Friday, July 30, 2021

Colleagues List, August 1st, 2021

Vol XVII. No. 3

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

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 

****

Dear Friends:

I continue to be less productive during these mid-summer months, but hope you find what I have provided this week to be helpful.

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.

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

VIRUS FATIGUE?

During these lazy and hazy summer weeks a bombshell has hit in the province of Alberta. Long-established Covid-19 rules have been abruptly suspended - much to the surprize and chagrin of many in the province and beyond.

It is as though all the hard work to establish and discipline ourselves in light of the virus, has - at this late stage in the fight - being dramatically disbanded.

I think it is too early to jump to conclusions about Chief Medical Officer of Health Deena Henshaw. She has done an admirable job of designing healthy and balanced strategies for such a long time. People like me are inclined to hold back on criticism of her and to blame the premier, Jason Kenney. His record makes him a ready target, but Henshaw supports him.

At this point I am inclined to blame virus fatigue. Yet the decision to lift the rules while the virus is still alive among us is quite unnerving.

It is time for serious assessment, helped by this July 29th Globe and Mail article (see link). 

People will be following developments in Alberta closely.


"Alberta's plan to lift Covid-19 rules has many asking how to protect against the virus." (Globe and Mail, July 29th, 2021)

To read this article, cut and paste the title into your address bar, click and scroll down a few articles to find it.

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Ryan Anderson,
Calgary, AB.

"I Am a Pastor -
  In the Face of Genocide,
  My Church is Threatened"

Calgary Alliance for the Common Good
July 26th, 2021


--

Isabel Gibson,
Ottawa, ON.

Traditional Iconoclast,
July 18th, 2021

"Awatto and Environments"

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log,
July 22nd, 2021

"Learning to Live With Smoke"

--

Philip Yancey,
Colorado

Philipyancey.com
July 19th, 2021

"Ocean Summer"

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Website
July 26th, 2021

"Can We Prove that God Exists?"

*****

NET NOTES

THE SORROW OF RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS
American Nun Writes of the Tragedy

Catholic Register, Toronto,
July 14th, 2021


--

GROWING UP BLACK 
IN CONFEDERATE CHARLOTTESVILLE
Being Black in the American South

Broadview
July 23rd, 2021


--

PUTTING ASIDE PANDEMIC MISTRUST
Covid Crisis Must Not Crowd Out Mercy

Convivium,
July 13th, 2021


--

BRITISH BOROUGH APOLOGIZES
TO FRANKLIN GRAHAM
It had Removed His Crusade Bus Ads

Religion News Service,
July 16th, 2021


--

DIFFRENT CULTURES
DEFINE HAPPINESS DIFFERENTLY
We Live One of Four Groups

The Atlantic,
July 15th, 2021


--

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION VERSUS
CULTURAL APPRECIATION
Knowing the Difference

Religion News Service,
July 21st, 2021


--

100 REASONS WHY I 
DIDN'T GO FOR A Ph.D.

The Revealer,
July 22nd, 2021


--

OLD AGE AS A GIFT
Celebrating Grandparents and the Elderly
Francis Speaks of the Value of the Aged

National Catholic Reporter,
July 23rd, 2021


--

THE DANGERS OF PROVIDING PASTORAL CARE
Woundedness is the Predictable Price We Pay

A Conversation Between Theologians 
Wm. Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas

The Christian Century.
July 27th, 2021


--

OLYMPICS MAY BE SIGN OF HOPE DURING PANDEMIC
Pope Francis is Positive About the Summer Games

Catholic Register, Toronto
July 26th, 2021


*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

Time is how you spend your love.

- Nick Laird

-

Abuse is never divinely sanctioned.

- Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

-

We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.

- Bayard Rustin

-

There are a thousand reasons to live this life, every one of them is sufficient.

- Marilynne Robinson

-

True contemplation entails detachment from one of our most basic needs: the need to know, to reason, to have concepts and images.

- Robert E. Kennedy

-

When you are poor every stage has to be thought through. Wealth is the opposite. With wealth you get to be thoughtless.

- Zadie Smith

-

So much has been taken, but not everything. What this moment has taught us is that we have the ability to radically reimagine and reshape the world.

- Marc Lamont Hill

-

Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this because it is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.

- Ann Patchett

-

To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.

= Rainer Maria Rilke

-

God has identified himself with the hungry, the sick, the naked, the homeless; hunger, not only for bread, but for love, for care, to be somebody to someone; nakedness, not of clothing only, but nakedness of that compassion that very few people give to the unknown; homelessness, not only just from a shelter made of stone, but that homelessness that comes from having no one to call your own.

