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Winnipeg Free Press
8 hours ago
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
United Church of Canada marks 100 years
Turning 100 is a significant milestone for people — and for denominations. That's what the United Church of Canada did on June 10, this year. It was on that date a century ago that Canadian Methodists, Congregationalists and the Presbyterians came together to form the new denomination. A big reason for the merger was to reduce duplication of effort and resources; so many little towns and villages across the country had multiple churches from different denominations. There was also a desire for greater Christian unity and collaboration. It was a bold move that required each of the three groups to give something up to create the new entity. As Jocelyn Bell, editor of Broadview magazine put it: 'The United Church of Canada would never have existed unless each of the founding denominations agreed to let go of some cherished tradition, some notion of how things ought to be done. And it would never have taken root if each group hadn't believed that diverse approaches to faith strengthen the whole body of Christ.' Until the end of the 1960s, the new denomination enjoyed the fruits of that amalgamation through packed churches and Sunday schools. But by the end of that decade, as the idea of a Christian Canada began to wane and many baby boomers grew up and left the church, things began to shift for the United Church — as it did for other denominations. For the United Church, that meant going from a high of about one million members in the mid-1960s to just over 325,000 today. On any given Sunday, about 110,000 are at a church service. And along with the drop in membership came a wave of church closings. It has averaged about 54 a year of late, according to one estimate. If that rate continues, by 2070 there will be no United Church churches left in Canada. While many get stuck focusing on those grim statistics, it's easy to overlook how the United Church impacted Christianity in this country, paving the way for significant changes. For example, it was a leader when it came to involving women in pastoral ministry, ordaining Lydia Gruchy in 1936. In 1962 it adopted a more compassionate stance on divorce by noting it was sometimes a better choice than remaining unhappily married. It also was a leader in promoting peace when it welcomed U.S. draft dodgers during the Vietnam War. Other ways it showed leadership was by condemning apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s. Also in that decade, it was the first denomination to welcome LGBTTQ+ people into membership and as clergy — a decision that was widely criticized by many other church groups. The United Church was also a leader in responding to the terrible legacy of residential schools; it established a healing fund and, in 1998 and apologized for its role in the schools. The denomination also was a leader in responding to the HIV AIDs crisis, addressing climate change, and was active in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue. In these and other ways, such as addressing social justice issues like poverty, hunger and homelessness, Christians in Canada can be grateful for the United Church, and join it in celebrating its anniversary — and maybe they can also learn something from that denomination's experience 100 years ago. Things are different today than back then, of course; Canada is a much more diverse and secular country. But that same vision for increased cooperation, collaboration and unity may well be worth exploring as denominations and churches struggle with falling attendance and giving. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Maybe like those pioneers 100 years ago, denominational leaders can ask if we need five churches within 10 minutes driving distance of each other in most Canadian cities and towns. Do we need so many places of worship, seminaries and church-related social assistance and aid organizations? And not only that; do we even need so many denominations? Writing in the Canadian Society of Church History in 2020, Bruce Guenther noted there are over 300 Christian denominations in Canada today. There are historical, cultural and theological reasons for why each one came into being. But at a time when many are struggling to stay afloat, would it make sense to explore more collaboration or even mergers? Some will point to theological stances as a reason for why their denomination is unique or distinct and needs to continue in its present form. But the same objections were raised by some Methodists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians 100 years ago before the United Church was created. But they still did it. They still decided it was worth it to merge, and Canada was forever changed. Who are the new visionaries who will explore new ways to be the church in Canada, just like what happened 100 years ago? Maybe the United Church of Canada can once again lead the way. faith@ The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba. If you appreciate that coverage, help us do more! Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow us to deepen our reporting about faith in the province. Thanks! BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER John LonghurstFaith reporter John Longhurst has been writing for Winnipeg's faith pages since 2003. He also writes for Religion News Service in the U.S., and blogs about the media, marketing and communications at Making the News. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
An 18th-century rebellion for liberty, equality and freedom − not in France or the United States, but Ireland
