GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@telus.net
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
*****
Dear Friends:
I am always pleased to share information on a book
written/edited or otherwise provided by a colleague.
The one introduced today is no exception.
I met Dennis Gruending several years ago when he
visited Calgary for a conference and we have stayed
connected since then.
(Please read his bio below.)
"Great Canadian Speeches" - was published more than
a decade ago, and now (see link to his web site below)
a second volume is being prepared for publication.
I offer this notice as background and preparation for
both books. Thanks, Dennis.
Please enjoy the Colleague Comment/Communications parts
of this issue - as well as the Net Notes and Wisdom that I have
included.
Good wishes to you!
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notice -
GREAT CANADIAN SPEECHES
Selected and Edited by Dennis Gruending,
Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Markham, ON.
$21.00 CAD. Paperback. 312 pages. 2006
ISBN #1-55041-752-5
Publisher's Promo:
A collection of the most powerful and moving oratory that Canada has to offer.
Throughout history, men and women of great eloquence have persuaded their contemporaries to build nations, to make war and create peace, to sway judges and juries, to celebrate the accomplishments of the living, and to mourn for the dead.
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@telus.net
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
*****
Dear Friends:
I am always pleased to share information on a book
written/edited or otherwise provided by a colleague.
The one introduced today is no exception.
I met Dennis Gruending several years ago when he
visited Calgary for a conference and we have stayed
connected since then.
(Please read his bio below.)
"Great Canadian Speeches" - was published more than
a decade ago, and now (see link to his web site below)
a second volume is being prepared for publication.
I offer this notice as background and preparation for
both books. Thanks, Dennis.
Please enjoy the Colleague Comment/Communications parts
of this issue - as well as the Net Notes and Wisdom that I have
included.
Good wishes to you!
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
Book Notice -
GREAT CANADIAN SPEECHES
Selected and Edited by Dennis Gruending,
Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Markham, ON.
$21.00 CAD. Paperback. 312 pages. 2006
ISBN #1-55041-752-5
Publisher's Promo:
A collection of the most powerful and moving oratory that Canada has to offer.
Throughout history, men and women of great eloquence have persuaded their contemporaries to build nations, to make war and create peace, to sway judges and juries, to celebrate the accomplishments of the living, and to mourn for the dead.
Canada has had more than its share of great orators, individuals who have used their rhetorical powers to explore important issues faced by our nation: Confederation, relations between peoples, human rights, the economy, culture, our international relationships, particularly with the United States, but also our role in the larger and developing world.
Great Canadian Speeches is a thought-provoking collection
of the finest speeches in Canadian history, among them:
• Sir John A. MacDonald making a case for Confederation,
while silver-tongued Joseph Howe argues against it;
• Louis Riel pleading his case to a Regina jury in 1885;
• Nellie McClung demanding the vote for women;
• Dr. Norman Bethune urging Canadians to support the
Republican cause in Spain;
• Pierre Trudeau and Rene Levesque facing off in the 1980
Quebec referendum;
• Thomas Homer-Dixon pondering Canada's future in an
increasingly unstable world.
• David Suzuki addressing environmental challenges
• Jean Chretien on the Trade Tower bombing
• Justin Trudeau's "Je t'aime papa"
• Stephen Lewis' talk on AIDS and the west
• about eighty in total.
Great Canadian Speeches is an eminently readable, thought-provoking oratory for anyone who treasures our country's history and literature.
Great Canadian Speeches is a thought-provoking collection
of the finest speeches in Canadian history, among them:
• Sir John A. MacDonald making a case for Confederation,
while silver-tongued Joseph Howe argues against it;
• Louis Riel pleading his case to a Regina jury in 1885;
• Nellie McClung demanding the vote for women;
• Dr. Norman Bethune urging Canadians to support the
Republican cause in Spain;
• Pierre Trudeau and Rene Levesque facing off in the 1980
Quebec referendum;
• Thomas Homer-Dixon pondering Canada's future in an
increasingly unstable world.
• David Suzuki addressing environmental challenges
• Jean Chretien on the Trade Tower bombing
• Justin Trudeau's "Je t'aime papa"
• Stephen Lewis' talk on AIDS and the west
• about eighty in total.
Great Canadian Speeches is an eminently readable, thought-provoking oratory for anyone who treasures our country's history and literature.
--
Editor's Bio:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gruending
His Web Site:
https://dennisgruending.com/
--
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Gruending
His Web Site:
https://dennisgruending.com/
--
Editor's Comment:
Throughout history, great orators have moved their contemporaries to build nations, to make war or peace, to sway judges and juries, to inspire the living, and to mourn for the dead. Great speeches create history, but most often they, in turn, arise from crisis or opportunity...