- Mother Teresa

-

Soon we shall die and all memory of those we have known will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.


- Thornton Wilder

--

The prophet Joel once promised: “Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men will have visions” (3:1). The future of the world depends on this covenant between young and old. Who, if not the young, can take the dreams of the elderly and make them come true? Yet for this to happen, it is necessary that we continue to dream. Our dreams of justice, of peace, of solidarity, can make it possible for our young people to have new visions; in this way, together, we can build the future.

- Pope Francis


*****

CLOSING THOUGHT -  Edwidge Danticat

In Haiti, we have a concept called konbit: a gathering with a shared goal. Members of a community come together to accomplish something that benefits the entire community, or a single person in need. Konbits initially began in agriculture. “Today I work your field, tomorrow you work mine,” the Haitian novelist Jacques Roumain wrote of konbits. . . . How do we define community in a time of crisis, which is in many ways what community is for? We don’t need our neighbors as much when we are healthy and wealthy and can pay for all the assistance we require.

(end)

*****
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Saturday, July 17, 2021

Colleagues List, July 18th, 2021

Vol XVII. No. 2

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

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 

*****

Dear Friends:

Mid-July is a low-time in terms of productivity on Colleagues List. Still, I have collected some good material for your summer-reflection.

Please enjoy what follows. May we all be renewed from our rest-time.

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.

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

A SHORT REFLECTION ON NEW BEGINNINGS

For a year and a half we in Canada have been living under the threat of the Coved-19 virus. Most of us have been disciplined and dutiful in our attempts to stand against this evil force and with those whose medical advice has been providing guidance for restricted behaviour.

Now, at long last, life seems to be opening up again. For Calgarians, no event has been more indicative of these new beginnings than hosting the world-famous Stampede once more.

It is not too soon to express gratitude to those who have provided medical support on local, provincial, national and international levels.

One good way to do this is to continue following the scientific advice with which we have been provided these last eighteen months. We are not out of the woods yet, but we seem to be inching toward freedom once more.

I am particularly grateful that we seem to have largely ignored the advice offered by religious radicals in our society. Under the guise of "following God rather than humans" a few have misled the gullible. But their numbers have been few and only a handful of their churches have been fenced-in. Only a small number of their pastoral leaders have been sent to jail, all-the-while-protesting that we live in a country run by communists and Nazis. 

Religious Canadian behaviour, on the whole, has been respectful of responsible scientific advice and never once did I feel my faith principles were compromised by medical advisors.

Some months of transition remain ahead of us, and unforeseen problems may still lie ahead. But I don't think it too early to express pride in our nation and Canadian people of the Spirit.

I look forward to good things and to putting into practise lessons we have learned during these past difficult months.

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site
July 7th, 2021

"Why Stay in the Church?"

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log,
July 4th, 2021

"The Gift of Life for Someone Unknown"

--

Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB.

In Transit Blog
July 7th, 2021

"Dreams"

*****

NET NOTES

WE MUST LISTEN
We Have Not Really Listened

Catholic Register, Toronto
July 2nd, 2021


--

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS BURIAL SITES 
AND OUR GOSPEL CALL AS CHURCH
A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Anna 
of the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia

Anglican Church of Canada
July 7th, 2021


--

EVOLVING RIGHTS OF CHILDREN
IN CANADA AND BEYOND
Christians are Leading the Charge

Christian Week,
July 9th, 2021


--

WHEN CHURCHES ARE
REMINDERS OF OPPRESSION
Learning from Canadian Tragedy

Broadview,
July 9th, 2021


--

WHEN RETREIVING RESIDENTIAL 
SCHOOL RECORDS CAN BE DIFFICULT
The Problem is Not Just Resistance

CBC.ca
June 20th, 2021


--

INDIA CELEBRATES ST. THOMAS --
SAINT WHO BROUGHT CHRISTIANITY
An Early Missionary to South Asia

The Christian Post,
July 4th, 2021


--

INDIA CAN STILL TURN THE TIDE
BACK TOWARD DEMOCRACY
Extremism Has Dominated 

Religion News Service,
July 15th, 2021


--

GREEN BURIAL AS AN ACT OF FAITH
Embracing Natural Burial Practices

The Christian Century,
July 6th, 2021


--

MAYBE ITS TIME FOR AN HONEST CHAT
ABOUT CANADIAN POLITENESS
It May be a Kind of Avoidance

Broadview,
July 2nd, 2021


--

WHITE MAINLINERS OUTNUMBER
WHITE EVANGELICALS IN THE USA
A Shift, After Many Polling Years

Religion News Service,
June 8th, 2021


--

WHAT IS AN AMERICAN
MAINLINE CHRISTIAN ANYWAY?
It May Differ from the Canadian Variety

Religion News Service,
July 8th, 2021


*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof obline:

To create is to relate.

