Insight Magazine - Spring/Summer 2021

Insight SPRING/SUMMER 2021

ENDURANCE

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“CONSIDERING THE PAST IN LIGHT OF THE PRESENT”

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“RECONCILIATION CONVERSATION”

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“ON THE PLAIN OF WAITING”

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“A LONG OBEDIENCE”

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“THE ENDURING AND ALWAYS...”

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S PEN

“Whatever doesn’t kill me . . .”

By The Rt Rev Dr. Stephen G. W. Andrews

Dear Friends, The Roman poet Ovid said, “Be patient and persistent, for this pain will one day be useful to you.” A more contemporary rendering might go, “Whatever doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.”

Patience and persistence are virtues in the Christian life. Abraham had a reputation for long-suffering, and Moses was praised for standing up to Pharaoh (Hebrews 6:15; 11:27). St Paul commended the Thessalonians for hanging in there through a period of great affliction (2 Thessalonians 1:4). And Jesus warned us that while faithfulness would be tested by persecution and hardship, he also promised that those who endured would be saved (Mark 13:13).

are beginning to ask how our survival has changed us.

This edition of Insight brings us stories of human resilience. Our doughty faculty did not retreat into their sanctuaries, but continued to teach, write, and care.

We did not hit the pause button on our Strategic Plan, but through a search Except… there is a fundamental problem process conducted entirely online, we with the whole no-gain-without-pain were led to identify a new professor philosophy. Ovid’s goal was little more of Systematic Theology. Inspired by than an ephemeral quest for selfa growing awareness of the place of improvement. The success he imagined prejudice and the abuse of power in was limited and subject to failure. It is our society, a College task force worked a flaw picked up in a satirical poster on principles and recommendations to featuring the image of a gnarled tree make Wycliffe a safer and more diverse clinging to a rocky crag. The caption place. And somehow, through it all, we reads, “Whatever doesn’t kill me . . . only postpones the inevitable.”

In the Christian life, our hope must rest in something other than a more robust immune system or the human capacity for growth. The only really enduring things in life are related to the steadfast love of God. It is only as we put our trust in Him who “endured the cross” that we will find the means of our own endurance, for in Him is our faith perfected (Hebrews 12:2) and our eternal life secure.

Well, here we are, having endured nearly a year and a half of lonely isolation and confinement. Without, perhaps, comparing our situation with the adversity experienced by the early church, it has been traumatic and life-altering. Some of us have fallen ill or even fallen asleep with the virus, while others have been prevented from visiting family members in times of need. We have all had to give up meeting together as a physicallygathered community of worship.

Yours in the promise of emancipation, Stephen Andrews, Principal

But now, with sore arms, we see the glimmer of liberation before us. And we P.S. After this was written, the news broke of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves of children on the grounds of a former residential school situated in Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in British Columbia, and 751 unmarked graves at a former residential school on Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan. The impact of the residential schools on Indigenous communities, the fresh grief and trauma 2

were able successfully to conclude the academic year with a brilliant cast of graduates, and with a debt much less than we had feared. In many respects, I feel confident in affirming that the ordeal of the pandemic has indeed made us stronger.

unleashed by these discoveries, and the anticipation of further discoveries, makes what I have written about endurance sound platitudinous. Let me say that these revelations do call for a Christian response of endurance. But for those of us who don’t belong to families affected by the residential schools, endurance means listening to the shocking stories and the deep distress of those in anguish, and in

our willingness to be the objects of incense and rage. For this, too, is part of what it means to share in the sufferings of Christ.

And let us persist in our prayers for all who minister to the wounded, and especially for Archbishop Mark MacDonald, that he and they would be given supernatural stamina and wisdom to be instruments of healing.

TASK FORCE UPDATE

Q & A with Marilyn Sinclair Following the turbulent summer and fall of 2020, related to matters of racism and sexual violence, Wycliffe established a Sexual Misconduct and Antiracism Task Force. The task force, which came together in November 2020, worked over several months to provide guidance and recommendations to further enhance and improve College policies where necessary on these crucial issues. Communications Director Patricia Paddey checked in with Marilyn Sinclair, Wycliffe Trustee and member of the task force, for an update on their progress.

PP: What was your assignment?

MS: We were assigned the task of researching and advising the College on matters of Antiracism and Sexual Misconduct Training. We were asked to suggest workshops and seminars that reflect the policies and statements of the College and UofT, and that would be required further for students, staff, faculty—including adjuncts—and possibly also board members going forward. Principal Andrews asked that the overall strategy reflect our Christian

foundations and principles and we were made aware that there could be further support and involvement of third parties.

PP: What can you tell us about the process that the task force is following?

MS: Our process has not been linear, but we’ve gathered information and clarified our mandate. We’ve defined various aspects of the two issues and determined where they are similar

and where they’re different. We’ve discussed College tenets—such as the Mission, Vision, Principles, Strategic Plan, policies, and procedures— within the context of the concerns, and identified areas for improvement.

We’ve sought to identify the theological uniqueness of the situation, sharing our perspectives and beginning to create a common framework from which to approach the mandate. We are creating recommendations to address the mandate, and we’ve identified the importance of engaging in direct 3

and indirect consultation with key stakeholders, that is, people who are pivotal to the process but who are not members of the task force.

PP: What is the attitude of the members of the task force toward these challenging matters?

MS: We are eager to help resolve these concerns by providing a supportive leadership role in implementing short-term education and long-term transformation throughout the College culture. We realize that this undertaking is gigantic; however, it has already begun with training to establish a baseline of knowledge and understanding about sexual misconduct, racism, and antiracism. We are conscious of the fact that these topics run deep, and can be personal, emotional, and traumatic for many people. We are keen to make recommendations that focus on equity and healing.

PP: What is your personal sense of the progress that is being made?

MS: Because of the importance of these topics, I would obviously like to see the process of change move at a quicker pace. On the other hand, I’ve participated in many committees and understand how group consensus and collaboration works. We needed to take time first to listen and try to understand the issues and each other’s perspectives.

PP: What is giving you the most hope about these situations right now, and how they are being managed by Wycliffe?

