Around Town: SERVE/CREATE, Amy Hamm, Raymond Gaglardi, Euthanasia

We have finally arrived at the weekend many have been looking forward to – the one featuring SERVE (formerly Missions Fest) and CREATE, at the Vancouver Convention Centre, just like in the days before Covid.

And this will be your last chance to participate, because Mission Central will be closing its doors after these events.

The two conferences overlap. SERVE runs Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, while CREATE all takes place on Friday evening and Saturday.

SERVE

Some of the SERVE highlights:

• Four keynote speakers: Kevin Palau, Rick McKinley, Lisa Pak and Steve Schroeder;
• Many seminars on Saturday and Sunday, covering a diverse range of issues, from ‘Missional Effectiveness’ and ‘Reaching the Community Through Sports’ to ‘Missional Nomads: Digital Era Tentmakers,’ ‘Sharing Your Faith With Muslims’ and ‘Ending Poverty Together’;
• About 125 exhibitors will share their insights with you at their booths;
• A Youth / Young Adult Rally Saturday evening, run by 604 Network – Catlin Allen to speak;
• A Children’s Program, with four sessions;
• Here is the schedule.

Go here to register. SERVE is $12 for the whole weekend (children under 18 attend for free), and covers all parts of the conference except for the Youth Rally. Tickets will also be available in-person in the lobby of the Vancouver Convention Centre.

CREATE

Check out these links for CREATE:

• A wide range of speakers;
• Four workshops Saturday afternoon and evening;
• The Moving Pictures Festival with 12 movies;
• Go here for the schedule.

Go here to register. Conference ticket prices vary depending on what you plan to attend.

Pastors and Leaders Summit

Mission Central and the Canadian Bible Society, along with several partners, are hosting a Pastors and Leaders Summit, on Friday (January 27), the first day of conference weekend, 10 am – noon. at Cariboo Road Temple in Burnaby.

Guiding the process will be Kevin Palau and Rick McKinley, who will address the topic ‘Collaboration for City-Reaching.’

Register here for the free event – which I suspect will be very significant in linking disparate parts of the body of Christ in Metro Vancouver over the next few years. (I posted an article about it last week.)

The Summit, along with SERVE and CREATE, will leave a worthy legacy for Mission Central.

Nurse persecuted

National Post Politics Editor Michael Higgins posted a timely comment January 23: ‘B.C. nurse Amy Hamm is being persecuted for believing in biology.’ Here is the beginning:

In Canada right now you could probably put up a sign that said, “I love Satan,” and nothing would happen.

But put up a sign saying “I (heart) J. K. Rowling” and then, like nurse Amy Hamm, you face a trial before a disciplinary body and the loss of your livelihood.

Hamm’s crime is that she believes biological sex is real, that men are men and women are women. And for that she is being persecuted.

Hamm believes that you should respect transgendered people but that women should be allowed safe spaces in areas like washrooms, changing rooms and prisons. And for that she is being persecuted.

Hamm believes that she should be able to speak about these things because she is under the impression we live in a free, tolerant society where differing views are respected. And for that she is being persecuted.

Psychologist Jordan Peterson rightly attracted a lot of attention earlier this month when it was revealed that the Ontario College of Psychologists had sent him a disciplinary warning that threatened him with undergoing remedial education because of alleged unprofessional comments.

Like Hamm, Peterson is being told to shut up in no uncertain terms. Two professional regulatory bodies believe it is in their remit to haul them before some sort of tribunal and make them recant their heresy.

Hamm is before a disciplinary tribunal [which met September 21 – 23, October 24 – 27 and January 10 – 12] following an investigation by the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives [BCCNM].

There were two complaints – one anonymously – about Hamm and the “I (heart) J.K. Rowling” billboard. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing at her job. . . .

The charge against Hamm reads, “Between approximately July 2018 and March 2021, you made discriminatory and derogatory statements regarding transgender people, while identifying yourself as a nurse or nurse educator.”

Go here for the full comment. Here is the BCCNM Citation; as of January 25, their site states, “New dates for this hearing will be posted when available.”

Amy Hamm has been a nurse for the past decade, but she is also a feminist and a mother of two. As far as I know she is not connected with any church – but her views would be shared by many Christians, some of whom might find themselves enmeshed in similar trials.

A key point is that, apart from this recent comment on the National Post site, major media have steered clear of the issue, a fact that upsets Hamm and her supporters.

Raymond Gaglardi sentenced

A man who was found guilty of sexual offences last September has now been sentenced. A January 25 article in The Vancouver Sun described the situation:

A former counsellor has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for a string of sex attacks against boys and men he met at churches in Vancouver and Coquitlam.

Raymond Howard Gaglardi, 78, committed the offences over a period of 40 years, starting in 1971, against 11 male victims aged 10 to 30, according to B.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Riley.

“All of the victims were much younger than Gaglardi,” Riley wrote in his sentencing report. “In each instance, Gaglardi took advantage of a position of trust, exploited the vulnerability of the victim, and touched the victim in a sexual manner. Many of the victims suffered substantial and prolonged impacts as a result of Gaglardi’s offending behaviour.” . . .

Court heard the attacks occurred during two periods. The first, from 1971 to 1981, was while Gaglardi worked in various functions at the Glad Tidings Temple in Vancouver. The second was between 1993 and 2015 at the Hillside Community Church in Coquitlam.

Go here for the full article.

Euthanasia in Canada

The Houston Centre for Humanity and the Common Good (CHCG) will present a public lecture and panel discussion February 2: Euthanasia in Canada with Dr. Brian Bird:

In his lecture, Dr. Brian Bird of UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law will summarize the history of Canada’s euthanasia laws and discuss the pressing social, ethical and legal concerns raised by euthanasia for Canadians and the future of Canadian society.

Immediately following the lecture, there will be a panel discussion including representatives from communities directly impacted by the latest euthanasia policies:

• Dr. Will Johnston (a seasoned family physician and former chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition);
•  Rev. Dr. Andrew Bennett (Program Director for Faith Communities at Cardus); and
• Neil Belanger (Executive Director of the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society).

Led by Dr. Jens Zimmermann, the Houston Centre describes itself in this way:

. . . an initiative of Regent College, grounded in Dr. James M. Houston’s comprehensive vision of integrative scholarship. The Houston Centre fosters interdisciplinary and interreligious dialogue on the central question of the late-modern world: what does it mean to be human?

Inviting a range of philosophical perspectives through collaboration with UBC and other institutions, the Centre explores a holistic understanding of humanity that accounts for the unique social, political and theological issues of our time.

I wrote briefly about the official launch (October 20) of the Houston centre.