Spring may have sprung, but not all economists are sprightly about the outlook for the global economy.

In fact, as a Toronto audience heard Wednesday morning, the risk of a recession in Canada is “higher than normal,” the U.S. is set for “unspectacular” growth, Europe is poised for another downturn and even the BRIC countries will not be the economic drivers they had been in the past decade.

Those are the views of one of the more Eeyore-ish research firms around: London-based Capital Economics, whose conference Wednesday was entitled: “Is the world on the road to recovery?” (The answer: Sort of. But it will be a “long and fairly bumpy” road, one in which Europe is in danger of veering off).

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Housing/Real Estate Market • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • * International News & Commentary • Africa • America/U.S.A. • Asia • Canada • England / UK • Europe

A new national study shows that while Canada remains overwhelmingly Christian, Canadians are turning their backs on organized religion in ever greater numbers.

Results from the 2011 National Household Survey show that more than two-thirds of Canadians, or some 22 million people, said they were affiliated with a Christian denomination.

At 12.7 million, Roman Catholics were the largest single Christian group, representing 38 percent of Canadians; the second largest was the United Church, representing about 6 percent; while Anglicans were third, representing about 5 percent of the population.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

As we prepare for the first Joint Assembly of the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, we know that there are some who, like our ancestors in the faith, may be just a little dispirited as we face the challenges of our times. But just as surely as God's Spirit inspired the fi rst generation of believers, that same Spirit is working in us to give us the words to speak to one another and to those who are seeking something-dare we say, "Someone"-to believe in.

Our coming "Together for the Love of the World" will be a visible sign of the Spirit working in and among us. It will be time to take counsel together for the common good of both our churches and for the common good of our world. It will be a time to set our fears aside and arise with "bold new decisions."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church Year / Liturgical Seasons • Pentecost • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Other Churches • Lutheran

I stand before you not in any way a self-made man. I have been a product of a lot of people who have loved me and poured into me in a way that is transformed my life, not only as a small child, but as I’ve grown as an adult, and I would be remiss if I didn’t share . . . with you about that, in the hopes of leaving you with what I feel could be something that you could take and remember in an effort to make a difference in the lives of other people, which you inevitably will be called to do in some capacity.

So to that end, I got to a place where I was in my life about six years ago where I was at the end of myself. I have spent some time — I became a Christian when I was 13, but I didn’t have the follow-through that I needed — but nonetheless I found myself in the fall of 2006 at the steering wheel of a car with all the windows rolled up and a garden hose attached from the muffler to the passenger-side window in the hopes of ending it all. Why? Because I had done some things in my life and come to a place in my life where I had realized that I had made a lot of mistakes, and not only had I made a lot of mistakes, but I had been the victim of some things that are tough to wrap your arms around, a Christian or not. So I was in that place and I was about to turn the key and I really felt the Holy Spirit saying, “R.A., I’m not done with you yet. Don’t do that.” Like literally those words: “Do not do that.” And so as lonely as I felt in that moment at the steering wheel of a Chevrolet Cavalier, I never felt truly alone. I think there’s something to be said in that.

I share that with you and I’m vulnerable with you in this moment because I really believe that God has called me to be here for a reason. I do believe in divine appointments, I believe this is one of them.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Sports • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education

Andrew Bennett, Canada’s Ambassador for Religious Freedom, today issued the following statement:

“Canada condemns the ongoing violence in Syria in light of the rise in attacks on religious groups over the last few weeks....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Canada • Middle East • Syria

The Bishop of Niagara is suing a blogger over online material he claims was fashioned to hold the spiritual leader of 25,000 Anglicans up to ridicule and contempt.

The defamation lawsuit claims that Michael Bird, Hamilton-based bishop for the 90 parishes in the diocese, which includes Hamilton, has been pilloried on the blog as a weak, ineffectual leader, portrayed as a thief, described as having a sexual fetish and labelled an atheist.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Law & Legal Issues • Church/State Matters • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

In recent years, I often recall the first time I saw my dad pray. It was unsettling. I came upon him in church, where he was kneeling, his hands shading his eyes. He had a type of intensity that, at three or four years old, I had never seen before. Nor had I had ever seen him kneel before his God—or anyone else, for that matter.

My mind drifts back, because what I witness today in times of worship is such a contrast. My father was spiritual, as we might say today, but he was not very religious. It is not the memory of his posture that remains vividly with me; it was the demonstration of an aspect of his heart—a spiritual point of view—that captured my budding spiritual imagination. Today, we may kneel, but so many of us, I fear, have strayed far from the reverence of heart that our elders knew, not so long ago.

Our worship has been deeply influenced by a culture that is immersed in the consumption of media. We bring that point of view to our worship. What will it give me? What will I learn? Is it helpful? The focus has shifted from deity to the consumer.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Spirituality/Prayer • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology

A national Holocaust monument is to be erected near the Canadian War Museum on LeBreton Flats, the government announced Tuesday.

The memorial, on federal land at Wellington and Booth streets, will honour the approximately six million Jews and others persecuted and murdered by Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War.

It “will be a testament to the importance of ensuring that the memory of the Holocaust is never lost,” Tim Uppal, minister of state for democratic reform, said in a statement after announcing the location during a ceremony at the neighbouring Canadian War Museum. The monument will go across the street, on the northeast corner of Booth Street.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Judaism

Canadian police and intelligence agencies will announce later today they have thwarted a plot to carry out a major terrorist attack, arresting suspects in Ontario and Quebec, CBC News has learned.

Highly placed sources tell CBC News the alleged plotters have been under surveillance for more than a year in Quebec and southern Ontario.

The investigation was part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Violence • Young Adults • * Economics, Politics • Terrorism • * International News & Commentary • Canada

A major new study that tracked more than 12,000 Canadians over a period of 14 years has found that regular attendance of religious service offers significant protection against depression.

In an article published in the April issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan write that incidence of clinical depression was 22% lower among those who attended religious services at least once a month compared with people who never attended.

“Significantly fewer monthly attenders reported having episodes or a diagnosis of depression,” the authors write. “This … suggests a protective effect of religious attendance.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Psychology • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

St. Luke’s parishioners are renovating their old stone and brick church to reduce energy consumption and maximize their use of the space after an energy audit discovered they were practically throwing money out the front door.

“It was a wake up call more to realize that of course this is a serious issue,” said the minister at St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Rev. Gregor Sneddon. “Churches these days, which were at one time almost the fabric of culture and society, are now struggling for their existence and how they’re relevant and meaningful in a secular Western society. So the free lunch is kind of over and we’re wrestling with how do we be efficient and lean in our costs and how we operate.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Urban/City Life and Issues • * Economics, Politics • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Rick Benisasia, who’s in the after-death business, is looking to build an empire.

Mr. Benisasia runs a South Asian-focused funeral home on Derry Road in Malton and wants to open a crematorium beside it. The land, money and demand is there, he says.

For more than three years, he’s waited for his rezoning application to be approved by the City of Mississauga. But a new Mississauga bylaw passed in March says new crematoriums must be a minimum of 300 metres from residential properties, due to concerns over the health effects from their emissions.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Death / Burial / Funerals • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Urban/City Life and Issues • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The local diocese of the Anglican Church has gone to Federal Court in a bid to reverse the federal health-care cuts to the refugee program.

