Around Town: Community Day, TWU law school, All My Relations, Mr. Rogers . . .

Pastor Jonathan Chan and Crucible Church are heavily involved in preparing for Richmond Community Day, July 7 at Richmond Olympic Oval.

Graeme Wood wrote about their participation in Richmond News June 8. Here is a portion of the article:

“Community days facilitated by residents are rare and since many residents live in isolation, the goal of this block party is to encourage everyone to close the isolation gap,” said Chan. . . .

And it’s not just a hunch. A recent study out of McGill and UBC showed happiness is lower in high-density neighbourhoods. Richmond’s City Centre neighbourhoods reported the highest levels of isolation and least amount of happiness. A community health study by Vancouver Coastal Health found social isolation to be the most pressing health concern in Richmond.

“We hope this event will deepen neighbourly trust, respect and co-dependency so that everyone can depend on one another for the well-being and flourishing of their neighbourhoods,” said Chan.

A note on the Crucible Facebook page says:

On that day, we will be providing a fun family friendly environment to encourage face-to-face contact and real conversations among our neighbours. We will also have local non-profit organizations reveal the various needs of the community and provide space and opportunity for our Musqueam neighbours to educate all of us on the importance of being good stewards of the land we live on.

Some of our activities include a bouncy castle, life-size hungry hippo game, live music, a magic show, games, Musqueam presentations, hot dogs, ice cream and popcorn. All free for everyone in the community to enjoy!

Chan said volunteers are still needed. You can email him at [email protected]<

Decision day for TWU law school

The Supreme Court of Canada will deliver its decision on the proposed Trinity Western School of Law early this Friday morning (June 15).

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) offers this summary of the case:

Trinity Western University (TWU) is a Christian university in British Columbia and an affiliate of the EFC. After TWU obtained all the formal approvals needed to start its own law school and grant degrees, provincial law societies in British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia voted to create obstacles for such graduates wanting to practice law in those provinces, either by refusing to admit TWU law school graduates or not to consider TWU an accredited school. (Several other provinces including Alberta and New Brunswick have okayed future TWU law graduates.)

Objections centre on the school’s Community Covenant, which has students and faculty pledge to abstain from certain activities and behaviours during their studies including the viewing of pornography, the possession or use of alcohol on campus, and “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”

The EFC believes law societies that have voted not to accept TWU law graduates have overstepped their mandates and that such decisions violate the religious freedom of TWU and its graduates.

TWU launched legal challenges in the three provinces where provincial law societies are refusing accreditation. Initial rulings in Nova Scotia, Ontario and BC led to appeal rulings. The EFC submitted joint interventions with Christian Higher Education Canada in each of these cases.

The Supreme Court heard final appeals of the Ontario and BC cases November 30 and December 1, 2017. The EFC was one of the interveners permitted to appear in the case to support TWU’s right to hold to a community covenant.

Go here for the EFC’s latest news, issue summary, related news articles and commentaries, and more. And here for TWU’s own Proposed School of Law material.

Peter Stockland, senior writer with the think-tank Cardus and publisher of Convivium, wrote a strongly-worded opinion piece June 13. It began:

For all who’ve tracked the dispute’s progress through the legal process . . . it stands to be among the most important religious freedom decisions of the past 20 years. Ominous as that sounds, it understates the full importance of the TWU judgment.

What we will know on Friday is whether it remains possible to believe, and live, outside the dominant social orthodoxy that has reconfigured Canada since the year 2000.

Go here for the full comment.

One leader at TWU asked supporters of the university and the proposed law school for “continued prayers for a constructive outcome and that our response (regardless of the outcome) will be characterized by grace and humility” – and had three prayer requests:

Would you please set an alarm reminder to pray for our team this Friday at 6:45 am (Pacific) as we receive the decision and begin to digest what it means. Please pray for patience, wisdom, humility and grace.
Pray for our entire community at TWU as we share the decision with our board of governors, faculty, staff, students and others during the day.
Pray for our president, Bob Kuhn, as he and Earl Phillips (executive director of TWU Law) will be handling the majority of interviews with the media. May they show the humility and grace of Christ.

The EFC will host a Webinar on the TWU Decision June 27.

All My Relations

Several churches in the Downtown Eastside are hosting “an afternoon of food, friendship, dance and music celebrating Indigenous People’s and Cultures of North America” this Sunday afternoon (June 17) at Mosaic Church.

This is how they describe All My Relations: Indigenous People’s Day Celebration:

The event will be a celebration of Indigenous peoples and cultures of Canada in conjunction with National Indigenous People’s Day. Through the uniquely potent abilities of food and the arts to bring people together, we hope to facilitate opportunities for meaningful and personal interactions.

The day will include hearing from First Nations artists and leaders as a way of learning from our past in order to work towards a better future together. Mosaic Church and Hummingbird Ministries have been hosting/supporting/financing this event for many years, however, the event is now also sponsored by several local churches so as to bring a large cross-section of the community together.

