Thruaglassdarklyx 4

Through a Glass - Darkly
1997
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Contents
Stories of Faith....................................4
Patterns................................................................................................5 People, Gods Way to us.......................................................................6 Passages................................................................................................8 Expressions of Christian Love.............................................................9
The Church Year................................12

Hope - against all odds?.....................................................................12 Joy to the world. ................................................................................14 Images of Peace..................................................................................15 Light up the World.............................................................................16 Holy Week...........................................................................................18 Easter is Emptiness...........................................................................19 Heres to Mothers, Fathers, and God................................................21 United, in word and deed...................................................................22 Summer Worship................................................................................24
Sent into the World...........................26

Good movies, good music...................................................................26 Into all the world................................................................................27 Only a Phone Call Away....................................................................29 The Red Cross.....................................................................................30 A Place of Mercy and Redemption.....................................................31 Finding Mercy and Redemption........................................................33
The Family..........................................36
Children are the church.....................................................................36 Youth...................................................................................................37 Whatever became of the family?........................................................39 Educating Matthew, Jacolyn and Sarah...........................................40 The Wedding Bells Ring.....................................................................42 Exploring Marriage............................................................................44
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Visions................................................46
To Grow...............................................................................................46 To Reach into the world.....................................................................47 Social Action is Evangelism...............................................................49 Church Alive!......................................................................................51 Have we touched someone today?.....................................................52
We are in the world............................54

Washing Raisins, and God..................................................................54 The Right to be Responsible..............................................................55 On Taking Responsibility (part two)................................................56 Remember...........................................................................................58 Racism.................................................................................................59 Violence - the servant of love.............................................................61
Musings of a blinded man................63

The Guest List....................................................................................63 Signs of love, all over the world.........................................................64 Meetings, *((*%$%(* meetings..........................................................65 Will Someone do it for us?..................................................................67 An old as the hills remedy..................................................................68 Fostering life.......................................................................................70 Halloween: Dreams and Visions........................................................71 Practice our Preaching......................................................................72 Rhinos in the Restaurant...................................................................74 Hitting it Squarely.............................................................................75 Foul!....................................................................................................78
Afterword............................................81
Welcome to the world of faith, seen through a glass darkly.

member of the Pictou County Council of Churches called me in June of 1989, and asked if I would write a weekly column for the New Glasgow Evening News. I said yes. The column, established by the Council and the Evening News . carried the title, The purpose, I supposed, was to reflect on issues that Christians, both individually and together as the church, faced in the world, and more particularly, in Pictou County. To that end, I set about reflecting and writing. Herein is a collection of some of my columns written for . They are grouped by subject. considers faith as journey or passage in which I and others are in transition. Knowing God through the people we meet, passing through life and death are matters of faith included in this section. is just that, thoughts on Advent through Pentecost and other church matters , and I peer at the world, and the way in which the church lives in it. The section on struggles with the role of family members in the church, and the role of the family I the world. Weddings and the marriage relation4
ship are matters of faith includedhere. is unique, for I reflect on five statements made by the Presbyterian Church in Canada in 1989. Look here for thoughts on evangelism and life in Christ. I firmly believe that as a Christian, I do not lose my humanity, but gain a new dimension to it. This dimension is part of being in the world as a child of God and brother of Jesus Christ. how do we live in the mundane, earthiness of it all? How do we struggle with major social issues like abortion, racism, or violence? are reflections on somewhat unrelated issues, like love, parties, and church meetings. This section now includes a couple of pieces written since 1989. I pray that you may find a little light as you look
Stories of Faith
his star anyway. (Fred Buechner) hats a Toronto boy doing in Pictou County? We might know good reasons for a Pictou County person to go to Toronto. But for a city boy to come to Pictou County? And we murmur that God does indeed work in strange ways. This retelling of the story of Abraham points to a common factor. He put the house on the market and gave the colour TV to the hospital and got a good price for the crib and bassinet because they had never been used and were good as new. Abraham wrote an eloquent letter of resignation to the president of the company and receive an equally eloquent one in reply, assuring him that there would always be a job waiting for him if he ever changed his mind and came back. "If he ever regained his senses and came back" was the way the president expressed it in his first draft. He thought religion was a good thing, like social security and regular exercise, but he didnt think it was something to go overboard about like Abraham. He settled for the milder wording in his final draft. So off they went in their station wagon with the U-haul behind and a handful of friends and relations, who if they didnt share Abrahams religious convictions, decided to hitch their wagons to
Today we call this the Christian pilgrimage or journey of faith. Although my journey may not be as spectacular as Abrahams or Pauls I am on a journey. God became a reality for me because of the teaching and Christian energy of my parents. The love of God in Christ was the motivation behind the discipline, caring and teaching of mom and dad. And of course, love for Christs church motivated faithful attendance at a little Baptist church about sixty miles north of Toronto, with three children in tow. Instilled with a passion for God and Gods people, I soon found myself in a Presbyterian church, in New Brunswick. No, the passion was not stilled by the theology of Scottish Presbyterians; to the passion God adds reason. And to the reason God adds Knox College, a Presbyterian seminary. Knox has yet to understand why it was the place for the next stage of this pilgrimage. With relief, the college sent me out to the farmlands of southwestern Ontario to add a little experience to my passion, reason and education. I have come to believe that the decision makers in the Presbyterian Church in Canada had a lot more faith in God who leads this pilgrimage than in me the one on the jour5
ney. That experience in the real world of parish ministry added not only experience, but the joys of life with other Christians, the challenges of working with other church leaders, and the melody of an angels song as others discovered God in their lives. And to all these, God adds Pictou County. Six years ago a congregation in this county invited me to continue my Christian pilgrimage with them. To all that God has given me, he adds a sense of the heritage of the Christian church in Canada, a place to enjoy the richness of the roots of the Presbyterian church. This Toronto boy is continuing his pilgrimage in Pictou County, a journey of faith and joy in God.
An Oriental rug blazes with colour and pattern. Someone has suggested that a woven tapestry is able to display its rich colour and life-like patterns because of an apparent mess of thread underneath. Much like moving from spring into summer, from fall into winter, the Church Year moves from Advent through to Pentecost. This Sunday, Christ the King Sunday, marks the end of our Church Year. Patterns and rituals help us live and give meaning to our lives. We learn such patterns in the midst of family life, from friends, and even from teachers. The young bride was preparing her first roast beef dinner. Her husband, helping in the kitchen, was amazed when she carefully cut the roast in half, then placed each half in a separate pan and put the pans in the oven. It seemed strange because either pan would have held the roast.
Patterns
aught unprepared! The line ups to get snow tires Why did you do that? the husinstalled are testimony that we are not ready for winter. band asked. We know full well the pattern of the Thats the way my mother alseasons. November is always the ways did it. she said with confimonth of the first blast of winter. dence. Have you ever stopped to conNot wanting to start their first sider the ways patterns, shapes disagreement, the husband went and colours are part of our lives? along. However, on their next visit Dont wear a dotted tie with a to the in-laws, he told them about striped shirt; Frasers wear the the roast being cut in half. The Fraser tartan, not the MacKay tarmother-in-law laughingly said, tan. The dapper English gentleOh, I always had so many people man wears his Harris Tweed. to feed and only two small pans. The seasons attack and retreat. I had to cut the roast in smaller
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pieces. Take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.
This Biblical counsel reminds us that God has given us some patterns or rituals for living. These patterns are not found so much in rules and regulations, although we cannot easily dismiss such words as the Ten Commandments. RathPatterns given to us by God er, the patterns are discovered in through others, that we might be people who have lived with obediobedient, compassionate and eaence, compassion and eagerness. ger. And maybe, more to the point, We might think of such people these people, like so many others, as Abraham, who walks with the are witness to the mighty power God who asks the impossible, de- of God in our world today. mands the unbelievable. Or of David, the shepherd-king who can People, Gods Way to conquer giants, but cant control us his own passions. Described as a man after Gods own heart, we see think it is Dietrich Bonhoin David a pattern of repentance effer who writes of seeing and obedience. or discovering Christ in othHow I wonder that Jesus cries er people. Maybe he puts it more over Jerusalem, the very place bluntly by saying that the goal of where Gods prophets are killed, our Christian life is to be little and He himself will find death on Christs in the world. This belief a cross. How I wonder that His seems all the more suggestive as heart almost breaks for the obsti- it comes from one imprisoned for nate, contrary brood of sinners his testimony to the living Christ, who will cry for His blood. What and his witness against evil as he else is this but compassion born of saw it in Adolf Hitler. love? I wonder about the people I We see patterns of obedience, have met, the people who have to compassion and eagerness. Saint some degree been little Christs. I Paul says that for him to live is think about those people through Christ. His eagerness is for Christ whom God has made himself real within his heart, his home, his to me. I will not bore you with an work, his life.
The years since Jesus walked this earth are filled with people who have lived after His pattern. People like St. Francis of Assisi who cared for the environment as much as he did for God; Martin Luther King Jr., driven by Gods pattern that in Christ there is no slave or free; Mother Theresa whose compassion and healing reminds us of the selfless love of Christ.
exhausting list of people I knew growing up in rural Ontario. I have also reminded myself in this column how deeply indebted I am to my mom and dad for their many ways of revealing God and his love to me. Good friends, one person says, are curious, a true joy (asking questions that help refocus our thoughts); listen intently; open the door a crack and let light into the room; honest; give unconditional love. When someone is a friend in any of these ways, they remind me of God, for these qualities are God-qualities. I remember a friend who, upon saying good-bye to me, was able to delight in our shared times, declaring her growing faith in Christ because of our knowing each other. Similarly I know someone who shared their journey of faith with me, a journey of some doubt, like the infant learning to walk more by picking themselves up after their fall. These two friends were and are Gods windows for joy in my life.
lives? How much this sounds like my relationship to God. I often wonder at the kind of relationship, the friendship, which can survive time and distance. Jim and I talk to each other maybe once or twice a year. I can remember going for more than a year without any communication. Then we made contact, and although much had happened in the mean time, like an artist with a pencil we sketched the outlines, and we touched one anothers lives. When Jim and I see each other, we inevitably share a pizza or some chinese food together. Well, usually we feast together. I guess I would have to say that Jim is one of the most available friends I have, and in this he brings God to me. Friends are not Gods only way of making himself known to me. I may not now be able to name individuals, or recall of specific things they have said or done, but I remember their impact. Some people I know have been able to help me understand something more about christian faith, and living that faith in this world. Others have given a keen appreciation for the gospel of Jesus Christ as a personal gospel, having to do with individuals and their lives.
I rejoice knowing a family, whose openness to me, and honesty with me, are like the sunrise. Beams of warm, almost holy light have touched me because of them. This family, filled with the pain of the premature death of their oldest daughter, found room in their I will not likely forget the group grief-filled hearts for me. I wonder now, was I reaching out to them of people who would gather in with hands of support and comfort, Peoples Restaurant, a small cafe or were they pulling me into their type setting, in Toronto. Keith,
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Jane, Doug and I might be joined by others, but we were the core. How much I learned of God because of these people - our debates, our arguments, our often loud disagreements.
another in such times. My reflections on all this remind me of a paragraph or so from Gail Sheehy. In her follow-up book to she writes: On an individual level the local church has often failed to deliver what people really need during a personal passage or a time of national transition: a sense of intimacy with their spiritual guides, a community of shared values, and the reassurance that members of that community care about them. Gail Sheehy, 1981, p.455.
A classroom scene at a denominational college in New Brunswick will never leave my heart. The professor, in the midst of a boring lecture on the Apostle Paul, awoke my sleepy mind with his passion for the particular text or truth that had arisen in the lecture. Passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ? Yes, as he went on to reflect on the posMany Biblical stories are tales sibility of being crowded to Christ, of passage. Adam and Eve are exthis person brought God before me pelled from the Garden of Eden; as a God of the heart. Abraham makes his way to an unWake up, Terry, the person you known land. Saul of the New Testalk to next might reveal God to tament, traveling to Damascus you. discovers new intentions and directions. Personal passages are times such as these, also times of joy such Passages as that found in weddings and significant anniversaries. any of my friends are A death creates a personal pascongratulating me on my new job. This past sage of grief and sorrow. Job and Sunday, several Christian friends career changes and a family move asked about the first week on the are personal passages. Personal job. How did it go? Did you mind passages also include such events the driving? Is it what you expect- as we have witnessed in China last ed? Thank you for all your kind year, and the Eastern block counand generous words. Behind these tries of Europe in the past few words, and these questions I hear months. During this time of namore than curiosity. I hear a car- tional transition, these people unpersonal passages, ing note of concern. I feel many dergo journeying from one form of govhoping that the job goes well. ernment to another. I hear and feel a sense of love, Sheehy may have been right in the kind of love that stands with
1981, and she may be right about some local churches. But I have also witnessed how the church does provide what people need during a personal passage. The church is present to the engaged couple seeking a church wedding. The church, through its building and people, offers these people the opportunity to meet their spiritual guide, to share in a community of shared values, and to sense the care of others.
and churches do stand with us. The church does bear witness to God, a community of shared values, and that we can know a community of people that care for us.
I know that we also may tell stories of being deserted by the church. We as the church are conscious of our failures. We know that at times we care more about our internal issues than about sharing Gods love or sharing our resources with others in our comThe church is also present to munity. We pray to God and plead with those we have failed: forgive the suffering, the grieving. us. Give us another chance to be The church does offer a hand, with you in your passages. a prayer, a word of hope. Through the liturgy of the funeral, the Expressions of church speaks of God and life in the midst of death. Through the Christian Love liturgy of caring, we give ourselves to others that they might know he first child of King DaGods care through us. vid and Bathsheba beMany of us have seen and felt the presence of the church in this county in times of passage and crisis. Labour disputes may be times of crisis and personal passage for some. Quietly, but with courage and hope, the church in Pictou County has played a part in the resolution of at least two labour disputes in recent history. The church does remind us of the presence of God in our world and the common value we all give or want to give to human life. comes very ill and dies. The dying of the child finds David praying to God for the childs health; he fasts and spends nights lying on the floor. His court officials go to him and try to make him get up, but he refuses and will not eat anything with them. II Samuel 12:17.
Job, famous for his patience in the midst of suffering is comforted by three friends who sit quietly with him for seven days. Job 2:11-13. Then, they open their We may tell stories such as mouths and destroy their caring these. We enjoy these blessings, silence. that in Pictou County, the church This article is the first of two in
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which I ask Who cares, and How can we care? We give Christian love and hope when we care for others. Dying people need caring people. We see persons dying in an institution or at home. Who dares to care that this dying person has needs, or tasks to perform? Who dares to care for the family who in the dying of their loved one face their mortality? The task of the bereaved is also the task of the dying. This means two things. First that the individual who knows or senses he(she) is dying is also the bereaved. All of the physical symptoms may appear . . . The second point is that those who suffer the loss of themselves have the same task as those who suffer the loss of someone else. Jack, a former corporation president contracted cancer, and lost his job. He had run through his insurance . . ., used his life savings, and had practically nothing left. A Christian leader visits Jack, saying You speak so openly about the shortness of life you have left. Im sure youve thought very much about dying. I wonder if youve prepared for your life after death? Jack answers with anger, accusing the man of thinking only about what will happen after death. If your God is so great, why doesnt he do something about the real problems of life? The real problems of life for Jack are his wifes and daughters future, for both would be left penniless.
The man returns to Jacks home. He pulls out a note pad saying, `Jack, I know I offended you before. I humbly apologize. One problem is how will your wife and daughter have a place to live when they dont have any income. Ive checked in the neighbourhood. We have a realtor in the church who agrees to sell your house, and give your widow the real estate commission. A group of men with me will make the payments that might elapse until the house is sold. Stay here until you die, and if youll permit me, well make the payments. Right down the street, theres this large apartment house. Ive contacted the owner. He offers your wife an apartment for her and your daughter. When your house is sold, well move her over there. He will pay her and give her free utilities in return for which she can collect rents and supervise plumbing and electrical repairs. Shell be there until your daughter graduates from high school, and the income from your house should pay for her college. The final thing is, Ive gotten a team of young men from the church whove volunteered to pool their money and rent an U-haul truck and move her, so it wont cost her a cent. I want you die in peace, knowing that your wife and daughter are cared for. One thing I need is your permission to execute these plans for you after youre gone. Jack just cries like a baby.
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ent with the dying. The dying or bereaved are not, never, to be cast out of society, but kept a vital part Expressions of of life and social relationships. AnChristian Love . . . other point: not only need we take time to be with the dying, but we aring is offering a loaf of need to allow them to be with us, bread, a sandwich, a cup at our family gatherings, parties, of coffee. A custom in our churches. which seems popular in Canada is The first step towards caring that after the funeral, which is usufor the dying and bereaved is to be ally a very traumatic time for people, a gathering for a meal is of willing to understand them and great value. I really like the North their burdens. A second expresAmerican custom of returning af- sion of care is in the willingness of ter a funeral to someones home an individual or organization to where people socialize - maybe provide for a grief-support or have a few drinks, and certainly grief-recovery group. The value of share a meal together - no matter grief-recovery groups as they exist how simple. This is of tremendous in some Canadian and American value to grieving persons as it gives communities is in the caring, suptime for the resocialization of all portive atmosphere. involved. It is a symbol that life Members of self help groups demust go on. clare that here, it is okay to hurt, Maybe you can tell more suc- to miss the deceased, to be afraid cess stories, of Gods people loving of dying. The person who seeks others. Some very basic points are some understanding of life torn common in these stories. We can apart by death may find it; the lonefind particular ways to express ly may find friends and listeners; care for the dying and bereaved. the bereaved finding it difficult to Let me suggest the basic points of re-enter society may find a doorcaring for others, whether they are way through a grief-support group.
dying, sick, or well. The first step in developing a caring response to the dying person is BE AWARE OF THEIR NEEDS AND GRIEF. How can we learn of the needs of the dying? There is no better way than by sensitive listening. The beginning of our awareness is in our being pres-
A third approach is commonly called Death Education. This, as I see it, aims at preparing people for the time of their own dying, as well as gaining an understanding of the needs of the dying and bereaved around them. A minister may lead in death education by preaching sermons on Grief, Dying, Fear and the like.
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Caring for the dying and bereaved begins with a willingness to understand their needs and emotions. If this is a model, call it Understanding or Presence. A second model is to allow the birth of a grief-recovery group in your church or community. The third model suggested is death education, an intentional program of leading others into an awareness of the human and theological dimensions of dying and grief.
The Church Year

