Around Town: Spirituality of Wine, Logos Hope, Festival Seminars, Wendell Berry

Gisela Kreglinger has just written ‘The Spirituality of Wine.’

“I do feel that tasting wine can be a profoundly spiritual experience.” Dr. Gisela Kreglinger was speaking at St. John’s Vancouver Church, but she is sharing that message in a number of settings while visiting Vancouver.

Kreglinger, who grew up on her family’s winery in Bavaria, Germany before earning a PhD in historical theology at the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland, expanded on the point in an April 21 Vancouver Courier article:

“Wine and spirituality, historically, have gone hand-in-hand,” she says. “It’s just something that we have forgotten over time and there are a lot of reasons for it. We haven’t forgotten it where I’m from because my family has been making wine for the eucharist, so because I grew up on the winery and because we are Lutherans, it’s always been deeply intertwined and it’s been very natural for me, so when I left home and realized that people don’t think that way, I thought, how sad.” . . .

“I think people are ready to embrace joy again. Joy is an important part of my theme because wine was primarily given to bring us joy and to enhance our joy,” she says. Some Christian traditions purvey the idea that to be genuinely spiritual means removing oneself from the world. Kreglinger sees that as ambivalence toward God’s creation. “There is such a richness in understanding wine as a gift from God and something that is spiritual and enriches our lives.”

During her Sunday morning (April 24) Learners’ Exchange talk at St. John’s, Kreglinger drew from her new book, The Spirituality of Wine. However, though she came back to wine throughout the talk, her point was broader than learning to appreciate wine. She urged the audience to trust and appreciate their senses of taste and smell more – and “to explore and enjoy a decidedly Christian understanding of joy and feasting.”

“Let me ask you this,” she said. “Why is it still so hard for us to believe that the grace of God can come to us through the very sensual experience of eating and drinking?”

While it was clear that Kreglinger feels North Americans can learn from European practices, she also recognizes that it will take some time:

We must not be too quick to judge people and traditions. There’s a history to that; there’s a history to why the Prohibition happened. . . . Your journey of embracing alcohol is going to be very particular to the history of your own country. . . .

Kreglinger will give another presentation (sold out, unfortunately) at A Rocha’s Brooksdale Environmental Centre on Thursday (April 28).

Festival of Hope Seminars

The Greater Vancouver Festival of Hope was launched March 31 at Broadway Church, and will culminate with three nights of outreach events March 3 – 5, 2017 at Rogers Arena.

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is now inviting pastors and church leaders, along with congregation members, to attend one of several upcoming Involvement Seminars from May 2 – 10.

Hosts for the Involvement Seminars are:

* South Delta Baptist Church (May 2);
* Grace Chapel, New Westminster (May 3);
* Calvary Worship Centre, Surrey (May 4);
* Evangelical Chinese Bible Church, Burnaby (May 4);
* Peoples Full Gospel Church, Surrey (May 5);
* Westside Church, Vancouver (May 5);
* Breakthrough Church of God, Vancouver (May 5);
* Glad Tidings Church, Vancouver (May 6);
* Hillside Church, North Vancouver (May 6);
* Harvest City Church, Vancouver (May 7);
* Heritage Alliance Church, Abbotsford (May 9);
* Westwood Community Church, Coquitlam (May 10).

These seminars are free, and no registration is necessary. The seminars will explain:

Specific ways you and your church can get involved
Volunteer roles and service opportunities
How your church and community will benefit
Information about evangelism training classes
How the Festival can attract new believers to the kingdom and your congregation

The seminars are open to everyone, and organizers encourage church leaders to invite members of their church to attend. Flyers, powerpoint slides and bulletin inserts promoting the seminars can be downloaded from the BGEA website.

Logos Hope crew visiting

Logos Hope is in dry dock in Durban, but four crew members are in Vancouver.

In March 1997, the Logos II visited Vancouver. Today, 19 years later, her sister ship, the MV Logos Hope – whose gross tonnage is three times that of Logos II – still sails around the world and continues the ministry.

Right now, though, the ship is in dry dock in Durban, South Africa, and four crew members are in Vancouver for a month to raise awareness and recruit people for their ministry. Among their scheduled events are an evening at Willingdon Church April 29 and a Partner Dinner in Richmond May 5.

After being transformed from a ferry into the ship she is today, Logos Hope launched into active service in February 2009. Since then she has visited over 1,400 ports of call. The ship is operated on behalf of OM Ships International.

Some 400 volunteers live and work on the ships. In each port they visit, teams from the ship go into surrounding areas to supply aid and community care. They work together with local churches to bring hope and show love to people whatever their circumstance, culture or background.

The Vancouver team

Rahel has been around the world on Logos Hope; here she is showing with local people in the Philippines.

Rahel has been around the world on Logos Hope; here she is shown with local people in the Philippines.

The four crew members who have travelled to Vancouver are Rahel S. from Germany, William and Janice L. from Singapore, and Priscilla N. from Australia. Since they arrived here in early April, they have presented the ship’s ministry in schools, churches, youth groups, home groups, pastors’ meetings and more.

