Vol XVI. No. 36
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 at - waholst@telus.net
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Dear Friends:
My Special Item this week offers brief thoughts - pro and con - about what is currently the ubiquitous "Zoom" of our cyber-world.
Please enjoy the other items I share to help us keep current with our religion and culture discoveries.
Blessings!
Wayne
PLEASE NOTE - If a link, below seems to be dead, cut and paste it into the address bar at the top of your web page and it should work.
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SPECIAL ITEM
ZOOM - PRO AND CON
I have now had one year of experience with Zoom-supported e-groups; so I feel I have some learning to refer to and to pass on to others.
Working With a Variety of Activity Groups
My experience involves teaching, discussion and planning. There are certainly many people with more experience than I, but I do believe that I have some substance to refer to on the subject.
My teaching to date has involved more than forty sessions - church book and bible studies - as well as local social justice and international community-building. I have been grateful for the available technical support to assist me, because that is not my forte. Some of my classes have been team-taught as well. Many thanks to my collaborators.
I have some, but not a vast amount of experience, with Zoom. Still, I have enough to be comfortable with it.
A Life-Saver
Because I consider myself an optimist, I would say that Zoom has been a kind of life-saver for me. I could not have done without it, so those who tend to be negative about Zoom do not convince me. Basically, I would say that my life this past year would be much the poorer without it.
It certainly paid to have come to know beforehand many of the people I later came to relate to via Zoom. That means I had face-to-face encounters before the virus set in; forcing us to assume virtual encounters.
It is possible to get to know quite a bit about people you meet on Zoom before real human reconnection is again possible. I already knew much about many of my students and colleagues before Zoom and could build on that. That has been a plus for me.
Stepping Stone to a Return to Normal
Once we reconnect personally, we will all be further ahead relationship-wise than would be the case had our real-life relationship not been put on hold. This is no small thing and I want to make that an important point.
Starting "cold" on Zoom with people is something else. I would agree that Zoom can be a rather modest substitute for real encounters and direct one-on-one relationships.
Toward a New Future
Learning from Zoom will no doubt reshape the way we all communicate in the future. Those that have avoided working with Zoom may be the poorer for it. But I can only suspect that. People can make up for deficiencies over time.
Looking to the future, most of us will anticipate the opportunity for face-to-face encounters once more. I firmly believe that Zoom influences both our present and our future, and in many ways we do not fully realize that as yet.
I enjoy working with Zoom and look forward to meeting people again personally on the other side of "lockdown!!"
Wayne
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COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Isabel Gibson
Ottawa, ON.
Personal Mail,
April 11th, 2021
"Prince Philip - A Good Run"
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
April 12th, 2021
"Taking Tension Out of the Community"
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan. BC
Personal Web Log,
April 11th, 2021
"The Trauma of Living in Bubbles"
--
Philip Yancey,
Colorado, USA
philipyancey.com
April 14th, 2021
"My Untold Story"
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NET NOTES
RELIGION AND MAGIC
Then and Now
Religion News Service,
April 14th, 2021
--
PHILIP DEEPLY INTERESTED IN GOD
Former Chaplain to the Queen Explains
Catholic Register, Toronto
April 12th, 2021
--
RELIGIOUS LEADERS RECALL
PHILIP'S SPIRITUAL CURIOSITY
Associated Press,
April 11th, 2021
--
LUTHERANS REMEMBER CARDINAL CASSIDY
He Helped to Formulate the Justification Agreement
Signed by Lutherans and Catholics in 1999
LWF News,
April 14th, 2021
--
THE SPLINTERING OF THE
AMERICAN EVANGELICAL SOUL
Can It Come Back Together Again?
Christianity Today,
April 16th, 2021
--
THANK YOU HOWARD THURMAN
American Spiritual Master Dead Forty Years
Religion News Service,
April 9th, 2021
--
JAILED CANADIAN PASTOR AND LAWBREAKER
Got Some of His Training in CaliforniaReligion News Service,
April 15th, 2021
--
FILIPINO CATHOLICS MARK
FIRST-EVER BAPTISM
Five Hundred Years
of Christianity in the Philippines
UCA News
April 16th, 2021
--
NEW BOOK ON DESMOND TUTU
AND HIS CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM
It Helped Unite a Nation
Religion News Service,
April 14th, 2021
--
TUTU'S SPIRITUALITY LINKED
CHRISTIAN MYSTICISM WITH
AFRICAN SPIRITUALITY
Ubuntu Personhood Philosophy
Incorporated with a Mystical Image
of God's Diversity in Unity
Religion News Service,
April 14th, 2021
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhoff online:
It doesn't matter how strong your opinions are. If you don't use your power for positive change, you are, indeed, part of the problem.
- Coretta Scott King
--
There will never be beings unloved by God, since God is absolute love.
- Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dare We Hope (1988)
- Hans Urs von Balthasar, Dare We Hope (1988)
--
We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
to participate in the process of change.
Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
can transform the world.
- Howard Zinn
--
The mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit,
instigate brutal life and death struggles,
destroy a society's tolerance and humanity,
and block a nation's progress tp freedom and democracy.
- Liu Xiabo
--
Those who build walls are their own prisoners.
I'm going to go fulfill my proper function in the
social organism. I'm going to go unbuild walls.
- Ursula K. Le Guin
--
In honesty you have to admit to a wise man that prayer is not for the wise, not for the prudent, not for the sophisticated. Instead it is for those who recognize that in face of their deepest needs, all their wisdom is quite helpless. It is for those who are willing to persist in doing something that is both childish and crucial.
- Frederick Buechner
*****
CLOSING THOUGHT - Randy Pausch
Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most
powerful things humans can do for each other.
(end)
*****
For those interested -
ACTS programs just ending at St. David's United, Calgary:
TWO ACTS MINISTRY STUDIES BEGAN IN LATE JANUARY!
This Winter, a Total of 60 Persons have met on Zoom in Two Weekly Classes
Monday Night Study 7:00PM to 8:30PM (90 minutes)
Ten Online classes ran from January 25th to March 29th.
Our Book was- "Braving the Wilderness" by Brene Brown
This Study was completed March 29th
You can still buy the book from Amazon.ca or Indigo
It will be your only cost for the series.
Thursday Morning Bible Study 10:00AM to 11:00AM (60 min.)
We have been studying the Gospel of John
Classes ended April 8th, 2021
Invite new friends to join us via Zoom.
If you have questions, contact Wayne at waholst@telus.net
(end)
- Howard Zinn
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