Index of 25th Newsletter (CRCN)

RURAL ISSUES

●    Halting Rural Poverty In Canada

●    Senate Report - Executive Summary

RURAL MINISTRY (Life and Faith)

●    Moving Further From Home

●    Church Booth at BC Cattlemen's AGM

WORSHIP RESOURCES

●    At Home on the Farm

●    In Times of Recession

●    Food Rumours Abound

●    Rediscovering the Arts

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

●    New forms of ordained Ministry (Australia)

EVENTS

●    CIRCLE - M

●    International Rural Church Conference - 2010

RURAL ISSUES

Halting Rural Poverty in Canada

            "It's time to rebuild rural Canada" Senator Joyce Fairbairn affirmed in commenting on the recently released Senate Agricultural Committee's report Beyond Freefall: Halting Rural Poverty.  "We believe there is a crisis of decline and poverty in rural Canada that will have a lasting and dangerous impact on all of us if the government does not move quickly and address these problems...  Our economy is rooted in rural Canada.  It produces food, fuel, energy and building materials for our cities and for export around the world."  (Lethbridge Herald, June 18/ 08)

            The Senators spent two years listening to rural Canada's needs.  They recognize that rural areas have an ever decreasing electoral clout because of decreasing population in these areas, but they insist the plight of family farms and rural communities needs to be brought onto the political agenda.

            The guiding principles that should help shape development of policy are -

●    the need to respect rural diversity

●    the need to help those who help themselves

●    the need to be place-based

●    the need to recognize that rural Canada doesn't necessarily want to be urbanized

●    the need to stop looking for magic bullet solutions

            68 key recommendations have been made to try to improve the quality of life for rural Canadians.  Their plea is for government to recognize the value of a healthy rural sector.  "With today's public emphasis on food production, for quality and protection of the environment and habitat, people are realizing the value of rural dwellers and their contribution as they never have before."  (Western Producer July 10/ 08)

            Two questions remain.  Can the government make the shift from focusing on agricultural trade on the global scene, to working with home-based concerns?  Is the government willing to give serious attention to what the Senators have said?

Senate Report: Executive Summary

(An Executive Summary is listed at the very beginning of the report on the web-site.)

Key Recommendations

●    the creation of a Department of Rural Affairs that would put rural Canada back on the federal policy agenda

●    need to renew a focus on rural issues, with the reminder that rural is about more than just agriculture

●    programs need to be developed that consider rural Canada's special needs or make it easier for communities to access them

●    the health, education, transportation and natural resources policies pertaining to rural needs should come under one umbrella

●    connections need to be made with agriculture, forestry, finance, health, trade and international affairs - as these tie into the rural economy

●    the federal government must revise farm programs to help cover rising costs

●    we must insure that the latest communication technology doesn't by-pass Canada

●    farmers and rural land-owners should be compensated for preserving the environment

●    we need a new transportation infrastructure ....

Re Food

●    Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada need to review how government regulatory measures are putting the agri-food industry at a competitive disadvantage

●    Create a forum for the agri-food industry to discuss the regulatory needs of new in-put products and facilitate the approval of products already sold in other countries

Re Education

●    fund rural-based Cooperative Vocational Schools

●    student grant and loan programs should be sensitive to rural needs

Office of Rural Health

●    to help recruit workers, use tele-health technologies, insure that researchers don't ignore the health problems of rural people

(The above indicate some key points.  To read the complete report: www.par.gc.ca go to Committees, Senate, Agriculture and Forestry Reports, Ninth Report)

RURAL MINISTRY (Life and Faith)

Moving Further From Home

I am experiencing something familiar to many in rural communities. My child is leaving the country, literally. She has lived in Manitoba for her first professional work after graduate school. It was an ideal first job, giving her a wide range and depth of experience in her chosen field.  Now her vocation takes her to a sunnier climate for double the pay. No more scraping ice off her car in her alley parking space on her way to her evening work. Who could resist that?

Her spacious new apartment costs about the same as her old one in an aging low-rise with high ceilings and clanking radiators. Many of her new colleagues live in the same lovely complex, complete with pool and gym, so she will have built-in networking opportunities after work.

Her choice involves so many other stewardship issues, though. Some may sneak up on her. I wonder how much of her bigger pay cheque will go for health insurance and health care? Will she be homesick for Canadian values? With her biological clock ticking, will she find a potential life partner in a much more conservative culture with narrower political perspectives and more fundamentalist religious outlooks?

With environmental concerns intersecting economic ones, how long will it be feasible to live in a place that requires irrigation and air conditioning? A July 5th headline in The Toronto Star read "Worried about climate change? Then stay right here in Canada." For the article, see www.thestar.com/article/454865.  Evidently, Canada ranked No.1 in the Climate Change Risk Report, produced by a British consultant group that maps risk. Will that become a quality of life concern for her sooner, rather than later?

