The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), announced Oct. 6 that the Rev. Donald J. McCoid, former bishop of the ELCA Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, Pittsburgh, will lead the church’s Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations section for four years, effective Nov. 1.

McCoid, 63, completed his service Aug. 31 as a synod bishop, a role in which he served since 1988. He had previously announced he would not be available for re-election as bishop.

McCoid will succeed the Rev. Randall R. Lee, who will conclude his service as section executive on Oct. 31. Lee, 51, has led ELCA Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations since 2002.
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The “Friends of Sophia” invite you to join them for the first gathering of the fall semester. On Wednesday, October 3 at 7:30 p.m., Gladys Neufeld will lead a liturgy intertwining stories, music, and food. The liturgy will be held in the Chelsea Commons, room 231, St. Thomas More College. Please bring a donation for the Food Bank.
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In their upcoming plenary Oct. 15-19, Canada’s bishops will focus their national activities to have more impact and will consider new communications strategies.

The bishops will debate reducing the number of national episcopal commissions from six to three, and the possible creation of standing committees that would include lay experts, said the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) General Secretary Msgr. Mario Paquette.

The bishops will also put evangelization front and centre during the public portion of the week-long gathering in Cornwall, Ont. On opening day, sociologist Reginald Bibby will present an array of social data on Canadian attitudes towards religious faith. The next day Halifax Auxiliary Bishop Claude Champagne will lay out the theological and teaching dimensions.

The bishops, however, must find a way to accomplish their mission with fewer resources.
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On September 21, the International Day of Peace, musicians from Saskatoon will hold a special festival entitled “Musicians for Peace.” You are invited to join them at one or both of the following venues. Buy a festival pass and visit both venues. These are a short walk from each other, just off Broadway. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Saskatoon Refugee Coalition and Oxfam.
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A groundbreaking survey of more than 6,000 American congregations reveals that churches spend a significant amount of time, energy and money in the ministries of health care. According to the survey, about 70 percent of responding churches provide direct health services, with 65 percent offering health education programs within their community. The survey defines direct services as provision of medical care to individuals by trained health care professionals.
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Evangelical theology stresses the importance of a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ and sees the transformation of individuals as an important part of the transformation of the world. However, the notion of a purely privatized faith in which the gospel only affects individual, personal or family life but has no wider implications for society must be rejected as inadequate.
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An agreed statement entitled “Growing Together in Unity & Mission” was released today by the Anglican Communion Office and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The statement attempts to foster discussion and reflection on the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) over the past 40 years. However, the statement insists, “it is more than this: it is a call for action, based upon an honest appraisal of what has been achieved in our dialogue. Despite our present ‘imperfect communion’, there is, we feel, enough common ground to take seriously how we work together.”
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This past summer, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued a statement entitled “Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church.” This document immediately attracted attention, comment, spin, appreciation, and criticism from around the world. The document contains five questions and the responses of the CDF, with very little additional comment. The focus of the questions is the meaning of the word “subsists” as it appears in Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), article 8. The council declared that the one Church of Christ “constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity.”

Much of the criticism of the document has come from within the Catholic community, although notable critiques have also been issued by ecumenical partners. The criticism has addressed the exclusivity with which the new CDF document interprets the word “subsists”, and the insistence of the CDF that other churches are thereby deficient. The responses to the document were more careful and nuanced than those made in 2000 to Dominus Iesus, but many observers connected the two documents, seeing the new text as little more than a re-articulation of the earlier problematic statements.

