Terry Laing offers some continuing reflections on ‘journeying’ as a pastor in ‘Learning from a Persian Journey’.

The Chair/Moderator of the Steering Committee has written a useful prospectus for the Gathering in this year and the following. Please note the details, and plan your schedule accordingly. While you are doing this, don’t forget to invite a friend.

Ray Hobbs

British Evangelicals go for Hell

A newly released report of the Theological Commission of Britain’s Evangelical Alliance is called The Nature of Hell. It demands a return to the preaching of a literal Hell, a place of eternal judgment for unrepentant sinners. As an aside it also affirms the position that salvation is possible only through belief in Jesus Christ. The report of the release of this document in the British Baptist Times (April 6, 200) is made with obvious approval.

The report claims to be biblical and theological in its approach. It states ‘The gospels teach that heaven is the realm of God from which Jesus himself came to earth, and to which he returned after his death and resurrection. Jesus’ own teaching also stresses that heaven is the eternal reward of all who believe and follow him.’ In contrast to those who go to heaven, the ‘unrepentant’, the ‘wicked’ go to hell, which is ‘the domain of the devil and his hordes - a sphere of damnation, punishment, anguish and destruction’.

Whether this is ‘biblical’ or not is a matter of debate, but I would doubt that it is. The important question though is not what is said or not said in the Bible, but ‘Why now?’ Why does this become an issue for biblical and theological scholars at this particular time. The document states that it presents an ‘embarrassment in an age that prides itself on tolerance’. No kidding! Is this a strange rewriting of a popular cliche - if you can’t win them, fight them.

Its is surely the final refuge of the theological coward to condemn those people one disagrees with to an everlasting punishment by a vindictive and vengeful God.

One correspondent in the pages of the Baptist Times wrote a detailed rebuttal of the document as reviving a medieval caricature of God, and another suggested that those who work against politically inspired torture of prisoners could hardly endorse the image of an eternally torturing God.

Theology is not an abstract discipline. It must have something to do with life and the way we perceive it. The way we construct Theology says a lot about our world-view and the way we look at others. Such intolerance and wish for torture reflects more on the writers of this report and their supporters than it does on the nature of God revealed in Jesus.

Ray Hobbs is Editor of the Gathering Newsletter, and a member of the Gathered Community at MacNeill Baptist Church, Hamilton.

Barbara Bishop

When I was ordained, my friend Heather gave me a book in honour of the event. It was called The Impossible Vocation: Ministry in the Mean Time, and was written by John Snow. 
Amen to the title.

I say "amen", not so much because the vocation is impossible; as it often is, but because I find myself increasingly reflecting on the times in which we minister, and the impoverished models of ministry available to us.

There is the minister as team leader. I've always disliked the expression. I actually once heard a Good Friday sermon in which the preacher cheered Jesus on and spoke of his "team" at the cross. Teams have head coaches who get hired or fired, and players who get picked or rejected. Look what that did to the Blue Jays.

There is the minister as manager of volunteers. The job is to keep the committees working well, to recruit new members for them, and to oversee the projects they generate. We may incidentally take care of people on those committees, but we mostly do that to keep the church trouble-free and things moving smoothly. Productivity- that's the name of the game.

The metaphor of the "wounded healer" has found its way to fundamentalist circles by now, but since fundamentalism appropriates culture without altering its own belief system, we have the therapeutic model of wounded healers weirdly affixed to the language of substitutionary atonement and all that punishment for sin.

And there are other models of contemporary ministry:: the family systems analyst, the church growth guru, the small group facilitator, the administrative whiz, and the community outreach worker. 

The understanding of preaching and liturgy varies with each of these models.
Convention Baptists have advocated any and all of these by times. This has not been a good thing, for each of these models of ministry involves the minister doing something "to" the people.
I commend to you a favourite book, Contemporary Images of Christian Ministry, by Donald E. Messer. The chapters are a little uneven, but two I like are entitled "Political Mystics in a Prophetic Community" (e.g. Desmond Tutu ), on the limits of meditation and action, and "Enslaved Liberators of the Rainbow Church" , on the limits of freedom and oppression.

