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Stories about the United Church of Canada:

New moderator for United Church concerned about 'appearance of scarcity'
Members of the United Church of Canada must avoid becoming distracted by concerns over scarcity and instead recognize the abundance of talent they have to effect change in the world, says the newly elected moderator of this country's largest Protestant denomination.
Canadian Press, August 15

Members adrift after church ousts 2 ministers
Members of St. Paul's United Church in the Ottawa Valley town of Perth, Ont., are confused and concerned after two of the church's ministers were let go, including one who held seminars on Islam with her Muslim husband.
Jennifer Green, CanWest News Service, August 15

Blind to true suffering
Curiously, the United Church of Canada (UCC) -- a nominally Christian organization -- failed even to mention the Pyongyang regime's systematic persecution of its co-religionists, including the murder of Ms. Ri, during its national conference last week. Instead, the UCC devoted hours to discussing of alleged crimes by the Jewish state of Israel against Palestinians.
Lorne Gunter, National Post, August 19

Earlier: UCC decisions regarding Israel get mixed reviews

Stories about abortion:

Quebec retreats on plans to tighten abortion rules
Clinics threatened to close and others protested after Quebec said it would impose stringent new guidelines
Globe and Mail, August 17

N.B. will not appeal ruling allowing Morgentaler to sue on behalf of women
The government of New Brunswick will not appeal a court ruling that gives Dr. Henry Morgentaler the right to sue the province to pay for abortions at his private clinic in Fredericton.
Canadian Press, August 18

Creating a crisis
Quebec's Health Minister unites the province's female pundits by stumbling into a controversy about abortion clinics
Kalli Anderson, Globe and Mail, August 18

Abortion clinics exempt from new law
Under pressure from women's groups and doctors, Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc yesterday exempted abortion clinics from a new law regulating surgical procedures in the private sector. Mr. Bolduc's about-face came hours after the Quebec College of Physicians declared that most abortions can be performed safely in existing private clinics that do not have standard operating rooms.
CanWest News Service, August 19

Earlier: Stories about abortion and euthanasia

Stories about Islam and the West:

Human Rights Tribunal finds no meat in couple's deli complaint
Muslim couple complained of being served salami containing pork
Vancouver Sun, August 8

Tariq Ramadan doing Muslims and others a favour
A friend in Holland recently sent a DVD of a stunningly effective TV interview with Tariq Ramadan, the important European Muslim intellectual whom I interviewed on February 23 in Vancouver. Ramadan, who was banned from speaking in the United States during the administration of George W. Bush, to me exemplifies the best hope for future Muslim-non-Muslim relations.
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, August 10

Generation Islam is an eye-opener
If you're familiar with Greg Mortenson's elegiac book, Three Cups of Tea, about one man's efforts to build schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan, or if you're at all curious about Western efforts to inspire the hearts and minds of the region's impoverished children, then you owe it to yourself to watch Generation Islam - Christiane Amanpour's sober, two-hour profile of the clash of ideas between youthful idealism, hope for the future and religious extremism.
Alex Strachan, CanWest News Service, August 13

We can't talk about immigration
In fact, we'll blame anything rather than confront the truth about what's happening
Mark Steyn, Maclean's, August 13

Those pesky Danish cartoons
They are the cartoons that won't go away. Sorry. What I meant to say is that they are the cartoons that do go away every time some pusillanimous editor decides that printing them would be too risky to staff and limb. Sorry. What I meant to say is the official version: that printing them would be offensive to some people.
Martin Levin, Globe and Mail, August 14

The Muslim Canadian Congress makes an excellent point about the Suaad Mohamud case
In other words -- to the entirely unproven extent we are dealing with any kind of racial animus at all -- what we are allegedly confronting is not White-on-black racism, but Arab-on-black racism (the same kind of racism behind the extermination of hundreds of thousands of blacks in Darfur).
Jonathan Kay, Full Comment, National Post, August 15

Muslims accepted in Vancouver, imam says
The roughly 1,000 Muslims who prayed together outdoors in downtown Vancouver Friday were told it was a sign they are tolerated and respected by most Canadians.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 15

Do Muslims seek to dominate the West? And could they do it?
While there is plenty of fear out there, actual numbers tell a different tale
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 15

Jund Ansar Allah and the intra-Islamist showdown in Gaza
Only in a place like Gaza could Hamas find an even crazier Islamist group to fight with.
Jonathan Kay, Full Comment, National Post, August 15