MS: It gives me hope that the College leadership team is willing to engage in courageous conversations about difficult topics. The task force understands the depth of these issues and how they affect the Wycliffe Community and indeed the wider world. Our task force can help the College be the change in creating a new narrative.

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PP: How do you see these matters as a reflection of what’s going on in the broader culture?

MS: Issues of oppression, marginalization, and systemic barriers are longstanding and entrenched within the fabric of our society. Regardless of the past, all institutions, including Wycliffe College, will have to make decisions to intentionally dismantle these issues on an ongoing basis for progress to be made.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced a pause in our usual routines. This reality, combined with the impact of social media, helped to create a unique global social justice awareness and awakening in 2020. As a result of increased visibility of the inequities in society, activist movements such as Black Lives Matter and Me Too gained mainstream media attention as well as support from many allies. In addition, many groups previously viewed as marginalized

have been speaking out and up about political disparities, labour injustices, economic inequalities, health care discrepancies—including those around mental health—removal of historic monuments perceived as racist, climate change, and various human rights issues. Voices that have been silent and silenced in the past are requesting their equal place at the table. As havens of social justice and places of refuge for those in need, this is another opportunity for theological institutions to lead the way and find responsive ways of affirming whole communities with social and spiritual emancipation.

The fact that these issues have come to the forefront at this time has provided an opportunity for the College to examine the roots of injustice, and critically analyse the social constructs that help form our belief systems. May the Lord guide and direct us as we move forward boldly!

Considering the past in light of the present

By Carol Boettcher Last fall Wycliffe College assembled a task force (consisting of Trustees Marilyn Sinclair and Brad Faught, Professor Alan Hayes, Program Director Steve Hewko, and Director of Development Shelley McLagan—who chaired the committee) and asked them to develop guiding principles for the renaming of named features at Wycliffe College. (A named feature is any room, plaque, portrait, prize, award, endowed chair, or bursary depicting, representing, or named in honour of an individual who made some sort of significant contribution—financial or otherwise—to Wycliffe College.)

Wycliffe Board Chair Carol Boettcher explains why.

The development of guiding principles for renaming arose from a heightened societal focus on racism following the death, in Minneapolis, of Mr. George Floyd, at the hands of police. The impact of his death and ensuing events led to the widespread condemnation of racism throughout the world, including in Toronto and here at Wycliffe College. In response, the College Board endorsed and published a new Anti-Racism Statement.

At this same time requests were made or, in some cases, renewed at many colleges

and universities to reassess the names on institutional features. Such requests were generally based on the belief that the feature had been named in honour of someone with racist views and/or who took racist actions. A few examples include Princeton University’s decision to remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from the public policy school and a residential college; Yale University’s decision regarding Calhoun College; and recently, Queen’s University’s decision to rename the MacDonald Law School.

A task group consisting of staff, faculty, and trustees was created to develop principles to guide the College in considering any requests received to rename any of its features. The task group met over a three-month period. The result of their work begins with a foundational framework reflecting on “the importance of names in a biblical and theological context.” The foundational framework is followed by six guiding principles, each with questions intended to provide guidance in the application of principles.

At Wycliffe, we recognized that if the College were to receive a request to rename a feature, we would need a way to evaluate the request. Informed by the approach of other colleges and universities, where guiding principles were developed to assess such requests, we determined there was a need for a similar methodology. However, none of the guiding principles at the other colleges and universities reflected a distinctly Christian perspective. It was our belief that applying a biblical and theological lens to the principles that guide decision-making would help us arrive at conclusions that align with Wycliffe’s vision and values, and provide congruence with the Anti-Racism Statement.

The final report of the task group came to the Board for discussion at the November meeting and the Guiding Principles for Renaming were endorsed by the Board.

In future, should the Principal’s Office receive a request to rename a College feature, an initial assessment will be made of the request. Based on that assessment an ad hoc group reporting to the Principal and the Board Chair may be convened to apply the guiding principles to the request.

Access the Guiding Principles for Renaming of Named Features at Wycliffe College at: https://www.wycliffecollege.ca/process for-contesting-a-named-feature 5

Wycliffe plays “significant role” in reconciliation conversation

By Sharon Dewey Hetke This spring’s most popular elective at Wycliffe was innovative and countercultural—in both structure and content.

Co-taught by Professor Alan Hayes and Anglican Indigenous Archbishop Mark MacDonald, “Indigenous and Settler Christianities” saw Abp. MacDonald respond to questions raised the previous week in the online discussion forum, as well as power-point lectures by Professor Hayes.

Hayes says, “The highlight actually is having Mark there and asking him those questions.

He has a way of engaging people…it’s fun to watch his mind work.” For Hayes, who often teaches required courses in Christian History, it was a joy to teach a course he “knew students would want to take!”

The course is one way that Wycliffe is participating in the goals of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Exploring colonial history and the relationship

Alan Hayes Professor

between the two groups from which the course takes its name exposes a history that is both intensely troubling, and complex.

Hayes notes that when census takers ask Indigenous people to name their religious affiliation, “the majority say Christian.”

He also notes that the course’s title itself is a kind of necessary shorthand for the groups involved. “It’s not really a binary because there’s lots of people who were both Indigenous and settler or maybe neither Indigenous nor settler,” says Hayes.

And of course most Indigenous Christians’ expression of Christianity has been in “settler-dominated denominations.”

Hayes notes the complexity in the historical record as well: some missionaries “kind of stuck it to the government” and stood up for Indigenous rights. Others were complicit (even standing alongside government agents) in the making of treaties—treaties that, as Abp. Macdonald has pointed out, Indigenous participants were inclined to understand in a way akin to the Biblical understanding of “covenant,” and not as a more temporary agreement that could eventually fade away.

The overall narrative, according to MacDonald, has been framed by the outlooks of two groups: “The anthropologists aren’t interested in Indigenous people if they become Christians and the missionaries basically aren’t interested in Indigenous people unless they become Western.” But, he says, “both reports are jaundiced: they do not allow for Indigenous agency, which is very powerful and on the other side, they don’t allow for the power of the gospel.”

