Colleagues List, May 26th, 2019

Vol. XIV No. 43

GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE

Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@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:

In this issue of Colleagues List I introduce a new book
by long time friend Herb O'Driscoll, who is this weekend
launching his latest - "A Greening of Imaginations" - at
the Owl's Nest Bookstore in south Calgary. You are certainly
welcome to the launch, but you can easily secure the
book online (see details below).

I am also glad to be returning CL to its regular format
after our several weeks of travel in East Europe and Russia.

Please enjoy the material I have to offer.

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

Book Notice -

A GREENING OF IMAGINATIONS
Walking the Songlines of Holy Scripture
by Herbert O'Driscoll

Church Publishing Incorporated,
New York, NY. 2019. 131 pages.
$17.50 CAD. ISBN #9781640651449

The Owl's Nest Book Shop is located
in Britannia Shopping Plaza
on Elbow Drive at 49th Avenue.

815A 49th Avenue SW
Calgary AB Canada
T2S 1G8

Telephone: 403-287-9557
Fax Line: 403-287-9558
General inquiries: contact@owlsnestbooks.com

Book Signing at the Owl's Nest, Calgary
Sunday, May 26th at 4:00 PM
http://www.owlsnestbooks.com/
Online shopping available.

--

Publisher's Promo:

• New book from renowned Anglican storyteller and preacher
• Puts reader into the heart of the biblical world
• Chapters can be used for personal devotion or
  as discussion-starters for groups

How do the scriptures speak to us today? Where do our stories
mirror biblical stories? Herbert O’Driscoll, beloved Anglican
preacher, storyteller, author, and hymn writer, invites us to
imagine what the “back story” of our favorite scriptures might
have been.

By doing Christian midrash—telling the stories within the
Story - Dr. O’Driscoll has filled in the gaps by creating new
and parables based on the text. Some are narratives, such
as Jesus wondering about his cousin John as a twenty-
something activist, and Mary’s thoughts as she knelt at
the foot of the cross. Others ask you to imagine a bundle
of letters from early Christians that “might have been written
we could only find them,” like Philemon’s response to Paul’s
on behalf of a runaway slave, or a letter from a student-
aged Judas Iscariot written to his parents expressing his
excitement about a rabbi whose teaching he finds fascinating.

Each of the twenty-eight short chapters offers a glimpse of
the thoughts and emotions of individuals found in the
Christian Testament, bringing alive the sights, sounds,
and smells of the Holy Land.

More background/excerpts on the book may be found here::
https://tinyurl.com/y2f6el69wa

--

Author's Words:

 

Looking back across many years (at the community

in Southern Ireland where I grew up) I see two lasting

influences on my life. One was the world of Holy Scripture

and the other was the gift of imagination.

 

Naturally, at that stage of life, the narrative passages

of the Bible were especially fascinating. For me ... those

narratives have never left. In fact, they have continued

to intrigue and fascinate me all my life...

 

Looking back, I think it was understood that we would

grow into other ways of finding truths in the stories, not

rejecting our first understandings but rather by having

them deepened. This has certainly been my experience.

 

Works of literary imagination I find irresistible, whether

they be classical myths, stories of quest, journeys to

unknown lands or travels in time. I have always been

drawn to such tales...

 

Much Christian preaching tends to regard the text as

being all there is to work with. The Jewish (midrash)

approach to scripture probes the text for ever more

levels of meaning and application.

 

(I was determined to develop my skills of interpreting

scripture as much as I could.)...

 

These pages are a small collection of biblical passages

where I do what I simply love doing: applying my

imagination to various moments in the Bible, asking

myself questions. What would it have been like to be

there at that moment? What were these men and women

feeling then? Why did they act and react as they did?

Such questions abound and drew me deeper into the

text.

 

It's like hearing a wonderful piece of music when one

is very young and hearing it again in mature years.

It is of course the same music, but it speaks on many

more levels than it did in childhood.

 

Life it not so much a putting away of childish things

(I Cor. 12:11) as it is to their maturing in wonderful

ways.

 

I would like to offer you these reflections on Holy

Scripture, not merely as you read how the text has

fed my imagination, but to allow your own imagination

to go voyaging down the song  lines of Holy Scripture.

- from the Prologue

--

Author's Bio:

Herbert O’Driscoll is one of the most highly regarded

preachers in the Anglican Church. A native of Ireland,

educated at Trinity College, Dr. O’Driscoll has been urban

Cathedral Dean in Vancouver, British Columbia, and

Warden of the College of Preachers, Washington National

Cathedral. A hymn writer and author of numerous books

on Bible interpretation and the spiritual life, many of which

reflect his own Celtic spirituality, he continues to write from

active retirement in Victoria, British Columbia, where he

and his wife, Paula, live.