After considerable thought about whether there was anything further productive to say about the document and the controversy stirred up this summer, I have decided to share some of my initial reflections in the days following the publication of the “responsa.” There are numerous additional perspectives that could be offered, many of which are available online.
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The Vatican has announced the excommunication of certain members of the Army of Mary, a sect in Canada whose teachings have been deemed dangerous and erroneous by church authorities.
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Muslims in Canada today started fasting for the holy month of Ramadan. During the month, from dawn to sunset Muslims around the world abstain from food, drink and marital relations.
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Anyone who thought a look back at 20th-century history through the eyes of prayer would be comforting, uplifting or anodyne might want to begin with the 1919 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Organizers of this early version of the annual week of prayer pulled no punches when they began, “The crowning horror and blasphemy of our divisions is that we shut one another out from the one great Sacrament of Love.”
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At a time when the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople – today’s Istanbul – is facing growing hardships imposed by decisions of the Turkish judiciary, members of the worldwide ecumenical family have expressed support and solidarity to His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
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Theologians from the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) participating in the second meeting of the Lutheran-Reformed Joint Commission agreed to the need for further study on the understanding of the Church from the perspectives of the two faith traditions.
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The U.S. National Council of Churches is challenging the U.S. government’s detention policy for prisoners at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba. The NCC joined the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the Union for Reform Judaism, among others, in supporting two cases before the Supreme Court.
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L’Arche Saskatoon Giant Garage Sale is Friday, August 24, 4 – 9pm, & Saturday. August 25, 8am – 3pm, at Grace Westminster United Church Hall (505 10th Street E, just west of Broadway Ave.). Please bring your donated items to Grace Westminster (East entrance) on Thurs. Aug. 23, 1 – 7pm, or Fri. Aug. 24, 9am – 1pm. Proceeds will go towards the first L’Arche home in Saskatoon for people with intellectual disabilities. For more information, call Hilary at 343-7371 or Robert at 374-5501.
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The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) will publish a revised Lectionary for Sundays and Solemnities. This is the book of readings used in the public worship of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. The revised lectionary is expected to be available next spring in order to be used for the beginning of the following liturgical season – Year B – starting 30 November 2008.
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The CCC need back copies of Week of Prayer for Christian Unity services, and stories about celebrations before 1948. Please search your shelves, cupboards, attics, offices, for existing copies you might have. With your help, we can put together a complete collection. We will be producing an anthology of prayer services to help celebrate the centenary of the Octave of Christian Unity in 2008.
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CATHOLIC WOMEN IN MINISTRY: Changing the Way Things Are, by Marie-Louise Ternier-Gommers. Novalis (Montreal, QC ). © 2007, 216pp., $21.95. Reviewed by Gertrude Rompré.
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Margaret Pfeil wants peace. She wants it so much that three and a half years ago she moved into St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker community, a house of hospitality in South Bend, Ind. She believes in radical political participation, so she doesn’t vote except in local elections. Once her student loans are paid off, she hopes to practice tax resistance by living below the poverty line. Pfeil, an assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, wants peace but sometimes she finds she needs to look outside the Catholic church to find the resources and support to help her live her faith.
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On August 15th, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism moved its offices across Montréal to a new street-front address on Réné Lévesque Ouest. The new address is: 1819 boul. Réné Lévesque O., Montréal QC, H3H 2P5. All phone numbers, fax numbers, and email addresses will remain unchanged.
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The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is ready to join the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican in supporting a code of conduct to guide activities seeking converts to Christianity.
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A group of Calgary clergy and lay people are quietly building bridges between the city’s Christian and Muslim communities in the wake of fears of rising interfaith tensions. Since its birth, Calgary’s Muslim-Christian Dialogue group has met on a monthly basis. While some valuable groundwork has been laid, group members are under no illusions that problems between Christians and Muslims will vanish in starry-eyed optimism and good works. They acknowledge that heated international political and theological feuds could migrate close to home. And they’d like to expand the group’s Christian complement to include more members from the evangelical wing of the faith. Christian representatives were drawn from Roman Catholic and “mainline” Protestant denominations, including Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran and United, as well as “unattached” members.
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The Apostolicity of the Church is the title of the current study document of the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Commission on Unity. With this document, the Commission completes the 1995-2006 fourth phase of the Lutheran-Catholic dialogue at the global level. The study document of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) is aimed at contributing toward deepening communion between the Roman Catholic Church and Lutheran churches. The document has been sent to the respective churches of the mandating bodies and to the wider public of persons and groups engaged in the ecumenical movement.
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CHICAGO (ELCA) — In response to a document released by the Vatican July 10, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), said the statement does not appear to change the Vatican’s previously stated positions, and it will not alter the ELCA’s commitment to ecumenism, including ongoing discussions
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On Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI issued a motu proprio entitled Summorum Pontificum, on the use of the 1962 Latin Mass. The document has been widely expected for some months now.
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The College of Emmanuel & St. Chad in Saskatoon is pleased to invite the public to a panel discussion entitled “Canadians and the Anglican World after General Synod” on July 1, at 7 p.m. in the college chapel. As part of the college’s “Faith in the World” summer school for lay people, the panel will consider the results of the 2007 General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. Join Cathy Hartsook, Gary Sinclair, and Dean Terry Wiebe as they frame up their experience of this year’s General Synod; the decisions made, and the ramifications for our relationship with the broader Anglican world.
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The 2007 Summer Ecumenical Institute entitled “Making Peace in the Household of God” is scheduled for June 26 to 29 in Saskatoon. As final preparations are underway, the final timetable has been released along with a list of optional workshops. The conference begins on Tuesday evening with an ecumenical worship service at St. Paul’s Cathedral at 7 p.m. Dr. David Brubaker, one of our keynote speakers, will preach the sermon. The general public is invited to attend this service.
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The early bird registration deadline for the 2007 Summer Ecumenical Institute is March 15. Please register soon. A conference brochure and registration form are available online at ecumenism.net/sei/2007_sei_brochure.pdf
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The Prairie Centre for Ecumenism is pleased to announce that its Summer Ecumenical Institute for 2007 will take place in Saskatoon June 26-29. The theme of the conference is conflict resolution and transformation within and among churches, under the working title “Making Peace in the Household of God.”

