Ed Hird

Checking out my latest articles

2010-10-31T07:26:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

I have many blogs that you can check out. My most active blog is http://edhird.wordpress.com/ where I have hundreds of new articles posted.

See you there.

Blessings, Ed Hird+
http://stsimonschurch.ca/

Sir Sandford Fleming: Inventor of Time

2009-07-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

by Rev Ed Hird

When Sir Sanford Fleming first came to Canada, he was told “Go back to Scotland”. The need for engineers was over. Some were convinced that we would only need sixteen miles of railway in Canada. Fortunately for us, Fleming loved a challenge. He was passionate about railways, once driving a bear off the railway tracks with nothing but an umbrella and a loud cry.

Fleming has been described as the outstanding Canadian of the nineteenth century. Prime Minister John A Macdonald appointed him as chief surveyor and engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Fleming knew that he needed to see the route first-hand. With the Rev George Grant, he canoed and portaged across Canada in 1872, creating a best-selling travelogue ‘Ocean to Ocean’. The beauty and ruggedness of Canada’s wilderness spoke to the depths of his soul.

Our most recognizable Canadian photo is ‘The Last Spike’, celebrating the completion of our national railway on November 7th 1885. Fleming, our most famous Canadian engineer, was right there at the centre of the photo.

To complete the Canadian Pacific Railway in just ten years was an astronomical task, but Fleming always made time for God in his busyness. Fleming only missed attending church twelve times in his entire life. Sometimes ‘church’ was simply kneeling by the Rocky mountain railway tracks and giving thanks. On all his surveying trips, no work and travel was done on Sunday if he could help it. He even wrote a worship service that his busy construction crews could use.

After the frustration of his missing an Irish train, Fleming went on to create Meridian Standard Time in 1878. Standard Time replaced the dangerous chaos of 144 different North American time zones. Every city had its own unique time, none of which agreed with any other city. Standard Time went a long way towards keeping locomotives from crashing into each other because of different clocks.

Fleming founded the Canadian Institute which grew into the Royal Society of Canada. He published a dozen books, served for thirty-five years as Chancellor of Queen’s University. Canada’s very first postage stamp: the three-cent beaver, was the creation of Fleming. Fleming was knighted in 1897 by Queen Victoria for building the world-circling sub-Pacific cable. For the first time in history, the world could communicate instantaneously around the globe. With membership in over seventy international societies, he was Canada’s preeminent voice on the world stage. Everyone looked to Sir Sanford Fleming.

Fleming was often snubbed, sidelined, criticized but he never let the nay-sayers stop him from accomplishing his life-goals. Fleming knew that God had put him here on earth to make a difference, to help raise up the nation of Canada from sea to sea. Fleming’s strength came from a deep sense that God would never abandon his children.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons
-a North Shore News article

Please join us on July 24th-27th with Pastor Dave Carson

2009-07-12T16:17:00.000-07:00

Dear friends in Christ,

We are so blessed that our good friend Pastor David Carson has agreed to be our keynote speaker for the 36th Annual BC Christian Ashram retreat on July 24th-27th. The Rev Rod Elllis of the Church of our Lord will still be our Bible teacher for the Christian Ashram. The Rev David Rich was forced to cancel unexpectedly, in light of an unavoidable need for a hip replacement, making it impossible for him to fly. David Carson's theme will be "Jesus the High Priest: The New and Living Way" from the Book of Hebrews. David is a very dynamic and insightful speaker who will leave you with many fresh insights into God's Word. You are encouraged to register today by e-mail ed_hird@telus.net or phone 604-533-5509.

David Carson has been a Pastor for 30 years both in the UK and Vancouver, having previously had a career as a chemist in the dairy industry. He has pastored in Metrotown for the last 11 years and is currently with Central Christian Assembly, and is also the director of Intercessors For Canada. He is a Canadian with family roots in Saint John, New Brunswick. David and his wife Beth have been married for 41 years, and have one son Tom. David tends to bring pioneer vision and energy to a project and is currently chairing the prayer working group for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Registration Form:
Name: Dr/Rev/Mr/Mrs/Miss______________________________
Street:______________________________________________
Names and ages of Children/Youth______________________________
Special Diet/allergies or physical limitations________________________________
Costs Enclosed $___________________ Tel: (.....)___________________________
Please share my contact info with others Yes___No________
My photo may be used for publicity: Yes___ No__________
For more info, click on http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/ashram2009.indd.pdf

Can Anger Help Your Marriage?

2009-06-27T06:52:00.000-07:00

By the Rev Ed Hird+
-an article for the July 2009 Deep Cove Crier

For the past twenty-two years, I have been privileged to invest in many families in the North Shore area. As both a Social Worker and an Anglican priest, I have been struck by how many North Shore couples are successful in business but challenged in the area of relationships. It has been our privilege over the years at St. Simon’s NV to help many couples fall back in love and rebuild strong marriages.

While teaching at the CWIPPThink Conference in San Diego, God rekindled my dream of doing a doctorate in the area of marriage and families. I heard that Dr Paddy Ducklow, a North Shore Pastor and Counsellor, was being appointed Professor of Marriage and Family Ministries at Carey College out at UBC. I have known and respected Paddy since attending West Vancouver Baptist’s Salt Circus during the 1970’s Jesus movement. After much prayer and reflection, I decided to begin a part-time doctorate at Carey designed specifically for full-time clergy.

My first ‘Family Ministry’ doctoral course was taught this spring by Dr. James Ponzetti, a professor in the Departments of Social Work and then Sociology. I decided to focus on ‘Managing Anger in marital conflict’. After reading forty books and 150 Social Science articles on marital anger, I was left with the impression that there are a lot of angry people stuck in conflictual marriages. Researchers note how many men detach from intimacy, leaving their wives very frustrated. Because women are so relational, they are often tempted to suppress their legitimate anger in favour of protecting their marriage. The problem with stuffing our anger is that it leaves us isolated and disconnected.

Dr John Gottman, one of the world’s foremost marriage researchers, suggests that there is a better way forward. Even healthy long-term marriages will experience marital conflict and anger. No one is exempt. We need to rediscover anger as a positive emotion that has its own wisdom if we will stop being so defensive. Drs John & Julie Gottman, in their best-selling book ‘10 Lessons to Transform Your Marriage’, actually recommends that we husbands need to embrace our wife’s anger and learn the meaning behind the emotion. Brain scans have shown us that we experience anger on the right side of the brain, unlike fear and sadness which is on the left side. While fear causes us to withdraw, anger can actually stir us to make a difference and bring constructive change. The challenge is how to harness the power of anger, much like people in BC harness the power of our mighty rivers for electricity.

Dr David Mace compares anger to the squeak in your car’s engine that tells you it’s time for a tune-up. Anger can be your family smoke-alarm. Research shows that most marital conflicts are about housework, physical intimacy, money, and children. When we become angry, our heart rate and blood pressure go up, as do the levels of our energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Dr. Gottman actually monitors such levels in his marriage ‘love lab’ in Seattle. Many couples, when their heart rates goes over one hundred, become overwhelmed or ‘flooded’ by the intensity of their emotions. Sometimes the healthiest thing we can do if ‘overwhelmed’ while intensely listening to our spouse is to choose to take a short time out and go for a walk so that we can re-regulate our emotions. Gentle humour and affection are other proven keys to reducing emotional intensity. It takes humility to accept influence from our spouses, to become more gentle, and to make bids for connection when we are tempted to stonewall them.

Much of the 1960’s counselling encouraged people to let it all hang out and dump our anger on the other person. Research has shown that this actually makes things worse. We need to learn to express our anger gently and respectfully in a way that honours our spouse. We also need to learn to deeply listen to our spouse’s anger in a way that hears their longing for a healthier future together. As James put it, we are to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. The Good Book teaches in Ephesians 4:26 that it is possible to be angry without being destructive. Even Jesus, who was so full of love, felt angry at people’s insensitivity to handicapped people (Mark 3:5) It is vital that couples commit to not going to bed angry, because it is far too easy to wake up bitter and resentful. While short-term anger can be a positive force, chronic anger has been shown to increase our risk of heart disease by as much as 500%.

My prayer for each of us reading this article is that we will embrace the gift of anger, and learn to harness it for the good of our marriages and families.

The Rev. Ed Hird+
St. Simon’s North Vancouver, Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

Saving Your Marriage For Lent

2009-02-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

By the Rev Ed Hird
-an article for the March 2009 Deep Cove Crier

In many cultures like Brazil, pre-Lenten events like Mardi Gras/Carnival are huge, drawing millions of participants. Locally my former St. Simon’s NV youth pastor, the Rev. Ken Bell, would often put a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper, the night before the beginning of Lent. Mardi Gras, literally ‘Fat Tuesday’, is the French translation for Shrove Tuesday.

So why do many people eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday or celebrate Mardi Gras? The ultimate reason is Easter. Both Easter and Christmas have warm-up preparation periods. Christmas has Advent. Easter has the forty days of Lent. Why bother to prepare for Easter and Christmas? Anything worth doing is worth preparing for, whether that is university education, marriage, or retirement.

Eating delicious pancakes on Shrove Tuesday came from the tradition of using all one’s eggs before Lent. Eggs in those days were seen as a luxury item that should be abandoned during Lent. Part of the challenge with Lent is that people think that you are giving up all enjoyment for forty days. Lent is often seen as very dark, gloomy and negative. That is why Mardis Gras in reaction sometimes goes to the other extreme. Yes, Lent involves self-denial, but Lent is not just about giving up things. Lent is about preparing to become a healthier, more loving person.

Forty Days is a key medical concept, giving us the term ‘quarantine’, an Italian medical expression for isolation during infection. Forty Days is also a key spiritual concept. Both Moses and Jesus spent forty days in the Israeli wilderness. This year we are being offered a creative new way to do Lent. We can take the 40 Day ‘Love Dare’, and literally save our marriages for Lent.

The 40-Day ‘Love Dare’ book http://thelovedarebook.com/ has become a #1 New York Times bestseller. While reading Love Dare on the way to San Diego, I found myself falling more and more in love with my dear wife. The daily concepts are simple, but profound and potentially life-changing. The ‘Love Dare’ book is based on the Fireproof movie, a surprise hit with ‘Growing Pains’ star Kirk Cameron. No one in Hollywood expected that it would become No. 4 at the box office, eventually bringing in $33.5 million.

In the past few weeks, "Fireproof" debuted on DVD and climbed to No. 3 on Billboard's DVD chart, beating out "The Hulk" and "Saw V," among others. Both the Fireproof DVD and the Love Dare book are really striking a chord with many people looking for lasting relationships, especially in marriage.

One husband e-mailed me saying: “I just wanted to thank you for taking the initiative and the time to watch "Fireproof" with me. It has already proven to be an incredible blessing. As you know, I was so moved that I bought a copy for my wife which we watched together. Then, equally moved, she surprised me by buying the Love Dare book and a Study Bible the next day. So now we are taking the Love Dare challenge and reading scripture together daily. And just two days in, the results are nothing less than miraculous.” Another Deep Cove resident e-mailed me saying: I couldn't wait for VALENTINES to watch FIREPROOF. It was excellent. I have already recommended it to my son and his spouse to watch, and one of co-workers at work. Thanks for recommending it.”

You can either rent the Fireproof DVD from your local Video store, order online at http://fireproofthemovie.com/ or pick up Fireproof and the Love Dare book locally at Sign of the Fish bookstore. Marriage is not worth fighting about. Marriage is worth fighting for. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to save a marriage for Lent? It could be your adult child’s marriage. It could be yours. Let the forty days of Lent help ‘Fireproof’ your most intimate relationship.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons
http://acicanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=206:saving-your-marriage-for-lent

Carl Jung and the Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites

2009-02-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/CarlJungPaper.pdf http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9918
http://www.acicanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=205:carl-jung-and-the-gnostic-reconciliation-of-gender-opposites

Carl Jung and the Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites
By the Rev Ed Hird, Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver,
ACiC/AMiA (Anglican Church in North America)

Leanne Payne wrote an unforgettable book in 1995 entitled ‘Crisis in Masculinity’. We live in an age where equality is equated with sameness, where men and women are deeply confused about their gender identity, about what really is authentic male and authentic female. I believe that this Gnostic Reconciliation of Gender Opposites, this gender-blending about authentic maleness and femaleness, is the direct result of our culture’s embracing of the Jungian agenda.

In 1991, I had the wonderful privilege of attending the Episcopal Renewal Ministries(ERM) Leadership Training Institute (LTI) in Evergreen, Colorado. Following that, I encouraged Anglican Renewal Ministries Canada to endorse the LTI approach, including the use of the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Temperament Indicator). However, as I later listened to tapes by Leanne Payne and Dr. Jeffrey Satinover [1], I rethought the Jungian nature of the MBTI, writing a report entitled Carl Jung, Neo-gnosticism, and the MBTI. After much prayer and reflection, ARM Canada decided unanimously in November 1997 to no longer use the MBTI in the Clergy and Lay Leadership Training Institutes.

Over two and a half million people are ‘initiated’ each year into the MBTI process. [2] It is now the most extensively used personality instrument in history. [3] There is even an MBTI version for children, called the MMTIC (Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children)[4], and a simplified adult MBTI-like tool for the general public, known as the Keirsey-Bates Indicator. Rev. Robert Innes, of St. John’s College, Durham identifies “the two indicators most widely used by Christian groups - Myers-Briggs and the Enneagram.”[5] One of the key questions is whether the MBTI is an integral part of Jungian neo-gnosticism or alternately a detachable benevolent portion of Jung’s philosophy in an otherwise questionable context. To use a visual picture, is the MBTI the ‘marijuana’, the low-level entry drug that potentially opens the door to the more hard-core Jungian involvement, or is it just a harmless sugar tablet?

Researching the roots of the MBTI showed me Jung’s far-reaching influence in our postmodern culture. In 1946, Jung said: “Biographies should show people in their undershirts...This way of looking at people is better than false hero worship!”[6] In this presentation, we will be looking at Carl Jung in his undershirt. Stripped down, we see aspects of Jung and his work which some good church people refuse to acknowledge. You could call this article my search for the historical Jung, looking past the Jung Myth for the real Jungian undershirt. Carl Jung is described by Merill Berger, a Jungian psychologist, as “the psychologist of the 21st century”.[7] Dr. Satinover says “The moral relativism that released upon us the sexual revolution is rooted in an outlook of which (Jung) is the most brilliant contemporary expositor.”[8] Leaders of the 1960’s hippie movement like Timothy Leary were heavily influenced by Jungian teaching[9]. One could say without overstatement that Carl Jung is the Father of Neo-Gnosticism & the New Age Movement. That is why Satinover comments that “One of the most powerful modern forms of Gnosticism is without question Jungian psychology, both within or without the Church”.[10] Dr. Satinover notes that “the ultimate aim...of all Gnostic systems is a mystical vision of the union of good and evil.”[11]

Gnosticism, which is the exalting of esoteric knowledge and experience, is rooted in monism[12]. Monism, the claim that all is one, is the major competing worldview to Judeo-Christian Monotheism. Monotheism of course holds that there is one God. Carl Jung advocated monism, a philosophy that treats all differences as ‘maya’, as illusion.[13] The monistic worldview in Hinduism and the New Age sees the earth and ourselves as the Lord God Almighty. It holds that all is God, including light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong. Jung’s monism was the core of his advocacy of the reconciliation of opposites, including gender opposites of male and female.

Jung held that our ‘central problem was of course the coniunctio’, the alchemical symbol for the union of opposites.[14] Dr. Satinover notes that Jung “devoted most of his adult life to a study of alchemy...”[15] Alchemy is the search for the Philosopher’s Stone that transmutes lead into gold, a search which Jung resymbolized as psychic and psychological transmutation and wholeness.[16]

In 1929, Jung wrote a commentary on the Secret of the Golden Flower, which he said was “not only a Taoist text concerned with Chinese Yoga, but is also an alchemical treatise.”[17] He comments that “...it was the text of the Golden Flower that first put me on the right track. For in medieval alchemy we have the long-sought connecting link between Gnosis (i.e. of the Gnostics) and the processes of the collective unconscious that can be observed in modern man...”[18] Jung comments: “...a large part of my life work has revolved around the problem of opposites and especially their alchemical symbolism...”[19] Tracy Cuotto comments that “Alchemy involves the uniting of opposites...the fusion of male and female, good and evil, life and death — whose union eventually creates the perfected and completed, ideal personality called Self.”[20]

Many people are not aware that Jung collected one of the largest amassing of spiritualistic writings found on the European continent. Jung wrote the first introduction to Zen Buddhism and the first western commentary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.[21] Dr. Richard Noll comments that “the divinatory methods of the I Ching, used often by Jung in the 1920s and 1930s, were a part of the initial training program of the C.G. Jung Institute of Zurich in 1948, and its use is widely advocated today in Jungian Analytic-Training Institutes throughout the world.”[22] Jung was also a strong promoter of the occultic mandala, a circular picture with a sun or star usually at the centre. Sun worship, as personified in the mandala, is perhaps the key to fully understanding Jung.[23] Jung taught that the mandala [Sanskrit for ‘circle’] was “the simplest model of a concept of wholeness, and one which spontaneously arises in the mind as a representation of the struggle and reconciliation of opposites.”[24]

During the hippie movement of the 1960’s, the Rock Opera Hair boldly proclaimed the alleged dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Once again Carl Jung foreshadowed this emphasis in a 1940 letter to his former assistant, Godwin Baynes: “1940 is the year when we approach the meridian of the first star in Aquarius. It is the premonitory earthquake of the New Age.”[25] In a letter written by Jung to Sigmund Freud, he said: “My evenings are taken up very largely with astrology. I made horoscopic calculations in order to find a clue to the core of psychological truth...I dare say that we shall one day discover in astrology a good deal of knowledge which has been intuitively projected into the heavens.”[26] In the 1950’s, Jung began to use Tarot reading as part of his astrological psychologizing. [27] Jung was known among his intimate colleagues as the ‘Warlock” (Hexenmeister) of Zurich.[28]

Jung’s family had occult linkage on both sides, from his paternal grandfather’s Freemasonry[29] involvement as Grandmaster of the Swiss Lodge[30], and his maternal family’s long-term involvement with séances and ghosts. Jung was heavily involved for many years with his mother and two female cousins in hypnotically induced séances.[31] They ‘used a primitive, homemade Ouija board and a glass that moved over the letters to spell out answers to questions.”[32] Jung eventually wrote up the séances as his 1902 medical dissertation entitled “On the Psychology and Pathology of So-called Occult Phenomena”.[33] His Preiswerk relatives were outraged that they were ‘shamefully’ included, and blamed Carl Jung for the inability of several of his cousins to find husbands.[34] James A Herrick notes that Jung’s mother ‘introduced him as a child to Hindu gods, for which he maintained a life-long fascination.’[35] After the death of three babies in a row before Carl Jung’s birth, his mother “Emilie withdrew, taking refuge in the private interior visions of the spirits.”[36] Emilie often had to be hospitalized, leaving Carl Jung with the feeling of the feminine as ‘natural unreliability, one can never rely on it’ and the term ‘father’ as ‘reliability and powerlessness.’[37]

Jung’s maternal Grandfather Samuel Preiswerk, a Basel pastor, had weekly séances attempting to contact his deceased first wife in the presence of his second wife, (Jung's grandmother) and his daughter (Jung's mother).[38] Jung acquired a spirit guide and guru named ‘Philemon’ [who was described by Jung as ‘an old man with the horns of a bull...and the wings of a fisher’]. Before being Philemon, this creature appeared to Jung as ‘Elijah’, and then finally mutated to ‘Ka’, an Egyptian earth-soul that ‘came from below’.[39] It may be worth reflecting upon why Jung designated his Bollingen Tower as the Shrine of Philemon.[40] Carl Jung commented: “Philemon represented a force which was not myself. In my fantasies I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I. . . . Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru.”[41]

Jung’s fascination with the occult (the hidden) was at the root of his painful break in 1913 with his mentor Sigmund Freud.[42] Freud saw everything through the lens of sexual obsessions, and described the occult as ‘a sea of black mud’ which he feared would compromise the respectability of psychoanalysis.[43]

Jung’s “family was steeped in religion - he had eight uncles in the clergy as well as his maternal grandfather and his earliest playgrounds were churches and graveyards.”[44] The famous Ulysses author James Joyce disparagingly referred to Carl Jung as the Reverend Dr. Jung[45], hinting that Jungianism was really a religion. Carl Jung’s pastor-father loved theological school reflections, but deeply disliked rural congregational life and was losing his faith.[46] The famous Liberal German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher had converted and baptized Carl Jung’s grandfather. Carl Jung was deeply aware of and damaged by his father’s spiritual emptiness, saying “What he said sounded stale and hollow, like a tale told by someone who knows it only by hearsay and cannot quite believe it himself.”[47] Carl Jung’s first and only time of taking Holy Communion was a devastating experience for him: “Slowly I came to understand that this communion had been a fatal experience for me. It had proved hollow; more than that, it had proved to be a total loss. I knew that I would never again be able to participate in this ceremony. ‘Why, that is not religion at all,’ I thought. ‘It is the absence of God; the church is a place I should not go to. It is not life which is there, but death.’”[48]

When younger, Carl Jung had a life-changing dream of a subterranean phallic god which reappeared “whenever anyone spoke too emphatically about Lord Jesus.”[49] Jung commented that “...the ‘man-eater’ in general was symbolized by the phallus, so that the dark Lord Jesus, the Jesuit and the phallus were identical.”[50] This “initiation into the realm of darkness”[51] radically shaped Jung’s approach to Jesus: “Lord Jesus never became quite real for me, never quite acceptable, never quite lovable, for again and again I would think of his underground counterpart...Lord Jesus seemed to me in some ways a god of death...Secretly, his love and kindness, which I always heard praised, appeared doubtful to me...”[52] Jung later confessed to Sigmund Freud that as a boy he had been ‘the victim of a sexual assault.’[53] To what degree, I wonder, was Jung’s ‘revelation’ of the phallus god a fruit of childhood sexual abuse? The next major ‘spiritual breakthrough’ in his life was what Jung described as a “blasphemous vision”[54] of God dropping his dung on the local Cathedral. This vision, said Jung, gave him an intense “experience of divine grace”.[55] These early experiences birthed what many see as a new religion, clothed in a psychological undershirt. Dr Richard Noll notes that "in his December 1913 vision, Jung assumed the stance of the crucified Christ and then was transformed into the lion-headed god."[56]

How serious, you may wonder, is the Jungian Reconciliation of Good and Evil? Leanne Payne says of Dr. Jeffrey Satinover that “like (C.S.) Lewis, he knows that this synthesis or reconciliation is the greatest threat facing not only Christendom but all mankind today.”[57] “For Jung”, says Satinover, “good and evil evolved into two equal, balanced, cosmic principles that belong together in one overarching synthesis.”[58]

Jung believed that the “dark side” of human nature needed to be “integrated” into a single, overarching “wholeness” in order to form a less strict and difficult definition of goodness.[59] Jung significantly said: “I would rather be whole than good.”[60] Wholeness for Jung is really the gnostic reconciliation of opposites.

“If Christ means anything to me,” said Jung, “it is only as a symbol...I do not find the historical Jesus edifying at all, merely interesting because controversial.”[61] Jung believed that “the Christ-symbol lacks wholeness in the modern psychological sense, since it does not include the dark side of things...”[62] For Jung, it was regrettable that Christ in his goodness lacked a shadow side, and God the Father, who is the Light, lacked darkness.[63] Jung sought a solution to this dilemma in the Holy Spirit who allegedly united the split in the moral opposites symbolized by Christ and Satan.[64] “Looked at from a quaternary standpoint”, writes Jung, “the Holy Ghost is a reconciliation of opposites and hence the answer to the suffering in the Godhead which Christ personifies.”[65] Jung believed that Satan and Jesus, as spiritual opposites, were gnostically reconciled through the Holy Spirit. “It is possible”, said Jung, “for a man to attain totality, to become whole, only with the co-operation of the spirit of darkness...”[66]

After experiencing Goethe’s Faust, Jung came to believe in the ‘universal power’ of evil and “its mysterious role it played in delivering man from darkness and suffering.”[67] “Most of all”, said Jung, “(Faust) awakened in me the problem of opposites, of good and evil, of mind and matter, of light and darkness.”[68]

In post-modern culture, the Judeo-Christian worldview is often dismissed as too narrow-minded and dogmatic. Jung saw the reconciliation of opposites as a sign of great cultural sophistication: “(Chinese philosophy) never failed to acknowledge the polarity and paradoxity (sic) of all life. The opposites always balanced one another - a sign of high culture. One-sidedness, though it lends momentum, is a sign of barbarism.”[69] It would not be too far off to describe Jung as a gnostic Taoist. “The book on types (PT)”, says Jung, “yielded the view that every judgment made by an individual is conditioned by his personality type and that every point of view is necessarily relative. This raised the question of the unity which must compensate this diversity, and it led me directly to the Chinese concept of Tao.”[70] Being influenced by the Yin-Yang of Taoism, Jung believed that “Everything requires for its existence its opposite, or it fades into nothingness.”[71] The new Batman movie ‘Dark Knight’ has a very Jungian moment where the Joker says to Batman: “I don't want to kill you! What would I do without you? Go back to ripping off mob dealers? No, no, NO! No. You... you... complete me.”[72] George Lucas’ ‘dark side of the Force’ in Star Wars is another epic Jungian moment that conditions post-moderns to see spirituality as a reconciliation of light and darkness.

In the book Psychological Types, Jung comments that “Yoga is a method by which the libido is systematically ‘drawn in’ and thereby released from the bondage of opposites.”[73] Jung entitled an entire section in PT: “Concerning the Brahmanic Conception of the Reconciling Symbol”. Jung notes: “Brahman therefore must signify the irrational union of the opposites - hence their final overcoming...These quotations show that Brahman is the reconciliation and dissolution of the opposites - hence standing beyond them as an irrational factor.”[74]

While in India in 1938, Jung says that he “was principally concerned with the question of the psychological nature of evil.”[75] He was “impressed again and again by the fact that these people were able to integrate so-called ‘evil’ without ‘losing face’...To the oriental, good and evil are meaningfully contained in nature, and are merely varying degrees of the same thing. I saw that Indian spirituality contains as much of evil as of good...one does not really believe in evil, and one does not really believe in good.”[76]

In a comment reminiscent of our post-modern relativistic culture, Jung said of Hindu thought: “Good or evil are then regarded at most as my good or my evil, as whatever seems to me good or evil”.[77] “We must beware”, said Jung, “of thinking of good and evil as absolute opposites...The criterion of ethical action can no longer consist in the simple view that good has the force of a categorical imperative, while so -called evil can resolutely be shunned. Recognition of the reality of evil necessarily relativizes the good, and the evil likewise, converting both into halves of a paradoxical whole.”