MacDonald also suggests there is a “freshness of insight” to be gained through interacting with Indigenous perspectives on the Bible. (Indigenous readings tend to be more immersive, with readers seeing themselves within the biblical narrative.)

Mark MacDonald

Anglican Indigenous Archbishop

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Course auditor the Rev. Dr. Paul Friesen finds another point of connection: “Indigenous persons, on the whole, strongly resist the

idea of blood identity—that it is race rather than a relationship to the land. So things like that should be natural for Christians to pick up on.”

Friesen (who is himself a Professor at the Atlantic School of Theology) has found the course deeply relevant to his own ministry at St. Paul’s in Halifax, a church preparing to celebrate its 275th Anniversary, and grappling with its own colonial history. He sees the anniversary as “a chance to build relationships with communities that we’ve had deep estrangement from.”

For student Salome Persaud the course material is also deeply personal, offering a lens through which to explore her own family history. As a member of a minority community herself, and as someone “living on Indigenous land,” Persaud says the course has become her “favourite course ever.” Persaud also explains: “My great, great grandfather comes from an Indigenous tribe in India. So there was the connection…I wanted to learn more about how Indigenous tribes have been treated, especially through colonialism.”

Friesen reflects, “Reconciliation takes a long time, but Wycliffe is playing a really significant role in this conversation.”

The “secret agenda” of Dr Justin Stratis Wycliffe’s newest professor begins August 1

By Karen Stiller

Wycliffe’s newest professor, Dr Justin Stratis, became an Anglican by praying the Book of Common Prayer every morning with his doctoral supervisor, former Wycliffe College theology Professor John Webster.

Stratis does arrive with a plan: “I have a secret agenda. I want to unleash more ministers and theologians into the world who are putting their sights on the right target. My intention is not to give students all the answers but to make them care about the right sorts of questions. I want to see more people doing theology that is truly Christian, that is unapologetically about God.”

“It was four or five of us in the chapel in King’s College, Aberdeen,” Stratis remembers.

“Coming to pray, and the focus not being on anyone in particular was freedom for me.

It refreshed me. Anglican prayer just broke through any jadedness I had about church and reminded me what worship is all about.”

Wycliffe College, with its evangelical Anglican identity, held great appeal for Stratis. “My criteria were very specific for any job I’d consider. I wanted an evangelical community, preferably Anglican. I wanted to do theology for the Church and I wanted to supervise doctoral research. So when I showed the Wycliffe job description to my wife, she took one look and said: ‘Oh no, clearly you have to apply for this.’ She knew a great life disruption might be on its way.”

As of August 1, Dr Stratis will join the Wycliffe faculty and community as Professor of Theology. The emphasis on theology at Wycliffe also drew him to the position.

“I loved the focus on Theological Interpretation of Scripture,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a college be so straightforward about it, in their branding and in their material. A college that made its

Dr. Justin Stratis Professor of Theology

strategic vision so intentionally theological seemed to be such a sign of health.”

The Stratises know the move across the ocean from Trinity College, Bristol will not be simple for their family of five. “I’ve actually never set foot in Canada. My kids regard themselves as British,” Stratis says.

“That was my biggest concern, I didn’t want to do something for my own benefit at their expense.” The Stratises offered their kids veto power on what they knew would be a significant move. Wycliffe’s lengthy, fivemonth long hiring process allowed everyone to warm up to the idea and widespread enthusiasm for the move just kept growing.

“We’re really excited, and everyone has been so great. The Wycliffe community has been so hospitable.”

Christian discipleship, he says, is the end game of theology. “My vocation is to encourage my students to be faithful disciples, many of whom will have a special role in discipling others, particularly through word and sacrament. I want to help them grasp the subject matter of Christianity and contextualize their ministry with reference to the gospel. And I’m really looking forward to that.”

MORE FACULTY NEWS: Dr Mark Elliott to Supervise Doctoral Research Dr Mark Elliott, Professorial Fellow, has been appointed to Full Status at the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies at the Toronto School of Theology. This new designation means that he is now available to supervise students doing doctoral research in the fields of Patristics, Historical Theology and Biblical Interpretation, and BiblicalTheological Hermeneutics here at Wycliffe.

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STUDENT FOCUS:

HEALING THROUGH COMMUNITY

By Gaby Klukas Four years ago, when I first began to consider the Anglican priesthood, I had great reservations about studying theology. A Christian friend of mine from university in Vienna (Austria) had dropped out of his theology program.

I was worried that like him, I would be talked out of my faith in Jesus, and that we would dissect the Bible until the Spirit was gone. Shortly after, during a camping trip to Tobermory, I had an opportunity to talk to an Anglican priest. When I shared my concerns, he smiled and recommended Wycliffe College to me: “You pay for these courses, you might as well make sure they are worth it.”

Now that I have completed my studies, I wholeheartedly agree: every single course was absolutely worth it. Wycliffe’s multi-denominational community was

STUDENT FOCUS:

of our Lord’s leading over the past four years and am excitedly anticipating the kind of ministry He might have in mind for me in the years to come.

Gaby Klukas graduated with her MTS in the spring. Trained as a family doctor in Austria, she lives with her husband and three sons in Deep River, Ontario.

Although I am no longer pursuing Anglican priesthood, I am keenly aware

“IN THE LORD AND WITH HIS PEOPLE”

By Heejun Kim Originally from South Korea, I came to Toronto for my doctoral program after finishing my ThM at Calvin Seminary, Michigan in 2014. Coming to Wycliffe was not just about pursuing a PhD; in fact I had wanted to go back to Korea and had no enthusiasm for tiresome theological training. I did not want to spend the rest of my thirties in the library. However, one thing changed my mind. While growing up in one of the strongest charismatic ecclesial backgrounds, my heart for the church was growing cold. I loved reading Nietzsche and Sartre.

So I not only prayed but strove to find my own answers. I discovered some interesting ideas in Karl Barth. But there are many ways to interpret Barth and I have found post-liberalism’s Barth 8

healing for me. I grew up in the Austrian Catholic Church and after a conversion experience attended small evangelical churches until my husband and I found our home in an Anglican church. The mutual prejudice between different denominations had left me wounded.

