Friday, November 19, 2021

Colleagues List, November 21st, 2021

  Vol XVII. No. 15

Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2019                  

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 a short piece on Bossey (read below to learn what that means)

I also provide my usual other items which I hope you enjoy.

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. 

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

BOSSEY AT 75
A Brief Commemoration

Bossey is 75 years old this year!

Bossey is short-form for the World Council of Churches' Graduate School of Ecumenical Studies, located near Geneva, Switzerland in the little town of Celigny.

Here is the notice recently sent by the WCC -

BOSSEY CELEBRATES 75 YEARS
AS A WITNESSING COMMUNITY

World Council of Churches News
November 18th, 2021


Here is a brief Wikipedia write-up describing the site and nature of the school.

Chateau de Bossey https://tinyurl.com/992zz3yx

Bossey was the brain-child of the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches, 
Visser 't Hooft - https://tinyurl.com/s8kdpdtv - 
- a Dutch theologian who was deeply involved in student Christian work during the Second World War.

Visser 't Hooft was an ecumenical movement pioneer who was convinced that the best way to develop a church committed to ecumenism was to offer committed students from around the world the opportunity to experience a lived faith experience in community.  From that idea the world has been influenced by thousands of persons from many countries and faith traditions during three-quarters of a century.

Twenty years after the school was founded, I was fortunate to be invited to join that institute as a student along with about fifty+ others from many continents and religious denominations. 

My time at Bossey was life-changing, and I wasn't the same Christian after that.

I am still in contact with a number of fellow-participants in that school and we continue to hope for a half-century reunion after the virus has been overcome.

Writing this newsletter/blog Colleagues List, is but one example of many ecumenical efforts with which I have been engaged over the years.

Looking back to that time causes me to realize how fortunate I was to have been there. If you have questions, don't hesitate to write me.

Happy 75, dear Bossey!

Wayne 

*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.

Sermons and Blog
November 12th, 2021

"Witness Among the Stones"

--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log
November 7th, 2021

"COP26 Avoids the Real Crisis"

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site,
November 15th, 2021

"The Notion of a Vocation"
 

*****

NET NOTES

THE MI'KMAQ REMAIN
A CHRISTIAN NATION
In Spite of Current RC Conflicts

The Catholic Register, Toronto
November 12th, 2021


--

FAME IS A FAKE VERSION
OF FRIENDSHIP
False Community Doesn't Do It

Christianity Today
November 11th, 2021


--

IN CATHOLIC ITALY
DE-BAPTISM IS GAINING POPULARITY
Citizens Can Now Declare Their Atheism

Religion News Service,
November 16th, 2021


--

TELEVANGELIST NOT TREATED AS A JOKE
Biopic of Tammy Fae Bakker

Broadview,
December 2021


--

THURINGIA CELEBRATES 500 YEARS
OF LUTHER'S BIBLE TRANSLATION
At Wartburg Castle Historic Site

Evangelical Focus,
November 1st, 2021


--

FOR CHRISTIAN BIRD-WATCHERS
RELIGION TAKES FLIGHT
They Find God in the Natural World

Religion News Service
November 11th, 2021


--

"BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN NOW"
  And Do Something to Make it Better
  by Joan Chittister

National Catholic Reporter,
November 11th, 2021


WHY THEY'RE NOT COMING BACK TO CHURCH
(AND WHAT TO DO WITH WHO'S LEFT
(some deeper reasons - an extensive article)

Christian Media
November 11th, 2021


--

THINK WE'RE LIVING THRU THE APOCALYPSE?
SO DID FIRST CENTURY CHRISTIANS
Current Phenomena Remind Us of This

Religion News Service
November 15th, 2021


*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof:

Anger is not the opposite of civility. / If rage isn’t civil, then neither was Jesus.

- Cole Arthur Rily

--

[W]hatever that you do, you begin from the premise that you're human together.

Musimbi Kanyoro

--

I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

- Rosa Parks

--

[N]o person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow and be perceived as fully blossomed as you were intended.

- Alice Walker

--

To be right with God is to be right with the universe; one with the power, the love, the will of the mighty Father, the cherisher of joy, the Lord of laughter, whose are all glories, all hopes, who loves everything, and hates nothing but selfishness, which he will not have in his kingdom.

