ChristianWeek

This newspaper exists to tell the stories of God and His people in Canada. It would be nice to believe this translates into good news all the time. Oh, that it were so. Unfortunately, lumped in with our broad mandate to provide "vigorous religious journalism committed to historic Christianity" comes the difficult calling of being bad news bearers. This is not a task we relish, but one we accept.

Stories in this edition of ChristianWeek, and the one to follow, offer a prime example of how we play our role. Troubling reports about changes in Pentecostal higher education have been circulating below the radar for some time. But the voices began getting louder as key elements of the new plan moved toward implementation. Then, when it came time to move operations away from a residential campus in Peterborough to a couple of floors in an office complex in Toronto, the clamor got quite a bit louder.

In and of itself, the bold changes in Pentecostal education constitute a major news story in the life of one of Canada’s largest evangelical church bodies, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC). That alone is enough to make it a ChristianWeek story. The fact that these changes are proving to be controversial within the denomination makes them even more noteworthy. Are we witnessing the bold action of an inspired group of leaders, or is a serious miscalculation being played out?

We won’t be answering those questions in these pages; that’s entirely a matter for PAOC members to work out for themselves. But we will provide a fairly comprehensive overview of the situation from various perspectives. Journalist Wendy Nelles has been researching the story for three months, interviewing many of those involved and discovering a variety of voices not included in the official press releases.

ChristianWeek begins its coverage this week with a front-page news story on the firing of a popular professor. As well, articles in our center section provide a lot of background information so readers can gain a good sense of the context. Another cluster of articles in our next issue (June 24) goes deeper, probing some of the tensions that inevitably occur during times of significant transition.

There is another reason why this story is appearing in ChristianWeek. Although it was originally commissioned for the testimony, a PAOC magazine, pressure from school and denominational officials prohibited its publication. As an independent news organ, we are in the enviable but sensitive position of being one of the few outlets where stories of this nature can be told without being beholden to anyone’s agenda.

In the end, readers will judge whether we report this big story fairly and accurately. We’d love to hear from you.