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CHRISTIANS have unique ways to mark the passage of time, as three new products
demonstrate.
For the past several years, Vancouver’s University Hill Congregation has released its Salt of the Earth ‘Christian Seasons’ calendar.
Like its predecessors, the 2010-2011 edition is structured to emphasize the ‘seasons’ of Christian worship: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and the long period known as the Season after Pentecost. The calendar features striking works of art exemplifying each season.
It has received enthusiastic endorsements from several prestigious quarters.
Eugene Peterson, author of The Message, says the calendar “brings fresh awareness to the essential sacredness of what is so easily profaned
by hurry or sloth.”
According to theologian Stanley Hauerwas, the calendar reminds Christians “that we are constituted by the narrative that is quite different from Canadian
or American national holidays.”
Scholar Walter Brueggemann eloquently notes: “It is clear that dominant culture in North America no longer knows what time it
is, because every season has now been homogenized into an uninterrupted ‘shopping season.”
The calendar “refers all our seasons back to the Lord of all time, [providing] a form of
resistance against the timelessness of consumerism back into the timefulness of
our faith.”
Contact: thechristiancalendar.com.
A similar product, Beautiful Mercy: A Book of Hours, marking Christian milestones from Advent to Pentecost, has been released by
Saint Benedict’s Table, a ‘worshipping community’ located in Winnipeg.
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According to the ministry’s website, “In the medieval church, a Book of Hours was a daily prayer book designed for use
by those who lived their faith outside of the walls of the monastery.”
Beautiful Mercy “reimagines this tradition, grafting ancient forms and prayers to modern means of
communication.”
In addition to the key holidays of the faith, the book also marks the times of
prayer observed in monastic communities: Vigils, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None,
Vespers and Compline.
Beautiful Mercy features original paintings, photos, poetry, prayers and a CD of original music.
Contact: stbenedictstable.ca.
Aimed at a specific branch of non-Christians is Words of Jesus from the Holy Bible – the 2011 calendar produced by Outreach Canada. According to ministry
representative Don Klaassen, the calendar features the words of Christ “in English and Punjabi on every picture.”
They are “designed to be given out as a Christmas gift to Punjabi neighbours and friends.”
There is a low-key but assertive evangelistic purpose behind the initiative.
“We are encouraging each person or church that hands them out to place their own
name and address on the back, so that recipients of the calendar will know who
to ask if they have questions.”
Outreach Canada, he said, is “taking a step of faith and offering them ‘free by donation.’ We are trusting that the cost will be covered by donations.”
Contact: outreach.ca.
– DFD
December 2010
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