Hope - against all odds?
appy New Year? Yes, the Christian can begin using this greeting Our task is to help Vera Die. tomorrow, for Advent is the beginWith friends who were nearby, ning of our church year. Advent, home visits and later in her illness, more than just the beginning of a hospital visits, were carefully new church year, is our prepscheduled. It meant lengthy talks aration for a birth day party. without interruption, and giving Thats something about the Bible the family some breaks in a de- that I really like -- there are many manding schedule . . . Calls came, parties and celebrations. `How can we help? In countless Advent, however, is not the parways, friends did help. There were ty. Advent is the making ready, getthe simple, obvious, yet essential ting dressed for the party. We wait, gifts, of food and family care, shopwe look ahead, we prepare. We ping and phoning. Less obvious, hope, and in our hoping yearn. Our but very helpful were other things waiting is not a passive, Oh well, a congregation can do - purchasing it will get here soon enough. We gifts, wrapping them, writing letdo not surrender to the hope that ters, reading to her, cooking favouthis season will soon be over. rite recipes, taking a special lunch to the hospital, imaginative little gifts, a short note with a funny story. Cards, notes, flowers, and above all, prayer provided strength for the home stretch. One group in the congregation made daily prayer their gift.
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One of the ways we symbolize our waiting in hope is through lighting the Advent candles in the Advent wreath. The idea of a wreath, a circle, is symbolic of eternity, or Godno beginning, no end, but continuous.
Gods light in the darkness, Gods justice and mercy in a world riddled with bickering and disputes. I think of the family in the Carlsbad Caverns. Mom and Dad stand with their 11 year old son and 7 year old daughter. The tour reaches the deepest point in the cavern. The guide turns off all the lights to dramatize how completely dark and silent it is below the earths surface.
The hope we speak of at Advent is not a kind of wishful thinking, hoping against all odds. The hope of which we the church dare speak is more than the optimism that says no will push the nuclear butThe little girl, suddenly smothton, or that life just has to get betered in utter darkness, begins to ter. Christians tend to be realists cry. Immediately her brother says, in that we know we will never be Dont cry. Somebody here knows able to completely rescue Christhow to turn on the lights. mas from its commercialism. Wait in hope, hope in God, beWe know, with sadness, that lieving that we already possess many will not be able to imagine what we hope for. In this season joy at Christmas. Life just does not of sacred quiet broken by profane seem to get much better, at least frantic noise; of sacred patient not before it gets a lot worse. We calmness broken by profane franknow that there are people who tic rushing; of sacred fasting brohave curled up and died in a corner, ken by profane feastingwe who for no other reason than they lost have been baptized into new life hope. The Church is a people who experience ourselves as strangers discover hope in the midst of the in a strange land. We find ourdarkness in which we all live. We selves drawn away from the tinsel are people upon whom some light and carols of our profane world inshines even though we are tired, to the sanctuary of sacred time and hungry, full of guilt. space. Here we might learn what What is this Advent hope all it means to wait for the coming of about then? It is about the birth what has already come. (John H. of Jesus Christ. Our hope is about Westerhoff III, ). God in our world. Our hope is itself Or, in the words of Ann Weems, a gift of God. Advent is about hope, we hope for The unwrapping of for we hope for the Advent or comGods greatest gift. Advent ing of Jesus Christ into our world. coming. God will take away the tinHope is lighting the candle. Hope sel and decorate our hearts in hope is knowing that Jesus Christ is
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so that Christians can sit laughing Bethlehem is just the other side in the rain, knowing that the Lord of Jerusalem. A sleepy suburb that is going to shine in upon their be- loses its youth to the bright lights ing. of the big city, whose economy depends heavily on the vitality of For no matter how long the Jerusalems economy. People are darkness, God will send the Light. never born in Bethlehem, they are In spite of cursing and violence and born in Jerusalem. People born in the massacring of human dignity, Bethlehem return only under orwe will dance in the streets of Bethders from a Caesar Augustus. lehem, The priest stands up in the synfor He will be born! agogue and begins to read: The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness Joy to the world. will burst into bloom like the wilderness, rejoicing greatly and he music is drowned in shouting for joy. the despair of the fish Leave it to God to speak of plant worker saying, greener grass, of a better life when The lay off is a hell of a Christmas all around there is the smell of depresent. As if joy is the result of spair, sadness, hunger and pain. employment, Christmas bonuses, The eyes of the blind will be and the hopes of a pay raise in the new year. Joy to the world. The opened, the priest drones. The hungry, the tired and the cold do ears of the deaf unstopped. Then not speak the words, nor think will the lame leap like a deer, and them. Is it not the point of Christ- the mute tongue shout for joy. Wamas that these very people will ter will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert find joy, for the Lord is come? Gladness and joy will overtake the A people, once known as Gods people, and sorrow and sighing people, drag their feet in discourwill flee away. (Isaiah 35). agement. Homeless, for the land We have men and women whose of their birth is thousands of miles away; Godless for the temple is in marriages have died despite their ruins. Fear of others makes sleep intentions, through overwork, difficult. Oh sure, they are em- through alcoholism, through conployed. But for how long? And sumerism. We have abandoned, slave wages are hardly enough to teenage girls who see no choice for provide for the required party for themselves but to abort their pregnancies. We have mass starvation a daughters wedding. in countries that export sugar and
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coffee for profit. We have Cruise Missiles and SS-20s; we have the MX and the Polaris; we have the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All these, and more we have on the one side. On the other side we have a child born nearly 2,000 years ago in a stable in an enslaved country. We have a child who grew up to suffer and die for us, a victim of our greed and our hate and our fear, that we might be reconciled to God and our neighbour and that love and justice might reign. (The Light of the Child from , Dec-Jan, 1983). This same child once told some investigative reporters, Report what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured the deaf hear and the dead are raised. Joy to the world. The Christ child is Gods gift of joy to us. This joy continues to be shared here and there in our world. Christmas people in our community, caught up in the joy of Christmas, share that joy with others. We may not yet hear the shouts of the speechless, but we may see a smile break out, and hear hands clap for in the midst of poverty a tree is decorated. Hark the glad sound of a child picking up the chant, Joy to the world, for the Lord is come.
Images of Peace
eace in our time? Almost afraid to ask the question, we quietly hope, wish and pray for peace. Maybe this year the words of the Christmas music will enter our hearts and souls, not just our ears. Maybe the peace we sing about will be lived. Every Christmas season, a passion for peace grips me. Each post-Christmas season, I wonder why I, and the world around me, cant find peace. The cease-fires, temporary truces between warring nations, end in the noise of gun-fire and verbal attacks. Families put aside past anger, at least for a day. How quickly, though, tempers flare, people fling words once the festivities of Christmas Day end. Peace in our time? Maybe, for the shift in direction of some politicians and nations encourages us. The bear and the eagle no longer speak from behind barriers of arms. We hear the same voices, and even the same words, but the tone is softer. Dare we hope that the bear will live with eagle? Are we really going to give peace a chance? Christmas fills our minds with
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images of peace. Shepherds in the fields abiding hear the words.Fear not, while dread seizes their troubled minds. The message ends, All glory be to God on high, and to the earth be peace. In the bleak mid-winter, the bright, twinkling star beckons. The star lures and leads us to the heavy smell of a stable. The presence of human beings, and especially a new born child does not disturb the contentedness of the farm animals. The night does not disturb the town of Bethlehem. Angels songs, of peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled, fill the air. The children silently hum the tunes as they busy themselves around the tree. The children scramble to put on the first, the second or the last decoration. The scrambling seems different. Can it be that the children are co-operating?
behind the rhetoric of war, and politics, and the arms' race. Can we see lasting images, stronger images of peace? Dare we believe that the leopard will lie down with the goat, that the cow will feed with the bear? The Christian church still believes the angels song, that the stable-born child is the peace of God on earth. Images of peace that grow up with this child. The image of a giving and loving God comes into focus. Rich and poor, educated and labourer gather around this child in delight and joyful worship.
I keep getting the feeling that we find peace in openness to the reality of God in our world. I sing the Christmas songs and hymns; I read the Christmas stories, and one picture appears on every role of film. Peace is Gods gift to the person(s) and nations who bring themselves and their gifts to Gods Son. Peace is in the manger simply International good-will is also because here God finds us. in order, as a leader from one country goes to another with a Christmas tree. Leaders denouncing the past mistakes of their country, mis- Light up the World takes in which other people suffered. piphany, can you say it? We quickly discover that such E - piph - any, the season images of peace are smoke - they of making known. God disappear with the first gust of makes Himself known to the Genwind. War tears Bethlehem apart. tiles. The Gentiles in the New TesThe stars fade under the heavy, ac- tament are foreigners, not rid smell of gun fire. The children Israelites, not Jews. Epiphany is now bicker, and badger one anoth- the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jaer. World leaders quickly retreat cob letting the foreigner in on His
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love. The Christian Church has observed the Season of Epiphany since the third century, AD The day of Epiphany always falls on January 6th, but we celebrate it on the first Sunday of the new year.
The Sun rises and suddenly Something seems to happen to the world. The fog-frozen trees flash fire in the morning light, and set the city on the hill ablaze with glory, making our small and yellow lights seem insignificant.
We celebrate Epiphany as the festival of light(s), for it is the lightWell would we wonder when ing up of lives through Jesus Christ. Epiphany is the giving of waking and we wash our face Gods light to all people. The two why one who wore our flesh great themes of Epiphany are light like light, and the mission of the church. We plunged into the river of our hold that the God who is born in time and tears Jesus Christ is the light of the to turn us toward a Fathers love world. We also hold that this God and home. loves all people everywhere. These two convictions motivate our conWe the church are engaged in cern for the earth and air that sus- the task of spreading this light, tain us, and our attempts to spread spreading the good news, making the good news to all the world. disciples of Jesus Christ of people. I agree with Roger Vadim, who describes the powerful effect of light filtering through stained glass windows and the magic of chandeliers glowing with candles. This theatre that touches his soul almost awakens him to the reality of God. Light has that power, that
magic. Whether the light of the sun on freshly fallen snow blind us, the breaking of light in a sunrise, or the play of light and shadow in a photograph awaken awe in us, light is a powerful part of life. We see more clearly because of the light. Some of us do not like driving at night, because there is only the artificial light of the headlights. We also feel warmer because of light. A dull day makes for dull spirits, while a bright day makes for bright spirits. All this, and more, is part of Epiphany, for Christ is Gods light in our world. Because of Christ, we can see more clearly now, or as the blind man healed by Jesus says, Once I was blind, but now I see.
Our mission is to live, worship, pray so that our neighbour will know of Gods light. We remind ourselves daily that the church is no more than the people whom God redeems. This means you and me who call ourselves Christians, followers of the light. We are so
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much like the child in the dark cavern. The darkness frightens us; but we are also like the magi. We rise from meeting Jesus and discover that God turns on the light. We become confident that God will not let his light go out. More than this, we become concerned that his light grows brighter and warmer as He reaches through us into the lives of others.
warmth again. The people commit their spirits to God, their rock and fortress. Let the party begin! We join the chattering children as we sing Hosanna Loud Hosanna, Ride on Ride on majesty, in lowly pomp ride on to die. Bow thy meek head to mortal pain. Then take, O God, thy power and reign. We join the crowd this Palm Sunday, ready to lay our coats on the road.
Guide them through the darkness of the lonely night, Shining still before them with thy kindly light, Until every nation, whether bond or free, Neath thy star-lit banner, Jesus, follows Thee.
Despite centuries of history, But we are not the central charthere are people near and far who acter in this drama. Our songs, our still await the bright light of Jesus cries direct our eyes towards Jesus, Christ to break the darkness of sitting uncomfortably on the dontheir lives. key. He gazes around. He sees the William Pitts writes in an joyful children. He hears the thunder of acclamation. His heart is Epiphany hymn: near breaking. Jesus sees the Temple, and the Roman soldiers. He believes, as ODriscoll says, that both the Roman and Jewish ways of life are killing the capacity of people to reach for Gods kingdom. These ways he knows must be changed - the moneychangers must be driven from the temple. Gathering clouds of hatred and rejection taint the swelling joy of the Hosannas. The Holy Week party quickly turns sour. Plots, counter plots, and bribery replace the palms and the songs. The religious and non-religious secret police subject Jesus to legal and illegal investigation. The closest friends of Jesus begin to doubt, wonder and find ways to get out of their association with Him.
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Holy Week
oly Week begins with chattering children, ringing hosannas, and the swish of palm branches. The celebration is the profession that the King enters the Holy City. The people uncover confidence in God. Dreams long forgotten catch fire; hopes deeply buried flare in
The servant walks like a lamb to the slaughter. There is no resistance. The so-called King now stumbles, a beaten, bleeding man carrying his instrument of death. The cheering crowds now jeer. The songs are hisses. The air fills with Dinner begins as everyone sits the ring of metal against metal as or lays down at the table. Jesus nails break through flesh to attach takes in the face of each disciple, securely to the cross beam. seeing that all are present. He God himself appears to close quickly rises, takes a towel and a the books on the party. Black Fribasin of water and begins to wash day - Jesus hangs dying, a deep the disciples feet. Returning to his darkness descends over the earth. place he speaks those fateful words. The King is dead. One of you who dips his bread into this cup will betray me. Any con- Blackness burnt into darkness; fidence in the hearts of these dear abysmal absence of anything good. friends unravels. Minds refuse to We tremble for a world that would understand, hearts shut out the kill its God. Gone is our capacity to reach out and grasp the kingpossibility. dom of God. Holy Week continues The bread breaks, the cup empto remind us of Jesus desire to ties. The betrayer flees and the move against the walls of our own darkness descends. The cry of aninner city, that city which we hold guish begins as Jesus makes his so jealously against any invasion. way to a garden. Holy Week, remember, is Jesus ofThe garden is the strange cli- fer of a kingdom, a way of max to the party. The party ends, experiencing life, an intimacy with and the loose ends will be tied up himself. shortly. Jesus stands alone to face the thunder of rejection, the walls and gates that do not come tumbling down. The conflict breaks out Easter is Emptiness of its respectability. The hatred gushes forth. The hatred, the rejection, the way of the world defeats
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Holy Week ticks towards destruction. What else can come of this confrontation between one hailed as Gods King, and the nervous political and religious power brokers? Thursday of Holy Week lets us peek into a seemingly quiet domestic scene. Jesus gathers with his closest friends to have supper. Maundy Thursday is the day of cleansing, the breaking of bread and darkness.
Jesus. So Judas concludes. The very powers against which Jesus so freely and strongly spoke now bind him. The moneychangers are back, getting their revenge.
who has a general, all-pervading feeling of confusion. This person has lost unity and direction in life. Boundaries which could keep one together are lost. This person is a prisoner of the present, drifting from left to right, unable to select a course. Emptiness is no meaning, no personal touch, no satisfacne Easter morning, I tion. present the children Like Peter, Judas and the othwith a brown bag. The ers, we flee the emptiness. The brown bag always holds a surprise. unemployed flee boredom with a The contents of the bag create a stobottle. The unhappy husband flees ry for the children. This Easter his wifes arms for another woman. morning, the bag has all the apA child flees the senselessness of pearances of containing somehome and school, finding the video thing special. A child looks in the parlour. Run, run, run, run away; bag -- and sees nothing. One child, find that which dulls the pain; but I recall, shows disappointment, we are not released us from the and remains so for several days. emptiness. This is a cruel surprise -- nothing Three women find an empty is in the bag. Easter morning really tomb, and flee. But, they do not esis a cruel surprise. cape, for they run with a word, a The first Easter is emptiness: message that although the tomb Mary -- her grief is a large, heavy is empty, the Christ is not gone. He stone. Joanna -- her sense of boreis not here, he is risen - lets meet dom, and routine is like a tomb. him in Galilee. Peter, the Christ-denier is in siThe emptiness is not Easter; lent remorse. He is empty, How neither is the escape. Easter is discowardly of me, as Jesus suffered, covered in the exploration of the to deny, desert him. There is no emptiness. Martin Luther, dechance of reconciliation for I am spairing in unrighteousness exin a pit where God is not, where plores his emptiness, and finds the I am not. Judas, the risen Christ who frees and fills Christ-betrayer, sees only death as with meaning. his way out of the emptiness. A mans 11 year old child dies The tombs emptiness, the empsuddenly. His father says, My tiness of our hearts is the Easter first response to Jonathans death story. Nuclear Man, as described was shock. Then came anger. Then by Henri Nouwen is the person
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Too late, I confess, I missed grief. With the grief came a need to put something into that empti- Mothers Day ( Christian Family Sunday in the church). That is, I ness. missed writing about it in this colMillions of people are finding umn. Lest I forget Fathers Day, that communist socialism is empty. I use the occasion of Pentecost to They are turning to any form of dedraw attention to both mothers mocracy. Does democracy really and fathers. fill the emptiness? Pentecost, in the Christian What dare we put into the empeconomy of the year, is the celebratiness, but the risen Christ, the Jetion of the descent of tongues like sus who lives today. fire on the disciples cowering in Whether the tomb be grief and prayer in an attic somewhere in Jeloss in death rusalem. The wind that day almost tore the roof off to expose the unWhether the tomb be aimlesssuspecting group. This event is the ness, lack of direction descent of the Holy Spirit in power The tomb of a disintegrating and authority - just what Jesus family promised only a few days ago. The image of God as a mighty wind, a Or our own unhappy hearts spirit is as old as creation, and this Feel the emptiness; allow the image may guide us in our reflectombs cold walls to scream tions about Pentecost, mothers, and fathers. He is not here, he is risen. Mothers, like it or not, are the When we discover our own empcare givers, the creative force in sotiness, we perchance will find Christ who is risen and waiting to ciety and the family. Mothers, thank God, brood over us as chilmeet us. dren. Late at night, the hand that cools the fevered body is mothers' hand. I dont want Madge and PalHeres to Mothers, molive to soften the strength and character of that hand. That hand Fathers, and God picked me up when I fell, scraping my knee. That hand somehow has hat does Pentecost more healing power than all the have to do with mothers needles a doctor has. The brooding and fathers? Every- creative love of my mother rething, for Pentecost is the season minds of Pentecost. in which we enjoy the God who is The wind, the breath, the Spirit both mother and father to us. of God broods over the waters dur-
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ing creation. The brooding love of Mothers and fathers, each in God brings order out of chaos. their way, are like God in the ways Gods love for Israel is the brood- in which they encourage us as chiling love of the eagle, hovering over dren to grow, to risk safely, to get its young, spreading its wings to off the ground (like a kite). Pentecatch the eaglet learning to fly. cost is Gods encouragement to us Now, at Pentecost, that same God all - as mothers, fathers, children, pours himself out as Spirit into the Christians - to grow, to risk safely, life of the disciples. This time, the to get off the ground (or whatever healing power of God the Spirit re- else we are now sitting on.) news, recreates life for the disciOne of my favourite Pentecost ples - and for the world. That dark, pieces of music is Spirit of God. dusty attic - somewhere in JerusaSpirit of God in the clear running lem - is the birthplace of the church water, blowing to greatness the that we know today. As the trees on the hill, Spirit of God in tongues of fire lick at the hearts the finger of morning, Fill the and minds of the disciples, as the earth, bring it to birth, and blow wind blows away the cobwebs, God where you will. Spirit of God, every the Spirit, maternal, caring and ones heart is lonely, watching and loving gives birth to the church. waiting and hungry until, Spirit of Mothers, like the Spirit of the God, all long that you only fulfil living God, teach us the skills of the earth, bring it to birth, and the heart - caring, compassion, blow where you will, Blow, blow, healing. Fathers, like God whom blow until I be but breath of the we call Father, teach us the skills Spirit blowing in me. of the body. Fathers tend to be the person in our lives who take us out to play ball, fish, hunt, or fix things. United, in word and Fathers, as much as mothers, are persons of patience (a fruit of deed Gods spirit). I know my father must have been patient, showing believe in the Holy Cathome how to hit the right nail. Like lic Church, because Jesus the God we know best, fathers gives birth to it through tend to lead us along the paths we Gods living Spirit. I believe in the journey, going before us or walk- one, holy, apostolic, catholic ing beside us as necessary. I think church because Jesus is building of how God walked with his people it through the Spirit. The during their journey in the wilder- Apostles Creed and the Nicene ness, as a cloud by day and a pillar Creed remind us of Christian unity. of fire at night. The Week of Prayer for Christian
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son tells another of Christ, and look, His church is born in yet another place of our world. Some two thousand years ago, Jesus started this thing we call the church. He continues to build His church. Yes, we might see His church wearing different clothes. We might not make sense of the way His church Have we heard the hundreds of in India speaks. We may not even thousands voices? They sing in like the way His church in Italy common confession of one Lord, worships. The church of Christ in one faith, one baptism: I believe other countries does not readily in the Holy Catholic Church. understand us either. Christian Christian unity begins with these unity says, okay. We are united by words,I believe in God the Father the same Lord we worship with Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Pope Gregory the Great, Mother Earth. We sense that our unity Teresa, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, must go beyond these words, must and Martin Luther King Jr. be practical. So, before the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ends The difficulty we have with for the first time in the 1990s, I Gods gift is that we do not easily will say two things about it. practice this unity. The practical aspect of Christian unity is deThe church is one, yet universal. scribed in the prophets and in the The quality of unity lies in the gathNew Testament as togetherness. ering of people together. God does Each group of people who meet tothe gathering even as He does the gether in the name of Jesus Christ building. Our unity, whatever it can rightly say, We are (part of) means in a practical sense, is a gift the one, holy, catholic church. of God. Christian unity goes beHere lies the rub, as it did in Euyond denominations, nationalities, rope some 250 years ago. In 1737 and skin colours. the abbot of Saint-Maximin, vicar The people whom God gathers general of Alais, wrote a thesis optogether come from every corner posing `false converts who went of the world. People stream to God to church when they had no alterfrom the far eastern reaches, the native, but did not bother to conextreme northern nations, the ceal their derision. When they southern countries and continents think they can avoid paying the and from the west. Yes, there is a fines (penalties for absence from world-wide sense to Christian uni- church services), they do not bothty. The church, we realize, is a er to come, and we do not see them world-wide movement. One per- again until there is a wedding in
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Unity ends, and are we any closer to Christian unity? Have we prayed so that nothing changes between us and our neighbour? Has God heard our prayer that we would live so that in Him there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, slave nor free?
Each summer about this time employers temporarily dismiss us and teachers gratefully dismiss classes. Vacations begin. Churches get into the act as congregations are also dismissed. Some of us will say that this is for a much deserved rest. Church workers, both professional and lay, are given the opportunity to withdraw, to find retreat, Christian unity is, in the day to to seek renewal either alone (with day sense of it, the gathering to- God) or with families. gether of people in the name of JeThe people of the congregation sus Christ. Ann Weems writes in are also given this wonderful opa litany, I Celebrate the Church portunity, to go on vacation. The of Jesus Christ that opportunity is not to enjoy the Sunday morning sleep-in, or the temWe as Gods celebrants dance porary wealth of contributions through this world together (tithes and offerings) which canlistening for Gods music, renot be given to a closed church. sponding to Gods word Rather, because our faith is in the praising God with clapping God of all seasons, we might find hands and moving feet, renewal as we worship with Gods praising God with justice and people in another building.
their family. They baptized their children so that they would have civil status, but they have such an aversion to coming to church that many fathers refuse to accompany them. The voices I hear speaking of the lack of real unity in the church may be the voices of people who have declined being part of the church. (The voices I hear in the church sometimes confuse Christian unity by their denominational or even local church snobbery.)
esus dismisses the crowd, goes up on a mountainside by himself and prays. (Matthew 14:23)
mercy and humbleness, praising God with changed lives. I believe and I celebrate the one, holy, catholic, apostolic church of Jesus Christ.
Summer Worship
Think of the opportunities. A Presbyterian enjoying God in an Anglican service, with ones Roman Catholic neighbours, or down the street in the Baptist Church. Discovering that the way in which we worship God 47 weeks of the year (is it that many?) has this in common with the way others worship God: we look to the one Lord of us all. We detect that the way in which people worship God does not alter the Gods nature. We
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awaken to this, that love for God panionship. We ask for your provhas different ways of getting out. idential care and protection as we travel. Encourage us to celebrate We see the Spirit of God at work your artistry in the beauty of the in different people, in a different natural world and your creativity setting (remember the Psalmist in the diversity of the persons asks, Where can I flee from your whom we shall meet. Spirit? and answers the question As your gifts and blessings are by affirming that God is wherever he might end up.) We experience new every morning, nourish and new and exciting ways of worship, sustain us by surprise or as a result hearing new sounds come through of our seeking. In the name of Christ, Lord of our lives and Ruler the music of the Church. of all nature. AMEN. Southport UnitGoing apart does not mean for- ed Methodist Church, Southport, IN saking faith all together. Vacation is an occasion to be in touch with the living God in fresh ways as we discover the truth to our Christian Confession: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
A Prayer for Summer Vacations