Islam film backlash feared: reports
Canadian security officials closely monitored last year's release of a Dutch film about Islam, fearing it could spark violent protests, documents released under the Access to Information Act show. The National Post has obtained copies of seven intelligence reports, circulated by Ottawa last year, that warn of a possible backlash against the documentary Fitna and Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
National Post, August 19

Pray now or pray later
Muslim communities across the GTA are preparing to start the holy month of fasting and prayer. But is it tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday? Well-meaning strides in science have only deepened the gulf between theories on when the lunar month truly begins
Toronto Star, August 20

Ramadan can be 'a little scary' for Canadian Muslims
But believers say fasting for more than 14 hours a day can give them a deep, close connection with Allah
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 20

Earlier: Stories about Islam and the West

Other stories from the past two weeks:

N.S. diocese reaches $13-million settlement in abuse case
A Roman Catholic diocese in Nova Scotia reached an historic agreement with known and alleged victims of sexual abuse by its priests, announcing a $13-million settlement Friday for the decades old claims.
Canadian Press, August 7

Homosexuality: Trouble on the reorient express
There is a good possibility the session at which Stanton Jones will present his paper at the 117th annual convention of the American Psychological Association in Toronto will be sparsely attended but raucous. First off, it is at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning, not exactly prime time. And then there is the title of his paper: Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation.
National Post, August 7

Meditation can often mask a downside
The benefits of meditating can sometimes allow practitioners to inflate their own sense of importance
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 8

When a fixer breaks
The narrator of Linden MacIntyre's new novel, his second, is a Catholic priest in the mid-1990s. Duncan MacAskill is a Cape Bretoner in his early fifties, assigned to a remote parish near his birthplace. It is his first parish.
Nicholas Pashley, National Post, August 8

There was no excuse for cancelling concert because of kirpans
What is all the fuss about kirpans? And why did they suddenly become an issue at Gurdas Maan's concert at the Telus Convention Centre when they've never been an issue at public venues in Calgary before?
Naomi Lakritz, Canwest News Service, August 8
Earlier: Stories about Sikhs and Sikhism

Continue article >>

Former Anglican priest to be ordained as P.E.I.'s first married Catholic priest
For the first time in P.E.I., a married man was to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on Sunday. Martin Carter, 63, said the Pope occasionally grants special permission for married men to become priests in cases where they've converted from other Christian churches.
Canadian Press, August 9

Statue of the Virgin Mary stolen from outside Calgary church
A Roman Catholic parish in southeast Calgary is mourning the loss of a statue of the Virgin Mary. The 1.5-metre-tall statue, set into a brick grotto near the front steps of St. Albert the Great parish, is believed to have been stolen Saturday night after thieves first removed a Plexiglas shield.
CanWest News Service, August 11

Hands cut off Virgin Mary statue
A statue of the Virgin Mary stolen from a southeast Calgary church was found by police yesterday damaged by fire and with its hands cut off.
CanWest News Service, August 12

A tale of two Kennedys
Two of the last three Kennedys have taken centre stage this week. Yesterday, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of the Special Olympics, died in Hyannis, Mass. Today, Senator Ted Kennedy is being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. For the last of the Kennedy sons, aged 77 and suffering from brain cancer, the ceremony in Washington is something of a valedictory.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, August 12

From toad hall to the book of psalms
As the summer reading season peaks, debates abound over what books serve the soul best. The answer, many argue, depends on the age of the reader
Barbara Kay, National Post, August 12

Lily of the Mohawks closer to canonization
Evidence of a miracle sent to Rome last month leaves decision in hands of Vatican
CanWest News Service, August 13

Anglicans may follow Episcopalians with apology to first nations
American convention adopted resolution urging Queen Elizabeth to disavow and repudiate imperial doctrine of colonialism
CanWest News Service, August 13

The Bible: The book for all seasons
If there's one book for all seasons, the Bible would have to be it. People actually do read it at all ages, from children's Bible stories to the final moments of life when, no matter how sublime The Divine Comedy may be, scholastic theology set to verse is not really the thing. There are a range of bibles on offer: men's bibles, women's bibles, bibles for college students, teenagers, the anxious, the prosperous, athletes, businessmen and, as I saw recently, one for girls who like horses.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, August 13

Defending atheist bus ads
In a recent interview with Philosophy Now magazine, the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor, author of A Secular Age, commented on the atheist bus-ad campaign, calling it "odd" and "pathetic" for atheists to use such tactics to promote their worldview. In the same interview, Taylor, who is a practising Roman Catholic, compared the backlash of atheists and secularists to the reactions of disgruntled English bishops after the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in the 19th Century.
Justin Trottier and Michael Payton, Holy Post, National Post, August 13
Earlier: Stories about the pro-God and anti-God bus ads