Shortly before midnight on May 23, 1798, highwaymen just north of Dublin intercepted and set on fire a mail coach headed to Belfast. It was the signal meant to ignite revolution across all Ireland. At the time, Ireland was a kingdom within the state of Great Britain. The island's three religious factions had long been divided. Families who belonged to the Anglican Church of Ireland made up the aristocratic landlords and colonial administrators. Presbyterians, concentrated in the north, boasted a robust middle class. But as 'dissenters' from the Anglican church, they were second-class citizens. And most of the remaining 80% of the population, the 'native' Catholics, were near-destitute farmers. For more than a hundred years, they had lived under debilitating penal laws meant to keep Catholics out of economic and political power. A new organization, the Society of United Irishmen, was established in the early 1890s in Belfast, and chapters quickly spread to Dublin and across the country. Anyone could join, so long as they dreamed of making Ireland a republic, like the United States and France, where the people had dispensed with the monarch and ruled themselves. Catholics and Presbyterians flocked to the cause, and even a few Anglicans joined up. The handsome and charismatic Lord Edward Fitzgerald, an Anglican son of a duke, renounced his title and commanded the society's militia. By 1798, a quarter of a million men, many armed with long-handled, iron-tipped pikes, awaited the summons. It was the last time Catholics and Presbyterians in Ireland would unite under one banner in a really meaningful way until 1998, when a majority of both factions signed on to the Good Friday Agreement. As an Irish studies scholar, I'd argue the nationalist movement was symbolized best by revolutionary Theobald Wolfe Tone, whose father was an Anglican tradesman and whose mother was born and raised a Catholic. 'I am a Protestant,' Tone wrote in his most famous political pamphlet, but also 'a lover of justice and a steady detester of tyranny.' Ever since King Henry VIII severed his nation's ties to Roman Catholicism in the 16th century, Irish Catholics had suffered for their faith. Their lands were confiscated. They couldn't bear arms. They couldn't run schools or build churches. Though the worst of these laws had been reformed by the end of the 18th century and a small Catholic middle class was emerging, they were still barred from political office. Inspired by the American and French revolutions, the United Irishmen wanted a secular republic that separated church from state. They professed the Enlightenment principles of equality, liberty and government by the people – and thought citizens had a duty to abolish any government destructive of their rights. Their creed was a secular catechism, often expressed in the form of a question-and-answer text: What is in your hand? It is a branch. Of what? Of the Tree of Liberty Where did it first grow? In America. Where did it bloom? In France. Where did the seeds fall? In Ireland. Transcending sectarian differences, these Irish patriots took green as the color of their national flag. Upon this field they imposed an ancient symbol of Ireland, the harp. The English began to suspect a revolt, and in 1787 they decided to strike first, unleashing a brutal crackdown. Redcoats 'dragooned' the country, ransacking and burning homes, and flogging and summarily executing suspects. The Irish still sing about it today in the ballad 'The Wearing of the Green': I met with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand, He said, 'How's dear old Ireland and how does she stand?' 'She's the most distressful country that you have ever seen, They're hanging men and women for the wearing of the green.' Most of the United Irishmen's leaders, including Fitzgerald, were arrested or killed in the dragnet. As a result, when the signal finally came, the flaming mail coach proved a fizzle rather than a rocket. Like guttering candles, the rebellion spent itself in uncoordinated risings at different times in different parts of the country. Help from France, which was then at war with Great Britain, came too little and too late. By October, Ireland's revolution had been brutally suppressed. Even before the conflict was over, aristocratic Anglican writers such as Sir Richard Musgrave spun the rebellion as an uprising of disgruntled Catholics. Reprisal killings, like rebels' massacre of government supporters in County Wexford, helped them portray the rebellion as a religious war: Catholics against Protestants. Cynical English policies further dissolved the Presbyterian-Catholic alliance. An 'Act of Union' in 1800 rewarded Irish Presbyterians with full citizenship – not in an Irish republic, but in the Protestant, monarchical state of Great Britain. Catholics, still oppressed and impoverished, had yet to face their most difficult trial: An Gorta Mor, the potato famine of the 1840s. About a million people, nearly all of them Catholic, died of starvation or disease, and another 2 million emigrated. Ireland's population was reduced by a third. Because Irish nationalism became synonymous with Catholic liberation, it was mostly Catholics who celebrated the memory of the United Irishmen. The 'Fenians,' a nationalist brotherhood who fought for Irish independence in the 1860s, used the United Irishmen for inspiration. Their famous ballad 'The Rising of the Moon' laments, 'What glorious pride and sorrow/ Fill the name of Ninety-Eight!' On Easter Monday 1916, Irish republicans rose up again in Dublin, beginning the revolution that would lead, finally, to Irish independence. One portion of their forces, the Citizen Army, raised the old United Irishmen's banner above their headquarters in Dublin, Liberty Hall. But when the Irish got their 'Free State,' they did not build the kind of secular republic envisioned by the United Irishmen. The new country was a decidedly Catholic nation. The nation's new flag, the Irish tricolor, included green for Catholics, orange for Protestants and white to represent peace between them. But it was a largely empty gesture. Today only about 4% of the population of the Republic of Ireland identify as Protestant, while another 15% say they have no religion. That's mostly because in 1922 the British carved out an enclave of six northern counties where most of the Presbyterians and many Anglicans lived. This political entity, 'Northern Ireland,' stayed united to England. Protestants outnumbered Catholics 2-to-1, and the minority faced widespread discrimination. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., Catholics in Northern Ireland began a campaign for equal rights in 1968. But when their acts of civil disobedience were met with violence, peaceful protest devolved into 'the Troubles,' a guerrilla war to get the British out. A ceasefire was called in 1994, not long before the bicentennial of Ireland's 1798 rebellion. To coincide with the anniversary, historian Kevin Whelan published an influential book, 'The Tree of Liberty,' which emphasized the 1798 rebellion's Enlightenment foundation. Catholics and Protestants together, Whelan argued, had fought to construct a secular nation based on equal rights. In 1998, people all over the country commemorated the rebellion, though the sectarian divisions and the violence of the Troubles loomed large. Almost exactly 200 years after the United Irishmen rose up, the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland voted in favor of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Though Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom today, the treaty secured the main goal of the 1798 rebellion: equal rights and self-determination for all citizens, no matter their religion. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Joseph Patrick Kelly, College of Charleston Read more: How the color of St. Patrick's Day went from blue to green Each generation in Northern Ireland has reflected on the 'troubles' in its own way – right up to 'Derry Girls' The ancient Irish get far too much credit for Halloween Joseph Patrick Kelly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Otago Daily Times
08-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
A major religious minority
For the Roman Catholic hierarchy visiting Dunedin to celebrate the Jubilee of their training college at Mosgiel everybody has had a kindly feeling. Hopelessly Protestant though we be, no ungracious word has escaped our lips. We have been on our good behaviour, press and public alike. A venerable archbishop and a lengthy retinue of bishops and priests, quaint representatives of the largest communion in Christendom, were impressive. Hierarchy, meaning government by priests, is not to our Protestant liking, name or thing. But the hierarchs themselves were not shy of the word, as their speeches show; and if the people they govern prefer government in that form, who shall say them nay? The Roman Catholics in New Zealand, though the Presbyterians outnumber them by more than two to one, and the Anglicans by perhaps three to one, are not a feeble folk. Look at their schools! They pay taxes like the rest of us, and, in paying taxes, they, like the rest of us, maintain the public schools. Yet in addition they provide and maintain schools of their own. — by 'Civis' Mum's the word A number of years ago Miss Jarvis, of Philadelphia, felt the need of a day specially to remember mother. That her dreams were not mere sentimental bubbles is borne out by the fact that to-day the second Sunday in May is set apart by the Congress of the United States as "mother's day." Throughout the war men in the army were glad to remember this special observance, many letters of cheer being written to mother on the second Sunday in May. This day has now a place of its own the world over, and in Dunedin it will be specially celebrated in the churches, in the Salvation Army and the YMCA. Police give drivers a hand At the meeting of the Otago Motor Club next Tuesday a sergeant and two constables will be present to give a demonstration of the traffic signals given by the police, and also of the signals that they expect motorists to give under varying circumstances. At present motorists do not by their signals give adequate information of the direction in which they wish to proceed, and at times the instructions given by the police may be misconstrued by drivers. Unsuitable reading Embodied in the report of the rector of the Balclutha District High School to the committee was the following paragraph, which is of more than local interest: "The class libraries are now ready, and will be given out next week. In this connection I should be grateful if the committee would ask for the co-operation of the parents in an endeavour to stamp out in this district the reading by the pupils of both departments of a cheap and pernicious form of so-called literature sold, I believe, at fourpence per copy, and even lent round at a penny per book. I undertook the unpleasant task of wading through a few of these books. From a literary point of view they do nothing but harm to the pupils' study of English, while the characters held up as heroes are not of the type that we should like to have our boys and girls become. One member of the committee stated that these books were interfering with the home lessons of the pupils in some cases. It was decided to ask parents to use their influence in the matter with a view to combating the trouble." — ODT , 9.5.1925 (compiled by Peter Dowden)
The Herald Scotland
04-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Why can't politicians focus on the basics of doing their jobs?
