Strawberry picking, and creating delicious desserts from the spoils, has become a much-loved summer GCF tradition.
Join us for this year’s adventures! Mark June 30th on your calendars.
This post will be updated with more details as they become available.
Hi everyone,
After a lovely hike last week, we’re back in the office this week for GCF (though we can still share a baked chicken by tearing it apart with our hands if you want, for memory’s sake).
Here’s the low down, since I know you all just skim these emails 🙂
When: 6:30pm
Where: The office, basement of Wycliffe
What: shared pot’luck’ dinner (go to http://ietherpad.com/summer-gcf to share what you’re sharing… please), followed by a time of hanging out
Looking forward to seeing all of you this week!
Hello friends,
This week, GCF goes outside! We’re going to have our conversations while hiking one of Toronto’s many lovely ravine trails, and the weather looks like it might just cooperate with us. Here are the details:
Where?
Rosedale ravines: George Balfour Park, Park Drive Reservation, Evergreen Brickworks, Chorley Park, Moore Park
When?
Meet at 6:30 sharp at the St Clair Subway station (Yonge + St Clair) on the north side (St Clair St exit, by the little McDonald’s outlet). We only have so much time until it gets dark, so let’s try to get going on time
Food?
As usual, bring something to share, but try to make it portable (e.g. finger food, no cutlery/dishes required). We’ll either munch while walking, or find a place to sit and eat. I know it’s fun to lurk on the food sign-up sheet ( http://ietherpad.com/summer-gcf), see what other people are bringing, and then decide last-minute what you’ll bring, but it’s also helpful to have at least some folks add their food to the list (or it’s no fun lurking!).
Also, please be sure to bring some WATER!
Depending on how much time/energy we have, we may
a) get through all the parks I mentioned, end up at Moore Ave and take the #88 bus back to St Clair Station
b) detour part way through and head up to the Sherbourne subway station
c) return the way we came and end up back at St Clair Station.
Read more Summer GCF: Hike!
Hi all,
I hope you have been enjoying these recent days of consistent sunshine and warmth…I know my garden has been getting more attention than usual because I actually want to spend all my free time outside!
For GCF this week (Thursday, May 12th), we will be eating together at the office at 6pm and at 7:15 we will depart Wycliffe to walk to Sanctuary (25 Charles Street East, just east of Yonge and south of Bloor) to experience the play Wonderful. If you haven’t yet reserved/bought your tickets, I encourage you to do so before Thursday, just to guarentee you’ll get one! You can get info about tickets at http://thebenchtheatre.com/wonderful/.
Wonderful is written and directed by Shannon Blake, a GCFer and playwright and member of the Sanctuary community. Here’s the teaser:
“Three women in heated debate. One is in labour, about to deliver a child — her fifth, as it turns out. All three are fast friends — in street terms, one is the mother-to-be’s street mother, the other is her street-sister. The conversation is fast-paced, lively, colourful, witty, intense, mostly friendly, at times confrontational… Welcome to ‘Wonderful!'”
[Strong language is used; not recommended for children (in case you were thinking of inviting your young friends….)]
Re: Pot’luck’ dinner: Thanks to the timely problem-solving suggestion from Jeff, we have an easier way of arranging for food this week. Instead of replying all (and filling everyone’s mailboxes with emails about bringing tomatoes and cheese), click on the following link to see what others are bringing, and to add your contribution to the list:
http://ietherpad.com/summer-gcf
I’m looking forward to seeing you all again, and to seeing what is sure to be a stunning play!
Take care,
Sara
Hi all,
Our first summer GCF will be this week Thursday at 6:30pm at the office (Wycliffe College, 5 Hoskin Ave). I’m looking forward to seeing you after almost a month break from GCF!
As we usually do during the summer, we’re asking all of you to contribute to dinner if you are able. We usually have sandwiches, so you could bring bread, cheese, sandwich meat, lettuce, tomatoes, or anything else you want to contribute. Alternatively, you are welcome to bring any kind of salad or dessert. Please email Sara (see staff bio page) to let her know what you will be bringing. That way we can be sure we’re not just going to be eating tomatoes and mustard, or something random like that 🙂
As many of you have seen, I just sent out an email to the entire GCF email list regarding this week’s first summer GCF on Thursday. You are already on my summer GCF list, so don’t worry about replying to that email as I requested.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Take care,
Sara
The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to:
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Ending Well:
Marking Our Transitions Together,With Gratitude and Prayer
An End-of-Term Potluck Celebration
of eating, reflection, discussion, and prayer with the GCF community
Thursday, April 7, 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,
This week at GCF we’ll be revisiting some themes that have emerged in the months since September: Sabbath, gratitude, rest, and the ways we mark the milestones of our lives. We want to create a deliberate opportunity to reflect on what has happened, what’s been accomplished, and what we’ve learned, both individually and together. We want to
Stop.
Reflect.
Listen.
Share food.
Recognize.
Thank God.
Grieve.
Rest.
Celebrate.
Pray.
Thursday is the last GCF of the semester, and in the past I would have been inclined to call this the end of the year. We’ve often marked these occasions with farewells and blessings for those who are graduating or otherwise leaving us.