My own preferred image of ministry is that which, simply, respects congregations and pastors.. For me the actual and ultimate joy in ministry is about meditating and acting with my own congregation, and working alongside them, immersed in Jesus of Nazareth, who was "a metaphorical thinker, not a systematic theologian" (p. 171) This has always meant times of recovering our sense as Baptists that each congregation has its own ministry of Christian Education for real grownups. 

I grieve that we have handed over our Adult Christian Education to imported programs that at their worst numb our minds. Alpha programs have been a particular bugbear for me for some time, but I equally disliked Coral Ridge, the evangelism panacea that was such a dud in Canada. I dislike these canned programs because they exhaust us and they suck our blood. We feel energized, but our energies go into the organizing and setup of a theologically alien introjection. We may have spawned a few new church members (always a goal) but we run the danger of creating a new breed of itinerant groupies who Alpha-hop from one group to the next, and feel no need to hang out and struggle with a particular group. I met a few when I was home in Nova Scotia last November. 

For me, Christian education in a Baptist church is about the community discipline and communal joy of encountering scripture together and seeing more than someone else's script. It is about finding there the fresh light and truth of God's living Word in it, in us, and in our church.
This can take many forms for us. At MacNeill this year we undertook a Passion Recital on the day before Passion Sunday. We committed to spend the day learning Mark's Passion story by heart, with each of us learning a chunk to give as a gift at the recital. We advertised it in the bulletin, and slowly people began to register. Older people came and younger people came- including some high school students, who were excited about the concept, worked hard and gave us the gift of "their" piece of the story. We found ourselves forced to struggle with the text, to understand its construction and its deepest meaning as we encountered so fully the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

MacNeill began over a year ago a Lay School of Theology to which the community is invited for elective units of learning about theology.

Christian Education for real grownups that I have known also means spending time with enquirers who don't want it canned, but want to ask you tough questions and not have them smoothed over.

It can mean a group study of a book like Jean Vanier's Becoming Human, or Douglas Hall's Why Be Christian?

It can mean students teaching students.

It can mean understanding your own spirituality and how that fits or doesn't fit with others in your church.

It can mean many things, some of which I've done, and many of which I still dream of doing.
with the people among whom I minister- not to them. But all of my dreams are firmly anchored on that peculiarly Baptist blessing, the congregation that studies together, and lives out those studies next month, and next year, and the year after that. I'm still trying to think of a catchy title for this concept. Maybe Alpha and Omega would be good.-once "Baptist" would have said it, I think. Any suggestions? 

Barbara Bishop is Minister at MacNeill Baptist Church, Hamilton

Isobel McGregor

As if we didn't have enough weeds to worry about, now a professional landscaper tells us we have BUGS at Bethany. Bad bugs! Two kinds of bad bugs – our old friend the chinch bug that routinely devours grass roots in hot dry weather, and the imported white grub that demolished many of Ottawa's lawns last fall. What to do? There are two basic approaches to this dilemma: The conventional quick and deadly (Q&D) solution and the organic slow and lively (S&L)
solution.

The Q&D solution – poison ‘em! This has many advantages. It's fast. It appears effective, and best of all, it's good for business – the lawn chemical business, that is. The down side is that, as Environment Canada says, "Pesticides are poisons, or they wouldn't kill." The Q&D solution doesn't stop with just killing the bad bugs. It kills the good bugs too, including the myriads of
natural parasites, bacteria, fungi, insects and other organisms that are Nature's predators, pollinators and scavengers. It makes the ground dead, sterile, dependent on regular costly boosts of chemical pesticides and fertilizers that contaminate the water we drink and the air we
breathe.

The S&L solution - discourage ‘em Organic gardeners and landscapers have come up with many alternatives to the "chemical cure". Undoubtedly, these take longer and you won't have a perfect lawn (perfect meaning perfectly bugless and weedless), but you will have a healthy lawn, healthier people and a healthier world in which to live.

Here are some tried and true ways of dealing with the bug problem the S&L way:
REDUCE GRASS, the bugs' favourite food. This can be done in several ways. At Bethany the Greening Group has been working on a three year plan to replace the grassy areas on the dry, hard-to-maintain slopes with shrub belts and ground cover. Many people are replacing parts or
all of their lawns with shrubs, perennials, rock gardens, vegetable gardens, hardy herbs (thyme is a favourite) or cement/patio stones.

