felix hominum

R & D team creates another...

In case you hadn't heard, the domestic research and development team is announcing the anticipated release of Walker version 4.0.  Expect to see this new addition to the exciting line up of Walkers in the early spring.

Sooner or later, everyone needs a minivan...

how to kill an hour on a lazy afternoon

Ingredients:

Half dozen donuts - (3 chocolate dip, 3 honey glaze)
12 foot long section of string
several washclothes and mop
three children - aged 6, 4 and 2 years of age

Place donuts on string.
Tie string across kitchen, from one side to the other, over large expanse of moppable floor.
Invite children to eat donuts from string.

Rule #1 - hands must be held behind back at all times
Rule #2 - if, in the course of eating, donut should fall from string - it becomes fair game for adults to eat.

Timeline:

set up:           10 minutes
activity:          20-25 minutes
clean up:       30 minutes, plus laundry

overheard

"Normal" is a dryer setting.

via Mack

"you have forgotten what you are"

“then can you say, what is a man?”
        Are you asking me if I know that I am a mortal, rational animal? 
        I do know that, and admit to being such.

“And you do not know that you are anything more?”
        I am nothing more.

“Now I know that other, more serious cause of your ills:  you have forgotten what you are.”

Lady Philosophy questions Boethius to discover the source of his discomfort.

Commentary later this weekend.

Sally Ann Sunday

This week the sol café group will be spending our “worship time” moving food and filling hampers at the local Salvation Army food depot.   It is a great organization, which does a lot of good work in our communities.  It also features a great local blogger, Ian's Messy Desk.

I can so easily pretend and fool myself that I am loving God.  I can not so easily fake loving my neighbour.  That’s why the two great commandments go hand in hand.  How can you love God whom you have not seen if you do not love your neighbor whom you do see?  It is also a reminder that love is not a feeling, but an act of will. 

God does not usually give us visible and tangible reminders that we are not loving Him.  Our neighbours do.  The presence of those who have less than us, is in itself a visible witness of inequality, of our affluence, of our lack of passion for loving our neighbours as ourselves.

Is loving my neighbour a form of worship?

It's a start.

5-7 pm;  Sunday October 30;  9620-101 A ave

Joseph Howe & chick tracts

Joseph Howe was a newspaperman extraordinaire - his efforts brought about the first effective democratic workings in Canada.  We have a tradition of freedom of speech and of the press.  I was surprised to find this piece of information, about the banning of a newspaper written by conservative Anglicans.   

Update;  the publication in question is the Anglican Planet, which the Bishop of Brandon (Manitoba) finds an unhelpful voice in the church.

HT:  titusonenine

"stay where you're to and I'll come where you're at"

Folk sayings, like folk music, often contains gems of truth.

My father’s family has its roots in the east coast of Canada.  A place of sleepy fishing villages, kitchen fiddle parties (I’ll spare you the Gaelic for now) and places where “newcomers” arrived just after the American War of Independence.

In a few places they have preserved some choice phrases.  They don’t ask “where are you from?” when you arrive for a visit.  Instead they ask “Where do you belong?”  They know something we don’t.  We tend to see ourselves primarily as individuals.  Methinks there is too much angst over “my purpose” in our culture, and especially in that murky subculture of North American Christianity. The urban cocktail party has as its opening line “So what do you do?”, as if having found a niche of personal productive excellence is the height of becoming fully human.  We strive to find our “purpose”, but we do so in a personal and isolated fashion, and as defined by “what I do”. 

“Where do you belong?” reminds us that we find our “purpose”, our fulfilment, in the context of a community.  I think it is also a much more comforting notion than purpose.  A sense of belonging is key to a child’s development.  Finding out where I belong means that my individual gifts and excellence have a broader context, a broader purpose, than simply an answer to my individual hand wringing – “what is my purpose”.

Where do you belong, me by'?

sculpture/sol cafe /synod

For the locals:

This Sunday at 3 we will be venturing out to an exhibit of the Edmonton Contemporary Artists' Society:  (Great West Saddlery Building - 10137 - 104 St). 

Rob Willms will be at the exhibit in the afternoon, and then we will head over to the regular sol cafe meeting place around 5ish.