Lord, you have created us so that we need times of rest, renewal and recreation. We pray that our plans and hopes for leisure time and time away may fulfil your purposes for us. We thank you for these occasions to enjoy the glories of your creation; especially for the beauty of land and sea and sky; for the fascination of wildlife; for the excitement of looking forward to a change of place and pace; for the adventure of exploring new locations and the warm memories of returning to those that are familiar. We thank you for other persons to share our pleasure and for those who increase our joy by their com26
Sent into the World
vious battle of good and evil reminds us of our own personal struggle to be good, to do good and to resist evil. The victory of good over evil is what we want to see, Good movies, good and experience. So often, when we music do not experience the victory of good, a movie reminds that it is ave you seen a good possible. The students of movie movie lately? Heard a theology also seek to discover good song? Good mov- Christ figures in movies. ies are like good music -- they touch sugus deeply. The memory remains gests the possibility that our world with us for weeks. The images may can be invaded by beings from otheven speak of the human condition er worlds, beings who are friendly, in such a way that we think of God. beings with whom we can enter re-
A friend of mine recently said lationships of caring and love. One something like this, in relation- particular scene from E.T. has deship to a contemporary musician lighted me, as much in the seeing who declares that her music is as in the memory of it. The scene Christian. People at one of her is a typical day at school for Elliot. concerts might experience God, Until E.T. gets into the beer supply. themselves, and another person. The more E.T. drinks, the more ElThis set me thinking about movies liot falls under the influence. What delights me is the connection these and music. two beings have made, a connecNot so long ago, and maybe tion so close, so intimate that the even yet, the church stood against behaviour of one directly affects movies and contemporary rock the behaviour of the other. Surely music. One of the problems about there is something of Christian life this stand is that the church never to this (not the beer drinking to the seemed to offer young people or point of drunkenness). The Chrisadults much of anything to take tian is one who is in God and one their place. The stand against mov- in whom God is. ies and music also bothers me for is also theologin these media even Christian ical. The movie is a dramatic pretruth can be expressed. sentation of a person at their most Such movies as the Star Trek evil and diabolical. The loving, carseries, and Star Wars engage many ing, easy going Bridges is also the of us in a fantasy. These particular murderer. This movie frightens movies are the subject of theologi- me because evil is so easily covered cal discussion and analysis. The ob27
by a veneer of respectability and innocence. How different is , where violence is in popular demand. Here we see people bent on, thirsting for destruction in a society lacking moral values or restraint. Contemporary pop and rock music also bears witness to truth that touches on the religious. A prominent theme in the music we hear today is love, and the search for love. A band like U2 broadens that theme to a search for meaning, whether it is living on a street with no name, or declaring that they still havent found what they are looking for. Many of us search for material success, or fame. The question is, does success or fame, which are here today, gone tomorrow, provide a satisfactory meaning for life? Elton Johns is a grieving cry for Marilyn Monroe whose life ended in loneliness. The music, like her life, points to that which is tragic.
The title of this song reminds me of the presence of God described as an eagle bearing up the eaglet on its wings. The music gives me hope, a sense of delight in life for we can live with strength, we can overcome. I am grateful that through a movie, in a song I may be put in touch with God, myself and others.
Into all the world
he Church of Jesus Christ, known by many as the church down the street, or First, Second, Third Church (I know of a Tenth Church) is in the world in several ways. One way in which these churches give witness to their one Lord, one faith and one baptism in the world is through co-operation. Ministerials and Councils are examples of congregaMusic ponders life and mean- tions co-operating in their work. ing in various ways, and looks to The Pictou County Council of such things as relationships as a Churches has been around for a possible answer. Heart asks few years. Three objectives guide when you are not the life and work of the Council. sure what you want to do with your As an organization we give expreslife, when it all falls down? The sion to the fundamental unity of kind of question that haunts the the Christian communions that is teenager who has no moral stan- the outcome of our faith in Jesus dards, no motivation to finish Christ. We provide an agency for school, no one to take them from appropriate common planning crayons to perfume. and action. We work within Pictou Which brings me to the Bette County in co-operation with the Canadian Council of Churches and Midler song,
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the Canadian Catholic Confer- vironmental damage. ence. These new directions for the The actual work of the Council witness and mission of the Church takes it, and the witness of the enable the Council to build on the church of Jesus Christ far beyond work it has been doing for years. the quarterly business meetings. One of the joys of the Council is the The Council has continued to growing strength and vitality of reach out to both member congre- the Help Line. Since its birth algations and the community at most six years ago, the Help Line large. ICTHUS is the Council has grown in its ability to provide newsletter, now one year old. The a telephone service to residents of newsletter is a vehicle for sharing Pictou County. The volunteers information and goes to all mem- who answer the phone represent ber churches. a listening ear, a wealth of information, and as needed, a referral serThe Council worked with the vice. The Help Line has been able District School Boards AIDS Curthis year to provide evening hours riculum Development Committee during the weekend, thus realizlast year. Through the Pastoral ing long held dream. Care Committee the Council has worked with the Pastoral Care Every Sunday the Council enCommittee of the Aberdeen Hospi- ters many homes through CKEC tal establishing a Unit Chaplaincy radio. Church Alive! is a fifteen Program. The Council finds joy minute broadcast beginning at and satisfaction in this success sto- 9:30 a.m. A live broadcast of a worry. We are grateful to the staff and ship service from a county church administration of the Aberdeen begins 11 a.m. The staff of CKEC Hospital for their support and provide not only their support, but co-operation. their technical expertise to the Council. We are grateful to them. The witness of the Church in the world involves us in education, A long standing, and beneficial medicine, and the environment. program of the Council is the MarThe convenor of the Social Action riage Preparation Course. The Committee chairs the Citizens Courses, which usually occur in Against Pollution group. CAP, as the spring and the fall include sesit known, is a year old group of sions on financing, comCounty residents with a concern munication, sexuality and for the growing deterioration of spirituality. This year, for the first Boat Harbour. CAP is working time, we have sponsored a course with government and industry to in the town of Pictou. solve further pollution of the HarThe Council is one way for the bour, and eliminating present en29
church to go into the world in the name of Jesus Christ. The work here outlined neither completes nor sums up the life and accomplishments of the Pictou County Council of Churches. We thank God especially for the people who make the Council work. We think of all the people giving their time, energy, and expertise. They work quietly, and without public recognition, as they are the church of Jesus Christ in the world.
Only a Phone Call Away