The “one holy catholic and apostolic Church” professed in the Nicene Creed seemed to me but wishful thinking, until I experienced it in regular worship and in fellowship with both staff and students during mealtimes at Wycliffe.

Not that denominational differences were downplayed or glossed over.

But in addition to genuine and warm Christian fellowship, the respectful and constructive inter-denominational discourse during classes was both inspiring and healing.

seems to fit me and my ecclesial history.

Wycliffe was on the frontlines of postliberalism and still is one of the top theological institutes for post-liberal theology and theological interpretation of Scripture. There was no reason that I would not apply for the program. It is always a great privilege when you can study under the supervision of outstanding professors.

Wycliffe College is an Anglican community, which could make some people hesitant to be part of it. But it is also an evangelical community. You can easily see the diversity and openness in the Lord to people coming from various ecclesial or ethnic backgrounds. And at the end of the day, Wycliffe teaches you that the most important partner in theological dialogue is not someone else, but the church.

Through study and life here, I learned many precious lessons teaching me the importance of Christian community.

Nietzsche frequently said, “amor fati (love of fate)”. But the Christian must find her destiny in the Lord and with His people. I learned that priceless lesson from Wycliffe College.

Heejun Kim graduated from Wycliffe College with a PhD in Theological Studies in Spring, 2021.

Congratulations to the Class of 2021!

Due to COVID-19 isolation, Convocation was held virtually. All degrees were conferred in absentia.

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

Valerie Mae Kenyon

Peter Daniel Paul Fawcett

Amira Joy Gabriel

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF THEOLOGY

Stefan James Knibbe

Leslie Maureen Chisholm Demson

THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Rachel Elizabeth VanderVeen THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF DIVINITY, HONOURS Yeden Kim

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES IN URBAN & INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Heather Denise Matondo

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF THEOLOGICAL STUDIES Jessica Ellen Cluett Kurt Peter Froese Anita Renee Giardina

Devin Jeremy Hunt Evan John Johnson

Gordon Charles Harris

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF DIVINITY

Gabriele Andrea Klukas

Heejun Kim

Wilson Adeolu Akinwale

Stephen Andrew MacDouell

Rachel Anne-Lyne Krohn

Jamie Edmund Hugh Baxter

Liam Forest MacKichan

Amanda MacInnis-Hackney

Diana Mary Finch

Susan Louise Montague

Joshua Adam Martin

Paul Jonathan Karsgaard

Sileen Bianca Phillips

Jun Sato

Jelle Hendrik Koersen

Derek Joseph Wiertel

Joshua Christian Neville Loewen-Samuels

CONJOINT CERTIFICATE IN THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF THEOLOGY

Stephanie Anne McWatt

Ka Yee Zee

Rajpattie Salome Anita Persaud

Nathan Kwan

Sileen Bianca Phillips

CERTIFICATE IN ANGLICAN STUDIES

Amber Deborah Tremblett

Julian Mario Borda

Benjamin Ming-Hwei Tshin

Andrew Donald Kuhl

David Mason Barr David Austen Robert Clark

DIPLOMA IN CHRISTIAN STUDIES Xunhong Shen 9

Honorary Degrees Conferred in 2021 The degree of Doctor of Divinity The Most Rev’d Mouneer Anis, Archbishop of the Province of Alexandria, Diocesan Bishop of Egypt Mouneer Anis was born in 1950 in Egypt. He received his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at Cairo University. From 1979–2000 he served at Harpur Memorial Hospital in Menouf as a Resident Doctor and, from 1980, as the Director of the Hospital.

In 1998, Dr Mouneer was ordained as Deacon and in 1999, he was ordained a priest and served at All Saints Cathedral, Cairo. He became the Executive Director of Administration in the Diocese of Egypt. He did practical and theological training at Moore Theological College in Sydney, Australia, the Diocese of Canterbury in Kent (UK) as well as at Nashotah House in Wisconsin, USA. In 1999, he was elected by the Diocesan Synod to be the third Egyptian Bishop of the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa. In 2007, Bishop Mouneer was elected as Primate of the Episcopal/Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, and re-elected to serve another term in 2012. He was elected chairman of the Global South Anglicans of the Anglican Communion in 2012. In May 2020 when the new Province of Alexandria was formed, Archbishop Mouneer became the first archbishop of the Province. He is currently Chair of the Anglican Communion Interfaith Commission.

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The Rt Rev’d Annie Ittoshat, Suffragan Bishop of the Arctic Annie Napartuk Ittoshat was born in 1970 in Kuujjuaraapik, Northern Quebec. She grew up in the midst of devastating change; when she was still young, her parents were forced to leave behind the coastal camps and move inland to “civilization.”

Annie was immersed in the trauma of the life changes of her once dignified father. His dog sled teams were slaughtered, and his two boys were sent to residential schools. In a short time her parents’ world changed, as they moved from dignity, identity, and purpose to alcoholism.

Annie felt lost.

In time she attended John Abbott College in Montreal and studied Social Science. When Annie was finishing her studies there she had a dream in which God revealed the call and vocation that was placed on her life.

She graduated in 2010, then went to seminary at Arthur Turner Training School in Pangnirtung, Nunavut from 2004 to 2006. She attended Wycliffe College from 2011 to 2013.

Annie knows that God has guided, protected, and given her the gift of a calling to ministry. She became the first Inuk to graduate from Wycliffe College and first Inuk female Bishop within her region. She oversees 15 communities in her region of Nunavik, Northern Quebec.

The Rt Rev’d Stephen Leung, Area Bishop for Asian and Multicultural Ministries, Anglican Network in Canada

Bishop Stephen was consecrated in 2009, and oversees planting of ethnic congregations and advocates raising and collaborating with both immigrant and local-born leadership.

Since 1990, Bishop Stephen has been Rector of the Anglican Network Church of the Good Shepherd, a 130-year-old parish in Vancouver, BC, spearheading gospel outreach and church planting among the Chinese community and growing a multigenerational church in the city.