There may be little blogging over the weekend, as I attend our anglican diocesan synod.  Then again, maybe there will be lots to say...

food & masses, or the "Gospel Driven Life"

Good news often gets buried under the avalanche of issues our church is dealing with. Every once in a while it is worth reminding ourselves of some of the things which bear witness to the Kingdom of God in the Anglican Church.

At a diocesan meeting last week, I discovered that one local inner city parish (St Faith) in Edmonton had served 11,000 meals last year: quietly witnessing to the call of Christ to feed the hungry. It is also a place of worship in the inner city.   Another inner city parish, St Stephen's, has had a long history of helping some inner city residents, notably  through such organizations as Our House addictions recovery center.  St Stephen's also has a long tradition of (I know I'll probably be corrected on this) Anglo-Catholic worship.

The call to love our neighbours in a tangible way is part of the “Gospel driven life”. At the same time, the people served by these churches also need an opportunity (like all of us) to worship God. We are in the business of feeding bodies and souls. And in some places, the two go hand in hand.

Food and masses.

genetic testing, Down syndrome & abortion

Things happen in sets of three, don't they? 

Today I received my newsletter from the Edmonton Down Syndrome Society, reminding me that Nov 1-7 is national Down Syndrome Awareness Week.   I also caught a Washington Post article entitled:  The Abortion Debate No One Wants to Have.  It's about abortion based on a diagnosis of Down syndrome.  And an email from a colleague reminding me about a class on biothethics tomorrow, where the topic will be (go ahead and guess).

Now let me speak of some thoughts I wrestle with.  I am the father of a child with Down syndrome.  We knew of the likelihood of this diagnosis because of prenatal testing.  I wrote of that experience earlier.   I find it rather difficult to maintain the notion that we as a society will place value on persons with Down syndrome if it is permissible to have an abortion for no other reason than that Down syndrome is detected before birth.

The author of the article raises some tough questions in her analysis.  To what other identifiable group can we ethically promote such a policy of selective abortion?   "It looks like your son might be born left handed, I suggest you think about terminating the pregnancy".   What would ever happen if a genetic marker were positively identified for sexual orientation?   Would society permit parents to pre-select and abort according to their personal or religious preferences?  "Pastor Billy-Bob, it looks like your son might be born gay, I suggest you think about terminating the pregnancy".   Would there be a public/media reaction to such a scenario?

Tough issues, but they need to be looked at.

I'm just sayin', that's all...

Render unto Caesar

"Show me a denarius", Jesus said.  "Whose head and title is on it?"
"Caesar's", they replied.

Ever wonder what the "title" was on a denarius at the time of Jesus?

"Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus, chief high priest"

Sounds like there is more going on than just a question of paying taxes.

gratuitous promo for glenroy

who will be playing at the sidetrack cafe with a few other acts on October 27, around 8 pm.  You can visit at open conversations. 

reminder: U of A Human Rights Lecture

Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, will deliver the University of Alberta Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights on Wednesday October 26, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. in the University of Alberta’s Myer Horowitz Theatre.

Khan will be the eighth speaker in the annual U of A Visiting Lectureship in Human Rights. Established in 1998, the lectureship has brought many leading human rights advocates to campus, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 2003 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Shirin Ebadi. Tickets for the lecture are $10 and available through Ticketmaster.

on the "truth" of the bible

Scott Bourgeois has given us an interesting article in a recent edition of the Gateway.   There are more than a few things in the article I would like to address, but for now let's say that it appears to be based on Ruth Gledhill's article in the Times, which has been addressed throughout the blogosphere (like here). 

A reply to the Gateway:

Mr. Scott C Bourgeois has given us an interesting article on the Catholic Church’s “new” attitude to Scripture.  I may be incorrect, but from the text of his article it appears he is borrowing quite a bit from Ruth Gledhill’s recent article in the TimesOnline, an article which has been fisked for its misinterpretation (google it) since its publication.

The original document in question (The Gift of Scripture) points out that there are a variety of genres of literature in the bible – some claiming to be what moderns would recognize as “literal-historical”, some claiming to be “symbolic-poetic”.  This understanding of Scripture is not “new”, it has been around, well, for a couple of thousand years.  A reading of Augustine’s “On the Literal Interpretation of Genesis” (4th C) is evidence of that.  Distinguishing between genres may be a thorny issue for Christians, but the existence of such genres is not.

