ChristianWeek

Native dispute prompts Christians to action Believers on both sides of conflict pray, reach out CALEDONIA, ON—As tensions began to mount in mid-April at the site of a native land claim protest in the southern Ontario community of Caledonia, Christian believers on all sides of the conflict began to pray. Since February, native protesters from the Six Nations reserve have occupied a 40-hectare piece of land on the site of the Douglas Creek Estates in Caledonia; a community of about 10,000 located 80 kilometres southwest of Toronto. The Six Nations protesters say they have ancestral rights to the tract of land, which was being developed into a 250-house subdivision. read more>

Gideon Bibles back in
New Brunswick schools

MONCTON, NB—New Brunswick schoolchildren are once again allowed to receive Bibles from the Gideons. In a new education policy announced in April, religious materials may be distributed with prior permission from the Department of Education and from the parents or guardian of each child.

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B.C. churches gear up for 2010
Olympic games

VANCOUVER, BC—Churches across the Lower Mainland and in Whistler can expect to be challenged in the coming months to work together to make a global impact for Christ when the Winter Olympics are held in B.C. in 2010.

“We will be looking for some sort of response in prayer and also in serving,” says Dave Carson, interim prayer leader of the Vancouver-Whistler Games Partnership.

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Faith writer lauded

WINNPEG—John Longhurst, a faith page columnist for the Winnipeg Free Press, is the recipient of an award recognizing his “distinguished contribution to religious communications in Canada.” Bestowed by the Association of Roman Catholic Communicators of Canada and presented May 6 in Winnipeg, the award is given to any religious communicator, project or organization to recognize their contributions on a national level to religious communications in a pluralistic, secular society.

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CALGARY, AB—The number of churches offering English as a Second Language (ESL) courses has gone from two to more than 30 in the past five years, says the president of a church ESL cooperative.

Madeline Johnson, 67, founder of the Agape Language Centre at Beddington Pentecostal Church and the Cooperative ESL Ministries Society, says immigrants find language classes offered by churches teach more practical English in a shorter period of time.

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Fewer practise public faith in Quebec

A Statistics Canada survey on faith and practice reveals that Quebec has the lowest percentage of “unbelievers” in Canada. Its rate of nine per cent stands in sharp contrast to the 36 per cent of British Columbians who claim no religious belief or affiliation whatsoever. Quebec is also far below the Canadian average of 22 per cent.

Asked to rate themselves on a scale that ranged from very religious to not religious, 39 per cent of Quebecers claim to be not very religious in contrast to B.C. where more than half of respondents identify themselves as such. At the other end of the scale, only 24 per cent of Quebecers said they categorize themselves as being very religious—the lowest rate in the country.

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