ould you or I be able to handle 3,963 phone calls in one year? Just as we begin to imagine answering the phone almost 12 times a day, every day of the year, we might wonder why we would receive so many phone calls. What do we have that we would receive so many calls? The Help Line in Pictou County knows that it has just what many County residents need. County residents are discovering that the Help Line can help. The Help Line in Pictou County began in 1983 under the care and urging of the Pictou County Council of Churches. Today, the Help Line continues to give people having difficulty coping with life a place to turn.
The Help Line, through its staff and many volunteers, provides information, referrals to other community services, a listening ear, and crisis intervention. The Help Line also acts as the contact for agencies providing food, clothing and shelter to county residents in need. The Help Line is a confidential service, respecting the callers desire for privacy and anonymity. What kinds of calls do the volunteers receive? Calls may relate to alcohol or drug abuse, family problems, employment, health, information or requests for food, clothing, household furnishings or fuel. Some callers want to talk, and the Help Line is the listening ear, sensitive, caring and ready to be helpful. These calls originate from all over Pictou County, Antigonish, Amherst, Salmon River and points in between. The Help Line is open from 12 noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, and 12 noon to 12 midnight Thursday through Sunday. The volunteers who answer the phone make these hours possible. All volunteers go through a training program, and then give freely of their time and skills to ensure that when someone dials the Help Line number, the caller hears a hu30
man voice ready to listen.
The Help Line is a non-profit organization serving Pictou County. The financial life of the Help Line is supported by the United Way of Pictou County, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 34, New Glasgow, the Knights of Columbus That last question has always Council 1667, individuals and oth- puzzled me. As if the righteous er organizations. cant see all the pain, the hurt, the distress in the lives of people. And The Pictou County Council of even if we see it, it appears that we Churches believed that in 1983 a do nothing about it. Maybe we see Help Line would provide a service too much hunger and war and pain to Pictou County residents. The on the five oclock news, and our Council knows today that the Help ability to respond is overwhelmed Line does provide a ministry to all by so much hurt. And then again, of us. We thank the staff, and the what we see on the news and read volunteers, and the volunteer about is the poverty, the opboard members. pression, the violence in other The Council also wishes to en- countries, hundreds, thousands of courage all churches, church mem- miles away. And what can we do? bers and others to support the The hunger, poverty and hurt Help Line. This Sunday you can of people in our own country, provskate in support of the Help Line. ince, county and community does The annual Knights of Columbus not make news. But surely not all Skate-a-thon will be held in the Pictonians are employed, eating a New Glasgow Stadium, tomorrow, balanced diet, and without sickfrom 2 to 4 p.m. Cant skate? Then ness? An old man picks up starfish, be a sponsor. The Help Line needs flinging them into the sea. A young your support. man sees him, and asks what he is doing. He answers that the stranded starfish will die if left until the morning sun. The Red Cross or I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed
me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? Matthew 25:35-37
But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish, counters the young man. `How can your effort make any difference? The old man looks at the star31
fish in his hand and then throws ing for families whose mother is ill. it to safety in the waves. Ìt makes Christians rejoice that we have a difference to this one. such a strong ally in our work with This approach seems to be at the poor, hungry, sick and unemthe heart of an organization like ployed. We take hope that althe Red Cross. The International though the social problems of our Red Cross society was born out of day seem so overwhelming, we can one persons compassion. Jean work hand in hand with others to Henri Dunant, a native of Switzer- meet the needs of people. We can land, was touring Italy in 1859, see the hungry and feed them; during the Austro-Sardinian war. hear the wounded and heal them. He saw the field at Solferino the day after 40,000 people had been killed or wounded. He knew that something had to be done for the wounded, and immediately set A Place of Mercy and about gathering volunteers to care Redemption for them. Would it not be possi- Matthew 17:14-23 ble, he wrote in 1862, to found and organize in all civilized counhe redemption of the tries permanent societies of volunwhole person is a work of teers who in time of war would give grace. The redemption of help to the wounded without rethe mind is liberating grace. The gard for their nationality? The anredemption of the body is freedom swer was a clear YES, and in 1863 to live. Jesus drives a demon from the first Red Cross Society was esa young boy in the Matthew story tablished in Switzerland, adopting - this is a story of redemption. the red cross on a white backThough we no longer speak of ground as their symbol and flag. demon rum, I daily see people Today the Red Cross is known who know redemption from the best for its blood banks and relief disease of addiction. Though this efforts in times of emergency, disease is incurable, it is treatable. whether the emergency be war, People discover redemption from famine, flooding or other natural an addiction that enslaves them, disaster. binds them, destroys them no less August is Red Cross month in than the demons of Jesus day deCanada. We are reminded of the stroyed those whom they posmany services that this organiza- sessed. Recovery House offers tion provides, such as first-aid, wa- such possessed persons the opporter safety, aid to war veterans and tunity to discover redemption welfare services such as homemak- both personal redemption and re-
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demption for their families. A person arrives at the doors of this agency seeking treatment for their addiction. The addiction may be to alcohol, to prescription or street drugs. The disease threatens to destroy the person and all that the person values, if these are not destroyed already. The redemption that is offered is this: sobriety. Sobriety, for many drug addicts, comes through learning to live a productive meaningful existence without the drug. No matter how we might perceive or describe an alcoholic or addict, the centre of their life is the bottle, the pill, the needle, the spoon. Addicts who take their drug of choice with a needle describe their love affair with the needle. All that they now are, all that they do, all that they think, all that they feel is controlled by the drug. This is demonic slavery. The 28 day treatment program offered through Recovery House gives these people the opportunity to find a new centre, redemption from the enslavement. Freedom is learning to control the disease of addiction, changing the life-patterns developed in addiction, and living chemically free.
I need someone to lean upon, So I might someday be so strong. Take my hand for I feel so small to fight this disease of alcohol. The road Ive chosen was oh so wrong, the things Ive done are over and gone Take my hand and help me see, what alcohol has done to me. I didnt care and I didnt know which way to turn or which road to go. It helped me sleep, relaxed my mind, thats all I needed at the time. Now I feel I need much more; In fact, dear Lord, Im very sure I want to live the right way now, So make me strong and show me how to live a life without alcohol.
Since 1971 Recovery House has pioneered treatment of the addict, their families, friends and co-workers. Founded by an energetic and committed group of people, Recovery House serves the residents of Antigonish, Pictou, Colchester, Cumberland, Guysborough, Richmond and Inverness Counties.
The low-cost, high-quality program is based on the holistic apA prayer that is passed freely proach and concepts of Alcoholics among alcoholics is called My Big- Anonymous. The program addressgest Problem. es the chronic nature of addiction; assists clients in developing new, God help me overcome this fear healthy behaviours or rediscoverthat Ive been having all these ing positive behaviours from their years. past; assists clients in developing
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new, effective ways of handling Finding Mercy and stress and life without alcohol or drugs; assists the client in getting Redemption beyond their hopeless, helpless, worthless feelings; and provides ohn arrives at Recovery education about the physical probHouse on Sunday evening, lems of addiction. The treatment seeking admission to the always offers to include the fami- 28 day program. He meets with a lies of clients. staff person, and is given materials Redemption, for the addict, on the responsibilities he will have, must begin with a clear recogni- and the responsibilities of the tion of the addiction. Denial, a pow- Agency. He is assigned a bedroom. erful avoidance of the reality they He learns that he will participate now live, prevents recovery and re- in the daily activities of the prodemption. Self-blame, and blam- gram, and share housekeeping ing others - I drink because of the chores. John begins his participastress at work; I drink because tion on Monday morning.
my team lost; I drink to celebrate my teams victory; I need the fix to cope with the pressure to do well at school - are ways of staying addicted and avoiding redemption. Denial , blame, and guilt drown out the cry for help whether it is voiced by the family or the individual. Redemption can begin when the addict discovers that someone is willing to hear their cry, to feel their pain, to take the time and energy to offer the possessed person a safe place to exorcise their demon. Recovery House, pleasantly situated on the premises of the historic St. Augustines Monastery, offers a serene setting, and a competent, caring staff for the therapy of redemption and recovery.
The first group session is a presentation of Step One of the A.A. program: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable. Following the presentation of this Step, there is a discussion. John joins one of two groups after break to continue the discussion. Lunch time is an opportunity for John to get to know the clients and staff. The lunch break includes some free time for John to rest or take a walk. The afternoon begins with a video by Father Martin, talking about feelings. John again discovers some free time in the afternoon and wanders over to the gym with a couple of other clients to play basketball. John attends an A.A. meeting held in Recovery House this first Monday. He meets recovering alco34
holics, hears their stories and dis- of its treatment program? The simcovers that others have found ple answer is no, we do not. The redemption. real answer is in the one or two or three individuals I have come to The video on Tuesday morning know. Recovery House employs reis Dealing with Unresolved Ancovering persons, people who enger, followed by Stage II Recovjoy personal and family ery, Part I in the afternoon. He redemption, and have for up to six begins reading the Big Book this years; persons who live without afternoon, talking with another clifear and with joy, because of the ent about what he is reading. principles of A.A. or Al-Anon. ReWe came to believe that a Pow- demption is experienced as these er greater than ourselves can re- liberated persons enter into old store us to sanity. John begins to and new relationships with the understand this second step of A.A. skills to live without the drug. The as the spiritual advisor talks about following story, though unique, is getting in touch with God as we un- paralleled in many of the some 175 derstand him. But then again, he lives that receive treatment each is not sure about this. He thinks year at Recovery House. more about the drink he desperateThis story comes from a letter ly needs. He talks to his counselor of a former client to a counselor about this need. and is told with the clients permisThursday is evaluation day and sion: John reflects on what is happening Tomorrow I am going to an AA with him, even as he listens to the meeting. I am looking forward to stories others tell. Friday is the that. C. and I just got back from end of the first week. John feels unSs. We spent last week at her comfortable as he watches the vidhouse. I also got see C. which was eo, Shame and Guilt. nice. But God, I dont know whats By noon on Friday, a number going to become of him. Hes got of clients have left on weekend his nose back into the Cocaine bag passes. John will spend his first again. . . . Cocaine is cunning, bafweekend at Recovery House, and fling and very powerful. And I am plans with others to rent some one that knows that all too well. movies for Saturday. John thinks Its once this month, twice the about what he will be doing next next month, and then its all the weekend when he can go home for time. Cocaine becomes your numthe two days. ber one priority. I am glad that I The question is asked over and got off it when I did. I thank God over. Does Recovery House have every day for giving me that any statistics on the success rate strength to overcome the hold it
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ters. Just like the slogan goes, Today is the first day of the rest of my life. This is redemption of the whole person. This is healing. This is the work that Recovery House and its nine staff engage in every day of the week. had on me. And for all the caring and understanding friends he sent my way. ... They showed me how I am cared for, and that I am a caring and loving person too. The only power cocaine holds is the power straight to Death. And I dont want to die because I have so much to live for. The power in which I believe now is the power of all Powers and that Power is my God, my family and my great friends. What more can a girl ask for? Except maybe a tall, dark, handsome, sober, blue-eyed man that wants to do nothing except to take me to exotic places where fantasies are no longer illusions but become reality, Nice eh? Now that I am back on the reality side of life and the reality side is that I may not be straight and sober the rest of my life, but with help from my family, friends and my God I can be straight for today. And today is the only day that mat36
The Family
Children are the church
in the church and the church Common wisdom . . . children should be seen and not heard. Christian wisdom . . . we are to welcome children as representatives of Jesus Christ. - become like children that we might share in Jesus life.
elcoming a child is offering a piece of bread to a child. Modeling our own life and behaviour after that of a child, means that the child is in our midst. We cannot begin to have a child-mind if no child sits with us, or stands in our midst. Many churches wrestle with Jesus challenge as he takes children in his arms, and tells us as adults to be like a child. We ask ourselves in many different ways - what shall we do with children? We will want to provide some form of Christian nurture. eries, junior churches, Sunday school classes, furnish and fund them in hopes of training our children in the way they should go. We dream that as youth and young adults they will remain part of the church. We are tangled in some kind of net, however. We discover that these very children are not the church. One day the child is no longer in the church. Eugene Fairweather, an Anglican priest and theology professor reflects in the , in many places, children were being systematically segregated from the church. They may have had their moment in the sun at the beginning of the liturgy, but they spent most of their time in front of a toy altar, which was never used as real altars are used. When (in the opinion of their instructors) they were ready for integration into the worship of the adult church, thousands of them found that quite alien and checked out. (As an adolescent girl said to a young friend of mine, I want to be confirmed so that I can receive communion and then stop going to church.)
We will spend money and time and energy to educate them in the ways of the church, in matters of faith. We will even study child psychology or train our church leadWe disers in such, so that we can provide coverthat quality education. We create Nurs- church is
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too adult for children. Children discover that they are not welcome; they cannot find many of us adults who have the child-mind. I hesitate, as an adult, to ask yet again, How can children feel welcome, wanted and comfortable in the church I go to? I want to say, Lets ask the child?
Maybe we forget that if we do not welcome a child in our midst, we do not welcome Jesus. Maybe we forget that this implies that the child can be Jesus in our midst as readily as the symbols of the broken bread and the cup of blessing.
Without giving up all that we Youth have as adults, we can welcome even the infant, and become more e spend years trying to child-like. One congregation welget them off the ground. comes and cares for infants and We run with them until children with open arms. When a child is born, a letter of welcoming we are breathless . . . they crash goes to the family. The letter in- . . . they hit the rooftop. . . we patch, cludes a blessing, a practice bor- comfort, and assure them that rowed from the Celtic tradition. At someday they will fly. We awake the childs baptism, the parents re- one day to discover that they are ceive a folder with the childs name flying. Our children are now teenon it and a letter describing bap- agers. tism and its meaning. A small The teenager has a certain imwooden cross, made by a member pact on both family life and church of the church is inscribed with the life. The question is asked often, childs name and the date of the and in many different ways baptism. The actions tell the Where are the youth? We hear this parent(s) that the child is wel- question most in the church. We come. ask, Are we failing our youth? I But what of the participation want to ask the question this way: and presence of the child in the Can we respond to teenagers, can worship of the church? The ques- we live with teenagers in our tion Presbyterians have asked is, homes and our churches so that should children participate in the they can fly, fully aware of our love, celebration of Holy Communion? our care and our prayers?
We cannot, I fear, begin to welcome children, or become like them, if we either ask them to leave or deny them participation in the one great, holy, ritual of the broken bread and cup.
Pauls words to Timothy in the first century are, Let no one despise your youth. The advice is good in the twentieth and twenty first century. As one adult speaking to other adults, I believe that
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we can live with teenagers in our that are of concern to me are those homes and our churches. I believe of power and listening. The emergthat teenagers can live with us! ing years are years of taking control over self, and life. The Remembering my teenage emerging generation wants the years is fun, and a little disturbing. world (parents, adults, the I wonder now just how my parents church) to listen. put up with me - but they did. Looking back may be helpful if we have Teenagers are into decision some way of making sense of all making, particularly as it relates pieces. One way of remembering to their lives. We want them to my teenage years is seeing them make career decisions but hesitate as a time of emergence. I borrow to give them decision making powthis word and idea from Reginald er over daily or weekly events. I reBibby and Donald Posterski, who member discussing with other describe adults the possibility of having in a book published in 1985. youth lead a worship service. EvTeenage years are a season of eryone agreed. I then suggested growth. I grew dependence to inde- that we allow them the freedom to pendence. I wanted to experience create their worship service. How life, to think my way, to fly. Par- quickly we discover as adults that ents, and the church as an adult when youth lead worship, we realinstitution, often got in my way, ly expect them to do everything as saying No or setting curfews. And we do. Only of course some teenagof course, they always wondered ers will be reading the scripture lesabout the company I kept. sons and announcing the hymns. No wonder we as teenagers isolatMaybe I wasnt very talkative ed ourselves from the church, from with my parents, but my friends adults. We wanted to worship God often had to silence me. Maybe I out of our hearts and minds, not didnt spend as much time with my the minds and hearts of our parbrothers as I used to; but I spent ents. How can our children fly unmuch time with people. I did value less they have the freedom to try? relationships, but I wanted to make my own. Wanting to move Audrey Cameron, working with out was not just a sign of unhappi- youth, makes a plea. Upon returnness, but a desire to emerge as an ing from a youth conference, she independent person. hears each youth talk about sharing their experiences with their Reflecting on my teenage years parents. She says, I wanted to go helps me examine my life as a parto each parent and say, Promise ent, and the life of church, and how me you will listen to your child. teenagers may live in the midst of Promise me you will encourage both. The two themes or issues
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your child in his faith. Promise me Social mobility is another facyou will try to grow from her expe- tor in the decline of the extended rience too. Even when the teenag- family, the creation of the nuclear ers arent talking, please listen. family. Maybe two generations ago children lived in the same community, if not next door, to grandparPromise me you will try to grow ents, aunts, uncles and cousins. from her experience too. Living Children grew up knowing the diswith teenagers in the home and in cipline of parents, the special treatthe church can benefit from this ments offered by grandparents, respect and integrity. Lets not, as and the bonds of love that keep adults, dismiss teenagers because most families together in darkness of their youth; lets not use youth and in light. Planes, trains, autoas an excuse for them. Let us share mobiles and upward mobility have our experiences together, and may- stretched and torn family ligabe, just maybe God will be found ments; the only family children exin the middle. perience is the nuclear family: a husband, wife and 2.X children.
Whatever became of the family?