In a hearing Wednesday in Federal Court in Winnipeg, the Rupert's Land Diocese made an application for judicial review, effectively asking the court to rule the Harper government cuts are a breach of contract with sponsoring organizations and order the government to keep them in place.

"All we want is a declaration of a breach (of contract)," lawyer David Matas told Federal Court Judge James O'Reilly during a two-hour hearing.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

On Saturday, Feb. 2, the Anglican Church of Canada’s first National Indigenous Bishop, Mark MacDonald, will receive the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal at Queen’s Park, Toronto.

Created to mark the 2012 celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne as Queen of Canada, the medal honours Canadians who have made significant contributions and achievements to the country.

MacDonald is being recognized for his “spiritual leadership while serving Aboriginal communities and his contributions to environmental awareness of Canadians,” said NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto-Danforth), who nominated MacDonald. MacDonald will join 29 other community leaders who will be awarded the medal by Scott. Each Member of Parliament was given 30 medals to present to outstanding constituents in their communities.

“I am very blessed and surprised to receive this honour and very grateful to Craig Scott for his nomination,” said MacDonald in an interview. “It means a lot at a number of levels to me, some very personal, but, most importantly, recognizes and honours the vision of the elders for the future of the People of the Land.”

Congratulations to Bishop Macdonald--read it all (another from the long queue of should-have-already-been-posted material).

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • England / UK

During her informal 50-minute talk before the ethnically mixed audience, Clark discussed what it means to be a lifelong Anglican, her support for “faith-based” social services, her views on same-sex marriage, her commitment to “kindness” and her approach to the Bible.

“For me it’s been kind of an interesting experience to realize, for the first time in my life, that perhaps being a Christian is something that I should not talk about. But I reject that,” the premier said.

Saying B.C. has more “declared atheists” than any province in Canada, Clark nevertheless said for her “the most important thing is to go to church every week and be reminded, by someone whom I respect, to be kind … to be compassionate.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The small but mighty congregation at Nobleton’s St. Alban’s Anglican Church is on the brink of losing their church due to steadily declining numbers.

Rev. Sheilagh Ashworth, of the Anglican Parish of Lloydtown (St. Alban’s, Christ Church, Kettleby and St. Mary Magdalene, Schomberg) said the church has been “on the edge for a long time,” and the future of the church has been “dodgy” for more than a decade.

While in a difficult situation, they have until the end of May to turn things around.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

From 1870 to 1996, 130 different residential schools, most run by Anglican and other churches, including Anglican, were built on military models, he said. Indigenous children were taken from their families at about age 5 and returned when they were 16 or 17.

“The purpose was to destroy the family bond, the connection to culture and language, and to make it impossible for indigenous life to continue into the future,” he said. “It was for indigenous people to die out....”

The church’s reaction is “a case study in when evil so swamps and floods a group of people they will deny it,” he said. “The church doesn’t have the capacity to describe or accept within itself what happened. There’s a tremendous amount of denial.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Children • Education • History • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology • Theodicy

Our Vision

Our vision is for the gospel to be recognized as public truth again. We want to see Christians owning the gospel in all aspects of their lives, and demonstrating its positive impact at all levels of society—individuals, communities, sectors, and the entire marketplace of ideas.

Our Mission

Our mission is to take the gospel public. Through our research and our grounding in the calibre of theological education found at Regent College, we aim to provide and embody fresh, reliable, and well-informed expressions of the gospel that reveal its truth, necessity, and relevance to all spheres of public life....

Check it out thoroughly.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Education • Globalization • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education

A few months ago, Nicki Roswell had a knock on her door. A neighbour needed the back of her dress laced up and didn’t have anyone to do it for her. Ms. Roswell sympathized, since she lives alone herself, and fastened the woman’s clothing.The two are residents of Liberty Village, a fast-growing downtown Toronto neighbourhood where nearly 55 per cent of the population – 2,200 people, from ambitious twentysomethings to midlife professionals – resides solo.

While they may live by themselves, demographically they are in good company: There are now, for the first time, more one-person households in Canada than those populated by couples who have children. (Only two-person households are more common.)

Census figures released last fall revealed that 27.6 per cent of Canadian homes have just one occupant, a vast shift from decades past.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • Young Adults • * International News & Commentary • Canada

A move by the Anglican Diocese of B.C. to allow the blessing of married homosexual couples is only a small step, says a University of Victoria political scientist.

Janni Aragon, who has a special interest in gender issues, said for the church to bless couples but not perform or bless their marriages is not enough.

“What you see is some softening of church attitudes to acknowledge these people exist, but to say, ‘;We are going to sanctify them but not their marriage’ is just hair-splitting,” Aragon said Monday.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Anglican parishes on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands can now seek permission to formally bless married homosexual couples.

Bishop James Cowan of the Diocese of British Columbia, in a letter dated Thursday, announced the creation of guidelines and a rite to be used in the blessing of same-sex unions. The guidelines and rites took effect Jan. 1.

“It is my hope that those who now have this opportunity open to them may use it as an aid in their growth in Christ and His love for the world in which we live,” wrote Cowan.

The letter affects the 45 parishes with about 10,000 members in what, for historical reasons, is called the Diocese of British Columbia, although it only includes Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Filed under: * By Kendall • * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • * International News & Commentary • Canada • England / UK

At Regina's oldest church, some of its youngest members will be among those shining brightly on Christmas Eve.

Talking about the evolving Christmas traditions at the nearly 120-year-old St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral, Deacon Michael Jackson reflects on the role of the children as they prepare to celebrate the birth of another child centuries before them.

From the little, five-year-old "boat girl" who will hold the bowl of incense (it used to be shaped like a boat) to a 17-year-old serving on the altar, "we want to have the young people doing as much as we can at that service," says Jackson, explaining that the children assume roles as readers, servers and communion assistants at the 5 p.m. service on Christmas Eve.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

If you haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet, don’t bother.

Skip the mall and the neighborhood store, resist the urge to shop online and, by all means, don’t buy anything you don’t truly need.

So says Kalle Lasn, 70, maestro of the proudly radical magazine Adbusters, published in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Lasn takes gleeful pleasure in lobbing provocations at global corporations — and his latest salvo is “Buy Nothing Christmas.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Media • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Energy, Natural Resources • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

In the wake of the Newtown school shooting, I’ve been asked to comment since I am a theologian by profession and the author of a book on the problem of evil, Can God Be Trusted? Faith and the Challenge of Evil (Oxford, 1998; 2nd edition IVP, 2009).

Most of what I have to say is in that book. But I’ve posted remarks here in the past that are relevant to this incident, so I’ll just list them here in case they can be of use to you

Read it all and follow and peruse all the links.

Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education • Theodicy

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary is warning its congregants away from a new church it believes is wrongly identifying itself as Catholic.

The St. Pius X Society — Catholic traditionalists who broke from the mainstream during the church reforms of the late ’60s — has purchased a Catholic church in the city’s Southwest.

The group, which believes in holding Latin Mass according to older liturgical rites, is renovating the building and plans to open it after a blessing ceremony to be held on Dec. 27.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

The widespread use of antibiotics in hospitals triggered the emergence of two resistant strains of the Clostridium superbug that has killed thousands of people worldwide over the past two decades, a study has shown.

A genetic analysis of about 300 samples of Clostridium difficile bacteria collected from around the world found that the global outbreaks were in fact caused by two different strains that had independently acquired resistance to an antibiotic widely used in hospitals.

Scientists traced the evolutionary trees of each strain of C. diff and found that both originated within a couple of years of each other, one in a hospital in Pittsburg[h], Pennsylvania, and the other in Montreal, Canada.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Health & Medicine • Science & Technology • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada • England / UK

The Diocese of Quebec will join about a dozen other dioceses of the Anglican Church of Canada in offering blessings to same-gender couples.

Bishop Dennis Drainville signalled his intention to move forward with the blessing of committed gay and lesbian partners in his charge to the diocesan Synod, held Nov. 2-4 outside Quebec City.

“I would like to proceed in the Diocese of Quebec, as several other Canadian dioceses have done, to provide both a rite of blessing and pastoral support for persons living in committed, same-gender relationships,” the bishop told members of Synod.“This act of blessing is not the performing of a marriage but rather the blessing of civil union that has already taken place,” he added in his monthly pastoral letter....

Read it all (the article begins on page one of the pdf and continues on page eight).

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology

Mr. [Mark] Warawa said his concern about sex-selective abortion was prompted by a CBC investigation into the ultrasound clinics that aired last June. “The practice of aborting females in favour of males is happening here is Canada,” he said, though the MP acknowledged he did not know how widespread the practice is or how many girls are aborted in Canada because of their sex.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Life Ethics • Marriage & Family • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

...the limited American experience with same-sex marriage to date gives us few concrete answers. So it makes sense to consider the Canadian experience since the first Canadian court established same-sex marriage a decade ago. There are, of course, important cultural and institutional differences between the US and Canada and, as is the case in any polity, much depends upon the actions of local political and cultural actors. That is to say, it is not necessarily safe to assume that Canadian experiences will be replicated here. But they should be considered; the Canadian experience is the best available evidence of the short-term impact of same-sex marriage in a democratic society very much like America.

Anyone interested in assessing the impact of same-sex marriage on public life should investigate the outcomes in three spheres: first, human rights (including impacts on freedom of speech, parental rights in public education, and the autonomy of religious institutions); second, further developments in what sorts of relationships political society will be willing to recognize as a marriage (e.g., polygamy); and third, the social practice of marriage.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Inter-Faith Relations • Other Faiths

This week we learned of yet another fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh, this one killing more than 100 people. Before the nine-storey building blazed, workers at Tazreen Fashions Ltd. in Dhaka were making clothes for Wal-Mart and Walt Disney, among other retailers. The International Labor Rights Forum estimates that since 2005, more than 700 garment workers have died in Bangladesh as a result of safety violations in buildings. Survivors of the Tazreen fire told The Guardian that managers stopped workers from leaving the building after a fire alarm and locked the doors. Then came a panicked crush; bodies were charred beyond recognition. All this for a job that earned most workers less than $40 a month.

So this is the dark side of “more.” And we are consuming more, for less money, than we used to. In 1969, Canadians spent 10.5 per cent of household income on clothing and accessories; in 2010, that figure dropped to 6.5 per cent. An insatiable appetite for makeover shows and a mainstreaming of the fashionista ideal have coincided with a total transformation of clothing production. According to a recent article in The New York Times Magazine, it now takes “fast fashion” leader Zara two to three weeks to move an item from an idea in a studio to a hanger in a store....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Anthropology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Regina’s oldest church is making some changes.
St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral demolished its hall and is updating its style to match the 21st Century.
The hall was knocked down to make room for a new one that will better serve the congregation and the downtown community’s needs.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • History • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC) synod has elected the Rt Rev Charles Masters as Co-adjutor Diocesan Bishop to succeed our Diocesan Bishop and Moderator the Rt Rev Donald Harvey when he retires in 2014.

The election took place at St Peter and St Paul Anglican Church in Ottawa on November 14 with the Primate of the Anglican Church in North America, the Most Rev Robert Duncan, presiding.

The House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in North America, of which ANiC is a diocese, must approve the election.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) • * International News & Commentary • Canada

It is with sadness that the Anglican Church of Canada and Augsburg Fortress Canada announce that the Anglican Book Centre at 80 Hayden Street will close on Jan. 18, 2013. Canadian Anglicans will still be able to order resources online and by phone through Augsburg Fortress Canada.

"Religious book and gift stores across Canada have faced significant challenges resulting in the closure of over 120 stores in the past 10 years," said Andy Seal, Director of Augsburg Fortress Canada/Anglican Book Centre.

"Sales at our Hayden St. store have decreased each year since 2009. By 2011 Toronto sales were 28% below the break-even level. In spite of hard work and innovation, the trend has continued in 2012."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Blogging & the Internet • Books • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The Ontario Medical Association’s call to slap hot fudge and French fries with a so-called fat tax is a regressive measure that will hurt consumers without any provable benefit. The association is also off-base with its proposal to put graphic photos of diseased organs and limbs on junk food packaging. While the association’s aim of raising awareness is laudable, food is not tobacco and shouldn’t be treated as an inherently harmful substance....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Dieting/Food/Nutrition • Health & Medicine • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Taxes • * International News & Commentary • Canada

It was my pleasure and privilege to preach for nine Sundays in Canada, in Toronto, in 1932. I well remember being welcomed on the first Sunday morning by the minister of the church who, though on vacation, was still not out of town. He introduced me, and in responding to the welcome I thought it would be wise for me to indicate to the congregation my method as a preacher. I told the congregation that my method was to assume generally on Sunday morning that I was speaking to believers, to the saints, and that I would try to edify them; but that at night I would be preaching on the assumption that I was speaking to non-Christians as undoubtedly there would be many such there. In a sense I just said that in passing. We went through that morning service, and at the close the minister asked if I would stand at the door with him to shake hands with people as they went out. I did so. We had shaken hands with a number of people when he suddenly whispered to me saying, 'You see that old lady who is coming along slowly. She-is the most important member of this church. She is a very wealthy woman and the greatest supporter of the work.' He was, in other words, telling me to exercise what little charm I might possess to the maximum. I need not explain any further! Well, the old lady came along and we spoke to her, and I shall never forget what happened. It taught me a great lesson which I have never forgotten.

The old lady said, 'Did I understand you to say that in the evening you would preach on the assumption that the people ljstening are not Christians and in the morning on the assumption that they are Christians?' 'Yes,' I said. 'Well,' she said, 'having heard you this morning I have decided to come tonight.' She had never been known to attend the evening service; never. She only attended in the morning. She said, 'I am coming tonight.' I cannot describe the embarrassment of the situation. I sensed that the minister standing by my side felt that I was ruining his ministry and bitterly regretted inviting me to occupy his pulpit! But the fact was that the old lady did come that Sunday night, and every Sunday night while I was there. I met her in her house in private conversation and found that she was most unhappy about her spiritual condition, that she did not know where she stood. She was a fine and most generous character, living an exemplary life. Everybody assumed-not only the minister but everybody else-that she was an exceptionally fine Christian; but she was not a Christian. This idea that because people are members of the church and attend regularly that they must be Christian is one of the most fatal assumptions, and I suggest that it mainly accounts for the state of the Church today.

--Martyn Lloyd Jones, Preaching and Preachers (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1972), pp.147-149 (emphasis mine); used by yours truly in a recent sermon

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Anthropology • Soteriology

From here:

On September 30, 2012, the Bishop of Saskatoon ordained as deacon an individual who is civilly married to a person of the same sex.