- George MacDonald

--

Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams. Love in dreams is greedy for immediate action, rapidly performed and in the sight of all. Men will even give their lives if only the ordeal does not last long but is soon over, with all looking on and applauding as though on the stage. But active love is labor and fortitude…

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

--

The guarantee of one’s prayer is not in saying a lot of words. The guarantee of one’s petition is very easy to know: How do I treat the poor? The degree to which you approach them, and the love with which you approach them, or the scorn with which you approach them – that is how you approach your God. What you do to them, you do to God. The way you look at them is the way you look at God.

- Oscar Romero

--

We are all children of God, and his servants!…Do you think that he has no servants besides you, and that if you had devoted yourself to his service with your whole strength you could have done all that he needs – all that is needful for the establishment of his kingdom? You say you would do twice, ten times, a hundred times, more than you did. But if you did ten thousand times ten thousand more than all people have done, what would that have been in the work of God? A mere nothing! God’s work, like himself, is infinite. God’s work is you. Come to him, and be not a laborer but a child, and you will become a partner of the infinite God and of his world.

- Leo Tolstoy

--

The culture of perfection is one of the most dangerous things we face today. None of us is perfect. I’ve got my scars, you’ve got yours. But people with disabilities have taught me to recognize my own imperfections and to accept them. And through that they have taught me to learn to love myself as I am. This is one of the toughest things people struggle with today. I think it helps explain much of the drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, and suicide we see today. People are unable to love themselves, so they strike out in other ways. People with disabilities show us the value in our own life. 

- Joseph Dutkowsky,  MD

--

Gregory Dix, an Anglican monk writing eighty or so years ago about the worship of the early church, imagined what it would be like to attend the Lord’s Supper in second-century Rome by recreating the experience in terms of twentieth-century London… A grocer from the unfashionable suburbs slips through the back door of a wealthy brother’s house in Kensington at the crack of dawn to share in the breaking of bread in the drawing room – a brief, quiet event, overshadowed by the knowledge that if they would be discovered they would face at least penal servitude for life, and very likely worse. 

- Rowan Williams

*****

CLOSING THOUGHT -  Sonia Sanchez

Where is your fire? / You got to find it and pass it on.

(end)

*****

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. 23 - Nov. 25 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)

******



Saturday, November 6, 2021

Colleagues List, November 7th, 2021

Vol XVII. No. 14

Archive - Dec 2009 - Oct 2019                  

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 makes a clear statement that
we, in our local congregations, must never go back to
the pre-Covid-19 church we once knew.

I hope you will also enjoy the other items I have
gathered for you this week.

Recently, I have experienced some "link creation"
problems, but hope these have been rectified.

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. 

Wayne

*****

SPECIAL ITEM

WHY WE CAN'T GO BACK
TO THE WAY THINGS WERE
AT CHURCH

I write this short article using my experience at 
St. David's United Church, Calgary and realize that
other congregations may experience things quite
differently.

My desire in writing here is to suggest why we, 
at St. David's, cannot return to church activity
as we once knew it, mainly because of the virus.

First, we have discovered that, at least for some
of our activities, the response to our Zoom work
yields greater participation than face-to face
meetings immediately before that virus-created 
major changes for us.

Part of this increase in group engagement is
caused by the fact that it is easier to sit in front
of your computer at home than it is to go to the
effort of personal attendance at church. Older
members will probably agree with me, but many
others as well.

My teaching classes, morning and evening, have
tended to draw more Zoom people than previously.
Our worship attendance averages have tended to
be as high or higher than previously. Having larger 
numbers is not everything, but they tend to raise
spirits in the community.

Second, we are learning to use videos and other
technical gifts to aid our worship and learning in
ways we had not previously realized or employed.

There is no doubt that technical visual benefits 
appeal to many of our members in ways that 
merely live verbal (face-to-face) benefits do not.

I personally like the feeling of personal contact
in most of our church gatherings, but have to admit
that visual attraction can be engaging and gripping.
That implies working with colleagues who are more
gifted technically than I. It also means that those
with technical skills will need to become more at
home with "churchly" ways of doing things.

Third, we have come to discover that it is possible
to exchange with neighbour congregations nearby, 
as well as faith communities around the world. 

church like the one I belong to has always sought
to form community and to reach out to faith and
other groups to carry out our mission. Never before,
however, have we had the opportunity to "reach" 
beyond ourselves that we do today.

