Ecumenical bookstore Suggestions for your ecumenical & interreligious libraryLibrairie oecuménique Suggestions pour votre bibliothèque oecuménique et interreligieux
The St. Thomas More Just Youth group is hosting a Solidarity and Justice Coffeehouse on Friday, March 23 at 7 p.m. in the STM Cafeteria (1437 College Drive). The cost is $5.00 per person and all proceeds will go to Development and Peace. Come enjoy this wonderful evening of world music and entertainment!
The coffeehouse is sponsored by Just Youth along with the Newman Centre, St. Thomas More College, and the University of Saskatchewan Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Services Office. Just Youth is a student-led Development and Peace group. It organizes education campaigns and activities on campus, and encourages students to become involved in local justice initiatives.
Stop Aggression! Peace Teach-In is being held in Saskatoon on March 17th at St. Thomas More College (University of Saskatchewan) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The keynote speaker is writer and activist, Professor Michael Mandel (Osgoode Hall Law School, York University). Workshops include: Michael Mandel 'The War between Israel and Palestine'; David Orchard 'Illegal wars, illegal weapons: Vietnam to Afghanistan'; TBA 'How aggression destroys development'; John Parry 'How agression destroys peacekeeping'; Marion Penna 'Depleted uranium: the Saskatchewan connection'; and Mike Fornssler 'Propaganda: a must see'.
The cost to attend is $10 (fully waged) or $5 (students, seniors, low income). Bring your own lunch. Co-sponsors: Saskatoon Peace Coalition: United Nations Association of Canada – Saskatoon; St. Thomas More College Campus Ministry; Citizens Concerned About Free Trade. Call 306-653-5636. Download the poster. (PDF)
March 17, 2007 is a pan-Canadian day of action for peace on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Visit the Canadian Peace Alliance website for events across the country.
Signed articles do not necessarily represent the opinions of "Ecumenism in Canada" or the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
Les articles signés ne représentent pas nécessairement les avis de "Oecuménisme au Canada" ou le Prairie Centre for Ecumenism.
There are numerous innovative resources available on the internet. Today we encourage you to explore RJ City, a website that seeks to be "an adventurous and perhaps audacious attempt to imagine a city of 1,000,000 responding as restoratively as possible to all crimes, all victims and all offenders." RJ is shorthand for restorative justice, an approach to justice that seeks to restore the relationships broken by criminal behaviour. "Restorative justice is a broad term which encompasses a growing social movement to institutionalize peaceful approaches to harm, problem-solving and violations of legal and human rights." [Wikipedia] Numerous examples of restorative justice are described on this website, and elsewhere on the internet. Perhaps the most familiar form to Canadians is the use of Aboriginal sentencing circles.
The new RJ City website descibes itself as "a research and design project created to explore what seems to be a gap between the claims that restorative justice offers an alternative approach to conflict, crime and justice on one hand, and the rather limited use of restorative programmes in most countries on the other." The RJ City website is part of a larger project undertaken over five years ago. The website gives details of the various stages of the project and invites your participation and feedback. The project is sponsored by Prison Fellowship International.
The Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr. Helen Caldicott, MD, will speak in Saskatoon on Wednesday, March 7th at 7:30 p.m. at Third Avenue United Church. Her lecture is entitled "Nuclear Power is Not the Answer to Climate Change."
Dr. Caldicott has been the subject of three films, including the Oscar winner "If You Love This Planet". She is also the author of many books including "War In Heaven: The Militarization of Outer Space," "Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do" and "The New Nuclear Danger."
Come and hear about this controversial global issue from an internationally acclaimed physician, author and public speaker. Contact: Marion: 306-373-0309; Inter-Church Uranium Committee: www.icucec.org ; email .
Dr Caldicott will also be presenting a lecture entitled "Reason & Nuclear Power" on Tuesday, March 6th at 7:00 p.m. in the Education Auditorium at the University of Regina. For more information: phone 306-585-4117; or see www.uregina.ca/spr.
Co-sponsors include: Saskatchewan Eco Network; Social Policy Research Unit, University of Regina; Department of Religious Studies & Anthropology, University of Saskatchewan; Project Ploughshares; Coalition for a Clean Green Saskatchewan; Saskatoon Peace Coalition; Veterans Against Nuclear Arms; and the Inter-church Uranium Committee Educational Cooperative.
Conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. Yet in the churches there is a fear of conflict, and a tendency to go for peace at any price, sweeping conflict under the carpet until it cannot be contained. The 2007 Summer Ecumenical Institute aims to help church people build a vision of how conflict can become a force for good in our communities, and to equip participants with the basic skills they need to become active peace-builders in their own settings.
The theme is a timely one. Many Canadian churches are experiencing conflict, often more within than between denominations. Liberals and conservatives in many churches are in tension over issues such as human sexuality and the interpretation of scripture, and the 'heat' seems to be rising. The skills of courtesy, listening and dialogue, developed in the ecumenical movement, are today needed just as much within our churches as between them.
With God's help, conflict within the Body of Christ can be transformed into a source of life-giving energy. We will explore the biblical and theological foundations for conflict transformation, discuss current research, and provide an introduction to practical training in conflict transformation skills.
Nous avons un nouveau weblog à annoncer. Commençant immédiatement, un nouveau blog intitulé « Réconciliation et unité » seront disponibles sur le site web « Oecuménisme au Canada ». Écrit par l'abbé Bernard de Margerie, le blog est prévu comme endroit pour partager des idées et l'inspiration au sujet de la mission oecuménique de l'église. Bernard était le directeur de fondation du Prairie Centre for Ecumenism en 1984, et a été activement engagé dans l'oecuménisme local au Canada puisque l'appel du deuxième Conseil de Vatican en 1959. Ces dernières années, Bernard avait travaillé au développement des ressources pour la prière oecuménique.
Bernard explique que le titre du blog -- Réconciliation et unité -- "évoque le chemin que les églises chrétiennes ont à parcourir vers la pleine unité ou communion (koinonia) entre elles. Les églises sont encore et toujours, dans une large mesure, étrangères les unes aux autres. Appelées à se convertir, toutes et chacune, elles ont à se retourner les unes vers les autres, à reconnaître, humblement et en pratique, combien le Seigneur les confie les unes aux autres, combien elles appartiennent ensemble, avec leur riche diversité, au seul et unique Corps du Christ. 'Se réconcilier', entre églises, implique le désir partagé de reprendre des relations de vie commune -- vie de foi, de prière, de témoignage, au service de la mission de Dieu dans le monde. Prier et servir la réconciliation et l'unité chrétiennes est un acte de fidélité envers le peuple de Dieu, le Corps du Christ, le temple de l'Esprit. Le présent blogue s'engage à exprimer et servir un tel acte de fidélité."
The annual World Day of Prayer will be observed on March 2, the first Friday of March. The 2007 theme -- United Under God's Tent -- has been prepared by women from Paraguay. Worship services are planned around the world. In Saskatoon, the following services are scheduled:
• 2 p.m. at Calvin Goforth Presbyterian Church, Sommerfeld & 3rd Street
• 2 p.m. at Knox United Church, 838 Spadina Crescent East
• 7 p.m. at Parkview Presbyterian Church, 821 Avenue E North
• 2 p.m. at St. James Anglican Church, 607 Dufferin Avenue
• 7:30 p.m. at St. Paul's United, Egbert & 104th Street
• 2 p.m. at Wildwood Mennonite Church, 1502 Acadia Drive
Additional services will be held at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, and St. Volodymr Parish. The service times are unknown, please contact these parishes for details.
The World Day of Prayer is a worldwide movement of Christian women of many traditions who come together to observe a common day of prayer each year, and who, in many countries, have a continuing relationship in prayer and service. Through the World Day of Prayer, women affirm that prayer and action are inseparable and that both have immeasurable influence in the world.
Hot off the press! We have a new weblog to announce. Starting immediately, a new blog entitled "Reconciliation & unity" will be available on the Ecumenism in Canada site. Written by Fr. Bernard de Margerie, the blog is intended as place to share ideas and inspiration about the ecumenical mission of the church. Bernard was the founding director of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism in 1984, and has been actively engaged in local ecumenism in Canada since the call of the Second Vatican Council in 1959. In recent years, Bernard has been working on the development of resources for ecumenical prayer.
Bernard explains that the title of the blog -- Reconciliation & unity -- "evokes the journey Christian churches are called to undertake, or persevere on, toward full unity or communion (koinonia). Still estranged from each other, churches are called to gospel conversion: to turn around toward each other, humbly recognizing how deeply they belong to each other and together in their rich diversities, as the one and only Body of Christ. To 'reconcile' or 'be reconciled' means to 'make up' and come together to live a common life of faith, worship and mission in and for God's world. To pray, grow in understanding and work for the reconciliation of Christians is an act of faithfulness to the people of God, the Body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit. This web page and blog intends to express and serve such an act of faithfulness."
Le dimanche 25 mars 2007 marque le bicentenaire de la fin de la traite des esclaves dans l'Empire britannique. La loi sur l'abolition mettait officiellement un point final au transport forcé de millions d'Africains arrachés à leur pays pour être expatriés vers les Amériques via le Passage du milieu. Le Canada, alors membre de l'Empire britannique, a pratiqué lui aussi l'esclavage. L'impact de l'esclavage persiste, tandis qu'on assiste à l'émergence de formes modernes d'esclavage. La lutte est loin d'être terminée. Des Africains réduits en esclavage et des personnes de foi ont pris la tête du mouvement en faveur de l'abolition de la traite des esclaves, mais la version moderne du racisme, qui tente de justifier l'esclavage des Africains, demeure une réalité dans de trop nombreuses Églises et sociétés. Il faut que les gens de foi s'engagent à nouveau dans la lutte contre le racisme dans nos Églises, dans notre pays, dans le monde entier. Le Réseau oecuménique canadien contre le racisme (ROCCR) invite les Églises à souligner cet anniversaire en s'engageant elles aussi sur le chemin de la guérison, de la réconciliation et de la transformation de nos relations. Nous vous offrons à titre de ressource cette pochette documentaire sur la justice raciale.
Le racisme est une violation de ce que signifient être humain et être l'Église. Le livre de la Genèse nous parle du moment où Dieu, contemplant la diversité de sa Création, vit que cela était « bon ». Nous sommes appelés, en tant que chrétiens/chrétiennes et corps du Christ dans le monde, à extirper le péché de l'injustice et de l'exclusion et, solidairement et dans l'Esprit de Dieu, à réparer les relations internationales brisées et à créer des communautés d'amour où tous soient reconnus comme membres de notre commune humanité et capables d'une participation pleine et entière. Nous avons institué, l'an dernier, une Semaine pour la justice raciale. Des Églises nous ayant demandé de leur accorder plus de temps pour se pencher sur cette question, nous vous demandons de nous accompagner, tout au long de l'année 2007, dans notre cheminement d'apprentissage et de transformation.
Pochette documentaire sur la justice raciale 2007
De l'esclavage à la liberté : Vers la réconciliation est une pochette documentaire à l'intention des paroisses, communautés et groupes d'étude qui sera disponible dès février 2007. On y trouve des documents pour les célébrations et des réflexions bibliques, ainsi que de la documentation éducative sur la traite des esclaves et sur la pratique de l'esclavage au Canada, de même que des ressources pour les enfants et bien d'autres choses encore.
Le Réseau oecuménique canadien contre le racisme (ROCCR) fait partie du programme Éradication du racisme au sein des Églises canadiennes du Conseil canadien des Églises. Tous les membres du CCE y participent. Le réseau comprend également d'autres organismes oecuméniques tels que le Conseil oecuménique des chrétiennes du Canada, le Forum des Églises canadiennes pour les ministères mondiaux et KAIROS. Nous vous invitons à vous servir de Vers la réconciliation et à nous faire part de vos autres initiatives en faveur de la justice raciale. Le ROCCR se veut un point de liaison entre les Églises engagées dans ce domaine. Comme c'est en partageant et en appuyant mutuellement notre travail que nous obtiendrons les résultats souhaités, donnez-nous de vos nouvelles.
