Cade Community Lectures

The Pursuits of Happiness

Lethbridge Public Library

Thursdays, 7:30 pm-9:00 pm

January 24th - “Is Belief in God Necessary for Happiness? a Christian Reflects” 

Erin Phillips, Chaplain, Ecumenical Campus Ministry

January 31th - “Is Belief in God Necessary for Happiness? an Atheist Reflects”

Paul Viminitz, University of Lethbridge

February 7th - “How Can We Find Happiness?  Answers from Philosophers, Persons with Disabilities and Popular Culture”

Karl Rejman, Lethbridge College

February 14th - “What’s Wrong with How We Think about Happiness?”

 Catherine Kingfisher, University of Lethbridge

Sponsored by Ecumenical Campus Ministry, The Office of the President, Lethbridge College, The Office of the President, University of Lethbridge, and Lethbridge Public Library

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Breastplate,
A more literal translation, by Kuno Meyer,

I arise today
Through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of
Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of
His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of
His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of
His descent for the judgement of Doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of
the love of the Cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of the resurrection
to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In prediction of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendour of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak to me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me,
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From every one who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in a multitude.
I summon today all these powers
between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless
power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and
smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge
that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ to shield me today
Against poising, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So there come to me
abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of
every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of
every one who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye of
every one who sees me,
Christ in every ear
that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

From the Mission of the St. Clares

Lent Day One

"But then I do not put much stock in "believing in God."  The grammar of "belief" invites a far too rationalistic account of what it means to be a Christian.  "Belief" implies propositions about which you get to make up your mind before you know the work they are meant to do.  Does that mean I do not believe in God?  Of course not, but I am far more interested in what a declaration of belief entails for how I live my life."
Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah's Child

For Ash Wednesday

God of the desert, as we follow Jesus into the unknown,
may we recognise the tempter when he comes;
let it be your bread we eat,
your world we serve and you alone we worship.

Portion of the collect for Ash Wednesday
New Zealand Prayer Book

Advice on getting young people in the church

http://www.azdiocese.org/dfc/newsdetail_2/1039

thanks to Keith

Our Annual Lecture Series

The Cade Community Lectures

“On Being Human”

Annual Lecture Series

Lethbridge Public Library

Wednesdays

7:00 pm

January 19th - “What collecting has taught me about being human”

Erin Phillips, Chaplain, Ecumenical Campus Ministry

January 26th - “What policing has taught me about being human”

Hugh Richards, Criminal Justice, Lethbridge College

February 2nd - “What facebook has taught me about being human”

Jennifer Davis, General Studies, Lethbridge College

February 9th - “What volunteering has taught me about being human”

Mike Mahon, President, University of Lethbridge

Sponsored by Ecumenical Campus Ministry, the President’s Office, University of Lethbridge, the President’s Office, Lethbridge College, and Lethbridge Public Library

Just one more reason why I love this time of year

Bags collected by Ascension
This is what approximately $10,000 in groceries look like!
Two of our student volunteers!
The line-up
Checking out the goodies
Maureen Mahon, whose husband is the new president of the U of L, helps out!

Yesterday was the day we handed out campus care parcels at the university. For a month my admin assistant has been distributing grocery bags to south Alberta churches. The university has had a bunch made for us but this year the budget didn't allow that so Safeway generously donated a lot of their bags. Last week Beth started gathering up a lot of bags and some of the churches started dropping theirs off to Immanuel Lutheran who graciously offer their hall for our depot. I brought in the bags Ascension donated and some that were dropped off at my house from one of our rural congregations. Then Saturday a bunch of us sorted the bags. Yesterday was the day we distributed them! IVCF staff and students came and helped Maintenance load them all up and drive them down to the University where they unloaded them and then the fun began.

Students began lining up a half hour before we began the hand out and we managed to hand out 442!!! bags in 20 mins. An hour later when I checked my email there were two lovely messages from students thanking us for the food and the encouragement. I love my job!

Canada's Sweetheart

I had the opportunity last night to hear Canada's Sweetheart, Jill Barber in concert. What a delightful evening! I don't know how to describe her music - sort of singer-songwriter, sort of folk, sort of jazz, sort of '50s something. Sort of awesome though! She had us singing, she had us swaying, she had us in the palm of her hand. She's delightful and her band was amazing. What a great time! and it was a fundraiser for Womenspace, an organization that does all sorts of education and advocacy for low income women and that lost its federal funding last year. The church was really full - it was great to see. If you want to check out her music you can find her site here.

Scenes from Sunday/Monday

Communal values not valued

A study has confirmed what many of my friends have claimed: when it comes to academic jobs candidates with good social skills are at a disadvantage. Further the study finds that since women are more likely to display communal values women are disadvantaged in academic hiring. Read a report on the study here.

On Writing

I wasn't much of a writer in high school and didn't get a lot of encouragement either. Fortunately I fell into the hands of a great prof at university who believed students needed to learn how to write if they were going to learn how to think. Tom Graham taught us how to read and how to write and in the process to think. I will always be grateful to him for his fourth year methods seminar, one of the hardest courses I ever took and one of the most helpful.

Now Ben Myers has written this wonderful post on the writing life and I recommend you check it out.

I still struggle with this aspect of writing:

4. Writing and discipline. The self has a tendency to leak and dribble. Left to itself, it loses all definition, becomes a shapeless puddle. Writing, like ritual, is a cast into which the self is poured. Writing is care of the self. ‘He who would not be frustrate of his hope to write well hereafter in laudable things, ought himself to be a true poem’ (Milton). A book is a few seconds of inspiration plus a few years – or a lifetime – of discipline. You cannot have a campfire without the first spark, but the spark is useless without the slow labour of gathering wood, building the fire, and maintaining it when it begins to die.

Reading Lists

In the latest issue of Christian Century there are lists of theology books the contributors think are essential reading if you want to know what has happened in theology for the past 25 years. The lists are interesting - you can read them here. Although the preamble is that these are essential for understanding what has been happening in theology I think they are more revealing of what has been happening intellectually for these contributors. But that's okay. I liked reading the list and have added a number of the books to my list of what I want to read. I also spent some time thinking what five books have influenced the way I think about things in a significant way so here is my list:

Daniel Boyarin, A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace

Sarah Coakley, Powers and Submissions

James Alison, Faith Beyond Resentment

Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Resident Aliens

and what would your list be?

Food Production in Canada

This ad is making the facebook rounds and is really worth watch. I spend a lot of time with farmers - in most cases they are the last generation to work their family farms.

The Italian Heritage

Having just been to the home of Armani and having spent much of that visit in churches and museums considering the art and architecture of the Christian tradition I really appreciated this article. And now I have another reason to go to New York.

The Letterpress

Here is a story about a person I admire and a craft which interests me. In the process of watching a documentary about a craftsman still keeping alive the craft of the letterpress Evan notices that one of the jobs is an invitation to the ordination of Sarah Coakley. I'm fascinated by the letter press - I love the look and feel of what it creates so the documentary is interesting in its own right. But I'm also a great admirer of the theologian Sarah Coakley. So check it out and maybe check out some of her essays!

Florence

More from Berry on the University

The thing being made in a university is humanity. given the current influence of universities, this is merely inevitable. But what universities, at least the public-supported ones, are mandated to make or to help to make is human beings in the fullest sense of those words — not just trained workers or knowledgeable citizens but responsible heirs and members of human culture. If the proper work of the university is only to equip people to fulfill private ambitions, then how do we justify public support? If it is only to prepare citizens to fulfill public responsibilities, then how do we justify the teaching of arts and sciences? The common denominator has to be larger than either career preparation or preparation for citizenship. Underlying the idea of a university — the bringing together, the combining into one, of all the disciplines — is the idea that good work and good citizenship are the inevitable by-products of the making of a good — that is, a fully developed — human being. This, as I understand it, is the definition of the name university.

From “The Loss of the University,” in Home Economics.

hat tip to Bill

More on Berry

Discussion of Berry on the university here. Hat tip to Bill.

Wendell Berry pulls papers

Wendell Berry has pulled his papers from the University of Kentucky in protest of the university's growing emphasis on research and their cozy relationship with the coal industry. Read about it here.
Thanks to Front Porch Republic.

Second Annual Italian Pilgrimage