst, Editor

My E-Mail Address:
 
Colleagues List Web Site
http//colleagueslist2.bogspot.com


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Dear Colleagues:

I introduce the title "Only Leave a Trace" - a
book of reflections on the transition of Augustana
Lutheran University in Camrose, Alberta, to the
University of Alberta - Augustana Campus.

This small book is a work of art.

Enjoy the potpourri I have again collected this
week. I hope you find at least some items here 
"global and ecumenical in scope, Canadian in
perspective" - as usual.

Wayne

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SPECIAL ITEM

Book Notice -

ONLY LEAVE A TRACE,
Meditations by Roger Epp
University of Alberta Press,
96 pages + 7 colour images
March, 2017. Paperback.
$19.95 CAD. $11.52 Kindle.
ISBN #978-1-77212-266-4.

Publisher's Promo:

“Make yourself big when you enter a room, when you meet a bear in the woods. Make yourself big. Meet the eyes.”

Roger Epp’s poetic meditations about the best, the hardest, the loneliest times of leading a small university campus through significant change are depicted in a series of elegant yet understated prose pieces, alongside images by his life partner, Rhonda Harder Epp. Taking a candid look at the many challenges such a position brings, Roger Epp humanizes, scrutinizes, and upholds the integrity of academic administrative work.

Only Leave a Trace will resonate with those who work in universities,
hold leadership roles in them, or care about the connections between higher education, students, and place.

--
 
Author's/Illustrator's Bios:

Roger Epp is Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He served as founding Dean of the university’s Augustana Campus in Camrose from 2004 to 2011. He is author of We Are All Treaty People (UAP) and co-editor of Writing Off the Rural West (UAP). Rhonda Harder Epp is a painter whose work is held in private and institutional collections. Her work has been shown in galleries across western Canada. They live in Edmonton.

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My Thoughts:
 
Like many other Canadians of half a century ago, I attended and graduated from a school of higher learning founded and supported by a Christian church - Catholic, Protestant, or other. When a great surge of post-war Canadian young people began entering these institutions during the 1950's and 60's it became impossible for the denominations to provide the financial and other resources to support these colleges and universities. In many cases, provincial governments provided the needed support. The trade-off was that in exchange for survival and new resources for future development, church schools became state institutions

When Waterloo Lutheran University evolved "under new management" to become Wilfrid Laurier, Dr. Flora Roy, professor of English Literature and the first women to head a university department in Canada (she began her career at Waterloo College, Waterloo Ontario in 1948) wrote two books to chronicle the development. They were entitled Recollections of Waterloo College and Recollections of Waterloo Lutheran University 1960-1973 (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2004 and 2006 respectively.) 

Thirty years later, something a bit different occurred when Camrose Lutheran College, then Augustana Lutheran University in Camrose Alberta, became The University of Alberta - Augustana, Campus.

Longtime supporters of both denominational schools had great fears that much would be lost in the transition. I look back to the transformation of my alma mater with much satisfaction. While some important values were inevitably lost, "my WLU" emerged to become one of the leading small universities of Canada. Much of what had been envisioned by the founders of my school was enhanced in the process.

After reflecting on Roger and Ronda Harder Epp's beautiful new book of meditations, I can rest content that another successful transition took place as well for a Lutheran college in Alberta during my lifetime.

WLU is an urban university flourishing among many "big league" schools in Southern Ontario. Augustana evolves as a "town and country" partner to the province's  largest and most established university - the University of Alberta in the central part of the province.

In both cases, academic substance was pursued while quality, well-rounded education, geared to a specialized student body, was provided.

Epp is a political scientist, and his sensitive way with words is apparent in many of the 71 meditations contained here. Harder-Epp's art work really enhances her partner's writing.

I especially liked "Those Who Build Bridges," "A Curator of Tears" and "The Old Man in Winter" (thoughts on the famous Canadian diplomat, pastor and renaissance man Chester Ronning, who once headed Camrose Lutheran College). 

Many of us need to learn that the "Good News" (as we may have come to know it through ecclesiastical institutions) is greater and more eternal than any human establishment, however constituted. The Gospel survives and reveals itself in many forms, conveyed by a wide range of emissaries.

I was able to thank my English professor Dr. Flora Roy for her books before she died some decades ago. Through these words, I want to express contemporary appreciation to the Epps for their beautiful art piece as well.

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Buy the book from Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/ycf5eo9g

Buy the book from the University of Alberta Press:
http://tinyurl.com/ybqqlq2f
 
*****

COLLEAGUE COMMUNICATIONS

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON
 
Personal Bog,
June 2nd, 2017
 
"Normal is Not an Option"


 --
 
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Web Log
June 5th, 2017

"If I Had Intervened, Would I Be Dead?"
 