Other effects of her decision may affect me more than her. We may relay more on electronic means to steward our relationship, as flights from Toronto to her new destination cost more and take longer. When she lived in Winnipeg, I had extra chances to see her every time my General Council work took me there. I also stayed with her, saving on the cost of accommodation. There are no United Churches where she is going.

Stewardship considerations implicit in her options reach far beyond the immediate issues that drove my daughter's decision to move. That is true in every choice we make. May God bless and guide our discernment for all our decision-making.

Barbara Fullerton is program coordinator for Stewardship Development in the United Church's General Council's CECM Unit (Congregational, Educational, and Community Ministries http://communities.united-church.ca/stewardshipnetwork

Church Booth at BC Cattlemen's AGM

            The BC Cattlemen's Association held its Annual General meeting in 100Mile House, BC on June 12-14.  One of our ranchers, who was also the chairperson for the local organizational committee, said one night at the Sheridan Lake house church, "You know, as far as I can remember the BC Cattlemen's Association has never had any direct involvement from the church at its AGM.  I think we should get involved, especially given the problems that are brewing in the industry right now and the dreadful effect they are having on ranch families." 

            And so a booth was rented in the trade fair portion of the event, a rotation of house church members organized to tend it and materials collected from a variety of sources to be given away at the booth.  The theme of the booth was simply stated by the large sign plastered across its backdrop: "Crises? Consider Christ and his Church in your Community for Compassion, Counsel, Comfort, and Care."  The idea was to be present on behalf of Christ for ranch families attending the meeting, to be an ear if people needed to talk and to provide resources for people who were searching.  Resources that were given away included everything from Cowboy Bibles through to books from several  appropriate authors, (including three of my own), copies of a variety of papers written by Cam Harder and copies of the Canadian Rural Church Network newsletter. 

            At the close of the BCCA AGM, three things stood out for me.  One was the very positive reception we received from the BC Cattlemen's Association and the people who organized the event.  I was very pleasantly surprised by this as one never knows how one will be received as Christ's representative in a secular event such as this.  Fear of rejection often prevents any involvement.  Second was the heartfelt interest from people, mostly ranch folk, who visited our booth.  Several significant connections were made with people and the volume of materials that were given away and enthusiastically received was amazing.  Third was the disconnect between what was going on in the Cattlemen's meeting and what was represented at the trade fair. 

            The meeting was full of ranch folk facing huge problems head on: everything including severe marketing fallout from BSE, the effects of new government regulations on small abattoirs, feed shortages and land use conflicts.  The meeting was reported to me as the most tense and honest meeting perhaps in the history of the BCCA.  People were talking "straight from the shoulder."  This just reflects the huge burden ranch families are having to carry just now. 

            Next door in the trade fair, except for our booth, you would never have known a ranch crisis existed in the province.  Booths representing several branches of government, numerous artisan's, equipment dealers, folks flogging the newest drug programs and irrigation equipment were every where and carrying on as though what was going on at the meeting next door didn't exist.  I am not sure what to make of this, even after almost 2 months of reflecting on it, except to say denial is a wonderful thing if you are not the one being hammered by reality.

For Christ's sake,  Dave Webber, Pastor, Cariboo Presbyterian Church

(visit our website at http://www.cariboopresbyterianchurch.bc.ca/)

WORSHIP RESOURCES

At Home on the Farm

                Did you know it was a meeting between Eugene Whelan and Mikhail Gorbachev that put Russia on the path to democracy?  The meeting was held in 1983 at Whelan's farm near Windsor, and is told about in a new book "The Soviet Ambassador, The Making of the Radical behind Perestroika".

            Christopher Shulgan, its author, comes from the area, and passes on his thoughts about how this happened at a time when tensions between East and West were rapidly escalating.

            The unique thing, Shulgan comments, is that Canadians were being themselves with their Soviet visitors.  "By being open, by not judging Gorbachev, but not confronting him with some of their thoughts about some of the dumb things the Soviet union was doing", they let him see for himself what was happening here.  What the Soviet leader realized as he looked at the way things were being done on the Whelan farm was that his country was "so far behind".  Here he saw ideas he could implement that would help them "catch up".

            The observations made by Shulgan are important reminders to all of us as we try to communicate with people of a different mind-set.

            When it comes to spiritual and faith issues, we can become very pushy and judgmental.  We need to be reminded that what we are about is God's work, and in God's time and according to God's way all of us may find new ways of looking at life.

            After Jesus' baptism, John tells about standing by the wayside with another as the teacher passed.

            "What are you looking for?" Jesus asked.

            "Where do you live?" they replied.

            "Come and see".  So they went with him and saw where he lived and spent the rest of the day with him.

            That simple opening changed their lives. Through hospitality and generosity of Spirit, amazing things can happen.

