GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
ADVENT SUNDAY EDITION
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: wholst@telus.net
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
ADVENT SUNDAY EDITION
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 and several other selections in Colleagues List this week focus on the Advent Season of preparation we are just entering.
Please enjoy the other items I have discovered and included this time as well.
We are now beginning another church year!
Blessings on your new beginnings!
Wayne
*****
*****
Dear Friends:
My Special Item and several other selections in Colleagues List this week focus on the Advent Season of preparation we are just entering.
Please enjoy the other items I have discovered and included this time as well.
We are now beginning another church year!
Blessings on your new beginnings!
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
FINDING A PLACE FOR ADVENT
IN OUR PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY
IN OUR PERSONAL SPIRITUALITY
It seems to start creeping up on me in September when the stores begin decorating for Christmas and I am still trying to adjust from summer warmth to a cooler, busier autumn season.
Thanksgiving and Halloween come and go, but the Noel decorations continue to build through Black Friday. The constant emphasis through it all however is the insidious and blatant enticement to buy, buy, buy...
Come Advent Sunday (known mainly to some church-goers in our society) the call to prepare for the Coming of Christ at Christmas is clearer. But still, it seems more a faint whisper than a strong signal.
I do some strategic things this weekend to help me get into an Advent mood. Outdoor home decoration with my partner Marlene is one. I am grateful that, at age 76, I can still attach the lights to our house roof.
Special music is brought out of storage and I never miss listening to the Advent Festival of Lessons and Carols from Kings College, Cambridge.
No single act of Advent preparation satisfies and inspires me more than engaging those English carols and high-Anglican accents as the lessons are read. (I have been a fan for many decades and hold several renditions in my collection).
For those of you who are overwhelmed by the stranglehold that our cultural commercialism has on the Season, I hope that you too are finding ways to engage spiritually in these weeks leading up to the Celebration of the Birth of Our Lord.
Time and experience has helped me to select those activities that are spiritually nurturing. For Marlene - like her mom and mine before us - the discipline includes Christmas baking and thoughtful gift-purchasing for the grandchildren. For me, the creation of hand-written and mailed greetings of the season continues to be an annual activity I refuse to relinquish in spite of easier cyber-communication.
The message I am trying to share in the old-fashioned, cumbersome but deeply personal way is this - I care about you. Celebrate the birth of the Christ-child with me!
Not everything about our commercialized Christmas is bad! I enjoy community coloured light displays and some great Christmas programming on the media and in performance halls.
But for the sheer joy of preparation I limit my special dinners and quality concerts to a precious few.
I am rather pleased that, at this stage of my life, I seem to have found a healthy balance of activity and quiet.
And so in that spirit, may you also have a very Blessed Advent Season!
Wayne
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB.
In Transit Blog
November 29th, 2018
"In November, We Remember -
A Story of Love and Loss"
https://tinyurl.com/ycmhy2pc
--
Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Books
November 23rd, 2018
"To What Truth Do You Belong?"
https://tinyurl.com/y9yc3seo
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX.
Personal Web Site
November 26th, 2018
"A Lesson in a Parking Lot"
https://tinyurl.com/y7g558e4
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
November 28th, 2018
"The Goal of True Community"
https://tinyurl.com/ya69kog6
*****.
NET NOTES
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB.
In Transit Blog
November 29th, 2018
"In November, We Remember -
A Story of Love and Loss"
https://tinyurl.com/ycmhy2pc
--
Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Books
November 23rd, 2018
"To What Truth Do You Belong?"
https://tinyurl.com/y9yc3seo
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX.
Personal Web Site
November 26th, 2018
"A Lesson in a Parking Lot"
https://tinyurl.com/y7g558e4
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
November 28th, 2018
"The Goal of True Community"
https://tinyurl.com/ya69kog6
*****.
NET NOTES
MISAPPROPRIATING BONHOEFFER
Understanding Him in the Age of Trump
Englewood Review of Books,
November 30th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y9wbxxof
--
THE ON-GOING THREAT OF FUNDAMENTALISM
A Desperate Search for Absolute Certainty
La Croix International,
November 29th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y8bxz7fw
--
WHAT PROGRESSIVES NEED TO DEFEAT TRUMP
Populism and Religion
The Guardian, UK
November 24th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ybtzca74
--
JOHN CHAU AND THE DANGERS
OF MISSONARY WORK.
