When everything is ‘unprecedented,’ it’s tough to choose just a few highlights for an Around Town column after taking a two-month summer break (which was very pleasant). Thus I have just decided to focus on several law-related stories, news of…
Local Christians are inviting anyone who would like to pray for our city to join them as they participate in Thy Kingdom Come, a worldwide movement of prayer. (See video below of the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Pope…
Ron Reed has crafted a powerful play focused on the relationship between two of the 20th century’s most influential writers. Tolkien is the play’s name, but it could have been Tolkien-Lewis (apart from awkwardness) because so much of it is based…
When Pope Francis visited Myanmar (Burma) earlier this week, most of the world’s attention was focused on whether he would refer to the nation’s persecution of its Rohingya people. He did not, as the CBC’s National Today pointed out November…
You know times are changing when the Roman Catholic Church hosts the first local celebration of the Reformation. The 500th anniversary will take place in 2017, but St. Mark’s Theological College on the UBC campus will be hosting The Catholic…
Vancouver is hosting the annual five-day (April 24 – 28) TED Conference (which organizers say is “at the heart of TED”), and so we also hosted Pope Francis earlier this week. Speaking on themes of hope, inclusion and tenderness, his TED Talk…
Several significant events over the next few weeks will focus on environmental issues. 1. Laudato Si’ +1 Just over a year ago, Pope Francis released his encyclical Laudato Si’: On care for our common home, which focused on the…
“Religious intolerance of homosexuality led to mass murder in Orlando.” So ran the headline in the Vancouver Courier last week. Religion columnist Pat Johnson was describing anyone who believes in the traditional (scriptural) understanding of same-sex relationships. He was talking…
One of the unique things about Alpha is that it is run in every major denomination. As a result, one privilege of my role with Alpha Canada is that I get quite an objective perspective on all the different ways…
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Archbishop Michael Miller will be the keynote speakers at the upcoming Laudato Si’ Symposium, October 21 at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre. Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’s new document addressing the world’s ecological crisis, has…