In early September the bishop as a courtesy informed some of the members of Provincial House of Bishops of his intention to do so, The House at its meeting September 28 discussed this situation and issued the following statement:

The House of Bishops of the Province of Rupert’s Land disassociates itself from the decision of the Bishop of Saskatoon to ordain a candidate living in a civilly recognized “same sex marriage” This decision was made without our consent or consultation and will cause division and confusion within our Province.

We hold the Bishop, Clergy, and People of the Diocese of Saskatoon in our prayers and are committed to maintain the highest degree of communion possible.

Of those bishops present, seven voted in favour of the statement, two voted against and as is our custom, the Metropolitan refrained from voting.

When reading this statement it is important to note that the House of Bishops has neither judicial nor legislative authority. It is a venue in which bishops meet for mutual support in their roles as overseers in the church. Clergy ordination as such comes under the authority of the diocesan bishop.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Canadian household debt has shot past the sky-high levels that foreshadowed the U.S. housing bust.

But it’s taken a statistical revisions by Statistics Canada to get there.

Canadians’ debt-to-income ratio reached 163.4 per cent in the second quarter, up from 161.7 per cent at the end of last year.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Housing/Real Estate Market • Personal Finance • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • Canada

As all children and many adults know, there’s something deeply enticing about playing on the road.

But a growing number of international cities have leveraged the allure of that normally prohibited behaviour to create hugely popular festivals that allow tens of thousands of residents to literally take to the streets with their bikes, blades, boards, wheelchairs and strollers.

During a trip last winter to Guadalajara, Mexico, which played host to the 2011 PanAm Games, downtown councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam found herself swept up in one such event – the Via RecreActiva – that involves closing more than 60 kilometres of roads to vehicular traffic on Sunday mornings, when traffic in the city of 4.3 million is light.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Marriage & Family • Travel • Urban/City Life and Issues • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Traditional family life in Canada is declining, according to data recently published from the 2011 census.

Census data show that married couples declined as a proportion of all census families between 2006 and 2011. Nevertheless, they still formed the predominant family structure in Canada, accounting for two-thirds of all families, Statistics Canada reported Sept. 19.

The proportion of cohabitating couples and lone-parent families both increased. For the first time, cohabitating couples outnumbered lone-parent families in 2011.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Secularism

....personal observation and a smattering of data belie the current reality and in the time since Ms. [Hanna] Rosin’s essay and the release this month of her book The End of Men: And The Rise of Women, I can’t help but wonder if about this claim of victory by authors such as Ms. Rosin and others is premature.

Women hold only 10 per cent of seats on boards of directors in Canada, and 16 per cent in the United States, according to a recent report by Catalyst. The number of female lead directors of Fortune 500 companies fell in 2011, even as Ms. Rosin was busy writing her book. How can women claim victory when the European Union is struggling with legislation to ensure 40 per cent of non-executive board seats are filled with women by 2020?

Social upheaval doesn’t occur overnight. of course, but I caution against believing that a matriarchy is definitively in the cards and that it’s just a matter of time before the power flip.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • Men • Women • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology

At its May-June meeting, the college council of the College of Emmanuel & St. Chad in Saskatoon made the decision to suspend college operations effective June 30, 2013. Working with other college stakeholders, the council will develop a plan for restructuring Emmanuel & St. Chad, which since 1967 has been the official accredited theological college for the ecclesiastical province of Rupert's Land.

According to Terry Wiebe, college principal, the college sold its historic buildings to the University of Saskatchewan in 2006. It has since been renting space in the Lutheran seminary and using its chapel.

“This decision, which was not easy, was made only after carefully considering the current financial condition of the college, the ongoing decline in student enrolment, and the current and projected costs of operating the college,” said the Rt. Rev. James Njegovan, bishop of Brandon and college council president, in a statement.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education

According to Statistics Canada, “grey divorce” has been steadily growing among those 55 and over, with rates expected to increase as more people continue to age.

While marriage remains the predominant family structure in Canada, it only represents 67 per cent of Canadian families, down from 70.5 per cent a decade ago — and 91.6 per cent in 1961, before the advent of the Divorce Act, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday in its latest batch of 2011 census data.

And for the first time, the number of common-law families in Canada outstripped the number of single-parent families in 2011, another sign of the declining popularity of matrimony.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Aging / the Elderly • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Personal Finance • * International News & Commentary • Canada

[Robert] McKee doesn’t believe in God. But if he did, he’d have to believe in hell.

He said that anyone who believes in God and says there is no hell or that hell isn’t forever is a “wussy.”

“If choice doesn’t have any meaning, life doesn’t have any meaning,” he said in the film. “By eliminating hell, these people are sucking the meaning out of life.”

[Filmmaker Kevin] Miller, who attends an Anglican church in Canada, also believes that people have to face the consequences for their actions. But that doesn’t mean that they have to be punished forever.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada • * Theology • Eschatology

When New York City announced last spring it intended to evict religious groups from public school facilities they rented for weekend services, churches fought back with a very public campaign. In June they won a court injunction against the city allowing the churches to stay, for now.

Meeting space is nearly as tight in Toronto as New York, but the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in late August informed churches renting public school space that, beginning Sept. 1, faith-based organizations no longer qualified for reduced rates available to other charitable non-religious organizations, such as the Girl Guides. With only a couple of days' notice these churches saw their rent doubled, quadrupled, or worse, with another 44 percent hike for all renters scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2013.

The rent increases could drive out many of the hundreds of churches now meeting in Toronto public schools. And Canadian churches lack the experience, inclination, and legal advocacy groups that the New York churches had to duke it out in the public square over what strikes many as religious discrimination.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Education • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

A Church of Christ minister who has been responsible for civic marriage ceremonies at Cambridge city hall for the past 15 years is facing the axe if she doesn’t agree to perform same-sex “marriages.”

[The] Rev. Jay Brown told LifeSiteNews that city council voted 8 to 1 Monday night on a motion, brought forward by Councillor Donna Reid, that Brown be forced to officiate at homosexual “marriages” or they would issue a “request for proposal” to find a replacement.

Rev. Brown explained that as a minister of the Church of Christ she must follow the precepts of her church, which does not allow homosexual “marriage,” but that she was always ready to accommodate same-sex couples by recommending a designated minister who would be happy to perform the ceremony.

Read it all.

I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • Sexuality • --Civil Unions & Partnerships • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches

In... [British Columbia], if you blow .08 or beyond, you can avoid the justice system – and a criminal record – if you fit certain criteria. Conditions include not having killed or injured anyone or caused property damage as a result of your actions. If you qualify, you can opt for administrative sanctions over the courts.

If you choose this path, you have to go through a rehabilitation program, which could lead to treatment for alcohol abuse. When the person is given the right to drive again, it can only be in a car outfitted with an ignition interlock system, for a minimum of one year. The device prevents the car from starting if the driver’s blood alcohol level is above a certain limit.

“The focus is very much on rehabilitating the driver and not simply punishing him,” says Mr. Murie. “I don’t think just punishing drivers works.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Alcohol/Drinking • Law & Legal Issues • Teens / Youth • Travel • Young Adults • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Attached to the bishop’s letter was a series of points as to why voters should consider repealing the law under Referendum 74. Stating that the new marriage law does not expand but redefines marriage in terms of a relationship between two people, the American prelate stated that such a change would cause marriage to lose its unique identity.