In Times of Recession

            Recessions are white-knuckle times, especially if there's no predictable ending.  What's being taken from our pocket-books makes us feel like we've stepped into quicksand.  Fear of the unknown robs our sleep.

            Was this the situation Jesus knew when he sent his disciples out to preach the good news and heal the sick?

            "Take nothing with you", he warned. "No walking stick, no beggar's bag, no food, no money, not even an extra shirt."

            Imagine their apprehensions!  They needed to count on the hospitality of strangers for everything.

            "But good things happened.  Sick people were healed," Presbyterian minister Nancy Cocks tells us.  "Anxious people found peace.  God's good news spread.  The disciples came back with stories to tell."  It was a busy time.  People even gathered in deserted places.

            One loved story tells about a crowd of tired, hungry people needing to be fed late in the day.

            The disciples had no purse large enough to buy this much food.  But that's when the exchange of gifts happened, like a huge community pot-luck supper.  None had much, but most found they had something they could share - until there was more than enough to go around.

            "Share what you have" became the mantra - some with gifts of prayer and healing, others with food and hospitality.

            The miracle lie in the way people identified with the need and the possibilities.

            In our time of recession, look deep in the heart of this story and find the calming balm.

            When we are affluent we have little need of others.  We pay our own way and connect with selected individuals.

            But when our travel is more restricted and we can't keep up with the buying frenzy, we slow down, recognize our non-monetary treasures, and reach out in simple, homey ways.

            May the miracles and mysteries of God give us peace.

Food Rumours Abound

                "Hello, Wedge," E.B. White wrote in the New Yorker years ago.  "Where is the rest of you?"  His tongue-in-cheek friend was nothing but skin and bones.

            Over lunch, which Wedge couldn't bear to order, White found out the rest of the story.  Wedge believed every rumour he heard about food contamination.  Cheese has mold.  Dried apricots have sulphuric acid.  Pork could contain worms.  Watercress grows in drainage ditches...

            The vaguest rumours preyed on his mind, and with each story he eliminated another item from his diet.  The worse moment was when he gave up coffee.  "Rancid oil" was the cause.  "In its natural state", he reasoned, " the coffee bean contains a certain amount of oil. That oil gets rancid!"

            Just before he fainted from weakness, Wedge went on to say "Life is hell these days.  I'm wasting away fast, but it's better than eating things you are scared of."

            White wrote that column in 1931 in response to the barrage of food rumours that peppered social conversation.  What if Wedge lived in our times and had access to the abundance of "scientific" reports released by the media? 

            God made us intelligent beings, gave us the ability to weigh out the difference between rumour and fact, and above all gave us the means to grow our own food and access food from reliable sources.

            We who live close to the land, and in communities that care about the food we produce, are particularly fortunate.  Because we understand how water and spinach can be contaminated, and because we know that "shelf life" is the main concern of mass marketers, we are the ones who must speak up for "safe food practises" and "nutritious food production".

            We are the guardians, the front-line, in making sure the produce God has given is used for good and not used to satisfy greedy entrepreneurs.

Rediscovering the Arts

                        We can be extravagant with abandon if we believe we are freely entitled to have whatever we can lay our hands on.  That's what lies behind the Biblical serpent's tempting words "eat this (forbidden fruit) and you shall be as the gods (knowing all things)."

            "Limitlessness is a godly trait" Wendell Berry writes in Harper's Magazine.  "'Limitless animals' is a contradiction in terms."  He goes on to say "We are coming under pressure to understand ourselves as limited creatures in a limited world."

            It has to do with understanding the meaning of "freedom".  "Free" comes from the same root as "friend".  "This suggests that our 'identity' is located not in the impulse of selfhood, but in deliberately maintaining connections."  We live in community.

            When we immerse ourselves in the realm of science and technology, we presume that they will provide everything we desire: that there will be limitless knowledge, limitless science... limitless progress.  Inevitably this leads to limitless violence, waste, war, and destruction.

            But if we want to understand who we are at our best, "we may have to remove some of the emphasis we have placed on the sciences and have a new look at the arts".

            Art accepts the limits within which it is expressed: a painting on a specific canvas, a drama in three acts, a performance before a specific audience.  The poem or play may have meaning far beyond the moment, but it is expressed in the moment.

            What if we again think of "the art of agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, and ultimately the art of living"?  What if we work on the canvas of the eco-system, and realize it is inexhaustible only if it remains ecologically intact?

            Starting to slow down is a rational choice and a viable one.  What we need is the necessary political will to re-direct ourselves.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

New Forms Of Ordained Ministry (Australia)

(Robyn McPhail notes in her Rural Church Newsletter)  "A reply came in after Denise Naish's message a couple of weeks ago asking to hear more about the new forms of ordained ministry the Uniting Church in Australia is using.   Here is Denise's response:

"The Uniting Church took the step two years ago to move to recognise as an Ordained Ministry that of Pastor. This option was available to those in specified ministry placements. This included Lay Pastors, Specified Ministry of Youth Worker, Chaplains and Community Ministers.