family proposes that they, the parents, will take full responsibility for the education of their children. Neighbours, politicians and educators express great hesitation about this.
A family member leaves home and within six months is under the care of the government. A government agency steps into a family situation and removes family members, for their own health and These concerns are further emsafety. phasized by reports from the naChurches have been known to tional conference on the family use questionable tactics in luring held in Regina in July. Roy Bonchildren into their religious educa- isteel, former host of Man Alive calls on families to encourage chiltion program. dren to become caring individuals.
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The family has suffered serious attacks. We attack ourselves, believing that the family is no longer capable of being a place of religious and secular learning, care and protection. Last year the Pictou District School Board made families aware of their actions in introducing a Personal Development and Relations Curriculum, and integrating material on A.I.D.S. into the health curriculum. Their actions are to be commended on all fronts. But, their actions recognize that the family is not, these days, a place for learning.
He asks, Who needs more captains of industry without compassion for their workers? Who needs scientists with no sense of responsibility for their creations? Who needs military strategists who cant see their wars are letting thousands of people starve? The family must seize responsibilities back from government, from industry, from schools, from society at large. ... The family must reclaim its own functions. No other agency on the planet can teach human beings to be intelligent, honest, generous and moral as efficiently and as well as the family Bonisteel told the conference. (As reported in , July 14, 1989). The church once considered the family a microcosm of the world. The family was used as in image of the church, describing our relationship to God and one another through Jesus Christ. The family is where we all learn the values that enable us to live with others, to be in relationship with God, and with people. Sad, isnt it when more often than not, the family appears to fail? Sadder still when others agencies assume the responsibilities that belong to the family.
children in the Lord. I think also of that verse that says, whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirablethink about such things. I think here we can begin to reclaim the vitality, importance and strength of the family. I thank God for this treasure called family.
Educating Matthew, Jacolyn and Sarah

he author of a book on the American education system uses the phrase to describe many of his students. Adults not equipped to live with personal or social responsibility; adults not ready to weather the sun or the storm of life are unfurnished.
We live with the hope that our children will one day graduate as furnished persons. We ask schools to give our children the personal and social skills necessary to live well in our society, in this world. Every year we place more pressure on both the administrators and the teachers to teach our children more. Maybe we expect too much from them. Educating Matthew, I think of the classic New Testa- Jacolyn and Sarah is not the task ment passages which speak of mu- of the professional teacher alone. tual submission and love between We are physical, social and relihusband and wife; obedience from gious or moral beings. How can we children; and the love and care as parents train and instruct their furnish our children in these as41
pects of life? The public educational system exists, it seems to me, to address the social live of our children. This institution places our children among their peers, and provides both structure and content aimed at making our children employable. The goal appears to be to give students a kind of knowledge that empowers them to physically and mentally function in the work force and society. The two institutions of our society that engage in the social and moral or religious education of our children are the family and the church. We might be tempted to laugh or cry about the abilities of the family and church to furnish our children. Before we respond in either manner, let us consider this approach to education.
We learn from models. Dont do as I do, do as I say is not a healthy principle of education. We teach religion, and responsible soThe church is another educatcial behaviour by what we do and ing institution. A Sunday School by what we say. program, a confirmation/ catecheI think of my own childhood. sis class or youth groups are the What did I see and hear? I saw par- classrooms of the church. The prients who loved each other, us, and mary goal of church education is God. I saw par- to teach our ents who children and worked hard to adults about provide food, life with God clothing and (theology), even a little ex- and life with tra for the fami- each other ly. I accompany (morality and my parents on values.) their way to church, give the 42
church time, energy and money. I heard them speak of Jesus Christ. I heard their words of discipline. I heard their concerns for society as a whole. I heard their frustration with groups in our country who demanded rights and freedoms that they worked hard to gain. I also remember the desperation as three brothers engage in an apparent fight to the finish. These actions and words were my childhood education, providing models of behaviour towards others, myself and God. (My mother and father still wonder if I learned enough to become a furnished person.) Our education begins in the family, where we learn by a kind of osmosis many values and principles of life.
Jamie and Ann are two students in a church school program. They are growing bean plants. Jamie arrives early to check his week old plant. The teacher says, Hi, Jamie! Glad youre early. Want to help me get ready? Jamie shakes his head. You got to be real quiet, but come here. The teacher kneels down beside the plants. Hear that? Jamie whispers, his face glowing. You can hear them growing! Newcomers join the silent vigil. When everyone had listened to the beans growing Jamie concluded the experience by exclaiming, WOW! God sure does do neat stuff. Furnished persons can wonder - at the world and its people - exclaiming, Wow! God sure does do neat stuff.
The Wedding Bells Ring

hat will you be doing this weekend? Enjoying the sun, the beach, the company of friends, or standing at an altar exchanging vows of love and faithfulness? Summer in the city, country, and the church is the season of weddings. Church weddings have come under some debate in recent years. Some church leaders are saying that the church should not be in the business of doing weddings. The critics say things like this. The
church, and God, are not local pharmacies dispensing quick remedies. The church is not a vending machine which for a coin will discharge some item. The critics say that all too often people who have not given anything to the church or to Jesus Christ now want to receive the apparent benefits of a church wedding. These benefits are social acceptance, a measure of grace and Gods blessing on their love. The church is not the candy machine at the entrance to the shopping mall, where for a quarter we can receive a handful of goods. The critics will remind us of the problem of the church in the
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gious ceremony to please her parents. We were both surprised by the emotion we felt during the service in the church filled with friends. The organ, the priests voice echoing under the vault, the light filtering through the stained-glass windows, the magic of chandeliers glowing with canOther Christians encourage dles, the respectful silence of the couples to participate in premarrguests - there is no doubt that it iage counseling; churches and was all theater, but it was theater church organizations such as the that touched the soul. Roger Pictou County Council of ChurchVadim. We the church believe that es sponsor premarriage events for Christian marriage is a union in engaged couples. These efforts are Christ, whereby a man and a wombased on the assumption that the an become one in the sight of God. family is a special component of soIt is the commitment of two people ciety. As one wedding service sugto love and to support one another gests, strong family units are the faithfully for life. (Living Faith, backbone of a strong and healthy the Presbyterian Church in Canasociety. Also, marriage is sacrada, section 8.2.3). We will not remental, both in the strict sense of fuse to do weddings in the Church. the Roman tradition, and in a loosRather, we will seek to continue to er sense as a relationship of grace, make the Church and God shine similar to the relationship of in the lives of all people. We believe Christ with His Church. The love that the church and God do have which we confess as the foundaa place in the very private lives of tion of a marriage relationship is people (although a government like the love of Christ for His may say it has no business in the Church: it is freely given, and crebedrooms of a nation). We believe ative in that the intimacy of the rethat the Church, like God and his lationship fulfils our mutual need son Jesus, must be present to peofor companionship and help meets. ple providing a sense of intimacy The Church wishes to impress with God, a community of shared these aspects of faith upon those values, and the reassurance that couples wishing to be married in members of that community care the church. about them. I cannot help but think of the first marriage of Brigitte Bardot, described here by her husband: Brigitte and I had agreed to a reli44
1700s when fathers made sure their children were baptized that they might have civil status, although the father himself would not attend the service, except maybe to avoid paying the fine. The church must guard against cheap grace.
help in learning to ask the right questions. So, after all these words, I want to introduce the readers of s a clergy person, asked to this column to a book full of inforperform (is officiate a bet- mation. ter word) at the weddings of friends, relatives, or people I meet one month before the ceremois co-written ny, I continue to ask myself hunby Miriam Arond and Samuel L. dreds of questions. I ask the engaged couple only a couple of Pauker, published by Warner dozen of these questions. One ques- Books, New York, (1987.) The aution that continues to burn in my thors explicitly define the relationships that change because of a heart is this: marriage. In choosing to marry, Does a relationship change be- you inevitably go through a mourncause of the wedding ceremony? ing process . . .. (p.15.) Marriage And if so, how? catapults a person, often rapidly This question is all the more im- and abruptly, into a position of havportant, to me, because of the num- ing to face issues connected with ber of people who are married after separation from family, problems living together for 6 months or 1 of intimacy, the handling of aggresyear or 2 years or more. I wonder, sion, the need to be loved, the deif they find their common-law life sire for and hesitancies about so satisfying, why change, trans- having a sexual relationship. form, even shift the basis of the re- (p.15.)
Exploring Marriage
lationship? I have been so bold to ask couples in this situation why they want a church wedding. The answers have not helped me deal with my concerns. Does a relationship change because of marriage vows, and if so, how? While this question, and a lack of answers, has continued to eat away at me, I picked up a book at the local supermarket for books. The authors have done a tremendous service for me. They have given me some answers, and some
Using the results of a survey the authors did, and the personal stories of many couples, Arond and Parker help us old hands remember our first 6-24 months of marriage. The stories and questions would help others explore the birth and growth of their marriage relationship. Two of many stories are to the point: I feel as if my wife and I are even closer than before. Were much more accepted by each others families. Were on better behaviour 45
were not fighting as much. . . . To me, being married means being rooted in a community. I suppose you could say that getting married has made me a lot more settled and future directed. (A man who lived with his wife for seven years before they married.) When we lived together, I never minded when Michelle went out at night with her girlfriends. But after our wedding I felt that if she went out socially I should go with her. I became more demanding. And even though I still desired my freedom to take off when I wanted, I became possessive of her time. (Jack.) The first year of marriage is work. Two people learn to live with their differences, establish house rules, negotiate decisions, and enjoy intimate moments. All this and more is the heart of this book by Arond and Pauker. If you are celebrating a first anniversary, or a 12th anniversary, I ask you to do yourself a favour. Get and read . For those of us engaged in performing or celebrating the wedding ceremony with couples, engaged in working with married couples, we will do ourselves and them a favour by getting and reading this book.
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Visions
To Grow
he Presbyterian Church in Canada is entering the 1990s and the 22nd century with a vision. The nine-point vision at the General Assembly in June, 1989 grew out of a Call to Prayer and Strategic Planning made one year earlier. The Presbyterian Church in Canada is using and will use this vision to inform and shape its mission in the coming years. I will reflect on each of the nine points of this vision in future columns of Faith for Today. The vision will at times be Presbyterian in flavour and direction. What impresses me is that a denomination has developed a vision and is now working to make that vision a reality. For the complete text of the VISION, readers may consult the Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, June 1989, pp. 202. No this is not available at your local library, but each minister of the Presbyterian Church in Canada has a copy.
er matters include: prayer for others; growth in knowledge and understanding of the written and living Word of God; and reform. We often understand growth as expansion, as in a growing economy. Growth is more production, sales, income. We hope that we will experience unlimited economic growth. Christians see church growth in somewhat similar terms: bigger churches, more people, more room, and of course more income. Yet, growth in our relationship with Jesus Christ implies something other than the bigger the better. Growth is more like maturing, growing up, wising up as in getting smart. A Biblical image of growth is that of becoming holy, holy like God. This growth is a growth into God and His Son Jesus Christ. This is discipleship. Someone has said something like this: the disciple of Jesus Christ is not the one who does or knows the most, but the one who loves the most. Gods love is way of life. Which says something about convenience Christians, Christians once a week, a month or a year, or when its to our obvious advantage.
Growing up in Jesus Christ is Each point of the vision begins, an eye and mind opener. The religIt is our VISION that . . . ion of the priest and Levite allows We will grow in our relation- them to see a beaten, bloody, unship with Jesus Christ. The com- conscious traveler, and walk by mentary on this first point speaks him. A Samaritan sees the same of discipleship as a way of life. Oth- person in need of healing, and reaches across social boundaries,
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class differences, all human biases and blindness to give healing. The Samaritan prays for this other person.
To Reach into the world

e will reach out in mission, proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ with relevance and power. Growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ (part one of the vision) motivates a reaching with outstretched arms.
We share our faith, speak of discipleship, and serve. This image of our mission rises out of our growing relationship with Jesus Christ. How can we share what we do not experience? Can we speak of something we know little or nothing about? So we might say that the one who is a believer can share the faith God gives. The person who Brownie, you wash those win- strives to discipline their life in the dows like you teach Scripture. You way of God can speak of disciplejust skim the surface. You just ship. smear around a little soft soap and Growing in Christ has an upwater, and it may look good while its wet, but when it dries, any fool ward dimension, like the upright can see what a mess youve made. beam of the Cross of Jesus. ReachYouve got to get in there and sweat ing out in mission is like the and rub till your arms ache so the cross-beam of the Cross. Or better, light can come through. Same way like arms open wide to accept some with Scripture. Sweat and grunt person with a hug. Christians are and maybe the light that comes people with open arms, reaching through blinds you almost, but at out to the world. How different are these arms compared to the arms least its the light. of the arms race. The open arms offer the Good News of Jesus When the light breaks through Christ - salvation, redemption, libinto our darkened minds, we see, eration, freedom. with our minds, the living word, We engage in this mission in a Jesus Christ. We will grow in our relevant manner. This is the hurelationship with Jesus Christ. man side of fulfilling our mission.
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Growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ means, the VISION says, using our mind. We grow in our knowledge and understanding of the written word of God as we live in obedience to the living word, Jesus Christ. In one hand we have our Bible, while with the other we hold on to Jesus Christ as he walks beside us in the person of the Spirit. The Bible we have in our hand is open, for we are reading it. I like what Frederick Buechner says about teaching Scripture, can apply to our reading of it:
Here we find problems. Relevance cident? Relevance has to do with may be an excuse for watering what Jesus Christ can be in and for down the gospel. No one likes to the blind person, the hungry. Relhear the great words of judgement evance is how can I speak of God on sin. We do not like to be told and justice when I speak with Donwhen we are wrong, or when we ald Marshall? have done wrong. Relevance beWe speak of God and of love and comes a way for the church to igof justice with Donald Marshall nore the justice of God. Tell people when we insist that officers of the what they want to hear. This may law abide by the law. The mission be fundamentally different from of the church demands our anger telling people what God wants when the law is abused. We prothem to hear, or from saying what claim Jesus Christ to the hungry people need to hear. Relevance when we gather up some food and leads many of us to enjoy what take it to the neighbour who lives Pierre Berton calls the Comfortalone, without food and without able Pew. I remember saying somethe means to get it. Our words of thing to a friend once. I apologized, love become actions of Gods love. not wanting to step on anyones We serve others. Like the song says, toes. His response was that I could They will know we are Christians step on his toes, while I got off ocby our love. casionally. We also will proclaim the Good Proclaiming the Good News of News of Jesus Christ with power. Jesus Christ with relevance is a This is not the power of a Jim Jones, tough job. We cannot give up eia charismatic leader gone mad ther the justice or the mercy of God. with too much self-esteem or pride. What then is this relevance? I am This power is Gods power. The Viconvinced that it is a willingness sion is right. We cannot hope to proto make use of all available means claim at all, let alone be relevant to tell others about Gods love in unless we do so out of the power Jesus Christ. We have access to raof the Good News. There is no powdio, television, newspapers, videos, er in our denomination, nor in the even computers. How can we use traditions we have personally crethem wisely in fulfilling our misated. The power to be the sion? reaching-out-church is Gods gift There is a more meaningful to us. sense of relevance. How about this Jesus words come back to me. - what does the love of God have All authority (power) in heaven to do with a school yard fight? How and on earth has been given to me. can we speak of Gods love to the Now, you go and make disciples of parent whose child dies in a car acall peoples, baptizing them in the
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name of the Father and of the Son coffees and danish, solving the and of the Holy Spirit, teaching to massive problems of the world. obey all that I have commanded The debate is still fresh in my you. And surely I am with you almind as one group insists that the ways, to the very end of the age. transforming power of Christ becomes real in our world through preaching, teaching, evangelism. Others contend that there is no gospel without clothes for the naSocial Action is ked or food for the hungry. PersonEvangelism al salvation or social liberation is the dilemma. I know that the pere will integrate evan- sons who engaged in those lively gelism, social action, discussions some ten or so years and justice ministry ago would gladly pick up the deis the third statement in the Vision bate over another coffee and danof the Presbyterian Church in Can- ish. We havent been able to ada. We ponder this aspect of the integrate these various areas of vision as the world changes before ministry. our eyes. I remember also a lively debate Pictou County residents are ful- during the first terrible drought in ly aware of the slow death of the Ethiopia. Someone dared suggest train, both as it affects the steel in- that a church might offer thoudustry, and our own ability to sands of dollars to the relief effort. move around our province or coun- Another person wondered about try. We face economic changes be- using some of these monies for the cause of the changes in the fishing poor and hungry in the local comindustry. We wonder at the injus- munity. Lest the debate and distice of the justice system; the pain cussion become too complicated, inflicted on others by religious one person declared that locally, leaders, and the silence of so many no one is poor or hungry; if they in the midst of this pain. are, it is their own individual fault. Yet, we will give testimony and bear witness to the transforming power of Christ in our midst. I wonder how Presbyterians will integrate evangelism, social action and justice ministry. I remember a group of us from seminary gathering in a little, out of the way restaurant in Toronto. We sit over our I think of how the church splinters in doing evangelism, social action or ministries of justice. How easily we pigeon hole one another. The Jehovahs Witnesses, Mormons, and many Pentecostal types are the evangelists. Some of us think, but maybe not say, that the evangelists in the Presbyterian
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(Anglican, Roman Catholic) church are very conservative (in their theology) or even fundamentalists. The justice people are liberal (probably only in their theology, while being left leaning in their politics). The Salvation Army, the United Church are the social activists. The rest of us tend to stand in the middle. We show no passion to give witness to the transforming power of Christ in either word or deed. Those of us on the fence engage in year long debates, hoping to discover a way to integrate the various aspects of the whole task to which God calls us. But of course, we dare not do the work. I am not sure how Presbyterians can integrate evangelism, social action and justice ministry. Maybe we will follow the lead of one Presbyterian minister who uses the famous story of the Good Samaritan to bring home this vision. The driving force of our Christian presence in the world is compassion in which we live out of a heart of justice, a heart of evangelism and a heart for our neighbour. The man stops to tend the dying, abused, and robbed person. He gives of his time, his treasure, and himself that another might be healed. Maybe we will sing and pray the words of Frederick Kaans hymn For the Healing of the Nations:
For a just and equal sharing Of the things that earth affords To a life of love in action, Help us rise and pledge our word. Lead us Father into freedom, From despair Your world release That, redeemed from war and hatred, (We) may come and go in peace Show us how through care and goodness, Fear will die and hope increase All that kills abundant living, Let it from the earth be banned; Pride of status, race or schooling, Dogmas keeping man from man. In our common quest for justice, May we hallow lifes brief span. You, creator God, have written Your great name on all mankind; For our growing in Your likeness Bring the life of Christ to mind. That by our response and service, Earth its destiny may find.
For the healing of the nations, Lord, we pray with one accord
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Church Alive!
Can you guess who would make this declaration? If you dared to think that Presbyterians would say this, you are right. The Presbyterian Church in Canada makes this the fourth point in their agenda for the 21st century. Presbyterians across Canada dream for, Life, we know as an Easter peoenvision congregations that are ple, a people of the resurrection, alive. has its birth in Jesus Christ. This is true for congregations that live. The first impression we might The life of Christ is more than the get is that some congregations are ability of a congregation to have not alive. We who participate in enough groups to keep everyone the life of a congregation dare say busy at least one day a week. that the congregation across town Christs life in a congregation is is not alive. We ourselves are full more than the ability of people to of life and the love of God. Our life disagree strongly, or with weakis never more evident that when ness. The life of a congregation is we disagree about when the offerChrists life shared in worship, ing should be collected. Just read passed on in worship, service and the Annual Report or the weekly unity with others. bulletin. Look at all the activity in our congregation. Some group or Congregational life, I often other is meeting every day of the think, finds its fullest and most week. We are alive. Dont forget wonderful expression in worship. the prayer groups, the bible stud- Yes, that one hour a week in which ies, the guild groups. What more we might sit in uncomfortable can we point to that declares we benches (pews is the church word) are full of life? while a clergy person announces hymns, reminds us of our financial A piece of reality upsets our reobligations and drones on about flections about our good life. What faith, hope or charity. Sounds pretis this news that says the Presbytety dreary, doesnt it? What about rian church is shrinking in size? thinking about this worship ser(I suspect other denominations vice as the opportunity for Gods suffer from weight loss in recent people to gather up themselves,
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ur congregations will be alive.
times.) All life suffers from the ebb and flow of strength to weakness and back. Sometimes the life we live does not recover from the weakness - we then exist as a shadow of our former reality, or we die. Groups, such as congregations, can sustain the rise and fall over generations, while there is life to share and give to others. The vision that our congregations will be alive points to the inner life that is shared and passed on to another.
their joys and sorrows, their laughHave we touched ter and tears and bring them together for God - maybe He can someone today? make sense of all that has happened this past week. Worship e will be a loving, incluservices will be joyful and full of sive community -- truly meaning, aware of the world in Gods family. This is which we live says the commen- the fifth point in the Presbyterian tary on the vision. vision for the 21st century. This viOne of my favourite authors is sion pictures both the depth and Ann Weems who gives me worship the breadth of the family of God.
guides, poems and insights. One of Have we ever touched a leper? her insights is entitled Good Jesus willingly held the hand of News Music. She writes many lepers. Have we ever welcomed a prostitute in your home? Jesus gladly sat with one, and allowed her to wash his feet. Have we gladly taken seriously the needs of the handicapped -- the blind, the crippled, the slow learner? Jesus made it a point to be in their company, to walk with them, to see with them. Do we seek to understand the needs and concerns of the single mother? Do we appreciate, and do something about, the loneliness of the immigrant whether Scottish, Jamaican, or Sikh? I came across an interesting description of religious life. There is the tramcar idea and the fireside idea. In the tramcar you sit beside your fellow passenger. You are all going the same direction, but you have no fellowship, no intercourse with or interest in one another. Then there is the fireside, where the family meets together, where they are at home, where they converse with one another of common pursuits, and common interests, 53
The reality of life is that like the beauty of the rose, or the wonder of fishing at the break of dawn, is that life draws others to itself that they may know life. Our congregation will be alive!
where a common relationship with him, tell him to be quiet. binds all together in a warm bond Dont disturb us as we walk with of love and fellowship. Jesus. The church is a family, a unique family, for God creates this one. As father and mother, God gives birth to daughters and sons, who are then sisters and brothers. This family, despite its unique creation, struggles to recognize its common bond in God. Church history usually shows what happens when brothers and sisters disagree, more than it shows what happens when we get along. Much like our personal family history. Dont worry, I am not going to relate many sad tales of how I did not get along with my brothers (or how they did not get along with me.) I will not tell the stories of laughter and joy, and tears of happiness either. The point is that if we are like the fireside, we will experience the tensions of growing together. The point is also this: that all who bind themselves to God in Christ, to worship him are part of the family. I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer the foreigner who binds himself to me, to serve me, to love me, to keep my Sabbath says the Lord God (Isaiah 56:6). Remember the story of blind Bartimaeus? He sits, lonely, tired, dusty, desperate. The crowd ignores him. He hears the name Jesus whispered. He shouts, Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. Too bad that no one wants to bother with Bartimaeus. Those who do bother Bartimaeus again hollers for Jesus. Jesus stops and says, Call him. One more person joins the family of God. Jesus is able to touch the depths of life for Bartimaeus with these two simple words. God again reaches out to include someone others are excluding. This is the quality of Gods love. This too is the quality of the church of Jesus Christ, the family of God. The fireside image welcomes another. Sit down, enjoy with me the intimacy, the warmth, the caring of this family.
The church is the family of God. Here all should be valued for themselves. We are one body in Christ; together rejoicing when things go well, supporting one another in sorrow, celebrating the goodness of God and the wonder of our redemption. Living Faith 8.2.6
Lord, be here beside me. You touch me, Lord, so that I can touch and be touched. So that I can care and be cared for. So that I can share my life with all those others that belong to you. All this touching in church - Lord, its changing me. Have we touched a leper today?
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We are in the world