An Always Difficult Task
Religion News Service,
November 27th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7xqx25j
--
--
THE ON-GOING THREAT OF FUNDAMENTALISM
A Desperate Search for Absolute Certainty
La Croix International,
November 29th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y8bxz7fw
--
WHAT PROGRESSIVES NEED TO DEFEAT TRUMP
Populism and Religion
The Guardian, UK
November 24th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ybtzca74
--
JOHN CHAU AND THE DANGERS
OF MISSONARY WORK.
An Always Difficult Task
Religion News Service,
November 27th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7xqx25j
--
DEATH OF MISSIONARY SPARKS
DEBATE OVER MISSION WORK
Coming to Terms With Mission Today
Religion News Service,
November 30th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ybbg26fu
--
YOUNG EGYPTIAN COPTIC CHRISTIANS
RISE ABOVE SOCIAL INSECURITY
They Continue Their Ordinary Lives
La Croix International
November 27th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ya7ya7cc
--
YOUNG EGYPTIAN COPTIC CHRISTIANS
RISE ABOVE SOCIAL INSECURITY
They Continue Their Ordinary Lives
La Croix International
November 27th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/ya7ya7cc
--
CRYSTAL CATHEDRAL TRANSFORMS
INTO A CATHOLIC EPISCOPAL CENTER
From "Mega-Church" to a Different Cathedral
Religion News Service,
November 28th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/yc6m6qlu
--
BUDDHIST MONKS TO DISCUSS WHETHER
THE DALAI LAMA SHOULD RE-INCARNATE
Key Issue is Chinese Influence in Succession
Religion News Service
November 28th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y86xf3qy
--
DUTCH CHURCH HOLDING MARATHON SERVICE
TO PROTECT FAMILY FROM DEPORTATION
Venturesome Form of Christian Engagement
TO PROTECT FAMILY FROM DEPORTATION
Venturesome Form of Christian Engagement
CBC.ca
November 28th, 2018
November 28th, 2018
--
CANADIAN CATHOLIC BOYS SCHOOL
ROCKED BY SEXUAL ABUSE CRISIS
Student-on-Student With Forced Resignations
La Croix International
November 29th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/yddbtw7z
"School Scandal a Humbling Experience
for the Basilian Fathers"
Catholic Register, Toronto
November 29th, 2018
https://tinyurl.com/yc73lagm
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
From Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
Every year we celebrate the holy season of Advent, O God.
Every year we pray those beautiful prayers of longing and
waiting, and sing those lovely songs of hope and promise.
Every year we roll up all our needs and yearnings and faithful
expectation into one word: “Come!”
And yet, what a strange prayer this is! After all, you have
already come and pitched your tent among us. You have
already shared our life with its little joys, its long days of
tedious routine, its bitter end. Could we invite you to
anything more than this with our “Come”? Could you
approach any nearer to us than you did when you became
the “Son of Man”? In spite of all this we still pray: “Come.”
- Karl Rahner
--
Love is the big booming beat which covers up the noise of hate.
- Margaret Cho
--
The morning glories and the sunflowers turn naturally
toward the light, but we have to be taught, it seems.
- Fr. Richard Rohr
--
What you have shown is that this nation is never beyond
remedy, it is never beyond hope, it is never too broken to fix.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
--
toward the light, but we have to be taught, it seems.
- Fr. Richard Rohr
--
What you have shown is that this nation is never beyond
remedy, it is never beyond hope, it is never too broken to fix.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
--
The Christian mysteries are an indivisible whole. If we
become immersed in one, we are led to all the others.