Mr. Bourgeois has presented us with a false dilemma – either all of the bible must be “literal”, in an Enlightenment-scientific sense, or none of it is “true” in any sense.  I think of the bible’s Song of Solomon:  “Your lips drip with honey” one lover says to another.  Did a kiss take place?  Evidently so.   Was there honey involved?  Perhaps not.  Are we being told that lovers must be like Winnie the Pooh after a foray into his famous jar?  What, is this not literal, is it not “true”?  The poetic image is conveying a truth, the full depth of which, in my personal experience of a particularly excellent kiss, goes beyond a limited literal and scientific description of such an event.

yours, etc...

 

how to pay off student loans

Just in case you've wondered how to avoid debt at today's university prices, you might take a hint from Alex Tew.  The 21 year old business major in Britain has raised thousands of dollars in a rather simple fashion.

You can find his homepage here.

Note to Self

Call Tim first thing in the am.

thanksgiving as a lifestyle

When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is  multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of  the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…Do not say to yourself, "My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me  this wealth."   (Exodus 8)

The most effective temptations are sometimes the most subtle.   We have eaten our fill, our investments have multiplied, we have two donkeys in the garage, we have built our houses and live in them.   In other words, we have accumulated, over time, a lifestyle for ourselves.

Screwtape once said to a junior devil: “murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick”.   The key to forgetting God is to do it in slow and steady stages.  For most of us, it is too radical a temptation to declare:  “I am an atheist – I refuse to believe any longer”.  Rather, much more effective is the slow development of a lifestyle which constantly is pushing God to the edges, instead of keeping Him at the centre.  Not in big jumps, but with just enough movement to make sure it happens slowly but surely over the course of a lifetime.  It is a lifestyle which promotes “forgetting”.  Where is my attention focused?  On my material life, on the stuff around me.   My gaze is fixed on the lifestyle I am developing.  Slowly but surely, God is pushed to the edges. 

Likewise, thanksgiving is not a single act or a prayer said like a short grace said to validate the consumption of vast amounts of food.  Thanksgiving is a lifestyle – a recognition that God is at the centre of all that I am, and is the source of all that I have.  It is a matter of focus, or gaze.  Where are my eyes constantly turned?  To my lifestyle, or to God.?

Mr Martin goes to church

Over the last little while some of the bishops of the Catholic church having been taking Canadian politicians to task over their voting records in the same sex marriage legislation.   In the case of Paul Martin, his bishop has been suggesting that he be denied communion in his parish because of his support for legislation which the Catholic Church opposes.  At the same time, Martin's local parish priest opposes the idea.

Martin defended himself by declaring that there is, in effect, a separation of his public office from his private religious views.  A politician, it is argued, is really two persons in one – a public figure and a private individual.  And in this case, the two do not mix. 

This of course raises a few very basic questions.  What is the role of an individual’s religious belief in the public sphere?  As well, what if that individual’s success with the electorate is somewhat aided by the public profession of a religious affiliation?  In the case of George Bush, there seems (at least to this Canadian) to have been a fairly public appeal to religious sentiment.  Some have argued that likewise, Paul Martin portrayed himself during election time as a member in good standing of the Roman Catholic Church.  If this is the case, then surely at least some votes may have been influenced by that projection of himself to the electorate, although “religion” does not seem to be such a large factor in our country’s politics as it is for our cousins south of the border.

coffee, art & the St Michael Report

A]    Well, an interesting evening at the sol cafe.  A few folks unexpectedly dropped in on the conversation.  Which of course raises the question - do we not  expect God to be present when believers gather, and not expect that there will be those people who are looking for an opportunity to share with others, to bounce ideas off, to hear something of Jesus?  I wonder if we set our expectations too low sometimes.   God is active.

B]    For the locals:   there is an exhibit ongoing, featuring, among others, the work of Rob Willms.  Two of his pieces now grace our home.

ECAS - edmonton contemporary artists society
Oct 7- Oct 29;  11 am- 5 pm
Great West Saddlery Building - 10137 - 104 St.

