Colleagues List, February 23rd, 2020

Vol XV. No. 29

Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2019                                                                                              http://colleagueslist.blogspot.ca/ http://colleagueslistii.blogspot.com/

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:

Last week I introduced a mentor of mine, whose
influence has been life-long.

"How Canon Hugh Puxley Motivated My Life"
  https://tinyurl.com/rkqwqsf

This column received many Anglican Journal 
column hits.

Steve Newroth of Gravenhurst, Ontario was one
who responded at length to my CL mailing, and
I have asked him to combine a series of emails
into one clarifying essay, my Special Item, below.

Remember that Steve reflects on happenings in
his life of more than fifty years ago. We became 
friends, first in Toronto and then in Geneva during
the 1960's. Other CL readers may remember also.

You may have to use a bit of reader-imagination
to review this since it is not your experience. But
I hope you will find it meaningful.

Please enjoy the other items this week as well!

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM/COLLEAGUE COMMENT

Steve Newroth
Gravenhurst, ON.

February 17th, 2020

Dear Wayne:
  
Your article on Canon H. L. (Jim) Puxley was deeply 
welcomed by me and I applaud your thoughtfulness 
in bringing his role to people’s attention after so many 
years. He was truly a remarkable man, an informed 
internationalist and his commitment to ecumenism
should be seen in that context.  His activities went 
beyond inter-church relations and included inter-
faith interests as well.  

He once described to me how touched he was by 
the image of the Cross growing out of the Lotus Leaf.

As two of his students, I think we both share a deep 
gratitude for his enthusiastic insights shared with us 
in those heady days of 1960’s ecumenism, "Making 
All Things New".  His lectures on the scriptural 
evidence for ecumenism probably inspired our 
decisions to study at the Ecumenical Institute, in 
Bossey, Switzerland.

I remember so well the days after Pope John 23rd 
opened the doors and windows of the Catholic 
seminaries!  The Basilians and Jesuits came flooding 
to Trinity (Anglican, Toronto) to borrow new music 
but stayed to share a few beers in our Common Room.  
There was a spirited sense of camaraderie in those 
meetings, a foretaste of what might have been.  

I formed a deep friendship with Ferg Theil, one of the 
Jesuits and he acted as my best man at our marriage.

I have known "Jim" since I was a teenager, though 
I would never called him that at the time!  He was a 
man of great dignity with very proper English manners 
but nothing disguised his affable nature and sense of 
humour.  St. James, Sharon, was my home parish and 
it was his first incumbency.  Can you imagine the 
surprise of a small farm-based parish getting a man 
and a pastor of his calibre!  

He prepared me and several friends for confirmation 
but, during that process, we kept trying to get him 
off topic by pestering him with queries about India.  
After all, he shot a tiger from the back of an elephant 
and knew Bill Corbett, the world renowned big game 
hunter famous for ridding India of so many man-
eating tigers.
 
During WWII, his fluency in Urdu served him well 
as a Colonel in the Intelligence Corps of the Indian 
Army.  He also had a very beautiful daughter, who 
I considered my first girlfriend.  

Our families stayed in touch for many years and when 
I considered the priesthood, he was the first person 
I called for advice. At the time, he was the Head of 
King’s College in Halifax and he immediately invited
me down for the weekend.  After a couple of long 
chats during walks along the Atlantic coast, I felt 
secure in my decision and that fall when I arrived at 
Trinity College there was not only a warm welcome 
but a generous bursary as well.  In second year, he 
married Ann and me; a job well done!

He was very modest about his athletic achievements.  
He had rowed for Oxford in the days when, if your 
scull won the race, you got to keep your oar.  He had 
two of them crossed on the wall in his rectory.

You are perfectly right, those Canadian Theological 
Student Conferences were very formative, they were 
euphoric!  Students from all those denominations!  
While I was experiencing them, I was so naive.  

I thought it would be a breeze to see much more
and significant ecumenical activity in our lifetime.  Alas!
 
Do you remember the visit of Patriarch Athenagoras 
at Bossey who advised us that his Eastern church had
been separated from Rome for 900 years.  