He has an MDiv from Wycliffe College (1984), and served in the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong and Macau after graduation. He has a ThM from Regent College, Vancouver, BC, and has lectured in seminaries in Canada and Hong Kong on the subject matter of his thesis, “Face-Shame in the Chinese Culture: A Divine Reverse for Spiritual Growth in Christian Community,” which is relevant to many Asian cultures.

Tom Power – 2004

Tom Power – 2019

Professor Power to hang up some hats

By Alex Newman

When Tom Power announced his retirement recently, email accolades poured in: “We shall miss your gentle manner and servant’s attitude … deep faith and clear love of our Lord … endlessly patient … always a voice of calm, reason, and good humour … they will require an additional archive, just to house all the hats you’ve been wearing,” wrote colleagues, students, friends and family.

This August will mark if not the end, at least a change in Power’s 23-year career at the College. In the past he’s been a member of the history faculty, graduate studies coordinator, and theological librarian at the John W. Graham library. He will continue on at Wycliffe teaching one course a semester.

As adjunct church history professor, Dr Power has taught courses on 18th- and 19th-century church history and Irish Christianity. He is currently working on a book about the Apocalypse in 1825 Ireland, due at his publisher’s this summer.

But Tom is not only an academic, he’s also a bit of a tech geek, developing one of the earliest online learning programs at the university, at Principal George Sumner’s request. It was 2001, and distance education was a relatively new field, so Tom completed a certificate in the subject through the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

“That launched me into something new,” he says. “We at Wycliffe were the only ones doing it at the time, and because of that we now have the strongest online education at the TST. ”

It was such a successful program that he was asked to conduct workshops at Regis and St Augustine’s on setting up distance programs. It all meant that Wycliffe was well positioned to offer online courses when the pandemic hit.

Wearing many hats isn’t a new thing for Dr Power. When he first arrived in Canada in 1987 after graduating from Trinity College Dublin with a PhD in Irish history, he expected to go into teaching.

“We moved around quite a bit,” he says.

He taught Irish history and Western civilization at the University of New Brunswick and at St Thomas University, NB. By the early 1990s, he and his wife Marlene had moved to Toronto and he started teaching in the Celtic studies department at St Mike’s (UofT). While there, he did library science at the University of Toronto, and worked for two different school boards before coming to Wycliffe in 1998 as College librarian— when the library still existed in its physical form.

Tom has worn many hats over the years— he has just finished coordinating the Association of Theological Schools selfstudy, which covers Wycliffe operations from finance to governance. And in the fall of 2017, he was behind most of the organization for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

He will still be around—this summer, for the first time, he’ll teach a course on the 16th Century Reformation in Britain and

Ireland. And he will continue teaching a course on the Reformation for the MDiv program, a research and writing course for first-year students, and a grad course on the rise of millennialism for PhD students.

It is his sense of vocation that motivates him. “I have felt it an honour and privilege to work at Wycliffe and do believe in the school’s mission. It has a real purpose in the world and the church, and seems to have received God’s blessing. I feel privileged to be part of that.”

One way he lives out that vocation has been to provide graduate students with opportunities for getting published.

Overseeing Wycliffe Studies in Gospel, Church and Culture, Dr Power took the raw text of faculty sermons, connected with a graduate student to edit the collection, wrote intros and got it published.

His advice for the next generation of scholars is simple: “Dedication, openness to innovation, know your students. Being an academic is more than just scholarly activity because the classroom is a place of hospitality, not just a place for the transfer of information.”

One of his colleagues, Catherine SiderHamilton, summed up how many are taking his departure: “I feel a bit panicked at the thought of not having you around next year,” she wrote Tom in a personal email. “You are a hard act to follow for sheer knowledge of the library collections, not to mention your patience and helpfulness.”

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On the Plain of Waiting

By Richard LeSueur

Canon Dr Richard LeSueur (W’79) was formerly the director of the Desert Program at St. George’s College in Jerusalem and more recently served as its Acting Dean. He has continued a ministry of teaching and pilgrimage in the biblical lands for 25 years.

He resides in western Canada. A version of this article appeared in The Anglican Journal in December, 2020.

Beneath the towering umber faces of Mount Sinai lies a broad, empty valley called the Plain of Waiting. Bounded by peaks that rise sharply out of the south Sinai, the Plain of Waiting is where tradition says the people of Israel waited and waited in a howling desolation. Dislocated from familiar things, reduced to a marginal existence, they grew more and more anxious. To their leader Moses they repeatedly cried, “Did you bring us out into this wilderness that we might die?”

To be alive in this time of global pandemic is to occupy a “plain of waiting.” We wait for a vaccine. We wait for the number of active cases to decline, for the end of a “second wave,” for the easing of restrictions. We wait.

As he left them to climb the mountain, Moses told them to wait. Weeks passed.

His absence stoked anxiety. They had come so far, leaving everything behind. They knew they would never go back. They had fled, accepting the challenging reaches of wilderness. In trust they had followed their leaders’ directions, moving into an unknown and desolate landscape, clinging to the hope of a land promised; a new and safer future.

When the virus began to claim precious life after life, spreading quickly across the

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globe, whole populations fled into isolation and accepted the diminishment of an uncertain and unknown landscape. New leaders emerged in the form of chief medical officers and immunologists to guide this flight into the desert. Their directions, and those of our politicians, were at first clear and resolute. Urban areas around the world willingly accepted the complete shut-down of commerce, schools, and social enterprise in a bid to survive the insidious contagion.

In this new landscape we have learned much, fashioning new ways of connecting, working, and surviving together. We have adapted to a strange and fearsome reality.

The books of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Joshua testify that when Israel came up out of the desert at the end of the Exodus, they carried a host of new realities, which had been fashioned in the wilderness.

The record maintains that the desert gave them the Tabernacle, the priesthood, the service of the Levites, a pattern of religiouspolitical governance that later gave rise to the Sanhedrin, the Torah, and the twelve tribes. Biblical scholars caution that some of these developments might have come later after the Exodus or might not have emerged from the desert sojourn so fully formed.

However, the principle message was that the

wilderness, for all its hardships, wanderings, and waiting, became a birthing-room of the divine new. Rather than a stagnant and aimless period in Israel’s history it broke open to become a landscape of revelation, discovery, renewal, and transformation.

