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

Saturday 6 April 2019

Colleagues List, April 7th, 2019

Vol. XIV No. 38

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:

If you missed Colleagues List last week, click this link:
http://tinyurl.com/yxtnhsnp

We had been expecting to welcome the author of this
week's Special Item "Why Are We Here?"  - Mary Jo Leddy
- at St. David's last Monday evening, but she suffered a
knee injury in Vancouver and had to miss the venue.

My introduction of her new book in this week's Colleagues
List becomes an attempt to make up for that loss. Please
consider this book. I think that it is special.

Also spend time with some of the other items in this issue
as I believe you will enjoy and value them.

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM


Book Notice -

WHY ARE WE HERE?
A Meditation on Canada
by Mary Jo Leddy

Novalis  Toronto
February, 2019
103 pages. Paperback. $12.89 CAD
ISBN #978-2=89688-580-0.

Publishers Promo:
 
Acclaimed author and human rights advocate Mary Jo Leddy examines the moral challenges facing Canada in this time of social exclusion and environmental ruin. She focuses particularly on three of our national blind spots ― our relationship with Indigenous peoples, immigration, and our poor record of caring for the environment – and addresses the fundamental question, ‘why are we here?’ Leddy skilfully helps the reader ponder this query by paying attention to where we are, and concluding that our future depends on a profound shift in our attitudes to this place on Earth we inhabit.
 
While Mary Jo Leddy draws from her own personal faith and Catholic worldview, she addresses all caring Canadians who wish to explore themes of sin, gratitude, and redemption, refusing, ultimately, to treat this place as some chunk of earth we own.
 
-- 

Author's Words:


A story is told of the encounter between a Tsimshian chief and
one of the first European explorers as he arrived on the Pacific
northwest coast, in the area now known as British Columbia.

"Why are you here?" asked the chief.

We have no report of what the explorer answered. We do
know the question is with us still - if we are still, if we pay
attention. The question winds its way through the centuries
and up through the layers of soil and self and spirit.

The question about the meaning and purpose of life is as
ancient as it is always new. It is deeply personal and worthy
of lifelong, longer than life consideration.

It is also a question that shapes cultures, nations and empires.
Much depends on whether was have the courage to hear this
question and allow it to search out our future as a country.

I am convinced that the question of the Tsimshian chief now
addresses us as a country. For we are all here and we are all
now. Indigenous peoples, settlers and newcomers.

This remains and must become even more our question
together: Why are we here at this time and in this place
we call Canada?

The question of the Tsimshian chief is stunning in its
simplicity. It must be taken to heart and kept in mind
and lived beside in a daily way. It invites us to a more
meditative way. It involves dwelling below and beyond
the surfaces of lesser questions and answers. Thus, the
following reflections include, but are not limited by, the
insights of artists, political and economic analyses, and
historical research. My indebtedness to many thinkers
and writers will be more evident in the endnotes of this
book.

However, the following reflections are ultimately spiritual
considerations, religious perspectives in and for a post-secular
age. I am convinced that, if we listen to the question in all
its length and breadth and depth, it resounds as a fundamental
spiritual question, one that lies beneath the surface of our
more obvious preoccupations and conventional ways of
seeing as individuals and as a country.

I do not have certainty. Each reader will have to engage the
question personally and to discern what is solid and sure in
the following reflection.

Although I have drawn on some ancient wisdom... I have also
discovered fresh insights from the perspectives of newcomers
to this country: not only from the newest generation of
children but also from immigrants and refugees. I have lived
with these newcomers and listened to them. Who you listen
to affects what you hear. Where you live determines what
you see.

Things change when you hear the echoes of the past together
with the voices of the future. It is clarifying to see the place
where you have always lived with a fresh set of eyes. This is
the context of our faith and doubts, the crucible of our
imagination and hopes.

- from Chapter One "Beginning Here"
 
--

Author's Bio:
 
Mary Jo Leddy is a writer and theologian, a co-founder of Toronto’s Romero House, a founding editor of The Catholic New Times, and a passionate advocate for human rights and peace issues. She is the recipient of many honorary doctorates, and awards, including the Order of Canada. She has written many books, several of which feature or reflect on the work and life of Romero House, such as Radical Gratitude (Orbis 2002), and At the Border Called Hope: Where Refugees Are Neighbours (Orbis 2011), which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award in l997.

Wikipedia bio - http://tinyurl.com/y6k9r4xf
--

My Thoughts:


I have long been a friend of Mary Jo's, and before that, her
mother Rita. I have received much spiritual sustenance
from both women over the years. Talk about progressive
Catholic women ahead of their time!
 
