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Badlands, good play
 The 15th season for the Canadian Badlands Passion Play will run July 4 - 13 this year. Titled The Greatest Story Ever Told, the play is a three-hour dramatic retelling of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It uses 200 actors and animals and is presented in a 30-acre outdoor natural badlands canyon bowl near Drumheller, Alberta.
The field of Saskatchewan
Brian Froese, assistant professor of history at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, has been awarded a three-year, $54,000 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to study "American Evangelical Missions in the Twentieth-Century Canadian West." Froese said one American evangelical mission group described Saskatchewan in the 1950s as "one of the most unchurched regions in North America."
Don the director
Don Hutchinson has been appointed the new director of law and public policy for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC). Hutchinson has served with the EFC for 16 months and has been acting director of public policy since Douglas Cryer resigned from this position earlier this year. He will continue in his capacity as the EFC general legal counsel.
Know your neighbours
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism has a web page that offers resources from Statistics Canada. Church leaders can go there and learn about the characteristics of their church's neighbourhood, based on the 2006 Canadian census.
Give peace a Shantz
Don Peters, executive director of MCC Canada, has written a letter to all Mennonite and Brethren in Christ congregations in Canada, urging them to lobby the Canadian government on Afghanistan. The letter recommends that the government change its focus from a military effort to supporting a comprehensive peace process involving diplomacy, dialogue and peace building initiatives at all levels of society. It states: "Peace in Afghanistan cannot be achieved through combat. Lasting peace and reconciliation can only happen as the Afghan people, particularly the most vulnerable -- on all sides of the conflict -- are given opportunity to voice their grievances and participate in resolving them."
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Celebration 2008
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) is encouraging congregations to reach out to their communities in "a national tidal wave of local-church based acts of kindness and blessing." The focus this year is 'That they may see Jesus,' and the suggested dates are May 17 - June 1. A promotional DVD is available from EFC offering ideas of what churches can do.
All the free in China
The Religious Liberty Partnership, an umbrella group that includes organizations such as Open Doors International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Voice of the Martyrs (Canada), and the Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance, have called on the worldwide Christian community to pray for China during this Summer Olympics year. The 'Zurich Statement' issued by the Partnership acknowledges that important progress has been made in improving religious liberty in China over the past few decades and raises the hope that the remaining obstacles to religious freedom will be removed. The statement also recognizes the significant growth of the church in China in recent decades and the potential of the Chinese nation to be a significant political and economic force for regional and global peace.
Award has wheels
Newman Theological College in Edmonton is seeking nominations for the 2008 Kevin Carr Christian Leadership Award. The award goes to a person who has provided significant leadership toward creating a Christian culture, and whose leadership efforts have had a positive and lasting impact in western and northern Canada. Nominations close May 30.
The Pope has a legate to stand in
Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and president emeritus of the Pontifical Committee for the International Eucharistic Congresses, will represent Pope Benedict XVI at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City June 15 - 22. Tomko is fluent in several languages, including French; holds doctorates in theology, canon law and social sciences; and is a popular speaker among young people.
April 18/2008
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