Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF)

The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to:

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Reading the Book of Revelation as a Witness to Jesus Christ

with special guest

Dr. Joseph Mangina
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
Wycliffe College

An evening of eating, hearing, reading, discussing, discerning, praying, etc.
with the GCF community

Thursday, January 27, 2011
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)

6:00 – Dinner
7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – discussion, etc.

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For centuries the Book of Revelation has intrigued and puzzled Christians. It has also fueled their imaginations, which should come as no surprise to us. With its rich cast of characters – sinister horsemen, devastating plagues, mysteriously sealed scrolls, epochal wars, a red dragon with seven crowned heads and ten horns, and that arch-villain, the Anti-Christ – Revelation is like the biblical equivalent of a superhero action cartoon. As the old saying (adapted) goes, if I could have a nickel for every interpretation of a horseman, beast, or Whore of Babylon that’s ever been offered, I’d be a rich man.

But what on earth (or in heaven, for that matter) does any of that have to do with us?
Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF)

Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF)

Dear friends,

Early last semester as we were planning for GCF, we asked Sylvan Gerritsma to come to share parts of his story on Thursday, November 11, 2010.  Since Remembrance Day fell on a Thursday, we wanted to intentionally observe it at GCF, and Sylvan was looking forward to sharing a bit about his reflections on war, peace, and faith from his perspective as a veteran of the Vietnam War.

As regulars at GCF know, Sylvan wasn’t able to make it that night because he was hospitalized for a heart condition the week before his was scheduled to join us.

However, Sylvan has now been home from the hospital for a month, is feeling much better, and is ready to join us this Thursday, January 20th for an evening of sharing his reflections and engaging in dialogue with us about his experiences as a soldier and as a veteran.

Sylvan was essentially drafted into military service by his country after he graduated with a BA in English and German from a Christian liberal arts college in 1968, at the height of the conflict in Vietnam. After basic training, and advanced infantry training he  successfully completed the gruelling requirements to become an officer, excelling intellectually and physically to enable him to receive his commission in Military intelligence. After a year of doing research in the intelligence centre of the Army, he was selected for an elite airborne division – paratrooping – and would have gone on to Green Beret training if an injured ankle hadn’t interfered with his training.  He served in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam before giving up offers for a military career and returning to civilian life in 1971.

Since that time, Sylvan has spent much time and energy reflecting on his experiences during these few years of his life, and the ways that these experiences have affected him and other soldiers. Like many veterans, Sylvan has experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, and has sought to make sense of the many nonsensical situations one is subjected to during war and while training for war. As a life-long learner with a keen interest in philosophy, Sylvan continues to ask questions:

What really is the nature of war?
What is the effect of war on people-not only on civilians, but also on soldiers?
Is it possible to create and abide by “rules” for war?
As Christians, how ought we to respond to international injustice and war?

As you can imagine, there are not many communities where it is possible for a veteran to ask these questions. Among fellow veterans, especially of controversial wars like Vietnam, there is reluctance to be self-critical about the goals soldiers are commanded to pursue. Among philosophers or other academics, there is often an absence of understanding about the realities soldiers face ‘on the ground,’ and even less desire to think about these issues from a perspective of faith.

We know that GCF is a place where we can hear difficult stories and ask difficult questions. So we invited Sylvan Gerritsma to share some of his reflections with a community that will listen, think deeply, and ask honestly. And, we also happen to have a very personal connection to Sylvan; he’s my (Sara’s) Dad.

Please join us this Thursday for an evening of conversation, questioning, and prayer.

Take care,
Sara (Gerritsma) DeMoor


Wine Before Breakfast

New Wine…Before Breakfast

Something new is going on.

The lame walk,
sinners are forgiven,
bureaucrats of the empire are leaving their jobs,
and all the wrong people are coming to dinner parties.

“You know that something is happening,
but you don’t know what it is,
do you, Mr. Jones?”

The scribes figure that this is all blasphemy.
The man presumes to forgive sins!

The Pharisees are offended by the dinner guests.
Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?

And even John’s disciples are confused.
What’s with all this eating and drinking when we’ve all got used to fasting and John’s rather limited wilderness diet?

And Jesus replies:
in a world of human brokenness and sin we are called to be priests pronouncing forgiveness;
remember, God requires mercy, not sacrifice;
and don’t go pouring new wine into old wineskins.