Another matter of concern was that a redefinition of marriage would inevitably lead to a redefinition of parenthood. The letter cited examples of similar laws passed in Spain and Canada, where traditional designations such as "mother" and "father" have been replaced with either "Parent 1 and Parent 2" or "Progenitor 1 and Progenitor 2."

Words matter, Bishop Cupich stated, "especially words like mother and father, which have real depth and meaning. We lose a great deal when they are substituted by terms and designations not otherwise used. They are strange to the ear, but they also fail to convey what fathers and mothers each bring as male and female to the critical task of generating, rearing and educating their sons and daughters."

Read it all and please take the time to read the full text of Bishop Blase Cupich's letter.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • State Government • * International News & Commentary • Canada • Europe • Spain • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

The strains on contemporary marriage are many, given that traditional gender roles are in a dynamic state of flux. Some – like Anne-Marie Slaughter – are convinced that women can’t have it all due to competing demands between family and career.

These issues were similarly examined as part of a comprehensive study by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU), “Understanding Trends in American Muslim Divorce and Marriage,” authored by ISPU Fellow and University of Windsor law professor Julie Macfarlane. Over a four-year period, information was collected through interviews with Muslim community members, social workers and lawyers. While 25 per cent of the respondents were Canadian, there were no marked differences in trends between American and Canadian couples.

Divorce rates within North American Muslim communities have risen sharply over the past 25 years. While Muslim families face pressures common to all families, certain issues are unique to Muslim culture....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

United Church of Canada General Secretary Nora Sanders is optimistic about the future of the church, despite the challenges.

Watch it all.

Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches

This evening we are celebrating an especially joyful, even historic, occasion: the reception into full communion with the Catholic Church of 11 members of the Traditional Anglican Communion in Canada.

Their journey to full communion with the Successor of Peter, our Holy Father Benedict XVI, has been a long and sometimes trying one, yet one brimming with hope. I would especially like to express my gratitude to Father Bruce McAllister, who has guided them with such wisdom and concern in their journey.

We give thanks to the Lord for their patience, their perseverance, and above all for their faith.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Ecumenical Relations • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

The Canadian women's soccer team feels "robbed" and "cheated" after what its coach described as two "bizarre" calls in a 4-3 U.S. victory in the Olympic semifinals.

Canadian players were upset about a second-half sequence in which Canada goalkeeper Erin McLeod corralled a loose ball, and the referee determined she held it for more than the allowed six seconds as she searched for a place to throw it. She was assessed a foul, and the U.S. was awarded an indirect free kick inside the penalty area.

U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe took the free kick and spiked it off Canadian Lauren Sesselmann's arm, eliciting a handball call and a penalty kick, which Abby Wambach converted to tie the game 3-3 before extra time.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Sports • Women • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada

In a sense, this was probably to expected. Just view the language now used around issues of sexual identity. Whereas gay and lesbian — or even just gay — was once considered fine it is now necessary to add a whole bunch more of sexual identities.

The simplest is LGBT — lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — but it is not uncommon to see LGBTTIQ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirited, intersex, queer and questioning.

Use these terms enough and no longer is it right question why these various groups are being jammed together — even though being transgender has nothing to do with being gay and I still have no idea how two spirited became a category. The decision that they are related comes from interest groups and not common sense. And now politicians, journalists and social scientist feel obliged to repeat this litany as if it was the law of the land.

This is nothing to do with liberalism but with group-think.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Commentary • Episcopal Church (TEC) • General Convention • --Gen. Con. 2012 • * International News & Commentary • Canada

By now, you can write these stories in your sleep. Young thugs with guns start shooting at each other. Bullets spray. Innocent bystanders bleed and die. Anguished soul-searching breaks out all over. How could a harmless street party turn into a bloodbath? Clearly, we need action to address the root causes.

In fact, despite the carnage that broke out Monday night, Toronto is in the minor leagues of homicide. Detroit, a much smaller city, has chalked up 184 so far this year. Chicago has had 277. The two young people killed at Monday’s house party in Toronto – Shyanne Charles, 14, and Joshua Yasay, 23 – were victims 27 and 28.

But make no mistake: In certain neighbourhoods, a war is on....The single most significant root cause is not guns or crummy housing or racism or inadequate policing or lenient sentencing or lack of jobs or insufficient social programs. It is family and community breakdown. Most especially, it’s absent fathers.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Marriage & Family • Urban/City Life and Issues • Violence • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada

Many blessings!

Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Canada

If she knows anything, Canadian author Jane Urquhart knows the influence of history and the power of place.

Her celebrated novels are shot through with it. She even lives now with her artist husband, Tony, in the 200-year-old house her parents once owned in this Lake Ontario town, between Cobourg and Belleville.

It’s little wonder then that Urquhart became a leading voice of a local group fighting against the controversial deconsecration of Colborne’s historic Trinity Anglican Church....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * International News & Commentary • Canada

An Anglican church is opening its doors to civil servants of any creed and anyone who’s suffering from the stress of public sector layoffs.

St. Andrew’s Church is hosting a noon-hour service of reflection and hope on Wednesday for anyone of any faith who drops by over their lunch hour. Members of the congregation will be on hand after work, from 4 to 5:30 p.m., to offer individual support and prayer.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Spirituality/Prayer • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The topic of evangelism made national headlines in Canada recently. It all started with a twelfth grade student in Nova Scotia wearing a T-shirt boldly emblazoned with the words, “Life is wasted without Jesus.” William Swinimer continued to wear his yellow T-shirt even after the vice-principal at his school asked him not to do so, after some students had complained that they found the message offensive. Swinimer’s refusal to obey led to a series of in-school suspensions, and finally a five-day at-home suspension. The normally shy 19-year-old refused to comply even though it might have meant permanent suspension and the loss of his chance of graduating. “I believe this is worth standing up for,” he said, “it’s not just standing up for religious rights, it’s standing up for my rights as a Canadian citizen; for freedom of speech, freedom of religion.”

The regional school board initially supported the actions of the school administration, with Superintendent Nancy Pynch-Worthylake maintaining that repeated defiance of school authorities was justified grounds for suspending Swinimer. The school board issued a statement clarifying that “students may choose to wear clothing that embraces their beliefs.” However, “it is expected that students will not wear clothing with messages that may offend others’ beliefs, race, religion, culture or lifestyle.”

The nationwide debate ignited by this incident was most revealing....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Evangelism and Church Growth • * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

It has taken an un-Genesis-like 34 years to create, but Inuit communities in Canada’s Eastern Arctic can now read the complete Bible in their own language.

A consecration ceremony to mark the translation of the King James Version into Inuktitut – the official language in Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut – was held Sunday at the new St. Jude’s Anglican Cathedral in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

The project, jointly undertaken by the Canadian Bible Society and the Anglican Church of Canada, cost about $1.75-million, according to Hartmut Wiens, CBS’s director of scripture translation.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Books • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Theology: Scripture

Hundreds of devotees jammed into St. Maria Goretti Parish on Friday to catch a glimpse of the church’s namesake. The petite body of St. Goretti had arrived at the Scarborough church from her shrine in Nettuno, Italy on Thursday, marking the first time the complete remains of a contemporary saint have come to Toronto from overseas. “Many visitors have been bursting into tears,” said Father Edwin Galea, the church’s pastor. Round-the-clock vigils for the patron saint of young women, purity and rape victims will be held until she leaves Sunday morning. National Post‘s Alex Nino Gheciu explains.