Many Canadian churches appear to be 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, which ecumenically-minded people have been developing over the years, are today needed just as much within our churches as between them.
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Following a long and passionate debate at the 2007 General Synod in Winnipeg, the Anglican Church of Canada has rejected the blessing of same-sex unions. The result is not decisive, however, as both clergy and laity voted in favour with the bishops narrowly defeating the resolution. Earlier resolutions affirmed that the blessing of same-sex unions is a doctrinal matter and that they are consistent with the core doctrine of the Anglican Church of Canada.
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[Anglican Journal] Canadian Anglicans, meeting at their General Synod governing convention, voted by the slimmest of margins to defeat a proposal that would have permitted church blessing rites for gay couples. However, on the same day, the synod – also by a narrow margin – agreed that such blessings are “not in conflict with the core doctrine” of the church. Much of the sixth day of the synod was taken up with debate on the two questions, with dozens of people approaching microphones in the plenary hall to voice emotional opinions.
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Le 23 juin, le pape Benoît XVI a nommé l’abbé Murray Chatlain évêque coadjuteur du diocèse de Mackenzie-Fort Smith, dans les Territoires du Nord-Ouest.
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On 23 June, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI named Reverend Murray Chatlain as Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith, Northwest Territories.
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The Anglican Church of Canada’s General Synod has elected Bishop Fred Hiltz as the church’s new primate. The Evangelical Lutheran Church, meeting in its National Convention has chosen the Rev. Susan Johnson as its new national bishop.
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Delegates at the Eleventh Biennial National Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) have elected Rev. Susan Johnson, Assistant to the Bishop of the Eastern Synod, as the new National Bishop of the ELCIC. The election occurred on the sixth and final ballot for Bishop. Bishop-elect Johnson will succeed National Bishop Raymond Schultz who announced in January of this year that he will retire as of September 1, 2007. Bishop Schultz has been serving as National Bishop for six years. He was elected for a four-year term at the 2005 Convention but announced his retirement half-way through the term due to personal and health reasons.
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[ACC News • Winnipeg] The Anglican Church of Canada has chosen Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island as its 13th Primate or national leader.

Bishop Hiltz was elected by the church’s General Synod, meeting in Winnipeg, on the 5th ballot, from among four bishops nominated last April by a gathering of all Canadian bishops.