These opportunities to continue to expand outreach
have never been better, or more convenient. For me,
'ecumenical' and 'global' has always been important; 
but modern technology makes that more possible.

I want to be involved in new forms of church growth,
in the creative use of new technologies, and in being
able to share with others in as many ways possible.

For these, and other reasons, I hope my congregation
will never again be satisfied with the way we "did"
church in the past and will look for better ways to 
"be" church in the days ahead.

Wayne
 
*****

COLLEAGUE CONTRIBUTIONS

Elfrieda Schroeder,
Winnipeg, MB

In Transit Blog
November 2nd, 2021

"Let Me See Your Face"
  
--

Mark Whittall,
Ottawa, ON.

Sermons and Blog,
October 29th, 2021

"Tears"
  
--

Jim Taylor,
Okanagan, BC

Personal Web Log,
October 30th, 2021

"You Don't Have to Fight Growing Older"

--

Ron Rolheiser,
San Antonio, TX

Personal Web Site
November 1st, 2021

"Binding and Loosing"

--

Isabel Gibson,
Ottawa, ON.

Traditional Iconoclast
October 31st, 2021

"Spared" (Ripening Nature)
 
*****

NET NOTES

INDIANS CELEBRATE DIVALI
Amid Fears of Covid-19

Religion News Service,
November 4th, 2021


--

INDIA'S MODI INVITES POPE TO VISIT
Previous Invitation had Collapsed

Religion News Service,
November 1st, 2021


--

"SPIRITUAL BUT NOT RELIGIOUS" PEOPLE
Are Like Radical Reformation Protestants

Religion News Service,
November 1st, 2021


--

WILL THE UNITED CHURCH DISSAPPEAR?
Colleague Christopher White Thinks Not

Broadview,
November 4th, 2021


--

INDIGENOUS EXPECT 
POSITIVE VISIT FROM FRANCIS
But They Expect an Apology from the Pope

The Catholic Register, Toronto
November 3rd, 2021


--

A PENITANT POPE WILL BE COMING 
TO A WOUNDED NATION

The Catholic Register, Toronto
November 4th, 2021


--

COP26 URGES PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN
RELIGIOUS, INDIGENOUS LEADERS
TO SAVE PLANET

Religious News Service,
November 4th, 2021


*****

WISDOM OF THE WEEK

Provided by Sojourners and the Bruderhof online:

The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order.

- Gustavo GutiƩrrez

--

Be like the fox / who makes more tracks than necessary, / some in the wrong direction. / Practice resurrection.

- Wendell Berry

--

There will not be a magic day when we wake up and it’s now okay to express ourselves publicly. We make that day by doing things publicly until it’s simply the way things are.

- Sen. Tammy Baldwin

--

When the church hears the cry of the oppressed it cannot but denounce the social structures that give rise to and perpetuate the misery from which the cry arises.

- Oscar Romero

--

Our last five minutes on earth are running out. We can spend those minutes in meanness, exclusivity, and self-righteous disparagement of those who are different from us, or we can spend them consciously embracing every glowing soul who wanders within our reach – those who, without our caring, would find the vibrant, exhilarating path of life just another sad and forsaken road.

- Alice Walker

--

He brought light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light, and he can bring thee summer out of winter, though thou hast no spring. Though in the ways of fortune, understanding, or conscience thou hast been benighted till now, wintered and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupefied, now God comes to thee, not as the dawning of the day, not as the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon.

- John Donne

--

We are in the presence of an infinitely and unexpectedly rich tool, so that the tiniest phrase unleashes an entire polyphonic gamut of meaning. The ambiguity of language, even its ambivalence and its contradiction, between the moment it is spoken and the moment it is received, produces extremely intense activities. Without such activities, we would be ants or bees, and our drama and tragedy would quickly be dried up and empty. Between the moment of speech and the moment of reception are born symbol, metaphor, and analogy.

- Jacques Ellul

--

CLOSING THOUGHT - Dorothy Cotton

If a house is burning, and a bucket of water is thrown on the blaze and doesn't extinguish the fire, this doesn't mean that water won't put out fire. It means we need more water. And so with nonviolence.

(end)

*****

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. 23 - Nov. 25 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)

******

   
  
  






Colleagues List, July 24th, 2022

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