ChristianWeek

Neil Snider (Cameron Tomé) Trinity Western president steps aside Neil Snider has been at the helm of Trinity Western University for more than 30 years. Now the "pioneer" of Canadian Christian higher education is stepping down. Despite some major challenges over the years, Snider says he is leaving with "a great sense of reward and gratitude." When he first started at TWU in 1974, it was a two-year junior evangelical Christian college with 340 students. Today, it is a four-year, fully accredited liberal arts university with 3,500 students with several schools, including business, teacher education, human kinetics and nursing, as well as a multi-denominational seminary.read the full story>

(Pauline Chang/World Evangelical Alliance)

Poverty fight taken to UN
Geoff Tunnicliffe, chair of Micah Challenge Canada and international director of the World Evangelical Alliance says Canadian Christian leaders much build the theological, biblical framework for how believers engage contemporary issues—like poverty—in the public square.

Tunnicliffe was one of just two Canadians to invited to meet with other Christian leaders in Washington for a consultation on global poverty. There, leaders drafted a communiqué encouraging government leaders to work with the Church in meeting ambitious poverty reduction goals.
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Denomination targets ambitious church-planting goal
MOUNT ROYAL, QC—One decade ago, the Quebec district of the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) launched an ambitious long-range plan—to plant 75 new churches within 25 years.

To date, the denomination—which had less than 20 churches across the province in 1995—has seen 14 new congregations planted in Quebec, bringing the total number up to 30. read more>

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New Anglican newspaper promotes conservative voice

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI—The Anglican Planet (TAP), a monthly combination newspaper and journal, began production in May with bold determination.

David A. Harris, a parish priest in Charlottetown and co-editor-in-chief along with Peter Molloy of Christopher Lake, Saskatachewan (also a parish priest), says the paper came about as an “alternative voice” for conservative Anglicans. Many conservative—or orthodox—Anglicans felt the Anglican Journal, the official paper of the Anglican Church of Canada, “was representing an extreme liberal view of everything,” he says.
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Religious tribunals nixed in Ontario

TORONTO, ON—Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s September 11 announcement that there will be no sharia tribunals allowed in Ontario—and presumably no religious arbitration of any kind—may have sounded definitive, but it has members of some faith communities scratching their heads.

Jewish groups, for one, still aren’t certain how McGuinty’s surprise statement to Canadian Press, meant to end two years of acrimonious debate over private sharia panels, will affect rabbinical courts operating in the province.get the full story>

Prophets, warriors and kings come to life in King David's Lament

Swordplay, rape and murder share the stage with humour, music and dance in King David's Lament, a new drama created and performed by Vancouver actor Ken Ruffelle. In the hour-long creative marathon, Ruffelle, using only a chair, sword and robe as props, portrays 14 distinct characters out of the life of King David, often with only split-second changes between each personality.

The intense one-man play--set to tour in the coming year-- reminds the audience that biblical characters, who can sometimes seem distant, were flesh and blood, living gritty, even desperate lives. get the full story>