Bishop Hiltz, 53, will succeed Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, elected three years ago, who announced earlier that he would retire at the end of the General Synod gathering now underway.

Bishop Hiltz was elected assistant bishop of the diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island in 1995 and elected diocesan bishop in 2002. He was a member of the Council of General Synod from 2001 to 2004 and, since, 2006, has served as the Anglican Co-Chair of the Anglican-Lutheran International Commission.

In a statement after his nomination for the primacy, Bishop Hiltz described the Primate as “a servant of the people of God (whose) ministry is to gather the Church, to unite its members in a holy fellowship of truth and love, and to inspire them in the service of Christ’s mission in the world.”

He is married to Lynne Samways and they have one son.
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The third meeting of the Lutheran-Mennonite International Study Commission took place from 18 to 22 June 2007 at the Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg, France.
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[ACC News — Winnipeg] Nearly 1,000 Anglicans and Lutherans spent a day together in worship at the Winnipeg Convention Centre Thursday to celebrate six years of full communion between their two churches — and also to consider global warming.

The Anglican Primate, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, and National Lutheran Bishop Raymond Schultz, both of whom retire this week, took part in the liturgy with the theme of the “water” running through it.

Both the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada are holding their major decision-making conventions in Winnipeg this week.
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[ACC News] The merger of Augsburg Fortress and the Anglican Book Centre is almost complete, with only a few legal and technical details renaming.
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Après leur rencontre privée et l’échange de discours, le Pape et don hôte SB Chrysostomos II de Chypre ont signé une Déclaration commune, dans laquelle ils déclarent leur sincère et ferme engagement à obéir à la volonté du Seigneur en intensifiant leur recherche de la pleine unité entre tous les chrétiens. Le Pape et l’Archevêque désirent que les catholiques et les orthodoxes de Chypre vivent fraternellement et solidairement. “Nous voulons en outre soutenir et développer le dialogue théologique qui, par le biais de la Commission internationale s’apprête à traiter des points les plus complexes ayant marqué la division historique” des Eglises. “Nous devons parvenir à un accord substantiel en vue de la communion parfaite dans la foi, dans la vie sacramentelle et l’exercice du ministère pastoral”.
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Following this morning’s private meeting, and their exchange of speeches, the Pope and His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, signed a Joint declaration in the presence of the Catholic and Cypriot Orthodox delegations. In the declaration, Benedict XVI and the archbishop of New Justiniana and All Cyprus declare their “sincere and firm desire, in obedience to the will of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to intensify the search for full unity among all Christians. … We wish the Catholic and Orthodox faithful of Cyprus to live fraternally and in full solidarity. … Furthermore, we wish to support and promote theological dialogue which, through the competent international commission, is preparing to consider the most onerous questions that marked the historical event of division. It is necessary to reach substantial agreement over full communion in the faith, in sacramental life and in the exercise of pastoral ministry.”
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St. Andrew’s College, Saskatoon is pleased to announced that Sandra Beardsall, professor of ecumenics and church history, will offer a five-day course (for credit or audit) called “Preparing for Ecumenical Ministries,” June 4-8, 2007 (course #HA 356).
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The Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences will be in Saskatoon from May 26 to June 2. Congress, as it is now called, was once known as the Learned Societies’ Conference. Now in its 76th year, it is an important annual gathering of academic societies in the liberal arts from across Canada. According to the website, it is the largest annual academic gathering in Canada; and its multidisciplinary character marks it as unique in the world. In 2006, approximately 8,000 delegates representing over 68 learned societies went to Toronto from all over North America, Europe, Africa and Asia to present their research and to debate some of the most important social and cultural questions of the day.

Complete programs of events planned by these societies are available on their individual websites. Some highlights include:

Saturday, May 26 (all day)
The theme of the CETA annual meeting is Evangelical-Roman Catholic encounter. All of the presentations will relate to aspects of this theme. Keynote speaker: Gregory Baum (McGill)

Sunday, May 27, 10:30-11:25 (CTS)
Laurie Lamoreux Scholes (Concordia) – Building Bridges across Difference: A Study of the Christian Ecumenical Movement of the Early 20th Century (A Blueprint for the Interfaith Movement?)