PLANT CLOVER. Joanie Flynt, an agricultural expert from McGill's Macdonald College, a committed organic (no chemical) grower, and giver of $200 weekend gardening courses, says "If you plant 50-per-cent grass seed and 50-per-cent white clover, the two crops will nurse each other." (Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 11/00)." It will be interesting to see how well the areas where the Greening Group sowed clover two falls ago have withstood the bug invasion.

ATTRACT BIRDS. Take advantage of the city's millennial and greening projects and plant trees, berry bushes and shrubs. Build bird houses and bat boxes. Design pools and wild life gardens that attract birds, frogs and nature's natural predators, as well as adding beauty and
interest to the property and perhaps worthwhile projects for old and young.

TOP DRESS AND OVERSEED. If you must have grass, add a good layer of topsoil and compost, and reseed the grub- ravaged areas (with a mix of hardy grasses and clover) in the spring. Fertilize with a slow acting organic fertilizer in the fall and follow the "10 Simple Steps to
Non-Toxic Lawn Care" found in the Truth About Pesticides pamphlet in the Befriending The Earth display in the narthex. Remember, grubs are cyclic. Mother Nature has two years to get them in control before the next grub stage emerges, and she's a lot cheaper than lawn companies.

ENCOURAGE DIVERSITY. Three years ago our brand new residential, chemically induced merion blue sod, put down by the city, was totally ruined by chinch bugs. We had the brownest lawn on the block, having neglected to water it during the heat wave. The following spring we paid an organic lawn care company to take care of it for one season. They top-dressed, seeded and fertilized organically. I sowed clover. Nature sowed dandelions, knotweed and numerous other accent plants. Last year, we had the greenest lawn on the block. Skunks took care of the grubs. Colin kept it neat by cutting it high and regularly. It wasn't "perfect" but in our eyes, it was beautiful!

Useful information:
The Quebec Poison Control Centre and the Quebec Ministry of Environment and Wildlife released statistics on pesticide poisoning in 1996. They reported a staggering 1,650 poisoning cases. 79.4% of the cases were in private homes, and 46.1% of the victims were children under age five; 31% of these cases were due to oral ingestion, and 34.9% followed a pesticide application.

Postscript
Why Should Churches Care About the Earth? What has the church got to do with global warming? Shouldn't the church concentrate on saving souls and let the environmentalists focus on saving the earth? Here are the views of some Bethany Baptist members (BBC), recent Befriending The Earth participants (BTE), and others: 

"It is encouraging to know that a church supports this [BTE] program. The connection between human spirit and the rest of creation has always been an empty space in my church-going life." Caryn Wolf, researcher, BTE.

"I'd like to shout it from the roof tops, ‘We're destroying our world and we're not doing enough about it. I wish every church and every organization would have a similar [BTE] course and have mandatory attendance by all members! Maybe our minister should preach about
environmental concerns now and then. It's not our planet. We're only the caretakers – and doing a darn poor job!" 
Frank Joss, retired, BBC, BTE.

"I appreciate this opportunity of expressing my despair at the state of the earth and in doing so, becoming empowered to live my life in faith and connection with all of Creation. Meeting as a community in a church setting has enhanced my experience as a faith journey." 
Linda Lewis, mother, BTE.

"This has been an enlightening experience. I found the group exercises in Befriending The Earth very helpful in giving me a better perception of the ecological movement and also in instilling in me a greater desire to help do my part in preserving and healing the earth." 
Glen Currie, retired, BBC , BTE.

"So good to be with people of similar ideas. Strengthens beliefs and gives us inspiration to do more to save our wonderful world....Enjoyed the diversity [religion, age, etc.] of our backgrounds." 
Bunny Chalk, social worker, BTE.

"Being in a group gives me the COURAGE and the SUPPORT to carry on the eco-therapy work I would like to do. Wonderful connections have been created....all part of the web of life.... so important for me that it is in the context of a faith community."
Joan Jubb, Raging Granny, BTE.

