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

Saturday 4 August 2018

Colleagues List, August 5th, 2018

Vol. XIV No. 6

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE

 
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address:
wholst@telus.net

This email 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:

My Special Item this week is a book notice for the title
we at St. David's, Calgary have chosen as our fall study
this year. We have come through several series of rather
"heavy" theological assessments, and this book - while
profound - will hopefully be a joy for us to read.

"The Book of Joy" - by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
will hopefully engage you as well.

I want to thank colleague Hardy Schroeder of Winnipeg
for helping me clarify my writing and scripture quoting
used in the piece I wrote on the woman bishop ordination
service that took place two weeks ago at St. David's.
https://tinyurl.com/ya9lerw2

Hopefully, you will find appealing at least some of the
selections I have I have included this week.

Wayne

****

SPECIAL ITEM

Book Notice

THE BOOK OF JOY
Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

His Holiness the Dalai Lama and
Archbishop Desmond Tutu with
Douglas Abrams

Viking Press Toronto, 2016
Hardcover. pp. 354. $18.50 CAD (special price)
ISBN #978-0-07016-9.
 
Publisher's Promo:
 
Two great spiritual masters share their own hard-
won wisdom about living with joy even in the face
of adversity.

The occasion was a big birthday. And it inspired
two close friends to get together in Dharamsala

(North India) for a talk about something very
important to them.

The friends were His Holiness the Dalai Lama
and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The subject was
joy. Both winners of the Nobel Prize, both great
spiritual masters and moral leaders of our time,
they are also known for being among the most
infectiously happy people on the planet.
 
From the beginning the book was envisioned as
a three-layer birthday cake: their own stories and
teachings about joy, the most recent findings in
the science of deep happiness, and the daily
practices that anchor their own emotional and
spiritual lives.
 
Both the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu have
been tested by great personal and national
adversity, and here they share their personal
stories of struggle renewal. Now that they are
both in their eighties, they especially want to
spread the core message that to have joy
yourself, you must bring joy to others.
 
Most of all, during that landmark week in
Dharamsala, they demonstrated by their own
exuberance, compassion, and humor how joy
can be transformed from a fleeting emotion
into an enduring way of life.
 
--
 
About the Authors:
 
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso,
describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He
is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan People and
of Tibetan Buddhism. He was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1989 and the US Congressional
Gold Medal in 2007. Born in 1935 to a poor farming
family in northeastern Tibet he was recognized at
the age of two as the reincarnation of his
predecessor, the 13th Dalai Lama.
 
He has been a passionate advocate for a secular
universal approach to cultivating fundamental human
values. For over three decades the Dalai Lama has
maintained an ongoing conversation and collaboration
with scientists from a wide range of disciplines,
especially through the Mind and Life Institute, an
organization that he co-founded. The Dalai Lama
travels extensively, promoting kindness and
compassion, interfaith understanding, respect for the
environment, and, above all, world peace. He lives in
exile in Dharamsala, India.
 
More information, please visit www.dalailama.com
 
-
 
Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Southern
Africa, became a prominent leader in the crusade for
justice and racial reconciliation in South Africa. He was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. In 1994, Tutu
was appointed chair of South Africa’s Truth and
Reconciliation Commission by Nelson Mandela, where
he pioneered a new way for countries to move forward
after experiencing civil conflict and oppression. He was
the founding chair of The Elders, a group of global
leaders working together for peace and human rights.
Archbishop Tutu is regarded as a leading moral voice
and an icon of hope. Throughout his life, he has cared
deeply about the needs of people around the world,
teaching love and compassion for all.
 
He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
 
For more information please visit tutu.org.za
 
--
 
Douglas Abrams is an author, editor, and literary agent.
He is the founder and president of Idea Architects, a
creative book and media agency helping visionaries to
create a wiser, healthier, and more just world. He is also
the co-founder with Pam Omidyar and Desmond Tutu of
HumanJourney.com, a public benefit company working to
share life-changing and world-changing ideas. Doug has
worked with Desmond Tutu as his cowriter and editor for
over a decade, and before founding his own literary agency,
he was a senior editor at HarperCollins and also served for
nine years as the religion editor at the University of
California Press. He believes strongly in the power of
books and media to catalyze the next stage of global
evolutionary culture.
 
He lives in Santa Cruz, California.
 
For more information, please visit:

--


Authors' Invitation:
 
We met for a week to enjoy our friendship and to create
something we hope will be a birthday gift for others.
 