When we asked him how long it would take for 
reconciliation and reunification, he replied --
"probably 900 years"!
 
Pax
Steve

*****

COLLEAGUE COMMUNICATIONS

John Stackhouse Jr.
Moncton, NB

Context,
February 20th, 2020

"First Nations and Canada's Priorities"
  https://tinyurl.com/toy24wz

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log,
February 17th, 2020

"Billionaires Battling for the Presidency"
  https://tinyurl.com/s57yo94

--

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.

Sermons and Blog,
February 14th, 2020

"Imagine a World..."
  https://tinyurl.com/tug58ly

--

Ron Rolheiser
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site,
February 17th, 2020

"Speaking With Authority"
  https://tinyurl.com/u8uqwks

--

Philip Yancey,
Colorado

Philipyancey.com
February 17th, 2020

"What Makes Shakespeare Great?" (part one)
  https://tinyurl.com/yx62kyfy

*****

NET NOTES - February 23rd, 2020

LENT'S COUNTER-CULTURAL CALL
Ancient Rite Still  Much Needed.

Religion News Service,
February 21st, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/uprsdns

--

HOW HINDU NATIONALISM
IS TEARING INDIA APART
Modi is Destroying Democracy

The Guardian, UK
February 20th, 2020

https://tinyurl.com/vyfgz9k

--

AHMADI MUSLIMS MARK
100 YEARS IN THE USA
India/Pakistani Islamic Group
Prospers In Canada as Well

Religion News Service,
February 14th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/uh3n7ge

--

AT THE BORDER - "LAW AND ORDER"
LOOKS A LOT LIKE CHAOS
Trump's Policies Backfire

The Christian Century,
February 11th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/v6bqdcb

--

ONE YEAR AFTER ABUSE CONFERENCE
SURVIVORS RATE FRANCIS WITH "D-MINUS"
They Say They have Been Betrayed

Religion News Service
February 21st, 2020

https://tinyurl.com/tnpxjom

--

ACTIVISTS KILLED IN MEXICAN STATE
WHERE MONARCH BUTTERFLIES MIGRATE
Logging Threatens Fragile Natural Balance

Earth Beat,
February 18th, 2020

https://tinyurl.com/tjat52g

--

REV. GEORGE C. COYNE, VATICAN
ASTRONOMER AND GALILEO DEFENDER, DIES
He Helped the Vatican With Contemprary Science

New York Times,
February 14th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/rt8k5un

--

INDIGENOUS AUTHORS CELEBRATE AS
READERSHIP SKYROCKETS ACROSS CANADA
A Major Transformation in the Past Generation

CBC.ca
February 15th, 2020
https://tinyurl.com/u4vok3u

--

AMISH FARMERS HAVE "COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP"
WITH NATURE, ARE SKEPTICAL OF CLIMATE CHANGE
They Live Close to the Soil But have Their Own Views of It

Religion News Service,
February 14th,2020
https://tinyurl.com/rfq762r

*****

April 4th, 1968

Eerie Last Known Photo That Reveals A Darker Side Of History

Martin Luther King Jr. stands outside his motel unaware that he's a target

source: reddit

During Martin Luther King Jr.’s final hours he was the subject multiple death threats, something that he’d unfortunately grown used to throughout his time working to desegregate the south. It wasn’t the threats that got him down, according to the people who knew King it was the violence that broke out as he tried to lead peaceful protests. According to author Joseph Rosenbloom: He was enormously distressed and despairing. Some of his aides said that they've never seen him more depressed than he was at that time. He even thought for a moment that he should scrap the Poor People's Campaign altogether because it was so harmful to his credibility.

That last day he gave a speech in Memphis that’s known as "I've Been To The Mountaintop,” where King focuses on his own mortality and notes that he’d like to live a long life, but that he doesn’t concern himself with those thoughts. A day later as King stood not he balcony of his motel preparing to go to dinner he was shot and killed.

*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK 

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

When we gauge a leader’s spiritual ability and character,
their likeness to Jesus is the ultimate litmus test.

