Four relevant issues in one issue

The January 2009 issue of Church & Faith Trends, an online journal published by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism (CRCE), examines four issues of importance to the Canadian church. First, CRCE director Rick Hiemstra analyzes the "astonishing amount" of funding and volunteer time that Canadian evangelical Christians provide to religious and non-religious charitable organizations. Second, Hiemstra and Faye Sonier, associate legal counsel at the Centre for Faith and Public Life, analyze the impact of the 2008 Heintz v. Christian Horizons Ontario Human Rights Tribunal decision, which may limit the ability of people of a common faith to "voluntarily assemble for ministry purposes if they want to serve the general public." Third, CRCE senior advisor John G. Stackhouse Jr. examines the relationship between Evangelicals and Fundamentalists and how it has changed over the past century. Fourth, EFC president Bruce J. Clemenger examines a current Canada Revenue Agency study, which may narrow the definition of the goal of "advancing religion" that legally recognized charities will be allowed to pursue.

Short-term missions could create long-term liabilities

Charles Cook, co-chair of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Global Mission Roundtable, will speak on 'Short Term Missions and the Law' at Toronto's Tyndale University College & Seminary February 2. Cook will focus on the importance of churches having clearly developed liability and risk management policies in relation to their short-term missions.

CMU gets bogged down in 700 acres

Walter and Elly Loewen have donated over 700 acres of woodlands, fields and peat bogs to Canadian Mennonite University. The Loewens and the university have signed an agreement with the Nature Conservancy of Canada to preserve 80 percent of the land in its natural state in perpetuity. The remaining 20 percent of the land, located 100 kilometres east of Winnipeg, has a lodge and other buildings. CMU will use the site to operate the Braintree Creation Care Centre, which will facilitate environmental research and serve as a teaching and retreat centre for students and others.

But who's wearing all those shoes?

Canadians contributed 713,294 shoe box gifts in 2008 through Operation Christmas Child, a project of Samaritan's Purse. The shoe boxes, filled with small, useful gifts assembled by the donors, were distributed to needy children in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Uruguay, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Canada is one of 11 countries that participate in the project. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and hand-delivered more than 61 million shoe box gifts to children in 138 countries.

No winners

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador has paid out $13 million to almost 40 men who were sexually abused as boys by Father Kevin Bennett in several rural parishes in the former Diocese of St. George's. The amount is $2 million less than the amount earlier agreed on. The Diocese of St. George's went bankrupt in 2005, turning over its financial assets, selling property and collecting liability insurance to try to pay off the claim. The priests and laypeople of the former Diocese of St. George's continue to meet without their buildings. Bennett was sentenced to four years in prison in 1990. Douglas Crosby, bishop of the Corner Brook and Labrador Diocese, has apologized and offered to meet each of the victims; none has agreed to meet. -- Catholic Register

Schools were the problem; school is part of the solution

The Interdisciplinary Studies Program at King's University College in Edmonton, together with ecumenical leaders and the Remembering the Children initiative, sponsored a Truth and Reconciliation Conference January 21 - 22. Aboriginal speakers included Chief Bobby Joseph, special aboriginal advisor to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Dr. Maggie Hodgson, founder of the National Day of Healing and Reconciliation and aboriginal advisor to the Canadian government's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs; and Ted Quewezance, an elder with the National Residential Schools Survivors' Society. Church speakers included Mark MacDonald, national indigenous bishop for the Anglican Church of Canada; and Cheol Soon Park, moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

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The truth about reconciliation commissions

Piet Meiring will teach a course on 'Truth Telling and Peace: An Insider's Perspective on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission' at Canadian Mennonite University's new Canadian School of Peacebuilding in Winnipeg June 29 - July 10. Meiring, a professor of theology at the University of Pretoria, served on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and wrote the book A Chronicle of the Truth Commission. While acknowledging that the Commission was "profoundly important" in healing South Africa's racial tensions, he also states that such commissions are not a simple solution to complex problems: "Forgiveness doesn't come easily. You can't organize forgiveness, and you can't force someone to forgive." Other courses at the school include: 'Poets, Prophets and Music of Social Justice: Towards Holistic Worship,' led by Scottish songwriter John Bell and CMU professor Irma Fast Dueck; 'Maintaining Health Teams: Insights from Organizational and Workplace Conflict Practitioners,' led by Winnipeg mediation expert Janet Schmidt; and 'Frameworks and Foundations of Peacebuilding,' led by David Dyck of Winnipeg.

The dream is still fresh

Fresh I.E., a Christian hip hop singer from Winnipeg, has posted a new song on his website called 'I Have a Dream' as a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is inviting feedback from his fans.

He teaches talking, I think

David Balzer has been appointed as an instructor in the Communications and Media Studies program at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg. Balzer holds an MA in Speech Communication from California State University. Since 1997, he has been a producer with the Family Life Network, a multicultural Christian media outreach organization supported by the Mennonite Brethren Conference of Manitoba. He is also co-host for GodTalk, a call-in radio show on Winnipeg radio station CJOB. The Communications and Media Studies program is supported by a grant from Elmer Hildebrand, owner of Golden West Radio, which operates 28 radio stations across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

You mean some writers get paid?

Aspiring writers -- that is, people who have never been paid for anything they have written -- are invited to enter the 2009 God Uses Ink novice contest. Entrants should write a short story, poem or nonfiction article on this year's theme, 'Celebrating God's Blessings: past, present and future,' and submit it by March 31. Three prizes will be awarded in each of three categories: teenagers (ages 14-19), young adults (ages 20-29) and adults. First prize is free registration at the Write! Canada writers' conference June 18-20 in Guelph, Ontario (a value of nearly $400). Second prize is a $100 gift certificate for The Word Guild, which may be used for conference registration or membership dues. Third prize is a $50 gift certificate for The Word Guild. The Word Guild is an association of more than 325 Canadian writers and editors who are Christian.

January 22/2009