- Corita Kent

--

Outrage without an accompanying action turns into paralysis.

- Sr. Helen Prejean

--

We know God doesn’t will for anyone to suffer and die — even if some modicum of “justice” could come out of it.

- Brittini L. Palmer

--

Let us not forget: We are a pilgrim church, subject to misunderstanding, to persecution, but a church that walks serene, because it bears the force of love. 

- Óscar Romero

--

Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this because it is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life.

- Ann Patchett

--

Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

--

Has it ever struck you that those who most fear to die are the ones who most fear to live? Life is flexible and free, and you are rigid and frozen. Life carries all things away, and you crave stability and permanence. You fear life and death because you cling. You cannot bear the thought of losing a relative or friend; you dread losing a pet theory or ideology or belief. When you cling to nothing, when you have no fear of losing anything, then you are free to flow like a mountain stream that is always fresh and sparkling and alive.

- Anthony de Mellow

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT - Theresa S. Thames

Go out into the world with your chin up and your heart wide open. Go out into the world and be an agent of God’s love.

(end)

******



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Saturday, July 3, 2021

Colleagues List, July 4th, 2021

  Vol XVII. No. 1

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

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 

*****

Dear Friends:

My Special Item this week is an introduction to a series of classic books that the mythologist Joseph Campbell began working on, fifty to sixty years ago and which are still popular today. I hope you find helpful this first volume in a special re-issue.

Other new themes appear in this issue, as usual, so please check them out. Welcome to my first Colleagues List edition of series XVII.

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.

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

Book Notice -

PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY 
The Masks of God Vol I
by Joseph Campbell

New World Library,
Novato, CA. Hardcover. 2021
$37.27 CAD. Kindle $9.99 CAD
ISBN #978-1-60868-725-1

--

Publisher's Promo:

The Masks of God, Volume I, the first volume in Joseph Campbell's monumental four volume Masks of God Series, was originally published in 1959 and is now revised with up to date science and new illustrations in this Collected Works of Joseph Campbell edition.

In this first volume of The Masks of God, the world’s preeminent mythologist explores and illuminates the wellsprings of myth. Showing his exemplary combination of scholarly depth and popular enthusiasm, Joseph Campbell looks at the expressions of religious awe in early humans and their echoes in the rites of surviving primal tribes. Campbell shows how myth has informed our understanding of the world, seen and unseen, throughout time. As he explores and shares archetypal mythic images and practices, he also points to how these concepts inform our personal lives.

Upon completing the monumental Masks of God series, Campbell found that his work affirmed “the unity of the race of man, not only in its biology, but also in its spiritual history.” He likened this unity to a symphony in which various parts create a “great movement.” Perhaps more than ever before, Campbell’s insight is not only illuminating but also inspiring.

--

From Joseph Campbell's Original Prologue (1959-69)

The comparative study of the mythologies of the world compels us to view the cultural history of mankind as a unit; for we find that such themes as fire, theft, deluge, land of the dead, virgin birth and resurrected hero have a worldwide distribution.... these themes also appear in religious contexts, where they are accepted not only as factually true but even as revelations of the verities to which the whole culture is a living witness...

Every people has received its own seal and sign of supernatural designation... and yet an honest comparison immediately reveals that all have been built from one fund of mythological motifs...revered by every people on earth...

No one, as far as I know, has yet tried to compose into a single picture the new perspectives that have opened in the fields of comparative symbolism, religion, mythology, and philosophy by the scholarship of recent years...

I attempt in the following pages the first steps of a natural history of the gods and heroes, such as in its final form should include in its purview all divine beings - as zoology includes all animals and botany all plants... for as in the visible world of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, so also in the visionary world of the gods: there has been a history, an evolution, a series of mutations, governed by laws; and to show forth such laws is the proper aim of science.

--

Author's Bio:

Joseph Campbell was interested in mythology since his childhood in New York, when he read books about American Indians, frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History, and was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles. He earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Columbia in 1925 and 1927 and went on to study medieval French and Sanskrit at the universities of Paris and Munich. After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 1940s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. The many books by Professor Campbell include The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Myths to Live By, The Flight of the Wild Gander, and The Mythic Image. He edited The Portable Arabian Nights, The Portable Jung, and other works. He died in 1987. 