Washing Raisins, and God
do, youll never do enough. 2. What you dont do is always more important than what you do.
When the work we do produces enough money to buy food, we are gainfully employed. So, we work. f you dont believe in life af- Holidays, like Labour Day, are the ter death, you should be breaks we deserve; we have earned here at quitting time. We this day off. endure the hours we spend at The Biblical story of Gods work work. in our world points to labour as something other than a necessary evil. God does not curse the work of tilling the ground, but the ground. God blesses work. God sends rain on the land to bless the work of our hands so that we can eat the fruit of our labour. God takes delight in our labour. His delight is not the corrupt laughter of one who might say, I told you so. He delights in a job well done, in work that arises from faith and the love driven task. Which is probably why Paul talks about doing whatever we do in the name of Christ, working at it with all our heart. Henri Nouwen, now living in Ontario, spent 7 months in a Trappist monastery. He reflects, after three months of work, I am realizing that I do not really enjoy it. When the novelty of it is gone, it becomes very boring. Packing bread, taking hot bread from the conveyor belt, washing raisins, pressing sheets, or collecting stones are all good jobs for one or two afternoons, but after three
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Labour unions, labour demands, strikes, lock outs, labour unrest and labour day are a way of life for Canadians. These somewhat unpleasant terms colour our view of work. Some of us work to eat, while others eat to work. Work is an accepted evil of life, like taxes. Cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. . . By the sweat of your brow you will eat of it. These words of punishment disobedience hurl us into a darkness from which we have not yet escaped. The darkness for some is that there is no labour, no work of the hands to be blessed, no fruit of our labour to eat. We put up with work, jobs, the nine to five drudgery, hoping that out employer believes we are worthy of a good wage. We frown on laziness; we also know that the one who does the least work always gets the most credit. We face the workers dilemma: 1. No matter how much you
months my main question during work becomes, `When is this over? The only thing that can take some of the dullness away is a good-natured co-worker.
The Right to be Responsible

he abortion debate continues to rage. One woman wins her way in court, only to regret having the abortion. Another woman loses her day in court and appeals to the Supreme Court of Canada; frustrating the appeal by securing an abortion. People on both sides of the abortion debate will now get a hearing before the highest law court in our country; and the government itself will speak.
I feel it is important to wonder how I can make my work more a part of my prayer and not just an occasion to fret. Most monks, especially the older ones, really enjoy their work and do not feel as I do. Work gives me a good occasion to feel deeply my unrelatedness. In the bakery or in the creek, it is practically impossible to make things interesting. Then I am faced with `just a job to do and nothing else and then I discover my deep alienThe church also will speak, but ation. If I felt related to my world, its voice is deafened by the many a part of it, I would not complain words spoken, sometimes spoken about dullness and boredom. in anger or even hatred. Voices will Work unmasks my illusions. It speak of personal and legal rights, shows how I am constantly looking ownership, freedom. The church for interesting, exciting, distract- will also speak these words, out of ing activities to keep my mind busy faith in the living God who has and away from the confrontation claim to us as the Creator and Suswith my nakedness, powerless- tainer of the life that we have as ness, mortality and weakness. a gift. This faith is also in the God Work at least opens up my basic de- who loves this world and its people fenselessness and makes me more which He has created. vulnerable. I hope and pray that this new vulnerability will not make me fearful or angry, but instead, open to the gifts of Gods grace.
One Christian cannot dare to give voice to a position on abortion for the whole of Christs church. One Christian can reflect with the Church on this issue, and seek a word or two of faith, hope and love. We begin with the living God. We Christians hold that all people are created by and for God. We are people in relationship, responsible to others in that relationship. God
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is a part of that relationship, but so are other people. We wonder then at the present attitude expressed by many that one woman has either the sole or final say in making an abortion decision. , CIBC, August 3, 1989 notes that 74% of Canadians think that the mother should have the final say in this decision.) Better than 99% of present day pregnancies are not the result of the behaviour of just one person, but two. And these two people themselves are related to others, such as family members. Families are, of course, members of communities. Because we are related to God and one another, the freedom and responsibility of all persons affected by both the pregnancy and the question of abortion should be recognized and acknowledged; and their voices heard. Responsibility for the situation in which abortion is a possibility begins with the father and the mother. We know that with a right comes a responsibility. Society seems to say that men and women have the right to be sexually active; and some women want the right to control their reproductive life. The right to control our reproductive life begins with responsible sexual behaviour. The men and women in the courts in recent months are aware that pregnancy as well as pleasure are the potential results of sexual activity. A six-
teen year old has the legal right to apply for a drivers license, but must earn the license by demonstrating their knowledge of road laws and their ability to manage an automobile on the road. Imagine a delicate China vase, valued at $2 million, sitting on top of a wall. You have been told it is yours when you reach the age of 21. The day of your 21st birthday, you blow out the candles in your cake, pick up a long stick and proceed to knock the vase to the ground smashing it in a thousand pieces. (Reid MacLean). We receive our life and our bodies as gifts from God. A right to life, or a right to choose what to do with ones own body arise out of our God-relatedness. Our responsibility is to use them as Gods investment in us. Good management of our bodies and our life arises out of faith in the living God, hope for Gods mercy and strength, and love for our neighbour as our self.
On Taking Responsibility (part two)

he abortion debate raises the issue of personal responsibility for ones behaviour. Not only do we hesitate to take personal responsibility for behaviour, but many times group responsibility, or social responsi57
bility, is hard to find. Some ministers were discussing abortion, one remarking that he thought it was immoral.
Do you mean that you would ask a thirteen-year-old girl who got pregnant, God knows how, to raise a child by herself? Do you think that a thirteen-year-old is caThe Biblical creation story pable of being a mother? one colpoints us as human beings towards league says. responsibility. God gives man and Well, no, replies the woman to each other for mutual anti-abortionist. I suppose there help and care. God also gives us dowould be some extreme circum- minion over nature. The exercise stances in which abortion would of our responsibility to one anothbe justified. er and to our world, or maybe the abuse of our responsibility in these Whats wrong with a thirteen areas continues to create tension. year-old-having a baby? asks anWe are at odds with ourselves, our other. He is a black minister, pasneighbours, neighbouring nations tor of a large congregation in our and with our earth and the envitown. We have young girls who ronment. have this happen them. I have a fourteen-year-old in my congregaThe Christian tradition and tion who had a baby last month. faith have always pointed to our Were going to baptize the child shared responsibility for the lives next Sunday, he adds. of others and the life of this planet. That seems to be the theological Do you think that she is capable stance of the church, though someof raising a little baby? another one is sure to ask, What does theminister inquires. ology have to do with life? Of course not, he replies. No If you find honey, eat just fourteen-year-old is capable of raisenough; too much and you will ing a baby. For that matter, not vomit is an Old Testament provmany thirty-year- olds are qualierb (Proverbs 25:16) expressing fied. Raising a baby is too difficult the need to take responsibility. We for any one person to do alone. have shunned personal responSo what do you do with babies? sibility for our own health and welthey ask. fare and the care of our world. Is Well, we baptize them so that it any wonder then that the church, except rarely, has the ability (let
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we all raise them together. For the fourteen-year-old, we give her baby to a retired couple who have enough time and enough wisdom to raise children. They can raise the mama along with her baby. Thats the way we do it.Willimon , 1985, p.65.
alone the theology) to care for its O God own people? peace, Consider grieving persons, many who point to the church as a place where they have found support and care. I have also seen a bereaved family avoid the church they have supported. How can we exercise responsibility for these people? I think of the story of Philip III, a king of Spain. He is said to have died of a fever he contracted from sitting too long near a hot brazier, helplessly overheating himself because he could not find the servant whose duty it was to remove the brazier. In the late 20th century it begins to appear as if humankind may be approaching a similar state of (irresponsible) incompetence. Barbara Tuchman
of
O Father of souls, O Builder of the kingdom of love. (George Appleton) Armistice Day, Memorial Day, Remembrance Day. I have asked before, Whats in a name? The poppy answers the question today. The poppy has become a ritual, a visible sign of yesterday, and our desire to remember yesterday. Wreaths, jackets, crosses are dressed in the poppy of Flanders Fields. What is it that we remember? Who is it that we remember?
We remember the end to the war fought to end all wars. We hear Can we recover our responsibilthe sigh of relief as world leaders ity for our selves, our neighbour bring the bloodshed to a halt. We and our world? see the sickly silence as prisoners of war limp towards freedom. We try to forget the horrors of the gas chamber, the near success of one Remember people destroying another. We remember the narrow esay the memory of two world wars strength- cape of our way of life, of our politen our efforts for ical system. Yes, we recall that freedom and democracy survived. peace We remember, with growing deMay the memory of those who spair, that war has not gone away. died inspire our service to the liv- Korea, Viet Nam, Ireland, the Miding, dle East, Iran are images of war as May the memory of our past de- much as nations. A bright rising struction move us to build for the mushroom clouds our memories the Bomb. future
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only man and woman have the power to think, We remember the people. The sons, the fathers who joined the to choose and to love. fight for freedom. We remember People, it is up to us to explore, the ones who came back, returning develop, manage this universe to keep alive the remembrance of and thus fulfil our destiny. war. We listen to their stories. One But what is our destiny? friend used to tell me of life in Eu- To whom do we have to answer rope during the war. A Canadian for our liberty? in Holland, not simply carrying the gun for Canada, but for the for our integrity? Dutch. We pause this Remem- for our loyalty to one another? brance Day to thank God for their Who inspires us to love our courage, their lives, their stories. neighbour? to feed the hungry? Not all who went to war reto foster justice and peace? turned. Sons and fathers, daughters and mothers would not return Who is at the origin of this our to tell us their stories. The poppy life? speaks of their lives, given for peo- Who guides us? ple they hardly knew or would nev- Who call us to joy? er know. The poppy bears witness GOD - that is Your name to the sadness of death; the pain Grant that together we may of family at home hearing, Killed build a place in Action or Missing in Action. that will be worthy of You.
Remembrance Day. We remember the dark nights, the uncertainties, the fear, and the hope. We remember the people. The poppy reminds us that hundreds of Canadian people are buried in Europe. For these people, and the thousands who returned, we are thankful.
Remembrance Day.
Racism
he Bible paints two pictures of relationships between people. The first picture is that when all is said and done, people from the east (Asians, Chinese, Japanese), west (Europeans and Americans), the north (Eskimos, Innus, and Innuits), the south (South Africans, Australians) will make their way
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Listen to the poppy. The stories it tells are worth hearing. In this vast universe there is only one planet that is called Earth. And on Earth
to God. The second picture is that in Christ Jesus there is neither slave nor free, male nor female. This leads me to believe that racism is a finished for Christians. Whenever I think of racism, or read about it in newspapers, and hear it about on the radio, I think of two stories.
I began putting the phone quietly down on the table, letting them talk to the empty wall. So much hatred has been poured on that wall! All over the state Medgar worked furiously on the two approaches he always believed are keys to the southern Negros future. The first is the ballot box, the second is economic boycott. If we can get rid of our sense of inferiority, he always said, we can begin to win our equality peacefully. This conviction that the Negro is not inferior-this was the thing, above all else, that he was trying to get across.
On the train trip back to Atlanta, segregation smote me like a physical blow. As the forests of Virginia hurtled by outside, King made his way to the dining car and started to sit down anywhere, as he had sat down on the way through New York and New Jersey. But the train was in Dixie now. When the last series of demonThe waiter led him to a rear table strations began in Jackson, the and pulled a curtain down to shield other side seemed to realize the sethe white passengers from his presriousness too. The threats against ence. He sat and stared at the curall of us intensified. Then about a tain, unable to believe that others month ago the first attack on our could find him so offensive. I felt, home came in the form of a bomb. he said, as though the curtain had ... dropped on my self-hood. S. On Monday he was very busy. Oates, Let the Trumpet Sound He mentioned death again that Life of M.L.King Jr. day, I remember, and on Tuesday We all knew the danger was inmorning before he left. He kissed creasing. Threats came daily, crueach of the children that morning el & cold & constant, against us & he held me in his arms a long and the children. But we had lived time. He called me 3 times from his with this hatred for years and we office that day. ... The last thing he did not let it corrode us. told me was that he loved me and When Medgar took the NAACP he loved the children. job, the threats began. During criI let the children stay up all sis times the phone would ring all hours that night. We heard the car night. At first I tried to talk to the stop and the door open & then we callers, but that was hopeless. heard the shot. I knew instantly Then I started hanging up, but that Medgar had been shot. He they just called right back. Finally
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staggered from the car to the steps with the keys in his hand, trying to come home. ... He seemed to be struggling, perhaps to speak or perhaps to live. They took him to the hospital. The next day when the police and other white people came, I looked out and saw them and, for a moment, I hated everybody with a white skin. But that didnt last. Medgar had taught me not to hate and today I feel no hate for anyone, not even the man who killed him. I have magnificent memories. Medgar didnt belong just to me-he belongs to so many, many people everywhere. He was so willing to give his life that I feel his death has served a certain purpose. (Myrlie Evers)
God forbid that we be the ones to pull down the curtain on someones identity. God grant us Violence - appears to be someall the courage to love in the midst thing of the heart as much as a poof hate. litical act. Maybe we do have an innate tendency towards violence. The church itself is not free from this tendency. Religious wars, holy Violence - the servant crusades, and more are part of our of love christian heritage. People who remember 1925-1926 in Canadian ars, conflicts and ru- Church History, remember the mours of war are the strong emotions surrounding the stuff of media headlines. creation of the United Church of Some might say that our obsession Canada. What many Presbyteriwith war is a sign of a human ten- ans may well remember are the didency towards violence. Violence, visions within communities and of course, is more than aiming a ri- families - the verbal and psychologfle at the enemy with intent to kill. ical violence.
This week I see the results of violence on the highway. Twisted, disabled, distorted beyond recognition, a car sits as a symbol of the violence of a head on collision. I read, occasionally, of street fights that may be motivated by either fear or hatred; or of communities ravaged by the violence of a hurricane or earthquake. Nature too has its violent moments. A young lady asks me about resolving some differences between herself and her former husband. She does not want to get into a shouting match, which so often like our wars, is a no-win or lose-lose situation. Relationships may also become situations of violence. C.S. Lewis, a popular Christian writer describes his religious conversion as an entry into Gods kingdom with struggle - he kicks and fights against the embrace of God the Holy Spirit.
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Violence towards another person is not unique to the experiences of Presbyterians or United church people of 1925-1926. Maybe we have witnessed a conflict within our own congregation, a conflict that gave away the fact that we are can express a violence that is within, a violence of the heart. Paul Tournier discusses the nature of the violence within, and reminds us that at the heart of our Christian faith is the violence of a criminal death. He says, in his book , The Christian religion still has its supreme rite in the eucharist, a symbolic manifestation of violence, commemorating and renewing the sacrifice of Christ, and ensuring the mystic communion of the faithful who together eat his body and drink his blood (p.66). I think also, in this season of Pentecost, how the dove descends in a violent manner - in tongues of fire and the blowing of a violent wind. Is there a fine line between violence that may be good and violence which may be evil? Tournier makes this distinction: benevolent violence is that which is put at the service of others, protecting the week, healing the sick, liberating the exploited, fighting the injustice of the powerful; and that improper violence is violence on ones won behalf, aimed at securing power for oneself, vio-
lence which is inspired by the fascination of power (p.113). We hear of the war on drugs, and lend our support to such violence. We do not question the work of the doctor and nurse who fight against physical, mental and emotional diseases. Like Paul says to the young man Timothy, the spirit God gives us is not of fear, but of power and love. Violence, healthy, constructive violence is the servant of love. Pentecost, like Good Friday and Easter morning, is the violent invasion of God into our world and lives - for good things like re-creation, renewal. May the same Spirit of this God capture our hearts with a violence that serves love, love for our earth, for one another and for God himself.
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Musings of a blinded man