...so much of life is spent in sadness, stress and suffering.
We hope this small book will be an invitation to more joy
and more happiness.
 
No dark fate determines the future. We do. Each day and
each moment, we are able to create and re-create our
lives and the very quality of life on the human planet.
This is the power we wield.
 
Lasting happiness cannot be found in pursuit of any goal
or achievement. It does not reside in fortune or fame. It
resides only in the human mind and heart, and it is here
that we hope you will find it.
 
Our co-writer, Douglas Abrams, has kindly agreed to
assist us in this project and interviewed us over the course
of a week we were together. We have asked him to weave
our voices together and offer his own as one narrator so
that we can share not only our views and experience but
also what scientists and others have found to be the
wellsprings of joy.
 
Nothing we say should be taken as an article of faith. We
are sharing what two friends, from very different worlds,
have witnessed and learned in our long lives. We hope
you will discover whether what is included here is true
by applying it to your own life.
 
Every day is a new opportunity to begin again. Every day
is your birthday.
 
Tenzin Gyatso and Desmond Tutu

--

My Thoughts:


"The Book of Joy" is an easily accessible reference that
will interest many because of the names of the spiritual
guides associated with it. The Dalai Lama and Desmond
Tutu are well-known, and not just in spiritual circles.
Their political engagements have made them globally
familiar. Their seniority on the world stage is a ready draw.

Canada has only recently experienced its own Truth
and Reconciliation process with its Aboriginal People.
It is possible to discover the spiritual underpinnings
of the process undertaken in South Africa, and Tibet's
struggles with China, through a study of this book.

This volume should not be approached merely to glean
the truisms of seniors approaching or inhabiting senility.
What it has to offer is solid spiritual advice that has
resulted from hard-earned experience. Many of their
comments will challenge our comfort zones and make us
think twice about ideas we take for granted. Both men
continue to be keen and incisive thinkers.

The book is sub-divided into three parts -

1. The Nature of True Joy
2. The Obstacles to Joy
3. The Eight Pillars of Joy

Reflected here are unique individual discoveries as well
as commonly shared insights. Here are gems reflecting
the global East and West, as well as North and South.

Christianity is the formative base of one; Buddhism the other.
These two are a living demonstration that - at the heart of
true religion - there is much we share in common.

Of course, it is not possible for many of us to live on the
high spiritual plain of these two men. But still, it is quite
humanly possible. Neither is a saint and would be the
first to admit to that.

While it is helpful to engage this volume from beginning
to end, it can be accessed a numerous points along the way.
It is both ecumenically engaging and scientifically respectable.
This makes it more substantive than what often passes for
spiritual writing today.

I look forward to a serious use of "The Book of Joy" with
an active group of spiritual seekers and believe we will all
be enriched as a result.
 
--
 
For a formal review of this book, please read the one
I have included below by my colleague Tom Ryan: https://tinyurl.com/yc4hrx5z

----

Buy the book from Amazon.ca:

https://tinyurl.com/y7m93fjw

*****

COLLEAGUE COMMENT

Arthur Bauer,
Pompton Plains, NJ

July 26th, 2018

Dear Wayne:

When I read this stimulating review in the New York
Review of Books (NYRB) as whenever "Canada" comes to
attention, my mind moved to strong Canadian friends,
who have each made a significant and refreshing
contribution to my life....you are one of  those Canadian
friends. However you react to this review, it is amazing
how close Canada and U.S.A. can stand for the same
ideals.

Canada is now a light in the darkness, while the U.S.A.
seems part of the dark.

I hope this is as stimulating to you as it was to me.

Best regards.

Art

"Oh Canada" review selections from NYRB July 19th, 2018

  https://tinyurl.com/ya7yyoww

--

Felix Kryzanowski
Roman Catholic Women Priests Canada, Regina, SK.
 
August 2nd, 2018

Wayne,

I just read your tremendous article on events surrounding
(my wife) Jane's ordination. Thank you very much for taking
the time and making the effort so soon after the event.

I think I would want to present your article (on the RCWP
website) as two items, one relating to the public presentation,
the other to the ordination itself.

Sincerely and thanks again.

Felix

Colleagues List, July 29th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ya9lerw2

RCWP Canada Website Ordination Story
 
*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Tom Ryan,
Boston, MA

Review: "The Book of Joy" by
The Dalai Lama and Bp. Desmond Tutu


Koinonia,
Summer, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/yc4hrx5z

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC


Personal Web Log,
July 29th, 2018


"There is No Magic Bullet"
  https://tinyurl.com/y9s6hqlx


--

Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB


In Transit
July 30th, 2018


"Forget-Me-Not"
  https://tinyurl.com/ycl9upkm


--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX


Personal Web Site
July 30th, 3018


"Standing on New Borders"
  https://tinyurl.com/y94op8hk


*****

NET NOTES

IN 25 YEARS, BIBLE GATEWAY
VIEWED 14 BILLION TIMES
An Unusual Veteran Website


Religion News Service,
August 1st, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/y7o3q986

--

QUEBEC CHURCHES AS TEMPLES
OF CHEESE, FITNESS, EROTICISM
Closed Buildings, New Uses

New York Times,
July 31st, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/y6uraooq

--

FEWER AMERICANS ATTEND
RELIGIOUS SERVICES
It's Not Because of Unbelief

Religion News Service
August 2nd, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/ybmnw4ym

--

INDIAN MUSLIMS FEAR FOR LIVES
AS LYNCHINGS CONTINUE
More Evidence of Hindu Nationalism

UCA News,
August 1st, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/y7nonque

--

THE EUROPEAN UNION AS WE
KNOW IT IS ALREADY DEAD
The Divisive Issue is Migration

La Croix International
August 2nd, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/ydeyo6af

--

INTERVIEW WITH PARKER PALMER
AS HE RELEASES HIS LATEST BOOK

"On The Brink of Everything:
       Grace, Gravity and Growing Old"

Englewood Review of Books
August 2nd, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/y9jybne6

--

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES LEADER SEEKS
DESTRUCTION OF SEX ABUSE RECORDS
775 Accumulated Accounts are at Issue

La Croix International
August 1st, 2018

https://tinyurl.com/yaaqftoy

--

MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LEADER WHO SAVED
CHRISTIANS FROM DEATH RECEIVES HONOUR
Nigeria Recognizes Man Who Protected 300 Christians

The Christian Post,
August 1st, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/y93e4yc8

--

CANADA HAS WIDEST GAP BETWEEN
OLDER/YOUNGER RELIGIOUS PRACTICE
Part of a Global Trend, but Most Pronounced

The Catholic Register, Toronto
August 2nd, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/yajmpkf4

--

TWO MAJOR CANADIAN CHURCHES
ISSUE DOCUMENT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Roman Catholic/United Church Collaboration

America,
August 2nd, 2018


https://tinyurl.com/yctjmk67

*****

         
WISDOM OF THE WEEK

From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
 
To be alive is to be broken. And to be broken
is to stand in need of grace.
 
- Brennan Manning
 
--

We do not need magic to transform the world.
We carry all the power we need inside ourselves
already. We have power to imagine better.

- J.K. Rowling

--

And it may well be that we will have to repent in
this generation. Not merely for the vitriolic words
and the violent actions of the bad people, but for
the appalling silence and indifference of the good
people who sit around and say, "Wait on time."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

--

Welcoming is not just something that happens as
people cross the threshold. It is an attitude; it is
the constant openness of the heart; it is saying to
people every morning and at every moment,
“come in”; it is giving them space; it is listening
to them attentively. To welcome means listening
a great deal to people and then discerning the
truth with them.
 
- Jean Vanier
 
--
 
You have become old in spirit and are already dying,
and have no strength anymore. You have become
enervated by the affairs of daily life and fallen into
lethargy just like old men who, once they have given
up all hope of regaining strength, expect nothing but
to fall asleep. But if you repent, you will become
quite new again.

- Hermas

--

Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter
into places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear,
confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges
us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with
those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears...
Compassion means full immersion in the condition
of being human.

- Henri J.M. Nouwen

--

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame
well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes
filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The
deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more
joy you can contain.…When you are joyous, look
deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that
which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

- Kahlil Gibran

--

The world is full of hundreds of beautiful things we
can never possibly have time to discover, and there
is no time to be unkind or envious or ungenerous,
and no sense in enslaving the mind to the trivialities
of the moment. For you can be equal to the greatness
of life only by marching with it; not by seeking love
but by giving it, nor by seeking to be understood,
but by learning to understand.

- Vivienne de Watteville

--

How easy we find it to condemn structural injustice,
institutional violence, and social sin! All that is quite
real, but where are the sources of that social sin?