The author combines an intriguing combination of faithfulness
and challenge to the powers that be. My first readings of her
books informed me of how her father, a surgeon in Saskatoon,
helped to integrate Jewish physicians into Canadian medicine 
after many doors had been closed. They were trying to escape
from Nazi Germany during the mid-20th century. Mary Jo has
continued to rescue and integrate many other political
refugees from around the world through her vocation.

The author collaborated with other Canadian Catholic thinkers
to challenge issues in their church, long before they became
popular and contemporary.

Her work with refugees and the co-founding of Romero House
in Toronto have inspired her to considerable writing and
speaking about "welcoming the stranger". It was her visit
to my home congregation in Calgary, six years ago, that
helped re-inspire our people to help settle hundreds of
Tibetan refugees.

Now, this book Why Are We Here? In a way, it helps to draw
together many of the themes that have engaged her for many
years. She had not written this book quickly. It has been
percolating in her heart of concern for almost a decade.

She writes for persons living in a post-secular Canada. I
like this, because it will help us prepare for what lies ahead
for generations no longer satisfied with materialism and
the questing for power and influence. Rebuilding old systems
has never been her desire. Presenting ancient values through
new expressions has been.

I predict a long time readership of this book because there is
so much contained in just 100 pages. It calls for continuous
re-reading and reflection.

If you care about Canada, and if you are concerned about
many of the spiritual values that should be engaging our
people, this book is a book you should locate and treasure.

*****

CBC Interview with Shelagh Rogers
https://www.cbc.ca/player/r/14way96650819577  
 
___
 
Buy the book from Novalis
http://tinyurl.com/y4fto3v7

Buy the book from Amazon.ca
http://tinyurl.com/y3auoxyd

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.

Sermons and Blog
April 5th, 2019

"Extravagance"
  
http://tinyurl.com/y682yvgh

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site,
April 1st, 2019

"What We Haven't Got Right About Sex"
  
http://tinyurl.com/yy6z5z6r

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
April 3rd, 2019

"Suffering from Joy Deprivation"
  
http://tinyurl.com/yyomajar


*****

NET NOTES

MIRIAM TOEWS'S MENNONITE CONSCIENCE
New Book Tells of Moral Failings and Her Hopes

New York Times
March 28th. 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y266y7ut

--

MORMONS CHANGE GAY MARRIAGE POLICY
They are No Longer Calling it "Apostasy"

Religion News Service,
April 4th, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y2jzfpzg

"The Meaning of Revelation in Mormonism"
  That Was Then; This is Now - -Type-Thinking

Religion News Service,
April 4th, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y2ty6o2h

--

CHINA'S "GENOCIDE"
UNLIKE ANY OTHER
Forceful Extraction of
Political Prisoners' Organs

UCA News,
April 4th, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y2tw9rth

--

WORLD'S MOST EXPENSIVE
PAINTING IS MISSING
Leonardo's Classic Vanishes

Christian Post
April 2nd, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/yydr8g2e

--

MY MOTHER WAS MY
FIRST THEOLOGY TEACHER
It's Time to Honour Her Memory

Christian Century,
March 29th, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y6l2fw32

--

WHY A PASTOR MADE THE
BIBLE BELT HIS MISSION FIELD
He Sees Disjoint Between Faith and Practice

Religion News Service,
April 1st, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y4crwbm5

--

THREE WAYS THAT CALLING GOD
'MOTHER' TRANSFORMS US
An Evangelical Christian Perspective

Sojourners Online
April 5th, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y6ee9h6f

--

SHE WEARS A HEAD SCARF -
IS QUEBEC DERAILING HER CAREER?
The Challenges of New Legislation

New York Times,
April 2nd, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/yy7c6p8m

--

UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA ACT
PASSES PARLIAMENT UNANIMOUSLY
Restructuring Plan was Approved by UCC

United Church of Canada News
April 2nd, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/y4jepvkx

--

IN NEW BOOK RICHARD ROHR SAYS THE
'UNIVERSAL CHRIST' CHANGES EVERYTHING
An Ancient Idea, With a Modern Significance

Religion News Service,
March 29th, 2019

http://tinyurl.com/yywzl95r

*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK - April 7th, 2019

We must measure the sociological performance
of our theological convictions.

- Christena Cleveland

--

Wherever there is patriarchy, there is self-pity.
Patriarchy kills the compassionate mother within,
and we must turn outward for a form of comfort.