C]   The Primate's Theological Commission of the Anglican Church of Canada has produced a document entitled the St Michael Report.  This is a document that is intended to be used as a starting point in Anglican discussions around the issues of blessing of same sex unions.   Note to self:  we will be having a diocesan synod (synod, noun:  a gathering of anglicans to determine the future of the world)  later this month, at which there will be time set aside to discuss the contents of this report.   So in light of this, I hope to offer a few reflections on this report, and on its place at our diocesan synod.

Initial observations:

The report opens with a quote from Titus 2:1- "But as for you, teach what is consistent with sound doctrine."  The report does indeed conclude that this issue is a "matter of "doctrine", whatever we may mean by that word.  It is not only a pastoral matter, but it does in fact touch upon several key doctrines of our church - theological anthropology (what is a human being?), the Incarnation (Jesus as God in the flesh), our understanding of Salvation, the work of the Holy Spirit...

The opening quotation from Titus is interesting - sort of setting the tone and framework within which the document was produced.   While we live in an age (but doesn't everyone?) in which there is a specific culture, and so the church addresses people living within that culture, yet at the same time there is understood to be a thing called "doctrine" which remains stable and is above (?) cultural variations.   There are also various orders of doctrine - some more important (primary) than others.  How do we distinguish between the various orders of doctrine?  What is core and what is padding?  What is unchanging and what is like a fashion accessory that can change with each decade? 

There is also the particular "charge" given in the quote from Titus - teach what is consistent with sound doctrine.   As an ordained priest in the Anglican Church, I feel a particular weight to those words.   My ordination vows call me to certain things in a public manner.   So over the next little while, I will try to submit my anglican readers to a few observations of this important document, offering my humble thoughts on its content and the possible future it points toward.

new local blogger

Tim Chesterton has added his voice to the blogosphere.   I've known Tim for several years:  he's a thoughtful pastor, a big slice of good guy, and a great guitarist.  Give him a visit. 

community of heart

This past monday was worship/prayer night for our local L'arche community.  It was a time of singing, of prayer, of thanking jesus for his presence in our lives, and for celebrating his love for us.  The worship probably did not look very much like what you would have in your home church, except for one part.  I am an anglican, and during our anglican "prayers of the people", the congregation is invited to voice their prayers for those in need.   We anglicans can be fairly reserved, so there is often a bit of what I call the "anglican murmur" - a slow chorus of low voices each saying something, and the whole thing being relatively inaudible and indecipherable to all but the most attentive hearer.   Sounds very much like the beginning of the Larche corporate prayer time.  But I digress.   

L'arche is a model of true inclusiveness of the Christian variety.  It is a community of the broken, who know themselves to be broken - there is no point in pretending otherwise - (those of us who have cleverness are really good at that pretending part), who gather around Jesus, and who are given their value by their Father and Redeemer.  It is also a most joyful community.  Prayers of thanksgiving were poured out in joy from those whom "we" tend to think of as less fortunate than ourselves.  And the modern stuff that passes for "liturgical dance" has nothing on a group of L'arche members celebrating God in whatever movement or motion they are capable of.  (At the risk of sounding unmerciful, some of what we do along those lines seems, well, a bit "contrived" compared to the dancing I've seen at L'arche events.)

I've said this a few times, but I think it bears repeating:  true Christian inclusiveness admits two things:  an acceptance and profound awareness that each human being bears the image of God, and an acceptance and awareness that each human being lives with a brokenness which can only be healed by the person of Jesus Christ.  If we take the first thing seriously, we cannot but offer that reassuring truth to each human being we meet.  To see another human being is to see that which is nearer to myself than anything else in creation.  A fellow human being is the most glorious thing I will encounter outside of God.  I have more in common with a fellow human being than with anything else in the universe.  I am kindred to every person.  That is the beauty of the faith community of L’arche.

ps, for those who are interested, there is a bit of a story now up about our journey with Sarah Joy over at BeNotAfraid

loneliness

I get more than a few emails, calls or visits that seem to boil down to one thing:  loneliness.

In our part of the world, said Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa, “there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West”. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)

Every year thousands of students come to this place.  Some come from small, rural communities.  Some come from overseas.  Some move out of their family house and find a place in the residences, or shared accommodations nearby.  For everyone there is some kind of break with “home”.  And with that break comes, for some, loneliness. 

Loneliness can be a by-product of institutional life.   You come here and you are assigned a student number among the 35,000 others who are in line ahead of you.   It is usually about this time of year that the excitement and novelty of university life starts to wear off for freshmen, and becoming a small fish in a very big pond becomes a reality.