Q: What is her story?
A: Maria Goretti’s life came to a tragic end 110 years ago in a small Italian village. Her neighbour, Alessandro Serenelli, attempted to rape the 11-year-old before stabbing her 14 times. She didn’t die immediately, which gave her the opportunity to forgive 20-year-old Serenelli while on her deathbed. She was named a saint in 1950 by Pope Pius XII, making her the youngest officially canonized saint in the history of the Catholic church, according to Father Galea. Her canonization ceremony was attended by both her mother and her murderer, who said he was forgiven by St. Goretti in a dream.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Culture-Watch • Violence • Women • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • * Theology

Leighton Ford famously described Christian leadership as: learning to be led by Jesus; learning to lead like Jesus; and learning to lead people to Jesus. This is what we hope to do at OTC. We want to equip people to be confident in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

We believe that the biblical Gospel still ‘works’, that it is in fact “…the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16 ESV). So we want to equip individuals to humbly but boldly preach and teach the gospel and the whole counsel of God. We hope to equip people for leadership in a local church that sees the whole world as their mission field. Our College is located in Ottawa, the capital city of Canada, which is itself a very rich mission field.

Read it all.

Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education

The school said in a statement Thursday morning it was disappointed by the decision. “Our curriculum is not intended to promote hatred towards any individual or group of people; rather, the children are taught to respect and value other faiths and beliefs, and to uphold Canada’s basic values of decency and tolerance.”

But the school’s curriculum, which it has now taken off its website, referred to “crafty,” “treacherous” Jews and contrasted Islam with “the Jews and the Nazis.” The passages were from two books published by Iranian foundations.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Education • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Canadian religious groups are "experiencing a worrisome erosion" of freedom of conscience and religious freedom -- universal rights that face increasing threats around the world, said the Canadian bishops.

In a 12-page pastoral letter to all Canadians, the bishops said they "particularly want to address those members of the faithful who find themselves in difficult situations where they may be pressured to act against their religious faith or their conscience."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic

The Ontario government wants to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in payments to its doctors through fee cuts, fee clawbacks and the elimination of funding for some health-care services, medical groups said Sunday amid an escalating conflict over physician compensation in the province....

“They’re basically trying to trash the medical profession, for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense,” said Ray Foley, executive director of the Ontario Association of Radiologists. “We think it’s going to be devastating. It’s not going to cause an erosion of patient care, it’s going to create a chasm in patient care.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Europe is a mess — politically, economically, fiscally, economist David Rosenberg said Monday.

“In less than two years, we are now up to a total of seven European leaders or ruling parties that have been forced out of office, courtesy of the spreading government debt crisis — tack on France now to Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Even Germany’s coalition is looking shaky,” the Gluskin Sheff economist wrote in his note Monday.

“This is quite a potent brew — financial insolvency, economic fragility and political instability.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • Euro • European Central Bank • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • The Fiscal Stimulus Package of 2009 • * International News & Commentary • Canada • Europe • --European Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2010

The Charter of Rights and Freedoms was signed 30 years ago Tuesday. Since then, not only has it become a national bedrock, but the Charter has replaced the American Bill of Rights as the constitutional document most emulated by other nations.

“Could it be that Canada has surpassed or even supplanted the United States as a leading global exporter of constitutional law? The data suggest that the answer may be yes.” So conclude two U.S. law professors whose analysis of the declining influence of the American constitution on other nations will be published in New York University Law Review in June.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • History • Law & Legal Issues • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Alain de Botton, the British pop philosopher whose new book Religion for Atheists has made him the friendly face of modern godlessness....said if you walked into a modern university and asked to study the humanities in order to find meaning in life, “the people in charge would immediately dial the number of the insane asylum, and you would be taken away.”

He said the message of the secular world is that life is simple, and the only people who need help are stupid people who read self-help books.

He set his own views against the “virulent strain” of atheism that sees religion as “not just false but wrong, ridiculous, malign and corrupt,” epitomized by Christopher Hitchens’ claim that “religion poisons everything.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Art • History • Music • Philosophy • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • England / UK • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Atheism • Secularism

Donald Grayston, an Anglican priest who taught religious studies at Simon Fraser University before his retirement, said the assumption that the young evangelicals are not proselytizing is naive. “If they are not attempting to convert, they would be unfaithful to their mandate.”

Evangelical theologian John Stackhouse warned schools that if they welcome evangelical volunteers, they must be equally open to other groups such as Mormons, Muslims or Marxists. “If you can be confident that these Christian missionaries [as they call themselves] are not going to cross the line into proselytizing, then would you be equally confident of the circumspection of volunteers from points of view you do not share — and especially ideologies that are as ‘missionary-minded’ as evangelical Christians typically are?”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Education • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Canada's highest court has ruled that children in Quebec schools cannot opt out of a course on ethics and world religions.

The Supreme Court on Feb. 17 unanimously rejected an appeal from Catholic parents who sought to keep their children out of the course because they felt that exposing them to a variety of religions would confuse them.

The nine high court judges disagreed, saying that exposing children to beliefs and values that differ from their own is a fact of life in Canada's multicultural society.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Education • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Pope Benedict XVI created 22 new cardinals from 13 countries -- including three from the United States and Canada -- placing red hats on their heads and calling them to lives of even greater love and service to the church.

The churchmen who joined the College of Cardinals Feb. 18 included Cardinals Timothy M. Dolan of New York; Edwin F. O'Brien, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and former archbishop of Baltimore; and Thomas C. Collins of Toronto.

In their first official act in their new role, the new cardinals were asked to join their peers in giving the pope their opinion, in writing, on the canonization of seven new saints, including Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, an American Indian, and Blessed Marianne Cope of Molokai, Hawaii.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI

Craig Bartholomew, a philosophy professor at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, has been at work on a curious topic. "When people ask what I'm working on, and I say, 'place,' I get a blank stare," Bartholomew says. But examples help. "The home is a place, the city is a place, the university is a place, the mall is a place, and the placial dynamic of all these places must be attended to for people to flourish."

To exist at all, we must be somewhere. And as embodied creatures, we are implaced in specific contexts. Yet in contemporary culture, this aspect of human existence is threatened by what Bartholomew calls a "crisis of place" created by several elements of our technological society. To fully flourish as human beings—and to flourish as entire communities—Bartholomew argues, we need to recover the lost art of placemaking.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • Philosophy • Psychology • Religion & Culture • Rural/Town Life • Urban/City Life and Issues • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals • * Theology • Anthropology

What are the limits to raising our children as we see fit? Every parent, child, teacher and neighbour can relate to the question. It’s by no means a religious issue alone, but Canadians have seen it in the news lately with strong links to faith....

[For example], in Quebec, parents of various stripes have revolted against the province’s mandatory “ethics and religious culture” school course, which is seen as either too respectful of religion or not respectful enough....

Almost every Canadian would agree that parental rights stop short of killing one’s children, no matter what the creed. But clearly there are many grey areas in this debate, which Faith Exchange panelists have convened to discuss.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths

We almost hope this was a political call because, on the substance, there should be no question. Without the pipeline, Canada would still export its bitumen — with long-term trends in the global market, it’s far too valuable to keep in the ground — but it would go to China. And, as a State Department report found, U.S. refineries would still import low-quality crude — just from the Middle East. Stopping the pipeline, then, wouldn’t do anything to reduce global warming, but it would almost certainly require more oil to be transported across oceans in tankers.