"I've heard a lot about your church and the good things it is doing for the environment. I was impressed by the ‘No Pesticide' sign on your lawn and the ‘Befriending The Earth' display in the foyer. It's inspirational to see a church walk the talk! As a parent of a three year old I feel we all must do our bit today to preserve the earth for our children and grandchildren." 
Mike Christie, researcher, volunteer for the Campaign for Pesticide Reduction! (CPR! - Ontario).

"A subject that few modern-day environmentalists have seriously considered...but which is nevertheless of great significance, is the role that religion can and must play in saving what remains of the natural world which is God's creation...." 
Edward Goldsmith, Editor, The Ecologist.

Isobel McGregor is a member of the Gathered Community at Bethany Baptist Church, Ottawa.

Anonymous

When Tim moved to Willowdale we were emancipated. Our parents had no interest in providing transportation that summer so that 3 inseparable friends could continue their mischief, and were reluctant to permit us to ride our bicycles several miles along Sheppard Avenue, so we were allowed to ride the bus. By ourselves. A whole new world spreads before you with a
ticket and unlimited transfers. If you time it right you can stop at all sorts of places. Like the ferry docks, where you could, for a quarter, continue to the Island for the day. Or the Canadian National Exhibition.

Or, if funds were scarce, the lobby of the Royal York which was a good place to cool off until 
the staff kicked you out. As long as we packed a lunch and were home in time for supper, 
Willowdale had immense borders. Sometimes we even went there on the TTC Sheppard East 85 bus to Leslie. Tim lived farther along than that, but our parents didn't know where we  topped on those days either. When land values weren't quite so high, there was a large ravine at 
Sheppard and Leslie under a railroad trestle. 

The railway line was very active so we had no trouble turning pennies into copper wire by taping them to the track and waiting for the freight cars while we debated what would happen to us if we got caught defacing a coin. Or we would wrestle or play hide-and-seek or swim or jump off a low cliff into the sand below. Sometimes we would sit on the tracks waiting for the train, occasionally putting an ear to the rail so we could tell if something was coming and from how far off. Tim claimed to be an expert at this, able to tell us how long until the train would arrive, how many cars it had and how many engines pulled it. He wasn't always all that accurate about the length of the train, but he could usually predict it's arrival in about five minutes. It took Fred and I several attempts with our heads against the polished steel before we realized that Tim mostly listened for the train's horn at a level crossing 3 miles south. These were good, carefree days until we heard about the railway police. 

One day, one of the trains passed by a little more slowly while we were at the bottom of the bluff eating lunch. It was short, with a smaller engine and short cars, each with what appeared to be a cage in the middle. Tim grabbed Fred and me and pulled us behind some bushes. 

"Don't move-it's the railway police!" "What!?!?" "The railway police: they grab you if they
catch you trespassing on the tracks, put you in one of those cages and take you to their jail. They can keep you for a few days before they call your parents." 

From our vantage point we strained to see, and it did look like there were some kind of shorter people behind the bars of one of the cage cars. We waited behind the bushes until it rumbled out of sight and earshot. From then on we were on careful guard. As with any young person, we appreciated that getting caught and having to explain to your parents what you really were doing was a far worse consequence than a fine you would have to pay for defacing a coin.

I confess that I am not a first-timer daredevil. I prefer to watch someone else try something and survive before I will try it. On the days when our boredom and confidence increased, so did our foolishness. The sand bluff we jumped into had several vantage points, and we would attempt leaps from more precarious heights. Diving a couple yards feet first and then face first
into warm sand was replaced by jumping feet first from a height of 3 yards, then 4, and then I hit the wall. No matter how much I watched Tim and Fred "make it", that 15 foot jump, I just wasn't sure. Necessity is the mother of leaps of faith.

It was a warm day-we should have been at the Island-and we were sitting by the tracks waiting to see what would happen to the quarters we had taped down for the next freight train. None of us heard it coming. There was no horn three miles away because there was no freight. All we heard was the rumble, too late. Tim leapt to his feet-the railway police!

He and Fred took off down the tracks for the safety of the woods. I was like a deer caught in the headlights. Until I heard Fred yell "Run, or your parents are going to kill you!"

The train was too close. I couldn't make it. I was going to find out what it was like to sit in a cage on a railway car. Unless I jumped-and it had to be at least a mile down to the sand.
Dilemma: parents' wrath or broken ankle? Later that day I limped onto the bus for the ride home.