Loneliness can be hard to deal with, but there are some great people working here. The U of A Student Services is a great resource for helping you find your way.  There are a variety of Chaplaincy services, each one headed up by someone who is willing to lend an ear.

For those of us who are “Christians”, we need to avoid the “holy huddle”.   Jesus calls us to share his love.  And sometimes that means just noticing and talking to the student next to me.  You don’t have to invite someone to a “church” event;  you can just invite them to study together, to order pizza, to watch a game.  Take interest in them as human beings, made in the image of God. 

This coming Sunday is Thanksgiving.  Sometimes holidays remind us that we may not have a special place to go with family or friends.  There is a potluck at sol café – (on Whyte Ave:  10816 82 Avenue).  The internet café will be open all afternoon – if you haven’t been to sol café – feel free to wander in.  If you are a sol café regular, find someone to invite.

bodily resurrection

In some recent conversations, both online and at Dewey’s, the topic of “bodily resurrection” has been tossed around.   I want to touch briefly on this topic.  As I see it, there are a few standard ideas out there about this notion.   First, the idea that Jesus didn’t really (physically) rise from the dead – that the whole Easter/resurrection thing is more like a metaphor, a symbol if you will of generic new hope for a future.  There was no “living body” in the Easter story – it is simply a powerful metaphor.  We see this idea not only in the “secular” world, but also catch glimpses of it within circles of the church.

This to me does not engage seriously the doctrine of what Christians call the Incarnation – that God took flesh in the person of Jesus.   It seems to me that bodily resurrection is (if you will) the fulfillment of the Incarnation.   We Christians are called to acknowledge our existence as embodied creatures – and to acknowledge Jesus as embodied Godhead.   At some point the interpretation of the Scriptural stories comes into play.   I am not certain that one can be argued into belief in the bodily resurrection of Jesus.  It involves a movement of faith, which, like Peter’s declaration that Jesus is the son of God, cannot come from within (not by flesh and blood), but only from without (revealed by my Father in heaven). 

I find this position rather “hopeless”, if you will.  It diminishes the value of our bodily existence (modern gnosticism).

Others hold that there is some sort of resurrection, but it is a resurrection of “spirit”.   I am reminded of that TV commercial featuring an angel sitting on a cloud spreading light cream cheese on a bagel and declaring it heavenly.  Or the movie “Ghost” (American ripoff of its much better British counterpart “Truly, Madly, Deeply”).   There is a real afterlife, but somehow what we become are disembodied spirits with no physical reality.  Pop culture images of “heaven” or afterlife have reduced resurrection to a kind of existence of vapors who envy the “reality” of life which we enjoy here on earth.

This is the great myth of the materialist.   Only “this life” offers the full expression of what it is to be human.  Only “this life” gives us a chance to fully love, and be, and experience goodness.  Anything that comes after is somehow “less”.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Resurrection completes us as human beings.  It is a full life.  To borrow a simple image from one of the earlier commenters – can you imagine tasting redeemed pinot noir with redeemed taste buds?  A trivial example perhaps, but then again, perhaps not.  All the details of our humanity, bodily and incorporeal, are perfected in the resurrection we share with Christ.  We become (can I use the term?) “more” human, more real.

There are many other things to say – but can I say like St Paul – if there is no resurrection from the dead, then we of all people are most to be pitied.

a few new things

I'm currently updating and rearranging a few of the links from this site.   There are a few new links I'll put up to suit half of your taste, and offend at least 50% of you.

One link I will be adding is Canadian Anglicans Community blog , an offshoot of some canang discussion lists.  The site is up and over the next little while content should be flowing in.

Another blog is from Tyler Williams, Old Testament prof at Taylor University College.  The blog is called Codex , and while it addresses serious issues of scholarship, Tyler has an eclectic approach.   I think (if I am not mistaken) that this is the same Tyler who was in a graduate seminar with me in Septuagintal Greek some years ago at the good old Dept of Near Eastern Studies at U of T, with Albert Pietersma.

Another is some Musings from sameo416.   There will be a prize for anyone who can guess where the name sameo416 came from.  (The blog owner is excluded from this contest, except in the province of Quebec).