Thus the way from Bethlehem leads inevitably to
Golgotha, from the crib to the cross. When the blessed
virgin brought the child to the temple, Simeon prophesied
that her soul would be pierced by a sword, that this child
was set for the fall and the resurrection of many, for a sign
that would be contradicted. His prophecy announced the
passion, the fight between light and darkness that already
showed itself before the crib.
become immersed in one, we are led to all the others.
Thus the way from Bethlehem leads inevitably to
Golgotha, from the crib to the cross. When the blessed
virgin brought the child to the temple, Simeon prophesied
that her soul would be pierced by a sword, that this child
was set for the fall and the resurrection of many, for a sign
that would be contradicted. His prophecy announced the
passion, the fight between light and darkness that already
showed itself before the crib.
- Edith Stein
--
I don’t think we could have ever loved God if Jesus had
not become one of us. So that we might be able to love
God, he became one of us in all things, except sin. If we
have been created in the image of God, then we have
been created to love, because God is love.
In his passion Jesus taught us how to forgive out of love,
how to forget out of humility. Find Jesus, and you will
find peace.
- Mother Teresa
--
Each galaxy, each star, each living creature, every particle and
subatomic particle of creation, we are all made in God’s image.
…
How? Genesis gives no explanations, but we do know
instinctively that it is not a physical image. God’s explanation
is to send Jesus, the incarnate One, God enfleshed.
Don’t try to explain the Incarnation to me! It is further from
being explainable than the furthest star in the furthest galaxy.
It is love, God’s limitless love enfleshing that love into the form of a human of a human being, Jesus, the Christ, fully human and fully divine.
- Madeleine L’Engle
--
We are human and finite, and thus cannot live perpetually in
a sense of expectation, or in a continuous Advent. We are
distracted by many things. Our spiritual awareness waxes
and wanes in intensity.
It is here that we need to see why it was necessary for
Christ to come to the earth. God has come to us because
we, by our own power of soul, by our own emotions, even
the noblest and most sublime, can never attain redemption.
True expectancy, the waiting that is genuine and from the
heart, is brought about by the coming of the Holy Spirit, by
God coming to us, and not by our own devices. No ladder
of mysticism can ever meet or find or possess God.
Faith is a power given to us.
It is never simply our ability or strength of will to believe.
The spiritual experience that is truly genuine is given to
us by God in the coming of his Spirit, and only as we
surrender our whole lives to an active expression of
Gods will.
- Philip Britts
*****
PERSPECTIVES ON THE NEWS
Globe and Mail,
November 27th, 2018
AMERICA IS THE BAD GUY NOW
by Jared Yates Sexton
Jared Yates Sexton is an associate professor at Georgia
Southern University. He is the author of ”The People Are
Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story
of American Rage”.
--
On Sunday, U.S. agents shot canisters of tear gas at
migrants attempting to cross the southern border from
Tijuana, Mexico. Photographs of women and children
crying as they fled clouds of gas now join the disturbing
images of migrants in cages, toddlers wailing behind
chain-link fences, families separated by armed guards
with little hope of reuniting. This chaos, and the
mounting pain in the name of the American flag,
has made one thing painfully obvious:
The United States is on the wrong side of history.
That unfortunate truth has become more evident since
Donald Trump took the oath of office and steered the
country by its worst instincts. The unvarnished bigotry
of his campaign and eventually his administration
peeled back the thin veneer hiding our ugliest
prejudices. We are in very deep, very dark waters.
Whether it was the prejudiced Muslim travel ban,
the persecution of transgender Americans, the
sowing of racial animus, his inspiration of neo-Nazis
and murderous assassins or his partnering with
homicidal despots, the sad truth is that, no matter
how we want to deny it or wish it wasn’t so, this is
who we are now.
On Sunday, U.S. agents shot canisters of tear gas at
migrants attempting to cross the southern border from
Tijuana, Mexico. Photographs of women and children
crying as they fled clouds of gas now join the disturbing
images of migrants in cages, toddlers wailing behind
chain-link fences, families separated by armed guards
with little hope of reuniting. This chaos, and the
mounting pain in the name of the American flag,
has made one thing painfully obvious:
The United States is on the wrong side of history.
