Salvation Army celebrates 125 years of service
General Shaw Clifton looks to the future
WINNIPEG, MB—To commemorate 125 years of dedicated social service, Shaw Clifton, General of the Salvation Army, arrived in Winnipeg just before graduation exercises
at William and Catherine Booth College on April 27.
The visit and celebration coincide with the 25th year anniversary of the College, Salvation Army’s only liberal arts institute in the world to offer Bachelor of Arts and Social Work degrees.
The Army also opened its College for Officer Training (CFOT) May 1, a seminary replacing older schools in Toronto and St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Presbyterians elect evangelical moderator
Evangelicals within the Presbyterian Church in Canada (PCC) are applauding the election of local pastor Hans Kouwenberg as their new moderator.
"Hans is part of an increased evangelical strength in the PCC," says retired Presbyterian minister and educator Ian Rennie, who has known Kouwenberg for 35 years.
"With the Presbyterian Church, it's always too strong a thing to say that an individual is a clear sign of a major direction or tendency, but it's certainly an encouragement for evangelicals," adds Dal Schindell, the director of publications at Regent College in Vancouver and a ruling elder in the PCC.
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Cambodia killing fields survivor embraces enemy with love
A Cambodian refugee who returned to his war-torn country and forgave his family's killers received a standing ovation as he accepted an honor ary doctorate at the Providence College and Seminary graduation exercises, April 22.
Sokreaska Himm's search for forgiveness and his prescription for Cambodian societal renewal has featured on CBC and caught the attention of more than just evangelical enclaves.
Yet Providence College and Seminary president Gus Konkel describes the story of Himm's search for forgivness After the Heavy Rain as "required reading" which "reveals the essence of the gos pel."
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Christian Reformed highlight mental health awareness
A special mental health initiative of Christian Reformed churches in eastern Ontario is encouraging the broader Christian Church to become communities of safety and support for the mentally ill.
“We want to be able to have informed Christian support,” says Winnie Visser, organizer of the Faith and Hope in Mental Health Conference. As a psychiatric nurse, she recalls when staff would dread the visits patients received from well-meaning but uninformed pastors, elders and laymen. Unaware of appropriate ways of interacting
with delusional or psychotic patients, such visits would often deepen patients’ distress.
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Modern-day gleaners feed world’s hungry
A group of Canadians are convinced gleaning is one way to fight world hunger.
Ontario Christian Gleaners (OCG) process donated vegetables into a dehydrated soup mix distributed worldwide to hungry people through reputable relief organizations. The group was inspired by Okanagan Gleaners in British Columbia’s interior—the first operation of its kind in Canada—started in 1990, followed in 2001 by the Fraser Valley Gleaners near Abbotsford, B.C.
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