Remembering To Lead

Duncan Field with John Pellowe

November 10, 2017

Tonight at the Canadian War Museum, Cardus will host John Pellowe re-enacting the role of General Sir Arthur Currie in the 1917 battle of Vimy Ridge, a moment in history that many see as defining Canada’s emergence into independent nationhood. Pellowe, CEO of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities, has been presenting the Leadership Lessons of Vimy Ridge on stages across Canada for almost 20 years.

That got me interested in artillery, and when I read a military history of the Canadian Siege Artillery in the First World War, Vimy Ridge stood out as an extraordinary example of thinking and strategy that is so current today that I was stunned it was in use a century ago Duncan Field: You told 100...

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An Artist’s Hand

Rob Wilson

November 10, 2017

Photographer Rob Wilson submits this photograph as a testimony to the art and song of creation. 

The pristine canvas of cloud cover reflects off a lake, giving the illusion of a symmetrical painting of the peaks of Mount Shuksan, viewed from Artist Point in Washington State, USA ...

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Mockery and Majesty

Raymond J. de Souza

November 9, 2017

Convivium editor in chief Father Raymond J. de Souza reflects on the new Governor General's recent remarks to the Canadian Science Policy Convention, outlining the connection between faith and science, and the importance of kindness and care for those around us. 

The new Governor General made rather a mess of her speech to the Canadian Science Policy Convention, less than a month into her service as Canadian vice-regal representative of Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God of Canada, Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith Still, Ibbitson pointed...

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God Took Me Outside

Ainsley Munro

November 8, 2017

Ainsley Murno found her faith in the hands and hearts of regular people – and they brought her back to God and what it means to follow directions given over 2,000 years ago. Love your neighbour, care for others, and disturb the status quo to accomplish it.

My teacher was a homeless Palestinian living in exile from his own community, hated by the religious authority for questioning the blind pursuit of power in place of holding the hands and hearts of broken people I’m approaching my 30s, and it’s hard not to feel slightly out of place at gatherings of...

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Love Coming and Going

Becky Brown

November 8, 2017

"When I meet people who are not from my culture but who share this same fascination with Christ and are trying to figure out how to follow Jesus, there is an instant bond, an instant feeling of being at home."

Meeting Love incarnate-- Jesus-- involves participating in the great migration toward the Kingdom of God, the ultimate place of love, forgiveness, reconciliation, and justice When I meet people who are not from my culture but who share this same fascination with Christ and are trying to figure out h...

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Morning's Holy Light

Claire Brown

November 8, 2017

Sometimes Claire Brown starts her day in the chapel, I going to Mass and praying, making resolutions for an industrious day. Other times, it’s how she ends her day, with sometimes dragging feet, on the way home from a long day at the hospital. Through it all, Claire sees the power of prayer in her community.

At that Mass, in that chapel, I think the reality of the universal church is played out: there are a handful of young, bleary-eyed students who fill a couple pews during the school year, a few professionals who hurry off to work after the final blessing, occasionally a mother or two with toddlers, a...

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The Supreme Court’s Bad News Bear

Albertos Polizogopoulos

November 8, 2017

Ottawa lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos argues the high court’s rejection of a religious freedom claim involving the Grizzly Bear Spirit should give pause to future Charter litigants 

In the majority reasons, the Court found that the Ktunaxa’s religious freedom claim essentially sought to have the government protect the Grizzly Bear Spirit, which was the “object” of the Ktunaxa’s worship The Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations approved the development of t...

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The Shared Path

Rob Wilson

November 8, 2017

Photographer Rob Wilson plays with leading lines in this image, leading us down a shared path of history and experience.

Who in your life has gone ahead and made a path for you? ...

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Rain & Imperfection

Rob Wilson

November 8, 2017

Photographer Rob Wilson presents this lakeshore dock as a sacred space even in the pouring rain. 

Even in the rain, even in the imperfect experience of what the dock was meant for, there is still beauty-- the beauty of imperfection ...

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Three Risks For Freedom

Janet Epp Buckingham

November 7, 2017

Dead French intellectuals, explosive growth of social media, and busybodies obsessed with “feelings” all put traditional liberties at risk, Janet Epp Buckingham recently told the Parliamentary Forum on Canadian Freedoms

Many of the current issues where Canadian freedoms are threatened involve insidious, but seemingly minor, restrictions on freedom In social media debates over this, many lawyers argue that signing on to this kind of thing is a small restriction on liberty that is well worth it for the privilege of s...

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Joining Forces Against C-51

November 7, 2017

Leaders of Canada's faith communities have come together to demand the Liberal government change legislation they say assaults Canadians and international protections for religious freedom

The removal of section 176 would erode protection for religious freedom in Canada, and would stand in stark contrast to the explicit protection enshrined in Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and Article 18 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights (U...

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The Spirit of Prize Winning Poets

Doug Sikkema

November 6, 2017

The first and second place finishers in the poetry portion of the Ross and Davis Mitchell Literary Prize offer first hand accounts of the role faith played in their success.

In that Facebook comment section that thankfully alerted me to the prize in the first place, Jared Bland and Mark Medley, the literary editors of the Globe and Mail, were asked by one poet, “Does this stuff matter?” Here’s my answer: It did to my mother, a good woman who worked hard every day of her...

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Dusk

Hannah Martin

November 6, 2017

Photographer Hannah Martin captures this fleeting view of the sunlight at dusk in Tofino British Columbia. 

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The Spirited Way Forward

Hannah Marazzi

November 3, 2017

An Ottawa Writers Festival reading by Baha’i lawyer, scholar and human rights advocate Payam Akhavan affirms for Convivium’s Hannah Marazzi the sacred’s intersection of the secular.

What was the response to this framing of headlines and world events in spiritual terms, rather than precise legal terminology? How would they respond to this Baha’i mystic committed to a pragmatic undertaking of human rights work as connected to his sense of devotion to his own Baha’i faith? Surpris...

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Closing the Reformation Divide

Raymond J. de Souza

November 3, 2017

It barely made the news, but this week 500 years of Christian theological division could justifiably be called closed.

“When the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999, you resolved the underlying theological question of 1517, in a decisive moment for all churches in the search for unity and reconciliation,” Archbishop Welby said at Wes...

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