Remember the song “Tradition!” from the Fiddler on the Roof? Tevye sings the play’s theme of how to have balance in life in a rapidly changing and threatening world. Tradition gives structure and stability. Tradition forms our identity (being) and direction (doing). Christian Courier is a tradition, and this issue explores other traditions. Tevye says that, “without…
It was 50 years ago this month that the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) held its first Family Conference in Niagara, Ontario, on the August long weekend. Beginning in 1970, the ICS, originally the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship (AACS), gathered Reformed folks together to worship, learn and camp.
As chair of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS), I would identify as an “ICSer.” “What’s that?” you might ask, especially if you’re younger. To me, being an ICSer means taking part in a sub-culture, sometimes referred to as the “Reformational movement,” developed by post-WWII Dutch immigrants to North America.
On April 9, the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) cancelled its annual June Synod due to COVID-19. The CRC’s smaller Council of Delegates will have an online meeting in June for any agenda items that cannot be postponed until 2021. Meanwhile, February feels like years, not months, ago, so it’s hard to remember the week when proposed changes to the CRCNA’s governance structure were front page news.
Ironically, the week that COVID-19 shut the door to in-person classes at Calvin University, our capstone computer science course was scheduled to discuss the importance of embodied community. One of the points that we were scheduled to explore is how electronic communications should not be preferable to embodied community. However, as we have seen with COVID-19, when that is not possible, digital communications are a blessing. Our current situation brought an unexpected “experiential learning” opportunity to engage this topic.
One day many years ago, I was sitting in my living room with some friends. It was Sunday afternoon and we had just gotten back from church. We were drinking strong, black coffee in cups with little windmills on them and eating Dutch pastry – gebakjes – when the subject turned to immigration.
“I don’t mind all these immigrants coming here,” my friend said, balancing her gebakje on her knee. “I just wish they’d give up their culture and become more Canadian.”
In a remote corner of my college office sits two full shelves of ‘tacky religious merchandise.’ Surprisingly, I have not purchased a single item of the collection ranging from the rubber ducky nativity set to the John Calvin bobble head doll. Instead, I simply curate the odd assortment of items that friends and fellow faculty members bring back from their treks around the world. Instead of gold, frankincense or myrrh, these wise men and women present their gifts to me andwait to see whether they will be deemed trick, treat or just plain tacky.
America and Canada are headed in radically different directions. Perhaps it’s time the CRC in each country did, too.
When Christian Courier asked the question prior to his talk, “What area(s) of the church need ‘reforming’ today?” Ryrie’s response was “fear and politics.”
Two long-gnawing questions about Christian Reformed worship converged October 29 at Mountainview CRC in Grimsby, Ontario. On that day the congregation commemorated the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
From the beginning, Trump’s claims to truth have been over the top. He claims to have one of the highest IQs, he says he has the best words, had the biggest inauguration crowd in history, knows everything there is to know about health care – all claims that are totally, completely pants-on-fire false. They are lies. Period.
Article sponsored by the Christian School Foundation.
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