looking for good cause to say no to Lets have a party. Be sure to immigrants and refugees. The include the boss, neighbours and Yamagami family, pictured in the our best friends on the guest list. Halifax paper of the above date, Oh, and dont forget the poor, the has been ordered to return to Jacrippled, the lame and the blind. pan. The Immigration Act What, youre not sure they will mix excludes potential immigrants well with our neighbours? They who have a disability that could will be too much bother, you say. place demands on health and soSpecial preparations, expensive cial services. 12 year-old Akiko has preparations, will have to be made. Downs Syndrome. The question We dont have room for all those isnt answered (is it asked?) if 12 year-old Akiko has yet to place depeople. mands on our health and social serAnd so the poor, the crippled, vices. the lame and the blind are taken Despite our words and best inoff the guest list. tentions, we have for thousands of Give me your tired, your poor, years turned our back on the homeless, the less privileged, the sick. Your huddled masses yearning Lepers were colonized in their Guto breathe free lags and Siberias. Single mothers The wretched refuse of your used to be sent off to private homes. teeming shore, American Blacks were treated no Send these, the homeless, better than Jews in Hitlers Gertempest-tossed to me many. Today, a family is expelled I lift my lamp beside the from Canada after five years; a 12 golden-door! year-old daughter still suffers , Emma La- from Downs Syndrome. zarus, 1903. The inscription on the I think of another story I read tablet in the pedestal of the Statue just recently. A child is baptized. of Liberty. Kimberly is encased in a body cast Recent news stories, including due to birth defects which could a back page photo in the Halifax make her a paraplegic. The clergyChronicle Herald, Monday, July man is deeply moved by the Spirit 10, 1989, point to the hand held up in administering the sacrament of in refusal to the poor, the crippled, baptism, a sacrament which the lame. The American and Cana- speaks of wholeness, life and Gods dian governments are suddenly
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The Guest List The Guest List
all embracing grace. Later the that on February 14 birds began same week a church couple calls to pair off, and in the Roman feast the minister and ask to meet and of Lupercalia, a lovers festival for discuss baptism. They say, refer- young people. Considering some ring back to the baptism of Kimber- customs practiced through the ly, It was as if that little girl were years, I wonder if the picking of peta symbol of our lives. There she als from a flower with the words, was, crippled and bound, yet glow- She/he loves me, She/he loves me ing with happiness and peace in not has its roots in Valentines her fathers arms. When you took Day. Whatever the history, and we her and spoke of Christs love for are not sure that Valentines Day her - that he died for her sins - that has anything to do with Saint Valwas more than we could take. Lat- entine, and customs, February 14 er it hit us. This little girl could is a day filled with signs of love. grown into a joyful, fulfilled wom- Cards, flowers and chocolates are an... the most popular gifts of love. When you give a banquet, Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. Jesus, the host of the greatest party to ever be planned. Are we not sad that we have but one day a year to give free and joyous expression to our love for others? Oh yes, I am happy that I have at least this one day. I rarely sustain such a full and delighted expression of love for more than a day. We also limit our expressions of this romantic and affectionate love to specific people. We know that we cannot possibly love everyone in the whole world. Like a saying I remember: I love the world, its the people I cant stand. This difficulty and limitation points to a lack in human love. Human love, love for another person, does have something wonderful about it. We have only to read some romantic poetry, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways! We discover something incomplete in human love. Maybe human love is a bit like a good feed of Chinese food. Lots of it in short doses is all we can handle, but later we feel hungry for
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Signs of love, all over the world

he festival of romance and affection, Valentines Day, is our great celebration of human love. We children sort, sign and seal Valentine cards declaring love for another. Maybe they also ask someone to love them, Be My Valentine they cry. Flowery hearts surround Cupid as he sends little arrows in every direction possible. Valentines Day activities are rooted in Chaucers declaration
more. I want to keep observing Valentines Day, and enjoy all the ways of expressing and sharing the love I have for others. But I also want something more. After all, if my love for others knows ups and downs, surely their love for me knows ups and downs also. I want to know that I am loved a little more constantly, and I want also at times to think that I might a little more faithful in loving.
hopes and perseveres. This love never fails.
I hear the music of this love in the winds whipping snow around my home, and in the gentle ripple of the brook on a warm spring day. I see the signs of this love in the sun dancing off the snow, the rose breaking forth from the ground in the spring, the butterfly emerging from the cave of the cocoon. I see signs of this love in the way a community, and the individuals in that community, deliver needed supAnd so I am reminded of anothport to a child in need of special er day of great love, another love medical attention. story. I hear another love song that speaks of love as patient, kind. The The love story that spreads itlover is not envious, boastful, self throughout our world is an old proud, rude, self-seeking or easily story. The love began in the early angered. This lover does not de- moments of the history of our light in evil, but rejoices with the world. And the love gave full extruth. The love expressed in this pression to itself when, because of love story always protects, trusts, his deep, broad love for the world, God gave his son in life and in death. This love story is the Christmas love story. A hymn writer from the Old Testament reminds us that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; Gods mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning. Thank God for his many valentines to us.
Meetings, *((*%$%(* meetings
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suggests that many Christian organizations have utterly failed to define their `products or to identify a viable strategic thrust. Whereas the local church in the early part of the (20th) century provided a form of social contact in rural communities, people in the modern `mobicentric society find this conA friend of mine once wrote tact quite readily in their jobs, social groups, and dense about a congregation: neighbourhoods. Churches have A church thats like a mighty failed to maintain their match ship with this changing customer enviCome join the crew and sail her: ronment. ur feet again shuffle in the settling dust. We have survived yet another Annual Meeting, Board meeting, Session, or Parish counsel meeting. The dust hides the hope of positive decisions, and buries the hurt and frustration of some.
The rocks are high, the waves Our product is the good news are high of Jesus Christ. But do we deliver But work and faith will save her. that product to the people of our
Is this ship rudderless, or sailing without a captain? What happens to all the good intentions of well made decisions? Why is it that dreams and visions that excite us in January grow cold with the prolonged winter? How is it that some discussions and decisions cause joy in one person or group, pain in another? Some of us easily say that Having failed to struggle with love for Christ has grown cold, or both the personal and social reeven that others are not as caring sults of faith in Jesus Christ in the about or committed to the church. changing customer environment, The frustrations of any church we are caught in a religious quickmeetings are not because some sand. We are getting nowhere, and people love more than others. Our the harder we work, the worse it frustrations arise because we ei- gets. One of Murphys famous laws ther are afraid to be more business is Whenever you dont underlike, or we have difficulty in know- stand what youre doing, remember to do it neatly. Which reminds ing how to make decisions. me of a bit of an insider joke for One management specialist Presbyterians. We do everything
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society? We maintain certain ways of doing things, and continue to do certain activities that may or may not keep us in touch with the people around us. I remember reading that congregations should start a new group or two every couple of years. Why? So that more people can be put in touch with the good news of Jesus Christ.
decently and in order. We are not The king of Sodom said to so concerned about whether it is Abram, Give me the people and good or whether it works. keep the goods for yourself. A second reason that many But Abram said to the king of church meetings are frustrating, Sodom, I have raised my hand to and hurting, is that we forget (or the Lord, God Most High, Creator do not learn) good ways of making of heaven and earth, and have takdecisions. A church lawyer once en an oath that I will accept nothproposed 10 values for decision ing belonging to you, not even a making in the church. The value thread or the thong of a sandal, so that sticks with me is, a stance that you will never be able to say, that suggests Ì want to learn from I made Abram rich. I will accept you. This one sticks with me be- nothing but what my men have eatcause so much follows from it. Like, en and the share that belongs to stop and listen; allow others to fin- the men who went with meto Anish their statements or questions. er, Eshcol and Mamre. Let them Someone once said that love is pa- have their share. Genesis tient, and I believe that it is patient 14:17-24 enough to listen. Abram accepts from the King We can make church meetings of Sodom only that which is fair more interesting and productive and just. He does not expect the for all people. Knowing our prod- key to the city, tax free housing, uct, understanding the changing nor preferential treatment. Supsocial environment, and wanting pose Abram to be a Canadian livto learn from others are ways of en- ing in 1990. I suppose he will take riching the ability of the church to all that the King offers and then do its business. some. Not only will he wear the king's shoes, but probably the shirt off his back as well. A week from now he will likely complain that the King did not offer him the Will Someone do it for crown jewels.
us?
fter Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the Kings Valley).
Like Jesus parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20), this story of Abram points to fair wages and satisfaction with less. These are tough issues for us. We live with rising expectations - better jobs, higher wages, guaranteed economic security and more of almost everything. We expect more
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and more, from parent organiza- oceans are filled with fish, the tions like Mother Church or gov- price of produce goes up ( I can alernments. most hear someone say, And it was good.). Solutions are offered; Many denominations have a but of course these solutions cost parent body, variously called a money, and the government seeks Convention, Assembly, or Vatican. to raise funds to pay for the soluLocal congregations have a tions. How often we reject both the love/hate relationship with the solutions and the efforts of the govparent church. I know that Presbyernment to pay for the solution. terians believe in the importance Do we really believe, as demoand independence of the local congregation to determine practices cratic capitalists/socialists, or of worship and education. And members of the community of when Mother Church attempts to faith, that our parent (Mother provide direction, the offer is Church or the government) must scorned. We are willing, of course, do it all for us? We know that we to criticize the parent body - a pres- must eat and sleep for ourselves. bytery, synod, diocese, or assem- We must have faith for ourselves. bly - if they do not provide what we At some point, we are converted want. We often feel, as congrega- - and expect a parent organization tions, that we enter into battle for to provide the product, the buyer, the Church, half expecting Mother and to pay the worker! Church to reward us with the Abram seems to have it right. crown jewels. Yet, the moment He takes action, giving of himself Mother Church asks for somein that action. He then takes noththing, we create many reasons ing that belongs to the grateful why we should not give. King, only that which is a fair and Mother Church is not the only just reward: what his men have alparent organization in our society ready eaten, and the share that bepuzzled by our mixed passions of longs to those who were with him. love and hate. I am dazed by the hundreds of voices in our society demanding fast solutions from the government. Businesses blame the government when the demand An old as the hills for what they supply does not exist. remedy Communities demand support from governments when indusnce upon a time a misertries die natural deaths. We seem ly man visits a priest. to expect provincial or federal govThe priest leads him to ernments to wave a magic wand a window. `Look out there, he
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says, ànd tell me what you see. Ì see nothing but some people, replies the rich man somewhat disdainfully. The priest leads him to a full-length mirror, asking him, Ànd now, what do you see? Ì see myself, answers the rich man, slightly preening.
search high and low for a remedy. Something to take away the pain, to once again make life good and whole.
Several years after inventing radar, Sir Robert Watson Watt was arrested in Canada for speeding. Hed been caught in a radar `Thats the problem, the trap. He wrote this poem: priest says. Ìn the window there Pity Sir Robert Watson Watt is glass, and the mirror is glass, but the glass of the mirror is covered strange target of his radar plot, with a little silver, and no sooner and this, with others I could is a little silver added than we mention, cease to see others and see only a victim of his own invention. (Erik Peterson) ourselves. There was a king of Spain, once, Philip III, who is said to have died of a fever he contracted from sitting too long near a hot brazier, helplessly overheating himself because the servant whose duty it was to remove the brazier could not be found. In the late 20th century it begins to appear as if humankind may be approaching a similar state of suicidal incompetence. This reminds me that so often I get caught in my own remedies, my own solutions to evil, ills, pain. How often the remedy becomes worse than the symptom.
One evening a woman is driving home when she notices a huge truck behind her driving uncomfortably close. She steps on the gas to gain distance from the truck, Hopeless, isnt it, to look for but when she speeds up so does the goodness, generosity, and honesty truck. The faster she drives, the among people? Can we really ex- faster the truck goes. pect that the employed will be conNow scared, she exits the freecerned for the unemployed, the way. But the truck stays with her. rich for the poor, the happy for the The woman turns up a main street, sad? Are governments really com- hoping to lose her pursuer in trafmitted to peace and justice, or are fic. But the truck runs a red light they more concerned about and continues the chase. self-protection, self-pride and the Reaching the point of panic, the votes of the citizens? woman whips her car into a service When sickness grips our body station, bolts out of her auto or mind we seek healing. We screaming for help. The truck driv70
ada urges us to help feed, clothe and education the hungry and naked in other lands. World Vision of Canada encourages us to foster life in others with our financial contributions. Foster Parents Week has a much different dimension to it, for it concerns neighAre we running from the God bours, local families, and children who offers us a remedy for our huof our own community. man condition? The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that out of ashes, dirt, Fostering in Pictou County refilth, and evil there arises a hope. quires more than having sucThough we wish to destroy our ceeded so that we can give a little world, and ourselves with it; money to someone else. Fostering though we might run, God still in our County means giving of ones loves us. own energy, love, and of course material goods like food, clothes and yes, money.
er springs from his truck, and runs toward the car. Yanking the back door open, the driver pulls out a man hidden in the back seat. From his high vantage point, the truck driver had seen a would-be rapist in the womans car.
Fostering life
oster, encourage, nurture, cultivate and sustain are words that convey roughly the same idea. The gardener tends the plants, ploughs the ground, uproots weeds in fostering growth. The auto mechanic, greased up to the elbows, encourages peak performance from the enWe share the joys of many pargine. The parent kisses the ents in watching a child take their scraped knee, wipes away tears. These are the kinds of images promoted during Foster Parent Week (October 14-21) by agencies such as Community Services and Childrens Aid Society. We are all at least slightly aware of Fostering. The Foster Parents Plan of Can71
Our family has been a foster family for some ten years now. We are a foster family because we care about children; we see the difficulties, the hurt, the pain and we want to do something about it. We are a foster family also because we are Christians, and want to share the love God gives us with others. We choose to do this through fostering. We have discovered that fostering is exciting.
first step, hearing their first sentence. We have experienced a different dimension to this joy. A child becomes part of our family, excels in their studies, even says, Dad, I would like you to officiate at my wedding. Maybe these experiences are so precious, for we realize that these children come from abusive, alcoholic, or broken homesand sometimes all three. Just when it appears that life may not be worth living, these young men and women discover some meaning, some sense, and maybe even some love. Just as our joy expands, so also our sadness and disappointment increase. Fostering is not all success. Surely, there is nothing more difficult to reach out to someone, and have a steel door slammed in our face. Like trying to hug an angry child, getting beyond the rock-solid stiff body is almost impossible. A hurting person refuses healing. Those who want to care are shut out. Being the one who cares, and having that desire quashedthis also is fostering. Being a foster parent is a personal, engaging, demanding task. This kind of fostering takes much more commitment than a monthly cheque. Night and day we encounter the foster-child. In sickness and in health, we live with the foster-child. Night and day the foster child lives with us. Where there was rivalry between two or three children, now there is bickering be-
tween four or five. Fostering allows us as a family to be in Gods world in a loving, caring, and encouraging manner. This past weekend, I experienced a very special joy. More than a year ago a foster daughter asked me to conduct her wedding ceremony. Thanksgiving Sunday she stood before once again, as I baptized my third foster grand child. Fostering can make premature grandparents of us. But then, a grandparent has the added joy of spoiling their grand child.
Halloween: Dreams and Visions

he air is crisp, leaves litter the streets. The children are Batmans, Robins, ghosts and goblins. Halloween is the night to be someone or something else, the hour to trick our neighbours, to hide behind a mask or makeup. Halloween appears to me to be, above all else, a fantasy or a dream. Look at the children. They live out, for a time, the fantasy of being someone else, or even something other than themselves. Dreams, fantasies, and visions are the stuff of life, and of course, part of our Christian faith. As adults, we may quit dreaming, or lose our ability to dream. When we lose the vision, we shrivel inside. Our lack of dreams and visions as
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adults may be the very reason that we become so full of joy when the children dress up, fulfilling their dream. Our Christian faith is rooted in dreams and visions. Some of our favourite Bible stories are the dreams of Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar. Of course, we remember better Joseph and Daniel who acted as interpreters of dreams. The prophetic dreams and visions of Gods presence in our world in a loving and just way are a major part of the Old Testament. Joels vision of people filled with Gods Spirit is a reality in Pentecost, and gains strength in the visions of St. John. John sees a new heaven and a new earth, and people dressed in garments of white. John sees a life with God so intimate that the hungry are fed and tears are wiped away. Such visions and dreams invite us as Christians to dream, to fantasize. We participate in Gods dreams. One of His dreams is the redemption of a groaning, agonizing world. We share in that dream, not only for the world, but for our country, our church and ourselves. The world we see is a place, in our dream, where we are treated fairly, as are others. Apartheid is only a word, no longer a political policy. International affairs is you and I together, not us against them. The church we see is a growing,
vibrant body. All members of the family participate in the life and work of this body. We get along even when we disagree. We dream that we as persons will bewell, more God-like. We get dressed up, in the garments of the Gospel. Paul describes it as putting on faith, justice, love, obedience. We become, and that is the point of a dream, what God wants us to be. Some of our dreams, like the fantasies of Halloween, are either short term, our never fulfilled. We can never be a Batman or Frankenstein. Other dreams are worth keeping. Dreams captivate us, draw us, even motivate us. Such a dream is the redemption of the world. For this, we are willing to get dressed up.
Practice our Preaching
ow do we do Ecumenism? In (1994) the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax says this about practicing our preaching: The Practice of Ecumenism
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The authentic practice of ecumenism includes:

1. (A) an honest, self-examination of ones own faithfulness to Christs will for His Church commitment to personal and collective reform and renewal;
ocese of Halifax, PO Box 527, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1994, page 11.
The Atlantic Ecumenical Council is about practicing our ecumenism in the midst of our diversity. What is exciting for me, as participate in the Council, and have the privilege of reading minutes from other councils, is that I see individuals express their commit(B) Avoiding expressions, ment to Jesus Christ, and the good of judgements and actions that the society in which we live. People do not truly and fairly represhare their ideas and resources - togethsent the condition of other er - in prison ministry, the ministry of Christians; feeding the hungry and housing the houseless, the ministry of education (C) Cooperation with other (pre-marriage programs), the ministry Christians in working for the of fellowship, and work on social iscommon good; sues such as the fishery and poverty. (D) Sincere dialogue with What is encouraging is that we are able members of other commuto do this together across boundaries nions, according to Part V of which so often separate and divide. these guidelines; The Atlantic Ecumenical Council and this newsletter are about churches (E) Worship and prayer in and Christians doing together what we common, whenever these are should be doing. I see us practicing appropriate according to the authentic ecumenism as defined above. norms of part VI of these Gods work in and through us is beautiguidelines. (Decree on Ecuful as Jim Taylor says in his paramenism #3,4) phrase Psalm 111. The artistry of God 2 Along with other Church- is expressed in and through us as we practice what we preach - together. es and ecclesial communities the Catholic Church adheres Where should I praise God? to the Lund Principle of the World Council of Churches to Among God's people, of course! For God does great things. do togther the things that churches should be doing, ex- God's work is beautiful; it will cept where deep differences of not fade away. conviction compel them to act Those who can see God's artistry separately.
Office for Ecumenism, Archdiocese of Halifax Growing Together: Ecumenical Guidelines for the Archdiocese of Halifax Office for Ecumenism, Archdi-
will study it. They will recognize God's presence in their lives. And God will remember them, for God is gracious and kind.
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God looks after her friends; she keeps her promises. She does not flaunt her power, but she reveals it in countless daily ways; she constantly shares her power with her people. God weaves our threads together on the loom of life; like a seamless garment are God's principles. The works of God's hands will last forever; Whatever God does is done well. God gathers her people under her wing; God has made a commitment to us, and she keeps her promises. And God expects us to keep our promises, God help us! A healthy respect for God is the beginning of wisdom; Wisdom will lead to a better relationship with God.
Let us praise God forever.
Jim Taylor
angry techniques of power, manipulation and polarization. Douglas Lowry, in The Presbyterian Record, 1985 Do we fear the church will be corrupted by the secular thinking of the board room? Does the church stand on guard against the world? The world measures success and performance by different (read measurable and concrete) standards. The church will have none of this. What is so silly about this fear is that a secular understanding and practice of power politics has already corrupted both congregational life and relationships between clergy, congregations, and clergy and congregations. A congregation holds a Presbytery to ransom. Play my game, by my rules, or I will pick up my ball (money) and go home. Rhinos in the restaurant. A bishop dismisses a priest without just cause. Within a short time, a second letter states that the dismissal is with cause. The cause is not declared. The word dismiss reminds me of describing gun-carrying soldiers as peacekeepers. The priest is fired, terminated, without income, employment, and often with confusion and anger. Rhinos in the restaurant.
Rhinos in the Restaurant
Our church lives are filled with ood decision making rerhinos in restaurants. There is the quires a headlong flight from the worlds power of anger, manipulation and
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polarization. Sides are taken and argued, not negotiated. Meetings to make decisions occur before and after the meetings in which motions are made and votes taken. The stories told here are stories of the worlds angry techniques of power acted out inside the body of Christ. Bishops are invested with the power of an office. Is this power exercised with the authority of service? Congregations usually have the power of both numbers and the cheque book. Do they learn to exercise this power with the authority of service? Do clergy exercise their power with the authority of service when all about them is the power of control, manipulation, polarization? And of course, when the parish priest fails to successfully exercise power with the authority of service, guess who gets blamed? This seems to me to be the corruption of the church pastors are blamed, scapegoated by the power brokers - the bishop/denomination from above and the congregation from below. Rhinos in the restaurant. G.K. Chesterton told a dinner companion, If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever. Little Brown Book of Anecdotes, 1985. p. 117.
The church is corrupted by the secular expression of power. The church has not learned how to use power through the authority of service. The classic expression of power, preached upon by thousands of preachers, is clearly stated by Paul. Jesus Christ, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited. Abnormal, isnt it, when those who meet in Jesus name, who invoke Jesus upon those they licence/ordain/call/ commission, so readily regard their own power as the power to exploit, control, manipulate and polarize. Stranger still - God converts rhinos.
Hitting it Squarely
homas Ryan says, on the spiritualdisciplineofFasting, going without food for a day a week, and contributing to a good cause the money that you would otherwise have spent on your meals, fails to go to the heart of the problem. It is like swinging at the ball but only nicking a piece of it, as opposed to hitting it squarely. To hit it squarely, we need to move from the personal to the public realm on this problem. Thomas Ryan, , 1993, p. 204
The Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with 76
Through a Glass - Darkly Women 1988-1998, states as it purpose at least these three goals: ordination. I am not convinced that ordination is the only way to affirm the decisive contributions of women in our faith-lives. I do think that in the way we do thinks in our churches, that is a significant affirmation.
1. to affirm the decisive contributions of women in churches and communities; 2. to take actions in solidarity with women; 3. to affirm the reality and practice of believing in ourselves. As a male, reflecting on the issues and documents of the Decade, I am convinced that I cannot begin to hit the issue squarely until I hit it where I live - in my own experience, understanding and life. So, in an effort to begin swinging I offer the following as my personal efforts to address the three goals noted above.
2. In Solidarity
Through both my work in addictions and as editor of a couple of ecumenical newsletters, I became connected to the Task force on the Feminine Face of Poverty and the Family Violence Prevention Initiative in Nova Scotia. One of the critical realities repeated often is the economic poverty of women, and the economic difficulty an abused women trying to leave the relationship. I have had a unique opportunity to feel this reality recently.
1. Affirming Contributions
Most of us couldnt wait to get a I remember being very vocal job so we could have our own during the 80s with other Presbyterians as we discussed the money. Who wants to be dependent on the old man or old ordination of women. I said at that time to a classmate that men lady for our allowance? the decision makers and powerImagine being 40 years old and brokers in the church have still having to ask for money! You enjoyed the benefits, reaped the know how your parents always rewards of the leadership women say, What do you need it for? or give in the trenches - with our I already gave you your allowance. children, budgets and the whole So a woman who has to depend on life of the church. If nothing else, someone else for money we must allow them to have constantly may feel as if she validation through ordination and hasnt been allowed to grow up, offices of power. The trouble is that she is till a child. And some that the validation comes from a men treat their wives as if they patriarchal system; the delight is are children; they dole out a that the empowered female clergy certain amount of money for are changing the way we act and groceries and other household think about leadership and 77
Through a Glass - Darkly expenses and say occasionally, Get yourself something nice. Lots of women want to work so they can feel like grownups. ,
1992. page 4.
Ive always understood the difficulty that a woman would have leaving a relationship when she is economically marginalized. Ive never felt the impact of that until recently when, following some transitions in our family, and waiting for my UIC benefits to kick in, I realized I had no money to get a gift for my wife on her birthday - or anniversary. This reality was further brought home as I asked her if she had anything in mind she would like for her birthday, and she made the comment, Not that you could Affirmation of get it unless I gave you the money. their National Solidarity means encouraging people to continue to dream, to plan for the future so that they can rebuild their sense of worth and feel that others value them as well. I now personally understand more of the struggle to dream and plan and feel a sense of self-worth in the midst of economic dependence.
To believe in myself - and in my ability to offer others something can be hard. As I hear the stories told by the women in our society, and even in my particular denomination, I want them to believe in themselves. I want to know, and receive the benefits of their creative power, which is so much more than simply giving physical birth. Something I was reading recently made me think of a song named The Woman in Me. As I believe in myself and acknowledge my own creative power it is like letting the woman in me be born, grow and mature to stand side by side with the man in me.
Women on Day
We believe in ourselves as women. We believe we are called by God To minister to our world. We acknowledge our creative power. We choose to extend this power In service to the world in need.
3. Believing in ourselves, We pledge ourselves: acknowledging our To seek the liberation of all peocreative power.
Believing in myself is a difficult thing, especially in situations where people in power around me are acting as if there is something flawed about me. When others tell me I am a worm often enough, long enough, I begin to believe it.
ple To affirm the equality of women in our church To celebrate the presence of the Holy Spirit.
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May our lives be a blessing to one another. May our lives be bread of life to the world.
Western Province Council of Churches, Womenns Programme, from The Regional Mall, July/Aug 1993.
ham, We Belong Together, p. 112. Solidarity means encouraging people to continue to dream, to plan for the future so that they can rebuild their sense of worth and feel that others value them as well. Mission to Our Town p.5.
I close with another affirmation that I find myself committed to:

We affirm that male and female are created in the image of God. ... We affirm the creative power given to women to stand for life wherever there is death. In Jesus community women find acceptance and dignity and with them he shared the imperative to carry the Good News. We will resist all structures of dominance which exclude the theological and spiritual contributions of women and deny their participation in decision-making processes in church and society.
Such is the journey of one male, a personal start in hitting in squarely in a journey of solidarity with women.
Foul!
Encouraged by the persistence of women in their struggles for life, all over the world, we commit ourselves to seek ways of realizing a new community of women and men.
Affirmations on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation, excerpted from Now is the Time, Report of the Seoul Convocation, World Council of Churches, March 1990.
he notion of Call is well established in my Baptist/ Presbyterian polity, theology and life. The value and dynamic of the Call is Gods hand pulling me, Gods voice luring me into a particular place and partnership. I have been called, like the early disciples, to follow Jesus. Sometimes in my life this has meant parish ministry, community ministry, or no formal ministry at all. Always, I have heard this call to be a Christian wherever I am, whatever I am doing.
The church, as an institution, has made the Call both positive and negative. Honouring my perSolidarity means to value; to want ception that God in Christ has justice for; to desire fulfillment for; to pulled me into his particular life, be willing to suffer for. Una Kroll, The the Call has become something
Justice Agenda from the Inside Out. In Cunning-
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of a class issue, separating one group of people from another. Clergy are now called to serve particular people in particular places within particular buildings. The church, the institution, now confirms the Call to minister. Presbyterians have Presbyteries which must determine if particular information contained in The Call is sufficient to make this Call a regular Gospel call. What happens is that two parties a clergy person and a congregation attempt to decide if they might live together in relationship called ministry. The process includes discussions on theological, pastoral (care) and economic issues. When the discussions are over, both parties attempt to mutually agree to certain conditions. If this happens, they make a covenant. Members of a congregation sign call sheets and then a of stipend. The clergy person agrees to perform specific activities (preaching, worship leadership, sacraments . . . ) while minister of the congregation and signs a formula on the date of induction/ordination. Thus, a covenant is made two or more parties sign, committing themselves to a certain relationship and course of action. So far, everyone is happy, right? The call of God to an individual gets played out in a covenant relationship between two parties. Is this a covenant between
equals? The congregation as one party consists of many individuals, while the clergy person stands alone. The congregation/church pays the minister a stipend or salary. The congregation can work to rule (the question is not who is present, but who is absent.) The more I think about it, the less I sense that this is a real covenant between equals. There is a gross power imbalance. This is particularly evident when the congregation decides without consulting the other party that the relationship is over. Clergy killers are a particularly clear example of people who have no regard for the mutuality of the covenant between the congregation and the clergy person. Yet, their signatures probably appear on the call sheets; these same people were at the induction, standing to commit themselves to more than a guarantee of stipend. A second question arises from the language of the call and covenant with which I am familiar. What is a guarantee of stipend but a legal contract to pay the minister? What is a mutually signed agreement but a contract to do ministry together? Of course, behind or beyond the theology we have created around the call is the between two parties one party will provide a service in return for place to do this service and reimbursement for services rendered. My, my this sounds like an employment relationship.
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If the church, congregation or other denominational body is the employer then we as employees deserve the same rights, the same justice, the same protection as employees in industry. If the congregation is not an employer, how can it, by fiat, end the covenant relationship? Of course, congregations, denominations do dismiss clergy and then argue that they are not employers and cannot be held accountable for wrongful dismissal. I call foul, both because this is horrible theology, and simply wrong. The time has come for the church to get out from behind its horrible theology, and lack of moral responsibility as an employer. When the employer breaks the covenant/contract, without the consent of the employee, they must be held accountable.
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Afterword
As I have yet again reviewed the contents of this collection, some 10 years after I finished most of them, I have reflected on what I value. I cannot easily summarize what I value, but the word journey keeps coming to mind. Now in midlife, I look back and trace my footsteps from Toronto my birth place, to Keswick, the community I first remember, and eventually the return to my parents home in southeastern New Brunswick. The journey includes a faith community (Baptist), education including Moncton High School, Mount Allison University and Knox College and a transition into the Presbyterian Church. The journey includes ministry in churches and communities that still stick to me. I remember books I have read, music that influences me, movies that touch me, and words that continue to call me to keep on going in the journey. As a young university student (maybe high school) I read a number of Chaim Potoks novels, about young Jews struggling to find their place in the world in which they live. These stories were and maybe are my stories. I remember the music of Neil Diamond as it speaks of my need to be loved and to love. Today the music of U2, particularly the Joshua Tree album continues to challenge
me about finding what I am looking for in life and meaning. Movies like Beaches, and Erin Brockovich give me the chance to see my life and its meaning through others joys, tears, and passion. Today, a colleague has offered me a new look at my life in Jean Vaniers book, Becoming Human. I cannot look back without thinking of the person who once thanked me for introducing them to Jesus, the people who invited me to invite Gods blessing and hand upon them as they journeyed into marriage, the moms and dads (especially my daughter) who asked me to hold their infant son or daughter and grace these lives with water and prayer, offering them Gods Holy Spirit. And throughout all the steps, the difficulty I had sometimes seeing, I remember those who prayed (and continue to pray) for me, especially my mom and dad. As I remember the years, I am astounded by the one person who sticks with me even when I am most prickly, my wife. Day in and day out, she laughs with me, cries with me, challenges me, and loves me. The journey I am on is far from over. What strikes me today is that I value the experiences I have had, the people I have met and from these, the moments of beauty, understanding, and insight I have enjoyed. I have enjoyed the laughter, and grown from the tears.
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And as another has so wonderfully said, Please be patient - God is not finished with me yet! And I hear the sigh of both relief and hope.
I leave you with the following pictures which I find touching me frequently.
A Motive for Change
photo by Carlos Sanchez
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Through a Glass - Darkly

Through a Glass - Darkly

The Church Year................................12

Sent into the World...........................26

Through a Glass - Darkly

We are in the world............................54

Musings of a blinded man................63

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