Vol XVII. No. 4
GLOBAL AND ECUMENICAL IN SCOPE
CANADIAN IN PERSPECTIVE
Wayne A. Holst, Editor
My E-Mail Address: waholst@telus.net
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write to me personally at - waholst@telus.net
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Dear Friends:
This issue of Colleagues List will take us through the last few weeks of summer and the first indicators of autumn. September beckons.
Thanks to colleagues that supply CL with helpful material for this issue. It is good to know that summer has continued to be a productive time.
Thanks for continuing to show your interest and support as readers.
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
A SIGN OF THE TIMES
For the first time in almost 18 months, those who drop by St. David's United Church in Calgary will see our sanctuary chairs arranged in a manner that is similar to what we had been used to before the lockdown due to the virus. There may be fewer chairs with more spaces between in the nave of the church, but they have at least returned to a more traditional arrangement. We are going through gradual transition.
I take this as a positive signal.
At the same time, since we are a rather conservative group in many ways, we are not assuming "business as usual" yet. We are making changes gradually and want any return to a new normal to be done with care.
Our Monday and Thursday studies will still be using Zoom, which we have found works quite well. This does not mean we will continue using Zoom when face-to-face is again fully possible But we don't want to put our people at risk now. Perhaps we will develop a blend of the two in future.
(see the end of this blog for our Autumn ACTS program.)
This caution, I suspect, will also govern our music and fellowship programs as we attempt to find our way back to "regular" programming.
There are still a lot of mixed virus messages about, and we as a congregation continue to follow the generally credible guidance that medical science has been offering us the past year and a half.
I hope that some of the material I have included in this issue will continue to guide both our scientific and faith efforts during "re-entry" and that this process will blend a mix of caution and healthy risk.
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COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC.
Personal Web Log
August 1st, 2021
"The Constant of Accelerating Change"
--
Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB.
In Transit,
August, 2021
"All Nature Sings: The Beauty,
Brevity and Vulnerability of Life"
--
Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Blog,
August 6th, 2021
"Day By Day"
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Isabel Gibson,
Ottawa, ON.
Traditional Iconoclast
July 30th, 2021
"Just Ask"
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Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site
August 9th, 2021
"Complexity and Paradox"
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NET NOTES
THIS WEEK IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY
Three Special Events
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ARE VIRTUAL CHURCH SERVICES
HERE TO STAY?
Health Restrictions are Fading Away
Broadview,
July 30th, 2021
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FRANCIS RECEIVES DEATH THREAT
Grappling With Vatican Financial Scandals
Religion News Service,
August 10th, 2021
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PREPARING FOR THE POST-PANDEMIC LET-DOWN
What to Expect When You Return to "Face-to-Face"
Faith Today,
August 5th, 2021
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RELIGIOUS REVIVAL IS GOING ON IN CHINA
Under the Constant Watch of the Communists
Religion News Service,
August 9th, 2021
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UNDERSTANDING EVANGELICALISM
IN AMERICA TODAY
Not a Monolith but a Variety of Churches,
Theologies, and Practices
Religion News Services,
August 4th, 2021
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LETTER OF CONGRATULATIONS TO NEW CANADIAN GG
Submitted by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
Evangelical Fellowship of Canada
August 2nd, 2021
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YOUNG AMERICAN EVANGELICALS LEAVING CHURCH
LGBTQ Bias May Be Driving Them Away
Religion News Service,
August 6th, 2021
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THIS DAY IN HISTORY - AUGUST 4th, 1892
BRITISH MEDICAL MISSIONARY
ARRIVES IN CANADA - WILFRED GRENFELL
The Christian Post
August 4th, 2021
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WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
If you believe in God omnipresent, then you must believe everything that comes into your life, person or event, must have something of God in it to be experienced and loved; not hated.
-- Elizabeth Goudge
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Art is here to prove, and to help one bear, the fact that all safety is an illusion. In this sense, all artists are divorced from and even necessarily opposed to any system whatever.
