Waiting Women

Andrea Mrozek

August 29, 2017

Andrea Mrozek hears recent media clamour about women having to wait too long for abortions and wonders why there are no voices concerned for women who must wait, endlessly wait, just to conceive a beloved child.

Advocates for abortion in Nova Scotia, it also turns out, have no data—something we learn in the fourth to last paragraph of the story: “Nova Scotia does not appear to keep statistics on how long it takes women to obtain an abortion after a referral Women always get their abortions—so far not one st...

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Evening's Flight

Linda Couture

August 29, 2017

A line of geese begin their ascension to the heavens, skimming the water's surface in their quest. 

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God's Smile on the Hill

Braydon Westerveld

August 28, 2017

In his Golden Thread submission, Braydon Westerveld writes on the ways one member of Parliament's faith informs his life and decisions.

Harold Albrecht assumed office in Parliament Hill 11 years ago and has helped to pass a number of bills and speak to various issues that are informed by his faith Through his background, current work on Parliament Hill and in the hope for the future, Harold has created a strong bond with God as shou...

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Remembering Bishop Ruiz

John Walsh

August 28, 2017

Ordinary women and men grow to be leaders. The examples are too many to list. No one is hard-wired to become a leader. The experiences of life are their greatest teacher. So it was with Bishop Samuel Ruiz.

Bishop Samuel Ruiz, a man who lived the Gospel as a Gospel of hope, who built a church of welcome to all, and going to the peripheries he brought the indigenous Mexicans to the center of the Church to experience mercy Only in 1973 did the Catholic bishops, at a Synod where bishops represented the bi...

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Three Back To School Essentials

Beth Green

August 28, 2017

As parents jot down to-do lists for their kids’ return to school, Cardus Director of Education Beth Green sets out her top priorities for educational success.

Parental voice, community participation and civic engagement are the signs of a healthy school system, and some of the best examples come from Canada’s independent schools So, whether you as parents are more anxious than your children are about the first day of school, or whether the return to routi...

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Remembered Lamb

Peter Stockland

August 28, 2017

Photographer Peter Stockland encounters a flock of sheep and is prompted to reflection on the risen Lamb. 

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George Rawlyk

Laurie McBurney

August 25, 2017

Historian and professor George Rawlyk was a bear of a man who was tapped to become a professional football player, but opted for a scholarly life of research, writing and teaching, mostly about evangelical religion’s role in Canadian history.

Historian and professor George Rawlyk was a bear of a man who was tapped to become a professional football player, but opted for a scholarly life of research, writing and teaching, mostly about evangelical religion’s role in Canadian history Rawlyk had some concern that his work, focusing on a very ...

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Gay Pride Meets Jewish Orthodoxy

Peter Stockland with Daniel Jonas

August 25, 2017

As Ottawa heads into one of the last Pride weekends of the summer in Canada, Convivium publisher Peter Stockland interviews Daniel Jonas, an Israeli LGBT activist trying to balance contemporary interpretations of human rights and identity with his devout commitment to the timeless truths of Orthodox Judaism.

Daniel Jonas is the chairperson of Havruta, a religious community that works for tolerance of LGBT people in Orthodox society in Israel C: But isn’t the Orthodox community abroad, in the diaspora, even more conservative than the Orthodox community in Israel? Why would that be? Is the focus of your w...

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Born Of Love Not Lack

Pomeline Martinoski, Jeff Lockert, Tim McCauley, Ashley Chapman

August 25, 2017

Convivium readers, and even a member of the Convivium team, respond to Marlena Lougheed’s account of her decision to leave worldly life and join the Catholic religious order, Sisters of Life. 

After reading Marlena's account of her vocation story in Convivium's A Love Louder Than Noise, I can recall the piercing silence with which God burst into my heart, the moment I finally let Him speak to me “I resonate with Marlena Loughheed's journey of discerning a call from God in the midst of the...

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A Life Serving God

Hannah Rose Marshall

August 24, 2017

Grade 8 student Hannah Rose Marshall shares how her great-grandfather is a man that she believes has had a tremendous effect on many people’s faith by reason of his trust in the Lord and how he strives to get to know Him better on a daily basis.

Gerald preached in many countries including England, South Africa, Wales, Scotland, and Canada and has brought many people to Christ Gerald Griffiths has had an impact on many people in Canada, and all around the world When Gerald was 16, he preached a trial sermon at a midweek service in his home c...

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Calgary’s Coyote Ugly Art

Raymond J. de Souza

August 24, 2017

Father Raymond J. de Souza delivers a thoughtful essay on the purpose and patronage of public art.

Displaying such works in public galleries is worthy, but why not commission public art, to be erected on private land, but to adorn our common life? It is highly unlikely that the Bowfort Towers would be the result of such an initiative When Calgary city council approves a public works project of su...

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Truth in Fantasy

Celia Farrow

August 23, 2017

On an evening walk through dark woods with her brother, Celia Farrow explores the prospect that only a real and purposeful Creator could give us the means to find reflections of  divine in the imagined.

He constructs his own world and even the trees, where they are to be found, are carefully curated by human hands to fulfill a specific purpose This desire for purpose and meaning reflects how we should feel about our own place in the world Yet, the ‘mature’ man may refrain from jumping into tales of...

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The Age of Hubris

Ray Pennings

August 23, 2017

Cardus Executive Vice President Ray Pennings delivers a thoughtful essay on the Age of Hubris and the way in which dignity and humility serve as essential ingredients to effective disagreement. 

I confess to being sceptical that this generation can be so uniquely insightful about the modern version of human dignity, with its attendant corollaries regarding race, conception, gender, sexuality and death ...

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Bowed

Hayley Lockrem

August 23, 2017

Photographer Hayley Lockrem captures men in prayer, a posture common to those across time, space, and tradition. 

Besides being unconditionally welcomed and over-fed, I was struck by the physical posture during their prayers and ceremonies ...

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Renewing On Middle Ground

Cecil Chabot

August 21, 2017

Reflecting on a ceremony he contributed to in Moose Factory, Ontario this summer, Cecil Chabot sees a model for recovering right relations between Indigenous and “Newcomer” Canadians.

Yet Moose Factory, where I was born and where Geraldine is my co-chair on the Heritage Committee of the Moose River Heritage and Hospitality Association and Director of Cree Culture and Language for Moose Cree First Nation, is a deeply significant place in Canadian history Moose Factory was, and rem...

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