The Song of Songs (3:6) asks, “Who is she who comes up out of the wilderness?” Is it too soon in our experience to ask, “What is the spirituality that is arising out of this time of pandemic?” “What might we hear from the desert tradition by seeing our situation against this ancient background?”

The Plain of Waiting is a harsh landscape of broken rock and sharp grains of granite.

There is no sand on which to set your bedroll as you sleep in the open, beneath the stars. The wind blows down the mountain passes and whistles through the camp at night. You shiver even in the summer. High above, against a sparkling galaxy, the dark silhouette of Mount Sinai carves an ominous blackness, wrapped in a pervasive silence.

Coincidentally, the Hebrew word for the silence of the desert is “damam.” The Semitic root for this word is but one letter different from “dam” meaning “blood.” A devotional application of this is that what we hear in the silence of the desert is the sound of our own blood and thus we are brought nearer to the essence of our being. We hear ourselves. Removed from the bustle and preoccupations of life, the soul is permitted to inhale and turn inwards.

The pandemic drove us into our homes, drove us inside. For many this isolation brought a void of distressing loneliness.

For some it also introduced an unfamiliar intimacy; parents teaching their children, families doing crafts and puzzles, a surge of outdoor activities, couples rediscovering each other. While these many months have been stressful, it also seems true that they have stirred a level of connectedness that did not previously exist.

One of the ways the Bedouin manage the

scale of the wilderness is to periodically stop, settle in the shade of a large rock, light a small fire and sip strong tea. They talk, tell stories, connect. The Psalmist sings, “O Lord my rock, my fortress in whom I take refuge.”

As the pace of life slows, new conversations arise, connections deepen and the journey of life is viewed afresh.

On the Plain of Waiting the people of Israel lost hope. They began to doubt if God was with them or even real. The same can be true of the church. The pandemic has been hard on faith. Dislocation from corporate worship has been a significant loss.

When the wilderness comes in our lives, it is important to remember that it is never a destination but a way to pass through by stages; a harsh reality to be survived. It is a way of wandering and waiting, a place of anxiety and longing. And yet, what the Scriptures show is that the desert is the place where God shapes us for the future we are being prepared to enter.

There are four rules of the desert.

They may be true for the church of our time: Never go alone

Take only what you can carry

Anticipate anxiety

Wait upon the Lord

And the God of Jesus Christ will surely bless us.

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Alumni news Dear friends, One of the things I’ve become increasingly convinced about over this last year or so is the very real spiritual communion that Christians enjoy even across space and time. We know when we pray we are never alone and that our prayers echo those of the saints and angels in heaven. One of the favourite parts of my day is breaking out the Wycliffe Cycle of Prayer each morning

From the 1950s Peter Niblock (W58) Peter shares a fond memory from long ago. In “the summer of ‘64 I, as rector of my first parish in Winnipeg, was chaplain at our diocesan camp in Lake of the Woods. A canoe brigade of three staff and students from our cathedral’s outward bound residential high school passed our camp. I was invited to celebrate the eucharist with them the next morning. The three to the left in the front row in the photo are two of the teachers and their headmaster. Enjoy.”

From the 1970s The Rev. Canon Jim Woolley (W71) was ordained deacon (1971) and priest (1972) in the Diocese of Toronto. After serving as a curate at St. Clement, Eglinton from June 1971 to Dec 1974, he was the Incumbent of Stayner and Wasaga Beach for six years.

In June 2018 Jim retired at the age of 72 after being the incumbent of St. Thomas à Becket in Mississauga for 37 and a half years. He and his wife Cathy (celebrating their 44th wedding anniversary in July) continue to live in Mississauga with their two daughters, sons-in-law, and three granddaughters living nearby.

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and praying for each of you by name. Thank you for taking the time to update us on where the Lord has brought you this year and how we can continue praying for you. It is a privilege to pray for one another and to know that, even apart, we are together in the Lord.

Deo gratias!

Grace and peace, The Rev’d Jonathan Turtle (MDiv, 2012)

From the 1980s Stephen Leung (W84) The Rt Rev. Stephen Leung, Area Bishop for Asian and multicultural ministries in the Anglican Network in Canada, is committed to raising church leaders of visible minority descent and empowering them to plant ethnic and multicultural churches.

Currently he is laying the foundations for Mandarin-speaking Chinese ministry in areas of evangelism, children, and family ministries. On May 18, Wycliffe awarded Bishop Stephen a Doctor of Divinity, honoris causa.

Chris Barrigar (W88/W89) The Rev. Dr Chris Barrigar (W88/W89) continues as Incumbent of the Church of St Mark & St Peter, Montreal. He also continues as Convenor of the Montreal Christian Faculty Fellowship, which meets monthly, now by Zoom. The group provides fellowship for Christian faculty in public universities. Zoom has allowed the group to expand, so that Christian faculty (from Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox traditions) at public universities from Montreal to Vancouver now participate. If you know someone who might be interested, contact Chris at cjbarrigar@sympatico.ca.

Kim Beard (W89) The Rev. Canon Kim Beard published his first book of poetry entitled “IF...”. It will be available in ebook form on Kobo, Smash words, and Kindle beginning in June 2021. He will also be leading an 18-day mission experience to Tanzania in June 2022. It will include safaris

in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro, a visit to Olduvai Gorge, visits to Zanzibar and Stone town, and two Anglican dioceses in Tanzania.

Anyone who would like information can contact him at beard3300@rogers.com.

From the 1990s Rebecca Idestrom (W90) Rebecca teaches at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, where she has been on the faculty for the last 20 years. She was recently promoted to (full) Professor of Old Testament effective July 1, 2021. Her commentaries on Habakkuk and Zephaniah were recently published in a one-volume commentary entitled The Book of the Twelve (Pentecostal Commentary Series; Leiden: Brill, 2020).

Dudley Walker (W94) Dudley, an honorary assistant at St. Peter’s Cobourg is pleased to be celebrating his Silver Jubilee, 25 years as an ordained minister in the Diocese of Toronto.