Environmentalists and Nebraska politicians say that the route TransCanada proposed might threaten the state’s ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region. But TransCanada has been willing to tweak the route, in consultation with Nebraska officials, even though a government analysis last year concluded that the original one would have “limited adverse environmental impacts.” Surely the Obama administration didn’t have to declare the whole project contrary to the national interest — that’s the standard State was supposed to apply — and force the company to start all over again.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • The U.S. Government • Energy, Natural Resources • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • House of Representatives • Office of the President • President Barack Obama • Senate • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Regent College is pleased to announce that Bruce Hindmarsh, the James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College, has been appointed as the incoming President of the American Society of Church History.

The appointment began on January 1, 2012, and finishes on December 31, 2014, and includes one year as President-Elect and another year as Past-President. Dr. Hindmarsh’s responsibilities include planning the program for the 2013 annual meeting in New Orleans, chairing the council and executive committee, providing the presidential address to the society in 2014, and chairing the nominating committee in his final year.

“This is a great honour for Bruce and for Regent, not least because Bruce is the first non-American to be awarded the post widely seen as the highest academic honour for the discipline in North America,” says Paul Williams, Academic Dean of Regent College.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada • * Theology • Seminary / Theological Education

When my mother, a youthful 88, poured her last cup of tea as president of her local Anglican Church women’s organization last year after 19 years at the helm, the group also went into retirement.

Many of its former members had died or were in nursing homes by then, and there was no one able or willing to take on the rigours of making sandwiches for funerals and organizing fundraising bazaars. After more than a century, the organization that had been home to generations of volunteers was no more.

It is a story being played out across the country, especially in smaller communities with older populations. Church ladies are, literally, a dying breed, and if you have ever watched them at work, or enjoyed the occasional cup of tea offered by one, you will share in a nostalgia and admiration of their generosity and work ethic.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Laity • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Women • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Iran’s rulers are feeling the heat. The Islamic Republic was forced to prop up its currency on Jan. 4, just days after the U.S. imposed tough new sanctions to goad it into abandoning its nuclear weapons program. A European curb on Iranian crude imports would add to pressure on Tehran ahead of elections in March.

Iran’s nuclear ambitions are a problem. But more sanctions may not be a solution. If China doesn’t co-operate, they may just end up distorting oil markets.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Science & Technology • * Economics, Politics • Defense, National Security, Military • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada • Europe • Middle East • Iran

If Rome could survive Caligula and Nero, says American geographer Joel Kotkin, the United States can probably survive George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Indeed, he says, the U.S. and its “anglosphere” allies – Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – will continue to be the primary economic, scientific and cultural force in global commerce well into the 21st century. The economic and political crises of the moment will pass. For the English-speaking world, the best is yet to be.

Author of the 2010 best-selling The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, Mr. Kotkin is singularly optimistic in his latest assessment of a world in which the anglosphere appears to be in truculent decline. The U.S. and Britain, after all, are experiencing serious crises of confidence. Now, in The New World Order, a study published in November by the London-based Legatum Institute, Mr. Kotkin and nine academic associates conclude that the anglosphere will remain the ascendant player on the world stage for a long time to come....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Books • History • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Australia / NZ • Canada • England / UK

A vaccine that may prevent HIV has been given the green light by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials in humans, according to Canadian researchers.

The announcement was made on the campus of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont.

"We have gone through so many different challenges to come to this point," said Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, a researcher and professor at Western's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry. "This is the first time that I feel very happy and comfortable to initiate this human clinical trial."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Health & Medicine • Science & Technology • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Harry’s success in parish ministry must undoubtedly be attributed to his genius as a preacher. While committed to the consecutive exposition of Scripture as the best way to build people up in the Christian faith, his highly original approach to the task reflected an innate creativity and an ability to use insightful narrative to disarm his unsuspecting listeners. He loved presenting Christianity to its wealthy, cultured despisers. Widely read and deeply culturally aware, his preaching combined piercing irony with deep spiritual insight and genuine humility.

Read all that Don Lewis wrote and read it carefully--he was a remarkable man.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • Parish Ministry • Ministry of the Ordained • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Evangelicals

The federal government is understating the liability for its employee pension plans by $80-billion because it does not use “real world” investment returns in its calculation, a new report says.

A C.D. Howe Institute study has concluded the federal liability for pension plans now totals $227-billion, which is $80-billion more than the government reports in its Public Accounts.

“Ottawa’s calculations do not reflect investment returns available in the real world,” says co-author William Robson, who is CEO of the C.D. Howe Institute.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Aging / the Elderly • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Personal Finance • Pensions • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The imam of the Ottawa Mosque has condemned so-called honour killing, saying the practice speaks to a perverse sense of honour that is alien to Islam, and has no place in society.

Samy Metwally said Friday that it doesn’t make sense to think or believe that any religion will condone killing people to preserve family honour.

“What’s called honour killing is not part of Islamic teaching or tradition, and in fact there is no honour in this killing at all,” Metwally told the Citizen.

“It has nothing to do with religion and it has no backup either from the texts of the Koran or from the behaviour, sayings or deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, who is the model for Muslims.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Violence • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Islam

During his homily at the Mass pro eligendo Romano Pontifice (for the election of the Roman Pontiff) on April 18, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger cautioned his fellow-cardinals that John Paul II’s successor would have to deal with an emerging “dictatorship of relativism” throughout the western world: the use of coercive state power to impose an agenda of dramatic moral deconstruction on all of society.

Some Catholic commentators charged that Ratzinger’s warning was so over-the-top that he could never be elected pope. Others thought the formula “dictatorship of relativism” a neat summary of a grave threat to freedom and believed that a man with the courage to call things by their true names would make a fine pontiff.

Recent events throughout the western world have fully vindicated the latter.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Philosophy • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Australia / NZ • Canada • Europe

(Please note--the content of this article may not be suitable for some blog readers--KSH).

The invention of sex addiction reflects the culture’s deep-rooted fear that too much sex without commitment is bad for you.

Interestingly, there’s no proof of that. In fact, sex addiction isn’t even an accepted disease among most psychiatric and psychological organizations in the world. The American Psychiatric Association no longer includes it as a pathology in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This is largely because there is no consensus even among researchers of exactly what an addiction is – there are as many definitions of addiction as there are treatment centres....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Movies & Television • Psychology • Sexuality • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Secularism • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

On Nov. 29, the Synod Council of the Anglican diocese of Ontario “suspended” four of its programs and ministries to create a “credible, balanced budget” for 2012. Cuts include the diocesan newspaper, Dialogue, as well as the diocese’s summer residential youth program, Camp Hyanto.

The decision is meant to “relieve the financial load on the diocese,” said the bishop of the diocese, Michael Oulton, in a letter issued to parishes Dec. 3.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • Media • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • Canada

Is the prospect of group marriage far-fetched? Probably not. There are several avenues that could soon lead to legal recognition of unions involving three or more people. The efforts come from the fringes of the left, from the darkest corners of the fundamentalist right, and from the laboratories of fertility clinics and hard scientists around the world....

All of which begs questions: How do children feel when they are raised by three or more persons called their parents, especially when those people disagree? If their three-plus parents break up, how many homes do we expect these children to travel between? And why would anyone watching news coverage of arrests at polygamist compounds in Texas or British Columbia -- seeing hundreds of pale women wearing identical ankle-length dresses and braided hair amid reports of widespread abuse of and pregnancy among girls -- think that polygamy is compatible with a society that values women's rights and children's safety?

