Around Town: Ruined, Westside Baptist, Lady Bible Hunters, neuroscientist faith

Pacific Theatre is hosting a like-minded theatre company early next month. Dark Glass Theatre (an initiative of the Humanitas Anabaptist-Mennonite Centre) is presenting Ruined, by Pulitzer Prize winning writer Lynn Nottage.

Dark Glass Theatre exists to tell stories that enable us to see, face to face, people we might not otherwise meet, thereby decreasing judgment, increasing compassion and fostering empathy.

We believe that one of the most damaging forces at work in our world is the demonizing of the “other.” Whether separated by trauma, social standing, religion, race, sexual orientation, geography, age or gender, breaking down barriers begins with a willingness to see beyond labels like “oppressed” and “oppressor.” As we come face to face with another’s perspective, without judgment, we are empowered to act in love. And that action can change the world.

We aspire to tell stories that build bridges between groups or individuals separated by discord or trauma, and to equip individuals to explore and express their own stories of forgiveness and healing.

A south Vancouver church is reaching out to the non-profit housing manager of a soon-to-be-opened 78-unit modular housing complex in Marpole for homeless people and wants to donate food and supplies to tenants once they move in next month.

Felix Loo, a member of West Side Baptist Church on Ash Street, said it was important to him and other members of the congregation to welcome the area’s new neighbours after the pushback from other residents who don’t want to see the complex built.

“We don’t want to send a message that this group of people are not welcome in our community,” said Loo, who said the church is about 10 minutes from the modular housing site at West 59^th Avenue and Heather Street. “As a church in the community, I think one of the most important mandates is to reach out to this group of people – not for the purpose of proselytizing, but to actually try to integrate them into the community.”

For the full article go here.

Westside Baptist Church is located in a light industrial commercial area at the corner of Ash and W 70th Avenue, just a block southwest of Cambie and Marine. Westside was a church plant by the Canadian Baptists of Western Canada in September 1990 among the Chinese community in west side of Vancouver. There is an English service and a Cantonese service.

A BC Supreme Court judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Marpole modular housing last week.

Lady Bible Hunters: Sisters of Sinai

In 1892 Scottish twin sisters, both widowed and neither with any formal academic qualifications, made their way by camel and foot across the Sinai desert to St. Catherine’s Monastery where Agnes made one of the most important Bible finds of the century, launching them on a career of eastern Bible hunting, sleeping in tents, placating skeptical monks and fabulous finds . . . including those that lead to the treasure trove of Jewish manuscripts that is the Cairo Genizah.

Join us for this lunchtime public lecture, in which Dr. Janet Soskice tells the story of these sisters and their incredible find. All are welcome to bring their lunch and engage in a brief Q & A period afterward

Janet Soskice is a Regent graduate and Professor of Philosophical Theology in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Cambridge. This true story is based on her 2009 book The Sisters of Sinai: how two lady adventurers found the hidden gospels which, on publication, was read as Book of the Week on BBC Radio 4 and was in the ‘Best Books of the Year’ lists of The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor.

I’m just sorry that I’ll be out of town for the day.

There will be a couple of other opportunities to hear from Soskice. She is presumably in town to deliver the G. Peter Kaye Lecture (Speaking About God: Mercy Matters) for Vancouver School of Theology, at St. Mark’s College, February 2. And she will be at VST for the morning of February 3 to tackle Inclusivity and Christology Revisited.

Dr. William Newsome of the Neurobiology Department, Stanford School of Medicine, will be speaking at TWU and UBC.

Dr. William Newsome, Director of the Stanford Neuroscience Institute and Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University will be speaking on the theme ‘Of Two Minds: A Neuroscientist Balances Science and Faith’ at Trinity Western University (January 30) and UBC (January 31).