“This work Psychological Types (1921), said Jung, “sprung originally from my need to define the way in which my outlook differs from Freud’s and Adler’s. In attempting to answer this question, I came across the problem of types, for it is one’s psychological type which from the outset determines and limits a person’s judgment.”[78] Freud called Jung’s Psychological Types book ‘the work of a snob and a mystic’.[79] Jung was deeply traumatized by his split with Freud, and used the Psychological Types book to rationalize the Jung/Freud split. Jung saw himself as the so-called introvert, focusing on thinking, in contrast to Freud who was allegedly the extrovert, focused on feeling.[80] Many are unaware that the terms ‘introvert’ and ‘extrovert’ were invented by Carl Jung, and mean far more conceptually than simply being outgoing or shy.[81]

Dr. Gordon Lawrence, a strong Jungian/MBTI supporter, teaches that “In Jung’s theory, the two kinds of perception - sensing and intuition - are polar opposites of each other. Similarly, thinking judgment and feeling judgment are polar opposites.”[82] It seems to me that the setting up of the psychological polar opposites in PT functions as a useful prelude for gnostic reconciliation of all opposites. The MBTI helps condition our minds into thinking about the existence of polar opposites, and their alleged barriers to perfect wholeness. To accept the eight polarities within the MBTI predisposes one to embrace Jung’s teaching that the psyche “cannot set up any absolute truths, for its own polarity determines the relativity of its statements.”[83]

Jung was accused of anti-Semitism because the Zentralblatt für Psychotherapie journal, which Jung edited, endorsed Mein Kampf as required reading for all psychoanalysts.[84] His defense was that he was trying to save psychoanalysis from being obliterated by the Nazis as a ‘Jewish science.[85] In 1936, Jung said of Hitler: "[Hitler] is a medium, German policy is not made; it is revealed through Hitler. He is the mouthpiece of the Gods of old... He is the Sybil, the Delphic oracle."[86] The influence of Germanic anti-Semitism on Jungianism can now be seen in a secret quota clause designed to limit Jewish membership to 10% in the Analytical Psychology Club of Zurich. Jung’s secret Jewish quota was in effect from 1916 to 1950, and only came to public light in 1989.[87] While it would be a mistake to paint Jung as an outright Nazi sympathizer, there was much confusion, almost a gnostic reconciliation of good and evil, in how Jung responded to Hitler’s Germany.[88] The Rev Charles Raven, Director of SPREAD, comments that “Jung's confused response to Nazi Germany and anti-Semitism contrasts sharply with the clear-sightedness of Karl Barth and the Confessing Church expressed in the Barmen Declaration in 1933. This helps to underline the way that Jungian psychology saps the ability to recognise and resist evil.”[89]

Two of Jung’s ‘most influential archetypes’ are the anima & animus, described by Jung as “psychological bisexuality”.[90] Jung teaches in PT that every man has a female soul (anima) and every woman has a male soul (animus).[91] Noll comments that “Jung’s first encounter with the feminine entity he later called the anima seems to have begun with his use of mediumistic techniques...”[92] Based on the recently discovered personal diary of Sabina Spielrein, John Kerr claims that Jung’s so-called anima “the woman within” which he spoke to, was none other than his idealized image of his former mistress, patient, and fellow therapist, Sabina Spielrein.[93] After breaking with both Spielrein and Freud, Jung felt his own soul vanish as if it had flown away to the land of the dead. Shortly after, while his children were plagued by nightmares and the house was seemingly haunted, Jung heard a chorus of spirits cry out demanding: ‘We have come back from Jerusalem where we have not found what we sought.’[94]

Jung’s next mistress Toni Wolff also started as Jung’s patient and became a Jungian analyst. Toni Wolff was hugely influential in the forming of Jungian Psychology. Jungian Analyst Dr. C.A. Maier holds that ‘when it comes to psychological types, (Toni Wolff) played a very important role there.’[95] “In this unfamiliar, terrifying underground of the collective unconscious, (Toni Wolff) was Jung’s guide to such an extent that she lived with him...She reflected his anima in a way that Mrs Jung didn’t.”[96] Baroness Vera von der Heydt comments that “It was (Toni Wolff) who introduced him to all the Eastern things, Eastern spirituality, Eastern philosophy and so on.”[97]

Part of the gender-bending and gender-blending of our post-modern culture is rooted in Jung’s androgynous teaching about the so-called anima and animus.[98] In the Jungian ‘Matter of the Heart’ video series, Dr Joseph (Jane) Wheelwright comments: “This is built into the heart of Jung’s whole psychology that one should develop one’s contrasexual components, as Margaret Mead so quaintly phrases it. Jung prefers to talk about the anima and the animus...All of us who are really committed and involved in the Jungian world are very busy trying to develop our animuses or our animas....This androgynous, or almost androgynous, state of being, is the way that one hopes to be before they throw the switch.”[99] Dr Richard Noll comments about Jung’s pansexual practices: “Emma Jung did not choose polygamy freely. The situation was presented to her by her husband. At best, she freely chose to adapt to it”[100] In a letter to Freud dated January 30, 1910, Jung wrote: "The prerequisite for a good marriage, it seems to me, is the license to be unfaithful."[101]

Jung’s sexual views were profoundly influenced by the German physician and psychoanalyst Otto Gross (1877-1920). Otto Gross advocated the "life-enhancing value of eroticism which is so great that it must remain free from extraneous considerations in laws, and above all, from any integration into everyday life.... Husbands and wives should not begrudge each other whatever erotic stimuli may present themselves. Jealousy is something mean. Just as one has several people for friends, one can also have sexual union with several people at any given period and be 'faithful' to each one.... Free love will save the world."[102] As a child of the 1960’s and ‘70’s, I cannot read Otto Gross without thinking of Haight-Ashbury. Is it merely a co-incidence that Timothy Leary was psychoanalyzed by Joseph Henderson, a California Jungian analyst, before he birthed the hippie/drug movement?[103]

Otto Gross and Jung sometimes psychoanalyzed each other for up to twelve hours non-stop. Speaking of Gross’ sexual/religious orgies, Jung commented: "The existence of a phallic or orgiastic cult does not indicate a particularly lascivious life any more than the ascetic symbolism of Christianity means an especially moral life."[104] Jung’s patient/mistress Sabina Spielrein comments: “I sat there waiting in great depression. Now he [Jung] arrives, beaming with great pleasure, and tells me with strong emotion about Gross, about the great insight he had just received [i.e. about polygamy]; he no longer wants to suppress his feelings about me...”[105] Gross’ motto was ‘Nichts verdraengen!’ (repress nothing!)[106]

After being haunted by ghosts, Jung wrote his Seven Sermons to the Dead book in 1917. In these seven messages, Jung ‘reveals’, in agreement with the 2nd century Gnostic writer Basilides, that the True and Ultimate God is Abraxas, who combines Jesus and Satan, good and evil all in one.[107] This is why Jung held that “Light is followed by shadow, the other side of the Creator.”[108] Richard and Linda Nathan, long-term ex-Jungians, commented that “In true Gnostic fashion, Jung shared the Seven Sermons to the Dead book with close friends but hid it from the public.[109]

You may be asking yourself: “How much influence does Jungianism actually have on the Church and postmodern culture? The answer is that there is an enormous and sometimes subtle influence. “Jung’s direct and indirect impact on mainstream Christianity - and thus on Western culture,” says Dr. Satinover, “has been incalculable. It is no exaggeration to say that the theological positions of most mainstream denominations in their approach to pastoral care, as well as in their doctrines and liturgy - have become more or less identical with Jung’s psychological/symbolic theology.”[110]

There are key individuals promoting the Jungian gospel to the Church, such as Morton Kelsey, John Sanford (not John & Paula Sandford), Thomas Moore, Joseph Campbell, and Bishop John Spong. Thomas Moore, a former Roman Catholic monk, became widely popular through his best-seller: Care of the Soul. John Sanford, the son of the late Agnes Sanford, is an Episcopal Priest and Jungian analyst, with several books promoting the Jungian way. Morton Kelsey is another Episcopal Priest who has subtly woven the Jungian gospel through virtually every one of his books, especially those aimed for the Charismatic renewal constituency. Satinover describes Kelsey as having “made a career of such compromise”, noting that Kelsey has now proceeded in his latest book Sacrament of Sexuality to approve of the normalization of homosexuality.[111]

Joseph Campbell, cited by Satinover as a disciple of Jung, is famous for his public TV series on “The Power of Myth”.[112] Bishop John Spong, who has written two books (Resurrection: Myth or Reality & The Easter Moment) denying the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, gives Joseph Campbell credit for shaping his views on Jesus’ resurrection. “I was touched by Campbell’s ability to seek the truth of myths while refusing to literalize the rational explanation of those myths...Campbell allowed me to appreciate such timeless themes as virgin births, incarnations, physical resurrections, and cosmic ascensions...Slowly, ever so slowly, but equally ever so surely, a separation began to occur for me between the experience captured for us Christians in the word Easter and the interpretation of that experience found in both the Christian Scriptures and the developing Christian traditions...”[113] Few people have realized that Bishop Spong’s spiritual grandfather is none other than Carl Jung.

While in theological school, I became aware of the strong influence of Dr. Paul Tillich on many modern clergy. In recently reading C.G. Jung & Paul Tillich [written by John Dourley, a Jungian analyst & Roman priest from Ottawa], I came to realize that Tillich and Jung are ‘theological twins’. In a tribute given at a Memorial for Jung’s death, Tillich gave to Jung’s thought the status of an ontology because its depth and universality constituted a ‘doctrine of being’.[114] It turns out that Tillich is heavily in debt in Jung for his view of God as the supposed “Ground of Being”. As well, both Tillich and Jung, says Dourley, “understand the self to be that centering force within the psyche which brings together the opposites or polarities, whose dynamic interplay makes up life itself.”[115] As a Jungian popularizer, Tillich saw life as “made up of the flow of energy between opposing poles or opposites.”[116]

So many current theological emphases in today’s church can be traced directly back to Carl Jung. For example, with the loss of confidence in the Missionary imperative, many mainline church administrators today sound remarkably like Jung when he said: “What we from our point of view call colonization, missions to the heathen, spread of civilization, etc, has another face - the face of a bird of prey seeking with cruel intentness for distant quarry - a face worthy of a race of pirates and highwaymen.”[117] In speaking of Buddhism and Christianity, Jung taught the now familiar inter-faith dialogue line, that “Both paths are right.”[118] Jung spoke of Jesus, Mani, Buddha, and Lao-Tse as ‘pillars of the spirit’, saying “I could give none preference over the other.”[119] The English Theologian Don Cupitt says that Jung pioneered the multi-faith approach now widespread in the Church.[120]

In light of the current controversies around “Mother Goddess” hymnbooks, it is interesting to read in the MBTI source book Psychological Types about the “Gnostic prototype, viz, Sophia, an immensely significant symbol for the Gnosis.”[121] You are probably well aware that in the best-selling book The Shack, God the Father is portrayed as an Aunt Jemima/Oprah Winfrey blend named Elouisa, and the Holy Spirit becomes Sarayu, an eclectic woman of Asian descent. While I personally enjoyed reading much of the popular Shack novel, I have unresolved concerns about how The Shack may be used, even unintentionally, to deconstruct people’s classical understandings of the Trinity and replace it with mother/father god/dess worship.[122] Postmodern thinking, even among evangelicals, is remarkably subjectivist and fluid, easily leading to a gnostic reconciliation of gender opposites even in the Godhead.[123]

My challenging to those reading this is to seek the Lord about where God may be calling you to renounce any false gods, any secret idolatry, any gnostic reconciliation of opposites, particularly in the area of Jungianism and the New Age. May we never forget the warning of the prophet Isaiah, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:29)[124]. It is time to stand up and affirm the authentic male and authentic female, to affirm the biblical definition of marriage in an age of Jungian-inspired gender confusion.

[1] Dr. Jeffrey Satinover’s critique of Jungianism came with unique credibility, given his background as an eminent Jungian scholar, analyst, and past President of the C.G. Jung Foundation.
[2] Isabel Briggs Myers with Peter B. Myers, Gifts Differing, Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Press, Inc., 1980,p. xvii. Many charismatics have a soft spot for this book, because it quotes portions of scripture from Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. The actual link, however, between those bible passages, and the Jung/Myers-Briggs theories is rather questionable.
In an October 29th, 1996 letter from Rev. Fred Goodwin, Rector of National Ministries for ERM, Fred Goodwin commented: “I would suggest that in light of your concerns, you drop the MBTI and use some of the material out on small group ministry and discipling instead—which we find are desperate needs for leadership training in the church.”
[3] Ibid., p.210; also Dr. Gordon Lawrence, People Types & Tiger Stripes, p. xi; A book Prayer & Temperament written by Msgr. Chester Michael and Marie Norrisey in 1984 has been very effective in winning Roman Catholics and Anglicans to the MBTI. The book claims that the MBTI designations will make you either oriented to Ignatian prayer (if you are SJ), Augustinian prayer (if you are NF), Franciscan prayer(if you are SP), or Thomistic prayer(if you are NT). In the MBTI, the four sets of types are Extravert(E) & Introvert(I), Sensate(S) & Intuitive(N), Thinking(T) & Feeling(F), and Judging(J) & Perceiving(P). None of these 8 innocuous-sounding type names mean what they sound like. Instead each of the 8 type names has unique and mysterious, perhaps even occultic, definitions given by Jung himself in a massive section at the back of Psychological Types.
[4] Dr. Gordon Lawrence, People Types & Tiger Stripes, Gainesville, FL: Center for Applications of Psychological Types, 1979, p. 222
[5] Robert Innes, Personality Indicators and The Spiritual Life, Grove Books Ltd., Cambridge, 1996, p.3; The Enneagram is significantly occultic in nature and origin, coming from Sufi, numerology, and Arica New-Age sources. George Gurideff, Oscar Ichazo of Esalen Institute, and Claudio Naranjo are the prominent New Agers who have popularized it, and then introduced it, through Fr. Bob Oschs SJ, into the Christian Church. For more information, I recommend Robert Innes’ booklet and Mitchell Pacwa SJ article’s “Tell Me Who I Am, O Ennegram” Christian Research Journal, Fall 1991, pp. 14ff. My article on ‘George Gurdjieff and the Enigmatic Enneagram’ can be read at http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/arm04.htm
[6] CG Jung, 1946 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJhblm4KUmo
[7] Merill Berger & Stephen Segaller, The Wisdom of the Dreams, C.G. Jung Foundation, New York, NY, Shamballa Publications, Front Cover
[8] Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, Baker Book House Co., 1996, p. 238 “Because of his great influence in propagating gnostic philosophy and morals in churches & synagogues, Jung deserves a closer look. The moral relativism that released upon us the sexual revolution is rooted in an outlook of which (Jung) is the most brilliant contemporary expositor.”
[9] Robert Greenfield, Timothy Leary: a Biography, Harcourt Books, 2006, p. 86; Robert C Fuller, Stairways to Heaven: drugs in religious history, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 126, “That is why Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, and mystics like Allan Watts or Aldous Huxley were important to the spiritual underground; they were purveyors of the alternate myths and pathways to spiritual experience.”
[10] Jeffrey Satinover, The Empty Self, p. 27. Jung has “blended psychological reductionism with gnostic spirituality to produce a modern variant of mystical, pagan polytheism in which the multiple ‘images of the instincts’ (his ‘archetypes’) are worshipped as gods”, Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, p. 238: Carl Jung “explicitly identified depth psychology, especially his own, as heir to the apostolic tradition, especially in what he considered its superior handling of the problem of evil.”
[11] Jeffrey Satinover, The Empty Self, p. 23 Jung claimed that “In the ancient world, the Gnostics, whose arguments were very much influenced by psychic experience, tackled the problem of evil on a broader basis than the Church Fathers.” “Whatever the system, and however the different stages are purportedly marked, the ultimate aim, the innermost circle of all Gnostic systems, is a mystical vision of the union of good and evil.”
[12] Monism: “a view that there is only one kind of ultimate substance b: the view that reality is one unitary organic whole with no independent parts” http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monism
[13] Walter Shelburne, Mythos and Logos in the Thought of Carl Jung, 1988, Sunny Press, Albany, New York, p. 18
[14] Bair, Ibid., p. 526
[15] Ibid., p. 27, Ft. 28
[16] Carl Jung & Aniela Jaffe, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, translated from the German by Richard & Clara Winston, Vintage Books-Random House, 1961/1989, p. 205 “The possibility of a comparison with alchemy, and the uninterrupted intellectual chain back to Gnosticism, gave substance to my psychology.”
[17] Carl Jung, Psychology & the East, London & New York: Ark Paper Back, 1978/1986, p. 3
[18] Ibid., p. 6
[19] MDR, p. 233
[20] “Psychology, Astrology and Carl Jung”, Metamorphosis Newsletter, August 2004, by Tracy Cuotto, http://consciousevolution.com/metamorphosis/0408/jung0408.htm
[21] Jeffrey Satinover, The Empty Self, p. 28 Dr. James Hillman, the former director for the Jungian Institute in Zurich, commented, “(Jung) wrote the first introduction to Zen Buddhism, he...brought in (Greek Mythology), the gods and the goddesses, the myths,...he was interested in astrology...” The Wisdom of the Dreams: Carl Gustav Jung: a Stephen Segaller Video, Vol. 3, “ A World of Dreams”. Jung also wrote the first western commentary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.( Psychology & the East, p. 60)
[22] Dr. Richard Noll, The Jung Cult.: Origins of a Charismatic Movement, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 333
[23] Noll, The Jung Cult, p. 137
[24] MDR, p. 335
[25] Merill Berger & Stephen Segaller, The Wisdom of the Dreams, p. 162; Jung & Jaffe, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 340; In Jung’s book Aion, he holds that “...the appearance of Christ coincided with the beginning of a new aeon, the age of the Fishes. A sychronicity exists between the life of Christ and the objective astronomical event, the entrance of the spring equinox into the sign of Pisces.” p. 221
[26] Richard Webster, Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, & Psychoanalysis, Basic Books: Harper Collins, 1995, p. 385. Jung comments: “For instance, it appears that the signs of the zodiac are character pictures, in other words, libido symbols which depict the typical qualities of the libido at a given moment...”
[27] Bair, ibid., p. 549 “Both Hanni and Gret used several different sets of cards when they taught (Jung) how to consult the Tarot, before they settled on the Grimaud cards of Antoine Court de Gebelin, the Ancien Tarot de Marseilles. Jung thought it was the only deck that possessed the properties and fulfilled the requirements of metaphor that he gleaned from within the alchemical texts.”
[28] The Gnostic Jung and The Seven Sermons to the Dead By Stephan A. Hoeller, A Quest book, The Theosophical Publishing House , 1982. p. xiii
http://books.google.ca/books?id=XDSSXDezdBMC&pg=PR13&lpg=PR13&dq=Hexenmeister+of+Zurich&source=web&ots=aXYRkrGcqp&sig=z1rtge0YGGQdgYNNEoxQFugI2i8&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result ; Carl G. Jung: Man of Science or Modern Shaman?, By Richard and Linda Nathan http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/nathan/jung.htm
[29] Dr George Puritch, a Prayer Ministry leader, commented recently to me: “I have felt for a long time that many of the false beliefs within the church had their foundations in the occultism of Free Masonry. Your research that Jung’s grandfather was a Grand Master of the Lodge reveals the roots of his deep occultism, not to mention his occultic roots on his mother’s side." All the occultic practices of Masonry as described by Ankerberg and Weldon (1990. The Secret Teachings of the Masonic. A Christian Perspective. Moody Press Chicago) are revealed in Jung’s philosophies, the relativism of good and evil, the denial of the deity of Jesus, universalism, worship of the dead, deification of man, etc."
[30] Jung & Jaffe, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p.232
[31] John Kerr, A Most Dangerous Method: the Story of Jung, Freud, & Sabina Spielrein, New York, Alfred Knopf Books, 1993, p. 50 & 54
[32] Deirdre Bair, Jung: a Biography, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, p. 46
[33] John Kerr, ibid., p. 50 & 54; The New Encyclopedia of the Occult, by John Michael, Llewellyn Worldwide Publisher, p. 250
[34] Bair, ibid., p. 64 “Later generations held Jung’s dissertation directly responsible for the fact that many of the younger Preiswerk daughters in Helly’s generation did not marry.”
[35] James A Herrick, The Making of a New Spirituality, Intervarsity Press, 204, p. 191; Campbell, Portable Jung, p. viii; Deirdre Bair, Jung: a Biography, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 2003, p. 18
http://books.google.ca/books?id=KzbobUhvpf4C&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=Carl+Jung+Occult&source=bl&ots=JVx6vwaVug&sig=OCZs_AGb9shRQJyjzSzL2ojQ2AU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result
[36] Bair, ibid., p. 18
[37] Bair, ibid., p. 21
[38] “Session 11: Jung and Pagan Psychology”, Temple of the Sacred Spiral, http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/palette/187/session11.html
[39] Satinover, The Empty Self, p. 37; The spirit guide Philemon/Elijah later mutated into Salome, who addressed Jung in a self-directed trance vision as Christ. Jung ‘saw’ himself assume the posture of a victim of crucifixion, with a snake coiled around him, and his face transformed into that of a lion from the Mithraic mystery religion.(C.G. Jung, Analytical Psychology :Princeton University Press, 1989:, p. 96, 98)
[40] Jung & Jaffe, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p.223. “Shrine of Philemon: Repentance of Faust” was the inscription carved in stone by Jung over the entrance of the Bollingen Tower, where he lived and wrote.
[41] MDR, p. 183
[42] The final straw was when Jung published Wandlungen und Symbole der Libido (translated as Psychology of the Unconscious.) http://everything2.com/title/Carl%20Jung
[43] Alex Owen, The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern, University of Chicago Press, 2004, p. 143
[44] “Session 11: Jung and Pagan Psychology”, Temple of the Sacred Spiral, http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/palette/187/session11.html
[45] Bair, ibid., p. 407
[46] Joel Ryce-Menuhin, Jung and the Monotheisms, Routledge Publisher, p. 183
[47] MDR, p. 42-43
[48] Ibid, p. 55
[49] Ibid., p. 12
[50] Ibid., p. 12
[51] Ibid., p. 15
[52] Ibid., p. 13
[53] Bair, ibid, p. 70
[54] MDR, Ibid., p. 58. Jung concluded from this ‘Cathedral’ experience that “God Himself can...condemn a person to blasphemy” Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 74
[55] Ibid., p. 55
[56] Dr Richard Noll, The Aryan Christ, Random House,1997, p.138.
[57] Satinover, The Empty Self, p. 3; Dr. Satinover sees the temptation facing our generation that”...on a theological plane, we succumb to the dangerous fantasy that Good and Evil will be reunited in a higher oneness.” Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, p. 238
[58] Satinover, Ibid., p 240. “...This relativization of good and evil by their reconciliation is the heart of the ancient doctrines of gnosticism, which also located spirituality, hence morality, within man himself. Hence ‘the union of opposites’.” Keirsey & Bates, authors of Please Understand Me, and creators of the more popularized Keirsey-Bates adaptation of the MBTI, teach openly in their book on the Jungian “shadow...It’s as if, in being attracted to our opposite, we grope around for that rejected, abandoned, or unlived half of ourselves...(p.68)”
[59] Satinover, Ibid., p. 240
[60] http://www.trans4mind.com/jamesharveystout/jung.htm ; Spirituality and Psychological Health By Richard H. Cox, Betty Ervin-Cox, Louis Hoffman, COSSP Press, p. 199
[61] Bair, ibid., p. 526; Carl G Jung to Adolf Keller, CL-2, March 20th, 1951, p. 10
[62] Jung, Aion, Collected Works, p. 41
[63] John P. Dourley, C.G. Jung & Paul Tillich: The Psyche as Sacrament, Inner City Books, 1981, p. 63 “(Jung) also feels that it is questionable in that (the Christ symbol) contains no trace of the shadow side of life.” Fr. Dourley, a Jungian analyst, also comments on p. 63 about Jung’s “criticism of the Christian conception of a God in who there is no darkness.”
[64] Dourley, C.G. Jung & Paul Tillich, p. 70
[65] Carl Jung, ‘A Psychological Approach to The Trinity’, CW11, para. 260 “Thus for Jung, says John Dourley, the Spirit unites the exclusively spiritual reality of Christ with that which is identified with the devil, including ‘the dark world of nature-bound man’, the chthonic side of nature excluded by Christianity from the Christ image.” para. 263; In a similar vein, Jung saw the alchemical figure of Mercurius as a compensation for the one-sideness of the symbol of Christ. Carl Jung, ‘The Spirit Mercurius’, Alchemical Studies, CW13, para. 295. Jung comments, “As early as 1944, in Psychology and Alchemy, I had been able to demonstrate the parallelism between the Christ figure and the central concept of the alchemists, the lapis or stone.” MDR, p.210
[66] C.G. Jung, ‘The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairy Tales, CW9, para. 453
[67] MDR, Ibid., p. 60
[68] MDR, Ibid., p. 235
[69] Jung, Psychology & The East, p. 11
[70] Jung, MDR p. 207; Carl Jung, Psychology & the East, p. 15 “The wise Chinese would say in the words of the I Ching: ‘When Yang has reached its greatest strength, the dark power of yin is born within its depths, for night begins at midday when yang breaks up and begins to change into yin.”
[71] Jung, Psychology & the East, p. 184
[72] Dark Knight movie, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468569/quotes
[73] Jung, Psychological Types, p. 149-50 “The Indian (Brahman-Atman teaching) conception teaches liberation from the opposites, by which every sort of affective style and emotional hold to the object is understood...”
[74] Jung, Psychological Types, p. 245-46
[75] MDR, p. 275
[76] Ibid., p. 275
[77] Ibid., p. 275
[78] Berger & Segaller, Wisdom of the Dreams; p. 103, MDR, p. 207
[79] Bair, Ibid., p. 286
[80] Bair, ibid., p. 286
[81] The Old Wise Man, By HP-Time.com, Monday, Feb. 14, 1955 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,807036-3,00.html ; “According to Carl Jung, introversion and extraversion refer to the direction of psychic energy. If a person’s energy usually flows outwards, he or she is an extravert, while if this energy normally flows inwards, this person is an introvert.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introvert
[82] Lawrence, People Types & Tiger Stripes, p. 113
[83] MDR, Ibid., p.350
[84] http://www.answers.com/topic/carl-jung#Response_to_Nazism
[85] “Carl Jung”, Crystalinks, http://www.crystalinks.com/jung.html
[86] C.G Jung Speaking, Interviews and Encounters, Princeton University Press, 1977, p. 93
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung
[87] Noll, Ibid., p. 259
[88] Dr. Richard Noll, The Aryan Christ: the secret life of Carl Jung, Random House, 1997
http://www.amazon.com/Aryan-Christ-Secret-Life-Carl/dp/0679449450
[89] SPREAD, http://www.anglicanspread.org/
[90] Ibid., p. 391; Henri F. Ellenberger makes a strong case that Jung borrowed his matriarchy and anima/animus theories from Bachofen, an academic likened by some to the scientific credibility of Erik Von Daniken of The Chariots of the Gods and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of TM and its Yogic Flying. (Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious, Penguin Press, 1970, pp. 218-223); Philip Davis, “The Swiss Maharishi”, Touchstone Issue 92, Spring 1996, p.13); Richard Noll, The Jung Cult, p. 188-90
[91] Jung, Psychological Types, p. 595
[92] Noll, The Jung Cult, p. 202-203; Philip Davis comments: “Jung’s therapeutic technique of ‘active imagination’ is now revealed as a sanitized version of the sort of trance employed by spiritualistic mediums and Theosophical travelers, with whom Jung was personally familiar.” (Philip Davis,”The Swiss Maharishi”, Touchstone Issue 92, Spring 1996, p.14)
[93] John Kerr, A Most Dangerous Method, p. 12; 49;191; 498 “...there (the Russian-born Spielrein) remained (in almost complete obscurity) until the publication of the Freud/Jung correspondence in 1974.”; p. 502;503: After the collapse of the Spielrein affair, John Kerr notes that “Jung’s condition had so deteriorated that his wife allowed Toni Wolff openly to become his mistress, and a sometime member of the household, simply because she was the only person who could calm him down.”; p. 507- Jung’s stone bear carving in his Bollingen Tower specifically symbolized the anima . Curiously the inscription said: “Russia gets the ball rolling”
[94] Kerr, Ibid., p. 503; MDR, p.190
[95] Carl Jung- Matters of the Heart Video – Part 6, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3nKlA-Z-P0
[96] Matters of the Heart Video – Part 6, ibid.
[97] Matters of the Heart Video – Part 6, ibid.
[98] Matters of the Heart Video, Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJhblm4KUmo
[99] Dr Joseph Wheelwright, San Francisco Jungian Analyst, Matters of the Heart Video, Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJhblm4KUmo
[100] Dr. Richard Noll, The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung, New York: Random House, 1997, p, 96; “The Erring Christ”, by the Richard Kew, Touchstone Magazine, July /August 1998, http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=11-04-052-b
[101] Sigmund Freud/Carl Jung Letters, edited by William McGuire, 1974, p. 289
[102] “The Jung Cult . . .” by Paul Likoudis, The Wanderer Magazine, December 29, 1994, St. Paul, MN http://www.ewtn.org/library/NEWAGE/JUNGCUL1.TXT
[103] Robert Greenfield, Timothy Leary: a Biography, Harcourt Books, 2006, p. 86
[104] Likoudis, ibid., http://www.ewtn.org/library/NEWAGE/JUNGCUL1.TXT ; Carl Jung, Transformations and Symbols of the Libido, Collected Works of CG Jung, Volume 5
http://www.archive.org/stream/psychologyoftheu011802mbp/psychologyoftheu011802mbp_djvu.txt
[105] Seduction of Unreason, by Richard Wolin, Princeton University Press, 2004 p. 79; Wolin notes that ‘Gross met an untimely if foreseeable end on the streets of Berlin where he was discovered starving and homeless in 1920’, p. 78.
[106] Frank, Links wo das Herz ist, p. 49; Bair, ibid., p. 136; Gross’ motto reminds me of the 1960’s slogan ‘if it feels good, do it.’
[107] MDR, p. 378
[108] MDR, p. 328
[109] “Carl G Jung: Man of Science or Modern Shaman?”, by Richard and Linda Nathan, 2008, http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/nathan/jung.htm When a famous Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, happened upon it, he accused Jung of being a modern Gnostic. Jung vehemently denied it, claiming the book was only a "youthful frivolity," but in other places he called it central to all his later work.”
[110] Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, p.240. Satinover dryly comments that “in the United States, the Episcopal Church has more or less become a branch of Jungian psychology, theologically and liturgically.” (Empty Self ,p. 27, Footnote. 27)
[111] Satinover, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, p. 241
[112] Satinover, The Empty Self, p. 9; Joseph Campbell in fact worked personally with Jung and published through the Jungian-controlled Bollingen Foundation , ( Philip Davis, “The Swiss Maharishi”, Touchstone Issue 92, Spring 1996, p.11)
[113] The Right Reverend John Spong, Resurrection: Reality or Myth, Harper, 1994, p. xi. His parallel book is The Easter Moment.
[114] A Memorial Meeting : New York, Analytical Psychology Club, 1962, p. 31
[115] Dourley, C.G. Jung & Paul Tillich, p. 17
[116] Dourley, Ibid., p. 48 The persistent modern emphasis on the so-called ‘inner child’ makes a lot more sense when seen as a spin-off from Jung’s teaching that the symbol of the child is “that final goal that reconciles the opposites.” (Dourley, p. 83)
[117] Ibid., p. 248; www.thejungiansociety.org/Jung%20Society/Conferences/Conference-2004/Colonial-Postcolonial-Context.html
[118] Ibid., p. 279
[119] Dourley, C.G. Jung & Paul Tillich, p. 65
[120] The Wisdom of the Dream, p. 99
[121] Carl Jung, Psychological Types: or the Psychology of Individuation, Princeton University Press, 1921/1971, p. 290. Dr. Jeffrey Satinover memorably comments as a former Jungian that ‘Goddess worship’ is not the cure for misogyny, but it is its precondition, whether overtly or unconsciously. (The Empty Self, p. 9); Marija Bimbutas, the late professor of archeology at UCLA, included Jung and more than a half dozen of his noted disciples in the bibliographies to her books on the alleged matriarchies of the Balkans:The Language of the Goddess(1989)and The Civilization of the Goddess(1991),(Philip Davis,”The Swiss Maharishi”, Touchstone Issue 92, Spring 1996, p.13)
[122] Ed Hird, Battle for the Soul of Canada, 2006, p. 44, “It is not by accident that virtually every new-age fad, including the DaVinci Code deception, sooner or later draws people into mother/father god/dess worship and sexual immorality. I have found that idolatry and immorality are identical twins that always hang out together, especially around god/desses... I know of Anglican Cathedrals in Canada that both endorse the pan-sexual agenda and twist Jesus’ own words to pray “Our Father/Mother in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name”. As Jesus clearly taught us, God’s name is Father, and He likes His name.”
[123] In the key Montreal Declaration of Anglican Essentials, section 1 says: “The Triune God: There is one God, self-revealed as three persons, "of one substance, power and eternity," the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For the sake of the Gospel, we decline proposals to modify or marginalize these names and we affirm their rightful place in prayer, liturgy, and hymnody.” For those wishing to study further on the mother/father god/dess issue, I commend 'Speaking the Christian God' edited by Alvin F. Kimel, Dr. Donald Bloesch 'The Battle for the Trinity' and John W Miller's 'Biblical Faith and Fathering: why we call God 'Father'". http://www.anglicanessentials.ca/pdf/montreal_declaration_aec.pdf
[124] The Apostle Paul cautioned: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)