Asked what she likes most about the ship, Rahel said, “Just to be surrounded by sky and water always takes my breath away.” Here are a few lessons from the various countries:

I learned that what motions you do with your hands can mean something positive in one culture, and in another be extremely offensive! I had quite a few culture shocks, for example, not being allowed to interrupt someone or speak loudly in Asia and then having super intense and loud, bubbly [conversations] in African countries.

Of course I also learned about the different standards of living in the different countries and was shocked by how different the reality of a child that grows up, for example, in Myanmar or the Philippines is from that of the children in Germany.

I really loved to be in Mauritius, near Madagascar, because I saw God moving mightily in my own life and the lives of those around me there. I experienced the power of prayer, combined with the beautiful culture and warm hospitality of the people of Mauritius and that left very vivid memories in my heart.

Having had the opportunity to experience life on the original Logos ship off the coast of Africa myself in the late 1970s, I encourage others to take the chance to hear some stories directly from Rahel, William and Janice, and Priscilla.

Wendell Berry interview a winner

This one is a bit of a stretch, in terms of connection to Vancouver. The only links, I believe are that the interviewer (Chad Wriglesworth) graduated from Regent College and that his interview with author/farmer Wendell Berry is now posted on Regent’s website. But that’s okay.

The long and fascinating interview was recently awarded first prize in the Evangelical Press Association’s ‘Interview Article’ category. Go here for the full thing, but this brief excerpt of We are Still Near the Beginning: A Conversation with Wendell Berry may whet your appetite:

CW: The way you talk about work, listening and memory – particularly as practiced by earlier generations – describes a vision of sustainability that our culture now seems to neglect, or has just forgotten. I’m wondering if you have any thoughts on that.

WB: Well, I’m very moved by that time, that old way. First, because I loved it. Second, because it’s gone. Tobacco was a crop that involved a lot of hand work, hence, crew work, at the crucial times: the transplanting to the fields, sometimes even the weeding of the plant beds, the harvest, the preparation of the crop for market.

At those times the talk went on, and it was wonderful talk. A writer couldn’t have had a better beginning, I think, than to have grown up in tobacco barns, and tobacco patches and stripping rooms. Well, in the patch, you know, you’d maybe come to a time when everybody would sit down to rest – have a drink of water – and always the ability of conversation and storytelling to lighten the work was understood and appreciated.

I think the old tradition of work swapping, exchanges of labour among neighbours, was profoundly Christian. These people were not notably pious. Well, there wasn’t a lot of expurgation of their conversation [audience laughs].

But the rule was, for instance, that nobody is done until everybody is done. They stayed at it, they stayed with each other. And in the crew that I worked with, of neighbours and old friends, there was no accounting. Nobody ever got to the end and said, “I owe you two days” or “You owe me two days.”

The conversation, which took place at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, was first published in the Spring 2015 edition of CRUX, a quarterly journal of Christian thought and opinion published by Regent College.

Apr 2016

Meet Operation Mobilization's 'Logos Hope' Crew – April 28, 2016 - May 2, 2016 at All Day
SAMC Graduate Art Exhibition: Retracing Social Practice – April 28, 2016 - April 30, 2016 at All Day
Erica Grimm: Salt Water Skin Boats – April 28, 2016 - April 30, 2016 at 8:00 am - 4:00 pm
Alpha 'Invite Canada' – April 28, 2016 at 10:30 am - 12:30 pm
Alpha 'Invite Canada' – April 28, 2016 at 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Andy Mineo: Uncomfortable Tour – April 28, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
First Nations Voices Speaker's Series (Thursday evenings) – April 28, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The Spirituality of Wine – April 28, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Hope for Today: Prophecy Conference – April 29, 2016 - April 30, 2016 at All Day
Bargain Sale – April 29, 2016 at 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Sam Allberry: Is God Anti-Gay? – April 29, 2016 - April 30, 2016 at 6:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Heartcry for Change: Charismatic Anglicans – April 29, 2016 - April 30, 2016 at 6:30 pm - 12:30 pm
Chapel Langley – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Chapel North Shore – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Chapel Richmond-Delta – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Chapel Tri-Cities – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Chapel Vancouver – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Ignite Maple Ridge – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Logos Hope Crew Visit – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
The Lion the Bear the Fox – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
The Wellspring Gala – April 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Fraser Valley Bible Conference: Rev. Darrell Kingswood – The Call to Holiness & God's Work of Redemption – April 29, 2016 - April 30, 2016 at 7:30 pm - 12:30 pm
Sideshow – April 29, 2016 - April 30, 2016 at 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Home Based Marriage Mentoring with Randy Hamm – April 30, 2016 at 8:45 am - 4:00 pm
No One Should Be Alone: Mental Health and the Church – April 30, 2016 at 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Spiritually Rooted Direct Access Training for Climate Movement Rallying – April 30, 2016 at 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Coffeehouse Concert Series: Darlene Ketchum and Quartet – April 30, 2016 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

May 2016

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Around Town: Spirituality of Wine, Logos Hope, Festival Seminars, Wendell Berry

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