Vol XVII. No. 5
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:
As summer ebbs in our part of the world, people try to
get as much of a holiday break as they can, while many
of us are getting prepared for autumn challenges.
I hope you enjoy my reflection on what I have been learning
in my life about healing and reconciliation.
Thanks to all who have shared their discoveries this week,
and also the Net Notes and Wisdom that I have selected
for you since mid-August.
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 Personal Reflection:
SHOWING COMPASSION
AT AN OPPORTUNE POINT IN TIME
I seem to have learned something about healing relations during my senior years that escaped me earlier in my life. There is frequently a better time than others to convey the desire for reconciliation. I can have a strong desire for relational healing, but if the "other" is not ready, willing or able to reciprocate, all my good intentions may be for naught.
Over the period of a lifetime of interaction with people, it is natural that bad relations will occur. I am the kind of person that finds it hard to live with such relations, and I find myself struggling, sometimes frantically, to overcome barriers between myself and the person or persons with whom I've had a falling-out.
Sadly, my good will is met with rejection. The more I try to change the climate of a relationship, the more frustrated I become. I may be ready to move ahead relationally, but the "other" is not.
My senior years' learning is that it is better to wait for an appropriate time than to try to initiate healing and push my agenda. I need to become more aware of another's agenda and less of my own.
--
Two nameless but true examples may help me convey this.
Early in my career I had a strong desire to work in what was officially the headquarters of what was essentially an American organization. In those days I was convinced that this was the ideal location to situate myself. The person who headed that organization in the states had taken a liking to me and I guess I was able to convince him I wanted to join his team in the USA.
The end result, however, was that I tended to alienate fellow-workers, both Canadian and American. This caused a falling-out with my boss, and strained feelings between he and I that lasted 25 years.
These hard barriers fell, however, on the occasion of the death of this man's wife. When I learned of it, I made a special effort to track him down and to share my condolences. He was deeply affected and I knew at that moment our relationship had healed. His response deeply affected me. I will never forget the tone of his voice when he realized that it was me. My discovery? At his moment of vulnerability - barriers down - I was there to offer my compassion in a way that he was ready to receive.
My second example is more recent in nature. Again, it was when the recipient of my condolence was at the time of the death of his spouse. Again, I found the person with whom I had been at odds for several decades and made a phone call. I was greatly affected by the openness and receptivity of his response. This too has affected me deeply as well as I believe it has stuck with him.
Not all my initiatives, carried out in this manner, have had similar results. But I have learned from these experiences what has taken a lifetime to discover. Showing compassion at an appropriate point in time can work wonders with relational renewal.
--
Good intentions are one thing. But they are often not enough.
Good timing is the other, and I won't forget this.
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COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS
Laura Locke
Calgary, AB
Kolbe Times,
August 21st, 2021
"A Conversation With Dr. John Rook"
--
Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC
Personal Web Log
August 20th, 2021
"Make It Personal"
--
Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX
Personal Web Site,
August 23rd, 2021
"The Fading of Forgiveness"
--
Isabel Gibson,
Ottawa, ON.
Traditional Iconoclast
August 22nd, 2021
"Be Careful"
--
Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.
Sermons and Blog
August 22nd, 2021
"Something More"
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NET NOTES
CURRENT CANADIAN LIVESTREAM CHURCH SERVICES
Focused on the UCC, but Including Others Too
Broadview,
March 18th, 2020 (upgraded)
--
VANDALS SOLVE NOTHING
A Distraction, Not a Solution
Catholic Register, Toronto
August 12th, 2021
--
"BEST SUMMER EVER" FALLING WELL SHORT
Response to Vaccine Deniers, by Glen Argan
Catholic Register, Toronto
August 13th, 2021
--
WHAT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE
OF EXITING A FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCH?
A Woman Struggles to Find Her Way
Broadview,
August 20th, 2021
--
WCC HONOURS PHILIP POTTER
He Was an Early 2/3rds World
Ecumenical Leader
World Council of Churches
August, 2021
--
ELCA INSTALLS WEBER AS IT'S
FIRST PASTOR OF PUBLIC WITNESS
"Her Ministry Goes Beyond Church Walls"
Religion News Service,
August 23rd, 2021
--
ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY SPEAKS
ON THE SITUATION IN AFGHANISTAN
A Church Report to the British House
Anglican World Communion Service
August 18th, 2021
--
WHAT WENT WRONG WHEN THIS
UNITED CHURCH OPENED A
REFUGEE SHELTER IN BANCROFT ONT
The Challenge Was Too Difficult
Broadview,
August 13th, 2021
--
OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON SOCIAL MEDIA
DON'T REPRESENT YOU OR ME
A Canadian Evangelical Perspective
Christian Week
August 10th, 2021
--
"THIS LAND IN YOUR LAND" SAY
MORE CANADIAN THAN AMERICAN CHURCHES
TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLE (US Report)
Christianity Today,
July 30th, 2021
*****
WISDOM OF THE WEEK
Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:
We are all born / so beautiful / the greatest tragedy is / being convinced we are not
- Rupi Kaur
--
Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe.
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (August 2021)
--
Whether or not we will be honest with each other, whether or not we will let ourselves be truly known, determines everything.
- N. Gordon Cosby
--
For if what you say is true, that you have kept from your youth the commandment of love and have given to everyone the same as yourself, then how did you come by this abundance of wealth?
- St. Basil of Caesarea
--
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman!
- Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” (1851)
--
The church, with its message, and with its word, will meet a thousand obstacles, just as the river encounters boulders, rocks, and chasms. No matter; the river carries a promise: “I will be with you to the end of the ages” and “The gates of hell shall not prevail” against the will of the Lord (Matt. 28:20, Matt. 16:18).
- Oscar Romero
--
The question, “Why do children suffer?” has no answer, unless it’s simply, “To break our hearts.” Once our hearts get broken, they never fully heal. They always ache. But perhaps a broken heart is a more loving instrument. Perhaps only after our hearts have cracked wide open, have finally and totally unclenched, can we truly know love without boundaries.
- Fred Epstein
--
Being able to think differently from those around us and being able to function lovingly with people who think otherwise is the ultimate in human endeavor. It requires three things: a heart large enough to deal with conflict positively, enduringly, and kindly; a keen sense of personal purpose, the notion that there is something on the horizon that is worth debating; and a soul sensitive enough to transcend the tensions of the immediate for the sake of the quality of the future.
- Joan Chittister
--
The world is upside down because there is so very little love in the home. We have no time for our children; we have no time for each other; and there is no time to enjoy each other. That is why there is so much suffering and so much unhappiness in the world today. Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for what is bigger and better and greater, and mothers and fathers often do not have time for each other, let alone their children. In the home begins the disruption of the peace of the world.
- Mother Teresa
--
Today, we are seeing growing impatience with the institutional church’s accommodation to temporal power. Younger generations, no longer willing to give the church the benefit of the doubt, are driving the mass exodus out of the Western church, which they see as a primary source of pain and abuse in the world. But for those who have not given up on the church as a vessel of God’s grace and transformation, the contours of a new reformation are beginning to surface.
- Jin S. Kim
--
How do we love those who do not love us? Firstly, we love them by believing the truth that God loves us, and that we desperately need his love – not only to sustain us but also to spend on others. Secondly, we love those who do not love us by disbelieving that we are in any way capable of this task apart from the love of Christ. The only way I can ever possibly obey Jesus and love people who hate me is if I am perpetually abiding in a love relationship with Jesus.
--
A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantment of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.
- Rachel Carson
*****
CLOSING THOUGHT - Arthur Ashe
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
(end)
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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
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