Moderator

Colin Carmichael and Stephen Kendall show off their Movember mustaches

Have you noticed more men sporting mustaches during the month of November?  We have at our national church offices in Toronto.  We have watched as the upper lips of two of our staff (Stephen Kendall, the Principal Clerk of the General Assembly, and Colin Carmichael, the Associate Secretary for Communications) have grown from a bit of fuzz under their noses to full mustaches (well, they’re getting there!).  Colin and Stephen tell us their decision to start growing mustaches in November is not just a coincidental fashion statement.  They are part of the worldwide Movember Movement, an initiative to raise public awareness of prostate cancer and to raise funds to fight the disease.  Read the rest of this entry →

Beth McIntosh and Laura Kavanagh enjoy being "Mr. and Mrs. Paper Sunday"

I received an email today from the Rev. Laura Kavanagh, minister of Knox Presbyterian Church in Victoria, BC.  She shared with me this wonderful story from a mission trip she took to Malawi in 2009. During the trip, she experienced what the church in Malawi calls “Paper Sunday.”  As I read her story, I am reminded of Paul’s words to the church in Corinth:  “God loves a cheerful giver” (2^nd Corinthians 9:7).  The Greek word translated as “cheerful” is hilaron, from which we get the word, “hilarious.”  Hmm… Could Paul be suggesting that giving becomes more fun – more hilarious – the more generously we give?  Think about that question as you read Laura’s account of her participation in a Paper Sunday worship service…
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We hear of terrorist attacks so often, especially in the Middle East, that we have become almost numbed to the news. But how shocked I was to learn of the gruesome attack on the Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad, Iraq, this past Sunday, October 31st! According to reports, members of an al-Qaeda affiliated group burst into the church as the congregation was celebrating their Sunday evening Mass. The intruders sprayed the sanctuary with bullets, immediately killing the priest who was officiating at the Eucharist. After the siege was over, three priests and more than 50 worshippers lay dead, killed by gunshots and the detonated bombs strapped to the terrorists’ belts. Some of the survivors reported hearing the terrorists shouting, “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great!”), while they opened fire on the worshippers.
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Readers will recall that I previously shared the story of Peter McLean’s bicycle trip across Canada to raise money for the Hakka Bible Translation Project and as a kind of personal rite of passage.   Well, I just received word from Peter’s mother, Mary Beth, that Peter has now completed his epic journey.  I thought you might like to read Mary Beth’s All Staff email that she sent out to folks here at the National Church Offices.  Read the rest of this entry →

The Rev. Kathy Fraser welcomes me to North Caradoc-St. Andrew's Church. Their new glass doors clearly say, "Welcome!"

I just learned from Colin Carmichael, Associate Secretary for Communications, that September 13^th is “National Celiac Awareness Day.” In an email I received from him earlier today, he wished me a Happy National Celiac Awareness Day and provided me the following link to information about the day’s focus: http://www.celiaccentral.org/News/News-Feeds/Celiac-in-the-News/Celiac-in-the-News/161/vobId__3693/.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that there is now a day set aside for celiacs. I think most of the readers of this blog know that I am celiac, which means that I have an intolerance to gluten which is found in wheat, barley and rye. In the September issue of the Record, you will find a letter to the editor from Ramona Brown Monsour, which she entitled “Food-Friendly Churches.” Thanks, Ramona, for alerting Record readers to the ways that churches can make themselves more welcoming to people with gluten sensitivities.

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l-r: Shirley Gale, Herb Gale, Ruth, Andrew, and Elizabeth Song at Knox, Elora

The psalmist encourages us to “sing a new song” (Psalm 149:1).  Well, the good folks in the two-point charge at St. Andrew’s Church in Alma, Ontario, and Knox Church in nearby Elora have decided to take the psalmist’s advice quite literally.  They have called the Rev. Andrew Song to be their new minister and will be inducting him on Sunday, September 12^th.  By the way, Rev. Song truly lives up to his last name.  He loves music and is an excellent singer. He and I sang together in the Knox College Choir back in 1983, and he and his wife Ruth met in a church choir he later directed.  They’ve been singing new songs together ever since and have produced two new Songs of their own, one male and one female! Read the rest of this entry →

The Four Amigos: Ken, Barb, Shirley, Herb

Well, Shirley and I are back home in Guelph, still feeling a bit exhausted from our trip but filled with many wonderful memories.  Our flights back (we had a brief layover in the Atlanta airport) went well as did our various checkpoints through customs and security (whew!).