It is perhaps no surprise that some of Canada's finest orators gained prominence during the nineteenth century, a time of great political enterprises -- the agitation for responsible government, then Confederation of the provinces. This collection of speeches begins with that period.
(The editor writes of politicians like Joseph Howe, Thomas D'Arcy McGee, and John A. MacDonald. He then writes of Arthur Meighen, Wilfrid Laurier, Henri Bourassa, Pierre Trudeau, Rene Levesque and Lucien Bouchard. He includes the names of some early aboriginal leaders like Louis Riel and Big Bear. Women are included - such as Lady Aberdeen, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby and Agnes Macphail...
(William Aberhart, Tommy Douglas, R.B. Bennett, Brian Mulroney, Louis St. Laurent and John Diefenbaker - more recent politicians, and current idea-people like Marshall McLuhan, David Suzuki and Stephen Lewis bring us into the modern era. Or at least what was modern ten years ago.)
I have spent several years re-reading much of our history to prepare this collection, searching for the most powerful oratory that Canada has to offer. I have provided a historical context for these speeches but have also probed their content and technique to find out what makes them great. They are windows through which we can review our common struggles and aspirations.
This book is meant for anyone who treasures our country's history and its literature, but it is also intended to serve as an inspiration for thousands of people who either make speeches or write them for others.
- from the Introduction
--
My Thoughts:
In an era of Twitter and instant, knee-jerk reaction to anything that happens to cross the mind of the presenter, we need to recover the quality and style of classic oratory, and thought-out speaking and writing. I am not opposed to modern communications. In fact I use some of them myself! But, just as I still write personal notes to friends and people who should be given special encouragement and praise, I believe we need books like this one to help us understand how our world, and in this case - our Canadian world - has taken shape. I also believe that books like the one Dennis Gruending has written can serve as the basis for our future.
When I compare the oratory of Abraham Lincoln, for example, with the immediately forgettable rhetoric of the current US president, I hope you get my point. Focusing on our Canadian experience, and those who have contributed to creating it, does not mean that we exist in isolation from the rest of the world. At the same time, many Canadians are ignorant of the oratorical treasures that are to be mined from our own history.
Reading the contents page of this book suggests to me that we have a wealth of insight to be gained from reading people we may have otherwise ignored. It is also possible to zero in on specific individuals and times, without having to read the entire work at any given time. This is the kind of book with a long shelf-life, and meant to be frequently reconsidered.
I am happy that Dennis is soon publishing a second volume of Great Canadian Speeches, because I hope he has found people from the past he missed the first time, and also to bring us into current realities.
You may well want to secure this book, now ten years old. But keep your eyes open for the second volume, which - Dennis tells me - will be appearing shortly.
--
Buy this book from Amazon.ca:
https://tinyurl.com/y77bekcg
*****
COLLEAGUE COMMENT
Brian Arthur Brown,
Niagara Falls, ON.
Re: Your Anglican Journal column
on Douglas John Hall
Colleagues List, Jan. 17th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7nkg8vu
Dear Wayne:
Just finished reading your post ... always a good Sunday
afternoon activity ... a Rubick's Cube of ideas that we should
be thinking about.
Hall may be right about Christendom, but I have never been
as pessimistic about the institutional church as he sometimes
is, and as some others are these days. We've been there
before too many times to enumerate, and the church is
growing everywhere in the world except North America
and Western Europe...
I liked how you ended with the quote from Solzhenitsyn,
whose own church (in Russia) was almost left for dead
but is stronger than ever now, though much in need of
reforms ... which will come.
Some might like to think of the church as a ship sailing
smoothly with ourselves in a comfortable stateroom
but, instead, we are in the engine room where the pipes
are hissing and clanging...
Brian
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL
Sightings,
January 22nd, 2018
"Pope Francis - Fallible?"
https://tinyurl.com/yc4p6ahd
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
January 24th, 2018
"Humans, the Theory-Makers"
https://tinyurl.com/y9lbg2o4
--
Thomas Ryan,
Boston, MA
Paulist.org
January 23rd, 2018
"Spiritual Ecumenism"
https://tinyurl.com/y82h86lp
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
January 22nd, 2018
"Overcoming the Divisions that Divide Us"
https://tinyurl.com/ybvvwhq3
--
Philip Yancey,
Colorado
Philip Yancey Website
January 21st, 2018
"Jesus' Unanswered Prayers"
https://tinyurl.com/y6u6flds
*****
NET NOTES
RISING UP WITH CHRIST
Assessing Eastern Church Art
The Christian Century,
January 19th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ybf63dfo
--
THE "MIRACLE HAND" THROUGH
THE LENS OF CARDINAL COLLINS
465th Anniversary Tour of the Relic of
St. Francis Xavier. A video interview that
explains the Cross-Canada presentation.