6,000 Thousand Days Later

2009-01-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

an article for the January 2009 Deep Cove Crier

Happy 2009! The New Year season is a time for both remembering and anticipating. This New Year, I particularly remember one of my mentors the Rev. Ernie Eldridge who has helped me more effectively spend the last 6,000 days on the North Shore.

Ernie believed in me when I first came to faith in 1972 and reassured me that I had done the right thing. Ernie gave me sage advice about relationship choices, even assisting at my wedding thirty-one years ago. When I was completing my Social Work degree at UBC, Ernie carefully listened as I shared my dream about becoming an Anglican priest. After twenty-eight years of ordained ministry, I am grateful that Ernie could see potential in a well-meaning, rather naïve young adult.

In the mid 1970s, we started a singing group called Morning Star and a parallel LivingStone Productions which organized contemporary music concerts at Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the PNE Gardens. Thanks to Ernie Eldridge’s mentorship, Morning Star received a national grant that enabled us to sing throughout BC, including an extensive outreach to Vancouver Island. During that period, we sang extensively on the North Shore, including Hillside Baptist, West Vancouver United, and St. Simon’s North Vancouver.

As a social worker, I had the privilege of working for John Braithwaite in 1975-76 at North Shore Neighbourhood House. But I had no idea that God would one day have me spend several decades living on the North Shore. That was never on my radar screen. After four & a half years serving as the assistant priest at St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Abbotsford, I knew in 1986 that it was time to become a Rector/Senior pastor. One of the first people that I asked for advice and prayer was Ernie Eldridge. Ernie agreed that it was time to move on. In ‘casting my bread on the waters’, I applied for two positions: St Thomas Chilliwack and St. Simon’s North Vancouver. When I met with the St Simon’s selection committee on Badger Road in Deep Cove, they asked me a lot of challenging questions. My answers did not always impress myself, but I left that meeting with a deep sense that I would be moving to the North Shore.

Ernie Eldridge always cheered for me when I was facing my next major transition. One time he went to bat for me with my bishop at great personal risk. Two of Ernie’s gifts to me that have been invaluable on the North Shore were his ‘Death & Dying’ and ‘Time Management’ courses. He taught me the need to prepare for one’s death and to grieve the inevitable losses that we will all face. While writing my book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, my wife and I were privileged to visit Ernie and Barb in Beaver Harbour New Brunswick before Barb died from ALS. Recently Ernie produced a thoughtful book ‘Hope, Help, Heaven’ on his last ten years with his dear wife Barb.

Because Ernie uses a time management system, he was able to write his book in which he journals his thoughts and activities on a daily and weekly basis. One of Ernie’s favourite verses was Psalm 90:12: “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Through Ernie’s influence in 1982, I began using the Seven Star Diary system after my voice was restored through surgery. For the past twenty six-years I have regularly recorded my work activities in a journal format. As a result, I know exactly how many hours I have spent on any particular activity. Ernie taught me to ‘redeem the time’ because life is short and easily wasted (Ephesians 5:17, Colossians 4:5).

Through Ernie’s time management system, I am aware that I have now spent 6,000 days serving the North Shore. Time flies when you enjoy your work. It is a great privilege to serve each of you. It has not always been easy. In the past twenty-one years, I have been privileged to be involved in some of your baptisms, weddings, and funerals. Through the Deep Cove Crier and the North Shore News, I have been privileged to communicate with each of you in hundreds of diverse articles. For the last two decades St. Simon’s NV has served many of your children, preteens, teens and young adults through our gifted young pastors, the Rev Ken Bell, the Rev Josh Wilton, and Rebecca Bailey. In the past 15 years, I have had an opportunity to personally visit over 6,600 of your homes to see what you think and feel.

In this new year of 2009, I am excited about the possibilities of having even more impact on the North Shore. St Simon’s NV, which has been in existence for the past 63 years, has just celebrated its fourth anniversary at Lions Gate Christian Academy. We, the St. Simon’s NV family, are here to stay and committed to serving you using our time, talent and treasure. In the same way that Ernie Eldridge has helped me make better use of my time, I pray that each of us reading this article will learn to more effectively redeem our time and become better stewards of this sacred gift of our fleeting days.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, BC
Anglican Coalition in Canada

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0901.html
http://www.acicanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=195:six-thousand-days-later

Bishop Doc Loomis and Titus, Giant-Killers on their Way to Corinth

2008-12-28T20:28:00.000-08:00

By the Rev. Ed Hird

“Bishop Doc Loomis and Titus, Giant-Killers on their way to Corinth” (2 Corinthians 8 & 9)

Some of you will not be aware that Bishop Doc Loomis began his ministry in a small rural church where the roof was seriously leaking for many months. One Sunday Doc became so frustrated by the lack of progress that he announced to the congregation that the communion service would not begin until the leaking roof issue was dealt with. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, half an hour passed until finally the resident tightwad at the back of the church spoke up and said: “Let’s get the service started. I’ll give fifty dollars.’ At that exact moment, a huge chunk of plaster fell from the ceiling and hit him on the head. Pulling himself up from under the pew, he said in a weak voice: “I meant to say five hundred dollars”. Doc Loomis quickly spoke out: “Hit him again, Lord!” What I will be sharing today is probably already familiar to you, but sometimes God needs to hit us again with familiar truth.

I was welcomed as the Rector of St. Simon’s NV almost 21 years ago. Upon my being hired, one of the wardens/elders told me that we are $10,000 behind from last year and if things don’t turn around by June, they wouldn’t be able to pay your salary. “No problem”, I said, “God pays for what he orders.” They felt better; I felt worse.

I met with our St. Simon’s NV Church Council and just studied one biblical stewardship passage at each meeting. After a few months, one of the Church Council members said: “This is all very nice, Reverend, but when are we going to do something?” It seemed to me that we were doing something by educating our leaders first.

I had told our ACW ladies group that they could no longer save the church with their garage sales. Rather they needed to give the money away to missions and outreach, an idea that rather caught on. Finally in June of that first year, I preached on the lectionary passage talking about tithing our first 10% and sacrificial giving above 10%. Some of our long-timers hit the roof. A medical specialist heard about the situation and began tithing that next Sunday. This action broke a log jam and released a flood of biblical generosity from which we have never looked back.

Every year at St. Simon’s NV we have an annual Stewardship education time where we teach from the bible on biblical stewardship of our time, time and treasure, and where lay people share for two to three minutes why they tithe. During the Stewardship Education time this fall, I felt led to read 50 books on biblical stewardship from Regent College.

Our stewardship focus always wraps up with an annual pledge Sunday where people bring in their pledge cards for the coming year. This November we celebrated our 22nd annual Pledge Sunday. Around Pledge Sunday 2008, Peter and Elsbeth Turner did a remarkable skit on 2 Corinthians 9.

Some of you know that I am writing my third book. I have 120,000 words written so far on my sequel to ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’ which was about Timothy. This third book is about Titus, a remarkable paratrooper who Paul planted smack in the midst of Crete, which had been a pirate island for 800 years before Christ. Paul quoted Crete’s famous 6th century philosopher Epimendes said ‘All Cretans are liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.’ Paul fully agreed. Paul’s challenge to Titus was to raise up godly healthy churches in every town in Crete, drawing on reformed ex-pirates who had given their lives to Jesus. That sounds like the challenge we are facing as the Anglican Coalition in Canada and in our new Province, the Anglican Church in North America, reaching out to a post-modern pirate culture.

Paul in vs. 1 of 2nd Corinthians 9 ironically says that there is no need to talk to them about financial stewardship, which he calls ‘service to the saints’. Then Paul proceeds to talk for another chapter, on top of Chapter 8 which was also about financial stewardship. The heart of his message is that ‘you better not shout, you better not cry, you better not pout, Titus is coming to town.’ Whenever money is mentioned in many Anglican Churches, shouting, crying and pouting often happens. Titus was coming to Corinth to receive a significant offering for the suffering Jewish Christians in Jerusalem.

Why did Paul send Titus to the Corinthians, or for that matter Doc Loomis recently to White Rock? 2 Corinthians 8:6 tells us that Titus was sent to bring a healthy conclusion to a good beginning. “So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part.”

The Corinthians were known for their generosity, just like the Macedonians who had given very generously out of their most severe trial, overflowing joy and extreme poverty (8:1). Paul wanted the Corinthians to be like the Macedonians who didn’t just talk the talk; they walked the walk financially. Paul wanted the Corinthians, just like they excelled in the charismatic gifts of faith, speech, knowledge, complete earnestness, and love for them, to also excel in this grace or charismatic gift of giving (8:7).

So Paul sent Titus along to help the Corinthians be the cheerful givers that they wanted to be. Paul described Titus in 8:17 as a first century Doc Loomis. Titus was enthusiastic, welcoming and showed initiative. 8:22 says that Titus was zealous, dedicated, diligent. That is Doc to a ‘T’. Both Doc and Titus were born to be giant-killers.

Timothy on the other hand was much more hesitant and shy, and had to be coaxed into his significant leadership by Paul. That is why Paul said to the Corinthians in Chapter 16:10-11 “If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. No one, then, should refuse to accept him.” Timothy could be easily thrown off by criticism and negativity. Titus plodded in where angels fear to tread.

Paul also chose Titus because Titus could be trusted financially. Someone said that there are three key temptations by which Satan tries to destroy leaders of church: ‘gold, girls, and glory’ or ‘sex, money, and power.’ On the North Shore, the treasurer of a local church ran off with $70,000 of the church’s funds. It rather put a damper on the party. That is why Paul said about Titus that ‘they were taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of people.” (8:21)

Paul in Chapter 9:2 commented about the Corinthian eagerness to help, which he had been telling the Macedonians about. The Corinthians were famous for their eagerness to give. “Your enthusiasm (zelos/zeal)”, said Paul, “has stirred most of them into action.” A passion for tithing and biblical stewardship is contagious. I have found that when clergy and church council tithe their first 10% and give sacrificially over and above, it sets a tone for the rest of the local congregation. I remember many years ago where a rector told me that he believed in tithing 10% but wouldn’t give it to his own congregation, because he didn’t think that they spent it well. My sense is that biblical tithing is its own reward, even if they just went out and burnt the money after collecting it. I suggested to the Rector that if I couldn’t trust my congregation (which is the storehouse) with the tithe, then I would need to leave and find another congregation. But I will never agree to robbing God, as the Malachi 3:10 describes withholding the tithe.

I must admit that I actually robbed God for over eight years after becoming a Christian in 1972. I gave generously by Anglican standards and believed in tithing but was waiting until I felt financially secure enough to tithe. When I lost my voice in Dec 1980, I read Dr Peter Wagner’s book “Your Spiritual Gifts can help your Church Grow’ where he challenged people to tithe, saying that God would meet one’s needs. As I had no income at the time, I figured that 10% of nothing was doable. God met my family’s needs for the next 12 months, while I had a throat operation and then was able to go to St Matthew’s Abbotsford as an assistant priest exactly 12 months after I had stepped down from St. Phillips Dunbar. Because God met my needs while I was out of work and couldn’t speak, I figured that I couldn’t stop tithing now that I once had a real job and income. You may have noticed that I am passionate about tithing. In fact it is the only area in the bible where God says that we can put God to the test and see if he will not open the floodgates of heaven. Everywhere else it is forbidden.

So why did God send Titus to this congregation that was already famous for generosity? Because he wanted them to finish well. Talk is cheap. Walking the walk is costly. It is very easy in our west coast culture to start something new, to be generous for a short period. The challenge is to hang in when things get more challenging, when people offend you, when your hopes are disappointed. Titus according to 2nd Cor 9:3-5 was sent to help the Corinthians keep their financial promises. Our last four St. Simon’s NV services, including two on Dec 28th and two at Christmas, have been cancelled because of treacherous snow conditions on the North Shore. Why, you may ask, am I not worried about the financial hit that we may take? Because St. Simon’s NV people are generous tithers and sacrificial givers, who regularly can be counted upon to keep up with their yearly pledges. Not even snow and cancelled services keeps St. Simon’s NV people from being financially faithful.

St. Simon’s NV people realize that if they sow sparingly, they will reap sparingly (9:6). For the past twenty-two years, I have watched them sow generously and reap generously. I have seen God make all grace abound at St. Simon’s NV so that having all they need, they have been able to abound in every good work. (9:10)

St. Simon’s NV used to be a mission congregation for many years, which meant it didn’t pay its own way, and was almost closed several times by higher authorities. When St. Simon’s NV started tithing, it also began supporting missionaries around the world and locally. God has made the people of St. Simon’s NV rich in every way so that they could be generous on every occasion, resulting in thanksgiving to God. (9:11).

When we were thrown out of our buildings after joining up with Rwanda, God provided many financial miracles. We had a lot of startup costs in a new setting, and were in Dec 2005 down to five hundred dollars in the bank. There was a lot of pressure from a few to drop our missionaries in order to balance the budget. But God spoke to me through people like Bishops Doc Loomis and Chuck Murphy at the Anglican Mission conference. I determined that I would not sacrifice our missionaries on the altar of meeting our budget. So we kept giving to our missionaries, and God miraculously came through.

Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:12 that generous giving will not only meet the needs of God’s people (how many of you think that it is a good idea for your Rector and family to have food on their table and a roof over their heads?), but it will cause overflow of thanksgiving to God. Generosity comes from thanksgiving and releases more thanksgiving. By your generosity, others will praise God for your financial obedience and your liberal sharing (haploteti) with others. It is worth noting that the only time that the bible encourages us to be liberal as Christians is financially, not doctrinally or morally.

Each year before our annual Pledge Sunday, we have a twenty-four hour Stewardship Prayer Vigil organized by Elsbeth Turner, who is also organizing our 22nd Annual Renewal Mission on March 20th-22nd with Doc Loomis and William Beasley. This November we had 52 people commit to praying for an hour, the largest response in our St. Simon’s NV history. Prayer and financial stewardship are inseparably linked (2 Cor 9:14). It is vital that we never ask anyone to do anything important that you don’t ask them to first pray about, whether it is time, talent or treasure. As we seek the Lord in prayer about what we need to give, God will speak to us and soften our hearts.

2 Cor 9:7 says that each person should give what he has determined in his heart to give. The heart is the heart of the matter. The key words are: “Not RELUCTANTLY or UNDER COMPULSION”. God loves a cheerful giver. Biblical stewardship says no to arm-twisting, motivating through panic appeals or guilt.

Canon Doc Loomis has been such a blessing to All Saints Community Church a few weeks ago, challenging people to give it all to Jesus. That is one of Doc’s favourite themes. As a young preacher, Doc was preaching a three point sermon. The first point was ‘give it all to Jesus’. While Doc was passionately preaching, a woman jumped up and said “I’ll give it all to Jesus. My hat for Jesus” as she threw her hat up by the pulpit and sat down. Doc’s second point was ‘give it all to Jesus’. Once again the woman jumped up and said ‘I’ll give it all to Jesus’, throwing her coat up by the front pew before sitting down. Doc’s third point was ‘give it all to Jesus’. Suddenly the same woman jumped up again, but Doc was quick on his feet, saying “Madam, your purse next”. She said down and said to the man next to her: “Doc quenched the Spirit”. It is funny how many people think that you have quenched the Spirit when you mention finances.

Let me tell you clearly. All Saints Community Church does not need your money. God is quite capable of looking after All Saints without you. But God does love a cheerful, hilarious giver. God is inviting you to be generous at All Saints so that you can grow spiritually and become more Christ like. How many of you would like to decide today to be a generous giver? How many of you want to be a generous cheerful giver? How many of you are willing today to trust God with a tithe in the coming year 2009? Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

Canon Doc Loomis, Giant Killer

2008-12-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

http://acicanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=187:canon-doc-loomis-giant-killer

White Rock, BC- In the midst of one of 'tropical' BC's worst snowstorms with up to 30 centimetres of non-stop snow, Canon Doc Loomis visited from Ohio. The heavy snowfall forced airflight delays and cancellations, snarled traffic, and knocked out electricity and heat throughout the Lower Mainland. But nothing could stop Canon Doc Loomis the Giant Killer.

Greater Vancouver, the home of the coming 2010 Olympics, is the 'deep south' of Canada with the most temperate climate in the 'Great White North' of Canada. When Prairiites, Ontarians, and Quebecers are digging out from the latest snowfall, BC residents love to remind them about our BC daffodils appearing as early as February. Easterners occasionally dismiss BC as 'lotus land', the home of 'fruits and nuts'. Birthed in 1858 by San Francisco goldminers coming north, BC is 'California North', Canada's 'wacky west coast'. Because we have it so good in beautiful BC, a heavy snowfall (ie business as usual in the rest of Canada) can throw us into a blind panic. But not even blind panic could stop Doc the Giant Killer.

In the midst of TV and newspaper interviews, Doc visited the strategic Surrey Pastors Network which is fuelling the Hope Vancouver initiative to welcome the world to Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. Surrey pastors are tougher than the rest of us, with 30 of them unexpectedly fighting their way through a blizzard to Cedar Grove Baptist, a burgeoning church led by Pastor Kevin Kavanaugh.

Doc's dynamic presentation left no one sleeping. He shared of a vision that God gave him from Luke Chapter 5 that 'this is a time for nets and for net-working'. Without Christians working together, the harvest of new believers in our very secularized culture will be lost. Doc's key life verse is Luke 5:6-7 "they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink." Doc's heart cry to other christians is 'come and help us bring in the fish'.

Born in Ohio, Doc's whole life has revolved around fishing and lakes. Twice he has been rescued by God from drowning. When Doc starts talking about fishing, his eyes light up. Doc describes the Anglican/Episcopal Church throughout Canada and the USA as 'a dead fish'. He shared with us a rather unpleasant vision he received of a huge dead fish from which vomit was coming forth. In the midst of the vomit was coming new life. Doc sensed that this vision is a metaphor for the new life that God is birthing in the midst of the North American Anglican/Episcopal meltdown. What, asked Doc, is this new movement with the Anglican Mission in the Americas/ACiC and the new Province of the Anglican Church in North America? We, said Doc, are Kingdom vomit; new life coming out of death; a faithful remnant in an age of faithlessness even in the church.
So much looks like death and decline for the North American Church, said Doc, but 'just below the surface of the water is the harvest of fish'. Doc encouraged the 30 pastors representing many different denominations to join together in mission outreach: 'many hands, one net for the sake of the harvest.'

After the Surrey Pastors' presentation, another five hours of nonstop snow continued to blanket Greater Vancouver. But the hardy new All Saints Community Church in White Rock BC still braved the storm that night to come out to hear Doc in person. The entire night was a challenge to invest one's life and resources in eternity. The Rev Peter Klenner, Rector/Senior Priest of All Saints, commented that night: "there are only two things that last for ever: the souls of people and the Word of God, the Bible. When we invest in the Great Commission and the Great Commandment, we are investing in eternity."

Doc Loomis, in speaking to All Saints, said that revival will come but first will come persecution, particularly to our children and grandchildren. We are living in a North American culture that is becoming less and less tolerant towards Judeo-christian values. Doc predicted that even the jobs of our children and grandchildren will be put at risk down the road if they stand by their christian convictions.

"God has done an amazing thing", said Doc. "He has brought the gospel back to North America" This has been done throughout the generous mission outreach of our African and South American brothers and sisters, especially in Rwanda. 150 years ago, said Doc, we shared the gospel with Africa, and now they are returning the favour.

Doc used the metaphor of a kidney dialysis machine to describe how God is cleansing the toxicity from the North American Anglican Church. "This is a hard gospel." Doc spoke of when he was commissioned by the Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini as a Canon Missioner to go around North America and 'stir the pot.' While being given a Red Stole, Doc Loomis was asked by Archbishop Kolini: "Do you know why this stole is red...This stole is red because it has been dipped in the blood of the martyrs." In realizing the tremendous persecution that faithful Rwandans have experienced, Doc realized that we too need to show such faithfulness in North America. "Will you come and stand in the blood of the martyrs?", he asked us. "Today I would be willing to die for Jesus Christ, for you, for the Church. Jesus is saying: "Will you give me your life?" The Good News that we have received, said Doc, is worth dying for and worth living for.

If you missed hearing Doc Loomis in the midst of this 'tropical' BC blizzard, the good news is that Doc will be returning in just three months to Greater Vancouver. Along with his co-labourer, the Rev William Beasley the AMiA Network Leader in Chicago, Doc Loomis will be leading our 22nd Annual Renewal Mission on March 20th-22nd 2009. The location for the Friday evening and Saturday will be Lions Gate Christian Academy, 420 Seymour River Place, in North Vancouver, by the 2nd Narrows Bridge. The theme, appropriately enough, will be Luke 5: 'Catching Fish in the 21st Century'. You are encouraged to mark these dates down today in your day-timer and guard them religiously! You will not want to miss Doc Loomis and William Beasley, God's Giant Killers.

On the Sunday night of March 22nd, Doc Loomis+ and William Beasley+ will be speaking at a 6:30pm Interdenominational Celebration Service at Harvest City Church in Vancouver. This event is co-sponsored by the Anglican Coalition in Canada, and is open to Christians and seekers from all backgrounds. Please keep this upcoming time in your prayers, as many believe that God will use this moment to help us prepare spiritually for the coming Harvest during the 2010 Olympics. As Jesus said in Matthew 9:37-38:"The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

The Reverend Ed Hird+
ACiC Communications Director

Walking the Line with Johnny Cash

2008-10-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

By Rev Ed Hird+

-an article for the November 2008 Deep Cove Crier

During Johnny Cash’s nearly fifty years of music, he sold over ninety million albums. He learned to sing while picking cotton as an impoverished sharecropper’s son in Kingsland, Arkansas. Cash recorded more than 1,500 songs including well-known hits like ‘A Boy named Sue’, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and ‘Ring of Fire.’ Johnny Cash is the only musician who has ever been threefold-inducted into the Songwriter’s, Country Music, and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.”

More than 100 other recording artists and groups have recorded Cash’s song "I Walk the Line." Cash commented: “I wrote ‘I walk the Line’ when I was on the road in Texas in 1956, having a hard time resisting the temptation to be unfaithful to my wife back in Memphis”: ‘I keep a close watch on this heart of mine. I keep my eyes wide open all the time. I keep the ends out for the tie that binds. Because you’re mine, I walk the line.’

Cash’s life was often fraught with tragedy and heartbreak. “After my 14-year-old brother Jack’s death, said Johnny, “I felt like I’d died, too. I just didn’t feel alive. I was terribly lonely without him. I had no other friend.” Like his father before him, Johnny struggled for many years with addiction issues. His father was never able to tell his children that he loved them. Johnny Cash’s first marriage ran aground in the midst of workaholism and pill-popping. In Cash’ autobiography, he comments: “Touring and drugs were what I did, with the effort involved in drugs mounting steadily as time went by.” Amphetamines keep him going without sleep, and barbiturates and alcohol knocked him out. Cash comments: “I was in and out of jails, hospitals, and car wrecks. I was a walking vision of death, and that’s exactly how I felt. I was scraping the filthy bottom of the barrel of life.”

