A Modern Haggadah

This made me laugh!

Thanks Tim!

African Supper at Ascension

We've been developing a new Sunday school curriculum for our senior kids at Ascension using materials from Peace Jam. We've been integrating Bible study and discussion with a study of a number of issues like clean water and now AIDS. As a part of it we took the kids to a benefit concert for the Harambee Grandmothers last month. The Harambee Grandmothers are the local chapter of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. Over two hundred groups have formed across Canada to raise support for the grandmothers of Africa raising their grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. Since they've formed the Harambees have raised $30,000 in our community as well as making many groups more aware of the issues facing the millions of children orphaned in Africa. They are one kick ass group of women!

Every lent our Sunday School chooses a project to work on and this year they decided that they would do a fundraiser for the Harambees and then collect bottles and do a garage sale for the Canada Foodgrains Bank. So Saturday night we put on an African dinner at the church, decorated the hall, played African music and listened to a presentation by Maureen Ebel, one of our Harambee grandmothers. It was a blast! The middle school kids decorated and the senior kids cooked and a grand time was had by all!

Maureen told us that the Stephen Lewis Foundation is talking about how to connect to young people and that our little parish was cutting edge!

The Witness of St. Francis

A moving post about St. Francis and L'Arche over at Faith and Theology. Read it here.

Updated:

Ben Myers has another posting on L'Arche here.

A Powerful Funeral Sermon

Last week I went to a funeral for a lovely man who died after a very full life and a struggle for five or six years with dementia. I really only knew him these past few years as he lost more and more of himself but I had heard many stories of his rigorous life from his dear friend. I found it a little disconcerting at the funeral, however, when no mention was made of these last few years. The man who was eulogized was the healthy, active, vital man who had been a huge part of this community for so many years. And maybe that was appropriate for those who had known him during those years. But for me who had only known him in the years of his vulnerability it was almost as if we didn't say goodbye to the man I had known.

I found this funeral sermon for a very vital man who died of dementia very moving and thought of C as I read it. It raises some interesting questions about 'knowing' and being 'known.'

Feast of Oscar Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador

Today we remember the courage and the faithfulness of Oscar Romero, archbishop of San Salvador and the many martyrs of El Salvador, those known by name and those known only to God.

Resources here. And here. And here.

Words to make us uncomfortable

Lamenting that the great, flowing milk of divine beneficence had all but dried up in the hands of the church, Hildegaard said, "Woe to those who are given a voice and will not shout, woe to those who have breasts and will not nurse God's children!"

Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace

The Undermining of the Humanities

The ever increasing emphasis on technical and professional education within the university and the associated undermining of the humanities has been building for over a century. It is a serious problem. Patrick Deneen's post on this is excellent. You can read it here.