2011‑2022, and is preserved here for archival purposes.
Anika Barlow and her neighbour are both sojourners. Her neighbour has taughter her how to say "Welcome" from wherever she stands.
Grief was diffused – or at least dismissed for the night – as Aina whispered a joke to Ara in the language only teenage girls understand Aina offered tissues and I sat on the floor at Ara’s feet Every day Aina could be found swinging on the hammock in the backyard ...
With a new production of Godspell about to open in Ottawa just before Easter, Convivium’s Hannah Marazzi talks to artistic director Jonathan Harris about what makes a 48-year-old play about 2000 year old Scriptures such captivating theatre for today’s audiences.
JH: The story of Jesus has captured people, you know, forever all over the world on its own! And I think this version of the story in particular, with the freshness of energy and music is why Godspell is endearing My entire understanding of the world, people, faith, spirituality, and theology has be...
In the third of her series exploring the Rule of St. Benedict. Breanne Valerie discovers the founder of the Benedictine order saw Lenten practice as an every day event.
Lent is to act as a launching pad for the rest of the year, it is the time to think about what in our lives has clouded the presence of God The Observance of Lent is indeed a time to take stock of what in our lives is distracting us from communing with the God of the universe Lent then became more a...
At a Cardus-Convivium event five years ago, China’s Cardinal Joseph Zen warned sharply of dangers to the Catholic Church in courting the Communist regime. Fresh events, Father Raymond de Souza notes, show the Cardinal was prescient as he was pointed.
It’s been nearly 70 years since the People’s Republic of China made the Catholic Church in China illegal, broke off diplomatic relations with the Holy See, and erected the “Patriotic” Church, which permits Catholic practice but under the supervision of the state bureaucracy and independent of the “f...
Prime Minister Trudeau says his “peoplekind” clanger was only a dumb joke. The problem for the PM is that no one laughed. And then everyone did.
Had the prime minister given proper attention to the groups incensed at the Summer Jobs program’s ideological “attestation” provision, there would have been no question about it in Edmonton, therefore no joke, and so no dumb harm done, this week at least Graciousness bids us accept Prime Minister Tr...
The switch of highly educated professionals to making a risky living selling small batches of craft products has its roots in work that is its own reward, writes Brian Dijkema, a Hamilton-based beekeeper who is also Cardus Program Director for Work and Economics.
There are all kinds of interesting matters to contemplate in the article – on the relationship between wealth and craft, on what sustains production of a $10 pickle, the difference in attentiveness required for mass production and small batches – but what I find most interesting, in light of the S...
In the second of two parts, Convivum contributor Deborah Rankin talks with front line warriors against human sex trafficking. Despite tough laws passed by Canada in recent years, the battle in the street is far from over.
Stella, an organization run by and for sex workers has long argued against the prohibition of prostitution and disputes claims about exploitation of young women and girls by men in the sex trade According to Ronald Lepage, director of The Way Out, a Montreal organization that provides counselling, s...
During the last years of the Harper era, parliamentarians of all stripes worked in non-partisanship to combat human trafficking. Yet as Montreal writer Deborah Rankin learns from experts, and writes in this two-part Convivium series, all that political energy produced depressingly few benefits for young women trapped in the sex trade.
Parliament accepted these research findings when former Bloc Québécois MP and criminologist Maria Mourani sponsored a private member's bill (C-452) that recognized sexual exploitation as a category of human trafficking Over the years they have hosted conferences bringing educators, women's groups, a...
As the federal government digs in its heels on rule changes in the suddenly controversial Canada Summer Jobs program, a pro-life group is counting the benefits of being excluded.
The furor that Prime Minister Trudeau initially dismissed as a minor “kerfuffle” involving only a few religious groups has, Van Maren says, brought CCBR a fresh wave of volunteers, and an extremely positive response to its door knocking work across Canada So while Van Maren isn’t a expecting a job-f...
Convivium returns to the testimonies of Convivium’s editor-in-chief and two regular contributors whose statements were highlighted in this week's Commons Heritage Committee report on a motion to combat religious discrimination.
Father Raymond de Souza as well as Cardus Law program director Andrew Bennett and Ottawa writer Don Hutchinson were all cited in the report, which produced 30 recommendations for the government, the last one being the designation of a National Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia to mark th...
Accusations of sexual misconduct might lead to seemingly unfair consequences but justice must err on the side of victims, Father Raymond de Souza argues.
That leaves the employer, or professional association, or political party, or entertainment studio, or nonprofit association, or hockey team, or church, in the position of having to evaluate the credibility of the accusation, conduct an investigation and render a judgement Other times the report is ...
Convivium regular contributor Brittany Beacham cautions that while a rush of zealous feeling can accomplish much in the world, real zeal is always governed by God.
They alongside Peter – The Rock, also a man of great zeal, arrogant passion and reckless loyalty – formed Jesus' intimate circle Peter was devastated by his failure, by his betrayal of Jesus, and it was only in the forgiveness of Christ and the power of God's Spirit that his zeal was returned t...
In an eloquent speech to the Commons this week, Alberta MP Michelle Rempel issued a “call to action” for everyone on Parliament Hill – including the media – to stop treating collisions of sex and power as chances for partisan advantage, and start seeing them as serious social disorder. Because of its clarity in framing the issue, Convivium offers Rempel’s speech in full.
In the development of these codes of conduct, political actors should ensure that they do not shy away from stripping the taboo from the following questions, and should force a non-dogmatic conversation on the same: Can a direct report employee or an employee writ large truly give consent to a sexua...
Can you feel it? Through the stillness, we watch and wait for the Spirit to join us.
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Beth Green, program director for Cardus Education, walks Convivium’s Peter Stockland through a new study showing why school matters as much as home and church in building a bedrock foundation for religious faith
When somebody comes through the front door in your church, they have been formed by these multiple pathways, and supporting them in their spiritual and religious maturity and growth means having some awareness at the denominational and congregational level, about specifics of what people learn about...