“I smile every time I tell someone I’m going to Jerusalem,” said Kerri Brennan, a theological student from the Diocese of Ottawa. Ms. Brennan is one of three students preparing to serve with an overseas diocese as part of the 2010 Theological Student International Internship Program (TSIIP), coordinated by General Synod’s Partnerships department.
As a major aftershock rocked the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince and Léogâne, more news emerged Jan. 20 about the growing role of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti in the country’s short-term relief efforts and long-term recovery.
In the chaos of aid distribution, ACT Alliance members are managing to get food, temporary shelter, water purifying materials and expertise to the Haitian capital. One of the largest alliances working on relief in Haiti, ACT Alliance has four members working in-country and is being supplemented by relief from others.
For 15 years the Primate’s Theological Commission (PTC) has helped Canadian Anglicans think more clearly about their faith. The current team of 12 theologians will hold their last meeting from Jan. 20 to 23 in Niagara Falls, Ont. After that, the commission will be on hiatus as the Primate discerns how best to approach future theological work.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people were buried alive when a major earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, the capital of impoverished Haiti on Tuesday. The magnitude 7.0 quake sent panic-stricken people into the streets. Offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed, and people were screaming “Jesus, Jesus”, not knowing where to run. The presidential palace lay in ruins, and many churches have been destroyed. Members of ACT Alliance are already in place, assisting those affected by the earthquake. The ACT Secretariat in Geneva is coordinating the relief operations of its members, and more details will follow in the coming hours.
The Minister of International Cooperation, Bev Oda, has been telling KAIROS, Parliament and the Canadian people that funding to KAIROS was cut because its work did not fit current Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) priorities of economic growth, food security and children and youth.
The Rev. Andrew Twiddy will spend his sabbatical as a guinea pig of sorts. In January he and his family will jet off to Belize as the first participants in the Continuing Education for Global Ministry program, which places active Anglican Church of Canada clergy with an international partner for three months.
Jenny Salisbury is excited about her summer plans: “We’re creating a motley, merry band of players that is going to travel across the country.” The Toronto-based playwright, director, and Anglican youth minister is directing Roots Among the Rocks, an ecumenical theatre project that will gather seven young performers to live in community, create a play, then take it on the road between May and August.
The widow of a murdered Congolese human rights defender from a KAIROS-supported group, Canadian church leaders and the heads of some of Canada’s most respected non-governmental organizations are calling on the Canadian government to renew funding for the human rights program of KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives.
The Anglican Church of Canada’s top governing council and its House of Bishops have passed resolutions deploring CIDA’s sudden cancellation of traditional funding to KAIROS, a major ecumenical social justice coalition.
One of our most important Christian justice partners, the ecumenical Kairos justice coalition, was dealt a major blow when it learned Nov. 30 that its funding from CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency) would not be renewed.
The Canadian government’s decision to cut funding to KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives will have a devastating impact on KAIROS’ overseas partners and the thousands of marginalized people in local communities they support, KAIROS says.
Leaders of the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) have been asked to protest against the sudden cancellation of traditional funding of the ecumenical coalition KAIROS by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has released his 2009 World Aids Day video, in which he speaks with the Revd Patricia Sawo, a church leader and mother from Kenya, about her experiences of living with HIV. The video highlights the plight of expectant mothers who are HIV positive and the support they need to prevent the transmission of HIV to their babies.
The 1,000 or so residents of Kaslo, B.C. are used to hearing the pleasant chime of church bells on Sunday morning, inviting them to worship at St. Mark’s Anglican Church. On the afternoon of Dec. 13, however, St. Mark’s church bells will ring out 350 times—for several minutes—as a call for world leaders to negotiate a new climate change plan in Copenhagen.