News from CCS and the CCS community
Updated, July 25. During General Council 43, various people will be reporting on what’s happening, sharing moments and offering their reflections. Marlene Britton-Walfall* reminds us that amongst the fun there is challenge and hard work. It’s the morning of the 4th day of this meeting in OshaWow! Devotions this morning challenged us to reflect…
During General Council 43, various people will be reporting on what’s happening, sharing moments and offering their reflections. Deborah Laforet and Marlene Britton-Walfall found connection at GC43. General Council is a place to reconnect. As someone who was a candidate in one conference, a student in another, settled into a third, and am now in…
During General Council 43, various people will be reporting on what’s happening, sharing moments and offering their reflections. Tammy Allan sets the stage. We have arrived! We are here in Oshawa Ontario at the site of General Council 43. The theme is “Risking Faith, Daring Hope.” The day was mostly devoted to a “Festival…
The Log in my Eye Patricia Vollmann-Stock attended the Centre for Christian Studies’ 2-week intensive, Learning on Purpose, which took place in Victoria, B.C. from June 11-23, 2018. Our group of 12 men and women of various ages had the privilege to meet and hear stories from two people who work at Our Place Society,…
This year, the Centre for Christian Studies held its 2-week signature program, Learning on Purpose, in beautiful Victoria, BC. Christ Church Cathedral provided a dramatic stained glass backdrop and awesome organ music. Students gathered from June 11 – 23 to learn what it means for them to be faith leaders that uplifts others, are analytical…
This past May and June, Conferences across the country gathered for what may be the last time as the United Church moves towards collapsing our 4-court model to 3 and replacing Presbyteries and Conferences with Regions. In the face of change we continued to hold the ancient rituals of our gatherings, marking beginning, endings and…
Retirement, a time to reflect and to ponder. I grew up in the United Church, and it is a place I have been rooted in all my life. My dream was to be a nurse at the Hospital for Sick Children’s in Toronto where I did train for my 25 year nursing career. With increasing…
Every year, the Centre for Christian Studies names one person, or occasionally two people, as Companion of the Centre. Companions of the Centre epitomize diakonia and provide inspiration to all of us on how to live into this ministry. While the people who have been distinguished over the years are fairly diverse, there are 5…
The Centre for Christian Studies is delighted to announce that Marcie Gibson is joining our Program Staff team on a permanent basis. Marcie has been working with the Centre for the last two years on contract, facilitating the Integration Year and coordinating field placements. She grew up in the Anglican tradition, is a graduate of CCS and a Diaconal…
Welcome Kimiko! The Central Council of the Centre for Christian Studies is pleased to announce that Kimiko Karpoff will be permanently joining the staff of the Centre as Communications and Recruitment Coordinator, beginning June 1st.
CCS staff Lori Stewart and David Lappano attended the International Anglican-Roman Catholic-Ukrainian Catholic Conference on the Diaconate, Regina, May 10 – 13. Lori Stewart and I recently had the opportunity to travel to Regina to attend an ecumenical ‘Anglican – Roman Catholic – Ukrainian Catholic Conference on the Diaconate’. We knew this would be a…
CCS staff Lori Stewart and David Lappano attended the International Anglican-Roman Catholic-Ukrainian Catholic Conference on the Diaconate, Regina, May 10 – 13. As one lone United Church person at a conference of Anglicans and Roman Catholics, I might have been lost in the crowd but the fact that the focus was on the diaconate and…
I had the amazing privilege (no pun intended) of attending the White Privilege Conference Global in May, held for the first time in Canada. (It has been held in the U.S. for the past nineteen years). It was an amazing event, and I was delighted that other than school boards, the United Church of Canada…
Theme learning circles for the Centre for Christian Studies’ 2018-2019 school year.
This is an excerpt from the book Times and Tides: BC Conference — an overview 1970–2017. The chapter “Building a More Diverse Family” was written by CCS Communications staff person, Kimiko Karpoff. In some ways my family’s story, my story, is illustrative of the larger story of ethnic and intercultural ministries within the United Church. It is…