I’ll continue to post stories and reflections from our trip in the days ahead, but I did want to first say a big “Muchas gracias!” — especially to Ken Kim and Barb Summers.  They both made the trip an experience of a lifetime.

First a heartfelt thank you to Ken Kim, Director of PWS&D.  Ken, you truly went beyond the call of duty both before and during the trip.  Ken was the trip planner, the tour guide, the translator, the driver for the Guatemalan leg of the trip (and believe me driving in Guatemala is an adventure in itself), the negotiator (when haggling with street vendors or ordering meals in a restaurant or figuring out exchange rates), the banker (whenever we needed a little extra money, Ken was there to provide the loan in whatever currency was needed), a nurse maid (when I spent two days in bed except for frequent trips to the washroom), and a good friend – all this while Ken’s father was undergoing major surgery in Canada.  Muchas gracias, amigo! Read the rest of this entry →

Antigua and the Agua Volcano

So, dear reader, you may wonder what has happened to the moderator and his party over the last couple of weeks.  Is he alive?  Has he been kidnapped?  Did he and his party go over a mountain on a bus?  Has he simply decided to remain in Central America rather than returning to the responsibilities of life in Canada?  What has happened to the moderator!  After all, I had promised to give regular updates of our trip, and it is now over a week since my last blog.

Well, the good news is that we are all still alive and are now enjoying one day of R&R in Antigua before we fly out of Guatemala City tomorrow to return to Canada.  Ken Kim has just left to fly to Baltimore for a meeting tomorrow of  the North American members of the ACT Alliance (ACT is an alliance of 100 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance and development), leaving the three of us (Barb Summers, the Communications Coordinator for PWS&D, my wife Shirley and me) to explore the city on our own.
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Dateline: Sunday, August 15th. We attended 10:30 a.m. worship service in the Filadelfia Baptist Church in Masaya, a town about a thirty minute drive from Managua. I brought greetings from The Presbyterian Church in Canada (I even managed a few sentences in Spanish with coaching from Ken Kim and a couple of hours of rehearsal). After a lively worship service, we decided to visit the Masaya Volcano on the outskirts of town. The Masaya Volcano is still active, so we were looking forward to seeing it belch smoke. Read the rest of this entry →

We were picked up at the hotel shortly after breakfast for a short drive to the INPHRU Centre. INPHRU is a short form for “The Institute for Human Promotion,” a long time mission partner of PWS&D. The vision for INPHRU, which its name connotes, is to work with vulnerable children and young people to help them to determine their own future according to their own hopes and needs. The institute began in August 1966 and was the first NGO ever created in Nicaragua. When we arrived at the centre’s gate (there is a locked gate at the entry to most homes and businesses), the driver honked a couple of times and a man suddenly appeared to open the gate for us. Inside we found an excellent facility, immaculately maintained. We gathered in a boardroom for an orientation session from the staff, who used a PowerPoint presentation to orient us on how INPHRU is organized and the various programs supported by INPHRU. One of the programs is the Casa de las Ninas or “Home for Girls.” It provides counseling, training, and legal advocacy for girls who have been sexually and/or physically abused. When it is necessary for a girl’s safety, Casa de las Ninas also provides safe shelter. The time when the girls actually live at the shelter is usually short (about six to eight weeks), after which the girls return home or are placed in a foster home. Each girl who enters the program must sign a covenant saying that she understands the process she will be going through and freely accepts the terms. Read the rest of this entry →