--
 
Martin Marty,
Chicago. IL

Sightings,
June 5th, 2017

"The Necessity of Bridge-Building"
 
--
 
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site,
June 5th, 2017

"The Seamless Garment"
  http://tinyurl.com/yaja27js

*****
 
NET NOTES

MAKE AMERICA AMERICA AGAIN
Comment by Joan Chittister

National Catholic Reporter,
June 5th, 2017


--
 
RETHINKING BLASPHEMY IN INDONESIA
What "Moderate Islam" Considers Illegal

Sightings,
June 8th, 2017


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TRI-FAITH FACILITY
ESTABLISHED IN NEBRASKA
Jewish, Christian, Islamic
Congregations Share One Home

Christian Post,
June 8th, 2017


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CANADIAN KILLED AT LONDON BRIDGE
INSPIRES GIVING
Catholic Woman Prompts
Outpouring of Charity

Catholic News Service
June 7th, 2017


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RIGHTEOUS ANGER AGAINST ISIS IN EGYPT
Forgiveness is Getting Harder for the Copts

Christianity Today,
June 1st, 2017


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THE CHURCH IN IRELAND NEEDS
TO REINVENT ITSELF
European Developments
Impact Its Future

The Tablet,
June 7th, 2017 - pay to view

http://tinyurl.com/y7ynb2qp

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HOW CLERGY CAN HELP BELIEVERS
DIE A "GOOD DEATH"
Many Pastors Ill-Prepared

ARDA,
June 1st, 2017


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FIFTY YEARS AFTER SIX-DAY WAR,
ISRAELIS REFLECT ON VICTORY
Modern Israel Began With That Event

Religion News Service
June 2nd, 2017


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NORTH AND SOUTH KOREAN
RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO MEET FOR DIALOGUE
Goal is Peace in Korean Peninsula

UCA News,
June 5th, 2017


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WHY INDIGENOUS LEADERS AND CANADIAN CATHOLICS
STILL WANT AN APOLOGY FROM POPE FRANCIS
Papal Presence Would Have a Significant Impact

America Magazine,
June 5th, 2017


*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online

Faith is the first factor in a life devoted to service.
Without it, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible.

- Mary McLeod Bethune

--

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act
to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?

- Eleanor Roosevelt

--
 
Do not look for Jesus away from yourselves. He is not out there; he is in you. Keep your lamp burning, and you will recognize him.
 
- Mother Teresa

--

 
Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other.

- Laverne Cox
 
--

If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, and ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing
I want to live for.

- Thomas Merton

--

No one is ever useless to God. No one who can pray
is ever useless. There are many people to perform the
needed activities, but too few to take the time for prayer.
I suppose the hardest thing about being an invalid, about
being “useless,” is that it is much harder to receive help
than to give it. It is much harder to be still than to be active.

That is why it is important to learn how to be a gracious
receiver as well as a gracious giver.

- Anna Mow

--

Can there be something in life that has power over us which
little by little causes us to forget all that is good? And can this
ever happen to anyone who has heard the call of eternity quite
clearly and strongly? If this can ever be, then one must look
for a cure against it. Praise be to God that such a cure exists –
to quietly make a decision. A decision joins us to the eternal.

It brings what is eternal into time. A decision raises us with a
shock from the slumber of monotony. A decision breaks the
magic spell of custom. A decision breaks the long row of weary
thoughts. A decision pronounces its blessing upon even the
weakest beginning, as long as it is a real beginning.

Decision is the awakening to the eternal.

- Søren Kierkegaard

*****

MOMENT IN TIME

John Stuart Mill proposes women’s suffrage

June 5, 1867: The Reform Bill tabled in Britain’s Parliament in 1867 was set to extend voting rights from just men who owned large properties to all male urban home owners and many lodgers. But philosopher John Stuart Mill rose in the House of Commons to argue that women, too, should get the vote. In his speech, reprinted on the front page of The Globe in the first week of June, Mill rejected arguments that politics would distract women from their duties or that they were sufficiently represented by male relatives. Forbidding women to get involved in issues of interest to men belonged “in a bygone state of society,” when a wife was seen as plaything or servant, he said. “We ought not to deny to women what we [are] now granting to every class – the right to be consulted in the choice of a representative.” Mill’s amendment was defeated, and it was decades before women in Britain (and elsewhere) got to vote. – Richard Blackwell

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ON THIS DAY
From the Archives of the New York Times

"D-Day Invasion of France on Normandy Beaches"

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - Robert F. Kennedy
 
Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each
of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the
total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.


(end)


*****
 
For Those Interested -

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-six 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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