A sign in the hallway of the presbytery at St Patrick’s, Middlesbrough, leaves some visitors open-mouthed if they are unaware of the priest’s marital status. Under the heading of Turnham House Rules it reads: If you drop it — pick it up. If you sleep in it — make it. If you open it — close it. If you empty it — fill it up. If it rings — answer it. If it cries — love it. The list is not addressed to a misbehaving curate, nor is it there for mere display. Its author, Fr Derek Turnham, and his wife Margaret have three children, the eldest of whom has recently started at university. It’s his first time away from us and so we’re really feeling the loss at the moment, Fr Turnham says, echoing the common view of parents in a similar situation.

Yet as he leads me towards the living-room, it is also clear that this is a Catholic presbytery like most others: austere, modestly furnished and free of ornaments apart from the odd icon or statue. Outside lies the scabrous wasteland that covers much of post-industrial north Middlesbrough. Fr Turnham anticipates my thoughts as we survey it, explaining that the diocese were frankly very glad to have us occupying this house, because it would almost certainly have been vandalised if it had lain empty any longer.
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When Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople made a month-long tour of 16 cities in the United States in October and November, he was feted with honours at Washington’s Jesuit-run Georgetown University and greeted with splendour in Baltimore’s Catholic cathedral. As so often in inter-Church relations, however, the conciliatory declarations belied bitter realities.

Ironically, the sharp downturn in Catholic-Orthodox relations during the past six months came into the open after one of the Pope’s most impassioned appeals for Christian unity. The occasion John Paul II picked was a Eucharistic Congress held in May at Wroclaw in Poland. “In this our second millennium, when the unity of Christ’s disciples has suffered tragic divisions between East and West, prayer for the rediscovery of full unity is a special obligation”, the Pope said. “Can we bear joint and effective witness to Christ if we are not reconciled with one another? Can we be reconciled with one another without forgiving one another?”
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On October 24, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Bill Phipps, the moderator of the United Church of Canada had stated that the “divinity of Jesus and the reality of heaven and hell are irrelevant.”

The article, which was carried coast to coast in numerous papers, generated an immediate controversy and storms of protest to both the United Church national offices in Etobicoke, Ontario and the newspapers reprinting the article.

By mid-November battle lines were drawn with pundits, theologians, clergy and laity of both conservative and liberal hues voicing their opinions of Phipps’ statements and of his orthodoxy. It would not be terribly helpful (or appropriate) for me to add my views. But, I should, in the interests of bringing clarity to the discussion, make the following observations.

Firstly, both Bill Phipps and the United Church spokespeople have pointed out that the specific statements that were reported were lifted out of context and did not accurately represent his views. The entire article was published in the Ottawa Citizen on November 2, and while the statements are direct quotes, in my opinion Phipps clearly did not intend to deny the divinity of Jesus.
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Gambling is “an insidious form of evil that takes advantage of the poor and disadvantaged” and Christians need to take a more active role in opposing the dependency of governments on gaming revenues, says a new position paper released by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC)
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On December 1, the SCE entered a new era. Our long serving director of Beit Avraham (our interfaith section) retired. After 12 years at the Centre, Rita decided to move on to further endeavours. Her greatest desire is to travel, and she had begun her latest trip before her retirement had even become official. On November 28, Rita set off for Taiwan, Philippines, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan and other Asian locations with only a back-pack and an open ticket. She is expected back in Saskatoon in March before heading to Israel and the Middle East.
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