Category: Graduate Christian Fellowship

Dear friends,
This week we welcome Jamie Howison as our speaker for the evening, the lead pastor of St. Benedict’s Table, a thriving urban church in Winnipeg, Manitoba. St. Benedict’s Table is a unique church community especially in its practice of an open communion table and in its honouring of the role of creativity and imagination in our church and faith lives. Several books have been published by members or groups from the community including works with an artistic emphasis, a book by Jamie Howison on the music of John Coltrane and an advent resource.

Jamie Howison will be speaking to GCF on “Christian Practices and Engaging Advent” as we prepare ourselves and our community for this time of faithful waiting for Jesus’ birth and reign. The St. Benedict’s Table community sees itself as “a community of Advent spirituality: always on the hinge between the old and the new, the known and the unknown to which God is drawing us.” Come and hear what Jamie Howison has to say about his community, about advent and about what God is drawing us to in our studies, in our work, in our ministry together, especially at this time of year.

Shalom,
Marcia

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Upcoming GCF Events:

Thurs Dec 6
End-of-Term Potluck and Advent Celebration

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Upcoming Campus Ministry Events:

Tuesdays, 7:22 am
“Wine Before Breakfast”
a weekly Eucharist service in the Wycliffe College Chapel,
followed by breakfast in the chaplain’s office

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Christian Reformed Campus Ministries
(University of Toronto)

Brian Walsh, chaplain
Geoff Wichert (Rev.), chaplain
Marcia Boniferro, associate chaplain

The Ethics of Prenatal Genetic Screening:
Medical Issues – Personal Stories
with Michael Buttrey
PhD student in Biomedical Ethics, Regis College

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship – The Ethics of Prenatal Genetic Screening

The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to:
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Life in the Academy: What They Never Told Me
Mathematics := a journey in faith
with
Natasha Dobrinen
Associate Professor of Mathematics
University of Denver

Thursday, October 18, 2012
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)

6:00 – Dinner
7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – discussion, etc.
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Dear Friends,
As we noted in our discussion of formation earlier this term, a university education shapes us in far more ways than just academically. And especially as graduate students, what we’re expected to learn stretches far beyond the curriculum, our courses, or our research. Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship – Life in the Academy: What They Never Told Me

The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to a screening of:
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“Where Do We Go Now?”
(France / Lebanon, 2011)
Winner of the People’s Choice Award, TIFF, 2011

Thursday, October 4, 2012
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)

6:00 – Dinner
7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – film, discussion etc.
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Set in a remote village where a Christian church and a Muslim mosque stand side by side, this film follows the antics of the town’s women as they try to keep their men from becoming part of the religious violence engulfing the country.

Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship – “Where Do We Go Now?” (Film)

The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to:
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Romans, Home and Homelessness in the Empire

A Bible study and overview of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans with
Brian Walsh
Christian Reformed campus minister at UofT
(i.e. the other member of our campus ministry team)

(Note: Please try to read all of Paul’s letter for Thurs night – see below)

Thursday, September 27, 2012
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)
6:00 – Dinner  /  7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – discussion, etc.
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Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship – Romans, Home and Homelessness in the Empire

Formation In and Out of the Academy
or How we come to be the people we are (or hope to be)

Thursday, September 20, 2012
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Dear Friends,
I’d like to start by restating the vision of this campus ministry:

The Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF) seeks to challenge, mentor, and enable students to think, work, and live as Christian disciples in the academy and in their professions. Rooted in the confession that all truth is in Christ, we seek a radical Christian discipleship in all of life.
Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship – Formation In and Out of the Academy

[These reflections, collected and written down by Geoff Wichert over a couple of years, were first presented to the Graduate Christian Fellowship on Nov 25, 2010. They can also be downloaded as a Word document.]

Introduction

These stories and reflections are rooted in the re-creation of the Graduate Christian Fellowship 5 yrs ago (Sept 2006). At that time we wanted to reshape the community, a change that we named in several different ways: a shift from program to community, from a focus on worldview (which is often primarily intellectual) toward character formation (a more holistic approach).

We noted that the Wine Before Breakfast community was characterized by a high level of personal investment, a sense of belonging, and strong loyalty/faithfulness, often showing itself in the enthusiastic invitation of friends and newcomers. We suspected this has something to do with continuity and rhythm, the routines and habits of discipleship cultivated in the regular weekly liturgies

We also supposed it was connected to WBB’s emphasis on hospitality – the regular practice of eating together. Over the years we had tried having “soup & bread” before GCF a number of times, but it was always optional, and never particularly successful. So we decided to make it central to our gatherings, and essential to what we did. We also aimed to establish other practices that would give the community a deliberately distinctive character and “feel”, such as our own weekly worship time.

Out of all that came the model of GCF that we have today. It has certainly evolved over the years, but one feature that has remained constant (for obvious reasons) has been the practice of washing dishes. Because it happened early, and was closely tied to deliberate reflection on the shape of the ministry, I have had plenty of opportunity to reflect on it, and these are some of the thoughts that have emerged.

There are 3 stories about the practical side of washing dishes: both FYI, but also presented here under the notion of “logistics as pastoral practice.” There is a biblical analogy from Jesus’ teaching, and finally a reflection on liturgical practice. Read more A Theology of Dishwashing