David Philips (W95) After serving for 8 years as Chaplain at Holy Trinity Chaplaincy in Utrecht, the Netherlands, David will leave August 31 to take a one-year sabbatical. His wife, Daniëlle, will continue to teach at the Centre for the Theology of Migration at the Vrije Universiteit and so they plan to live in or near Amsterdam. The Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe has agreed to give David Permission to Officiate, so he will assist some Sundays in churches in the Netherlands needing a locum priest.

John Pearce (W98) On January 1, 2021, John Pearce retired from the position of Senior Pastor at Stanley Park Community Church in Kitchener Ontario, after serving for 30 years.

Craig Carter (W99) Dr Craig A. Carter retired from teaching and was appointed Research Professor of Theology at Tyndale University at the end of 2020.

The second title in his “Great Tradition” trilogy, Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism, came out in April. He is at work on a third title in this series and a one-volume Introduction to Theology in the Great Tradition, as well as a book on providence and a major theological commentary on Isaiah for the ITC series.

From the 2000s Peter Boote (W04) Peter Boote stepped down as regional Archdeacon of St. Chad in the Diocese of Qu’Appelle as of December 31, 2020 in preparation for his retirement on March 31, 2021. Peter also got married on December 5th, 2020. Although he is retired, he is continuing to live in Maple Creek, SK. Christopher Holmes (W00, W06) Christopher and his family are doing well in Dunedin, New Zealand, having recently marked their eleventh year in that country.

Christopher continues to serve as the Head of the Theology Department at the University of Otago and as Associate Professor in Systematic Theology. His latest book is A Theology of the Christian Life: Imitating and Participating in God (Baker Academic).

Donna Kerfoot (W06) Beginning April 1st, 2021, Donna Kerfoot received a call to begin pastoral ministry at Zion Mennonite Fellowship, M.C.E.C. in the town of Elmira, ON. SiSi Theo – (W07) Sisi Theodorakidis is directing a film called “Expected Unexpected” to be released this summer.

Michael Caines (W08) The Rev’d Michael Caines was recently promoted to Major and to the position of Senior Chaplain for 37 Canadian Brigade Group in the Army Reserves. He continues in his full-time ministry in the Parish of the Nerepis & St. John in the Diocese of Fredericton.

From the 2010s Constance Joanna Gefvert (W05) After 8 years assisting at St. George-on-Yonge Anglican church, and 16 years on the Wycliffe Adjunct faculty, Sr. Constance Joanna took a break this past year due to increased responsibilities at St. John’s Convent. However, she taught some online classes as part of the Sisterhood’s Food for the Soul series–both Contemplative Prayer and Benedictine Spirituality, including its role in shaping Anglicanism and New Monasticism.

Vanessa Rotner (W05) Vanessa writes that she split her “Lenten activity by streaming services at the Cathedral. I received an invitation to attend the bible study/adult forum on the Gospel of Mark (Journey with Mark) at St. James Wheat Ridge in the Diocese of Colorado. I offered pastoral care and counselling to friends on a weekly basis with phone check-ins, and I created a healing meditation with audio and script with guided imagery.”

David Reed (Hon. W13) Dr. David Reed continues research and writing on Oneness Pentecostalism.

This includes “Restoration and Revelation in the True Jesus Church: Sources of Indigenization,” Transfiguration of Chinese Christianity: Localization and Globalization (2018); “The Prosperity Gospel and Money— Plundering the Devil’s Den?” Canadian Journal of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity (2019); 5 entries in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Global Pentecostalism (2020); and two chapters for upcoming books.

Marina Hofman (W14) Marina highlights the leadership, strengths, and characters of biblical women in her new book, Women in the Bible Small Group Bible Study. A free video series accompanies the resource in which Marina reflects personally. She is honoured to have her book endorsed by Wycliffe professor Marion Taylor. Connect with Marina on Instagram @marinahofman.

Andrew Barron (W17) Dr Andrew Barron and his wife Laura continue to serve with Jews for Jesus and live in North Toronto.

Andrew teaches a class in Jewish Studies and a class in Disability and Theology at Tyndale University and Wycliffe College. His research on “The Conflicted Jewish Imagination of Joy Davidman” was published by the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College.

Allison Dean (W17) The Rev. Allison Dean was ordained to the diaconate at her home church of St Agnes in the Diocese of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands on November 1, 2020. She is the first woman to be ordained from that church. Deacon Allison is now serving as the Assistant Curate in the Parish of St. Luke’s, a multi-point parish in South Eleuthera in The Bahamas.

Orvin Lao (W17) Orvin finished his curacy on May 1st and started his appointment by the Bishop of Toronto as an associate priest at Little Trinity Anglican Church.

Grayhame Bowcott (W20) The Rev’d Dr. Grayhame Bowcott (DMin ’20) was cross-appointed by the Bishop of Huron and the Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Huron University as Coordinator of the Licentiate in Theology Program and Lifelong Learning. In this position Gray combines his research interests in studying numericallygrowing Anglican congregations with his passion of enabling lay leaders for ministry challenges. Gray also serves as Rector to the Anglican Parish of the Blue Mountains, ON.

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Alumni Prayer Team:

Congratulations to …

We are building a team of alumni willing to spend some time calling fellow alumni on the phone—to check in with them, listen, and to pray with them. Is that something you would like to do? The timing is flexible and the number of calls you make is completely up to you. If you are interested, please email alumni@wycliffe.utoronto.ca Thank you!

Marwood “Marney” Patterson, recipient of this year’s Archdeacon Harry St. Clair Hilchey Award and to Dunbar Russel who has been named Honorary Alumnus. These awards are presented annually by the Alumni Association in recognition of distinguished service to Wycliffe College and/or the Church.

In Memoriam

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Calling all Wycliffe Graduates!

The Wycliffe College Alumni Association has its own group on Facebook! To access, “like” the Wycliffe College Facebook page, and then click “Groups.” Request to join the “Wycliffe College Alumni Association” group and you will be approved by one of our page administrators. We encourage you to invite your fellow graduates, engage with one another, and post any interesting updates, articles, and news that you think would be of interest to your fellow alumni.

