TALKING POINTS
MILESTONES
APPOINTED
Ian Wilson as director of the Chester Ronning
Centre for the Study of Religion and Public
Life, after previously serving a year as interim
associate director. He succeeds founding
director David Goa. The centre is based in
Camrose, Alta., and is affiliated with the
University of Alberta.
Wayne Prins as
executive director
of the Christian
Labour Association of
Canada, a nationwide
multisector union
representing 60,000
workers that operates
on “Christian values
of respect, dignity and fairness.” Previously
he worked in mining and oilsands and served
as Alberta director. He succeeds Dick Heinen,
who worked for the union 48 of its 65 years.
Patrick Canagasingham
as chief executive
officer at Christian
Children’s Fund
of Canada, a
development
organization with
offices in Markham,
Ont., and programs
in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and the
Americas. He previously served with Oxfam
International and World Vision. He succeeds
Mark Lukowski.
MERGED
Cardus Family is the new name for the
Institute for Marriage and Family, a 10-year-
old research initiative based in Ottawa. Andrea
Mrozek remains program director. IMFC was
originally founded with support from the
ministry Focus on the Family Canada. Over the
past year IMFC merged with Cardus, a think
tank with offices in Hamilton, Ottawa, Calgary,
Vancouver and Los Angeles.
LAUNCHED
Presbyterian Connection, a new free quarterly
newspaper from the Presbyterian Church in
Canada “to unite Presbyterians from across
the country through stories, reflections,
interviews and articles, allowing us to share
and develop our faith.” (The Presbyterian
Record closed in December 2016.)
New at Blog.Faith Today.ca
or physical touch], it’s not
that you are materialistic
and want to gather up all
these things and find
security in them. It’s the
fact that the other person
knows you well and when
you are away from them,
they are thinking of you.
It can be a little thing. My
wife, I happen to know
she likes butternut candy bars, and so
periodically I’ll be somewhere and see
one and pick it up and bring it to her.” –
Gary Chapman, author of the bestseller The
5 Love Languages, in “What if your love
language stinks?”
IT’S INVALUABLE to connect seniors with
young people and vice versa. I think
there’s way too much [age] segregation in
our churches. We slot everyone into their
age group and there’s very little mixing
except maybe in worship services, and
then many divide that up. [Long ago] our
youth guy had cards made up with the
teens’ [pictures], and he partnered each
JUST THIS past Sunday, at a new church
we are now attending [after moving to
Ottawa], there was a time for testimonies
at the end of a congregational meeting.
One after another, people stood up and
shared what this particular church had
meant to them. Here, in this place where
they had planted roots and no doubt stuck
it out through times when it might have
been easier to leave, they had experienced
the depths of knowing and being known,
and of receiving and of giving. As I listened I thought, “This is what church is
and does for those who stick it out. It’s not
a crutch, like some people say who maybe
don’t recognize their own life crutches. It
is air. It is community. It is real. It is hard.
But it’s trying to be holy.” – from “The
beauty of church” by Karen Stiller
BECAUSE THE Christian faith has always
frowned on materialism, there are some
people who [look down on giving and
receiving] gifts. But [for individuals who
are touched more deeply by gifts than
other “love languages” such as words of
affirmation, quality time, acts of service
teen with a senior who
prayed for them for that
year. I was recently look-
ing at the Bible of a senior,
and in her Bible was still
that teen’s card she had
prayed for – and the pro-
cess had discontinued for
at least five years. – Pastor
Mark Lowrie of Owen
Sound, Ont., in “The differ-
ence crokinole can make to everyone”
FOR A charity to preserve its status with
the Canada Revenue Agency, my number
one preventative tip is this: boards should
set a standard item on their agenda about
four months after fiscal year end to approve the T3010 for submission to CRA.
Board approval is not required, but this is
one way to ensure that the T3010 is not
overlooked. If it isn’t ready, there will still
be enough time to complete and submit
it. It must be in the CRA’s hands by six
months after the charity’s year end. – from
“How a church can easily stay in the good
books of the CRA” by John Pellowe