He knew that he had wasted his life and drifted far from God. In desperation, Cash decided to end his life in 1967 by crawling deep into the inner recesses of Nickajack Cave on the Tennessee River. There in pitch darkness he met God and then miraculously was able to crawl to the opening of the cave. There waiting for him was his future wife June Carter and his mother. That was Cash’s turning point in getting serious about battling his addiction. Cash stayed free of drugs until attacked in 1981 by an ostrich that ripped his stomach open and broke several ribs. While in hospital, he became re-addicted to painkillers. In 1983, his family and friends did an intervention, which included Cash’s going to the Betty Ford Clinic. Cash comments: “I’m still absolutely convinced that the intervention was the hand of God working in my life, telling me that I still had a long way to go, a lot left to do. But first I had to humble myself before God.”

In the midst of great trauma, Cash found that spiritual music helped bring him back from the despair of his addictions. “Wherever I go, I can start singing one of them and immediately begin to feel peace settle over me as God’s grace flows in. They’re powerful, those songs. At times they’ve been my only way back, the only door out of the dark, bad places the black dog calls home.” Cash began to find great strength in reading the bible and in prayer. He learned to stop hating himself, and to forgive himself and others.

During this time, Billy Graham became a personal friend and mentor. Billy Graham “was interested, but never judgmental...I’ve always been able to share my secrets and problems with Billy, and I’ve benefited greatly from his support and advice. He’s never pressed me when I’ve been in trouble; he’s waited for me to reveal myself, and then he’s helped me as much as he can.”

I thank God for the late Johnny Cash’s recovery from serious addiction, and pray that all of us will have the courage to change the things that can be changed.

The Reverend Ed Hird+

Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

Golfing with My Undertaker

2008-10-04T07:47:00.000-07:00

By Rev Ed Hird+
-an article published in the October 2008 Deep Cove Crier

Golf is now over 500 years old, having been played officially throughout Scotland since 1502. Most of the earliest references to golf were about attempts to ban it or to condemn the golfers. On 6th March 1457 in Edinburgh, King James II banned ‘ye golf’ because it was more popular than archery.

As a teenager, I golfed religiously three times a week at Langara Golf Course in Vancouver. To prove my dedication, I even sometimes golfed in the snow. I also used to caddy for my father, which was a great way to spend quality time with him.

Years later, my golf game has its moments of glory, as well as many reminders of how far I have fallen. I recently took part in a golfing tournament with forty undertakers and one hundred and ten clergy. On the second hole of the tournament, I sunk a forty-five-foot putt. Delusions of being the next Tiger Woods filled my mind until I missed a four-foot putt on the very next hole. Golf can be very humbling, and is therefore good for the soul, or so they tell me.

In the twenty-eight years since I was ordained, I have taken many funerals. Virtually every funeral involves a funeral director, sometimes called a family services counselor. I have found them to be very personal, decent individuals. It was not until I started golfing with funeral directors that I really came to know them personally. Over the eighteen holes, the pastors and undertakers shared the inevitable victories and defeats. It really helped us realize how much we had in common, though the funeral directors are usually better golfers.

Both funeral directors and clergy are usually called upon in times of sorrow and death. While some people try to do their own services, most Canadians still look to professionals to help them through this most difficult of times. Both pastors and undertakers are often misunderstood. People sometimes don’t realize that undertakers and clergy are ordinary human beings much like themselves. I remember once when a Deep Cove resident was shocked to see me shopping at Safeway, because they didn’t think that clergy actually shopped.

One of the privileges of serving for twenty-one years has been to walk with North Shore families and individuals through the key transitions of life: birth, marriage, and death. With one local family, I had the privilege of burying four members. Families during funerals will open up and share their hearts in ways that you rarely otherwise see.

Death is the great leveler. No matter how we try to avoid it and deny it, death catches up with every family. We can put it off for a while through healthy eating and exercising, but sooner or later we all face the grim reaper.

Both funeral directors and clergy can make a big difference in helping families navigate these painful waters. I am grateful that I can remind grieving people that there is a bridge over troubled waters, that Jesus made a way and prepared a resting place for them. I am grateful that death does not have the final say. My prayer for those reading this article is that each of us will find that bridge over troubled waters.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

John A Macdonald: Nation-Builder

2008-09-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

John A Macdonald: Nation-Builder
By the Rev Ed Hird+

Every time I spend ten dollars, I come face-to-face with Sir John A Macdonald, our first Prime Minister. As “the most famous of all Canadian leaders”, Sir John A. was a nation-builder, a man with many flaws who looked beyond himself and saw a great dream.

This year we are celebrating BC’s 150th Anniversary. Without Sir John A, there is no doubt in my mind that BC would have been lost to Canada. The vast majority of BC settlers were Americans drawn from San Francisco by the 1858 Gold Rush. John A’s promise of the Canadian Pacific Railway won over the hearts and mind of ambivalent BCers. This extravagant promise almost bankrupted Canada and nearly destroyed Sir John’s A. Macdonald’s political career. Imagine if the Federal Government in 2008 promised to send Canadian Astronauts to Jupiter by 2018! A railway all the way to BC was just as unthinkable in 1870. Some cynics joked that Canada was not a nation, but a railroad in search of a nation

John A was not only a nation-builder but also a bridge-builder. He commented: “We should accept as men and brothers all those who think alike of the future of the country, and wish to act alike for the good of the country, no matter what their antecedents may have been.” He saw Canadian Confederation as a spiritual marriage between francophones and anglophones. Unlike many of his fellow party members, John A could read French, understand it, and speak it reasonably well.” Sir John A commented: “God and nature have made the two Canadas one – let no factious men be allowed to put them asunder.”

After the tragic death of his first wife Isabella, he married Agnes Bernard, just before the national ‘marriage’ of the Dominion of Canada on July 1st, 1867. Agnes wrote in her diary: “I have found something worth living for – living in – my husband’s heart and love.” As a devout Anglican, Agnes had a significant impact on her husband’s life, causing him to cut back on his drinking and start attending church on Sunday. John A was deeply impressed by the Beatitudes, and made a practice of reading his bible every night before bedtime.

In 1888, during six weeks of Hunter-Crossley renewal meetings in Ottawa, Prime Minister Macdonald had a deep encounter with Jesus Christ. As one journalist put it, “When the well-known form of the Honorable Prime Minister arose in the centre of the church, many strong men bowed their heads and wept for joy.” After dining at the prime minister’s home several days later, Rev John Hunter confirmed that “Sir John is a changed man.” May we all, like Sir John A. Macdonald, have the courage to change the things we can.

The Rev Ed Hird+, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

A Deep Cove Love Story

2008-07-06T04:02:00.000-07:00

-an article for the August 2008 Deep Cove Crier

On May 19th 1987 at 2:15 in the afternoon, I met a dear couple who changed my life. I had no idea that I would spend the next twenty-one years getting to know them better. Rita and Ashley Carr are long-term Deep Cove Residents who helped a rather naïve, well-meaning 32-year-old Anglican clergyman learn more about the meaning of life.

As some of the longest members of St. Simon’s North Vancouver, Rita and Ashley taught me much about the people and life of our congregation back in the early pioneering 1950s. Some of their stories, especially about going fishing with Bud the local Anglican priest, were hilarious and full of fun. Rita and Ashley had a way of making a person feel deeply loved and welcomed. They truly lived out the Golden Rule and the Good Book’s call to love one’s neighbour as themselves.

I will always remember that first home visit with Rita and Ashley on Dollarton Highway. As she always did in each succeeding visit, Rita fed me with juice and cookies, and then asked about my family and the congregation. She said to me “It’s about time to get back into the fold”, commenting that when children get older, it’s easy to become inactive.

Some people say nice things to clergy to make them feel better, hoping that they will go away. Rita and Ashley were people of their word. First Rita came back to church, dropped off by Ashley. But gradually Ashley returned as well. They had their favorite seat in the congregation. Even though the Carrs were older, they loved the liveliness of the younger people in our contemporary 10:30am service.

Rita and Ashley aged well. They are one of the most loving and good-natured older couples that I have known. Their deep love for each other ‘for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part’ was an inspiration to many younger couples. Rita was part of the Sweet Adelines singers for many years. She really was one of the sweetest Deep Cove residents that I have had the privilege of meeting. Rita and Ashley were always so good-tempered and kind to others. Even in the worst of times, they always left me feeling better after visiting them.

At the end of every home visit, I would offer to read the bible and pray with them. Rita was a deep woman of prayer. She always prayed with me for each member of her family that they would know Jesus’ love for them. Even after her health made her a shut-in over three years ago, Rita kept in touch with her church family and friends. It was hard for her to not be able to attend her regular Thursday morning St. Simon’s NV home group. But she was always there in spirit.

On July 4th 2008, Rita went home to be with the Lord. As a World War II ‘war bride’, Rita had three homes: England, Deep Cove and Heaven. Rita was ready to go Home. She had a deep confidence in what Jesus had accomplished for her on the cross, and a quiet assurance of the reality of life after death. Like many in the Deep Cove/Seymour community, I deeply miss Rita, and look forward to having ‘English tea’ with her some day in heaven.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

A Wonderful Wrap-up to a Remarkable Weekend

2008-04-27T23:12:00.000-07:00

Dear friends in Christ,

The entire Anglican Network Conference was a very rich and fulfilling way to spend a weekend. The 'piece de resistance' of the weekend was the joint ANiC/ACiC Ordination service on Sunday April 27th at St John's Shaughnessy. With over 500 people present, the service was filled, as David Short+ commented, with "unity, life and joy."

ANiC Bishop Donald Harvey, ANIC Suffragan Bishop Malcolm Harding, and ACiC Bishop Sandy Greene ordained clergy that evening in a significant expression of John 17 unity for the sake of mission.

Archdeacon Trevor Walters presented the Rev. Dr Ken Deeks when he was ordained to the Anglican priesthood/presbyterate. Dr Deeks serves at Christ for the Nations College in the Fraser Valley and at Church of the Resurrection in Hope, BC.

Also ordained was the Rev Jim Salladin who leads the Sunday evening service at St John's Shaughnessy. Standing next to Jim+ is his good friend, the Rev Josh Wilton from St. Simon's North Vancouver (ACiC).

The Rev Randy Forrester, who serves as a Regent College intern at Immanuel Church Vancouver (ACiC), was ordained by Bishop Sandy Greene that evening. Standing next to Randy+ is the Rev David Short, Rector of St John's Shaughnessy, the largest Anglican congregation in Canada.

We were greatly encouraged to have Bishop Bill Atwood (Kenya/Texas) and Archbishop Greg Venables (Southern Cone) present for the joint ANiC/ACiC ordination service. They have given invaluable service to Canadian Anglicans over the past six years.

Some people are confused about the terms 'Southern Cone' and 'Global South'. 'Southern Cone' refers to the South American Anglican Province led by Archbishop Venables, which the Anglican Network in Canada has joined. 'Global South' refers to the faithful Anglican Primates and Provinces in South America, Africa, and Asia which are standing up for what Anglicans have always believed and practised. An example of this would be with the Chinese Anglican Churches. The Rev Silas Ng (AMiA/Africa) and the Rev Stephen Leung (ANiC/South America) are now both part of the Global South, sharing together in our Common Cause Federation.

Thank you for all your prayers as God is realigning his Church.

In Christ, Ed Hird+

Communications Director

Anglican Coalition in Canada

http://www.acicanada.ca/

2a) http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8147
VANCOUVER, BC: Apostolic Gospel Must be at Core of our Beliefs, says Priest Theologian
By David W. Virtue in Vancouver http://www.virtueonline.org/ 4/27/2008

The priest of the largest Anglican parish in Canada, who is under ecclesiastical siege from revisionist New Westminster Bishop Michael Ingham, says his denomination has lost faith in the gospel. This is evidently revealed in the diocesan newspaper, which gives the impression that the gospel is about being nice, being compassionate, recycling "and we will even bless your pets.""The eternal gospel of redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus' death and the power of his resurrection has been replaced with a gospel which is about approval, affirmation and acceptance. The apostolic gospel of sins forgiven, of rescue from eternal punishment has been smoothed and soothed to be more acceptable and relevant," said the Rev. Dr. David Short, pastor of St. John's, Shaughnessy in Vancouver. To read more click here.

2b)
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8148
VANCOUVER, BC: New Canadian Anglican Bishops Poised To Lead Church & Country Back to ChristBy David W. Virtuehttp://www.virtueonline.org/ 4/27/2008

After a 6-year struggle, two newly licensed Canadian Anglican bishops, along with 30 licensed priests and four deacons, are poised to win souls for Christ in a country that is fast becoming secularized and post Christian. To read more, click here

2c)
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8146
VANCOUVER, BC: Argentine Archbishop Says Anglican Communion Now Has Two Gospels --Orthodox will have Diminishing Place and Role at Future Anglican Table
An Interview with the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, Primate of the Southern ConeBy David W. Virtue in Vancouver http://www.virtueonline.org/ 4/26/2008

Despite his lofty title and a name that wreaks history, the Archbishop of the Southern Cone, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables, is amazingly humble as he sits and contemplates the future of the Anglican Communion and his role in it. No Archbishop has been more outspoken, tilted at windmills, or been vilified by a fellow Anglican Primate. Yet he still reaches out with love and compassion with firmness of resolve that the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be compromised and that its life-changing message, valid in the First Century, is just as valid in the 21st Century regardless of time, place, culture, gender, age or education. To read more, click here.

2d)
http://www.virtueonline.org/portal/modules/news/article.php?storyid=8141
"The broken plate" Archbishop Venables' Sermon to Commissioning service of ANiC
<http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/index.php/2008/04/26/the-broken-plate-archbishop-venables-sermon-to-commissioning-service-of-anic/#more-3387>
April 26th, 2008

We are glad and sad. Your decision and timing are correct. God will work with us as we walk through the next days and weeks and months and years. The Lord never tells us what is going to happen. He promises to be with us as we walk with him. That is how you will know who your true brothers and sisters are.Now to the future and what needs to be done. To read more, click here.

3)
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iYFwj_zsJSJaNBeAwQikhyy4OnDA
http://www.epistle.ws/South-Africa.html (South Africa)
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/canada (Yahoo Canada News)
http://www.macleans.ca/science/wire/article.jsp?content=n042749A (Maclean's Magazine)
http://www.economist.com/world/la/ (The Economist Magazine)
http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/ (My Telus News)
http://www.am1150.ca/ (AM 1150 Radio)
http://www.mdhnews.com/ (Medicine Hat Newspaper, Alberta)
http://www.680news.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w0427100A (680 Radio News)
http://start.shaw.ca/Start/enCA/News/ (Shaw News)
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2008/04/27/5403541-cp.html
http://web02.nm.cbc.ca/canada/ (CBC News)
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=cp_fv2rkoqcu223&show_article=1
http://www.topix.com/religion/anglican/2008/04/dissident-anglicans-look-to-south-america-africa-for-guidance
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/20080427128654/wire/national-news/dissident-anglicans-look-to-south-america-africa-for-guidance.html
http://www.q92fm.com/news_full.php?cat=23&id=42763 (Montreal, Quebec)
Dissident Anglicans look to South America
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iYFwj_zsJSJaNBeAwQikhyy4OnDA
Dissident Anglicans look to South America, Africa for guidance
April 28th 2008, Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — Dissident Anglicans, frustrated with what they feel are the Canadian church's liberal leanings, have found their salvation - and ecclesiastic authority - in unusual places: Africa and South America.

There, the Anglican faith is rooted in traditional, orthodox teachings and is growing in leaps and bounds.

In recent years, 28 parishes have voted to leave the Anglican Church of Canada out of frustration with what they perceive as a gradual departure from core values.

It's a huge change from the traditional structure of the Anglican church, which has been determined through geographic - not ideological - boundaries, says John Stackhouse, a professor of theology and culture at Regent College in Vancouver.

"Frankly, we have not seen this sort of thing in Canadian history, and I'm not sure we've seen it in Anglican history," he said. "With the significant size of these dissenting groups, and the international support for them . . . we may see two different bodies in one geographical territory."

There are two main splinter groups: the 13 parishes in the Anglican Coalition of Canada that are now licensed in the Church of the Province of Rwanda, and the 15 in the Anglican Network in Canada, which are under the authority of the Province of the Southern Cone in South America.
The controversy over blessing same-sex unions - in practise at eight Anglican churches in the Diocese of New Westminster in B.C. - is cited as the linchpin issue.

But for Anglicans, there's much more at stake.

"This isn't about just sex," says Stackhouse. "This is about the fundamental question of how we derive any kind of Christian truth.

"What the conservative group is saying is that there is no way to legitimately - that is to say intelligently - interpret the Bible to support same-sex unions. The only way to say that the Bible says that is to do a bad job interpreting the Bible.

"So how do you know what you're supposed to believe if even the bishops of the church are willing to interpret the Bible so badly?"

Rev. Ed Hird of the Anglican Coalition says the thousands of members of the coalition's churches aren't standing in opposition to the Anglican Church of Canada - they're simply getting on with their life.

"We're just happy to be realigned with the healthy expression of Anglicanism from the global south," he said.

The leader of that global south, Archbishop Gregory Venables, caused a firestorm of controversy last week when he arrived in Vancouver to speak at a conference.

The Anglican Church of Canada publicly told him to stay out of this country's affairs. He politely refused, saying those who have left the Canadian church wish to have him in this country.
He says those dissidents are just the first wave. He may be right.

Though few of Canada's more than 2,200 parishes have aligned with the two splinter groups, only a handful of dioceses - essentially a territory governed by a bishop - have opted to allow same-sex blessings.

"We have no idea right now what would happen to the national church if every diocese in the country did what New Westminster had done," Stackhouse said.

"Every diocese in which this has happened - or something like it has happened - churches have split off. This (issue) is very much in play now; this is not the end game at all."

Dissident Anglicans believe their core beliefs - the divinity of Jesus Christ, the sanctity of marriage and the rigidity of the 10 Commandments - are being called into question by the Anglican Church of Canada.

"For some, the Bible is no longer seen as definitive; it's maybe just seen as a symbolic resource book," Hird says. "We see it as definitive in faith and practice."

This departure from traditional teaching is being noticed around the world, Hird says.
"The vast majority (of Anglicans) have expressed real discomfort . . . that's part of the reason they've offered alternative oversight."

But while Hird takes issue with a plurality of liberal views being welcomed within the Anglican church, an official with the Anglican Church of Canada says that's one of the faith's virtues.
"The Anglican church at its best is a broad representation of different views; that's what separates us from the Roman Catholic Church," Archdeacon Paul Feheney said in an interview. "We don't have one way of thinking on issues.

"For some group to say, 'we're the orthodox and you're not,' is a misnomer of the highest regard."

4)
http://acl.asn.au/canadian-diocese-in-communion-with-anic/
Canadian diocese declares: in full communion with Anglican Network
Posted on April 28, 2008 Filed under News
LC.net/Canada reports that the Synod of the diocese of Athabasca, in northern Alberta, has broken ranks with the leadership of the national Church by declaring it is “in full communion” with the parishes and bishops who have left the Anglican Church of Canada to join the Anglican Network in Canada.
The Synod reportedly passed these resolutions –
Resolution # 2008-11 – BE IT RESOLVED that the Synod inform the parishes and the bishops who have joined the Anglican Network in Canada and the Province of the Southern Cone that we are in full communion with them.
Resolution # 2008-12 – BE IT RESOLVED that the Synod of the Diocese of Athabasca express its dismay that bishops of dioceses have resorted to secular courts when parishes within those dioceses have found it necessary to align themselves with the Anglican Network in Canada and the Province of the Southern Cone. (emphasis added)
With thanks to lambethconference.net

Heroes of the Faith at the April 25th-27th Anglican Network Weekend

2008-04-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

Dear friends in Christ,

I was so pleased to see the Venerable Dr. Trevor Walters be licensed by Bishop Don Harvey into the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone with Archbishop Greg Venables. Standing beside Archdeacon Walters is his South American Deacon, the Rev. Donald Gardner. Archdeacon Walters, Rector of St Matthew's Abbotsford, led the charge six years ago when we walked out of the June 15th 2002 New West Synod and appealed to alternative episcopal oversight. As the first assistant priest at St. Matthew's Abbotsford with Archdeacon Jack Major (1982-1987), I have a real heart for the people of St Matthew's who taught me much about moving in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Two other Canadian heroes of the faith are the Rev Ray David Glenn, associate priest at St George's Lowville, and the Rev Paul Charbonneau, Rector of St Hilda's Oakville who have both recently taken bold and costly stands for the Gospel. We hold them up in our prayers, as the court cases over their church buildings unfold.

One of our long-term Canadian heroes of the faith is the Rev Canon Charles Alexander from The Timothy Institute in Calgary, the first Chair and Co-ordinator of Anglican Renewal Ministries of Canada, which I later chaired. Charles+ was the first guest speaker at our initial Renewal Mission at St. Simon's NV over 20 years ago. We enjoyed Charles+ so much that we are now gearing up for our 22nd Annual Renewal Mission in March 2009 with the Rev William Beasley and the Rev Doc Loomis, both AMiA Network Leaders.

Charles+ led two of his former congregations into the Renewal of the Holy Spirit, St James Calgary and St Mary's Metchosin. Standing next to Charles is Bud Boomer, a courageous lay leader at St Mary's Metchosin where they were recently thrown out of their building for a day by their ex-diocese.

Naturally I was pleased that our ACiC/AMiA Bishop Sandy Greene was able to be present for the whole conference. Bishop Sandy and Bishop John Guernsey both served on a panel about 'Evangelism in a western post-modern culture'. Both Bishops Sandy and John are very committed to the John 17 Common Cause/Anglican Awakening vision of unity in Christ for the sake of mission.

The Rev Canon Chris Sugden of the Oxford Center for Mission Studies has been strategic in the preparations for the Jerusalem GAFCON conference on June 15th to 22nd. We are very grateful to listen to a Kingdom-minded Brit who is able to see beyond his own island, and sacrificially make a stand for the Global South Anglicans, and for the future of the Anglican Church worldwide.

Once again, as with the March 2nd Pacific Coast Anglican Awakening: first steps, there was a large number of Anglican clergy and bishops from many Common Cause jurisdictions at the 1,100 to 1200-strong Saturday afternoon celebration service.

We are encouraged that now all the Chinese Anglican Churches in Greater Vancouver have realigned with the Global South. The Rev Silas Ng, Asian Initiative Network Leader and Rector of Richmond Emmanuel Church, who has one of the largest Anglican Chinese Churches in Canada, is pleased to see the new unity being expressed among Chinese and Caucasian Anglican Churches. Silas+ is currently planting two new Chinese Anglican churches, one in San Francisco and one in Toronto.

God is clearly on the move in Canada.

In Christ,

Ed Hird+

Communications Director

Anglican Coalition in Canada

http://www.acicanada.ca/

Visual Reflections on the April 25th-26th ANiC Conference

2008-04-26T21:35:00.001-07:00

Dear friends in Christ,

It was a real joy to spend time, as Common Cause Partners, with our Anglican Network friends on the April 25th-26th 2008 Conference held at South Delta Baptist Church.

Bishop Donald Harvey and Archdeacon Charlie Masters have been working with great dedication in helping Anglicans across Canada to step into a new level of freedom with the Global South.

We are very much looking forward to the ordination tomorrow Sunday April 27th 6:30pm at St John's Shaughnessy of Jim Salladin, shown here with another Regent College grad, the Rev Ken Bell, Rector of St Timothy's North Vancouver (ACiC). Jim preached at our St. Simon's NV congregation two years ago, and now leads the Sunday evening St John's service.

We were also pleased to have Archbishop Yong Ping Chung, one of our AMiA/ACiC sponsoring primates, present for the entire conference. Standing next to Archbishop Yong is the Rev Stephen Leung, Rector of Church of the Good Shepherd who walked out of New West Synod 2002 with us almost six years ago. Stephen+ was just relicensed today along with dozens of other ANiC clergy by Bishop Donald Harvey and Archbishop Greg Venables of the Southern Cone.

The Rev Dr JI Packer, author of the best-selling book 'Knowing God', was also relicensed today. His courageous theological leadership over the past number of decades at Regent College is deeply appreciated. The Anglican Studies Program at Regent College has proved to be a real god-send in this time of Anglican transition and realignment.

Bishop Charles Dorrington of the Reformed Episcopal Church was among many bishops and archbishops who joined us for this historic conference. The Reformed Episcopal Church in Canada recently celebrated their 133rd anniversary of realigning towards biblical orthodoxy. The REC are vital partners in the emerging Common Cause Federation.

The prolific Anglican reporter David Virtue with Virtueonline was present interviewing key leaders like Archbishop Venables and Dr JI Packer.

Bishop Albert Vun of the Diocese of Sabah, where Archbishop Yong was the predecessor, spoke about the remarkable church growth and evangelism being experienced in South East Asia.

We were also grateful for strong Common Cause Partners being there like Bishop John Guernsey of Uganda/USA, Bishop Bill Murdoch of Kenya/USA, and Dean Bill Thompson of the Anglican Communion Network.

Bishop Suffragan Malcolm Harding led two of our 21 St. Simon's NV Renewal Missions, as well as our BC Christian Ashram Retreat. He is standing beside a longterm friend, retired Bishop Len Whitten of Newfoundland.

The closing service, which had 1,100 to 1,200 people present, left many of us with tears of joy and expressions of deep thanksgiving. God is continuing to give faithful Anglicans a deeper realization of Jesus' John 17 prayer that we may be one for the sake of mission.

All in all, a great Kingdom weekend.

In Christ, Ed Hird+

Communications Director

Anglican Coalition in Canada/AMiA (Common Cause Federation)

http://www.acicanada.ca/

"I don't believe in God..."

2008-03-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

by the Rev. Ed Hird

an article for the April 2008 Deep Cove Crier

Today’s new atheism has been popularized by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris. Contemporary atheism reminds me of Alexandre Dumas’ book ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’. You may remember Jim Caviezel/ Edmond Dantes’ cry while in Chateau d’If prison: “I don’t believe in God”. Edmond had suffered so deeply and so unfairly for so long that he had given up on the concept of a loving and just God. His ‘cellmate’ Abbe Faria poignantly replied to Edmond: “God believes in you.”

Alexandre Dumas lived through many French revolutions during which belief in God became distinctly out-of-fashion or even dangerous to one’s health. Dumas experienced much disappointment in his life, and was frequently either breaking the heart of a female acquaintance or having his own heart broken. Yet in the midst of many setbacks, Dumas had a fascination with the God question that comes across in his over 250 novels, travel pieces, memoirs, and theatre productions. Best known as author of ‘The Three Musketeers’, ‘The Man with the Iron Mask’, and ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’, Dumas had a remarkable ability to touch deep into people’s souls. As his friend Victor Hugo said after Dumas’ death, Alexandre “fertilizes the soul, the mind, the intelligence; he creates a thirst for reading; he penetrates the human genius and sows seeds in it.”

In the Dumas biography ‘Genius of Life’, we are told about young Dumas’ tragic loss of his father: “Why should I not see (my father) any more?”
“Because God has taken him back”
“...I’m going to heaven”, said young Dumas, “I’m going to kill God who killed my papa.”

Dumas, being an avid reader, learned much sacred history from the Bible that later shaped many of his plays. Dumas encouraged the studying of ‘the bible as a religious, historic and poetic book’. At one point, young Dumas was given funding in a will to go to seminary and become a priest. This overwhelmed him, and he said “I am running away, because I do not want to be a priest.” Receiving his first communion had a profound impact on Dumas: “When the host touched his lips, he became dizzy, burst into sobs, and fainted. It took him three days to recover from this...Dumas would never again approach the communion table, except at the hour of his death.”