Anonymous is a very fine person, and a member of the Gathering

Terry Laing

It has been a long journey. Of that there is no doubt. When the news came for the journey to begin, there was excitement mixed with some dread for the traveler. Even leaving a place of exile can be difficult. Still, when the call came, the traveler packed his or her belongings and began that long walk back to Jerusalem. The dream of returning to the city had been offered as a new possibility. Nothing could be greater than to be in Jerusalem next year.

For Nehemiah, former cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, it was to be the central purpose in his life. On learning that Jerusalem is in ruins and that the survivors, "are in great trouble and shame", he bows before God to surrender himself in confession and commitment. He felt this irresistible pull upon his heart and his life to risk everything before the King of Persia to ask for release to go home.

With the king’s permission, the long exile began to come to an end. The former captives were given leave to go home and to rebuild a once great city. All their hopes were brought into focus. Instead of saying, ‘one day, we will return’, the first day of their journey was the reality of that DAY. What was required was the faithfulness to complete the journey.

We are not told what happened on the journey home, other than for Nehemiah’s contacts with local governors. The hardships of such a journey are not recorded. We don’t know if the people were an echo of those who left Egypt, actually longing to return to captivity rather than face the uncertainty of life beyond. Did they understand that in following Nehemiah, they were also answering a personal call to return home? On all this, the Scriptures are 
silent. There is only a brief comment, "So I came to Jerusalem and was there for three days."
What did Nehemiah do for three days? Certainly, he would have found shelter and rested. He was a man of faith so worship would have been involved, perhaps a service of thanksgiving for a safe return to a ruined city. I believe that those three days helped Nehemiah adjust. He needed the time to accept the reality that he was standing on the broken down walls of Jerusalem. He dream had become a reality.

Jurgen Moltmann said that, "To believe does in fact mean to cross and transcend bounds, to be engaged in an exodus. Yet this happens in a way that does not suppress or skip the unpleasant realities." Very few people can cross successfully from living with the hope of a dream to seeing its reality materialize within a moment. Nehemiah couldn’t. He needed three days to adjust to his present reality. The dream of coming home to Jerusalem had come to fruition. The ‘unpleasant realities’ were clear. There was a lot of work to be done, problems to be solved, dangers to be faced. The realization of a dream did not indicate that his job was finished, but only beginning. There are many lessons to be learned from Nehemiah’s experience, of having a sense of call and responding to the will of God. Lately, having lived through my own sense of ‘return’ to pastoral ministry after being ‘outside’ for over two years, my first reflections were of Nehemiah and his experiences. Like this leader of long ago, I have realized that you cannot just jump back into the rhythm of ministry as though you never left.

It is one of those ‘unpleasant realities’ to realize that life has changed. Those skills that you took for granted need time and practice to become limber once more. There is a lot of work to be done, which may seem like one is reconstructing a city out of rubble. Yet out of a sense of daring to submit before God, I must hold on to the hope and the promise that I serve a God who does not believe in half way measures but who travels the entire distance with me.
It feels as though I have ‘come home’ from a place far away. The dream has been realized for me in returning to help congregations though the offering of pastoral leadership. The ‘unpleasant realities’ of life in the pastorate will be faced through open communication, good planning, compassion and a daring to take risks in life for the sake of the Good News in Jesus Christ. Nehemiah was a practical person who led his people on a fantastic quest. In doing so he rebuilt a city and brought God’s people home. Can I dare anything less?

My ‘city’ and my task of rebuilding will not be the same as Nehemiah’s, but then it is not intended to be the same. Only the willingness to believe in God’s love, mercy and justice and to continue the journey faithfully, is expected to be the same. It may be that as Christians, we are forever ‘leaving something behind’ in order to press on to the goal ahead. At any stage, we need to follow the example of Nehemiah, to take the time to recognize where we are, to give thanks and then to plan for the future. These are but some of the lessons learned on my travels from ‘Persia’. Each ‘unpleasant reality’ has the potential to be turned into a new dream to offer new hope to people in need of great dreams. As I adjust to this ‘new’ life, possibilities are already arising. I can approach ministry with a new perspective and above all, I look forward to being home.