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

--

My Thoughts:

My discovery of Joseph Campbell, more than three decades ago, revolutionized my understanding of the Hebrew and Christians scriptures, as well as comparative faith studies. Campbell begin his faith journey as Roman Catholic, and while he moved beyond that tradition, he continued to respect and learn from it.

While Campbell focused on many particular mythological traditions from around the world, he was always attempting to integrate particular systems into larger and grander ones.

My encounter with Indigenous spirituality in Canada started me on a journey of global discovery, and Joseph Campbell helped me on that journey.

The book presented today is the first in a series that Campbell developed - replete with text and graphics - many years ago, but which is still current and worth study. This helps us to gain a sense of the author's vast perspective. I am grateful that New World Library has continued to upgrade his books - never changing the original, but making our contemporary understanding more and more complete.

(several volumes in this series will appear, in time, from the publisher and I hope to introduce them to you over time.) 

For complete information on Joseph Campbell and his work, click:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell.

--

Buy the Book from:

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS:

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log,
June 27th, 2021

"No One Should Live in Fear"

--

Rn Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site
June 28th, 2021

"Joy - A Sign of God"

--

Tom Ryan, CSB
Paulist Office, Boston

Koinonia,
July 2021


****

NET NOTES

NORTHERN IRELAND 
IS COMING TO AN END
Connections to the UK in Disarray

New York Times,
June 29th, 2021


--

CANADIAN CHURCHES ON 
FIRST NATIONS' LANDS ARE BURNING
Catholic Church Faces Heavy Reaction

Religion News Service,
June 29th, 2021


--

NAMES WILL BE PUT TO ALL IN
COWESSESS GRAVES, CHIEF VOWS
Big Changes in Store for Future

Catholic Register, Toronto.
June 30th, 2021


--

THE INSTITUTION RESISTS TRANSFORMATION
First Indigenous UCC Moderator Stan McKay Speaks
About Why Our Church Apologies Fall Short

Broadview,
June 25th, 2021


--

WISE WORDS FROM THE MODERATOR
OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Moderator Richard Bott Writes on Facebook
About How to "Help" the First Nations Now
June 29th, 2021


--

FAUCI NAMED HUMANIST OF THE YEAR
He Advocated Evidence-Bases Solutions

Religion News Service,
July 1st, 2021


--

THIS WEEK IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS PAST AND PRESENT

The Christian Post,
June 27th, 2021


--

PHILIP YANCEY STILL BELIEVES IN AMAZING GRACE
At 71, He's Been a Christian Writer for Many Years

Religion News Service,
June 24th, 2021


--

AMISH PUT FAITH IN GOD'S WILL
AND HERD IMMUNITY OVER VACCINE
Many Amish are Not Getting Vaccinations

Religion News Service,
June 29th, 2021


--

WHY CHOOSING THE NEXT DALAI LAMA
WILL BE A RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL ISSUE
China Wants a Strong Hand in the Selection

Religion News Service,
June 25th, 2021


*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

God is like an eagle, sharp eyed and swift, with wings so wide you can play under their shadows.

- Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner

--

We find our roots not by retracing our steps to a specific location, we find ourselves by finding each other.

- John Onwuchekwa

--

I feel that we too often focus only on the negative aspect of life – on what is bad. If we were more willing to see the good and the beautiful things that surround us, we would be able to transform our families. From there, we would change our next-door neighbors and then others who live in our neighborhood or city. We would be able to bring peace and love to our world, which hungers so much for these things.

- Mother Teresa

--

Like a gas, the soul tends to fill the entire space which is given it. A gas which contracted, leaving a vacuum, this would be contrary to the law of entropy. It is not so with the God of the Christians.…Not to exercise all the power at one’s disposal is to endure the void. This is contrary to all the laws of nature. Grace alone can do it. Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.

- Simone Weil

--

It was said of Reb Simcha Bunim that he carried two slips of paper, one in each pocket. On one he wrote: Bishvili nivra ha-olam – “for my sake the world was created.” On the other he wrote: V’anokhi afar v’efer – “I am but dust and ashes.” He would take out each slip of paper as necessary, as a reminder to himself.

- Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa

--

If everyone abandons you and even drives you away by force, then when you are left alone fall on the earth and kiss it, water it with your tears, and it will bring forth fruit even though no one has seen or heard you in your solitude. Believe to the end, even if all people went astray and you were left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness. And if two of you are gathered together – then there is a whole world, a world of living love. Embrace each other tenderly and praise God, for, if only in you two, his truth has been fulfilled.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT -

(end)

*****


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Colleagues List, July 24th, 2022

  Vol. XVIII. No. 1 Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2019                                            http://colleagueslist.blogspot / .ca           ...

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  • Colleagues List, March 7th, 2021
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