-

My Thoughts:

A tribute to the author --

"Herb O'Driscoll, the Storyteller"

Anglican Journal, January, 2016
https://tinyurl.com/y65yes6d

___

Buy the book through -

Owl's Nest Online Order Service
https://tinyurl.com/yytypzuy

Amazon.ca  Book and Kindle edition
https://tinyurl.com/y374nvy4

*****
 

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Elfreida Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB,

In Transit Blog
April 30th, 2019

"It is Time"
  https://tinyurl.com/y8ngz8l5

--

Martin Marty
Chicago, IL.

Sightings
May 13th, 2019

"Exemplars, If Not Saints"  
  https://tinyurl.com/yyjghptu

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
May 22nd, 2019

"Items for the Recycling Bin"
  https://tinyurl.com/yxta78b8

--

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON

Sermons and Blog
May 10th, 2019

"Whose Voice Can Your Hear?"
  https://tinyurl.com/y533sexk

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site
May 20th, 2019

"Where Is Home?"
  https://tinyurl.com/y6hfez5u

*****

NET NOTES

100 YEARS AGO IN PICTURES
What Was Happening in 1919

The Atlantic
May 15th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y59rvn64

--

JEAN VANIER - REMEMBERING
AN ICON, NOT AN IDOL
His True Legacy Explained

Sojourners,
May 20th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y5vvwka8

--

 

"WE DON'T WANT THEM IN CANADA"
 Six in Ten Canadians Want Hand-Gun Ban

Globe TV News.
May 24th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y56xpf4z

--

AMERICAN JEWS FEEL THREATENED
AND BLAME TRUMP - They Feel
Less Secure than Two Years Ago

Religion News Service
May 22nd, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y6hb9df2

--

A MASSACRE THAT SHOULD
NEVER HAVE HAPPENED
30 Years After Tiananmen Square

La Croix International
May 24th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/yxqqhnsh

--

PAINTING AGAINST CASTE
VIOLENCE IS MY RESISTANCE
An Interview with Sri Lankan Artist and Priest,
Rev. Jebasingh Samuel

Sojourners,
May 24th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/yypdjkgb

--

15% OF CANADIANS WOULD NEVER
MARRY OUTSIDETHEIR RACE
This is a Considerable Societal Shift

Global News,
MY 2RD, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y3eurdd5

--

AWESOME WAYS MUSLIMS ARE
GIVING BACK THIS RAMADAN
A Religious Observance of Compassion

Broadview,
May 22nd, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y48r7j26

--

PAKISTANI CHRISTIAN WOMAN ARRIVES
IN CANADA AFTER EIGHT GRUELING YEARS
She Needs Quiet and Family Time Now

Catholic Register, Toronto
May 15th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y673j6n9

--

THE IMPOSSIBLE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANS
IN THE MIDDLE EAST - They are Lost
in Lands Without Respect for Religious Pluralism

The Atlantic
May 23rd, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/yxbj9jkr

*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK - May 26th, 2019

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

No matter what happens, be gentle with yourself.

- Jeanne de Chantal

--

I believe that words are easy. I believe the truth is told
in the actions we take. And I believe that if enough
ordinary people back up our desire for a better world
with action, I believe we can, in fact, accomplish
absolutely extraordinary things.

- Jody Williams

--

Worry about making a living, or not making a living, is
a snare. In actuality, it is the snare. No external power,
no actual circumstance, can trap a person. If we choose
to be our own providence, then we will go quite ingenuously
into our own trap, the wealthy as well as the poor.

If we want to entrench ourselves in our own plot of ground
that is not under God’s care, then we are living, though we
do not acknowledge it, in a prison.

- Søren Kierkegaard

--

Avoid dividing the world into “us” and “them.” If you do,
you will harden your heart. There are not two worlds,
one in God’s hands and the other one not. There are
not two species of people either, one totally under God’s
rule and the other completely outside of it.

- Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

--

How often we children have been unwilling: unwilling to
listen to each other, unwilling to hear words we do not
expect. But on that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit truly
called the people together in understanding and
forgiveness and utter, wondrous joy. The early Christians,
then, were known by how they loved one another.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if people could say that of us again?
Not an exclusive love, shutting out the rest of the world, but
love so powerful, so brilliant, so aflame that it lights the entire
planet – nay, the entire universe!

- Madeleine L’Engle

--

It is striking how the earliest Christians, like mainstream
rabbis of the period, clung to the twin doctrines of creation
and judgment: God made the world and made it good, and
one day he will come and sort it all out. Take away the
goodness of creation, and you have a judgment where
the world is thrown away as so much garbage, leaving us
sitting on a disembodied cloud playing disembodied harps.

Take away judgment, and you have this world rumbling on
with no hope except the pantheist one of endless cycles
of being and history. Put creation and judgment together,
and you get new heavens and new earth, created not ex
nihilo but ex vetere, not out of nothing but out of the old one,
the existing one.

- N. T. Wright

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - JoAnn Flett

Perhaps the gospel to a world spinning on a wheel of
greed and scarcity is to say we have a gospel of enough.
It is a narrative that speaks to God’s work in the world.

(end)

*****