By Lloyd Mackey

WAS IT a "hinge in history" or a "good piece of marketing," when a crowd of possibly more than a thousand people gathered for 11 hours in Vancouver's Stanley Park last Saturday?

The occasion was TheCRY, a prayer gathering intended, in part at least, to prepare Vancouver Christians for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Faytene Kryskow, who organized the event, noted that it took place 40 years to the day after an historic rock concert drew 400,000 free spirits to a farmer's field in Woodstock, New York. She called the event a "hinge in history" to suggest that, just as Woodstock was a harbinger of rebellion that helped bring on the North America drug culture, TheCRY had the potential to move society closer to the gospel and its moral imperatives.

Gerry Bowler, a University of Manitoba professor who lectures and writes extensively on Christianity and culture, had a different but not entirely unsympathetic take on the Stanley Park saga.

Bowler called TheCRY "a nice piece of marketing" and congratulated Kryskow for her skills in that area: "Good for her. Woodstocks come and go . . . The Spirit blows where it lists."

Bowler noted that TheCRY was marketed differently in different cities: in Vancouver, the "hook" was Woodstock; in St. John's, Newfoundland, it was "alpha" because that is where Canada began; and in Ottawa, the reference was God's "dominion."

But he said he was also struck by how "invisible" the event was to the mainstream media, "despite clever attempts to market themselves and provide the visuals."

He also suggested that, in his view, whatever Kryskow's contention, Woodstock "did not change the history of the nations," and he doubts TheCRY will, either.

Bowler added that it may not be totally safe to promote the idea that Christians "need to clean up the world" before Christ returns.

TheCRY's Vancouver event received broad support from various west coast ministries whose leaders are working to bring a Christian presence to the 2010 Winter Olympics. Much of that activity is being co-ordinated by More than Gold (MTG), a transdenominational umbrella group that is organizing prayer, social service, billeting and outreach activities in connection with the games.

Bob Kraemer, a sometime Canadian football celebrity who is operations director for MTG, told CC.com TheCRY represented "one stream of the vast spectrum of Christian community getting involved in the Olympics." And he had supportive words for the Stanley Park event, noting that while his particular approach to ministry and worship was different, "nothing they did caused me to distance myself. I admire their commitment, their compassion and their way of pressing into to God."

Kraemer also spoke well of TheCRY's "call to repentance from the sins happening in so many areas of society." He cited conciliatory activities that took place during the day, involving Native, Jewish and Iranian people, to name a few.

As in most events involving Kryskow -- who moved from Vancouver to Ottawa several years ago, partly to be closer to the political action -- there was an opportunity for federal politicians to maintain some Christian solidarity on specific issues.

Two back-to-back segments involved Winnipeg area MPs Joy Smith and Rod Bruinooge, who spoke about human trafficking and life issues, respectively.

Continue article >>

Smith has been spearheading a private member's bill to increase mandatory sentences for human trafficking. It has received solid support from all parties except the Bloc, and Smith is hoping for passage this fall.

Bruinooge is chair of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, which provides a regular stream of information to MPs on life issues, including abortion and pregnancy care.

When the time came for Kryskow to pronounce what has been the traditional TheCRY blessing on political leaders, she invited Yonah Martin, one of the recently-appointed B.C. senators, to receive support. Martin, in her pre-senate days, has become known as a leadership-themed speaker for faith-based and cultural events, and she makes her spiritual home at St. Paul's United Church, a multicultural Burnaby congregation.

While the general tenor of Christian leadership response to the CRY event was positive, Kryskow said she has periodically had to battle what she described as "hate-blogging" linking her to allegedly dominionist and theocratic-based American-based organizations such as the New Apostolic Revolution. Her past links with Lou Engle, head of TheCALL, and former Canadian Patricia King of Extreme Prophetic has provided some fodder for the allegations.

Some of the dominionist allegations reflect the fact that Kryskow has sometime described the "He shall have dominion from sea to sea" inscription on the Peace Tower in Ottawa as a God-directed prophetic utterance supported by at least one Father of Confederation.

Speaking with respect to Patricia King, who once advocated verbal "holy violence" when speaking to an Ottawa group organized by Kryskow herself, Kyrskow said King was speaking to a "conference" and has never addressed one of TheCRY's major events.

Following her interview with CC.com, Kryskow e-mailed confirmation of her verbal quotes, in an effort to ensure that she was not being misunderstood.

"Our goal is simple: Pray for the nation," she wrote.

"When we pray for government it is for (leaders) to have wisdom, understanding, courage and discernment to make decisions that will be good for Canada. Nothing fancy -- and this is what we are told to do in 1 Timothy 2.

"When we quote Ps 72:8 (the 'dominion' passage) it is not about forcing Christianity on a nation. We have never said that. It is about mercy, compassion, justice and all that is in the heart of God being revealed in the dealings of our nation.

"Compassion can come through Christians and non-Christians alike . . . so we simply pray for our leaders in this regard."

With respect to the dominionist allegations, Kryskow said: "I don't know what dominionism is and I am not a part of (that) group. (And) though I have personal relationship with many people who have been involved with (for example) the Watchmen for the Nations reconcilation/prayer initiatives in the past, there is no official alliance.

"They are totally separate organizations. The only connection is that we know one another . . . much like you and I know one another and attend some of the same meetings."

Publicity materials released before TheCRY predicted that between 5,000 and 15,000 people would attend the event in Stanley Park, but Kryskow declined to estimate how many people actually arrived in the end, saying simply, "We do not have an official count."

She added: "I personally do not really care about numbers as long as we have enough to have a good event."

Estimates from other sources, both hostile and sympathetic, varied from 200 to 3,000.

August 20/2009