Other churches involved are Artisan and Strathcona Vineyard.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Everyone seems to love Mr. Rogers, and especially as he is portrayed in the new movie coming to town this week, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? It’s hard to imagine, in this contentious age, how a movie about a ‘kind’ children’s TV show host could become so universally popular, but the movie has struck a chord.

Many of the comments and reviews, however, overlook the fact that Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister. For a good introduction to the movie, read Kenneth Morefield’s comment in Christianity Today.

He concludes:

In 15 years of reviewing films professionally, I can’t recall ever having heard as many sniffles and sobs as I did when Won’t You Be My Neighbor? played to a packed house at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Perhaps each viewer was crying for Rogers himself, but I suspect that a fair number were actually crying for themselves – some for their inner or remembered child who had been helped by a smiling man and a kind word; some for their present, adult selves whose best memory of a loving, caring, nurturing, accepting Christian authority figure was a fading but not yet erased memory.

In a moment when many Christian leaders are being called to account for failing to demonstrate love, that example can show us a better way.

The movie is on now at Fifth Avenue Cinemas in Vancouver.

Jun 2018

Tigers Be Still by Kim Rosenstock – June 13, 2018 - June 16, 2018 at 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Fr. David Bauer Memorial Golf Classic – June 14, 2018 at All Day
Laila Biali – June 15, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Run for H2O – June 16, 2018 at 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
Restoration Day at A Rocha – June 16, 2018 at 9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Amazing Grace: A Day Conference with Terry Virgo – June 16, 2018 at 9:30 am - 4:00 pm
Book Launch: Church in Surrey & White Rock – The Untold Story – June 16, 2018 at 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Stars & Dark Matter, Quilts by Lois A. Klassen: Gallery Exhibit Opening Reception – June 16, 2018 at 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Ember Vancouver – June 16, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
All My Relations: Indigenous People's Day Celebration – June 17, 2018 at 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Jazz Vespers: Ingrid Stitt – June 17, 2018 at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
VOS Choir: Father's Day Appreciation Concert – June 17, 2018 at 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Sarah Williams: The Spirituality of Time – June 18, 2018 at 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Celebrate World Refugee Day – June 19, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Reina Del Cid – June 19, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm
World Refugee Day: Information Fair – June 20, 2018 at 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
The Invisible City [Kakuma] Documentary Film Screening – June 20, 2018 at 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Jazz Evensong: Laura Crema & Friends – June 20, 2018 at 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Lines of Thought: Drawing Explorations & Painting Studies – June 21, 2018 at 12:00 am
Won't You Be My Neighbor? – June 21, 2018 at All Day
VOC Sweet Soul Gospel Choir (TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival) – June 22, 2018 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Community Movie Night: Paddington 2 – June 22, 2018 at 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Spiritual Trauma Seminar – June 22, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
We are Neighbours Celebration – June 23, 2018 at 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
A Comedy & Dessert Night with Phil Callaway – June 23, 2018 at 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
World Refugee Sunday – June 24, 2018 at All Day
Point Grey Fiesta: Ecumenical Church Service – June 24, 2018 at 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Jazz Vespers with Tom Arntzen & Friends – June 24, 2018 at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Jazz Vespers: Gabriel Hasselback – June 24, 2018 at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Jazz Vespers: Heather Soles & West Coast Charisma – June 24, 2018 at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Jazz Vespers: Universal Gospel Choir – June 24, 2018 at 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Then Sings My Soul: An Evening of Music with Calvin Dyck – June 24, 2018 at 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Andy Rowell: How to Think About Church Leadership – June 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Leora Cashe (TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival) – June 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Wafik Wahba: Understanding Current Dynamics in Christian-Muslim Relationships – June 25, 2018 at 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Good Noise Gospel Band (TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival) – June 26, 2018 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Alzheimer Café Vancouver – June 26, 2018 at 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
EFC Webinar on the TWU Decision – June 27, 2018 at 9:00 am - 10:00 am
City Soul Gospel Choir (TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival) – June 27, 2018 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Jeff Greenman Interviews Jim Houston – June 27, 2018 at 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm
International Choral Kathaumiwx Concert – June 27, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Amanda Russell-Jones: The After-life of Hagar – Egyptian Slave, Wife of Abraham, Cast Out in the Wilderness with Her Son – June 27, 2018 at 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Mary McCampbell: Imagining Our Neighbours as Ourselves – the Arts, Empathy & the Christian Imagination – June 27, 2018 at 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Acceleration by Caroline Sniatynski – June 27, 2018 - June 30, 2018 at 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Jazz Evensong: Ron Small & Friends – June 27, 2018 at 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Ellul and the Bible: 2018 IJES Conference – June 28, 2018 - June 30, 2018 at All Day
Marcus Mosely Chorale (TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival) – June 29, 2018 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
pecial Outdoor Italian Concert: Canzoni della Nostra Gioventù – June 29, 2018 at 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Watoto: Signs & Wonders – June 29, 2018 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
World Cup Brunch – June 30, 2018 at 10:30 am - 1:00 pm
Summer in the Forest (L'Arche) – June 30, 2018 at 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Summertime Worship 2018 – June 30, 2018 at 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm

Jul 2018

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