Our reactions to suffering and injustice can make or break us, turn us bitter or better. So often we are insensitive to the deeper issues of life until we have personally ‘hit the wall’. Edmond Dantes the Monte Cristo hero recalled that ‘the prayers taught him by his mother discovered in them a hidden meaning hitherto unknown to him. To the happy and prosperous man, prayer is but a meaningless jumble of words until grief comes to explain to the poor wretch the sublime language that is our means of communication with God.”

Edmond Dantes miraculously escaped from prison and found hidden treasure on the Island of Monte Cristo. Using resurrection language, Dumas commented, “When (Edmond) was at the height of his despair, God revealed himself to him through another human being. One day he left his tomb transfigured miraculously.”

But Edmond was consumed by a need for revenge that threatened to destroy his own new freedom. “I must have revenge, Mercedes! For fourteen long years have I suffered, for fourteen years wept and cursed, and now I must avenge myself.” Dantes admitted to Mercedes: “From being a kind and confiding nature, I made myself in to a treacherous and vindictive man...If you ever loved me, don’t rob me of my hate. It is all I have.” She wisely responded, saying, “Let it go Edmond. Let it go.

Edmond’s reappearance after so many years in prison called forth this memorable statement from Mercedes: “Edmond, I know there is a God above, for you still live and I have seen you. I put my trust in him to help me...Unhappy wretch that I am, I doubted God’s goodness...Cowardice was at the root of all my actions.” Edmond responded to her deep repentance by saying: “you have disarmed me by your sorrow...God had need of me and my life was spared.”

At the end of the book, Edmond faces the Christ-like choice of mercy or revenge. He painfully chose mercy which set him free from the root of bitterness that was eating him alive. Mercedes commented: “I repeat once more, Edmond, it is noble, beautiful to forgive as you have done.”

Dumas said in ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ that ‘the wretched and miserable should turn to their Saviour first, yet they do not hope in Him until all other hope is exhausted.’ My prayer for the Seymour/Deep Cove community is that we not totally exhaust ourselves before we finally admit our spiritual need.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

Good Friday Goodbye

2008-02-12T10:04:00.000-08:00

Good Friday Goodbye
-an article for the March 2008 Deep Cove Crier

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

What a joy to celebrate twenty years of the existence of the Deep Cove Crier. I remember twenty years ago when Wilf Fawcett of Fawcett Insurance approached me about becoming a columnist for the Deep Cove Crier. Wilf wrote a DCC insurance article for many years before retiring.

I had no idea when I agreed to start that I would be still writing for the Deep Cove Crier twenty years later. As I have mentioned to Bruce Coney the DCC Publisher, my recent award-winning book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’ is a direct fruit of sharpening my skills by month-in, month-in writing for the Seymour/Deep Cove Community. Thank you, Bruce and Gail, for opening this door in my life.

Writing and books have a tremendous influence on all of our lives. Sometimes the most powerful writing we do is when we say ‘Goodbye’. Most eulogies at funerals are an opportunity to say Goodbye, to pay our last regards. Most of us say ‘goodbye’ thousands of times in our lives. Saying goodbye to our loved ones is always the hardest. As most of us are immigrants to Canada within the past number of generations, we know the story of how hard it was for ourselves, our parents or grandparents to leave our homeland and come to this strange land named Canada. My Nana Allen was born in Canada, but she still called England the mother country. She longed deeply for a land that she never saw until she turned 80. When the Irish left Ireland to come to the new world, many of their relatives had a wake, in effect burying them as dead.

Unless we learn to say goodbye from our hearts, we can never move forward in our lives. Many people will never let go. They easily become bitter, discouraged, and even physically ill. Letting go and letting God is not just a slogan. It is a vital key to restoring health in the 21st Century.

Jesus said ‘Blessed are those who mourn/grieve for they shall be comforted.’ Saying goodbye is the heart of genuine, healthy living. The term ‘goodbye’ is an English contraction of the phrase ‘God be with you!’ Why were our ancestors always saying ‘goodbye’ to each other? Because they wanted God to be with them. What better gift can we give each other that the gift of God being with them?

This month, we remember Good Friday and Easter. Jesus had to say goodbye on Good Friday before he could say ‘hello’ on Easter Sunday. Why did Jesus leave his best friends on Good Friday? He left them because he loved them and wanted God to be with them. As Jesus hung on the cross, he said ‘Goodbye’: “Into your hands I commit my spirit’. Jesus knew that unless he let go and surrendered to the cross, there would be no way forward. The resurrection joy of Easter Sunday is a direct result of Jesus saying goodbye on Good Friday. My prayer for you this Easter is the words ‘goodbye’. May you discover this Easter that God is really with you, that you are deeply loved.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

Greetings from the Windy City

2008-01-18T22:32:00.001-08:00

Greetings from the Windy City
An article for the February 2008 Deep Cove Crier
By the Rev Ed Hird+

I recently flew into the Windy City in the middle of a snowstorm, and wondered what I was doing there. Because of mechanical failure, my earlier flight was cancelled and I had to fly to San Francisco instead. Thanks to a sleep mask and ear plugs, I slept wonderfully at 30,000 feet, ending up in Chicago at 6:30am the next morning. My Chicago meetings started immediately at 8:30am that same day!

So why was I in Chicago anyways? I had been invited to take part in a two-day strategy session designed to help Christians and especially Anglicans learn to love each other more. We had Anglican leaders from Canada, various parts of the USA, and England gathering together, praying together, eating together, listening together. Some of us knew each other before. About half of us were total strangers.

We listened carefully to an exciting story about how Anglicans overcame their differences and gathered together on Sept 23rd in the first ever Anglican Awakening. More than 2,000 individuals met at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois to affirm their unity of faith and belief in Christ, and to hear a sermon from The Most Rev. Dr. Peter Akinola, Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

“Two thousand years ago Jesus prayed that ‘they all would be one, as we are one,’” Archbishop Akinola began. “Where is that unity? Has God not answered the prayer of His Son?”

Archbishop Akinola commented that Christians today don’t have the unity they desire because they have not been transformed by the power of the Gospel. “You cannot give what you do not have,” Archbishop Akinola affirmed an African saying. “We can’t have unity with one another unless we have unity with God.”

The Midwest Anglican Awakening included 20 participating congregations from a variety of ethnic and denominational backgrounds. The organizing committee was chaired by the Rev. William Beasley, the Midwest AMiA Network leader.

“I was delighted by the spirit of unity displayed in the service today, and I believe we are all more united in purpose than ever, to accomplish the mission God has for us both in sharing the Gospel of Christ and in serving physical needs around the world today,” the Rev. Beasley said.

Before the benediction, Archbishop Akinola strayed from the program to lead an extended time of prayer for healing, teaching the congregation an African prayer song imploring “Let the Spirit of the Lord come down on us.”

“I believe we felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in a powerful way today, and we all were encouraged and empowered to unite together in mission and purpose to reach and serve the global Body of Christ,” William Beasley said.

On Sunday March 2nd at 7pm , we will be having a Pacific Coast Anglican Awakening: first steps to which you are all invited. It will be held at Fraserview MB Church at 11295 Mellis Drive in Richmond. Bishop Bill Murdoch of the Anglican Province of Kenya and Anglican Communion Network Dean for New England will be preaching. The Rev William Beasley, AMiA Midwest Network Leader, will also be taking part. Please join us in celebrating the gift of unity in Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

TAPS: Life after Death in 2008

2008-01-03T17:16:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0801.html
TAPS: Life after Death
an article for the January 2008 Deep Cove Crier

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

As we enter the 2008 New Year, many are wondering about what lies ahead this year. Every new beginning is both a fresh start and a death to that which went before us.

I have discovered that you cannot say ‘yes’ to something new without saying ‘no’ to something else. Sometimes in our frantic culture, we keep adding endless things to our agendas, our lives, and our family. Eventually emotional indigestion sets in. Without healthy boundaries, everything crashes. The joy of life itself disappears.

In reflecting on the 2008 New Year, I was struck by the appropriateness of the bugle song Taps.

“Day is done, gone the sun
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky
All is well, safely rest;
God is nigh.”

What gives us hope for this 2008 New Year, as we have bid farewell to 2007? The Year 2007 is gone, never to be retrieved again, except in our memories. But we can safely rest, for God is nigh. In the uncertainty of the unfolding future, we can say ‘It is well with my soul’ for God is nigh. In the pain of grief, tragedy, and unexpected suffering, we can say that there is hope, because God is nigh.The bugle call was written in 1862 by the Union Army Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield, an American Civil War general.

Taps also replaced "Tattoo", the French bugle call for "lights out." Within months, Taps was used by both Union and Confederate forces.

The Taps bugler continues:
“Then goodnight, peaceful night;
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright.
God is near, do not fear,
Friend, goodnight.

Taps is a very sad bugle song. Few songs touch our hearts more deeply. That is why it is so appropriate at military funerals. At the 1999 Taps Arlington Ceremony, Chaplain Colonel Brogan said the following: “Lord of our lives, our hope in death, we cannot listen to Taps without our souls stirring. Its plaintive notes are a prayer in music--of hope, of peace, of grief, of rest... Prepare us too, Lord, for our final bugle call when you summon us home! When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and death will be no more."

At the heart of Taps is an assurance that the light of the dawn will shine brightly. Light is always stronger than darkness. Love is stronger than hate. Life is stronger than death.

Taps reminds us that there is life after death. Sometimes we experience smaller deaths like the death of a job, a marriage, or a relationship. Other times we experience the finality of a loved one’s funeral. Taps reminds us that even in great pain and tragedy, “God is near, do not fear’.
Life can be very hard, sometimes heart-breaking. In this 2008 New Year, may you find great comfort that there is life after every kind of death. Jesus on the cross assured that. God is near.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, BC
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Church Leaders often spend weeks preparing for Christmas service message

2007-12-24T17:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Home+Family/071223/U122308AU.html (CBC News)
http://www.macleans.ca/canada/wire/article.jsp?content=n122354A (Macleans Magazine)
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/12/23/4738721-cp.html (CNews Canoe)
http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=109619&Itemid=560 (Prince George Citizen)
http://www.canadaeast.com/news/article/165238 (Telegraph Journal)
http://www.cfrb.com/news/14/641051 (CFRB News)
http://www.570news.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n122354A (570 News)
http://www.eastottawa.ca/article-cp82022032-Church-leaders-often-spend-weeks-preparing-for-Christmas-service-message.html (Orlean Star)
http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=82847 (Brandon Sun)
http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=23&id=122354 (940 News, Montreal)
http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n122354A (1130 News, Vancouver)
http://www.680news.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n122354A (680 News)
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/canada/story/4097595p-4695838c.html (Winnipeg Free Press)
http://www.mytelus.com/ncp_news/article.en.do?pn=canada&articleID=2843032 (MyTelus, Alberta and BC)
http://www.topix.com/wire/ca/vancouver-bc (Vancouver Wire/Topix: Comprehensive Newsfeed)
http://www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/results/News/christmas%20carols/1/411/TopNavigation/Relevance/zoom=off/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true (Dogpile)
http://www.westmountexaminer.com/ (Westmount Examiner, Quebec)
http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Religion (NewsNow, UK)
http://www.dailyheadlines.net/ (Daily Headlines, World Newspapers)
http://news.yahoo.com/rss (Yahoo News)
http://www.q92fm.com/news_full.php?cat=24&id=122382 (Q92 News, Montreal)
http://www.cssasfu.com/en/ (Simon Fraser University Chinese Students and Scholars Association)
http://www.inform.com/related_content/1350686,1 (Inform News Source)
http://www.ezrock.com/news/14/641051 (EZRock Radio)
http://www.torontosun.com/ (Toronto Sun)
http://www.ottawasun.com/ (Ottawa Sun)
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/ (Calgary Sun)
http://www.westislandchronicle.com/article-cp82022032-Church-leaders-often-spend-weeks-preparing-for-Christmas-service-message.html (West Island Chronicle)
http://www.cjad.com/news/14/641051 (CJAD News)

Church leaders often spend weeks preparing for Christmas service message

Sun, 2007-12-23 21:21.
By: Elianna Lev , THE CANADIAN PRESS
VANCOUVER - The mall isn't the only place that sees a boost in population over the holiday season.
Churches across the country typically see their attendance skyrocket over Christmas. Many of those attending are casual visitors, the ones who come only during the high holidays of Easter and Jesus' celebrated day of birth.
This fact isn't lost on church leaders, who say they often spend several weeks preparing for a message that will stay with the crowd attending for symbolic purposes.
Rev. Ed Hird with St. Simon's Anglican Church in North Vancouver takes the story of Jesus and tries to make it relevant and accessible to his patrons. He said it's important to remember that "Jesus is the reason for the season," and tries to communicate how his (birth) plays a part in everyone's life.
"I take the message of Jesus'birth and (show) how that could potentially impact all of our lives," he said. "I've seen many people who've turned up at Christmas, and that's been the turning point for them."
For Rev. Bruce Sanguin with the Canadian Memorial United Church in Vancouver, Christmas is the one time when he's not "preaching to the converted." He said he's happy to see people taking the time to attend church, even if it's for a symbolic reason.
"A lot of people come for the tradition of it," he said. "They're coming to hear the old carols and the scripture reading and be in the candlelight and sing Silent Night. All of that is fine with me so it's not a time to preach a theologically heavy kind of sermon."
Darryl Macdonald, minister with Christ Church United of Two Mountains in Montreal, starts preparing for his service in September. By October, he meets with his church's worship committee and in November, they have an idea for themes for Advent and Christmas services. By December, the details are taken care of and hymns are chosen.
"What I tend to do is work mine together so that all four Sundays of Advent and Christmas Eve all tie in with the theme," he said. "That's why I have to start much, much, much earlier."
Hird and Sanguin said they both take several weeks to prepare for their Christmas message. Hird said he even tries to prepare physically, as in the past he's pushed himself so hard that he often became ill.
Now he gets a flu shot, goes to the gym and eats properly in the weeks before Christmas.
For Sanguin, he makes sure he takes the time to relax and think clearly.
"While the rest of the world is speeding up and making all the Christmas preparations, I find it important to slow down and take a countercultural approach," Sanguin said. "Make sure I'm doing the yoga and create a quiet space within where the Christmas story can come alive for me."
Right Rev. Sue Moxley, the bishop of the Anglican diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, said she went on a weeklong retreat to pray and think in silence as she prepared for the Christmas season.
In the weeks since, she's been preaching at holiday-themed services every Sunday, and she'll speak to her congregation in Halifax on Christmas Eve.
Moxley said she wants parishioners to remember that Christmas is not "just an old piece of history," especially if they only make it into the pews once a year for the holiday.
"The point I think is to make the connection that this is a very old story, and we change every year, new things happen to us, so we hear the old story in a different setting each year," she said.
"Out of that, there's always hope that comes out of the story, no matter what kind of situation we're in."

Working Out

2007-12-09T22:10:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0509.html

Working Out

an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

One of the things that I most appreciate about the our local North Vancouver Recreation Commission ‘Play Card’ is that it gives me access to nine weight rooms in 5 different locations.

One of my strongest motivations for going regularly to the gym is that it really helps reduce my intermittent neck pain. It is interesting how often physical aliments have parallels in the spiritual realm. Being stiff-necked can sometimes be both a physical and a spiritual reality. Fifteen years ago while at a renewal conference in Anaheim, the Lord spoke to me about my need to repent over my stiff neck. Rather than make excuses, I decided to agree with the Lord, and be willing to change. God did a deep work in me that I will never forget, teaching me how to be more surrendered to God’s will in my life.

I had no idea how serious the spiritual ‘stiff-necked’ condition was, until I read through the bible, finding nine references to this affliction.

In Exodus 32:9, the Lord said to Moses: “I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people”. One of the main reasons why God made the Moses’ followers wait forty years before entering the Promised Land was the problem of their stiffneckedness (Deuteronomy 9:6) God’s solution in 2 Chronicles 30:8 was “Be not stiff-necked as your fathers were, but rather yield yourselves to the Lord and enter his sanctuary.” Being stiff-necked seems to be a generational condition, as Stephen mentioned in Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked..., you are just like your fathers. You always resist the Holy Spirit.”

My family has physically suffered from stiff necks for generations. That is why we have often turned to physiotherapists, chiropractors, and menthol rub. Regularly going to the gym appeals to the frugal part of myself, because I estimate that I am actually saving money on medical bills by preventative maintenance. By working out regularly and using a neck-stretching machine, I hardly ever have headaches any more, and rarely ever need aspirin or Tylenol.

The Good Book says in 1 Timothy Chapter 4: “Exercise daily in God: no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts at the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today, and forever.” The Bible is pro-exercise, but realizes that physical exercise will only take you so far. That is why the famous YMCA Red Triangle stands for Spirit, Mind, and Body. All three parts needs exercising, not just the physical!

Bishop Tom Wright, a well-known English member of the Windsor Commission, commented: “The last time I made a serious effort to get physically fit, I had a specific purpose in mind. We were about to launch into a complicated move of house, and I knew that I was going to be on my feet all day for a long time, carrying boxes, books, pictures and goodness knows what else. I was going to be climbing ladders and moving furniture, not to mention sorting out a garden. I needed to go into training, and I did. It worked. I really ought to be doing it again now...”

As I and my family have just completed moving locally, I relate to Bishop Tom Wright’s sentiments. I have just finished moving and unpacking what felt like a thousand boxes! If it wasn’t for my years of training at the local gym, I would be stiff necked and aching everywhere. But instead I feel fit and free. But it is not enough to be physically fit, while letting our spiritual life go flabby.

Have you ever thought of the Church as God’s Gymnasium? Would you like God to remove a few kinks in your stiff neck? My prayer for those reading this article is that we would exercise the whole person, in Spirit, Mind, and Body.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

RG Letourneau: Model of Generosity

2007-12-09T22:02:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews019.html

RG LeTourneau: Model of Generosity
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

One of the most amazing ‘rags to riches’ stories is the life of RG LeTourneau, as told in his biography “Mover of Mountains and Men”. LeTourneau began his career in obscurity in Stockton, California, where his first job was transporting earth to level out farmland. His frustrations with moving dirt drove him to find a better, more efficient way. In 1922 he constructed the first all-welded scraper that was lighter, stronger and less expensive than any other machines.

G. LeTourneau became the greatest obstacle-mover in history, building huge earth-moving machines. During World War II he produced 70% of all the army's earth-moving machinery. He spoke of God as the Chairman of his Board.

As a multi-millionaire, LeTourneau gave 90% of his profit to God's work and kept only 10% for himself. A special friend of Billy Graham, in his early days, LeTourneau designed a portable dome building intended for Graham crusades. He also founded a university that is thriving to this day.
LeTourneau said that the money came in faster than he could give it away. LeTourneau was convinced that he could not out-give God. "I shovel it out,” he would say, “and God shovels it back, but God has a bigger shovel."

Many people see Letourneau as one of the most influential people of the past hundred years. http://www.letu.edu/about_LU/museum/Museum_Online/ .

As the father of the modern earthmoving industry, he was responsible for 299 inventions. These inventions included the bulldozer, scrapers of all sorts, dredgers, portable cranes, rollers, dump wagons, bridge spans, logging equipment, mobile sea platforms for oil exploration, the electric wheel and many others. He introduced into the earthmoving and material handling industry the rubber tire, which today is almost universally accepted. He invented and developed the Electric Wheel. His life's verse was Matthew 6:33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you."

LeTourneau’s example reminds me that we too can be Mountain Movers. As the Great Physician said in Matthew 17:20, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” RG LeTourneau once said: “You will never know what you can accomplish until you say a great big yes to the Lord.” My prayer for those reading this article is that God may raise up many creative leaders who, like LeTourneau, will be movers of mountains and people.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Say No to Fear

2007-12-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0510.html

Say No to Fear
an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

If you had just a few months to live, what would you most want to say to friends? What would have priority and what would become secondary? The famous Apostle Paul knew that he was about to have his head chopped off by the crazed Roman Emperor Nero. So he wrote his final letter, known as Second Timothy, to his key assistant, Timothy. Second Timothy was really Paul’s last will and testament.

Paul had been in jail many times for the faith. It was his favorite place to write letters like his unforgettable letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. If Paul had not been sent to jail so often, half the New Testament would likely never have been written. In the past Paul had always been let out of prison. But this time he knew that the only escape was death.

Have you ever lost a key leader and mentor who has helped you reach heights that you never thought you would reach? To lose such a person can bring deep feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Bishop Handley Moule of Durham, England, commented that “Timothy stood awfully lonely, yet awfully exposed, in face of a world of thronging sorrows. Well might he have been shaken to the root of his faith.”

Young Timothy was by nature an insecure, sickly and timid person, but Paul saw potential in Timothy far beyond his outward appearance. Paul had been closely associated with Timothy ever since he ‘discovered’ him in Lystra, Turkey, some fifteen years before.

Paul knew that it was time for the changing of the guard, the passing on of the baton of leadership. Paul was determined that Timothy not drop that baton in the midst of Emperor Nero’s onslaught.

You’ve probably heard the expression: “Rome burned while Nero fiddled”. Nero set Rome on fire in AD 64 as an urban renovation project, and blamed the early Christians as convenient scapegoats. The historian Tacitus commented that the early Christians “were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps. Nero gave his own gardens for this spectacle...”

Christianity was on the verge of extinction, and the dying Paul saw Timothy as the key to its very survival. The famous Dr. John Stott comments, “Greatness was being thrust upon Timothy, and like Moses and Jeremiah and a host of others before and after him, Timothy was exceedingly reluctant to accept it.”

Paul strengthened Timothy by reminding him how much he meant to him, and how often he prayed for him day and night. He also strengthened Timothy by reminding him of the faithful examples set by his grandma, Lois and his mother, Eunice. As Dr. John Stott put it, “good biographies never begin with their subject, but with his parents, and probably his grandparents as well.” Paul was saying to Timothy: “don’t lose touch with your roots”.

What do you know for sure if you see a turtle on a fencepost? The answer is that it didn’t get there itself. We are who we are, in large part because of people who have believed in us and invested in us. Many of us as Canadians have forgotten the remarkable spiritual heritage we have been given by our ancestors, our Loises and Eunices. I think of our Judeo-Christian heritage in Canada as like crabs hidden under the rocks at the seashore. Only when one uncovers the rocks does one discover the greatest riches of life just below the surface.

The dying Paul knew that Timothy had so much going for him. So he told him to fan into flame the wonderful God-given gift that had been given to him. It is so easy to let our gifts and abilities lie dormant, when we need to rekindle and stir up the smouldering flame.

Fear can cripple our future. So Paul said to Timothy: “God has not given you a spirit of timidity but of power and love and a sound mind.” Timidity, says Douglas Milne, is a chronic fear of people, suffering or responsibilities that paralyzes the will from giving effective leadership.
Paul is saying to Timothy, and to each of us: “Say no to fear. Don’t let anxiety crush your life. Live life free and unfettered.” At the heart of every addiction is the bondage to fear.

My prayer for those reading this article is that the Great Physician will set each of us, like Timothy, free from fear, and fill us instead with the Spirit of power and love and a sound mind.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Breaking the Power of Shame

2007-12-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews020.html

Breaking the Power of Shame
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

The teenaged Roman Emperor Nero started off in AD 57 as a idealistic reformer, banning capital punishment. He forbade killing in circus contests, emphasizing instead athletics, poetry, and theater. He reduced taxes and permitted slaves to file complaints against unjust masters. But absolute power absolutely corrupted him.

Nero was born at Antium (Anzio), Italy, on December 15th 37 A.D. His father, who died when Nero was age 3, was a great-grandson of Caesar Augustus - the Roman emperor at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ (Luke 2:1).

Nero’s mother Agrippina rescued her son Nero from poverty by marrying her uncle, the emperor Claudius. Agrippina managed to get Nero adopted not only as a son of Claudius, but the heir to the throne before Claudius' actual sons. To show her gratitude, she poisoned her husband/uncle with tainted mushrooms. Nero became the emperor of the mighty Roman empire at the age of 17.

One year after Nero became Emperor, he got tired of his mother’s interfering, and had her removed from the palace. Four years later she still kept meddling, so Nero rigged her boat to collapse on her. Being a strong swimmer, Agrippina refused to drown, so Nero had to send soldiers in to finish the job. There is a famous painting by John William Waterhouse where Nero is lying on his bed feeling remorseful for taking his mother out. http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/paintings/painting1430.aspx

Any remorse did not slow him down for long. As murder can be rather addictive, Nero proceeded to present the gift of an ex-wife’s severed head to a future wife, and then kick another wife to death while she was pregnant.

Nero’s most memorable accomplishment was burning much of Rome to the ground to make room for a new palace. After six days of Rome burning, Nero discovered the value of blaming a small Jewish group called Christians. Their ringleader, the Apostle Paul, was thrown into a Roman dungeon, to prepare for his imminent beheading. If these early Christians refused to renounce their faith, Nero had them thrown to the lions, crucified, or set on fire and used as garden-party lighting.

Christianity looked as if it would be obliterated from the face of the earth. But Paul from prison wrote a second letter to his chosen successor Timothy, ‘rallying the troops’. He said to Timothy: “Don’t be ashamed to bear witness for the Lord or Paul his prisoner”. He encouraged the naturally timid Timothy not to be ashamed of Paul’s chains. Paul, though about to be exterminated, said to Timothy: “I am not ashamed, for I know whom I believe”.

Breaking the power of shame is absolutely vital to living a free and healthy life. All of us have at least one Nero in our life who would like to enslave us, entrap us, and fill us with shame. It may be our relatives, our boss, our ex-spouse, our own personal addictions to fear, guilt, anger. By breaking the power of shame and self-hatred, we can live fully without regret. The key, said Paul, to breaking the power of shame, is in ‘knowing whom we believe’.

I would challenge each one reading this article to no longer let our personal Neros cover our faces with shame. Live free. Live forgiven. Live in the healing embrace of the One who gave everything so that you might really live.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Lt General Romeo Dallaire: Canada’s Unsung Hero

2007-12-09T21:22:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0511.html

Lt General Romeo Dallaire: Canada’s Unsung Hero
an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

November 11th is sometimes hard for many younger Canadians to access. How can one remember on Remembrance Day when it all seems so long ago?

This November 11th I invite you to access Remembrance Day through remembering one of Canada’s unsung heros: Lt General Romeo Dallaire. Recently named to the Canadian senate, Lt General Dallaire embodies the best of what needs to be remembered each November 11th.
Dallaire led the 1994 UN Mission to Rwanda where he saw 800,000 men, women and children slaughtered by extremists. Before the genocide, Rwanda had been the largest recipient of Canadian aid proportionally in all of sub-Saharan Africa.

Abandoned during the 1994 crisis by the world community, Rwanda’s greatest advocate was one lonely Canadian, Romeo Dallaire, who forced the tragedy of the Rwandan genocide onto the world stage. “The people of Rwanda”, said Dallaire in his book/DVD Shake Hands with the Devil, “were not an insignificant black mass living in abject poverty in a place of no consequence. They were individuals like myself, like my family, with every right and expectation of any human who is a member of our tortured race.”

“Too little and too late” summarized the response of the UN bureaucrats and the international power-brokers. Dallaire wrote in his book: “There was a void of leadership in New York (UN). We sent a deluge of paper and received nothing in return; no supplies; no reinforcements, no decisions.” The UN did produce numerous resolutions about Rwanda, but as Dallaire noted, “The resolution’s phrases were pure UN-ese: ‘having considered...express regret...shocked...appalled....deeply concerned...stressing...expressing deep concern...condemns...strongly condemns...demands...decides...reiterates...reaffirms...calls upon...invites...decides to remain actively seized of the matter.’” Dallaire sadly described the UN as “an organization swamped and sinking under the dead weight of useless political sinecures, indifference, and procrastination.”