Context,
January 22nd, 2018
--
Buy this book from Amazon.ca:
https://tinyurl.com/y77bekcg
*****
COLLEAGUE COMMENT
Brian Arthur Brown,
Niagara Falls, ON.
Re: Your Anglican Journal column
on Douglas John Hall
Colleagues List, Jan. 17th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7nkg8vu
Dear Wayne:
Just finished reading your post ... always a good Sunday
afternoon activity ... a Rubick's Cube of ideas that we should
be thinking about.
Hall may be right about Christendom, but I have never been
as pessimistic about the institutional church as he sometimes
is, and as some others are these days. We've been there
before too many times to enumerate, and the church is
growing everywhere in the world except North America
and Western Europe...
I liked how you ended with the quote from Solzhenitsyn,
whose own church (in Russia) was almost left for dead
but is stronger than ever now, though much in need of
reforms ... which will come.
Some might like to think of the church as a ship sailing
smoothly with ourselves in a comfortable stateroom
but, instead, we are in the engine room where the pipes
are hissing and clanging...
Brian
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL
Sightings,
January 22nd, 2018
"Pope Francis - Fallible?"
https://tinyurl.com/yc4p6ahd
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
January 24th, 2018
"Humans, the Theory-Makers"
https://tinyurl.com/y9lbg2o4
--
Thomas Ryan,
Boston, MA
Paulist.org
January 23rd, 2018
"Spiritual Ecumenism"
https://tinyurl.com/y82h86lp
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
January 22nd, 2018
"Overcoming the Divisions that Divide Us"
https://tinyurl.com/ybvvwhq3
--
Philip Yancey,
Colorado
Philip Yancey Website
January 21st, 2018
"Jesus' Unanswered Prayers"
https://tinyurl.com/y6u6flds
*****
NET NOTES
RISING UP WITH CHRIST
Assessing Eastern Church Art
The Christian Century,
January 19th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ybf63dfo
--
THE "MIRACLE HAND" THROUGH
THE LENS OF CARDINAL COLLINS
465th Anniversary Tour of the Relic of
St. Francis Xavier. A video interview that
explains the Cross-Canada presentation.
Context,
January 22nd, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y9rs2e7w
---
MIKE PENCE, ZIONIST THINKER
He Knows His Hebrew Scriptures
Religion News Service
January 25th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/yaxqdbm5
"Palestinians Slam Pence Speech"
America Magazine,
January 23rd, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ycclty66
--
THREE WAYS YOUR CHURCH GETS STUCK
Is it in the Past, Present or Future?
Christian Week Online
January 25th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y99l2utj
--
NEW RULES TIGHTEN GRIP ON
CHINA'S RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
State Further Controls Religious Practice
UCA News,
January 25th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7mg2o97
---
MIKE PENCE, ZIONIST THINKER
He Knows His Hebrew Scriptures
Religion News Service
January 25th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/yaxqdbm5
"Palestinians Slam Pence Speech"
America Magazine,
January 23rd, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ycclty66
--
THREE WAYS YOUR CHURCH GETS STUCK
Is it in the Past, Present or Future?
Christian Week Online
January 25th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y99l2utj
--
NEW RULES TIGHTEN GRIP ON
CHINA'S RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
State Further Controls Religious Practice
UCA News,
January 25th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7mg2o97
--
CANADA RANKS SECOND IN
BEST COUNTRIES LISTING
Switzerland is First
Global TV
January 24th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ybxkc7z3
--
SHARING FAKE NEWS MAKES ONE
AN ACCOMPLICE TO EVIL
"There is No Such Thing as Harmless Disinformation"
says Pope Francis
America Magazine,
January 25th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ya72bsn6
--
HOW TORONTO CHURCH BECAME
A HIT WITH YOUNG BELIEVERS
Alternative Christian Community
Globe and Mail,
January 22nd, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y78rr6rh
--
WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE A SMALL OR DECLINING CHURCH
Dealing With the Pain and Sense of Loss
Christianity Today,
January 19th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ycx5obt6
--
SOME AMERICAN EVANGELICALS FORGIVE TRUMP
FOR PAST MORAL FAILURES - - FOR NOW
They Hope He Has Changed His Ways
Christian Post
January 24th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7ks9e27
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle,
because we do not live single-issue lives.
- Audre Lorde
--
The mental and moral shift from denial of injustice
to consciousness of injustice is often made at very
high cost.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
--
To be black and female in a society which is both racist
and sexist is to be in the unique position of having nowhere
to go but up.