They are in the heart of every person. Modern-day
society is an anonymous society in which nobody
accepts blame but everybody is responsible. All of
us are responsible for what happens, but the sin
remains anonymous. We are all sinners, and we
have all contributed our grain of sand to this
mountain of crimes and violence in our country
.
That is why salvation begins with the human person,
human dignity, with freeing every individual from sin

- Oscar Romero

*****

 
MOMENT IN TIME
August 1st, 1969

Globe and Mail
August 1st, 2018

Aug. 1, 1969: After four years of falling sales and prices,
Saskatchewan’s farmers were hurting in the late 1960s.
Grain stockpiles reached more than 1.3 billion bushels as
a combination of increasing yields and lagging sales from
the Soviet Union worked to decrease demand. One credit
union estimated that 17 per cent of its loans were in arrears.
With little money to buy necessities, some parts of the
province’s economy turned to barter. In Regina, car dealers
were willing to take grain in lieu of cash.

Even Saskatchewan sold $400,000 worth of wheat to the
Canadian Wheat Board in exchange for several electrical
transformers from the federal government. When premier
Ross Thatcher announced that students would be allowed
to pay their fees in wheat, barley or oats, there was far
more demand for the scheme than there were spots.

On Aug. 1, 1969, about 175 students met the deadline to
remit grain bushels for school fees. But after setting a limit
of 15,000 bushels in total, the university said it would only
accept the 50 neediest cases. Bartering goods for tuition
carries on worldwide. Last year, in the midst of a cash
shortage crisis, Zimbabwe offered to accept livestock
for school fees. – Simona Chiose

*****


CLOSING THOUGHT -Thich Nhat Hanh

When we look into the heart of a flower, we see clouds,
sunshine, minerals, time, the earth, and everything else
in the cosmos in it. Without clouds, there could be no rain,
and there would be no flower. Without time, the flower
could not bloom. In fact, the flower is made of entirely
non-flower elements; it has no independent, individual
existence. When we see the nature of inter-being,
barriers between ourselves and others are dissolved,
and peace, love, and understanding are possible.

Whenever there is understanding, compassion is born

(end)

*****


For those interested:
 
ST. DAVIDS ADULT SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT/ACTS MINISTRY
FALL PROGRAM BEGINS TO TAKE SHAPE


ST. DAVID'S MONDAY NIGHT STUDY 'BOOKENDS' EVENT

Monday, September 10th, 2018
TM Room 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Come for a free evening to view our official South African
Spiritual Travelers pictures  (October-November 2017)
created by many tour-members and assembled by
Jock McTavish.

Learn about our up-coming tour, April-May 2018
"From Vienna to Moscow" (see more details, below)

*****

ST. DAVID'S ACTS MONDAY NIGHT FALL BOOK STUDY

A Ten Week Series September 17th - November 26th, 2018
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

(No class on Thanksgiving Monday)

"THE BOOK OF JOY"

  Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

Authors: Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu

Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $25.00
 
Registration and Book Sale begins Sunday, August 26th
35 copies of the book will be available for sale.

Hardcover edition - https://tinyurl.com/yd849r6g
 
Background information on the study book will be
provided here during the next weeks of summer:

--

Other background:

During the 2017-2018 fall/winter two term series -
Total class registrations: 70
Total books sold: 78

Our best year ever, since we started in 1998!

***

ST. DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS TOUR, 2019

East Europe and Russia have been chosen as our destinations!


This will be our fifth Spiritual Travelers Tour, with a
group emerging from St. David's but very open to others.
 
The Tour is entitled: "From Vienna to Moscow"

We plan a twenty-day tour that combines a focus
on spirituality, culture and the relationship between
religion and politics. The tour will run from April 26th
through May 16th, 2019.

A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints will soon be published.
 
Our trip sale will begin (with early bird registration 
benefits) beginning in September, 2018 
 
Our Canadian tour company is Rostad Tours, Calgary.
Contact Rostad Tours: http://www.rostad.com/

Follow these notices for weekly updates.

***


ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING STUDY

Ten Sessions September 13th-November 22nd, 2018

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

determined by the class at their first meeting on
Thursday, Sept. 13th with ten sessions following.
Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room

and meeting 10:00 - 11:00 AM.

No charge


Study resource -

"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
  Edited by John Bowker


http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q

*****



 



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