Get ready for the debate. And in the meantime, wedding planners: start figuring out how many brides and grooms you can fit down that aisle.

Read it all (another from the long queue of should-have-already-been-posted material).

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Health & Medicine • Law & Legal Issues • Marriage & Family • Psychology • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

Ah uh--guess first--then take a look.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Education • Science & Technology • * International News & Commentary • Canada

To be a serious Christian in modern Western culture is to be the favoured easy target of every progressive thinker and every half-witted comedian. It is to have your sensibilities and your deepest beliefs on perpetual call for taunts, mockery and desecration. At a time when all progressives preach full volume for inclusivity and sensitivity, for the utmost care in speech when speaking of others with differing views or hues, Christians, as Christians, are under a constant hail of abuse and disregard. There is nothing too low or too vulgar.

Something as inconsequential as a Christmas special, for example, will have — almost as an essential element, it being “Christ’s” birthday after all — something determinedly offensive to Christians. Russell Peters, the Canadian joker, for his special this year has invited Pamela Anderson, pinup queen and soft porn actress, to play the Virgin Mary.

Pamela Anderson as Mary the Immaculate: I know — the wit, the daring, the originality — hell, the bravery of it all....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Media • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Secularism

Cy Pitman, bishop for the Anglican diocese for Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, says he supports the parish's move.

"St. Michael's has a history of reaching out in areas where people are. And that's all about who we are as a church," he says.

When asked if the move has to do with a declining membership, Rose said while numbers have gone down over the years, it's more to do with an aging population and the changing demographics in the area than people not supporting the church.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • * Culture-Watch • Aging / the Elderly • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The Council of General Synod (CoGS) has approved a balanced 2012 budget for the national church of $12.698 million.

At its Nov. 18-20 meeting here, a balanced budget was also forecast for 2013 with “no further staffing cuts” before 2016.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that declining revenues coupled with cost-push inflation could mean that General Synod will once again face a deficit budget in 2014. This deficit could balloon to $1 million by 2016, according to a report submitted to CoGS by the church’s Financial Management Committee (FMC).

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Christian Life / Church Life • Parish Ministry • Stewardship • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The fall term at King’s University in Halifax began on a sour note for students and faculty who worship at the college chapel. The Bishop of Nova Scotia sent a letter to the president of the university stating that the diocese could no longer fund a full-time chaplaincy.

And Bishop Sue Moxley went further: “There have been suggestions that this model of chaplaincy is no longer appropriate, that the style of worship is antiquated and the chapel maintains a male-dominated clergy.”

Students, staff and faculty as well as the chaplain himself have all expressed grave concerns about the bishop’s letter.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada • * Culture-Watch • Education • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The U.S. citizenship ceremony is an iconic rite of passage for immigrants.

Would-be Americans gather to pledge allegiance to the Stars and Stripes. There are cheers and often tears, patriotic speeches, sometimes music, and plenty of flag waving.

Now, a small but growing band of Americans in Canada is doing it in reverse – gathering en masse to begin the process of becoming un-American.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada

Most straight single women who find themselves at a fertility clinic are not thrilled to be there. Many arrive feeling they wasted prime reproductive years in long relationships and are “pretty upset,” says Sherry Dale, a counsellor at LifeQuest Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Toronto. “What woman has ever said, ‘I can’t wait until I’m 40 so I can get some donor sperm?’ ”

Nevertheless, Dale and other counsellors who give advice on donor insemination (DI) say business is booming among single women aged 35 to 42. Most fertility clinics mandate at least one visit with a DI counsellor, but, Dale explains, they’re not gatekeepers. “They are not meeting me to get the go-ahead, or so I can see if they’re sane or nice people. I’m meeting them so they can know what’s ahead, not medically but emotionally.”

On average, about 20 single women attend Jan Silverman’s monthly meetings at Women’s College Hospital in Toronto; others see her one-on-one. “The sentence I hear most is, ‘I just didn’t think this would be my life.’ Some have said to themselves, ‘I’ll do this if I haven’t met a man by 35.’ Then they turn 38, and then 42. That’s a pattern I see over and over.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Science & Technology • Urban/City Life and Issues • Women • * International News & Commentary • Canada

On a Sunday morning two years ago, Paula Celani and about 80 members of her Catholic lay group gathered in a hall they had rented from the city. They watched an inspirational video, they prayed, they celebrated mass and they capped it off with a potluck lunch. “We had a beautiful day,” Ms. Celani recalls.

But now that beautiful day has generated a nasty court battle after she was hit with a $144 ticket from the city, which alleged her event was illegal because it involved religious worship.

This week her lawyer advised Montreal municipal court that he will challenge the fine on constitutional grounds.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • Urban/City Life and Issues • * International News & Commentary • Canada

So began my business trip to the United States, where I found other Americans to be much friendlier – but extremely worried. The first thing my airport driver said was: “Are things as bad in Canada as down here? Do you think we’re headed for a depression?” A front-page headline in USA Today underlined the reason behind his question: “The new faces of poverty: A record 46 million of us … are now considered poor, as job losses hit the middle class.” Another headline, “Federal benefits, pensions explode,” summed up the financial chasm facing the government.

Federal, civil and military public-service payments and liabilities for 2010 snowballed to $780-billion (U.S.), higher than the $690-billion cost of Social Security. The TV in my hotel room carried an ad from the American Association of Retired People: “Stop Congress from cutting our benefits – that wasn’t the deal.” Clearly, Americans are very worried about their future, and that of their country.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • America/U.S.A. • Canada

Filed under: * International News & Commentary • Canada

Dr. Frank MacMaster wants people to rethink mental illness in children.

“The knee-jerk reactions are, ‘They must be terrible parents, or ‘The kid’s just faking, stop it.’ How do you tell a kid with obsessive compulsive disorder to just stop it? Or, worse, ‘Don’t tell anyone, keep it a secret,’” says MacMaster, a pediatric neurobiologist and researcher recruited from Detroit a year ago to work at Alberta Children’s Hospital.

He points to a 2008 poll that found 46% of Canadians think people use the term mental illness as an excuse for bad behaviour.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Children • Health & Medicine • Psychology • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The Harper government is looking to attach some heft to an international religious freedom watchdog that it’s installing within the Department of Foreign Affairs.

But it’s still pondering how to build sufficient independence into the DNA of this new Office of Religious Freedom, a promise from the 2011 election campaign.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Foreign Relations • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada

The wealth of nations, the [Social Trends Institute] report says, is inextricably associated with the health of families. And, amongst other factors, the global retreat from marriage and from family has depressed economic growth and has deeply hurt two generations of children.

“Evidence drawn from Europe and North America indicates that children who are raised in an intact married home are more likely to excel in school and be active in the labour force as young adults,” the report says. “An abundant social-science literature, as well as common sense, supports the claim that children are more likely to flourish, and to become productive adults, when they are raised in stable, married-couple households.” Yet, with the global decline of these households, “the sustainability of humankind’s oldest organization, the family – the fount of fertility, nurturance and human capital – is now an open question.”

The report cites studies that indicate that American children who are raised outside of “an intact married home” are two to three times more likely to suffer serious social and psychological problems....

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Aging / the Elderly • Children • Marriage & Family • Psychology • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Consumer/consumer spending • Corporations/Corporate Life • Personal Finance • Pensions • The U.S. Government • Social Security • Politics in General • * International News & Commentary • Canada