In the midst of this betrayal, Dallaire stood strong and made a powerful difference in saving thousands of Rwandans. As a man of deep Christian faith, Dallaire faced the reality of cold-blooded evil, but was not defeated by it. In his acclaimed book “Shake Hands with the Devil”, Dallaire commented: “After one of my many presentations following my return from Rwanda, a Canadian Forces padre asked me how, after all I had seen and experienced, I could still believe in God. I answered that I know there is a God because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil. I have seen him, I have smelled him and I have touched him. I know the devil exists, and therefore I know there is a God.”

One of Dallaire’s chief way of saving Rwandan lives was in his intentional cultivation of the media. “The media”, said Dallaire, “can be an ally and a weapon equal to battalions on the ground.” The CBC Radio show ‘As It Happens’, with Michael Enright, played a key role in waking up a very sleepy, apathetic Canadian population. Dallaire commented: “The media was the weapon that I used to strike the conscience of the world and try to prod the international community into action.”

Dallaire shows the gift of remarkable vulnerability in talking about his feeling and core beliefs: “My Christian beliefs had been the moral framework that had guided me throughout my adult life. Where was God in all this horror? Where was God in the world’s response?” He suffered deeply from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome upon returning to Canada, and has taken many years of counseling to recover. Dallaire wrote: “I wanted to scream, to vomit, to hit something, to break free of my body, to end this terrible scene. Instead I struggled to compose myself...”

Near the end of the Rwandan UN Mission, Dallaire was so exhausted by the trauma that he started to collapse internally: “...my manners and my sense of humour, two essentials of leadership, were fading fast...” His own staff noticed that ‘The General was losing it’ and rightly concluded ‘...if I (Dallaire) wasn’t replaced, I would be dead in less than two weeks’ Dallaire vulnerably shared (in his book) “...how guilty I felt abandoning my troops before the mission was over, how guilty I felt that I had failed so many people and that Rwandans were still dying because of it.” Dallaire’s self-recriminations and ‘what ifs’ nearly ate him up inside: “After nearly a decade of reliving every detail of those days, I am still certain that I could have stopped the madness had I been given the means.”

“Why”, asked Dallaire, “were we so feeble, fearful and self-centered in the face of atrocities committed against the innocent?” Dallaire concluded that “We are in desperate need of a transfusion of humanity.”

I thank God this November 11th for Lt. General Romeo Dallaire’s courageous role in saving so many Rwandan lives. Rwanda means a lot to me, as St. Simon’s North Vancouver and 11 other Anglican Churches have been adopted into the Anglican Province of Rwanda. Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini, our Rwandan Primate, said that they were committed to rescuing us in North America, because no one was there for them when they were in their 1994 crisis. They would not leave us as orphans.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Finishing the Race of Life

2007-12-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0512.html

Finishing the Race of Life
an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

by the Rev. Ed Hird+

There has been great anticipation about the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Dr. William Barclay comments that perhaps the world’s most famous Olympic race is the marathon. The original Battle of the Marathon in 490 B.C. was one of the decisive battles of the ancient world. The Plains of Marathon, where the Greeks met King Darius I’s Persian army, were just twenty-two miles from embattled Athens. Against fearful odds, the Greeks won the victory, and, after the battle, a Greek soldier ran all the way, day and night, to Athens with the news. Straightway to the magistrates, he ran. “Rejoice,” he reportedly gasped,” we have conquered” and even as he delivered his message, he fell dead. He had completed his course and done his work, and there is no finer way for any man to die.”

When Michel Bréal and Pierre de Coubertin suggested the idea of the marathon race to the first 1896 Athens Olympic Organizing Committee, the Greeks embraced the plan with eagerness. Here, after all, was a race that emerged from Greek history and celebrated the achievement of a Greek runner. Against great odds, the first 1896 Olympic Marathon was won by a Greek, Spiridon Louis. The nation of Greece exploded with joy! Since there were no gold medals for the 1896 Olympics, Spiridon Louis was awarded with an olive branch, a silver medal and cup, as well as an antique Olympic vase. The same Pierre de Coubertin, inspired by a sermon at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, wrote the following ‘creed’ for the Olympics: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

Each one of us in our own way is running an Olympic marathon every day of our life. The Good Book tells us to ‘run with patience the race set before us.’ (Hebrews 12:1) Dr. William Barclay commented that “It is easy to begin the race of life but hard to finish. The one thing necessary for life is staying-power, and that is what so many people lack. It was suggested to a certain very famous man that his biography should be written while he was still alive. He absolutely refused to give permission, and his reason was: ‘I have seen so many men fall out at the last lap.’ It is easy to wreck a noble life or a fine record by some closing foolishness.”

Probably one of the most famous ‘Olympic runners’ is the apostle Paul, a former Rabbi who was knocked off his horse while racing to Damascus, Syria. Paul spent the next thirty years ‘running’ throughout the Roman Empire telling people the good news. Paul, the prolific writer, wrote more chapters of the New Testament than any other individual (74 chapters singlehanded!) He often used Olympic Marathon language to communicate his heart: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown of laurel that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly...” (1st Corinthians 9:24-26). Paul had been in and out of jail many times, escaping death again and again. He was always on the run! By the end of Paul’s life, the crazed Emperor Nero was on the warpath, and Paul knew that the only way out of jail was by beheading.

Even though Paul was designated for the ‘chopping block’, he didn’t panic, but stayed focused on his spiritual ‘Olympic Marathon’. Ironically Paul told his young protégé ‘runner’ Timothy to ‘keep his head in all circumstances’ (2 Timothy 4:5).

Paul knew that he was about to die. “Now”, said Paul, “is the time for my departure”. The Greek word for departure is analusus –like our word ‘analysis’ which means ‘a separating of items from each other’. It was used for loosening the ropes of a ship when weighing anchor. It was also used of a camper packing up his tent, and for a farmer unyoking an animal from its plough. Paul was saying that death was not the end; rather it was a moving on to the next adventure.

Paul’s dying words were profoundly Olympic: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” As Bishop Michael Baughen depicts it, “The relay runner is pounding round the track, using every ounce of energy, heading for the hand-over point. Ahead of him is the next runner in the relay, feet beginning to move in anticipation, eyes on the runner coming towards him, his hand now outstretched to take the baton at the appropriate moment and then to run and run, while the man he took the baton from collapses breathless on to the grass. Paul is pounding towards the end. His ‘time of departure has come’ and Paul is urging Timothy to take the baton from him and to run with commitment and determination.”

Speaking of the Vancouver Olympics, how is your daily marathon doing? Are you stretching each day towards the finish line? Are you preparing another young Timothy that you can pass the baton to, when you finish the race of life? Are you running the race of life in such a way as to get the prize?

The Rev. Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Always Winter and Never Christmas

2007-12-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews021.html

Always Winter and Never Christmas
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

Since C. S. Lewis wrote Narnia Chronicles in 1950, almost 100 million copies of the book in 29 languages have been sold. Disney invested $150 Million in what has been called ‘the greatest children's story ever told.’ The high quality trailers about the Narnia movie are worth the price of admission themselves. www.narniaweb.com/trailers.asp

At the heart of Narnia’s ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ is the abolition of Christmas by the White Witch where it is always winter and never Christmas. C.S. Lewis’ alternate title for his book was ‘The Hundred Year Winter’. Not once in the past hundred years of Narnia was Christmas ever celebrated.

The White Witch, whose real name is Jadis, punished anyone who wanted the restoration of Christmas, by turning them into stone. The White Witch's most memorable feature was her skin, as white as chalk, or paper, or snow. CS Lewis explains in the Narnia book ‘The Magician's Nephew’ that the White Witch’s skin was made that way by eating an apple from the Emperor's Garden at the beginning of Narnia.

In the midst of this bone-chilling winter, we are told about an ancient prophecy stating that when two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve filled the four thrones as Kings and Queens of Narnia, the tyranny of the White Witch and her hundred-year winter would end. We are also told that one day the great Lion Aslan will triumphantly return to Narnia: “Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.”

The front page of USA Today (December 2-4, 2005)

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005-12-02-narnia-main_x.htm features a picture of Aslan and the question "Is that lion the King of Kings?" CS Lewis called Aslan a ‘supposal’ of what might have happened if Christ had come to a world of talking animals and become one of them.

With the remarkable success of Mel Gibson’s ‘Passion of the Christ’ Movie and Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy, many came to expect that the Narnia Chronicles would also be another spiritually-oriented blockbuster. Many ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Narnia’ buffs may not be aware that it was JRR Tolkien who helped lead his atheist friend CS Lewis to faith in the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5).

While teaching at Oxford College, Lewis formed a lasting friendship with JRR Tolkien. Lewis said to Tolkien that tales or myths are 'lies and therefore worthless, even though breathed through silver'. 'No', said Tolkien, 'they are not lies'. Tolkien went on to explain to Lewis that in Jesus Christ, the ancient stories or myths of a dying and rising God entered history and became fact.

Twelve days later, Lewis wrote to another friend Arthur Greeves: "I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ - in Christianity. I will try to explain this another time. My long night talk with Dyson and Tolkien had a good deal to do with it". CS Lewis recalls going by motorcycle with his brother Warren to Whipsnade Zoo, about thirty miles east of Oxford. "When we set out, I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo, I did". In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, Lewis commented: "In the Trinity term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God...perhaps the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England".

This Christmas season, as you take your family and friends to see the Narnia Chronicles, I invite you to discover with CS Lewis that Aslan is the Reason for the Season.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Aslan on the Move

2007-12-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0601.html

Aslan on the Move
an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

Who is Aslan anyways, and why are so many children of all ages so fascinated with him? Having thoroughly enjoyed watching Disney’s ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, I was motivated to go back and re-read the Narnia Chronicles series. My family, when they were younger, eagerly watched the cartoon version of ‘The Narnia Chronicles’, and gained much from it. But with the breakthrough in CGI technology, Aslan has taken on a new visual depth.
When the four Pevensie children in Narnia first hear Aslan’s name, they immediately feel powerful sensations that they cannot comprehend. Peter, Susan, and Lucy experience an unfathomable joy. Edmund the double-crosser was strangely dismayed. Either way Aslan evoked a strong response.

In the Narnia Chronicles “The Horse and His Boy”, Aslan reveals himself as the one who keeps us from going over the edge, the one who stays with us day and night. The young prince Shasta looked back after entering Narnia: “I must have gone through the pass in the night. What luck that I hit it! At least it wasn’t luck at all really, it was Him (Aslan). And Now I’m in Narnia.” “Who are you?” asked Shasta. “Myself”, said the voice, very deep and low so that the earth shook; and again “Myself”, loud and clear and gay; and then the third time “Myself”, whispered so softly you could hardly hear it, and yet it seemed to come from all around you as if the leaves rustled with it.” Aslan was Himself, no more, no less.

In Narnia Chronicle’s “The Magician's Nephew”, we learn that Aslan sang creation into existence at the beginning of time: “The Voice rose and rose, till the air was shaking with it. And just as it swelled into the mightiest and most glorious sound it had yet produced, the sun arose...The Lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song...And as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool...Soon there were other things besides grass...'Trees,' Digory exclaimed.”

CS Lewis ‘created’ a world of endless snow in the Narnia Chronicles. Only when Aslan was slain for others by the White Witch did the snow start melting. CS Lewis described his own spiritual breakthrough the same way: “I felt as if I were a man of snow at long last beginning to melt. The melting was starting in my back – drip-drip and presently trickle-trickle. I rather disliked the feeling.”

Many people don’t realize that CS Lewis, a confirmed old bachelor, ended up becoming married because of Aslan. Joy Davidman, a self-declared atheistic communist of Jewish heritage, loved to read the Narnia Chronicles to her sons. In the process, she came to faith in Aslan, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5). Looking back, Joy Davidman commented: “My first published poem was called "Resurrection" — a sort of private argument with Jesus, attempting to convince him (and myself) that he had never risen. I wrote it at Easter, of all possible seasons, and never guessed why."

As Joy Davidman wrote in ‘The Longest Way Round’, God "had been stalking me for a very long time, waiting for his moment; he crept nearer so silently that I never knew he was there. Then, all at once, he sprang. For the first time in my life I felt helpless; for the first time my pride was forced to admit that I was not, after all, 'the master of my fate'. All my defenses — the walls of arrogance and cocksureness and self-love behind which I had hid from God — went down momentarily. And God came in. Since childhood, I had been pouring half my energy into the task of keeping him out. When it was over I found myself on my knees, praying. I think I must have been the world's most astonished atheist."

After coming to faith in Aslan the Lion of Judah, Joy escaped to England from her alcoholic, adulterous, wife-beating husband. As told in the ‘Shadowlands’ movie, it was there that Joy met her Narnia hero, CS Lewis. As a favour to a good friend, CS Lewis married Joy Davidman to keep her from being thrown out of the country because of her former communist background. As Joy began to battle terminal cancer, CS Lewis then fell in love with Joy for real and married her a second time in a Church wedding,. Romantically CS Lewis adopted Joy Davidman’s children, one of whom, Douglas Gresham, is co-producer of the Narnia Chronicles movie blockbuster. So who is this Aslan who transformed Joy Davidman’s life?

CS Lewis wrote to some Maryland fifth graders in 1954: "I did not say to myself 'Let us represent Jesus as He really is in our world by a Lion in Narnia'; I said, 'Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as he became a Man in our world, became a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen.'". In the letter, sent to a child fan in 1961, Lewis writes: “The whole Narnian story is about Christ.” CS Lewis commented: “Since Narnia is a world of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called ‘the lion of Judah’ in the Bible.”

My prayer for those reading this article is that each of us, like CS Lewis and Joy Davidman, may open our hearts to the mysterious Aslan.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

I am On Aslan's Side

2007-12-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews022.html

I’m On Aslan’s Side
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

With the ‘Narnia Chronicles’ movie having broken the 200 Million Dollar barrier, there is a tremendous level of interest being expressed with the fascinating Aslan character. What is it about Aslan the Lion that can even outdraw the mighty King Kong at the box office? Why is Aslan so effective in breaking through our adult pessimism and negativity?

One of the most interesting Narnia creatures is the Marshwiggle, a symbol of negativity, pessimism, and reliable gloom. In the Narnia Chronicles’ ‘Silver Chair’, the Green Witch says to the Narnians: “Put away these childish tricks. I have work for you in the real world. There is no Narnia, no overworld, no sky, no sun, no Aslan.” The Marshwiggle remarkably responds by affirming: “I ‘m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can, even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

It is easy to be cynical and bitter. It took courage for the Marshwiggle to look past his natural negativity and cling to the promises of Aslan. The Narnia Chronicles have been teaching me once again that only the childlike can enter the Kingdom of Narnia. Even the Lion of Judah once said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3)

There is a major difference between being childish and childlike. The Narnia Chronicles comments that “even in this world, of course, it is the stupidest children who are the most childish and the stupidest grownups who are the most grown-up.” The famous ‘love chapter’ of 1 Corinthians 13 encourages us ‘to put away childish things’ As the Pevensie children journeyed throughout their Narnia adventures, they became less childish and more mature both in outward appearance and inner character. Yet simultaneously they became more childlike in their willingness to trust and admit their need for others, especially their need for Aslan. In the recent Narnia blockbuster ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, the children cry out ‘Aslan, I need your help’, to which Aslan responds “I know, but the future of Narnia depends on your courage.” Only the truly childlike can be truly courageous. If we depend on our own strength alone, life tends to sap us of our inner fortitude.

It takes real courage to admit how tough and sad life can sometimes be. Only the truly childlike know how important it is to weep and grieve from time to time. At the death of the Narnian King Caspian, “all three stood and wept. Even (Aslan) the Lion wept: great lion tears, each tear more precious than the earth would be if it was a single diamond.” Childlike tears can be deeply healing. That is why Jesus said: “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” That is why the shortest sentence in the entire bible is ‘Jesus wept’. The Good Book poignantly says that Aslan puts every one of our tears in a bottle.

Perhaps most importantly, only the childlike can truly hear Aslan’s voice. Aslan said to Polly regarding Uncle Andrew in ‘The Magician and His Nephew’: “He has made himself unable to hear my voice. If I spoke to him, he would only hear growlings and roarings. Oh Adam’s sons, how cleverly you defend yourselves against all that might do you good.” Aslan says to each of us in 2006: “Come farther in. Come farther up. Come to the real land of Narnia, the land you have been looking for all your life.” Let Aslan give you ‘the wild kisses of a Lion’. Let Aslan bring you to life as you walk with childlike faith through the Wardrobe.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

From Sea to Sea

2007-12-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0602.html

From Sea to Shining Sea
-an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

A number of years ago, I wrote a Deep Cove Crier article about Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley in the http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr9609.htm entitled ‘On Guard for Thee’: “Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, a Father of Confederation and twice the Lt. Governor of New Brunswick, rose each morning to start his day with prayer and Scripture reading. As the 33 Fathers gathered in Charlottetown to discuss and draft the terms of the British North America Act, there were many suggestions on what to call this new "United Canada".

That morning, as Tilley read from Psalm 72:8, he became so convinced that Canada should be a nation under God, that when he came down to the Conference session, he presented the inspired "Dominion of Canada". The other Fathers readily agreed and accepted. Today the following words hang in the corridor near the Confederation Chamber in Province House: ‘In the hearts of the delegates who assembled in this room on September 1, 1864, was born the Dominion of Canada. Providence being their guide, they builded better than they knew.’”

The Term ‘Dominion of Canada’ beat out the Confederation Father’s other competing names: "The United Colony of Canada", "the United Provinces of Canada", "the Federated Provinces of Canada”, "the Republic of Canada", "the Realm of Canada", "the Union of Canada", and "the Kingdom of Canada" (strongly favoured by Prime Minister John A. MacDonald!).
The usage of the term ‘Dominion’ was formalized in 1867 through Canadian Confederation. The letter that established our name to Queen Victoria is signed by John A. Macdonald and explained that Dominion was "a tribute to the principles they earnestly desired to uphold."
This Dominion motto was even placed in Latin on our Canadian coat of arms "A Mari Usque Ad Mare" (from sea to sea) drawn once again straight from Psalm 72:8. "He shall have dominion from sea to sea." Thanks to Canada’s leadership, the term "dominion" caught on throughout the world, also used by Australia and New Zealand.

One day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. God’s heart is that every person in Canada will know His redeeming love and mercy. One way or another, God will have dominion in this great nation from sea to shining sea.

As our Canadian Charter of Rights so clearly states, “... Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law." Wherever we look in Canada, we find evidence of God’s hand on the founding and growth of our nation. Let us all affirm our national anthem in praying "God keep our land, glorious and free".

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver,

Anglican Coalition in Canada

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Pastor Bob Birch: 100 Years of God's Faithfulness

2007-12-06T07:58:00.000-08:00

Shortcut to: http://www.christianity.ca/frame.asp?http://www.christianweek.org/stories.php?id=43
http://www.christianweek.org/stories.php?id=43
December 1, 2007 • Volume 21, Number 18
The man who prayed for 100 years
By Ed Hird Special to ChristianWeek
Bob Birch: 100 years of faithfulness
VANCOUVER, BC—At age 100 (the legacy of) Bob Birch is still larger than life. For most of his ministry years, he never missed his 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. morning prayer time. Even men one third of his age could not keep up with Bob Birch’s prayerfulness throughout the night watches.
I can still vividly remember Birch in his mid-80s leading a Good Friday Cross Walk procession, carrying a huge cross on his shoulders. Perhaps his longevity comes in part from his passion for prayer-walking throughout the streets of greater Vancouver.

Fittingly, for his retirement Birch was given a pair of walking
boots(...)
(click on http://www.christianweek.org/stories.php?id=43 to read the rest of the article)

Note from Ed+:
Pastor Bob Birch was promoted to glory on Tuesday Dec 4th. A memorial service for Pastor Bob is being planned for January 2008. Please keep his wife Margaret and sons John, Paul, & Alfred in your prayers.

P.s. to obtain a copy of 'Pastor Bob', Beth Carson's most helpful biography of Pastor Bob Birch, just click on http://essencebookstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=791

Tilley and Tupper Our Founding Fathers

2007-12-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews023.html

Tilley and Tupper Our Founding Fathers
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, a Father of Canadian Confederation and twice the Lt. Governor of New Brunswick, rose each morning to start his day with prayer and Scripture reading.

As the 33 founding Fathers gathered in 1864 at Charlottetown, PEI, there were many suggestions on what to call this new nation. That morning, as Tilley read from Psalm 72:8, he became so convinced that Canada should be a nation under God, that when he came down to the Conference session, he presented the inspired name "Dominion of Canada". Our National Motto on our Coat of Arms "A Mari Usque Ad Mare" (from sea to sea) was drawn once again straight from Psalm 72:8. "He shall have dominion from sea to sea."

Tilley came to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ in 1839 through his Anglican rector, the Reverend William Harrison. His life was so dramatically transformed that he even became an Anglican Sunday School teacher and a Church Warden (Elder). Tilley’s son Harrison became a well-known Anglican priest.

One day, an 11-year old girl ran to Tilley for help, after her drunken father brutally stabbed her mother to death. Because of this tragedy, Tilley went from being a quiet pharmacist to becoming the Premier of New Brunswick in his campaign for alcohol reform. When Tilley brought in actual alcohol legislation, he was burned in effigy, his house was attacked, and his family’s lives were threatened.

Tilley the ‘dry’ Anglican was good friends with Sir Charles Tupper the ‘drinking’ Baptist Premier of Nova Scotia. Both shared a passion for railways which they believed were the key to the Maritimes’ future. Sir Charles Tupper eventually became the Federal Minister of Railways, bringing the CPR railway line to Vancouver, and BC into Confederation. Before the arrival of the railway, traveling to Vancouver would take all summer by riverboat and stagecoach.

The 1864 Charlottetown meeting was originally intended to bring a Maritime Union of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to defend against the threat of American invasion. But Tupper and Tilley dreamed bigger, inviting Ontario and Quebec to join them in a new Confederation. Tupper believed in the greatness of Canada, saying: "The human mind naturally adapts itself to the position it occupies. The most gigantic intellect may be dwarfed by being cabin'd, cribbed and confined. It requires a great country and great circumstances to develop great men."

Tupper read the Bible fully from cover to cover by the age of eight. His father Charles Tupper Senior, a prohibitionist, was one of the founding fathers of the fast-growing Maritime Baptist Churches. While training as a medical doctor in Edinburgh, Charles Jr discovered Scotch from which he never recovered. Tupper served as first president of the Canadian Medical Association.

In 1867 the Halifax Morning Chronicle had described Tupper as “the most despicable politician within the bounds of British North America.” Throughout his career Tupper was variously described as “the Boodle Knight,” the “Great Stretcher” (of the truth), “the old tramp,” the “Arch-Corruptionist,” and “the old wretch.”.

Tupper has the distinction of being the shortest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history, even beating out Joe Clark and Kim Campbell (67 days!). His marriage, despite allegations of philandering, lasted longer than any other Prime Minister: 66 years!

Tupper, the longest-surviving Father of Confederation, served in six federal cabinet portfolios. If there was something that was really difficult to get done, somebody who needed to be won over, Macdonald often said: ‘Call Tupper.’ Tupper could make things happen.In 1883 a British Columbia contractor close to Tupper was awarded a two million dollar job though rivals submitted lower bids. The opposition suspected a payoff. Tupper faced a legal challenge and demands for a full inquiry. He promptly left his retirement home in Vancouver and sailed for London, far from the cry of scandal, to take a diplomatic posting.

Sir Charles Tupper and Sir Leonard Tilley remind us that God can use the most unlikely people in building a nation.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Fanny Crosby: The World's Most Prolific Songbird

2007-12-02T15:19:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0603.html

Fanny Crosby: The World’s Most Prolific Songbird
an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

Fanny Crosby was blinded, while only six weeks old, by a quack unlicensed doctor. He permanently scarred her corneas by applying hot mustard poultices to her mildly infected eyes. When her father died while Fanny was only 12 months old, her mother had to become a maid to support little Fanny.

Despite these tragedies, Fanny never fell into self-pity. “Don’t waste any sympathy on me”, she said. “I’m the happiest person alive.” Fanny went on to become one of the best known women in North America. She taught for 23 years at the New York Institute for the Blind, becoming the personal friend and confidante of every sitting American President during her lifetime. As the first woman to ever address the U.S. Congress, Fanny left a lasting impact wherever she went.

Fanny had a life-changing spiritual encounter at age 30 in November 1850, which she said ‘flooded her very soul with celestial light’. Fourteen years later at age 44, Fanny wrote her first song. Over the next 51 years, she wrote over 8,500 songs, often producing six or seven songs per day! She wrote so many songs that you would have to stack 15 hymnbooks on top of each other, just to show how much music she produced. Fanny was so prolific that publishing companies would only sell more of her songs by using over 100 pseudonyms. She literally glutted the market with her incredibly popular music!

One of the keys to her becoming so well-known was her partnering with the famous ’DL Moody/Ira Sankey’ team. Sankey (who was also blind for his last five years) would often provide the tune, and Fanny Crosby would write the words. After the infamous Chicago fire that burned down Moody’s premises, Moody and Sankey went to England, speaking and singing their way into the hearts of the British people. Even Queen Victoria and the Princess of Wales came to hear Moody preach and Sankey sing Fanny Crosby’s songs. As one writer commented, Fanny Crosby ‘set more hearts and voices to praising God than any other women who ever lived. Fanny’s approach to life and music was “Live in the moment and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.”
Fanny Crosby had a photographic memory, memorizing five chapters of the Bible every week. She knew by heart the first five books of the Old Testament, the four Gospels, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and many of the Psalms. Some of her most well-known songs were “To God be the Glory, Great Things He hath Done”, “Draw Me Nearer, Precious Lord”, “Blessed Assurance”, and “Praise Him! Praise Him!”.

Fanny lived until age 95. When she was 83, she said: “I believe myself to still really be in the prime of my life.” When asked about her longevity, she said that her secret was that she guarded her taste, her temper, and her tongue.

Fanny actively supported the Water Street Mission in New York, the first Rescue Mission in North America. It had been founded by Jerry McAuley who himself had recovered from alcohol and prison. She did not focus on pointing out other people's faults. "You can't save a man by telling him of his sins. He knows them already. Tell him there is pardon and love waiting for him. Win his confidence and make him understand that you believe in him, and never give him up!" One of her best known songs “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour” was written specifically for a prisoner who cried out at her meeting: “O Lord, Do not pass me by!”

Fanny was married for 44 years to Alexander Van Alistine, her former student and fellow instructor at the New York Institute for the Blind. With Alexander being a top organist and Fanny an accomplished harpist, they must have been quite a duo. Sadly their only child, Frances, died as a baby. It was this tragedy that inspired the writing of one of Fanny’s most famous songs: “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”.

Her song “Safe in the Arms of Jesus” even reached Uganda in 1885. The Anglican Bishop James Hannington was captured by King Mwanga and put for a week in a filthy rat-infested hut. Bishop Hannington’s last words in his diary were: “Go tell Mwanga that I have purchased the road to Uganda with my blood.” As they speared him to death, Hannington was joyfully singing “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”. His courageous death inspired 32 servants of King Mwanga to accept being burnt alive rather than renounce their faith and moral convictions. Such sacrifices have produced the second largest Anglican Church in the world, with over eight million Ugandan Anglicans attending church each Sunday.

I thank God for Fanny Crosby, the world’s most prolific songbird, who has shown tens of millions in every continent how to be ‘safe in the arms of Jesus’.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, ACiC
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Only Five Problems in Any Marriage

2007-12-02T15:11:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews024.html

Only Five Problems
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

Marriage can often be overwhelming for many. That is why I so much appreciate the initiative being taken by Dr. Gil Stieglitz in bringing new hope to marriages. Through his years of study and practical interaction with many couples, Gil has discovered that there are only five problems in any marriage. This insight is helpful, especially for men, as it helps us get a handle on the challenges that we face in developing intimacy.

