Colleagues List, September 15th, 2019

Vol XV. No. 10

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 the days before blogging and other social media activity
had become common, it was considered indiscrete to write
about oneself. Columns were written in the third person
and autobiographies were reserved for only those individuals
who "had something to say worth the attention of others."

That day is past. Today, everyone seems to have personal
information the world seems to need!

Colleagues List tries to balance the personal with the
social, the academic and the scientific. So in that spirit,
I will attempt to answer the question - "what did you do
for your summer holidays?" - in a way that will hopefully
keep you, my readers, sufficiently interested for at least
a few minutes.

All the other material in this issue is not about me.
But hopefully much of it will help you to think about
yourself and your personal interests for a while.

After two CL issues on more personal things I hope
to return to other matters next week.

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

WHAT I DID FOR MY SUMMER HOLIDAYS
A Personal Reflection as Autumn Begins

I have kept a spiritual journal. making daily contributions
for forty years. It is a combination diary plus a place
to reflect upon and integrate developments and insights.

I have filled about 114 notebooks averaging 200 pages -
so that means about 22,800 pages and counting. Much
of the material I enter here is of interest only to myself
and will hopefully be destroyed when I am no longer
around to defend myself.

I started contributing to my most recent journal June 23rd,
or about one month after Marlene and I had returned from
our Spiritual Travelers' tour of East Europe and Russia.

Perhaps you are interested in some of what we have lived.
To help me organize my thoughts about activity since May
I will create three general headings - Family and Friends;
Cultural Activity; and Other Matters.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Marlene and I invest a lot in our family so it is always
special when most of them can be together - at least
for a few days. This summer we were happy to host
our people who currently live in the Middle-Eastern
country of Oman, from Northern Alberta, and from the
city of Calgary itself.

Having family together is always a big job as well as a
joy for seniors like us. It really is fulfilling to watch,
listen to and converse with the next generation and
their parents. Marlene invests the most in this activity,
but I try to support and complement her as best I can.

I am particularly interested in what our grandchildren
are learning in school, even though they now attend in
places that circle the globe. Our offspring are helping
to make this world a smaller place and a more aware
and caring community. I say this to challenge much of
what the generation "in charge" right now is doing.

Many of our contemporaries have real concerns about
the world we are gradually handing over to our children
and grand-children, but I am confident this planet will
endure and hopefully our kids will do a better job of
protecting it than we have. As you know, there is a good
deal more behind what I have just written.

We are part of a senior generation of family and friends
that continues to keep connected in various ways. I am
particularly appreciative of the women in our social
circles who work hard to overcome relational problems
and keep us more or less on the same page.

CULTURAL ACTIVITY

Of course, there are summer highlights like Rosebud
Theatre (located in a small town south-west of Drumheller,
Alberta) where, during the past three months, we were
able to attend a dinner theatre and a chamber music event.
The existence of  Rosebud Theatre is a wonderful example
of what people outside the major cultural hubs of our
nation are able to accomplish.

Another annual summer favourite for us is the Banff Summer
Festival, which hosts events of international significance.
This year we enjoyed an opera, a faculty string quartet
learning event and the final program of the amazing triennial
Banff International String Quartet Competition. This last
activity is truly one that puts Canada on the cultural map.

Whether we attend cultural activities of international, regional,
or local significance, we are impressed with the gifts and
spirit of a new generation of artists. We can indeed be proud
of our own young artists and those who come here from around
the world to learn and to perform.

We listen to good music at home, read widely (many books,
magazines and local newspapers, including the Globe and
Mail and the New York Times) and this helps to keep us
abreast of current affairs and thought.

OTHER MATTERS

We attended several memorial services - an important reminder
that life is a gift; and we have many good mentors who have
preceded us. We also visited a vital 100 year old family member
who was proud of the letter she received on the occasion from
Queen Elizabeth (soon to be a centenarian herself.)