- Rosemary Brown (Canadian politician)
--
In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings,
we pay ourselves the highest tribute.
- Thurgood Marshall
--
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves,
the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the
energies of love. And then, for the second time in
the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
- Teilhard de Chardin
--
Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret
the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways.
Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and
obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and
obeying it. That is the only way to hear his word. He does
not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal; he really
means us to get on with it.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
--
In life there are moments of darkness. There are periods
of discouragement. There are times when we lose sight
of the beauty of the sky for all the clouds. You may have
to bear severe sickness, or deal with tremendous pain,
or you may be disappointed in this or that. But remember,
whatever difficulty you have to face, it will not last. It is
only a cloud. For God has made each of us with a purpose.
- Alice von Hildebrand
*****
CLOSING THOUGHT - Martin Luther King Jr.
Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or
constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will
have used time much more effectively than have the people
of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not
merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people,
but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human
progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes
through the tireless efforts of men willing to be coworkers
with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes
an ally of the forces of stagnation.
(end)
*****
For Those Interested -
NOT IN GOD'S NAME - Confronting Religious Violence
42 copies of the book have been secured and all have been sold.
35 persons have thus far registered for the course. Others are reading it alone or in another small study.
Read my background information on this study
Check our archives for 49 books studied since 2000: http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh
This study introduces our 50th book!
***
ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
Ten Sessions January 18th - March 29th, 2018
Thursday morning sessions 10-11 AM
This term we are studying:
THE NEW TESTAMENT LETTERS OF PETER (and)
THE GNOSTIC GOSPEL OF PETER (A non-canonical text)
Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room.
For Those Interested -
ST. DAVID'S ACTS MONDAY NIGHT WINTER STUDY
A Ten Week Series January 22nd - March 26th, 2018
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
NOT IN GOD'S NAME - Confronting Religious Violence
Author: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00
42 copies of the book have been secured and all have been sold.
35 persons have thus far registered for the course. Others are reading it alone or in another small study.
This series is already going well with strong, enthusiastic attendances.
Read my background information on this study
--
During the 2016-2017 two session-term there were
class registrations of 70 and total books sold: 75
2017 was our best year ever, since we began in 1998!
class registrations of 70 and total books sold: 75
2017 was our best year ever, since we began in 1998!
Check our archives for 49 books studied since 2000: http://tinyurl.com/q3bw6dh
This study introduces our 50th book!
***
ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
Ten Sessions January 18th - March 29th, 2018
Thursday morning sessions 10-11 AM
This term we are studying:
THE NEW TESTAMENT LETTERS OF PETER (and)
THE GNOSTIC GOSPEL OF PETER (A non-canonical text)
Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room.
No charge
15 persons make up our study group.
15 persons make up our study group.
Study resource -
"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
Edited by John Bowker
Edited by John Bowker
ST. DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS EVENT, 2017
South Africa was our destination! We planned a nineteen-
day tour that combined a focus on spirituality, social
justice, culture, and nature, and it ran October 21st
thru November 8th.
A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints was published.
http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7
Twenty-five persons registered and paid in full to
take the trip. This was our tour group.
All together, thirty-two persons made deposits
but some had to withdraw for health or other
reasons.
We have activated a South Africa Spiritual Travelers
discussion list group to and used it to build community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.
We reported our experiences to St. David's congregation
as a travel group reflection during the worship service Sunday, January 14th, 2018. For information click Rostad Tours:
day tour that combined a focus on spirituality, social
justice, culture, and nature, and it ran October 21st
thru November 8th.
A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints was published.
http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7
Twenty-five persons registered and paid in full to
take the trip. This was our tour group.
All together, thirty-two persons made deposits
but some had to withdraw for health or other
reasons.
We have activated a South Africa Spiritual Travelers
discussion list group to and used it to build community
amongst the participants, and to share news and
resources.
We reported our experiences to St. David's congregation
as a travel group reflection during the worship service Sunday, January 14th, 2018. For information click Rostad Tours:
http://tinyurl.com/hucsaf7
This marks the end of our South African travel project.
***
Pre-Lenten Notice:
ANNUAL ST. DAVID'S LENTEN RETREAT AT MT. ST. FRANCIS COCHRANE
Sunday, March 4th, 2018. 11:30 AM - 4:00PM
More information to follow soon.
*****
This marks the end of our South African travel project.
***
Pre-Lenten Notice:
ANNUAL ST. DAVID'S LENTEN RETREAT AT MT. ST. FRANCIS COCHRANE
Sunday, March 4th, 2018. 11:30 AM - 4:00PM
More information to follow soon.
*****