Dr. Gil summarizes the five problems of marriage as 1) Needs or Roles 2) SSSAAADDD Behaviours (when our needs are not being met) 3) Temperament Differences 4) Relational Drainage 5) Past Baggage He has seen phenomenal breakthroughs when couples begin to address and work on these five key areas. To assist marriages, he has developed a six-part DVD series http://ptlb.com/problemsofmarriage.htm , with accompanying books, which walk couples through each of these five areas.

Dr. Gil, who pastored a congregation for many years, believes that churches can make a big difference in helping strengthen marriages. After all, God both invented and is deeply committed to the ‘institution’ of marriage. During the years that I have been pastoring St. Simon’s North Vancouver, I have seen many outwardly successful people on the North Shore whose inner lives were crumbling because of relational challenges. Sometimes it takes a major crisis, like a marriage struggle, before we are willing to cry out to God and admit how much we need him. Many men that I have known are totally baffled when their wife finally packs up and leaves.

Dr. Gil believes in being very practical in the help that he offers to men and women. So he has developed two acrostics that assist us to build marriages of great joy. For men, he has developed the acrostic: H.U.S.B.A.N.D. which identifies the fourteen top needs of our wives. (Honour, Understanding, Security, Building Unity, Agreement, Nurture, Defender). Love, says Dr. Gil, is meeting needs. The first letter “H” (Honour) has been most helpful for me personally. Dr. Gil teaches that women do something every day that many men don’t. They give an informal ‘computer test’ to their spouse to see where they are in the structure of his priorities: “Are they above his work or below his work, above the children or below his children, above his hobbies or below his hobbies?” If the wife does not win that computer test, guess who loses. The husband does, because the wife cannot blossom and respond to him from the depth of her being. Every day, the husband needs to honour or add value to his wife in practical, specific ways.

Many men know how to be men, but not husbands. The word ‘Husband’ actually comes from the term ‘Husbandman’, which means ‘gardener’. We as husbands are called to ‘garden’ our wife, to nurture her, care for her, and put her first under God. You can find out more about the ‘H.U.S.B.A.N.D.’ acrostic by checking out Dr. Gil’s book ‘How to Be a Godly Husband’ http://ptlb.com/godly_husband.htm .

For Wives, Dr. Gil and Dana Stieglitz have developed the acrostic ‘R.A.D.I.C.A.L.’ which identify the top fourteen needs of one’s husband (Respect, Adaptability, Domestic Leadership, Intimacy, Companionship, Attractiveness, and Listening). Along with the Marriage DVDs, Gil and Dana Stieglitz have co-written a book “Building a Marriage of Great Joy” which explains how to be a ‘RADICAL’ wife http://ptlb.com/godly_wife.htm

Gil and Dana teach that respecting or acknowledging the strengths of one’s husband meets a deep need, but is not always easy for women to do. In the same way that wives want their husbands to give them unconditional love, husbands need their wives to give them unconditional respect. As the Good Book puts it in Ephesians 5:23, “Husbands, love your wives and, Wives, respect your husband.”

If you are struggling in your marriage, Dr. Gil's materials would be a godsend to you. If you already have a good marriage, go for the gold. Dr. Gil's materials can help you and your spouse have a marriage that can give hope to many others.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Fit for the Master

2007-12-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews025.html

Fit for the Master
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

Many homes have beautiful dining rooms specially set apart for guests. My family always uses the dining room for Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and birthdays. I have noticed that the dining room for most families has its own traditions. “Go to a fine home”, says Dr. Thomas Oden, “and you will see that there are two types of silverware- the good silver and the utensils for daily use. There are the beautiful articles that have been kept for generations and will be passed on as heirlooms...”

This distinction between utensils seems to be hardwired into us. To illustrate this point, just try your family’s silver punchbowl for scrubbing the floor, and see if you have any reaction from your wife or mother.

The Good Book says in 2nd Timothy 2:20 that ‘in a large house there are vessels not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble.” The Good Book also teaches that we can choose what kind of vessels that we are going to be, whether we are used for the dining room or scrubbing the floor

The key to being used in the dining room is catharsis, the Greek word for cleansing. The Hebrew word ‘Kosher’ simply means ‘clean’. Like my father, I actually enjoy cleaning the dishes, one of my few kitchen abilities! Raymond Collins commented that a person is like a dish insofar as both have to be clean in order to be put to another use. Have you ever been served food on a dish that was not cleansed from the last person who used it?

In the East African/Rwandan revival, people were thought of as each holding a water pot. Our heavenly Father wants to fill us with the water of life, but cannot or will not do so if our water pots are defiled by sin, anger, self-pity or impurity. As the famous song puts it, “Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord! Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.” The Good Book says in 2nd Timothy 2:21 that if a person cleanses himself, he will be fit for the Master.

Lent and Easter is a great time to cleanse ourselves from anything that will keep us from being fit for the Master. Keeping fit is God’s better way, physically, mentally and spiritually. Many people go to Fitness classes. Have you ever thought of going to church as God’s fitness class, as God’s gym? Our congregation of St. Simon’s even worships in a gym! God wants you fit as a fiddle, fit for the master, useful for every good work.

If each of us are willing to do the work of catharsis, cleansing ourselves from bitterness, self-pity, anger, guilt, shame, and fear, then God will invite us into his dining room and make use of us at his family meals. Can you think of a more fitting place to be?

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

The Old Rugged Cross

2007-12-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0604.html

The Old Rugged Cross
an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

Once every year, billions of people on every continent of the globe stop whatever they are doing and remember the mystery of Easter. At the heart of that mystery is the old rugged cross. For those of us who have a soft spot for Western movies, the ‘Old Rugged Cross’ song invariably turns up somewhere, often by a windblown graveside.

“On a hill far away stood an Old Rugged Cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.”

‘The Old Rugged Cross’ song was written by George Bennard, who lived from 1873-1958. "The Old Rugged Cross" is still the most frequently requested hymn; and the most popular spiritual song of the past 100 years. Within thirty years of its original publication in 1913, more than twenty million copies of "The Old Rugged Cross" had been sold, outselling every other musical composition of any kind! What is it that makes this gospel song so popular?

‘The Old Rugged Cross’ was written in response to a deep personal need in Bennard’s own life. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, on February 4, 1873, George Bennard was raised in a loving coalminer family, the only son among four daughters. When George was only sixteen years old, his father died, leaving George to care for his mother and four sisters. After a period of time with the Salvation Army, George became a traveling speaker for the Methodist church, holding meetings in Canada and in the northern and central United States.

After a very painful time in New York, Bennard went back home in 1913 to Michigan. His mind returned again and again to Christ's agony on the cross. During this time, Bennard read Galatians 6:14 in which the Apostle Paul states: "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Bennard became convinced that the cross was not merely a symbol of Christianity, but the very heart of it. He realized that the cross was not gold-covered, but rather a rough, splintery thing, stained with gore.

The words, "the old rugged cross," came into his mind and then the notes of a melody ran through his head. Several weeks later, after a period of prayer, the poetry of the verses began to flow from his pen almost unbidden. "I saw the Christ of the Cross as if I were seeing John 3:16 leave the printed page, take form and act out the meaning of redemption," he said later.

After writing this hymn, George Bennard went on to travel and preach for another forty years.. Thanks to being chosen by Billy Sunday (the Billy Graham of those days), everyone began singing this unforgettable song. Years later, Johny Cash himself recorded this song. Although Bennard wrote 300 other hymns, none of them became as popular as his first.

Dr. Alistair McGrath of Oxford comments, “Those great old hymns -- such as Rock of Ages, The Old Rugged Cross and When I survey -- remain wonderful statements of the centrality of the cross...They express the power of the cross so much better than I can ever hope to do. As George Bennard put it in 1913:

“To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then he'll call me some day to my home far away,
Where his glory forever I'll share.”

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver,

Anglican Coalition in Canada

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Catherine Parr Traill: Pioneer Canadian Mother

2007-12-02T14:45:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0605.html

Catharine Parr Traill:
Pioneer Canadian Mother
-an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

Catharine Parr Traill is a pioneer Canadian mother who made a phenomenal impact on the life of our nation.

England in the early 1830s was caught in a Canada-mania. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, England was thrown into an economic depression. Thomas Strickland, the father of Catherine Parr Traill, was caught in the economic downturn, resulting in near-bankruptcy and his premature death. He left behind an impoverished widow and six unmarried daughters whose chances of marriage were seriously limited.

Both Catherine Parr Traill and her sister Susanna married economically-challenged Scottish soldiers who were offered land grants in the colonies. Canada began to be seen as the land of milk and honey! Altogether 655,747 people sailed away from British shores between 1831 and 1841 (almost three times as many as had moved abroad during the previous ten years).

The two key Canada-promoters William Cattermole and Captain Charles Stuart were being paid so much per head for every Brit that they could recruit for Canada. In their glowing description of Canada, Cattermole and Stuart forgot to mention the backbreaking work required to clear the forests, the total absence of household comforts, the aching loneliness, and the grinding poverty of most early Canadian pioneers. Catharine Parr Traill and her sister Susanna, being gifted writers, were able to record a vital part of our Canadian pioneering history. In Catherine Parr Traill’s book ‘The Canadian Settler’s Guide’, she insightfully wrote:
“In cases of emergency, it is folly to fold up one’s hands and sit down to bewail in abject terror: it is better to be up and doing.”

Catharine’s book “The ‘Backwoods of Canada quickly sold its first printing of eleven thousand copies, being translated into German in 1838 and French in 1843.

Of the six Strickland daughters including Catherine, five of them became published authors! Catharine’s older sister Agnes in England was the leading royal biographer of the 19th century. Sister Agnes caustically commented: “Who in England thinks anything of Canada?” and “Nothing that is first published in Canada will sell well in England”.

In Charlotte Grey’s book ‘Sisters in the Wilderness’, Catharine Parr Traill and her sister Susanna are described as laying “the foundation of a literary tradition that still endures in Canada: the pioneer woman who displays extraordinary courage, resourcefulness and humour. This ‘Canadian character type’, as critic Elizabeth Thompson calls her, is a pragmatist who discovers her own strength as she overcomes adversity.” Sir Sandford Fleming, inventor of one-hour time zones, and the engineering genius behind the Canadian Pacific Railway, said of Catharine: “She has rendered service of no ordinary kind in making known the advantages offered by Canada as a field for settlement, and by her very widely read writings she has been instrumental in inducing very many emigrants from the United Kingdom to find homes in the Dominion.”

Catharine Parr Trail had a remarkable ability to rise above adversity and make the best of every situation. Charlotte Grey: writes in her book about ‘the stamina, talent and determination that allowed two English ladies to overcome the hardships of pioneer life and leave a powerful legacy to Canadian culture.’ It is hard for us almost two hundred years later to fully imagine the miseries of hunger, disease, cold, and disappointment faced by our early Canadian pioneers. I was shocked to discover that both Catharine and her sister’s families came down with malaria, a widespread problem in Canada as pioneers were struggling to drain mosquito-infested swamps.

Catharine Parr Traill commented in the early days: “I have not seen a woman except those in our company for over five months....” As Charlotte Grey put it, “Being wrenched from one’s homeland leaves deep scars in the psyche of every emigrant in any era: Susanna and Catharine bore these scars for the rest of their lives.”

Catharine’s motto was ‘Hope! Resolution! And Perseverance!’. She would assure her relatives back home that Canada is the ‘land of hope.’ Her sister Sarah spoke of Catherine/Kate: “Her blue eyes always sparkled with happiness and curiosity about the world. She had a warm smile and an air of stolid contentment, and even as a baby, Catharine ‘never cried like other children –indeed we used to say that Katie never saw a sorrowful day – for if anything went wrong, she just shut her eyes and the tears fell from under the long lashes and rolled down her cheeks like pearls into her lap. We all adored her.”

Charlotte Grey commented how Catharine loved “the wild and picturesque rocks, trees, hill and valley, wild-flowers, ferns, shrubs and moss and the pure, sweet scent of pines over all, breathing health and strength.” Nature, for Catharine, was saturated with divine meaning – its splendor and concord displayed the authority and goodness of its Creator. That is why Catharine wrote many “books that reflected sheer love of nature’s bounty and admiration in God’s handiwork.” The flowers of the field, for her, were good reminders of the teachings of Christ. Catherine often illustrated her dried specimens with biblical quotes, particularly from the Psalms or the book of Revelation.

Charlotte Grey commented that “In future years, Catharine would rely on her love of nature, the beauties of which she saw as the expression of God’s will, to carry her through one disaster after another. ‘Strength was always given to me when it was needed.’ As she dug and weeded in the kitchen garden, or lifted heavy cast-iron pans of porridge from the stove, she would pause briefly, straighten her aching back, close her eyes and utter silent prayers. needed,’ she noted at the end of her life. ‘In great troubles and losses, God is very Good.’

In the midst of her very busy writing and pioneering, Catharine never neglected her family. As Charlotte Grey put it, “Motherhood came as naturally to Catharine as breathing. It was the most meaningful activity in her life. She was always prepared to give more love than she took, and she saw no conflict between her family and her impulse to write.”

My prayer is that every mother reading this article would receive that same strength as Catharine Parr Traill in the challenges of life.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, ACiC
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Catherine Parr Traill: Canadian Heroine

2007-12-02T14:34:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews026.html

Catharine Parr Traill: Canadian Heroine

-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

Catharine Parr Traill and her sister Susanna Moodie were two of Canada'smost important 19th-century writers. Catharine Parr Traill College, acampus of Trent University in Peterborough, is named for her. Catharinewas particularly famous for her books: The Backwoods of Canada (1836)and Canadian Crusoes (1852). A French edition of The Backwoods ofCanada, Les forêts intérieures du Canada, was published in Paris in1843. It was not until 1929 that a Canadian edition of The Backwoods ofCanada was published.

She also wrote The Female Emigrant's Guide, The Tell Tale, The Young Emigrants, and Hints on Canadian Housekeeping’. As Lynn Westerhout put it, Catharine “wrote to earn money, but her work showed that wonder, courage and faith are most important in life.” The Encyclopedia Britannica speaks of Catharine who, with richly detailed descriptions of frontier life, was one of the first to praise the beauties of theCanadian landscape.

Catharine left England to pioneer with her new husband Thomas in the unknown Canadian backwoods. She wrote a farewell letter to a good friend, saying that “she (was) willing to lose all for the sake of one dear valued friend and husband to share with him all the changes and chances of a settler’s life."

Catharine faced dire poverty in the early pioneering days: “On examining the state of my purse, I find just $4.30. This is all the funds I have to begin the year with. It is true that I have half a barrel of flour, and some meat and I have often been without meat and money. God will provide as heretofore.”

She wrote in 1852 to her sister Susanna: “`I feel it is a miserable state to be like a vessel without a pilot drifting before an overwhelming storm on every side rocks and shoals and no friendly port in sight, no beacon light to guide us on our perilous way. Do not think, dear sister, that I lose my faith in God's gracious providence. I believe that he can in his good time bring all things to an end of these our troubles...”

Catharine’s husband Thomas was often downcast by the financial troubles that they faced. Catharine wrote: “I wish that he could look beyond the present and remember that the brightest of earthly prospects endure but for a season – and it is the same with the trials and sorrows of life –they too come to an end.”

As Charlotte Gray notes, “Catherine at ninety-five was left virtually penniless...Without Catharine’s knowledge, an urgent plea was sent to the British Prime Minister, at 10 Downing Street, for help...” Over $1,000 was raised. Along with the money was sent a letter to Catherine saying: “We cannot forget the courage with which you endured the privations and trials of the backwoods in the early settlement ofOntario, and we rejoice to know that your useful life has been prolonged in health and vigour until you are now the oldest living author in herMajesty’s dominion.” Catharine responded by saying: “I can only adopt the hearty simple phrase used by the Indian women of Hiawatha village–‘I bless you in my heart.’

May Catharine Parr Traill’s deep pioneering faith and courage be an inspiration to a new generation of women and men who seek to break newground in the twenty-first century.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Seven Deadly Challenges at the Weight Room

2007-11-28T19:41:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews027.html

Seven Deadly Challenges at the Weight Room
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

How is your work-out working out for you these days? Studies show that many people who start at the gym with every good intention are nowhere to be found within a few months. Why is it that so many well-intended people drop out and disappear from fitness? My hunch is that people drop out from going to the gym for similar reasons that they drop out from going to church. They may find the times inconvenient, the child care inadequate, the music too loud, too soft, too slow, or too fast, the temperature too hot or too cold, the people too cold or intrusive, the instructor/pastor too busy or controlling.

Virtually everyone that I know nowadays on the North Shore believes in the value of keeping physically fit. It has been drilled into us by our doctors, teachers, media, and family. Yet so many of us fall short of our personal health goals. I sense that a lot of people have transferred their guilt about not attending church enough to a new guilt about not attending the weight room enough. Guilt, shame, and fear paralyze us in our unhealthy procrastination and avoidance of physical and spiritual growth. Guilt, shame and fear feed our addictions and unhealthy life choices. I have known people who felt so guilty about not attending the gym or church that they have overeaten, over-drank, and over-indulged. More guilt is not the solution to our health issues.

So how can we be set free from our spiritual and physical couch-potato tendencies? Dr. Gil Stieglitz, our ACiC Coach, says that a great way to get healthy is to memorize the seven deadly sins and then daily measure our current behaviour by those seven criteria. The first deadly sin/challenge is Pride, which Dr. Gil defines as ‘feelings of superiority, self-absorption, and lack of teachability.’ Sometimes people don’t make it to the gym or church because we have become self-satisfied and unwilling to grow.

The second deadly sin is Envy which Dr. Gil defines as ‘the desire for what belongs to others’. I have been guilty of that sin many times at the gym. Why is it taking me so long to get in shape physically or spiritually when others around me seem so healthy? Sometimes the puny size of my weights or my prayer life can tempt me to not bother to try.

The third deadly sin is Anger which Dr. Gil defines as ‘being blocked from a goal, irritated, seething’. The person we usually feel most angry at is ourselves, angry that we are not losing weight quickly enough, not improving fast enough, angry that it is taking so long to become Christ-like and loving. You may have heard the angry comment that the church or gym is full of hypocrites, to which I say ‘there is always room for one more hypocrite’.

The fourth deadly sin is Lust, which is far more than just sexual. It is really about the need to have it all our way immediately. Many of us give up on the gym and church, because it is taking too long to achieve our goals. We want it all right now! Getting healthy takes time!

The fifth deadly sin is Sloth which Dr. Gil defines as ‘laziness, working with a minimum effort, procrastination’. Going to Church or the gym requires effort, time, and money. It is often tempting to give in to our feelings of tiredness, discouragement and fear. Why bother to try? The Tempter wants us to be physically and spiritually healthy, as long we do it next month, not this month.

The sixth deadly sin is Gluttony which Dr. Gil defines as ‘overindulgence, addiction, seeking comfort’. Many people feel so embarrassed about their body or soul that they won’t even try. It’s just too painful.

The seventh deadly sin is Greed which Dr. Gil defines as ‘longing after money and things’. Greedy people will refuse to go to church or the gym, claiming that ‘all the church/gym wants is your money’. In fact the gym and church are there for our health, and our health is worth every penny that we invest. What use is wealth without health? See you at God’s Gym!

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

...Goes before a Fall

2007-11-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0607.html

....Goes Before A Fall
-an article previously pubished in the Deep Cove Crier

What goes before a fall? The Good Book says ‘Pride’. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18) What is pride, anyway? The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines pride as ‘overweening opinion of one’s own qualities, merits’ and ‘proud’ as ‘haughty, arrogant’.

Roget’s Thesaurus speaks of the double-edged nature of pride. Many people use the term to refer to satisfaction in their children’s accomplishments, or to self-respect. But Roget’s Thesaurus reminds that pride is also connected to “arrogance, haughtiness, insolence, loftiness, lordliness, overbearingness, presumption, superiority, narcissism, vanity, egotism.” Hence we see the origin of the 1960’s slang phrase “ego trip”.

Why is pride spoken of as the first of the seven deadly sins? Perhaps because pride causes us to forget our Maker: “your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, the land of slavery.” Pride is basically non-productive and unteachable: “Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice”. (Proverbs 13:10) Pride is self-destructive: “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”(Proverbs 11:10) Pride is the spirit of the mocker: “The proud and arrogant man-"Mocker" is his name; he behaves with overweening pride.” (Proverbs 21:24). In High School, many ‘Big Men on Campus’ become proud and mocking while they are ‘the big fish in a small pond’. But things change when they go into the real world. Pride goes before a fall.

The most difficult thing about pride is that it is like bad breath: easy to detect in others, and hard to detect in ourselves. Pride has to do with a sense of entitlement, that we deserve everything that we have, that the world owes us a living. The most famous human being once said in Mark 7:22 that pride comes from within our hearts and actually makes us unclean (non-kosher). Pride separates from others, by seducing us into thinking that we are better than others. Pride is the root cause of every caste system, every class system, and every system of racial hatred. That is why the Good Book says: “Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” (Romans 12:16) Pride goes before a fall.

Pride makes it very difficult to admit our need for anyone else, even God himself. Pride feeds the illusion that we are completely independent and self-sufficient. That is why Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter God’s Kingdom. Yet real breakthrough happens when we admit our need, our helpless and powerless over life’s struggles. CS Lewis’ wife, Joy Davidman, resisted her need for God for many years. She writes: “God had been stalking me for a very long time, waiting for his moment; he crept nearer so silently that I never knew he was there. Then, all at once, he sprang. For the first time in my life I felt helpless; for the first time my pride was forced to admit that I was not, after all, 'the master of my fate'.”

Pride and humility are total opposites. That is why both James and Peter quote Proverbs 3:10 that “God opposes and resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Let me ask you a question: Do we really want the Maker of the Universe to be opposing and resisting us? Yet that is what is guaranteed if we don’t deal with the pride issue. God will resist us at work, at home, in society. Pride may not be a big deal to us, but it certainly is to God. Why is God so opposed to pride? Because it cripples our ability to really love others around us. As the famous poem in 1st Corinthians 13 puts it, love is not proud. Why are so many people successful in business and failures at home? Pride goes before a fall.

Pride, like alcohol addiction, is cunning, baffling, and powerful. It is almost impossible to destroy head-on. The secret to taming one’s pride is gratitude and thanksgiving. As John Fischer puts it, “a thankful heart cancels out pride and arrogance. No need to judge other people when you are thankful for who you are. No need to measure yourself by and compare yourself to others when you are thankful for what God has done in your life.” Gratitude is a deep sense that life is a gift from a gracious giver. Gratitude is best expressed by the ancient words: “All things come from You, O Lord, and of your own have we given You.” My prayer for those reading this article is that each of us will gratefully lay our pride and self-sufficiency down at the foot of our Maker.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canadahttp://www3.telus.net/st_simons

As Sick as our Secrets

2007-11-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/nsnews028.html

We're as sick as our secrets
-an article for the North Shore News ‘Spiritually Speaking’ column

There's an oft-heard saying in the recovery community: “We're as sick as our secrets.” Over the years, I have met many people in abusive situations who have paid a great price to eventually extricate themselves from the vicious cycle of manipulation and recrimination. Sexual and physical abuse, in particular, scars the victim deeply. Often the victims falsely blame themselves. Recovery from abuse involves breaking the conspiracy of silence and deception perpetrated by abusers. Only the truth, however painful, can really set us free. Secrecy keeps us chained to our abusers.

At the heart of the ‘twelve steps’, in Step Four and Five, is the willingness to break the power of secrecy by admitting to God, yourself, and another person the exact nature of how you have wronged other people. I have done many ‘Fifth Steps’ for others over the past twenty-four years. It is always such a privilege. I feel like I grow so much through this opportunity. I notice, however, that ‘Fifth Steps’ are very difficult in our secretive, victim-based culture. Many people want to come to me and admit the exact nature of how they have been wronged, but not how they have wronged other people. Until we can open up and get such things off our chest, we are still stuck with guilt, recrimination, and self-doubt. We really are as sick as our secrets.

The Good Book tells us to cast our cares upon the Lord, for He cares for us. I have found that sharing deeply my heart with another caring, listening person can be profoundly liberating. That is why we are encouraged by James, Jesus’ brother, to ‘confess our sins to each other and pray for each other that we may be healed.’ I have a number of friends who have recently had the courage to go see Bonnie Chatwin, a North Shore Pastoral & Clinical Counselor http://www.bc-cc.ca/ . It was not at all easy for them to do this, but I was amazed by the breakthroughs that they have achieved. How much do we want to be well? Often the price of being well is giving up our obsessive need for independence and secrecy, and beginning to trust another person with our life story.

We as Canadians live in a culture that has become more secretive and private. The vast majority of Canadians still believe in God, prayer, and Jesus’ resurrection, but such faith concerns have largely gone into the closet. There is a widespread perception that faith is so personal and private that it cannot be mentioned publicly.

The recent Da Vinci Code fad fits totally into that way of thinking. It implicitly teaches that true spirituality is about dark hidden secrets that only the elite may know about: secrets allegedly hidden in Da Vinci’s paintings, secrets covered by an alleged secret society named the Priory of Sion, secrets about Mary Magdalene and Mother Eve in the Garden of Eden. Over one hundred million North Americans have either read the Da Vinci Code book or seen the movie. There is something in us that is drawn to secret knowledge and secret passageways. But is secrecy really the way to health and life? Is secrecy really the key to genuine spirituality?

The most famous person in the world once said: “I have spoken openly to the world...I said nothing in secret.” (John 18:20) Jesus also said that “whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed or secret is meant to be brought out into the open.” (Matthew 4:22) Rabbi Saul/Paul, who was Jesus’ most famous disciple, commented: “we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, we set forth the truth plainly...” (2 Corinthians 4:2)

Contrary to the claims of the Da Vinci Code, Christianity has no secret codes, no secret initiation rites, no secret vows. Jesus said nothing in secret. Jesus brought everything out in the open. We really are as sick as our secrets.

The Rev. Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

What Child is This?

2007-11-28T19:22:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0612.html

What Child is This?
-an article previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

One of the most favorite Christmas Carols is William Chatterton Dix’s “What Child is This?” At the age of twenty-nine, Dix was struck with a sudden near-fatal illness and confined to bedrest for several months. He went into a deep depression. Out of this near-death experience, Dix wrote many hymns, including ‘What Child is This?”. Written in 1865, Dix made use of powerful word pictures that still speak one hundred and forty-one years later:

What Child is this who, laid to restOn Mary's lap is sleeping?Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet,While shepherds watch are keeping?

What is it about the Christmas story that keeps capturing our hearts year after year? What child is this?

Why does this baby on Mother Mary’s lap win the attention of billions of people every December? Why angels? Why shepherds? What child is this?

One of the strangest things about the Christmas story is the birthplace of the Christmas child in a cattle shed. What kind of place is that to celebrate Christmas? It wasn’t even sanitary.

Why lies He in such mean estate,Where ox and ass are feeding?Good Christians, fear, for sinners hereThe silent Word is pleading.

There is something about the Christmas Child that will not go away, that cannot be avoided, that is inescapably part of Canadian culture.

What Child is this anyways? William Chatterton Dix’s Carol had this response:

This, this is Christ the King,Whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;Haste, haste, to bring Him laud,The Babe, the Son of Mary.

What Child is this? Why do wise men still seek him?

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh,Come peasant, king to own Him;The King of kings salvation brings,Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

This Christmas, may loving hearts enthrone the Christmas Child. May loving hearts welcome this Child into their homes, their lives, their souls.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

Conquering the Manana Disease

2007-11-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0701.html

Conquering the Mañana Disease
Previously published in the Deep Cove Crier

I have been planning on writing this ‘Mañana’ article for several months, but I never got around to it. There is an old saying “Why do today what you can put off ‘till tomorrow?” Latin Americans have coined the expression “mañana disease”, which means to procrastinate and put things off until tomorrow. The term ‘procrastinate’ is literally Latin “for tomorrow (crastinus)”.