Sunday, March 25th 2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the ending of the slave trade in the British Empire. The abolition law brought to an official end the forced transportation of millions of Africans from their homeland, across the Middle Passage, to the Americas. Canada was part of the British Empire and participated in the practice of slavery. Slavery's impact continues at the same time as modern forms of slavery are appearing. The struggle is far from over. Enslaved Africans and people of faith led the movement to abolish the slave trade. But the modern form of racism which developed to justify the enslavement of Africans remains a reality in too many of our churches and societies. People of faith need to commit anew to addressing the racism in our churches, our country and our world. The Canadian Ecumenical Anti Racism Network (CEARN) invites churches to commemorate this anniversary by participating in the ongoing journey we must take towards healing, reconciliation and the transformation of our relationships.
Racism is a violation of what it means to be human-and of what it means to be the Church. The book of Genesis tells us of a time when God saw the diversity of God's creation and called it "very good". As Christians, Christ's body in the world, we are called to work to eradicate the sin of injustice and exclusion and, with each other in God's Spirit, to transform broken relationships and to create loving communities in which all are affirmed for our common humanity and all enabled to participate fully. Last year we designated a Week for Racial Justice. Churches requested more time to address the issue, so in 2007 we invite you to join this journey of learning and transformation throughout the year.
Racial Justice resource kit 2007
From Chains to Freedom: Journeying Towards Reconciliation, a packet of materials for parishes, congregations and study groups, will be available in February 2007. It will include worship materials, biblical reflection, educational materials on the slave trade, and the practice of slavery in Canada, children's resources and much more.
The Canadian Ecumenical Anti Racism Network (CEARN) is part of the Undoing Racism in Canadian Churches Program of the Canadian Council of Churches. All members of the CCC are involved; the network also includes other ecumenical bodies such as the Women's Inter Church Council of Canada, the Churches' Forum on Global Ministries, and KAIROS. We invite your use of Journeying towards Reconciliation, and we want to hear about other racial justice work you are doing. CEARN aims to be a connecting point between different churches involved in this work. The work is best shared and supported together, so please be in touch with us. www.ccc-cce.ca/english/justice/racism.htm or or Toll Free: 1-866-822-7645
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Bringing Churches Together: A Popular Introduction to Ecumenism
The St. Thomas More Just Youth group is hosting a Solidarity and Justice Coffeehouse on Friday, March 23 at 7 p.m. in the STM Cafeteria (1437 College Drive). The cost is $5.00 per person and all proceeds will go to 
Nous avons un nouveau weblog à annoncer. Commençant immédiatement, un nouveau blog intitulé « 
The annual World Day of Prayer will be observed on March 2, the first Friday of March. The 2007 theme -- United Under God's Tent -- has been prepared by women from Paraguay. Worship services are planned around the world. In Saskatoon, the following services are scheduled:
Le dimanche 25 mars 2007 marque le bicentenaire de la fin de la traite des esclaves dans l'Empire britannique. La loi sur l'abolition mettait officiellement un point final au transport forcé de millions d'Africains arrachés à leur pays pour être expatriés vers les Amériques via le Passage du milieu. Le Canada, alors membre de l'Empire britannique, a pratiqué lui aussi l'esclavage. L'impact de l'esclavage persiste, tandis qu'on assiste à l'émergence de formes modernes d'esclavage. La lutte est loin d'être terminée. Des Africains réduits en esclavage et des personnes de foi ont pris la tête du mouvement en faveur de l'abolition de la traite des esclaves, mais la version moderne du racisme, qui tente de justifier l'esclavage des Africains, demeure une réalité dans de trop nombreuses Églises et sociétés. Il faut que les gens de foi s'engagent à nouveau dans la lutte contre le racisme dans nos Églises, dans notre pays, dans le monde entier. 
Sunday, March 25th 2007 marks the 200th anniversary of the ending of the slave trade in the British Empire. The abolition law brought to an official end the forced transportation of millions of Africans from their homeland, across the Middle Passage, to the Americas. Canada was part of the British Empire and participated in the practice of slavery. Slavery's impact continues at the same time as modern forms of slavery are appearing. The struggle is far from over. Enslaved Africans and people of faith led the movement to abolish the slave trade. But the modern form of racism which developed to justify the enslavement of Africans remains a reality in too many of our churches and societies. People of faith need to commit anew to addressing the racism in our churches, our country and our world. The 