An almost weekly summer activity for us is the Bearspaw
Farmers' Market. Similar markets exist across the length
and breadth of our nation (We have visited a number of them.)
This is local for us, and special.

Visits to various physicians (including specialists) help to
keep Marlene and I in quite good health. I say this now as a
decade-long cancer survivor; and Marlene continues to
avoid some of the illnesses that older family members faced.

We average about one movie a week, usually outside of the
home in a cinema. It helps to keep us informed and active.

Both of us enjoy our yard and gardens. We invest a lot in both
of these from April to November and are grateful we can do so.
(In the winter, we shovel our own snow and sometimes our
neighbours' sidewalks as well.)

We walk daily. I have kept track of my K-accumulations for
the last twelve years and can now claim to have traveled the
equivalent of the distance from Victoria BC to Sept Iles, QC.
(only three more years at 1.5 ks a day to reach St. Johns NL).

Diet, exercise and proper meds. Marlene and I police each other.
Both of us are nearing the age when one or more of our parents
passed way.

---

All this having been said, we know that we could soon be called
to a better place. Nevertheless, the place we are blessed to inhabit
now is really quite good, and we hope to remain here for a while.

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Doug Koop,
Winnipeg, MB

Faith Today,
August 29th, 2019

“Forgetting Can Be Part of Abundant Life”
  https://tinyurl.com/yxbqfzvw

--

Martin Marty,
Chicago, IL

Sightings,
September 9th, 2019

“Crisis and Endurance”
  https://tinyurl.com/yyjf3qzj

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Web Log,
September11th, 2019

“Actions that Change the World”
  https://tinyurl.com/yyeyvd9w

--

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.

Sermons and Blog,
September 7th, 2019

“Competing Demands”
  https://tinyurl.com/yx9uqd3k

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX.

Personal Web Site
September 9th, 2019

“The Scent of Humility”
  https://tinyurl.com/y4g8a27m

*****

NET NOTES - Sept. 15th

UNSUNG HERO OF 9/11 RECOVERY
Muslim Engineer Builds Chapel at Crash-Site

Washington Post,
September 11th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y34e9qjq

--

CANTERBURY SAYS SORRY AT AMRITSAR
Welby Contrite for Evil Act of Colonial Occupation

The Guardian,
September 10th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y4t3vmhr

--

RELIGION IN THE AGE OF TRUMP
A Moral Cover for Despicable Behaviour

Religion News Service,
September 12th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y3kgclch

--

WHAT 1619 MEANS FOR CHRISTIAN HISTORY
How Catholics and Reformers Interpreted Slave Trade

Christianity Today,
September 5th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y2fw9fvt

--

NEW ONCE GAY MOVEMENT
IS MAKING A COMEBACK
In Some Circles at Least

Religion News Service
September 12th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y5nduqs8

--

PUBLIC INDIGENOUS
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
How Effective Are They
Changing Canadian Mindsets

Angus Reid Institute,
September 10th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y64cejom

--

WHY ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS
SEE TRIUMPH IN THE CROSS
And Not Just Suffering

Christian Century,
September 4th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y6r7g3jn

--

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS EXPERIENCE
PLUMMETING BAPTISM NUMBERS
Attempt to Stem Negative Trends

Religion News Service,
September 6th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/yyga92kb

--

DEAD SEA SCROLL ARGUMENT
RAISES NEW SCHOLARSHIP QUESTIONS
Nature of the Parchment Debated

The Guardian,
September 9th, 2019

https://tinyurl.com/y6j4uxbv)

*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

If you deny people their own voice, you'll have no idea
of who they were.

- Alice Walker

-- 

True religion is a revolutionary force: it is an inveterate
enemy of oppression, privilege, and injustice.
 
- Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

--

Humanitarian response, sustainable development, and
sustaining peace are three sides of the same triangle.

