March 3 – 9: Grieving and Dancing, Apologetics, Seafarer, Lent rules! . . .

Dance and the written word come together this weekend, as the Mirror Collective present Bare (March 7 & 8) at Scotiabank Dance Centre. The performance is presented by graduates of the Mirror Dance Program, along with some of the Mirror instructors.

Themes of loss, relationship and community are played out in conjunction with Mirror Dance Program director Sandy Rosen’s new book Bare: The Misplaced Art of Grieving and Dancing.

A brief synopsis of the book on Sandy’s website: “Two sisters are both at the same hospital and due to give birth – at the same moment one baby is born and another dies. This story and many other firsthand accounts of everyday casualties find their voice as the author unearths the lost art of grief-telling, the body and soul-relieving effects of dance and the recovery of solace in relational communities.”

Bare features work by Michelle Appenheimer, Kim Stevenson, Kezia Rosen, Maria Schroeder, Tadia Rosen, Olivia Hudyma and Vanessa Mayrand.

The Mirror Dance Program involves “intensive dance training based on a Christian worldview and is geared towards young adults who want to develop in their dance skill towards a professional level and who want to keep God at the centre of it all. This unique full-time training program will equip you for whatever your goals are in dance – one year at a time for up to four years.”

Apologetics Conference: Twice as good

Apologetics Canada has a simple goal: “to inspire and challenge believers to think and thinkers to believe.”

To that end, they put on an annual conference, which has proved so popular that they have decided to double the pleasure. This year two events will take place on Friday evening and Saturday (March 7 – 8), at Willingdon Church in Burnaby and Northview Church in Abbotsford.

Content will be similar at each event. The five keynote speakers will move between the two events, but there will also be local speakers unique to each of the two locations..The keynote speakers are Gary Habermas, Craig Evans, Reaksa Himm, John Coe and Clay Jones.

Local breakout speakers at Willingdon include Paul Chamberlain (director of the Institute for Christian Apologetics at ACTS Seminaries); Norm Funk (lead pastor of Westside Church in Vancouver); and Michael Horner (apologist for Power to Change and philosophy professor at Trinity Western University). Joining them will be other local teachers, but also Reaksa Himm and Warren Larson (director of the Zwemer Center for Muslim Studies at Columbia International University).

When director Andy Steiger and his wife, Nancy began Apologetics Canada in 2009, they were hoped to stop the exodus of young people from the church. But the movement has developed far beyond what they had in mind.

They say, “The challenge in Western culture is communicating the message of Jesus in a way that people can understand and appreciate. Sharing the gospel requires us all to understand and speak the language of culture and address the questions being asked with intellectual honesty, gentleness and respect. When we do this in the love and winsomeness of Christ Jesus, lives are impacted and culture is changed.”

Apologetics, they add, “is not a new trend but a Christian tradition. It has been a critical task of Christians for millennia and is as important today as ever before . . . We believe along with C.S. Lewis who wrote, ‘Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered’ (The Weight of Glory). Every Christian needs to be able to give an answer, a reasonable one, for the hope they have in Jesus Christ.”

“On a dark and stormy Dublin night, four old friends gather for their annual ritual of cards and demon rum. But things take a sinister turn and they find themselves playing for more than just a few quid. Sparkling and suspenseful, this chilling comedy takes us on a long night’s journey into day.”

That’s all I know, except for these tidbits:

1,. PT’s artistic and executive director Ron Reed has a role in this one.

2. John Lahr of The New Yorker liked it: “The Seafarer breaks through our secular smugness and manages to make the small gestures of connection, charity and change feel like true resurrection.” And it was nominated for some Tony Awards in Britain.

3. The name of the play links it to an Anglo-Saxon poem of the same name (according to Wikipedia). Probably quite irrelevant, but I love the ending:

“Fate is greater / and God is mightier / than any man’s thought. / Let us ponder / where we have our homes / and then think / how we should get thither – / and then we should all strive / that we might go there / to the eternal / blessedness / that is a belonging life / in the love of the Lord, / joy in the heavens. / Let there be thanks to God / that he adored us / the Father of Glory / the Eternal Lord / for all time. Amen.”

4. There are rumours of Irish Whiskey tasting for subscribers, because “the characters in The Seafarer love their whiskey.” Who knows, maybe it’s not too late to subscribe.

Lenten consensus

All Christians celebrate Easter, but Lent is a different matter. Traditionally, Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants have observed the weeks prior to Easter as a time of prayer, repentance and self-denial. But most evangelical churches took little notice.

However, through the 20th century, Lenten practices began to appear in many of those churches, and they have now become very widespread indeed.

Signs are everywhere, from the article in Relevant Magazine considering ‘What Christians get wrong about Lent’ to John Stackhouse tweeting about Steve Bell’s new Pilgrimage/Lent booklet or Regent College’s tweet on Bonhoeffer’s words for Ash Wednesday or Westside Church’s Lent Guide or Tenth Church’s Ash Wednesday special service or . . . the list goes on.

And for the whole church, there is a excellent, new, locally-produced book: Greg Pennoyer’s God for Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Lent and Easter.

As editor, Greg has gathered an impressive collection of reflections by some very talented and celebrated writers: Scott Cairns, Kathleen Norris, Richard Rohr, Ronald Rolheiser, James Schaap, Luci Shaw, Beth Bevis and Lauren Winner. 

Some will remember the companion book – God with Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas – which Greg and Gregory Wolfe (editor of Image) put out in 2007.

Mar 2014

Registration for Upward Basketball League – March 3, 2014 - March 8, 2014 at All Day
Euthanasia: Protecting Vulnerable People, with Alex Schadenberg – March 3, 2014 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Caring for All Creation – March 4, 2014 at 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Kathleen Dunn: Forty Days for Life – March 4, 2014 at 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Vancouver Pastors Prayer Fellowship – March 5, 2014 at 10:30 am - 12:30 pm
Business By the Book: John Bromley – March 5, 2014 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Prayers for Ukraine – March 5, 2014 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
The Hill Family Lecture Series: Rex Murphy Live in Vancouver – March 6, 2014 at 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Canada Ablaze Conference – March 6, 2014 - March 8, 2014 at 7:00 pm - 11:00 pm
Perogy Night in Vancouver – March 7, 2014 at 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
'Vendredi Gras' Spring Benefit Concert – March 7, 2014 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Apologetics Canada Conference – March 7, 2014 - March 8, 2014 at 7:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Mirror Collective: Bare – March 7, 2014 - March 8, 2014 at 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
North American Sound: Laudate Singers & Organist Denis Bedard – March 7, 2014 at 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Rob Des Cotes: Living Attentively With God – March 8, 2014 at 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Cariboo Road Salvation Army Songsters – March 8, 2014 at 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Cathy AJ Hardy 'I Am She' Release Concert – March 8, 2014 at 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Amabilis Singers: Of Heaven and Earth – March 8, 2014 at 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm