Kenya or Kentya

The High Commissioner of Kenya, Simon Nabukwesi, and his entourage recently visited Trinity Western University (TWU) in Langley, B.C., to investigate potential partnerships between TWU and Kenyan educational institutions. These partnerships might include teacher exchange visits, students from TWU's Laurentian Leadership Centre in Ottawa interning with the Kenya High Commission, graduates of TWU's nursing program working in Kenya, and students from Kenya enrolling at TWU. Members of the delegation included George Kinyua, First Secretary, and Imbenzi George, Honorary Consul, who has a Master of Arts in Leadership degree from TWU.

They have a lot at steak

Fresh from an acquittal on charges of violating city bylaws, Street Church Ministries in Calgary is hosting a Joy of the Lord is Our Strength Festival Sunday, December 20, at 2 pm on the front steps of Calgary city hall. The event will include prayer for city officials and steak dinners given out to people on the street.

Staying home on the Prairie

After six months of studying whether to move from Three Hills, Alberta (population 3,600) to Drumheller, Alberta (population 8,000), the board of Prairie Bible Institute (PBI) has decided to keep the school where it is. PBI president Jon Ohlhauser had argued that Drumheller would offer more practicum placements and the move would provide a $3 million net benefit by 2016 on an annual operational budget of $7.5 million. However, the move raised considerable opposition among PBI's faculty, alumni and supporters. In seven years, Ohlhauser had already made several major changes: transferring the kindergarten-to-grade 12 Prairie Christian Academy to Alberta's separate school system, shutting down the graduate school in Calgary and launching Prairie College of Applied Arts and Technology to offer vocational training in health care, early childhood education and business. After the board turned down the move, Ohlhauser and the board agreed that he would step down as president at the end of December.

They believe in the environment

VisionTV, the Canadian faith network, has been broadcasting Faith at the Summit at 6:57 pm ET/ 3:57 pm PT each day from December 9 to December 21. They provide three-minute reports from the site of the climate change talks in Copenhagen. They explore the views of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and other faith communities on climate issues, and examine the role that religious believers have to play in the environmental debate. The series is produced by New York-based Odyssey Networks, a non-profit coalition of Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith groups dedicated to building bridges of understanding through media. The reports are hosted by British journalist and environmental activist Mark Dowd, a former Dominican friar who is campaign strategist for Operation Noah, a faith-based campaign dedicated to fighting climate change. Full programs and exclusive clips from Vision TV can be seen at video.visiontv.ca

Tribunal needs to broaden its Horizons

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) was scheduled to appear before the Superior Court of Ontario in the December 15-17 appeal of the Heintz v. Christian Horizons decision issued by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal (OHRT). Christian Horizons is a 40-year-old Christian ministry that employs over 2500 people to provide housing, care and support to over 1,400 developmentally disabled individuals. It requires its employees to sign a Statement of Faith and Lifestyle Policy. An employee named Ms Heintz had signed the policy, but resigned when she entered a lesbian relationship. She took the matter to the OHRT, which ruled that Christian Horizons could no longer require that employees share its religious beliefs and service commitment. The EFC will present arguments affirming the rights to freedom of association and religion - that people can voluntarily assemble for ministry purposes based on their mutually shared religious convictions.

End the war

On Human Rights Day, December 10, the Canadian Council of Churches presented a brief and wrote a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling for diplomatic efforts to end the war in Afghanistan and for support for Afghans in finding Afghan-led solutions to conflicts over natural resources, tribal grievances, the presence of the Taliban, organized crime and corruption. The brief stated that the war will not end with a military victory.

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Anglicans share

The Anglican Diocese of Niagara (in Ontario) and three Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) parishes have completed court-mandated negotiations on how to share three disputed parish buildings on an interim basis. The Diocese will have exclusive use of the St. George's building in Lowville, and the ANiC exclusive use of the St. Hilda's building in Oakville and the Good Shepherd building in St. Catharines. The sharing arrangement will remain in place until the buildings' ownership is settled.

Angels in the Night

On December 8, Angels in the Night volunteers delivered $250,000 worth of newly purchased clothing and supplies to 65 Salvation Army residential shelters in 12 Canadian cities (Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Vernon, Cranbrook, Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto and Halifax). Angels in the Night is a volunteer community event founded by Invis mortgage brokers in 2002. Money for the effort is collected throughout the year from the brokers and their friends, families and business partners.

Eat now, run later

The Progressive Group For Independent Business (PGIB) presented An Evening With Mike Huckabee December 6 at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. The event was a fundraising dinner for PGIB, an organization whose goal is to help socially responsible and fiscally conservative candidates get elected at all levels of government. Huckabee is an evangelical Christian who was Governor of Arkansas 1996-2007, was a 2008 U.S. presidential candidate and is expected to run for president again in 2012. Emcee for the event was Canadian columnist Michael Coren.

Making it on the radio (and TV)

Making Life Rich Without Any Money by Canadian Christian humour writer Phil Callaway was recently chosen as featured book of the week by popular American radio talk show host Dr. Laura. The book has also been chosen as book of the month for January on the Canadian Christian TV program 100 Huntley Street TV.

They flu the aid over

The Canada Ukraine Foundation, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Children of Chernobyl Canadian Fund have sent three shipments worth almost $300,000 to 24 hospitals in the western Ukraine to help them deal with the H1N1 epidemic. The shipments included ventilators, oxymeters, surgical masks, respirator masks, isolation gowns, surgical gloves, face shields and hand sanitizers. The supplies were sent in response to a request from the Ukrainian Embassy in Ottawa. In a recent three-week period, 381 people in the Ukraine died due to H1N1. The organizations plan to send further shipments as needed.

Bill taking longer than proposed sentences

Bill C-268, which would require minimum sentences for persons convicted of human trafficking of minors and which was passed by the House of Commons September 30, is now stalled in the Senate. Senate debate has been adjourned since November 3 waiting for senator Cools to speak to it. After Cools speaks, the bill will need to go to a Senate committee for review and then third reading in the Senate. The bill's sponsor, MP Joy Smith, has started a petition asking the Senate to urgently pass the bill.

Pray for the write stuff

The Word Guild, an organization for Canadian writers and editors who are Christian, held a day of prayer on December 15. Members prayed for God's direction in the coming year; for increased funds to expand Word Guild staff and programs; for more volunteers; for fulfillment of The Word Guild dream to impact Canada and the world with writing; for fulfillment of God's plan for each member's writing, editing and speaking; and for more non-writers to help the organization.

Comment on cooperation

Don Hutchinson, Vice-President and General Legal Counsel with The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has posted a web comment critical of the Canadian government's decision to eliminate funding for the interdenominational human rights and development organization Kairos. Hutchinson stated, "Canada and the world need the type of cooperative effort displayed by Kairos. One can hope that the Canadian government will revisit this decision."

Comment on free speech

Journalist Ezra Levant has posted a detailed comment on the decision by the Court of Queen's Bench to overturn the Alberta Human Rights Commission's "hate speech" conviction of Red Deer pastor Stephen Boissoin for criticizing the "gay agenda." Levant suggested that since it took seven years to overturn the decision and since Boissoin had to pay his own legal costs, the incident really constitutes a defeat for free speech in Canada.

December 17/2009