At Wine Before Breakfast, we are all called to priestly ministry!
We all have the vocation of forgiveness!
We are all called abandon our service to the empire and embrace priestly ministry in the kingdom.
We are all called to the banquet of sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors
– Jarvis Street, Bay Street, and St. George Street all at the same party!
It is an early morning party!
A Wine Before Breakfast party!
A new wine party!

Let’s be careful that we don’t constrain that new wine in old wine skins.

Come on out to the party on Tuesday morning at 7.22am.
Forget your perfect offering.
You see, only sinners are invited.
Know any other sinners to bring along?

Andrew Asbil will join the rest of us priests in breaking the bread, pouring the wine and opening the word.

Wine Before Breakfast
Tuesdays @ 7.22am, Wycliffe College Chapel
Breakfast to follow

Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF)

The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to:

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Why am I here? What am I doing?
Reflections at the start of a new year

An evening of eating, discussing, discerning, praying, etc.
with the GCF community

Thursday, January 13, 2011
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)

6:00 – Dinner
7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – discussion, etc.
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Dear Friends,
January is a hard month to narrate. It’s elusive, ambivalent. It’s the start of a new year, but all the really interesting stuff happened back in September, and now it’s just back to the same routines. We’re told the days are getting longer, but it’s also getting colder, and you know that the real winter stuff is still coming. There may be renewed resolve at the start of the year, but the biggest celebration of the year just ended, and many of us are left feeling tired, confronted with bills to pay and the work that was supposed to get done over the holidays but didn’t. A stack of unmarked exams or unwritten essays is not always a source of inspiration.

The same kind of ambivalence often characterizes the way we think, feel, and talk about what we’re doing with our lives, whether that’s academic study or some other form of work. Partly it’s the natural tendency to fall into routines, to keep doing something “because it’s there.” But there can also be very different ways of explaining the significance of what we’re doing. For example, your friends, your parents, your supervisor, your department chair, the university administration, the government, and the media, could each give a distinctly different reason why you should (or shouldn’t) be doing your thesis. And that’s even before getting to all the varied, and potentially competing, impulses you feel within yourself.

It’s not primarily a question of motivation, but a matter of imagination. How will you envision the purpose of your efforts? What’s more, that envisioning is an ongoing process, and we need the help of others – ideally a supportive community of others – to help us make sense of it. To shape an imagination that will sustain and give life. Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF)

Wine Before Breakfast

Dear Wine Before Breakfast friends:

I am not a person who has many enemies. You know, real enemies. Not just people who maybe don’t like me, but people who are a threat to my very life.

But every time I come to Central America I am confronted by the reality of violence. Stories of the military murdering people in a church. Stories of exhuming the bones of children who were massacred.

When you face that kind of brutality it is not surprising that people develop deep hatreds. Indeed, the very sight of a uniformed soldier in the context of a military dictatorship can occasion fear and anger.

Jesus must have known such emotions. He grew up in a military dictatorship. He had seen the brutality of the occupying forces. He undoubtedly had heard the stories of Herod’s violence shortly after his birth. Some of those murdered boys could have been his cousins.

But his Kingdom was bigger than either the Roman empire or the nationalist zeal and revolutionary fervor of Israel. His Kingdom faced the violence but refused to ape it.

While this is demonstrated most radically on the cross, the expansive nature of his Kingdom was also evident throughout his ministry.

A Roman centurion  comes to Jesus to ask for the healing of his servant. He knows that he doesn’t really have any basis for the request. He wouldn’t be surprised if Jesus told him to go to hell, but somehow the stories about Jesus gave him courage to make his request.

And Matthew tells us that Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith and he healed the servant.

This is an expansive love, and it is offensive. This is offensive to every mother who has lost a son to a military junta. This is a slap in the face to every 1st century Jew or 21st century Latin American who has had to live under a state sponsored violence that has stripped them of their land, the livelihood, their hope, their children.

This is the breadth of the Kingdom.

I’m in Costa Rica as I write this and I look forward to returning to Toronto on Monday evening in order to be with you all at Wine Before Breakfast on Tuesday.

Sara will be preaching,
Judith will break the bread,
and Deb Whalen will be leading the WBB Band.

Welcome back to WBB. If you want to bring some muffins or other baked goods, let Sara know.


Wine Before Breakfast
Tuesday, January 11 @ 7.22am
Wycliffe College Chapel