But that’s not actually where we find ourselves right now. Hardly any in our regular GCF community are graduating (please let us know if you are), and we’ve already been discussing and planning our continued summer gatherings for the past month. So what do we say at the beginning of April, with the flurries and the buds battling for dominance (fortunately we know who will win that struggle), classes ending, deadlines and exam marking looming, theses moving along (or just beginning), work continuing? Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF): Ending Well
Living Stones:
An Architect Reflects On Building Shalom
with special guest:
Craig Handy
– Bachelor of Applied Math (UWaterloo)
– Master of Architecture (UToronto)
– Master of Theological Studies (Regent College)
– Practicing architect
and in conversation, eating, reflection, discussion, and prayer with the GCF community
Thursday, March 31, 2011
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Good news! Here’s this week’s introduction question in advance:
Craig writes: “Tell us about a place/space/building that comes to mind as somewhere tangible that announces ‘good news’. I suspect many places will likely have a strong connection to your personal story and I look forward to the descriptions we’ll hear. I hope with a little lead time you’ll be able to bring a photo or illustration so we can picture the places with word and image. Feel free to email me digital pictures as that is probably easiest. And if you are reading this but will not be at GCF, please send an image anyways – I’d love to see what places this evokes for you.” Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF) – Living Stones
Dear friends,
This week at GCF we once again have the opportunity to hear and interact with a story.
Like many of our guests and story-tellers so far, this is a life story that doesn’t really follow any “traditional” trajectory.
But then, Joanna Manning is not your “traditional” Anglican priest (to be)!
And yet, in looking back and reflecting on her life, it is immediately apparent that God has been working through her and shaping her, leading Joanna “full circle” to this point in her life when, in her mid-sixties, she is preparing to be ordained as a Deacon (and then as a priest) in the Anglican Church.
Without giving too much away, here is just a sampling of the many roles and identities Joanna has experienced in her life:
Nun
Mother (and grandmother!)
Teacher
Theologian
Social Activist
Feminist
Writer
Critic
I could elaborate on all of these, telling you about how Joanna left the religious orders after falling in love with a Jesuit priest, or about how conversations with women in Africa left her critical of the Roman Catholic stance on women and contraception, or about how her persistent calls for structural reform of the Roman Catholic Church caused her to lose her teaching job at York University, or about how she rose to national and international prominence as a writer and activist, calling on the Church to address the issues arising from the sexual abuse scandals that came to light in the 1980s in Canada… Read more Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF)
Dear friends,
As Geoff and I planned GCF for the month of March, we couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to wrap up the semester than by spending the next few weeks doing what has become characteristic of this community: sharing stories. As you know, we periodically invite members of GCF and some folks from outside the community to join us for an evening to tell us a bit about their lives-whether that be about academic pursuits or a passion for food, spiritual questions or life as a nun, travelling internationally or growing emotionally.
This week the first of those people will be sharing a bit of her story with us. Amber Aulen is a regular member of the GCF community who just completed her comprehensive exams for her PhD program in Russian Literature at U of T. Here’s a taste of what Amber will be talking about with us, in her own words:
“Since graduating from high school I have lived in eleven cities, spanning five countries and four US states. Travel has been a crucial component in shaping my story throughout this time and as a sphere of activity whose vitality derives from the journey rather than the final destination it provides an appropriate framework for talking about the unexpected twists and turns of my life. I would have predicted very few of the current realities of my life from the vantage point of my life circa 2001 (PhD in Russian literature? Really?) and I will be reflecting on how I got from there to here…and where ‘here’ is – geographically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.”
As we begin the liturgical season of Lent tomorrow, we recall and live through Christ’s life and passion-His story.
What an appropriate time to continue to journey with us through the telling of and listening to our stories–starting with Amber’s story this week Thursday.
Looking forward to traveling with you!
Take care,
Sara
The Graduate Christian Fellowship invites you to:
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A Bible Study and Discussion
Revisiting themes and texts arising from our conversations about singleness
An evening of eating, reading, listening, discussing, laughing, praying, etc.
with the GCF community
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Chaplain’s office, Wycliffe College (basement)
6:00 – Dinner
7:00 (or so) – Something After Dinner – discussion, etc.
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Friends,
This week’s GCF will be a Bible study looking at some of the themes and passages that have come up in the course of our discussion about singleness. Throughout our various conversations we have mentioned, read, talked briefly about, or been prepared to discuss a number of biblical texts, but there have been so many other things to talk about as well, that the texts have not received the attention they need. This Thursday is our opportunity to address that.
Here are some of the possible themes and/or texts I have in mind:
– the importance / centrality of the body in the New Testament and Christianity:
– Jesus’ incarnation as God’s choosing to take on human physical form
– the metaphor of Jesus’ followers and the Church as “the body of Christ”
– the radical physicality – both actually and metaphorically – of the Last Supper / Eucharist
– Discipleship / the Church envisioned as a new family, superceding biological relations (parents, siblings, spouses, children)
– Christian ethical virtues as a framework for shaping how we express our sexuality
– Galatians 5 (Fruit of the Spirit), Ephesians 4, Philippians 2, Colossians 3
Let’s be clear right away that there’s no way we’re going to get to all of these texts / themes, and this isn’t even an exhaustive list. I’m not sure yet whether we’ll spend our entire time on one of the themes or passages, or look more briefly at a number of different ones. If you have a significant preference one way or the other, please let me know between now and Thursday evening.
What I’m much clearer about is the conviction that all of these texts have significant contributions to make toward our ongoing conversations, not only about singleness, but also more broadly about how best we can express ourselves as the sexual beings God has made us to be. I hope you will join us for that conversation, and that you will bring along any friends whom you think would benefit from being part of the conversation.
Shalom,
Geoff