August 2009 National Updates

August 11, 2009

United, Mennonite views on Middle East come under fire
A SERIES of proposals on the Middle East, to be debated at the United Church's 40th General Council (GC) this week in Kelowna, has drawn some attention in Christian and Jewish groups beyond the confines of Canada's largest Protestant denomination.

Department of Peace initiative launched
A PRIVATE members' bill to establish a Canadian Department of Peace will soon be before Parliament, perhaps as early as next month.

OttawaWatch: In the eye of an Oppal
REPORTS of a recent meeting, between former British Columbia attorney-general Wally Oppal and federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, have provided clear indications that the two men discussed the possibility of Oppal's running for the Liberals in the next federal election.

Quick news
• Not a bad land
• Church on fire
• Church unsure
• more

National print news
• Hutterites and drivers licenses
• Sikhs and Sikhism
• Islam and the West
• more

August 15, 2009

UCC decisions regarding Israel get mixed reviews
DEPENDING on which religious leader was speaking, this past week provided a good opportunity for Christian input into Israeli-Palestinian relations -- or it provided a platform to insult Canadian Jews.

OttawaWatch: History, politics and stimulus
AN ANNOUNCEMENT this past Monday, at the Laurentian Leadership Centre...

August 20, 2009

Christians debate size, significance of TheCRY event
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?

From Romania with faith -- and a new song
THEY focused on only one thing: getting away. The two young men had just finished high school, and were about to be drafted into an army that would deny their need to worship God.

OttawaWatch: A response to The Family
A BOOK called The Family: the Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (Harper Perennial, 2008), by Jeff Sharlet, is getting a little attention these days, south of the border.

Quick news
• Money for Christian university
• Healthiness is next to Godliness
• Health care problems elsewhere
• more

National print news
• The United Church of Canada
• Abortion
• Islam and the West
• more

August 27, 2009

Canadian church officials committed genocide, film alleges
KEVIN ANNETT is back in the spotlight. The one-time United Church of Canada (UCC) minister has made his second career attacking the Canadian residential school system, and accusing the churches which ran them of genocide.

CWL will urge government to repeal anti-free speech provision
OTTAWA -- The Catholic Women's League (CWL) will ask Parliament to cut the controversial censorship provision of the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA).

OttawaWatch: Kennedy, Blair and Schroeder
THIS IS one of these pieces described, in baseball terms, as "the long slow curve . . . and the fast break."

Quick news
• Need a new president
• New Ottawa leader
• She's an Alpha leader
• more

National print news
• Ireland's blasphemy law
• David Adams Richards' book God Is.
• The Lutheran church and the ex-KGB agent
• more