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:
Computer problems have prevented me from sending you
my weekly Colleagues List since the first week of November.
I am now re-building my weekly CL site and it is a work
in progress. Hopefully, you will bear with me as the new
site is still short of pictures and archival history.
I have collected some usual items for this issue.
Please view this as the start of a new version of Colleagues
List for the future. We are in process of getting re-established
on the internet through Google, so please stay tuned and
value the Advent season with me.
Wayne
*****
SPECIAL ITEM
Advent Reflection
The congregation in Calgary that I served as founding pastor
was named Advent Lutheran. I always liked the term 'Advent'
because it speaks of new beginnings.
But as you will see from reading this issue of Colleagues List,
colleague Jim Taylor has mixed feelings about the season and
we want to support him right now with our thoughts and
prayers.
Hope is not Pollyanna. It is realistic about life and death.
It does not try to gloss over the hard parts.
But as I am sure Jim knows, there is meaning existing beyond
this present world. We want to honor Jim for sharing his
true doubts and feelings about the imminent demise of his
beloved partner. We'll avoid being "peace when there is no
peace."
Jim supported me when I was going through a tough time
and I want to be there for him now. But how?
Hopefully, a quiet presence with him on the part of many of
you will serve him in the present moment.
Consider 'blue' Advent - acknowledged in the same spirit as
'blue' Christmas - as celebrated in many of our churches during
this time of year.
*****
COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Blog
December, 2019
"Can You See It?"
https://tinyurl.com/vvvohlr
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
December 5th, 2019
"Mixed Feelings About What Hope Means"
https://tinyurl.com/vgm8kvm
--
Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB.
In Transit Blog
November 8th, 2019
"November Days of Contemplation"
https://tinyurl.com/wv5fv7t
--
Ron Rolheiser,
Sam Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
December 2nd, 2019
"Anchoring Ourselves Within God's Goodness"
https://tinyurl.com/tvjgkkf
*****
NET NOTES
READING TONI MORRISON IN ADVENT
American Writer Has Seasonal Message
The Christian Century,
December 2nd, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/telpydf
--
ELECTION CONGRATS SENT TO TRUDEAU
From the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
EFC Website,
December 2nd, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/wa7rbdz
--
IT'S TIME FOR OUR BIASES TO GROW
Decorum Amid Difference Needs Reclaiming
By Joan Chittister
National Catholic Reporter,
December 4th, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/walpqs8
--
FRANCIS WELCOMES REFUGEES
TO A NEW LIFE IN ITALY
Practicing What He Preaches
Religion News Service
December 4th, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/qtnuk6g
--
REPORT PROJECTS A BIG DECLINE
IN CANADIAN ANGLICAN MEMBERSHIP
Major Challenges Lie Ahead
Broadview,
November 4th, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/wblxon7
--
NEW SURVEY EXPLORES WHAT CANADIANS
THINK ABOUT FAITH IN POLITICS
Recent Angus Reid Poll
Broadview,
November 29th, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/thaw87f
--
THE DALAI LAMA TEACHES A LESSON
ON RE-THINKING FAITH TRADITIONS
Buddhist Leader a Help to Us All
Religion News Service,
November 27th, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/tyt4cnk
--
GUN USED TO KILL FOURTEEN WOMEN
IS STILL NOT BANNED IN CANADA
Anniversary of Horrendous Tragedy
CTV.ca Montreal
December 2nd, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/roba5kl
--
SURGE OF NEW ABUSE CLAIMS
THREATENS CHURCH LIKE NEVER BEFORE
Growing Numbers Coming Forward
Religion News Service,
December 4th, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/ukp8ge5
--
WHAT TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT
CHRISTIAN DECLINE IN THE USA
Clarifying a Recent Pew Study
Christianity Today,
November 27th, 2019
https://tinyurl.com/us3mqx9
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK - December 8th, 2019
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
Ethics and equity and the principles of justice
do not change with the calendar.
- D. H. Lawrence
--
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with
disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to
justice, peace, and brotherhood.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
--
White evangelicalism is nothing more than white
supremacy masked as Christianity.
- Bishop Talbert Swan
--
Our last five minutes on earth are running out. We can
spend those minutes in meanness, exclusivity, and self-
righteous disparagement of those who are different from
us, or we can spend them consciously embracing every
glowing soul who wanders within our reach – those who,
without our caring,would find the vibrant, exhilarating
path of life just another sad and forsaken road.
- Alice Walker
--
A human being is a part of the whole – called by us
Universe –a part limited in time and space.
We experience our thoughts and feelings as something
separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of
our consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection
for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free
ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty
- Albert Einstein .
--
If only we try to live sincerely, it will go well with us,
even though we are certain to experience real sorrow,
and great disappointments, and will also probably commit
great faults and do wrong things. But it certainly is true
that it is better to be high-spirited – even though one
makes more mistakes –than to be narrow-minded and
all too prudent. It is good to love many things, for therein
lies the true strength; and whosoever loves much performs
much, and can accomplish much; and what is done in love,
is well done.
- Vincent van Gogh
--
We are all children of God, and his servants!…Do you think
that he has no servants besides you, and that if you had
devoted yourself to his service with your whole strength
you could have done all that he needs – all that is needful
for the establishment of his kingdom?
You say you would do twice, ten times, a hundred times,
more than you did. But if you did ten thousand times ten
thousand more than all people have done, what would that
have been in the work of God? A mere nothing! God’s work,
like himself, is infinite. God’s work is you. Come to him, and
be not a laborer but a child, and you will become a partner
of the infinite God and of his world.
- Leo Tolstoy
*****
CLOSING THOUGHT- - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath
the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
(end)
*****
Thanks for the reminder: it has been passed on to our church in our Sunday bulletin, as a request to pray for those who are not at peace with the season of Christmas, but see at as a time to be endured.
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