Let us reflect on our dreams and hopes and take the time to adjust to the cost of following them. As we support one another and encourage one another, we have the potential to build some great things together for the sake of Christ’s kingdom. Such is my hope.
A fellow traveler.

Terry Laing is currently Interim Minister of the Church in the Great Hall, Toronto.

John Furry

Your Steering Committee is delighted to announce some different and exciting plans for our Gathering Meetings next season. By the way, I hope that by now, everyone has permanently recorded on the map of their brain, the fact that the Gathering meets twice a year, once in the fall on the last Saturday of October and once in the spring on the last Saturday of April. An earthquake, I suppose, could change those dates, but only if it measures high enough on the Richter scale! So what about next season?

The fall Gathering, on October 18th, will take place in a different and inviting setting. Geoff and Dorothy Hear, known to many of you and kindred spirits, have invited us to meet at their country estate, at R.R. #1, Holstein (what a wonderful name!), north of Caledon. This get-away spot provides marvelous scenery, beautiful out door opportunities, good food, and more than adequate meeting facilities for our purposes. And it's only a couple hours from Toronto area, hour to hour and a quarter from Kitchener/Guelph area, etc. As is our practice at the Fall Gathering, we will meet and discuss within open space, facilitated by Bob Bond around the topic of the God who is leading us into the future.

The Spring Gathering, on April 18th, will feature an exciting and notable speaker in the person of Dr. Phyllis Trible, about whom more information is given elsewhere. We have had very notable speakers before, but since those persons were either from our own group or from the area, we have not had to pay the price for the privilege. Dr. Trible will cost us more; she will be worth it. Fortunately we have been able to build up a bit of a surplus for such a purpose; as well, the Baptists of Ontario and Quebec for Peace and Justice have decided to make this event their annual conference and contribute something toward it, since some of Trible's interests (eg. the Texts of Terror) dovetail with interests of BOQPJ; in addition we hope to draw in participation from people beyond our own group and denomination. We'll be meeting at the new facility of Dundas Baptist Church. 

We hope these plans strike some chords with you, to the extent that you'll mark the dates in your books, and work these Gatherings into your schedules.

John Furry is Minister at First Baptist Church, Woodstock,. Ontario, and Chair of the Gathering Steering Committee.

The first ‘PATEFO’ conference was held in early July in the Czech Republic. The name, an acronym, is derived from the full title of ‘Pankrac Teologicky Forum’, Pankrac (pronounced ‘Pankratz’) is the name of a district in Prague, and the location of the Pankrac Baptist Church who willingly loaned their name to the venture.

The Forum arose from a conversation in June 1999 between Ray Hobbs and Ladya Mechkovsky, pastor of Pankrac BC about recent events in the Czech Baptist Union, at IBTS and in other Unions in Europe and elsewhere. The pair decided to investigate the possibility of a theologically responsible event which would involve people from across Europe and North America with similar stories to tell of unwelcome trends in their unions.
The result was a modest gathering of twenty five people from the Czech Republic (13), Estonia (2), Scotland (2), Italy (1), Germany/Austria (2), Canada (2), the United States (2) and Ghana (1). The gathering was held initially in Prague, and then adjourned to the small Moravian village of Siroky Dul (Broad Valley) for four days of discussion and fellowship. The format for the conference each day was an opening Bible study, followed by presentations and discussion on a variety of topics, each reflecting the context of the presentor. A list of the presentations is given below.

The atmosphere of the conference was excellent. Pastors and lay people who had been hurt by their unions and officials, joined to be nurtured by each other, and to seek ways of living responsibly as Baptists in these difficult times. Common themes were the centralization of power, communication and finances in a select few; the pressures on the educational systems of the unions to conform to a strict standard of thought and lifestyle; tactics of oppression and intimidation used against those who dissented; a continuing decline of respect and influence, as well as numbers among Baptists of Europe; the continued erosion of Baptist principles. The papers addressed the issues, and the discussions which followed shaped strategies and responses.