What would it take to get you on a bike?
Efforts to encourage cycling as a healthy way of getting around are going mainstream
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 13

Animal sacrifices spark religious fight
A Santeria priest, Mr. Merced sacrifices animals near his home-based shrine to honour deities called orishas. His religious practice is now at the centre of an ongoing court battle with Euless. The city insists Mr. Merced cannot kill animals within city limits. It is attempting to use public health, slaughterhouse and animal cruelty ordinances to stop him. The priest, in turn, fought back with a lawsuit.
National Post, August 14

Neither practising nor believing, but Catholic even so
The 'baptized pagans' of Quebec, the most secularized society in the Western world, have less and less knowledge of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, but attempts to remove Catholicism's symbolic presence in public places and on the school curriculum are greeted with howls of outrage
Konrad Yakabuski, Globe and Mail, August 14

'Unworthy creatures'
Given the media commentary in recent years about certain high-profile alleged "honour killings" in this country, Canadians might have the impression that such hideous crimes are confined to the Muslim community. That is not the case. Unchallenged violence against women, including honour killing, is also a distressing feature of Sikh, Hindu and South Asian Christian communities. I know. I am ethnically Indian, raised as a Christian.
Aruna Papp, National Post, August 14

Canada's literary community gets religion all wrong
The derision toward anyone who believes is swift and non-negotiable among many writers today
David Adams Richards, Globe and Mail, August 14

Metro Vancouver teenagers see the world differently than others
The teenagers of Metro Vancouver are a remarkably international and intercultural bunch. Metro Vancouver teens are by far the most likely in Canada to have interracial friendships. And the extensive foreign connections of B.C. teenagers affect their values: How they see everything from war to homosexuality, global warming to God.
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun, August 14

Why we atheists care about religion
Here the atheists and many of the faithful can agree. It's not religion, in all its wide diversity, that is the problem. It can't be -- religion has no essence, there's nothing that's common among the faithful. The problem, rather, is dogmatism: the sense of certainty and the refusal to face the possibility that one is mistaken that goes along with it.
Mark Mercer, Vancouver Sun, August 15

Quebec to table wide-ranging anti-homophobia action plan this fall
Immigration Minister Yolande James is also heavily involved in the project. She says taboos surrounding homosexuality remain strong within many immigrant communities and she hopes the proposal will spark change in Quebec and outside the province.
Canadian Press, August 16

Top 10 spiritual cliches: Refreshed
Readers have offered many fresh quotes as contenders to replace North America's top 10 spiritual cliches. I've gathered the aphorisms together. Do they have the potential to become lasting expressions of wisdom?
Douglas Todd, The Search, Vancouver Sun, August 18

'We are not alone'
I am not sure if I was four, five or six when I encountered The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but I remember it was read to my class at school by Miss Power, whose voice was like serenity poured on Christmas snow. I suppose I was in love with her, but the 30 year age gap was an issue in those days. I ran home from school and asked my mother to buy the book for me. Good Lord, I still remember the smell and the feel and almost the fear of opening up C. S. Lewis' great, grand story of four children, a magical land, talking animals and endless adventure. It seemed as if I could hardly breathe as I read it.
Michael Coren, Full Comment, National Post, August 18

Hail the Republic of Google
A few years ago Paula Findlen, a professor of Italian history at Stanford University, edited a book with a title calculated to stir unusual interest -- Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything. Findlen admires people who dream of acquiring universal knowledge and in Kircher, a German Jesuit, she chose a prime specimen.
Robert Fulford, National Post, August 18

Catholic schools get As
Test score comparison shows advantage over Ontario public schools
Toronto Star, August 19

Lean close, and drink in 16th-century Rome
This summer's exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada -- Raphael to Carracci: The Art of Papal Rome -- feels like a very old-fashioned kind of show, deliciously so. Organized by the NGC's chief curator David Franklin as an orderly procession of papal art from Julius II (1503-1513) to Clement VIII (1592-1605), the exhibition describes the artistic life of the Eternal City, a territory less charted than that of Renaissance Florence and Venice.
Sarah Gilroy, Globe and Mail, August 19

Tiger's Loss Is Golf's Gain
Tiger Woods, without doubt the greatest golfer of his generation, and likely the greatest of all time, has given a lot to golf. Golf gave him something back last Sunday, when he lost to Y. E. Yang of Korea at the PGA Championship. He received the gift of competition.
Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Post, August 20

August 20/2009