May 19, 2007
News Briefs for February 2007
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AMAZING GRACE This is a movie to watch for. Slated for US release in late February, the Canadian date for screening has not yet been announced, so watch your local media for this. Amazing Grace was shown at last autumn’s Toronto Film Festival, being awarded Official Selection status. It comes from the makers of the recent very popular Chronicles of Narnia, and tells the story of William Wilberforce’s long, courageous, and contentious campaign against slavery. Thanks largely to him, the practice was outlawed in the British Empire, although the British Parliament didn’t pass the Slavery Abolition Act until one month after his death in 1833. Slavery is of course still a big-money scourge today, and the topic is not of purely historical interest.
The film’s title comes, of course, from John Newton’s famous 1722 hymn, considered by many even now to be the world’s favorite. Famously (or infamously), in his early life Newton was himself captain of a slave ship. He wrote the hymn after becoming a Christian and spent 43 years preaching the Gospel. His profound feelings of guilt about his earlier life explain his gratitude for the grace “that saved a wretch like me”.
You can go online to www.amazinggraceresource.com for a trailer of the movie, a congregational resource kit, links, etc.
Moving from Film to Print, . . .
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The 1996 death of much beloved writer Henri Nouwen has been memorialized by the Henri Nouwen Society’s publication of Words of Hope and Healing: 99 Sayings by Henri Nouwen, a selection of profound insights from 28 of his books. Nouwen was an academic at Notre Dame, Harvard and Yale. Ten years before his death he became pastor at Daybreak, a L”Arche community in Ontario (for people with intellectual disabilities).
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Ed Hird, an evangelical Anglican priest from BC has written Battle for the Soul of Canada, an analysis of how his denomination got to where it is now. There are obvious parallels for us in the UCC. Copies are available from #1008-555 West 28th St, North Vancouver, V7N 2J7 ($15+3.50 shipping, . . . with a $2 discount if you mention the NACC!)
Seminar The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada continues its cross-Canada series of church leader seminars, with the next scheduled for March 28, in Belleville ON. The theme is “Ministry in Canada: Navigating Through Changing Times”. Presenters are Bruce Cleminger (EFC President), Don Hutchinson (General Legal Council), David Macfarlane (Director, National Initiatives). Cost is $50 (single) or $40 (groups of three or more) and includes lunch, coffee breaks, and handouts. To register call (905) 479-5885 Ext 236, or write M.I.P. Box 3745, Markham ON L3R 0Y4. Reaction to date has been very positive.
NACC Membership The NACC advertised its two new categories of membership in the December Observer - to little reaction. Next up is Fellowship Magazine, where interest will hopefully be greater. (Admittedly, the Observer ad. ended up well to the back of the magazine.)
It may be that word of mouth will be as effective as anything, so it would be great if you would take the trouble to pass the word along to any friends and acquaintances who might be interested. The news is that the NACC now has three membership categories: congregations, groups of six or more in non-NACC congregations, and individuals in the UCC. Those interested can get in touch with the NACC Office, via PO Box 1022, Barrie ON L4M 3G1, 1-800-678-2607, or nacc@csolve.net.
“Speaking Personally” When writing in News Briefs, your editor feels somewhat constrained by this being an NACC organ. So that he can speak more freely, and without compromising the Alliance, and as a personal indulgence, he has set up a “Blog”, a web log, where he can let his hair down as he wishes.
Posted most recently there are some thoughts about Orthodoxy and Heresy (neither of them terribly popular words in our denomination). Earlier items, still posted, have to do with the UCC’s “Bobblehead” ads., and “Celestial Navigation” (nautical and spiritual). If his meanderings are of interest to you, log on to http://speakingpersonally.typepad.com/.
AGM 2007 April 20-21, the friendly folk of St Andrews United, Lillooet, BC, will be hosting NACC representatives from across Canada. Please pray that they travel safely into BC’s Coast Mountains, and that they will conduct the NACC’s business in accordance with God’s will.
Fluff From the Washington Post, courtesy of Bob Blackburn, our Immediate Past Chairman, come these brand- new definitions:
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Coffee (n): the person upon whom one coughs
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Flabbergasted (adj): appalled at how much weight you have gained
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Esplanade (v): to attempt an explanation while drunk
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Abdicate (v): to give up all hope of having a flat stomach
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Negligent (adj): descriptive of the condition where you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown
(More in the next News Briefs, space permitting.)
For those feeling low, for any reason at all:
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, but also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isa 57:15)
Quiet time reflection:
Lord, You have granted brokenness to Your servants.
(With thanks to “Christian Quotation of the Day”)
Posted at May 19, 2007 05:00 PM