"It is up to the individual to apply for consideration.   The process then involved discernment by the church as to a sense of call to ordained ministry.  There were also prerequisite studies for which appropriate trainings were prepared and dually completed.  

"Those who chose not to proceed to ordination continued to be recognised as Specified Ministry of Youth Worker or Lay Pastor and while they remain in continual placement will continue to be recognised.  When they no longer hold placement and wished to renter ministry the course available to them would be Ordained Ministry of Pastor.  I suspect this response enabled many Lay Pastors who were taking up part time placements to be fully equipped to preside at the sacraments, be licensed marriage celebrants and the like.

"Generally there has been a positive taking up of this option with some not proceeding due to insufficient prerequisite learning and others choosing to remain in previous arrangement.  By and large a positive move embraced by the church.

"Other information may be resourced from the UCA Assembly Website.  http://www.uca.org.au "

EVENTS

CIRCLE - M

Hello, friends - well it has been a year since Brandon.  Did you receive notes from some of the participants through the IRCA prayer notes?  It is good to hear from folks, with their reflections.

This year, Circle-M has got going.  There has been talk for a number of years at the Saskatoon Theological Union (St. Andrews, Lutheran Seminary and Emmanual & St. Chad) about a rural church institute to specifically train leadership for rural ministry and communities.  Last year, Cam Harder gathered in consultation an ecumenical gathering to talk about what people would like to see from such an institute, and a board has been meeting since then, and I am a member on it.  Circle-M is the Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry, and there is a website, www.circle-m.ca, getting into full operation. 

One of the first aims was to offer an STM in the Graduate Studies Department, with a focus on Rural Ministry and Community Development.  I think I am going to apply.  The three-year program will begin this fall, and will be very exciting, I believe.

Another part of their mandate was to provide a network for rural congregations.  They thought about a newsletter, but then we began to think how the CRCN already has its online newsletter at www.canadianruralchurch.net.  The Board asks whether Circle-M and CRCN can collaborate through our newsletter, and that Circle-M can submit to Joyce.  I would like to know your feelings about this, whether you would approve the request from Circle-M, or what thoughts you have about the idea.

One of the things CRCN was hoping to do, as I remember, is to host a western conference on the years between the Queens rural symposia, which will be 2009, and again, I hope we can cooperate with Circle-M for this, because we are drawing on the same population.   I would welcome any feedback on this as well.

Hope your summers are going well, and look forward to hearing from you in the next little while. 

Blessings, Catherine Christie (Chairperson of CRCN, member of the CIRCLE-M Board)

(Catherine is also looking for persons who might be interested in attending the International Rural Conference in Germany in 2010)

International Rural Church Conference - 2010

Dear Friends in Christ,

This message comes to you to inform you of plans for the next gathering of the International Rural Church Association (IRCA), and to encourage you to consider attending.  IRCA anticipates holding gatherings about every 4 years, and the next gathering is scheduled for Germany in August, 2010.

The IRCA gathering is a group of persons (church leaders, pastors, lay persons) from around the world who are interested in rural issues, in how these issues are affecting rural people and communities, and in how the Church might address these issues and do ministry among rural communities and people.  The last gathering was held in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, and had participants from 13 countries located in Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America, and Tonga.  Information about IRCA can be seen at its website, www.irca.is.

Lothar Schullerus, president of IRCA, has invited a delegation of 10 to represent Canada at the next IRCA gathering in Germany.  I encourage you to consider attending.  If you are interested in attending please contact me (contact information is below) so that I can keep track of who is interested.  Please also contact me with any questions, and I will try to obtain an answer for you.  Below is the information I have so far about the next IRCA gathering.

Dates and Place

The next gathering is scheduled for August 2-9, 2010, to be held at Academy Altenkirchen, Germany.  This is located about 70 kilometers from the Koln/Bonn airport, and about 130 kilometers from the Frankfurt airport.

Theme

The proposed theme for the gathering is Hunger, in a broad sense of the term.  It is envisioned that hunger will be addressed from physical, social, spiritual, and theological dimensions.  Participants are encouraged to share issues and concerns about ministry from their own contexts.

Estimated Costs

While the actual costs for the gathering will not be known until sometime in 2009, here are figures to use based on information from the Brandon gathering and information I have received.

Registration: for the Brandon gathering was $525 Canadian (about $513 U.S. at current exchange rate)

Housing: 46.00 Euros for double occupancy, 49.00 Euros for single occupancy ($71.52 and $76.18 U.S., respectively, at current exchange rate)

Meals: Not known

(contact Cartherine Christie - cchristie@sasktel.net)