The conference was a meeting of concerned friends. It meant much to those who participated, and provided inspiration and help. The participants decided that this was a beginning of a movement of careful assessment of the current contexts, an attempt to provide fellowship and mutual support for each other, and an opportunity to reflect and act theologically as modern Baptists. With this in mind, the year 2002 will see the second such conference take place in the Czech Republic. The suggested topic is the role and use of the Bible in current Baptist thought and practice.

A web-page for PATEFO is being prepared, and among other things, the text of the papers will be posted.

PATEFO resembles the Gathering in many respects. It grew out of concern for the distinct movement to the ‘right’ among European Baptists, the concern that in the desire to be of importance in the new Europe, Baptists were adopting the values and methods of the market-place, the concern that in the wish to have everyone ‘on board’ pressure to conform was increasing upon pastors, churches and members. PATEFO is dedicated to the notion that the true fellowship of believers can accommodate and learn from dissent and difference.

List of papers (in the order they were given)

‘Being Baptist and Responsible in the Present Day - the current situation in Canada’ - Ray Hobbs
‘Baptists in Austria’ Walter Klimt (General Secretary of the Austrian Baptist Union)*
‘Slovak Baptists - Current Situation from the Pastoral Perspective’ - Josef Kulacik (General secretary of the Slovak Baptist Union)*
‘Baptists in Italy - Current Developmental Analysis’ - Nunzio Loiuduce (Pastor nr. Taranto, Italy)
‘Open Membership Tradition - My Roots, My Convictions, My Cross’ - Colin Bond (Pastor of Hillhead Baptist Church, Glasgow, Scotland)
‘Strategy and Tactics of Religious Oppression among Baptists in the US - Case Study of the SBC’ - Jeff Pool (Associate Professor of Theology, Brite Divinity School, Texas)
‘Fundamentalism as a Defence Against God’ - Kenneth Jackson (Co-ordinating Chaplain, Toronto Hospital)
‘On Being Baptist in Estonia - Brotherhood, Pragmatism and Discipleship’ - Ain Riistan (Lecturer in New Testament, Tallinn Theological Seminary, Estonia)
‘Baptists in Germany and Baptism - Current Development Analysis’ - Martin Rothkegel (Doctoral student at the Protestant Faculty, Charles University, Prague)
‘Being a Baptist Amidst the Politics of Homosexuality’ - Warren Kay (Associate Professor of Theology, Merrimack College, Massachusetts, USA)
‘To Be or Not To Be Baptist/baptist’ - Petr Macek (Professor of Theology, Charles University, Prague)

*Josef Kulacik and Walter Klimt were unable to attend the conference, but lent their support to the event.

Ray Hobbs

Southern Baptists downsize their plans for Chicago Evangelism Blitz
Instead of a projected 1000,000 volunteers for their evangelism effort in Chicago on July 8th, the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board is now expecting 1,200 volunteers to take part. 6,000 hotel rooms which had been booked for the event have been released, and the NAMB has agreed not to target other faith groups - a strategy which had already caused some controversy.

An official of the NAMB blamed a lack of long-range planning for the size of the volunteer force. However, in 2001 Boston and Las vegas will become the targets of a mass effort like the one planned originally for Chicago.
Source - ABP News
____

McMaster appointment
While still looking for a full-time replacement for Principal, the Board of Trustees of McMaster Divinity College have announced the appointment of the second Interim Principal. He is Dr. Arthur Heidebrecht, Emeritus Professor of Engineering at McMaster University and former Provost and Vice-President Academic of the University. Dr. Heidebrecht is a member of St. Cuthbert’s Presbyterian Church, Westdale, Hamilton.
The rationale behind the appointment is elusive. Whatever other academic achievements Dr. Heidebrecht has - and they are indeed considerable - he has no theological education, nor training in pastoral skills. This was also the case with his predecessor, Dr. Richard Vosburgh. What does it take to get a job at the Divinity College these days?
____

IBTS Loses three of its ‘Directorate’
Within the past three months three of the senior staff at the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague have announced their departure from the institution. The multi-staffed ‘Directorate’ replaced the old administration of President and Faculty after the notorious ‘refocusing’ which took place in 1997-1998.

Dr. Davorin Peterlin, Academic Dean and Director of Biblical Studies, has announced his resignation, and will return to his native Croatia in the immediate future. Dr. David Brown, and his wife Ellen, American Baptist missionaries, but who also looked after Continuing Education at the Seminary will be leaving shortly, and Mr. Reinhard Geissler, Business Manager at the Seminary has already left.

