Envy

A Competition-free World (the second in a series of articles on each of the seven deadly sins* to be published on each Friday until Labour Day), by Geoff Ryan

“Our envy of others devours us most of all.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Envy begins by asking plausibly: ‘Why should I not enjoy what others enjoy?’ and it ends by demanding ‘Why should others enjoy what I may not?’”
Dorothy Sayers

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here is a Russian ‘fable’ that goes like this. An Englishman and a Frenchman and a Russian are captured by a cannibal king. › Continue reading

Lifestyle Simplicity

Christian ministry to the poor is the most valuable when it’s more about what we give up than what we give, by Dani Shaw

“Our culture’s secular wisdom does not affirm the reality of the spirit… It looks to the material world for satisfaction and meaning. Its dominant values are … the three A’s – Achievement, Affluence and Appearance.

Idolatry, whatever its object, represents the enshrinement of any other person or thing in the very place of God.

A man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone.”
– Henry David Thoreau

Introduction

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e live in a complex world. The last century has seen greater technological change than any other in history. › Continue reading

Look Back in Anger

The first in a series of articles on each of the seven deadly sins* (to be published on each Friday until Labour Day), by Geoff Ryan

“…people of our generation aren’t able to die for good causes any longer…. There aren’t any good, brave causes left.” Jimmy Porter, “Look Back in Anger” (1956)

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ou won’t find the seven deadly sins listed anywhere in the Bible. It was Pope Gregory (the Great) who came up with them back in the sixth century AD. Why seven? I suspect for no other reason than the fact that this numeral has always held a religious fascination. › Continue reading

GIVE A YEAR

GET A LIFE!

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gnite is a 10-month urban mission training program for those who wish to live out God’s mission while being trained and equipped as a disciple of Jesus. Ignite team members live together in an inner-city community and spend each day in intense and sacrificial mission. › Continue reading

All of Mission’s Domain(s)

A review of Ann Morisy’s Journeying Out: A New Approach to Christian Mission (Morehouse, 2004), by Gordon Cotterill

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t seems that there are Christian books designed for people that see church as a Sunday dominated affair and Christian books designed for those who see Church involvement in community as being more than singing the right style of song. › Continue reading

Jesus of the Inner City

(1 Bullet, 1 Life), a poem by Mary Parks

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eople pass him every day
mistaking him for one of “them”
Nothing about his appearance
is particularly of note.
His hair, long and shaggy
hangs well past his shoulders
With no place to lay his head
the sleeplessness of 1,000 nights
shows in his eyes › Continue reading

Building Envy

Architecture and the Church*, by Geoff Ryan

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n 1991 my wife and I were sent by The Salvation Army to St. Petersburg, Russia to plant churches. This enchanting city is a treasure trove of architectural wonder. One of the first truly planned cities, Petersburg was constructed in the early 1700’s at great human cost. It was imposed by the will of Peter the Great on the swampland of the northeast corner of the Russian empire, as a bulwark against the major military threat of the day (Sweden) and a “window to the West”. › Continue reading

Compassion or Co-Dependence?

An examination of compassionate Christian ministry in the 21st Century from the perspection of a Salvation Army Officer [1] by the late Captain John Walter

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n 1865 William Booth felt the call of God upon his life to preach to the lost of East London. The people were some of the poorest of the poor. While the primacy of the mission was evangelism, there soon developed a wide variety of practical acts of compassion, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, clothing the naked, caring for prisoners, and helping drunkards break their addiction. › Continue reading

OTTAWA MANIFESTO/MANIFESTE D’OTTAWA

OTTAWA MANIFESTO*

Regarding homelessness in Canada, Presented by the National Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness at Street Level 2006, Ottawa, Canada

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e, the members of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness, and other signatories, are representative of the many Canadian people of Christian faith who believe that the care of poor and vulnerable people of all ages is a central tenet of our own faith, of good government, and of responsible, compassionate citizenship. We have already committed significant personal and organizational resources to this purpose. We have witnessed the rise of homelessness as a crisis of disturbing proportions, and of societal, systemic and individual complexity. › Continue reading