That unfortunate truth has become more evident since
Donald Trump took the oath of office and steered the
country by its worst instincts. The unvarnished bigotry
of his campaign and eventually his administration
peeled back the thin veneer hiding our ugliest
prejudices. We are in very deep, very dark waters.
Whether it was the prejudiced Muslim travel ban,
the persecution of transgender Americans, the
sowing of racial animus, his inspiration of neo-Nazis
and murderous assassins or his partnering with
homicidal despots, the sad truth is that, no matter
how we want to deny it or wish it wasn’t so, this is
who we are now.
--
Globe and Mail
November 29th, 2018
A ”HANDMAID’S TALE” SEQUEL IS COMING
Margaret Atwood is writing a follow-up to her celebrated
dystopian novel from 1985: The Testaments is scheduled
to be released on Sept. 10, 2019 (for subscribers).
The book will be set 15 years after the final scene in The
Handmaid’s Tale, a book that depicts a patriarchal society
where “handmaids” are forcibly assigned to produce
children for infertile members of the ruling class. In a
statement addressed at readers, Atwood said,
“everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and
its Iinner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well,
almost everything! The other inspiration is the world
we’ve been living in.”
*****
For those interested:
ACTS ADVENT-CHRISTMAS BOOK SALE
Sundays, November 25th and December 2nd, 2018
Come to the book table in the church lobby...
Before or after the service, Sunday mornings...
We have many books to choose from...
Make your choices and pay in advance...
Your books should arrive the following week...
This system keeps your costs down...
A complete set of sale books is donated to our church library.
***
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
"THE BOOK OF JOY"
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
"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
Authors: Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $25.00
Registration and Book Sale began Sunday, August 26th
45 copies of the book were available for sale.
All are now sold. Total on-site registrations: 42
(plus 3 on-line participants). Grand Total: 45
Hardcover edition - https://tinyurl.com/yd849r6g
(plus 3 on-line participants). Grand Total: 45
Hardcover edition - https://tinyurl.com/yd849r6g
This course is now completed.
--
Some stats:
Autumn, 2018 Program -
Some stats:
Autumn, 2018 Program -
Total books sold: 50
This class experienced our highest registrations, ever!
***
***
ST. DAVID'S SPIRITUAL TRAVELERS TOUR, 2019
East Europe and Russia were 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.
https://tinyurl.com/y834742f
A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints has been published.
https://tinyurl.com/y7j55gym
Our trip sale has just reached an important milestone
as 38 persons have registered, helping us to surpass our
optimal goal of 30 passengers (all have earned early bird
registration benefits). A waiting list has been set up to
continue receiving applicants to replace any drop-outs
from the core group of passengers.
https://tinyurl.com/y834742f
A beautiful brochure with trip cost, itinerary, and
many helpful travel hints has been published.
https://tinyurl.com/y7j55gym
Our trip sale has just reached an important milestone
as 38 persons have registered, helping us to surpass our
optimal goal of 30 passengers (all have earned early bird
registration benefits). A waiting list has been set up to
continue receiving applicants to replace any drop-outs
from the core group of passengers.
Our Canadian tour company is Rostad Tours, Calgary.
Contact Rostad Tours: http://www.rostad.com/
Phone 1-800-361-8687 or 403-238-4090.
Contact Rostad Tours: http://www.rostad.com/
Phone 1-800-361-8687 or 403-238-4090.
Follow these notices for weekly updates.
***
ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
Our theme this autumn: Hebrew Wisdom Literature -
"A Study of Proverbs and the Song of Solomon"
We held sessions on the Book of Job and the Psalms also.-
We held sessions on the Book of Job and the Psalms also.-
Thirteen Sessions - September 20th-November 29th, 2018
Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room
Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room
and meeting 10:00 - 11:00 AM.
No charge
No charge
Study resource -
"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
Edited by John Bowker
http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q
This course is now completed.
*****