It also leads me as a fellow Christian to wonder if any other religious leaders were in attendance? In this wonderful Utopia of equality they're aiming for were the leaders of the Presbyterians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jehovahs, Mormons et al in attendance? Perhaps the Lord Protector Swinney could publish a full list of all who attended including the two chosen journalists Mr McKenna also failed to name. Make no mistake, as a Labour voter, I am deeply disturbed at the way this country of ours is being governed by the zealots with agendas that are a very serious danger to democracy and our way of life. Get a grip the lot of you, show some courage, state your case and face any challenges head-on. Don't hide away in like timid wee mice patting your selves on the back, it's pathetic. Get out and see the mess you're making. Ayr town centre is dystopian at best, Glasgow city centre is a filthy, run-down mess. Our road signs are illegible because they're never cleaned. Potholes are everywhere. Beautiful buildings are left to rot. Our once-wonderful parks and Botanic Gardens therein, are crumbling. We have ferries costing hundreds of millions over budgets, subsidised shipyards bankrupt and on and on. All my life I worked in jobs with targets set and performance measured on achievement. That was the case as a joiner, a sales rep and a managing director. Achievements were rewarded, failures were addressed and actions taken. It was sink or swim, or accountability as they say now. It's the only way for an organisation to succeed in any walk of life. Never mind all your personal agendas, just try and do the basics of your jobs and earn the massive pay rises you've just awarded yourselves. John Gilligan, Ayr. • Kevin McKenna claims that the UK Supreme Court had unanimously decided 'trans women aren't women'. It didn't. It decided that this is what the 2010 Equality Act said. There is a difference. Reading what Maggie Chapman said about the Supreme Court judgment, she would appear to be under the same misapprehension. I bet both Kevin and Maggie are thrilled to be holding the wrong end of the same stick. Douglas Morton, Lanark. Read more letters BBC is letting down Scotland Well said, Andrew Tickell ("Loss of soap not trivial as we drown in art from elsewhere", April 27). Using Scotland and the BBC in the same sentence is oxymoronic. The BBC is obligated 'to reflect, serve and represent the diverse communities of all the United Kingdom's nations and regions' and it patently fails to do so with regard to any subject it covers (or does not cover) in Scotland. I pay the same licence fee as those in other parts of the UK, but receive a much poorer service in return. Where is Scotland's serious (and non-partisan) news coverage and analysis? Is there a pathway for Scots (for example ethnic Scots overlooked for dramatic roles in Scotland) living in Scotland to advance their BBC career? Where is our long history reflected in drama or documentary? Text news and sport is ludicrously bad, yet we were promised improved coverage in return for previous BBC Scotland cuts. Why would we believe the BBC over new cuts to programme making? Holyrood should hold an inquiry into the BBC and why Scotland gets such a bad deal from its licence fee contribution. If the BBC wants to contest any complaint, it should allow scrutiny of unredacted minutes of the BBC Board meetings where Scotland has been discussed. If the future of the BBC comes up then it should stay as it is for England, but we Scots should look at Irish or Danish broadcasting for our new template. GR Weir, Ochiltree. What a way to run a railway The Cambridge Dictionary definition of nationalisation as "a process in which a government takes control of an industry or company and becomes its owner" is a strictly technocratic one that fails to capture exactly how nationalised enterprises actually function. We have a Rail Voucher worth a little over £20 and planned a weekend visit to Dundee. I booked the hotel and tickets for Discovery Point and the V&A museum online without a hitch. It was only when I tried to buy train tickets from ScotRail that the whole project started to come off the track. Advance return tickets from Glasgow to Dundee were available on the Scotrail app at a cost of £34. Despite the Rail Voucher having a barcode and a reference number it couldn't be used online. Apparently, I would have to go to a manned ticket office. When I finally got to the front of the queue the lady at the ticket desk in Glasgow Central said the tickets for sale were almost double the price as those available online. When I showed her the ticket price on the Scotrail app she informed me that because my proposed date of travel was more than eight weeks away those prices weren't available on her system. Why ScotRail discriminates against walk-in customers was a question she skilfully and politely ignored. I was advised to come back in four days, because then the cheap tickets would be available on her system. I pointed out that there were only a few of them left and that in four days they might not be available. Yes, she concurred, that was a chance I was going to have to take. And with that bureaucratic admonishment, I departed, empty-handed. Rather than waste more time and money going into Glasgow again, I tried the ticket counter near my place of work. In between puffs of his vape, the ticket assistant behind the screen advised me not to buy tickets in advance because "you know what the trains are like. They'll probably not be running'. And he warned grimly: 'You'll not get a refund either with they Advance ones'. The sickly smell of his vape and the reek of privileged socialist