- Matthew Fox

--
 
And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible question,
and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth
beyond all truths, beyond the stars, just this: that
to live without him is the real death, that to die with
him the only life?
 
- Frederick Buechner
--

The resurrection hope finds living expression in men
and women when they protest against death and the
slaves of death. But it lives from something different –
from the superabundance of God’s future. Its freedom
lives in resistance against all the outward and inward
denials of life. But it does not live from this protest.

 It lives from joy in the coming victory of life.

- Jürgen Moltmann
 
--

The risen Jesus had appeared, not to rulers and kings,
nor even first of all to his male disciples, but to a woman
whose love had held her at the cross and led her to the
grave. Mary Magdalene, a person who had been afflicted
by demons, whose testimony would not have held up in
court because she was a woman, was the first witness
of the resurrection. Once again, God had revealed himself
to the lowly, and it would only be the humble whose hearing
was sharp enough to perceive the message of his love.

- Ann Spangler
 
-- 
 
This is the true joy of life, the being used up for a purpose
recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of
nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments
and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote
itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life
belongs to the community and as long as I live, it is my
privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly
used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.
 
Life is no “brief candle” to me. It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make
it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future
generations.
 
= George Bernard Shaw

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - Henry Jamison

Spring is coming, let me be like the cherry tree --
renewed and fruitful.
 
(end)

*****

For those interested: 
Current ACTS Ministry Activities at
St. David's United Church, Calgary

CANADIAN AUTHOR MARY JO LEDDY     
Launches her new book in Calgary -

"WHY ARE WE HERE? - A Meditation on Canada"

Book Sale and Signing, Q&A, Hospitality
St. David's United Church
3303 Capitol Hill Crescent, NW

Monday, April 1st, 2019
7:00PM - 9:00 PM


This event has been promoted
on the university campus.

Welcome!

EVENT CANCELLED.
MARY JO HAD AN ACCIDENT, UNFORTUNATELY.
(She returned to Toronto, and is recovering).

Amazon.ca notice - https://tinyurl.com/y3qdlzxx

*****

ANNUAL ST. DAVID'S LENTEN RETREAT
Mount St. Francis Retreat Centre
Cochrane, AB

http://www.mountstfrancis.ca/

Theme: "Who Do You Say That I Am?"
Led by Spiritual Director Susan Campbell

Completed on Sunday, March 10th, 2019
11:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Cost: $30.
(includes registration, lunch and refreshments)
 
25 persons registered for the event.

Restful reflections and nature walks, weather excellent...

This program is now completed.

***

ST. DAVID'S ACTS  WINTER MONDAY NIGHT BOOK STUDY 
A Ten Week Series January 14th - March 18, 2019
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"THE GREAT SPIRITUAL MIGRATION"
  How the World's Largest Religion is
  Seeking a Better Way to be Christian

Author: Brian D. McLaren
 
Final Session on "the common good"
Guest: Ryan Anderson, lead-organizer
Calgary Alliance for the Common Good

Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $20.00
 
45 copies of the book were made available for sale.
All are now sold. Total on-site registrations: 42
(plus 3 on-line participants). Grand Total: 45

Here are power point notes from each session:
https://tinyurl.com/ycz5wf72

Book Description - https://tinyurl.com/ybeaaceq
 
--

Some stats:

Autumn, 2018 Program -
 
Total class registrations: 42
Total books sold: 57
 
Autumn and Winter Series (2018-19) -
 
Total class registrations: 87
Total books sold: 102

Average weekly winter class attendance: 34

***

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 reached an important milestone
as 38 persons registered, helping us to surpass
our optimal goal of 30 passengers.

30 travelers had paid their trip fare as of the deadline:
January 15th, 2019. This will be our travel group.

Our Canadian tour company is Rostad Tours, Calgary.
Contact Rostad Tours: http://www.rostad.com/

Phone 1-800-361-8687 or 403-238-4090.

Follow these notices for weekly updates.
 
24 persons attended the pre-trip gathering at
St. David's Calgary, Monday, March 25th, 2019
 
We are now in the last stages of our preparation.
 
St. David's will send-off their Spiritual Travelers
with a liturgy of blessing, Sunday, April 14th.

***

ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY
 
Our theme this winter: Hebrew Biblical History -
 
"I and II Kings"  

Ten Sessions - January 24th-March 28th, 2019

Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room
and meeting 10:00 - 11:00 AM.
 
This study is completed.

Study resource

"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
  Edited by John Bowker


http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q
 

 *****






 

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