- James Baldwin
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If they are to be the people of God, Christians have to first become a people — that is, a network of living communities working out their understandings, planning their courses of action, and organizing themselves for action.
- Leonardo Boff & Clodovis Boff
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The great events of this world are not battles and elections and earthquakes and thunderbolts. The great events are babies, for each child comes with a message that God is not yet discouraged with humanity, but is still expecting goodwill to become incarnate in each human life.
- Marian Wright Edelman
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In a world of dazzling technological power, it’s tempting to think that we can mass-produce love. But human souls aren’t nourished by impersonal acts of care manufactured by institutions. Even God, the maker of the universe, became small in order to deliver love to each human soul. Let’s imitate that example.
- Tim Otto
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Who is able to withstand evil? Only those whose final standard is not their own reason, principles, conscience, freedom, or virtue, but who are ready to sacrifice all this when called to obedient and responsible actions in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – people who try to make their whole life an answer to the question and call of God.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Silence is a necessary counter to the relentless preoccupation of our multitasking minds – something that should provide a contrapuntal rhythm to the steady beat of our busy human brains. Just as we are wise to protect the earth’s vulnerable woodlands from overdevelopment, so we must protect the sanctuary of our interior lives. Speech, relationships, the soul: they begin with, and are sustained by, silence.
- Stephanie Bennett
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I don’t see how you could get through what I’ve had to deal with without some kind of faith – without turning to Jesus and relying on him to give you peace, or the courage to get up and go through another day. Plus, I think chronic pain makes you more aware of what is important, and less easily bothered by the petty stuff of life. And that, I think, is a blessing. Because I don’t think I’d naturally be like that.
- Brenda Hindley
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Once they told Rabbi Pinhas of the great misery among the needy. He listened, sunk in grief. Then he raised his head. “Let us draw God into the world,” he cried, “and all need will be quenched.” God’s grace consists precisely in this, that he wants to let himself be won by humanity, that he places himself, so to speak, into human hands. God wants to come to his world, but he wants to come to it through men and women. This is the mystery of our existence, the superhuman chance of humankind.
-- Martin Buber
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We’ve decided to sort ourselves by education – the idea is that being educated is the most important thing in life and that if you fail at that, it’s your fault. It’s not just that we have a system that rewards education, it’s that we have a very narrow definition of what being smart is.
The problem with defining success like this is that, though it’s easy to measure how much education or money someone has, it’s very hard to measure the value of being a good parent or of deciding to stay in your hometown and to spend your life contributing to it. With a meritocratic mindset, when we fail to find things we can put numbers on, we tend to overlook their value.
- Chris Arnade
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Our expectation of the kingdom cannot be a passive waiting, a sweet, soft occupation with ourselves and our like-minded friends. No, if we truly expect God’s kingdom, we will be filled with divine power. Then the social justice of the future – with its purity of heart and divine fellowship – will be realized now, wherever Jesus himself is present. Our belief in the future must bring change to the present! The spirit of expectation is the spirit of action because it is the spirit of faith. Faith is bravery. Faith is reality. If we have faith, even only a small seed, we cannot regard anything as impossible.
- Eberhard Arnold
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CLOSING THOUGHT - Martin Sheen
I learned that we serve ourselves best when we serve others first.
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For those interested:
ACTS MINISTRY AUTUMN STUDIES AT ST.DAVID'S UNITED:
Monday Night Book Study - Sept. 20th - Nov. 29th 7-8:30 PM Zoom (10 weeks)
(no class on Thanksgiving Monday, October 11th)
Book Theme: "Starlight" by Richard Wagamese
Thursday Morning Bible Study - Sept. 23rd - Nov. 25th 10-11 AM
Zoom (10 weeks)
Bible Theme - "First Isaiah" (Isaiah chapters 1-39)
If you have questions, contact me at waholst@telus.net
(end)
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- Martin Sheen
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