indifference was overwhelming. I left, still without tickets, and still unable to use this voucher. Relating my woes to a colleague he asked 'how can you run a business that way'? And that is of course the point; ScotRail isn't a business. At least, not in the sense that the private shops on the high street are businesses. Roger Scruton observes, in his Dictionary of Political Thought, that nationalisation can be regarded as a process for enterprises to become inefficient, subsidised, and protected from control of the market. Now that seems exactly like a definition of how nationalised enterprises like ScotRail actually function. Graeme Arnott, Stewarton. Keep mobiles out of class I read with interest Dr James McTaggart's article on mobile phone use in schools ("An ineffective ban is probably worse than no ban – but schools must help pupils develop a healthy digital diet£ April 28). Irt seems to me that Dr McTaggart has not recently taught a class of young people in this era of mobile phones. As someone who has in various schools can I point out the following? Dr McTaggart states that those who use their phones in class tend to do so during short "in between" spaces in even the best-planned lesson. This is not my experience. Their surreptitious use by admittedly a minority of pupils can be highly disruptive to the classroom learning experience. Moreover since some 40% of pupils now identify as requiring Additional Support Needs (ASN) – that is 13 out of a class of 33 – any such use of phones provides an extremely challenging situation in class for any teacher. He attempts to take a "nuanced" and "balanced" academic approach but this is naive. To state that if mobile phones were banned in schools an unintended consequence would be that a pupil could not complain about cyber bullying is patently absurd. Phones have been used to film pupils being seriously assaulted. I draw readers' attention to the recent book The Anxious Generation by Jonathen Haidt, a social psychologist who is Professor of Leadership at New York University Stern School of Business Studies who writes about the awful and insidious power exerted by smartphones on the minds of children since their instigation in circa 2010. He points out that they have been designed to be addictive (like a dopamine drug) by the presence of algorithms, cause fragmented attention span, disrupt sleep and deprive young people of meaningful real world social interaction. As we know some big tech sites have resulted in young people taking their own lives in suicide and self-harm sites. Hopefully the new Digital Safety Act will go some way to tackling this. More sinisterly Meta is facing a string of lawsuits over the psychological distress experienced by moderators employed to take down social media content including depictions of murder, extreme violence and sexual abuse. This is what our children are currently being subjected to on their mobile phones. Where I do agree with Dr McTaggart is that an ineffective ban would not be workable. What we do need is a total ban on mobile phones in schools. Where this has occurred in Australia studies have shown that there has been an improvement in attendance, attention span and most notably behaviour. This has also been borne out in schools which instigated a ban in England. I am in favour of a Digital Service Tax on Big Tech companies which can be ringfenced and used to finance existing and new technology as an alternative to mobile phones in our schools. Jim Park, Edinburgh. Should mobile phones be banned from classrooms? (Image: Colin Mearns) Ukraine is not our affair In his lengthy piece on the Ukraine conflict, David Pratt concludes by speculating whether Trump will "at least let Europe buy crucial weapons from America, to give to Ukraine" ("David Pratt on the World", April 27). I presume that by "Europe" he means the EU and the UK, which begs the question, why should we get involved ? Don't we have enough domestic problems, including the national- security one of finally getting to grips with cross-Channel migration? If I wished to harm the UK, I'd be smuggling in my lads loaded with phials of viruses, ready to use when the order comes. Those who wish to assist Volodymyr Zelenskyy should organise a whip-round. Personally, I wouldn't give him the time of day. George Morton, Rosyth.
Otago Daily Times
23-04-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Walk of the cross marks Good Friday
PHOTO: REPORT GERRIT DOPPENBERG On Good Friday, members of various churches in Gore gathered together at the clocktower just before noon to begin the walk of the cross. Seventy-two Presbyterians, Catholics, Baptists, Calvinists and Anglicans attended with a representative of each denomination reading scripture and leading a prayer, before everyone sang a hymn. The congregation started at the clocktower, moving to the courthouse, police station, along Main St towards the war memorial, before finishing at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church for lunch. Convener of the walk Keith Gover said the event was a great way for all walks of Christianity to come together, and this was a major part of why the walk had continued. "I think it's one of the strengths of what we do. "Churches, each denomination tends to be quite insulated for all sorts of reasons. "And so it's good, we're not all that good at getting together so it's extra good when we do," he said. Mr Gover said this year, although there were slightly fewer walkers, he was happy with how it went. "[It was] very positive. "There's a few less than usual for some reason. "The majority of people here are an older framework, but there's a few young people hanging around," he said.
