Rachel Marie Stone: Bringing grace to the table
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Rachel Marie Stone: Bringing grace to the table

“Food is connected to how we live,” Stone says, and her work seeks to find ways “to bring grace into our conversations about food.” Here are some snippets of our conversation on this good gift from God and our complicated relationship with it.

Maranatha today, your church tomorrow?
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Maranatha today, your church tomorrow?

It’s official: Maranatha Christian Reformed Church of St. Catharines, Ontario, is no more. The church’s request to be allowed to disband after 65 years of ministry was approved at a special Classis Niagara meeting on April 9. It was a sad moment . . . .

Read between the pipelines
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Read between the pipelines

With a federal cabinet decision on the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline due by June 19, and a decision by President Obama on Keystone XL still hanging in the balance, pipeline issues loom large on the horizon. . . . Pipelines are no longer just pipelines. They are the focal point for a key challenge facing humanity:

Getting schooled: Re-evaluating higher education
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Getting schooled: Re-evaluating higher education

In recent weeks, you may have noticed a migration of young, bleary-eyed Americans in cars stuffed with furniture, bedding and textbooks crossing the border back into the States for summer break.

Sects, sexuality and the sacredness of storytelling
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Sects, sexuality and the sacredness of storytelling

Rachel Held Evans is an acclaimed blogger and New York Times bestselling author of two nonfiction books, Faith Unraveled and A Year of Biblical Womanhood.
Recently named one of “50 women to watch” by Christianity Today, Evans’s work has been featured on CBC, NPR and the BBC, as well in Huffington Post, the Washington Post, Oprah.com and The View.

Miroslav Volf on the function of faith
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Miroslav Volf on the function of faith

“Miroslav Volf!” my friends were saying. I recognized the name – he’s a theologian/ philosopher/critic who seems to write a book every six months – but I didn’t know his work very well. I’m more of a fiction/poetry guy, and tend to get lightheaded when ascending the peaks of philosophy and theology.

The CRC and Cuba
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The CRC and Cuba

Not only Cuban and North American churches need mutual international and national cooperation to live and witness to Christ; so do pastors and families in that island nation connected by decades of bonds across seas and national barriers. Such is just some of the power of the Gospel.

One Day at the TRC
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One Day at the TRC

Thousands of people, indigenous and non-indigenous alike, thronged to the conference to tell and to hear tragic stories from victims of residential schools and the ensuing intergenerational trauma. Broken accounts of abuse, rape, addiction, suicide and violence punctuated the conference, striking to the core of many of the witnesses as evidenced by tears and wails of pain and sorrow. The resilience and courage of the Indigenous people, however, epitomized the TRC.

Reflection on the TRC in Edmonton…
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Reflection on the TRC in Edmonton…

That is what this Truth and Reconciliation process is about—truth and memory. A truth about our country that is still relatively unknown, but one that must be revealed and remembered if we are to move forward as a nation in honesty and respect.

The #IF: Gathering and a Call to Arms for Christian Women
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The #IF: Gathering and a Call to Arms for Christian Women

Jennie Allen of Austin, Texas had a vision: to gather, equip and unleash this generation of Christian women.

Her friends had a question, not unrelated: If God is real, then what?

Allen put the two together and watched a small idea snowball, thanks to social media, into the largest interdenominational Christian women’s conference in years.

Putin’s World
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Putin’s World

Clearly, the West has underestimated Putin’s resolve not to let the Ukraine buffer be brought unchallenged into the western sphere of influence. An absolutely bottom-line, non-negotiable issue is Russia’s access to its Black Sea port, which also has access to the Mediterranean. And that access happens to be in none other than the Crimea, at the port of Sevastopol.

Social Media, Death and the Virtual Afterlife
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Social Media, Death and the Virtual Afterlife

The last time anyone did a count — back in 2012 — there were approximately 30 million Facebook accounts connected to people who have died. By now that number is surely much larger.

In many cases, where the person’s death is quick, accidental and unexpected, there is no time to prepare. Those accounts live on, like an insect frozen in amber, filled with pictures and messages and notes to and from the deceased.