Twenty-five years ago this summer, in Victoria, the United Church of Canada General Council wrestled with the issue of the ordination of openly gay and lesbian people to the Christian ministry. The Council, the United Church’s highest court, which meets every three years, passed the initiative, with considerable, passionate and generally polite debate. I can […]
Scharf, Lee and Senate housing
Diane Scharf, longtime senior Parliament Hill support staffer, behaved Christianly, on May 29, when she told Ottawa Citizen investigative reporter Glen McGregor that she might be partly to blame for erroneous expenses that triggered the current Senate residency “scandal.” The Scharf story is one of two Citizen pieces to which I will refer in taking […]
Kofi Annan and the pluralists
Kofi Annan, best known for his 1997-2006 stint as secretary-general of the United Nations, was in Ottawa last Thursday, May 23, to talk about pluralism. I was interested in hearing him because Canadian Brian Stiller, global ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance, (headed by another Canadian, Geoff Tunnicliffe) speaks well of the concept of pluralism. […]
Scoping the BC election
It was a late night in the Mackey household in Ottawa yesterday (May 14/15). Somehow, the folk in our home province couldn’t schedule the British Columbia election results to suit their eastern Canadian ex-pats. But not to complain. The B. C. election results were arguably instructive to folk in other parts of Canada whose provincial […]
Remembering Bev Shea
George Beverly (Bev) Shea, who always prefaced Billy Grahams sermons with a simple gospel song, passed away last week at the age of 104. Shea, more than anyone on the Billy Graham team, had strong and continuing links to Ottawa and its environs. He was born in 1909 in Winchester, a 30 minute drive south […]
Some Seismic Shifts in Ottawa
As promised last week, I would like to use OttawaWatch, the next few weeks, to look at some ideas that might be radically conflict-resolving and that might take a few years or even decades to implement. This past weekend As a result of the political activities of the past weekend we have a new ball […]
Wilberforce revisited – a conflict resolution study
Langley MP Mark Warawa has been compared to the British politician William Wilberforce for his for his faith-political approach, in Mark’s case to Canada’s lack of an abortion law, and specifically the issue of gender selective abortion that is practised by some cultures in Canada.
OttawaWatch: Somebody’s place in Ottawa
From my perch, here in Ottawa, one can catch a glimpse of something new emerging in the field of faith-political interfacing. Its working name is “My Place-Chez Moi.” It may well be Ottawa’s best-kept secret and not because its encouragers are trying to keep it under wraps. Rather, it is because those giving leadership to […]
OttawaWatch: Van Loan, Mulcair and Christmas
“We are going to fight hard in all of these by-elections. It’s the only way I know how to do politics. I don’t concede anything to an adversary – ever.” * * * Those were NDP leader Thomas Mulcair’s words, as quoted in a Canadian Press story by Murray Brewster on October 21. They followed […]
OttawaWatch: An unlikely gold mine
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley calls it a “gold mine.” Some opposition critics believe it to be little more than “budget cuts in disguise.” The “it” refers to what Heather Scoffield, writing for Canadian Press on November 9, reported as Finley’s “call for concepts”. That call, in effect, asks businesses, not-for-profits and the volunteer sector […]
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