- Antonio Guterres

--

We need to grieve the ones we have loved and lost in
this lifetime — not to sustain our connection to suffering,
but to sustain our connection to love.

- J.W

--

When an individual is protesting society's refusal to
acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very
act of protest confers dignity on him.

- Bayard Rustin

--

A scientist had a bird in his hand. He saw that it had
life and, wanting to find out in what part of the bird’s
body its life lay, he began dissecting the bird. The result
was that the very life he was in search of disappeared.
Those who try to understand the mysteries of the inner
life intellectually will meet with similar failure. The life
they are looking for will vanish in the analysis. -

Sadhu Sundar Singh

--

I believe it to be a great mistake to present Christianity
as something charming and popular with no offense in it.…
We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus meek and
mild was so stiff in his opinions and so inflammatory in
his language that he was thrown out of church, stoned,
hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a
firebrand and a public danger. Whatever his peace was,
it was not the peace of an amiable indifference.

- Dorothy Sayers

--

God surrounds us from all sides. He is our Lord who
is before, above, and after, and thence also with us in
history: the locus of our existence. Despite humanity’s
insignificance, God is with us as our Creator who
intended and made humankind to be very good.

Despite our sin, God is with us, the One who was in
Jesus Christ reconciling the world, drawing us unto
himself in merciful judgment. Humanity’s evil past is
not merely crossed out because of its irrelevancy.
Rather, it is in the good care of God.

- Karl Barth
 
*****

MOMENT IN TIME

The Globe and Mail,
September 13th, 2019

THE BATTLE OF THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM
September 13th, 1759

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the
Battle of Quebec, was a decisive battle in the Seven Years’
War – which was fought in Europe, India and North America –
and in Canada’s creation. While France focused on the fight
in Europe, Britain attacked French colonies overseas.

James Wolfe was appointed general of the British assault
against the fortress city of Quebec. After a series of failed
attempts to take the city, Wolfe and 4,500 soldiers travelled
up the St. Lawrence River under the cover of night to land on
a plot owned by a farmer named Abraham Martin, for whom
the battle is named. The British army spanned the plain with
a formation that was about one kilometre long and two flanks
deep. The French army, led by general Louis‑Joseph de
Montcalm, was the same size as its opponent, but was largely
made up of militia and Indigenous warriors. Both generals died
in the hour-long battle that saw the British win the city.

The French never regained the fortress and, a year later,
Montreal surrendered to the British. With the 1763 Treaty
of Paris, Britain had officially won New France.

- Stefanie Marotta

(end)

*****

For Those Interested -

ACTS Ministry - some related programs at St. David's

ST. DAVID'S ACTS  AUTUMN MONDAY NIGHT BOOK STUDY

A Ten Week Series September 16th - November 25th, 2019
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"HOLY ENVY" Finding God in the Faith of Others

Author: Barbara Brown Taylor
Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $25.00

35 copies of the book were made available for sale
Sundays at St. David's until the program begins.
These books have sold out, but more can be secured.

Book Description - https://tinyurl.com/y37g93rg

--

Some stats:
Autumn and Winter Series (2018-19) -
Total class registrations: 87
Total books sold: 102
Average weekly winter class attendance: 34

***

ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY

Our theme this autumn: TBA
We meet to select the biblical book(s)
to be studied on Thursday, September 19th, 2019

Autumn theme will be announced at that time
Ten Study Sessions - Thursday mornings,
 September 26th-November 28th, 2019

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

Study resource:

"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
  Edited by John Bowker

http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q

*****

MCDOUGAL STONEY MISSION SOCIETY
AUTUMN SERVICE September 22nd, 2019

On the site of the Morley mission church,
Soon to be re-built after a destructive fire.
Planned and co-led by representatives of the
McDougall family, friends, and the Stoney First Nation.

Sunday, September 22nd, 2:00PM

"Celebrating Treaty Seven in Southern Alberta"

Followed by hospitality at the Morley United Church.

(end)

*****