Tuesday, May 29, 11:00-12:30 (Joint session of CSCH & CCHA)
Commemorating the Contribution of John Webster Grant to Canadian religious Historiography (a panel discussion)

Tuesday, May 29, 3:35-5:30 (CTS panel)
Bridging Churches: Development of the Understanding of Church through Canadian Ecumenical Dialogues (Moderators: Gail Allan and Mary Marrocco; Presentations: Helmut Harder, Sandra Beardsall, Susan Brown)
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There is more to expound and comment on, regarding chapter one, the last section, of A Handbook of Spiritual Ecumenism (HSE). This section is entitled “Witnesses to the Word of God” (nn. 19-25) and offers remarkable teaching and encouragement.
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The Third Anglican-Lutheran International Commission (ALIC) held its second meeting at White Point, Nova Scotia, Canada between 14 and 20 May, 2007, under the chairmanship of the Rt Rev. Fred Hiltz, Anglican Bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and the Rev. Dr Thomas Nyiwé, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cameroon.
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All are invited to a Friends of L’Arche Prayer Night, hosted by the L’Arche Saskatoon Project, on Wednesday May 2, 2007 from 7:00-7:45pm in the hall of St. Timothy’s Anglican Church, 2101 Lansdowne Ave. (2 blocks south of Taylor St.). L’Arche Saskatoon Project is part of an international network of communities where people with and without intellectual disabilities share life together in the spirit of the Gospel and of the Beatitudes that Jesus preached. For more information, contact Wyndham Thiessen at 262-7243 or Robert and Margaret Sanche at 374-5501.
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[Anglican Journal] Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck, an Anglican priest in the diocese of Saskatoon who recently declared that he intends to marry gay couples if asked and who was asked by his bishop to reconsider his position by March 31 or risk losing his license to minister, has resigned his position.
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Cet article traite du premier chapître du livret du cardinal Walter Kasper, “Manuel d’œcuménisme spirituel” (MOES). Le chapître est intitulé “Approfondir la foi chrétienne” et comporte deux parties. Les paragraphes sont numérotés, facilitant ainsi consultation et référence.

La première partie du chapître porte le titre “La Parole de Dieu dans l’Écriture Sainte.” Elle contient beaucoup d’enseignement et d’encouragement. La visée centrale est d’illustrer comment la Parole de Dieu dans la bible peut beaucoup aider les chrétien.nes à se rapprocher les un.es des autres : “Tout ce qui peut être fait pour que les membres des Églises et des Communautés ecclésiales lisent la Parole de Dieu et le fassent, si possible, ensemble…, tout cela renforce ce lien d’unité qui existe déjà, les ouvre à l’action unifiante de Dieu et renforce le témoignage commun rendu à la Parole salvatrice de Dieu qu’ils donnent au monde.” (au tout début du chapître)
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The annual Holocaust Memorial presentation will be on Sunday, April 22nd at 1:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Centre, 7115 McKinnon Avenue, Saskatoon. The keynote speaker will be Isaac Gottfried, who was born in Poland in 1925, and is a Holocaust survivor. Everyone is welcome to attend.
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The Saskatoon Children’s Choir (SCC), under the direction of Artistic Director Phoebe Voigts, presents its annual spring concert “Still We Rise!” Friday, April 20, 7:30 pm at Third Avenue United Church in Saskatoon.

The performance, featuring the 125 voices of the award-winning Saskatoon Children’s Choir and accompanist Michelle Aalders, will present an international repertoire focused on HIV and AIDS awareness.

Also included on the program are works by contemporary Canadian composers Imant Raminsh, Peter Tiefenbach and Stephen Hatfield, as well as classical folk and choral literature. Tickets are $15.00 and are available at McNally Robinson Booksellers or at the door. Reserved seating.

For more information about the choir, check the choir website at www.saskatoonchildrenschoir.org
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