The departure of these members of the Directorate means a loss of Eastern European and North American representation on the administrative body. The remaining members are predominantly British.
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FBI Investigates Florida pastor over supposed contributions to Prague Seminary.
Dr. Altus Newell, former President of the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, has resigned from his church in Orlando, Folrida, and is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The reason for both is a large amount of money collected by Newell for the IBTS, Prague’s programme of Eastern European Mission. Over $180,000 US destined for Eastern Europe has been located in a Swiss bank account. To complicate matters IBTS has no such programme, and, according to the current administration at IBTS, the documents produced as receipts are forgeries.
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Profile of ‘Typical;’ born again believer
According to Barna research, if you claim to be born again in 2000, the chances are that you are Asian, wealthy and male.

Each day new web sites appear on the Internet, and it is difficult to keep up with the growth. Below are some which readers might find interesting.

http://www.bham.ac.uk/theology/goodacre/multibib.htmIs the ‘All in one Biblical resource’ compiled by Dr. Mark Goodacre of the University of Birmingham, UK. It is an excellent one-stop resource.

http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/lexindex.htmlIs a rather comprehensive site called ‘What do you want to know today?’ from the University of Kentucky. It contains more than you ever wanted to know about anything in the world!

http://home.hiwaay.net/~lkseitz/math/roman/rn.cgi Is a linked site from the previous page, entitled ‘Lee’s useless Roman numeral converter.’ Well, you never know when you might need it.

On a more serious note are the following sites linked to responsible stewardship of the earth, and supplement Isobel McGregor’s comments in this issue.

http://www.web.net/cela - the web site of the Canadian Environmental Law Association.

http://www.earthshare.org - a list of tips for the home and daily life so that one can live more responsibly as an earth-steward.

http://www.ec.gc.ca, Although a Government of Canada (Environment Canada) site, it contains much good information, and links to other sites of importance.

http://www.enn.org - The site of the Environmental News Network. Most of the information is from the US, but nevertheless contains some important material for Canadians as well.

The Fall Gathering will take place on Saturday, October 28th, at the home of Geoff and Dorothy Hearn, Holstein, Ontario.

The format will be ‘Open Space’ and the general topic for discussion is: "GATHERERS participating in God's preferential option for the future - a 'HOW TO?' inquiry"
The Open Space facilitator will be Bob Bond.
Cost for the day is $15.

If you have the opportunity, some preparatory reading will spice the discussion. Suggested are:
Marcus Borg's Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time
Verna Dozier's Dream of God
Sally McFague's Models of God
John Spong's Why Christianity Must Change or Die.

The meeting will begin a little later than normal, at 10.00am and end at 4.00pm.
Holstein is just a few kilometers north of Mount Forest on #6 Highway.
Geoff and Dorothy live just outside Holstein, at 124212 Egremont Township Road, approximately an hour from Guelph, Barrie and Owen Sound, two hours from Toronto,
Hamilton and Aylmer.

Travelling directions
Get yourself to the corner of Hwy 89 and Woodland Springs Road (10th Side Road). Go north on Woodland Springs to the 12th Concession. Turn right (east) to the 15th Side Road: you're there (SE corner of the 12th and the 15th)! To get to Woodland Springs from the East, travel west along Hwy 89 approx. 5 km. past Conn, ON.
To get there from the South, travel north on Hwy 6 to Hwy 89; turn right (east) and proceed to Woodland Springs Road.
IF YOU GET LOST CALL GEOFF AT 519-323-3948!

Please inform Merle Caldwell (1-905-647-3504 or caldwell@icom.net) if you are planning to attend

Note, if you want to enjoy some time in the area beforehand, nearby accomodation is available at Forest Plaza Motel (519-323-1101), Varney Inn (519-369-9982), Blue Manor B&B (519-323-4734 e-mail:jbiers@wcl.on.ca) and Navajo Springs B&B (519-323-2046).

Feedback can be directed to:  The Gathering Newsletter c/o Ray Hobbs e-mail ray.hobbs@sympatico.ca