- Stephen Mattson

--

There is always something to do. There are hungry
people to feed, naked people to clothe, sick people
to comfort and make well. And while I don’t expect
you to save the world I do think it’s not asking too
much for you to love those with whom you sleep,
share the happiness of those whom you call friend,
engage those among you who are visionary and
remove from your life those who offer you depression,
despair and disrespect.

- Nikki Giovanni

--

Why is it that we are so busy with the future? ...Is there
not a criminal interference with him to whom it belongs,
in our feverish, anxious attempts to dispose of it, and in
filling it up with shadows of good and evil shaped by our
own wild imaginations? To do God’s will as fast as it is
made known to us, to inquire hourly – I had almost said
each moment – what he requires of us, and to leave
ourselves, our friends, and every interest at his control,
with a cheerful trust that the path which he marks out
leads to our perfection and to himself, this is at once
our duty and happiness; and why will we not walk in
the plain, simple way?

- William Ellery Channing

---

Silence is the language of faith. Action – be it church
or charity, politics or poetry – is the translation. As with
any translation, action is a mere echo of its original,
inevitably faded and distorted, especially as it moves
farther from its source. There the comparison ends,
though, for while it is true that action degrades that
original silence, and your moments of meditative
communion with God can seem a world away from
the chaotic human encounters to which those moments
 compel you, it is also true that without these constant
translations into action, that original, sustaining silence
begins to be less powerful, and then less accessible,
and then finally impossible.

- Christian Wiman

--

We all must decide in our own consciences what side
we will take. God our Lord is offering us marvelous fruits
if we let him sow in us that sprout which will produce
prolific branches, the fruits of eternal life.

This is God’s plan, and that’s why the church is the
vineyard where God’s kingdom will always be in crisis.
Blessed are those who feel the crisis deeply and resolve
it by committing themselves to our Lord. I am very glad
that precisely in this hour of crisis many who were asleep
have woken up and are at least asking where the truth is
to be found. Look for it! Saint Paul shows us the way: it is
found with prayer, reflection, and esteem for what is good.
These are wonderful criteria. Wherever there is something
noble, something good, something just, there we find God.

- Oscar Romero

***

CLOSING THOUGHT - Dorothy Height

If you worry about who is going to get credit,
you don't get much work done.


(end)

*****

For those interested:

Current ACTS Ministry Activities at St. David's -

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

Sunday, March 15th, 2019
11:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Theme: "The Way of St. Francis"

Christ-Centered Ecological Theology

Led by Spiritual Director Susan Campbell

Cost: $30.
(includes registration, lunch and refreshments)

Restful reflections and nature walks, weather permitting...

http://www.mountstfrancis.ca/

*****

ST. DAVID'S ACTS  WINTER MONDAY NIGHT BOOK STUDY

A Ten Week Series January 13th - March 23rd, 2020

(Family Weekend Session, February 17th, exempted)
Monday Evenings, TM Room 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

"FUTURE FAITH - Ten Challenges Reshaping 

                              Christianity in the 21st Century"

Author: Wesley Granberg-Michaelson

Registration/Hospitality and Book: $60.00.
Book only: $25.00

37 copies of the book were made available for sale.

All are now sold. 

Total on-site registrations: 32

(plus 3 on-line participants). Grand Total: 35 to date.

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

Study Notes - https://tinyurl.com/qpx7l8n

*****

ST. DAVID'S ACTS THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY

Our theme this winter: 

"Jesus' Parables and Miracles" 

  (a total of 10 examples)

As recorded in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark 
and Luke and the Gospel of John

Ten Sessions - January 23rd-March 26th, 2020

Gathering at 9:30 AM in the St. David's TM Room

and meeting 10:00 - 11:00 AM. 

--

Summary Session: Thursday, April 2nd. 10AM - 4PM 

Mount St. Francis Retreat Centre, Cochrane.

$30.00 charge, includes lunch and refreshments.

Theme of the Day: "Assessing Jesus' Parables and Miracles"

Study resource -

"The DK Complete Bible Handbook"
  Edited by John Bowker

http://tinyurl.com/odxlv7q 

*****