Page 3 - Presbyterian Connection Newspaper

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winter 2017
Connection
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3
A Message from the General Secretary
Presbyterian Connection is a a newspaper published quarterly by the national of ce of The Presbyterian Church in Canada.
Barb Summers: Editor Thank you to all volunteer
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By the Rev. Ian Ross-McDonald, General Secretary,
Life and Mission Agency
The Mérode Altarpiece, created in the 1400s in the workshop of Robert Campin, captures the moment just be- fore everything forever changes. The angel Gabriel has so recently arrived in Mary’s living room that she hasn’t yet noticed the divine messenger and she continues reading undisturbed. Nor does Mary see that the candle il- luminating her manuscript has gone out. But she no longer needs it, for a new, more perfect light shines in the darkness.
The Annunciation is usually set in the private interior of a church or a cloistered garden far from public ob- servation. But Campin’s Annunciation unfolds in the ordinary surroundings of a contemporary home, a place where any middle-class family might have lived. The location reminds us of something impor tant about the in- carnation: the church does not own it and cannot contain it. Christ enters the
Please send comments by email to communications@presbyterian.ca or mail to The Presbyterian Connection, 50 Wynford Dr., Toronto, ON M3C 1J7
Hi Folks,
Thank you for another informative and inspiring issue.
One element of the old Record that I do miss is the letters section. I found it a great way to hear alternate views and hear tfelt responses, to engage in dia- logue, and to become more connected
world for the sake and salvation of the whole world, not for a few individuals. The house is filled with the stuff of daily life that serves to remind us of the physicality of the incarnation. The Word becomes flesh and the flesh has real needs. Mary and her child will require food, water, furniture, towels, comfort and shelter because this is a very real life with all the re- quirements of a vulnerable existence. The doors and windows in the painting are open, teaching us that with the advent of Christ the bound- ary between the personal and the public, heaven and earth, the sacred and secular, and between humanity
and God has been crossed.
The Holy Spirit is usually depicted in
religious art as a dove. But in this paint- ing the Spirit appears as a small figure flying to Mary on seven golden rays. Prophetically, the figure carries a cross, the presence of which, along with the hundreds of nails in the painting, haunt- ingly connects the moment of Christ’s conception with his crucifixion. The Mé- rode Altarpiece shows us that, in Christ,
with Presbyterians throughout the coun- try. Any chance this could become a feature of the current publication?
Keep up the good work!
God bless, Rev. Robert Reid, Iona PC, North York, ON
••••••••
As a recent graduate of Knox College, I was fortunate to have Dr. Gordon for Introduction to New Testament and Introduction to Preaching. I have to agree with Ian Ross-McDonald on his article in Connections Fall 2017. I
birth, life, death and new life all meet. Another artist, the poet T. S. Eliot, points to the same truth in his evoca- tive Christmas poem. One Sunday morning in 1927, with the aid of half a bottle of Booth’s Gin, Eliot wrote a poem entitled Journey of the Magi. In the poem Eliot imagines one of the magi reflecting on what he witnessed in Bethlehem: Were we led all that way for / Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly, / We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, / But had thought they were dif- ferent;... / We returned to our places, these Kingdoms, / But no longer at
ease here, in the old dispensation...
Like poets and painters, theologi- ans point toward the truth that Christ lovingly saves us from “deadly lives” with a life-giving death. The Welsh Anglican Bishop Rowan Williams writes that Christmas “tells us exactly
was always amazed by Dr. Gordon’s energy, enthusiasm and teaching.
Dr. Gordon, besides being Principal of Knox College, was very kind and understanding when one needed it, her door was open to those who re- quired extra help or encouragement.
The Presbyterian Church in Can- ada needs to listen to Dr. Gordon’s words that “leaders should be bifo- cal: One eye has to be on the imme- diate tasks and responsibilities while the other eye focuses on the distant
what Good Friday and Easter tell us: that God fulfils what he wants to do by emptying himself of his own life, giving away all that he is in love.” The purposes of God are achieved “by reckless gift, by cradle and the cross.” We are used to thinking of the manger and the tomb as opposites: one a hopeful beginning and the other a painful end. Campin, Eliot and Wil- liams want us to see that both hold the promise of life.
Like Mary sitting in her living room, we read the stories of promise and await not just birth but rebirth: the ex- hilaration that comes from letting go of old ways and old sorrows and longing for some new dispensation. And like Mary, we sit and ponder the mystery of this love story that always surprises. But soon we will be called to pick up and follow the child into the world God so loved that God risked it all for love.
horizon that is open to the mystery that belongs to God.”
We live in a complicated world and it seems that we would do well to keep our eyes focused on present tasks and responsibilities as well as toward God’s Mystery in the hori- zon. We should turn our hearts to a positive outlook for the PCC rather than constantly complaining about congregational numbers going up or down.
Jesus did not count how many people followed him; Jesus concen- trated on the tasks and responsibili- ties at hand then pointed people to- wards God’s “new heaven and new ear th.”
Barbara Smibert, Central Presbyte- rian Church in Hamilton, ON
••••••••
I’ve enjoyed the first two issues of Presbyterian Connection but this third issue is just SO GOOD I had to write and tell you so. It was cover- to-cover reading with every article of interest. I appreciated the brev- ity, organization and variety of it all. There was refreshing news from Zander Dunn, historical news on the E.H. Johnson Award, mission news from Taiwan, encouraging news on the PCC relationship with our Catho- lic brethren, thought-provoking ideas about mission trips, lots of photos... and on and on. It was all good and every Presbyterian should be read- ing it!
letterS
Joan Cho, Atlantic Mission Society