Robertston Davies: Firmly In The In-Between

Josh Nadeau

June 8, 2018

If literature has ability and duty to blend social issues with intimate character, Convivium contributor Josh Nadeau writes, the novels of Robertson Davies reveal those in-between spaces where things are, and are not.

And as art can be a powerful way of checking the pulse, as it were, of our cultural and public life, it’s worth looking at one Canadian writer in particular who very much embodies a number of these concerns in his work and life: Robertson Davies This is how novels (along with contemporary TV series)...

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The G7’s C Team

Raymond J. de Souza

June 7, 2018

Leaders of the G7 countries meeting this week in Quebec aren’t in crisis, observes Convivium Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza. They are the crisis.

Just as Ontario has the highest level of debt of any sub-sovereign level of government in the world, and faces a suite of leaders completely inadequate to the task at hand, so the international order is fraying, being stressed by centrifugal forces, and the G7 gang is not equal to the challenge Demo...

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A Rocha’s Conservation of Creation

Hannah Marazzi with Richard Faw

June 6, 2018

Convivium’s Hannah Marazzi talks to Richard Faw, interim president of the Christian conservation organization A Rocha, about God’s love guiding the sustenance of Creation.

People are watching – do they see within us a faith that prompts us to care about things that matter in the world? Creation care can also help us to reach out and share Christ's love, to testify to His work to our lives and in the world Convivium: A Rocha’s work is organized into three broad categor...

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Subway Suspension

June 5, 2018

The tiled roof of the old subway station gleams in the late afternoon sun. This station has been the centre of our small European village for as long as I can remember.

A faded subway station still home to life, if at a different pace. ...

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An Angle Entirely New

June 5, 2018

Lines, obtuse, angled, harsh, specific reach every which way. A concrete jungle, I thought bitterly, wishing not for the first time for the rolling hills of my hometown so very far away at this moment.

Rushing to catch the tube, I heard my feet slap against the concrete floor, echoing in the cavernous new building, designed by up and coming architects ...

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Sacred Silhouette

June 5, 2018

In the early morning light a woman’s silhouette can be seen crossing the street. She stops and turns.

And yet, would she notice the early morning light and mist in the same way if not for their stark contrast to the chaos of the waking hours? Was not this stillness a promise that things can begin again? That the most chaotic can itself be still in the promise and presence of the divine. ...

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The Resurrection Does Show Up

Judith Cooke

June 4, 2018

As a psychotherapist, Judith Cooke's vocation is to walk with people through the darkness of their lives. As she listens through Andrew Peterson's album, Resurrection Letters vol. 1., she sees a vision of life that can foster resilience and deep faith. She sees light and darkness side-by-side, with small moments that point again and again to resurrection. 

But I trust Andrew Peterson, because of the time he has spent in his own dark nights, so I entered into his Resurrection Letters knowing that the hope there is based in reality, not denial But I also love that Peterson goes on to write that when we join with friends and neighbours around a shared me...

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Popping A Cork For Abortion?

Raymond J. de Souza

June 1, 2018

Convivium Editor-in-Chief Father Raymond de Souza asks how aborting babies has gone from being a rare individual choice to international cause for breaking out the bubbly.

...

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A Wall Between Church and Court

Janet Epp Buckingham

June 1, 2018

Convivium contributor Janet Epp Buckingham explains this week’s unusual Wall case in which the Supreme Court said judges have no business telling churches how to decide who belongs. It’s a positive outcome for religious freedom, she says, though less far-reaching than other anticipated rulings will be.

The lower courts were convinced on the basis of the Hofer decision that Wall had a legitimate case because his livelihood was affected by his expulsion from his Jehovah’s Witness congregation But on Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada brought an end to the strange saga of Randy Wall and his fight ...

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Poetry To Provoke A City

Milton Friesen

May 31, 2018

City managers rarely, if ever, consider haiku when approving high rise developments, but Cardus Social Cities Program Director Milton Friesen says getting serious about great urbanism means crafting our metropolises to be the domain of the poet as much as the planner.

Is this practical for us? For our communities? Does it matter in the context of professional planners, eager developers, or the upwardly mobile? Is poetry a souvenir, like a cowboy boot keychain you bring back from a Nashville visit? I don’t think poetry can design or build the city, but poets and p...

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Screw-Loose Inclusion

Andrea Mrozek

May 29, 2018

A new federal government document on “digital inclusion” has gender neutral smoke coming out the ears of Cardus Family program director Andrea Mrozek. The waste of time and tax dollars is bad enough. Worse, she argues, is the missed opportunity to do something serious about genuine gender inequality and violence.

So what’s the document about? Canada, we learn “encourages development, adoption and use of technologies that includes the voices of women, girls and gender non-conforming individuals After reading the document, the only question a sane man, woman, girl or gender non-conforming individual could poss...

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Resolving Differences

Jason West

May 28, 2018

The official founding general meeting of Alberta’s new United Conservative Party sparked friction over a resolution pitting parental rights against the LGBT community. But Convivium contributor Jason West writes the moment could become a catalyst for social conservatives and social progressives to put differences aside and work in good faith for common sense change.

Unsurprisingly the media coverage of the event has focused predominantly on one controversial motion, Resolution 30, which would require schools to notify parents if their children join peer groups that discuss topics of a religious or sexual nature A resolution both sides could support would need t...

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Canucks Without Chests

Brent McCamon

May 25, 2018

Watching the antics of a recent anti-Capitalist demonstration outside the Supreme Court of Canada, Cardus senior researcher Brent McCamon was struck by how familiar the communist-inspired slogans were to a great deal of what now passes for liberal democratic belief.

The list of issues covers a wide range, including, the debate regarding Bill C-16 and the potential of state-mandated speech (especially observing the impact of this on university campuses), and the Law Society of Ontario’s recent dictate that all lawyers in the province must “create and abide by an...

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Fire at the Royal Wedding

Raymond J. de Souza

May 24, 2018

Episcopalian Bishop Michael Curry sizzled with his red-hot histrionics at the recent Royal Wedding, but fizzled when it came to preaching the Gospel message of Divine Love, writes Editor in Chief Father Raymond de Souza.

Bishop Curry, oddly enough, did not speak about marriage at all, much less how it was the path by which the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would share life with others, and help each other toward eternal life in heaven There is no doubt that some of the gathered great and good regarded Bishop Curry as m...

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The Middle Class of Holiness

John Walsh

May 24, 2018

In two recent texts of radically different origins, Father John Walsh finds a surprising synchronous spiritual connection that he says might signal a “fourth wave” to carry us forward toward holiness.

Social purpose should be embedded in the business model as much as any other value proposition The good news is that when purpose is done well, the social impact is sustainable, scalable, and effective ...

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