Baptist Chaplain Craig O’Brien recalls a spiritual conversation he had with “a very, very bright guy” who felt his humility ruled out any personal need to pursue God. “He went on to say, ‘In the grand scale of things, my life is insignificant. So what I do doesn’t matter, and I just need to be […]
The art of welcoming the stranger
AS THE FACE of Canada keeps changing due to a steady influx of people from other countries, many churches now find themselves ill-equipped to deal with this reality. “The first couple of years that they’re here are years in which we can practically reach out to them and love them,” said Tim Nielsen, pastor of […]
OttawaWatch: Voice from a Jesuit past
The Headline was “Real Social Justice.” My first thought on seeing it was that this was another rant about how fundamentalist Christians — and right wingers who hang out with them – are the bane of society. I expected the message to be that only religious liberals and their friends, political leftists, would have any […]
Bishops raise concern about human smuggling bill
Canada’s Catholic Bishops have added their voices to an array of advocacy groups opposed to legislation aimed at preventing human smuggling. They argue that Bill C-49, the Preventing Human Smugglers from Abusing Canada’s Immigration System Act, could hurt bona fide refugees. “Although nations have a legitimate right to counter human smugglers because of grave abuses, […]
The good news was buried
It was a good news Christmas-like story which, while incomplete at this point, showed promise of a renewed relationship between Kairos, a faith-based, multi-denominational advocacy group and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). But the story was buried in the 11th paragraph of a story in the December 16 Guelph Mercury. The back story is […]