Once a year in January, many of us take time to make New Year’s Resolutions. Many of us vow to finish certain important tasks that we have been putting off in 2006. For some of us, it may be finding a new job, getting married, having a child, buying a house, earning a University degree, or restoring a broken relationship.

King Solomon 3,000 years ago had this advice for people struggling with the mañana disease: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise.” (Proverbs 6:6)
Solomon challenges each of us to not let fear hold us back: “The sluggard says ‘there is a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming in the streets.’ (Proverbs 26:13. Solomon challenges us to not be arrogant and unteachable: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.” (Proverbs 26:16). Solomon challenges us not to become addicted to our pillows: “As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.” (Proverbs 26:14). The ancient word for procrastination is sloth, one of the seven deadly sins. Solomon humorously points out that sloth can become so addictive that nothing gets done: “The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; he is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.” (Proverbs 26:15).

Why do we procrastinate? I procrastinated for years in writing my second book “Battle for the Soul of Canada.”* Sometimes conquering procrastination seems like too much stress, too much work. I believe that the rise of the ‘living together’ phenomenon in our culture has a lot to do with marital procrastination, especially for men. The average age for men to be married is now 34; for women, it is 31. Many people are waiting for the perfect time to tie the knot, the perfect financial situation, perfect educational situation, perfect housing situation, perfect emotional connectedness. Perfectionism is at the core of the mañana disease. Our grandparents rarely experienced perfect lives. Somehow they were able to get married and get on with their lives.

For many men, the concept of having children is even more threatening than being married. The imagined weight of responsibility can be overwhelming. It is interesting that in the most affluent parts of the world, we are having fewer children and at a much later stage of life. The biological clock is on a collision course with the mañana disease. The irony of Quebec is that its fear of cultural extinction is now becoming a biological reality. Quebec, which had the highest birthrate, now has the lowest birthrate in North America. Mañana has real consequences.

I love the poster I saw recently of a huge polar bear lying prone on an iceberg. The caption goes: “When I get the feeling to do something, I lie down until the feeling goes away.” Charles Dickens in his famous novel David Copperfield wisely observed: “Procrastination is the thief of time.” I have found that later often means never. Life moves on. People die. People move away. Nothing on this earth is permanent.

We all mean very well in our hearts. Sometimes we fail to show it to our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings. It is so easy to put off saying “I’m sorry. I was wrong. How can I make it up to you? I’ll try not to do that again. Will you please forgive me”. It is so easy to let relationships die because of the mañana disease.

When I came to St. Simon’s North Vancouver twenty years ago, I said to our congregation: “If I haven’t offended you yet, you don’t know me well enough.” They all laughed at the time, but later found out that I was dead serious. All of us have the ability to offend others. We even have the ability to offend ourselves. Sometimes the hardest person to forgive is ourselves. Women especially are often the hardest on themselves, turning their anger inward. Perhaps conquering the mañana disease may involve looking yourself in the mirror, and with God’s help, forgiving yourself. Many people, who have been through a painful divorce or an abortion, secretly condemn themselves for years. God knows and God forgives, if we will only open our hearts to Him. Say no to the mañana disease.

In this New Year, I wish to challenge those reading this article to seize the day, redeem the time, forgive those who need forgiving, and get on with our life both now and for eternity. Are you ready yet to meet your Maker?

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

The Inescapable Christmas

2007-11-16T21:03:00.001-08:00

The Inescapable Christmas
By the Rev Ed Hird+
-an article for the Dec 2007 Deep Cove Crier

One of the most entertaining book/movies about Christmas commercialization is ‘Skipping Christmas/Christmas with the Cranks’ by John Grisham. As Christmas commercialization will likely always be with us, it is good to have a sense of humour about the silliness that can overtake us. My favorite scene is Luther Crank trying unsuccessfully to drink his tea after an over-the-top Botox session.

For many years, John Grisham has been one of my favorite living authors. Born on February 8, 1955, Grisham is a retired attorney, an ex-politician, and a novelist best known for his works of modern legal drama. Publishers Weekly described Grisham as "the bestselling novelist of the 90s," selling 60,742,289 copies. Grisham is one of few authors, including Tom Clancy, who have sold two million copies on a first printing. His novel The Pelican Brief sold over eleven million copies just in North America. There is no other person who has authored a number one best-selling novel of the year for seven consecutive years (1994-2,000).

Many people do not realize that Grisham is a committed Christian who has spent time in mission service in Brazil. "I started going out in 1993 with a church group from my home church in Oxford, Miss.," he told USA Today. "We went down there for the purpose of constructing a church in this little town sort of in the outback and it was such a rewarding experience that I've done it several times since."

With over 110 million books sold, John Grisham and his wife, Renee, "measure the success of the year on how much we give away," Grisham told USA Today. They have set up a foundation to oversee their giving -- "the bulk of it goes to church and related activities" -- to which "the kids have said, 'Look, don't give it all away.'"

Grisham now wishes "I'd joined the Peace Corps ... for a couple years out of college." He added, "As my years go by I think I'll spend more and more time doing ... mission work, probably in Brazil."

Fittingly, Grisham in his book ‘The Testament’ makes a heroine of an illegitimate daughter Rachel Lane, an unknown missionary in the deepest jungles of Brazil. Troy Phelan, the 10th-richest man in America, outrages all his greedy family by giving Rachel his $11 billion fortune. Ironically, Rachel leads a simple life and couldn't care less about money. The interaction between Nate O’Riley the recovering alcoholic lawyer and Rachel Lane reveals the depth of Grisham’s spiritual convictions. "Nate closed his eyes ... and called God's name. God was waiting. ... In one glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God. He held nothing back. He unloaded enough baggage to crush any three men. ... 'I'm sorry,' he whispered to God. 'Please help me.' As quickly as the fever had left his body, he felt the baggage leave his soul. With one gentle brush of the hand, his slate had been wiped clean."

Grisham explained to USA Today, "Nate tried power and women and booze and drugs and the fast life and all the good things that money can buy. He's crashed and burned four times in 10 years and it's obvious he can't save himself. I wanted to take a guy like that and sort of follow him on a kind of spiritual journey, his quest for a spiritual cure. ... I was challenged by the goal of seeing if I could make such a spiritual journey work in a popular novel, in commercial fiction."

This Christmas, I encourage each of us to make a spiritual journey that goes far beyond Christmas Commercialization. May this Christmas be an encounter with the humble manger.

The Reverend Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

A Spiritual Banquet in Victoria BC

2007-11-04T05:05:00.000-08:00

Dear friends in Christ,

We just received pictures from the memorable Victoria Renewal Mission in which almost 120 people spent three days learning about and taking part in Jesus' healing ministry. The Oct 26th to 28th Weekend was also the 133rd Anniversary of the birth of Church of our Lord Victoria (Reformed Episcopal) when they were tragically ejected as a congregation from Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria. Eighty percent of the congregation, including Dean Cridge, walked together to form a vibrant new fellowship.

Their tradition is to hold a banquet each anniversary. This year they decided to host a spiritual banquet to go with the physical banquet. After five years of physical renovations, the Rev Rod Ellis and COOL decided that it was time for spiritual renovations as well. Click to view pictures from the Spiritual Banquet.
http://acicanada.ca/node/221

The Reformed Episcopal Church and the Anglican Coalition in Canada are Common Cause Partners http://acicanada.ca/node/212

We focused on the theme: 'Healing the Whole Person' from the Gospel of Luke.

Feel free to click on the following weblink to hear the final Renewal Mission message from Luke 10:1-24

http://www.churchofourlord.org/sermons/2007/Oct28,2007-Trampling_Upon_Snakes_and_Scorpions.MP3

Every Blessings,
Ed Hird and St. Simon's NV Renewal Mission team

More Blessed to Give

2007-10-13T18:10:00.000-07:00

http://acicanada.ca/node/199
More Blessed to Give
By Rev. Ed Hird+
-an article for the Nov 2007 Deep Cove Crier

For more than fifty years, I have worn a poppy each November 11th. On Remembrance Day, we give thanks for those who have given generously of their time and even their lives so that we might live in freedom. It is so easy to take freedom and security for granted. Two of my great-uncles Charlie and Harry both went off to war in World War One and never came back.

On November 19th, 1917 a caring chaplain wrote my Nana the following note: "Dear Miss Williams, I dare say you have heard the sad news of the death of your brother Private H.C.W. Williams who was killed in action on the morning of November 6th. He did not suffer as death was instantaneous."

"No doubt you will feel the loss of your dear brother very much as it is hard to part with those we love; but it is a consolation to know he did his duty faithfully and died in a righteous cause. He gave his life for others. And ‘greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’"

"I pray that God will comfort you in your sad bereavement and may you find his grace sufficient in your hour of need. Cast your cares on the Lord and he shall sustain you. With Deepest Sympathy, Yours sincerely, Alex Ketterson Chaplain 29th Canadians, B.E.F."

My Nana had a deep faith that sustained her in the worst of times. Her faith also inspired her to be a giver rather than a taker. She knew well the Great Physician’s teaching that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Nana loved to give to others of her time, talent and treasure. One of her most precious gifts to me was a book called “Why You Say It”, which explains the fascinating stories behind over 700 everyday words and phrases. I reluctantly thanked my Nana at the time, secretly wishing that she gave me a toy instead. Years later all my toys are gone, and that book is one of my precious gifts from my childhood.

The Good Book tells us that God loves a cheerful giver. The term ‘cheerful’ in the Greek is the word ‘hilaron’, from which we get the word ‘hilarious’. Part of Canada’s Judeo-Christian heritage is a valuing of generosity. It is so important that when we give to others, we do it cheerfully, not grudgingly like the infamous Mr. Scrooge.

A good example of cheerful giving in the Seymour/Deep Cove area is the Lions Club with the wonderful housing complexes that they have developed. As Canadians, we need to keep growing in our generosity to others in need. Recent studies by the Fraser Institute found that charitable giving as a percentage of aggregate income in the United States is double the giving in Canada (1.67 per cent vs. 0.72 per cent).

The Bible tells us that God has a real heart for widows, orphans, strangers, and the poor. My challenge to each of us this Remembrance Day is for us to look for ways in which we can show our gratitude for the sacrifices made by others. The gift of democracy does not come cheap. If we are really grateful for the privilege of living in one of the most beautiful countries on planet earth, how might we say thanks?

The Rev. Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver, BC
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

Down in the Mouth in Deep Cove

2007-10-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0703.html
Down in the Mouth in Deep Cove
-an article for the March 2007 Deep Cove Crier

For the past nineteen years so far, I have been a monthly columnist in the Deep Cove Crier. I am always praying about some topic that people can really get their teeth into. Sitting in a Deep Cove dental chair gave me time to reflect on my next article. As the dental hygienist was scraping and pulling and prodding, I began to reflect on the significance and priority of our teeth. Teeth are unforgiving. You either look after them carefully, or they strike back in all kinds of unpleasant ways. Just talk to your friends who have had a failed root-canal operation. Even in these days of hi-tech painkillers, toothaches still ache.

I have been literally sitting in Deep Cove dental chairs for twenty years. Every six months or so, I receive the obligatory call from Dr. Gvoyai’s dental office. I thank God for a good dental plan! Dr. Gvoyai, due to health issues, has recently sold her practice to Dr. Harman Mangat at the Seycove Dental office. We will miss Dr. Gvoyai and give thanks to God for her friendliness and professionalism. I offer a belated welcome to the Cove, Dr. Mangat. Dr. Mangat told me that one of the things that attracted him to relocate to the Cove is that ‘village’ sense that still exists in our community.

The term ‘down in the mouth’ means to be low in spirits, downcast, or depressed. A number of North Shore residents report feeling more depressed this time of year because of all the rain. There is a perception out there that dentists suffer more from depression and even suicide. In chatting with my new dentist Dr. Mangat, he told me that the higher dental suicide issue is likely a myth. Roger E. Alexander, D.D.S., of the Baylor College of Dentistry, recently examined this stereotype. Alexander found data suggesting that female dentists may be more vulnerable to suicide, but unearthed no evidence that dentists take their own lives with greater frequency than the general population. "What we know about suicide in dentistry is based on weak data from the early 1970s, involving mostly white males" says Alexander, who called for additional research in the Journal of the American Dental Association. My sense is that there is a lot of pressure on dentists as they not only have to be technically competent, but also very skilled at running small businesses.

For the last fifty-two years of my life, I have been fighting the good fight, dentally speaking. My parents spent thousands of dollars on dental surgery and braces for me. I remember when a bully at Oak Park knocked me off my Pugeot bike and proceeded to stomp on my head with his boots. Having no idea what he was upset about, I naively said: “Can we talk about this?” When he grunted “no”, I realized that I was in serious trouble. I was about to either lose face emotionally or lose face literally, which would mean that my multi-thousand dollar smile was about to disappear. Being more afraid of my parent’s wrath over my braces than of the bully, I jumped on my Pugeot and rode off. This was one of the wisest dental decisions that I ever made, especially as I heard later that this bully later had his teeth kicked in and a broken beer bottle twisted in his face.

As a teenager, I felt very embarrassed by my braces, and later by my retainer which made it hard to communicate. My math teacher in Grade 10 actually thought that I was swearing at her when I was only answering a math question while wearing my retainer. She was not pleased! You may have notice that teenage peers can be ruthless in their affectionate terms for those who are dentally-challenged: brace face, metal mouth, tinsel teeth, etc. But three decades late, I am so grateful for the investment my parents made in me. Dentures just don’t compare to one’s own genuine teeth.

I used to hate flossing. Gradually I began to grudgingly admit the need. My thought of a helpful compromise was to only floss on the day that I went to the dentist. As I sat in the dentist’s office with bleeding gums, my compromise somehow did not impress them. I am now a passionate flosser who tries to convert other people to the ‘redemptive’ benefits of removing plaque. It occurred to me recently that many people view flossing and going to the dentist similarly to the idea of attending church. They may acknowledge that it might be good for them, but it is certainly not something to which they are looking forward. There are too many painful memories or alternately fear of the unknown. Many young people nowadays, unlike the baby-boomers or seniors, have never been to a church service once in their life.

Dentists want to make a difference in other people. Many are inspired by the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.” There is spirituality to dentistry that potentially involves the whole person, body, mind and spirit. Dr. Alex Yule is a retired dentist at St. Simon’s North Vancouver whom embodies this ‘Good Samaritan’ spirit. In co-operation with the Christian Medical & Dental Society, Dr. Yule has set up a free Dental clinic on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver for people who are falling through the cracks. Hundreds of people are now being set free from chronic dental pain. What motivates Dr. Yule? His love for Jesus Christ and for his neighbour. My prayer is that we may all show that same love to each other so that none of us will remain down in the mouth.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, BC
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Transforming a Woman's Soul

2007-10-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Transforming a Woman’s Soul
By the Rev. Ed Hird+
-an article for the October 2007 Deep Cove Crier

Many of us, whether women or men, fail to remember that we are made in God’s image. God does not make any junk. He makes all things beautiful in His time. God is beautiful. God is the author of all beauty and all creativity. The Psalms tell us that we worship to behold God’s beauty. That is why we are repeatedly encouraged in the Good Book to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness,

On a recent visit, I was shown a fascinating book by Heidi McLaughlin entitled “Beauty Unleashed: Transforming a Woman’s Soul”. For the past 19 years, Heidi McLaughlin has been teaching women how to heal their brokenness and unleash their full potential and beauty by connecting with God. Her passion is to help women walk in the knowledge that they are one of God’s most glorious creations.

Heidi says that ‘there is nothing more beautiful than a woman who knows that she is loved. She is the one who glows with energy when she walks into a room.’ ‘Every human being’, Heidi writes, ‘on this planet yearns to be loved. Everyone looks for something real and tangible: unconditional love.’

We can choose to be either part of the problem or part of the solution. As Heidi puts it, ‘wherever we are, our love can melt the hardest heart, heal wounded hearts, show compassion, or quiet an anxious or fearful heart.’ Love is the most powerful force in the universe. The heart of Jesus’ self-sacrifice on the cross was love. As we love hurting people, we help them discover that there is hope and a future.

Heidi teaches that ‘to unleash our greatest beauty, we must let go of expectations.’ This is the heart of the well-known phrase ‘Let go and let God’. So often we cripple ourselves with our hidden demands of how life should be going. Surrendering our hopes, dreams and fears to God will take a heavy load off our shoulders that was never meant to be there. We are called to cast our cares on Him, for he cares for us. That is why the Great Physician said: “Come to you, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light, and you will find rest for your souls.’

God is offering a beauty rest that will transform your soul. As Heidi puts it, ‘I believe that there is nothing God wants to do more than to shower us with his life.’ God sees your beauty and calls it forth. Will you say yes to His beautiful love?

The Rev. Ed Hird+
Rector, St. Simon’s North Vancouver
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons

First Internet Online Sermon

2007-09-08T10:11:00.000-07:00

Dear friends in Christ,

Feel free to watch online my first internet sermon. Your feedback is welcome. I am grateful to Stuart Spani and Pat Morten of Norlynn Audio Visual Services for filming this and putting it online. You will recognize the Gospel passage as last Sunday's gospel lesson: Luke 14: 1-14.

Blessings, Ed Hird+ Title: Who is the Humblest on the North Shore?

Video: Sermon given Rev. Ed Hird at St. Simon's North Vancouver on September 02, 2007

( just click on the following link)http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1178187210/bclid1171872915/bctid1173350829

Watch more great videos at Brightcove.com

Greetings from Saskatchewan

2007-08-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/cr0709.html
Greetings from Saskatchewan
an article for the September 2007 Deep Cove Crier

My wife, three sons and I piled into our minivan this summer and drove thousands of kilometers to Manitou Beach in Watrous. Saskatchewan is known as the land of the living skies. While I love the North Shore mountains and seashore, there is something unforgettable about a prairie sky that seems to roll on forever.

The magnet for this long trek to Saskatchewan was the rare opportunity to meet with 240 of my wife’s relatives. All six of the brothers, many of them in their eighties, made it from six different parts of Canada. Three of the six brothers are actually ordained clergy. There were so many relatives that we had to wear colour-coded name tag just to figure out who was who. I jokingly say that my side of the family could hold a family reunion in a telephone booth.

Manitou Beach, with its high mineral content, is famous because you can float on it, almost like the Dead Sea in Israel. While at Manitou Beach, we were able to have family dancing at the historic Manitou Beach Dance Hall, and then go to an old-fashioned Drive-in Theatre to see the hilarious Noah take-off movie ‘Evan Almighty’.

It was fun to visit the historic family farm on the rocky roads, but not fun to replace the windshield after it was smashed by rocks on the prairie road. It is amazing how good can come of difficulty (Romans 8:28). The smashed window gave me a chance to connect with a North Bay trucker, an Anglican Edmontonian, and an Los Angeles actor repairing Canadian windshields We were able to pray together and one of them even obtained a copy of my book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’.

While in Regina, I had the chance to meet with two of our sister ACiC churches. If food is the language of love, I felt very loved while visiting in Regina. One of our congregations in Regina is full of Nigerian and Sudanese new Canadians and recent immigrants who fed us delicious African food. We were also treated to African dancing and singing by a Regina priest’s lively children.

Regina has deep significant to my family roots. Due to the Canadian Pacific Railway, my great-grandfather Oliver Allen was shipped with the Toronto Militia to quickly defeat Louis Riel at Batoche.

While conquering Riel, my great-grandfather Oliver met my great-grandmother Mary Mclean a Regina Leader news-reporter sympathetic to Louis Riel. Right before Riel’s hanging, my great-grandmother, who was fluent in French, disguised herself as a Catholic priest in order to interview Riel. Her newspaper editor had told her: “An interview must be had with Riel if you have to outwit the whole police force of the North-west.” Riel said to my great-grandmother on Nov 19th 1885: “When I first saw you at the trial, I loved you.” Shortly after, my great-grandparents Oliver and Mary married and relocated to start life anew in BC.

It interested me to discover that many Albertans and BCers are moving to Saskatchewan to take advantage of the cheaper housing prices and the country lifestyle. The Saskatchewan government is promoting this with large billboards in Alberta showing a husband, wife and two kids with the backdrop of a single-family home and a bike. The Saskatchewan billboard says in large letters: “More Life, Less Stress”. Some Saskatchewan residents that I met are worried about the Albertan/BC invasion because of the way that it is making housing prices unaffordable.

What a vast and wonderful nation that we live in as Canadians. What a wonderful treat to be able to take family members to explore the richest of this amazing gift called Canada. I thank God as a loyal BCer that all of Canada belongs to all of us.

The Reverend Ed Hird
Rector, St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver, BC
Anglican Coalition in Canada
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Updates from the recent trip to our ACiC Churches in Saskatchewan

2007-08-10T05:23:00.001-07:00

Updates from the recent trip to our ACiC Churches in Saskatchewan

The ACiC in Regina, Saskatchewan[Photo]

[Photo]Dear friends in Christ,I had the privilege on August 5th of preaching at our two ACiC Churches in Saskatchewan, the Church of our Redeemer in Regina and St Jude's Apostolic Church in Indian Head.

[Photo] Here I am with the Rector of the Church of our Redeemer, The Rev Olukayode Adebogun and his new assistant priest, Ayorinde+

[Photo] Here is a picture of the three priests with their families. All three of my boys were able to join me for this trip. Andrew, who served this past year as a PAIS worker in Gateshead, UK, gave a witness about his PAIS outreach work in the schools, both in the UK and in North Vancouver. Mark our middle son read the gospel at St Jude's.

[Photo] Here is a picture of the Rev Tom Needham, Rector of St. Jude's in Indian Head. Tom+ and Rosemary are a very dedicated couple who have stood for God's truth and healing for many years.

[Photo] Apart from having to replace a windshield, our Chevy Venture minivan performed well as we travelled thousands of miles across Canada, waving the Alpha flag. Tens of thousands of Alpha flags are currently flying across Canada in our 2007 National Alpha Invitation to the Nation. You will notice the billboards, bus shelter ads, and bus ads with the Alpha theme: 'Is there More to Life than This?'

Blessings in Christ Jesus,Ed Hird+
http://www3.telus.net/st_simons
draft

Confessions of a Reluctant Charismatic

2007-07-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/arm11.htm

By Rev Ed Hird -an article for the Fall 2001 AFR Canada magazine

(an chapter from the book 'Battle for the Soul of Canada)

I will never forget how I fell in love with my future wife Janice, disagreeing with her about the Holy Spirit. Both of us were attending the University of British Columbia and took the same bus home each day. Janice told me that she had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and received her prayer language the summer of 1974 at a Christian Ashram retreat. I could see a real difference in her. Her eyes sparkled and her face lit up. I was attracted by what I saw, but was determined to improve her theology. In short, I had the books and she had the experience. In my approach/avoidance relationship to the Holy Spirit, I had read dozens of books on charismatic renewal: pro, against, and muddle-of-the-road. My attempts to solve the Holy Spirit ‘problem’ from the ‘neck up’ had ended up in a ‘paralysis of analysis’.

Anything to do with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as I saw it, was covered by one’s personal conversion. Tongues, of course, were only intended for a few Christians. Part of the reason that I was convinced that tongues were only for a few, was because I had asked for the baptism of the Spirit & tongues many times and nothing ever seemed to happen. So, like the fable of the fox and the sour grapes, I constructed my theology to fit my own experience.

During the historic Jesus movement, I was powerfully converted to Jesus Christ in February 1972, the same year that the Rev. Dennis Bennett’s landmark book ‘Nine O’Clock in the Morning’ http://www.emotionallyfree.org/dennis.htm. was published. Being a good confirmed Anglican, I didn’t have the faintest idea who the Holy Spirit was. One of the fruits of conversion was that I started to read the bible voraciously. This formerly unintelligible book suddenly felt like reading the latest news from the morning paper. My younger sister Wendy who came to Christ a week later than myself, read ahead of me and stumbled upon the books of Acts and 1 Corinthians. ‘What is the world is all this stuff about tongues and the Holy Spirit?’, Wendy asked me. Being the older mature Christian by a week, I responded by saying: ‘No idea. I haven’t read that far yet’.

That week I ran into a new friend, Christina Violini, who offered to pray with me on the girl’s field at our High School for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and tongues. She prayed up a storm for me on two occasions but nothing seemed to happen. I then checked with my youth minister who told me that tongues were of the devil. I momentarily felt glad then that the prayers hadn’t worked! After my youth pastor was fired, the next youth minister told me that tongues weren’t of the devil after all. They were just for a few.

Having reconnected with my original home parish St. Matthias & St Luke’s Vancouver http://members.truepath.com/smslac/, I became good friends with the rector (Rev Ernie Eldridge) who had a real hunger for spiritual renewal. Everybody but everybody in our parish was reading Dennis Bennett’s ‘Nine O’Clock in the Morning’. We were all very excited about the book but none of us knew how to break through. We soon concluded that it just wasn’t our gift. We were still so interested though in the Holy Spirit that we had the Rev. Jim Gunn lead us in a ‘Life in the Spirit’ Seminar. As the evening came for people to receive the power of the Holy Spirit and their prayer languages, I worked behind the scenes to ensure that the evening was watered down to offend no one. As a result, no one broke through.

After marrying Janice, I used to love to listen to her praying in tongues as we said our bedtime prayers. When Colin Urqhuart came to St. Margaret’s of Scotland in Burnaby, I fully expressed my approach/avoidance to renewal. Without realizing it, I had arranged it so that I would arrive at the meetings just as everyone was leaving. Janice said: ‘Let’s go home’. I said: ‘No, we’ve come all this way. I want to meet the speaker.’ So I walked into St. Margaret’s, shook Colin Urqhuart’s hand , and promptly went home!

Unable to forget about the Holy Spirit, I received a scholarship to attend the Billy Graham School of Evangelism in Seattle, Washington. I thought to myself: ‘Here is the perfect chance to settle the Holy Spirit issue once and for all. I can go anonymously to Dennis Bennett’s St. Luke Church in Seattle. That way if nothing works, I don’t have to tell anyone and I can forget about it." Despite being deeply impressed with all that I saw at St Luke’s, I still had no breakthrough and promptly put the issue back on the shelf.

In the summer of 1979, our Rector the Rev. Ernie Eldridge became involved with the ‘Festival of Faith’ involving the late Rev. David Watson from St Michael’s Le-Belfrey in York http://www.st-michael-le-belfrey.org/ . I very reluctantly attended one meeting, out of respect for Ernie Eldridge. Greatly to my surprise, David Watson wasn’t ‘swinging from the chandeliers’. Instead he was very down-to-earth and even a bit boring. This made me feel comfortable enough to come back for the rest of the meetings! Each evening, David became more and more interesting. By the end of the week, I said to myself: ‘I might as well give it another try’. So I went up and received prayer for the baptism/filling of the Holy Spirit. Once again, nothing seemed to happen. As I went home that night however, I started to hear a few words in my head. As Janice my wife prayed for me at home, I spoke out those words and began to speak in tongues.

Still suffering from paralysis of analysis, I didn’t decide for three weeks whether I would accept this new language. In the meantime, I was praying so much in tongues and receiving such a blessing that my wife the charismatic started to complain that I was ignoring her by praying too much. I soon got over that! After three weeks, through the discernment of a fellow social worker Penny Hicks, I accepted God’s gift and never looked back. Through the release of the Holy Spirit in my life, God has been teaching me for the past 22 years that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom!

The Rev Ed Hird+

Rector, St. Simon’s Anglican Church, North Vancouver BC http://www3.telus.net/st_simons/

Former Chair, ARM Canada
Missioner, ARM Canada
To St. Simon's ARM page Vist ARM's site