We remember those in the Wycliffe Community who were “Called Home” in 2020-21

The Rev Sheilagh M. Ashworth Class of 1997

The Rev. Canon Frances M. Lightbourn Class of 1987

Mrs. Nora K. Robinson Class of 1982

Mrs. June Bates Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Ken Lyons Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Capt. Charles E. Smart Class of 1973

Mr. D. Hugh Bessell Former Trustee, Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Howard K. Matson Class of 1951

The Rev. Dorothy Thorpe Class of 1982

Mrs. Dorothy Chabot Class of 1948

The Ven. John T. McCollum Friend of Wycliffe

Mr. Robert Topp Friend of Wycliffe

Ms. Bonnie Deakur Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Dr. Peter C. Moore Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Dr. John T. Townsend Class of 1952

Miss Shirley M. Drummond Friend of Wycliffe

Ms. Joan E. Morris Class of 2018

The Rev. Katherine L. Treganowan Class of 1997

The Rev Earl C. Gerber Class of 1965

Miss Mary Neale Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Canon D. Logan Varey Class of 1969

Mr. Garry Glowacki Class of 2005

The Rev. Canon James F. O’Neil Class of 1989

The Rev. Canon Roy T. Vopni Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Canon Howard E. Green Class of 1975

The Rev. Canon Dr. James I. Packer Friend of Wycliffe

Mrs. Sarah E. Williams Friend of Wycliffe

Dr. Robert H. Haslam Class of 2006, Former Board Chair

Mrs. Janet Pattison Friend of Wycliffe

The Ven. Donald T. Wootten Friend of Wycliffe

Mrs. Shirley Howard Friend of Wycliffe

Mr. Tim Pellew Friend of Wycliffe

Dr. Arthur J. Worrall Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Dr. Douglas Jay Class of 1976

Mr. Michael Peter Class of 2004

The Rev. John LeGresley Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. David Julien Class of 2005

Mr. Bruce G. Raymond Friend of Wycliffe

The Rev. Philip F. Rowsell Friend of Wycliffe

DONOR PROFILE

Volunteer’s dedication, commitment add up to Wycliffe’s advantage

By Alex Newman Enid Corbett enjoys crunching numbers.

She also enjoys volunteering.

That’s worked out well for Wycliffe— she chairs the school’s Flint Trust Fund Committee (which disburses grants to support educational events for alumni and the wider church), and is a member of the Audit and Finance Committee.

Her involvement with the College started in 2006 when she joined the board, but her awareness of Wycliffe began in the early 1980s when her best friend started taking classes here.

Since then Enid’s appreciation for the school has only grown, in part for its spirit of ecumenism. “When I look at the list of grads and read about where they’re going, more than half are from denominations [other than Anglican].”

Raised in Islington, ON, in a family of volunteers—her father with the school board and her mother in church-related activities—Enid says volunteering came “naturally.”

After graduating from Queen’s University in Kingston with a Math degree, she went on to teach high school, working halftime so she could raise three children and still have time to volunteer. At her Thornhill church where she and her

husband, Maurice, raised their children and worshiped for 51 years, she’s served with the Anglican Church Women and in the choir, as church warden, and chaired the Cemetery Committee. In 2017, she was awarded the Order of the Diocese of Toronto for volunteering at the Diocesan level. (And for 55 years, she’s managed to carve out time for Girl Guiding as well.)

“I couldn’t do it without my husband,” she says. “He’s always been very supportive of my volunteer work.”

Her financial acumen and mathematics education have been a huge boon to volunteering, since so much of that “kind of work involves finances,” she adds.

Enid served on Wycliffe’s board from 2006 to 2018, and then in 2011, she joined the Audit and Finance Committee, as well as the Flint Trust, which she has chaired since 2019.

The school’s commitment to solid education is impressive, she says. With many friends who are priests, she understands the need for good theology, but also for training in practical matters such as finance and effective communication.

Caption: Enid Corbett received the ODT (Order of the Diocese of Toronto) in 2017.

When asked for a word on endurance at Wycliffe, Enid said: “To meet the challenges of a changing culture requires flexibility. The last 20 years have [brought] quite a shift for Wycliffe. The fact they have endured and thrived, and kept their principles is quite a testament.”

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BOOK REVIEW:

The Minister’s Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Doubt, Friendship, Loneliness, Forgiveness and More Review by Fawna Andrews adjusting to life in an isolated northern Saskatchewan community, that there is a deep grief one feels when it comes time to move on, and that it is not easy to find sustaining friendships. She shares her concerns about wanting to raise children who will love God and not resent the church.

The truth is Karen Stiller is always a joy to be around. And this book is an extension of who she is: real, insightful, and curious.

So I encourage you to spend some time with The Minister’s Wife. You won’t regret it.

But this is balanced by her delightful storytelling, where what emerges is a portrait of parish community – one with snags and flaws, and which is yet a thing of beauty:

Deciding to read The Minister’s Wife by Karen Stiller—a friend of mine and an Honorary Alumna of Wycliffe College— was a bit of a “no-brainer” for me. Having been raised in a clergy home and being a minister’s wife myself, I anticipated reading something of my own experience, albeit through the unique lens of Karen’s narrative skill. With her characteristic sense of humour and her gift for seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary, Karen delivers. The Minister’s Wife is an authentic and relatable exploration of a role that is both an oddity and a conversation stopper, and a tremendous gift. What I didn’t anticipate is that it is also the story of the power and blessing of the parish community and a personal journey, which explores the way that God uses the circumstances in which we each find ourselves to shape, form, and mold us into who He intends us to be.

Karen does not shy away from showing us the challenges of being married to the minister. She tells us that it was hard 18

The church—the sixth member of our family—is a weird and sometimes wonderful auntie. She can throw a tantrum or show up with an armful of gifts. She demands attention, but she also hugs you tight. She might reach out and give you a smack right out of the blue.

Karen demonstrates that in community we lean on each other, irritate one other, laugh and cry together, and in the process, ultimately and most profoundly, we make each other better people.

Karen also invites us in as she candidly reflects on the personal experiences that have come her way. In a gripping story about being the first on the scene of a car accident she learns what it means to share another’s grief and of the healing power of prayer. The letdown when an exciting job possibility for her husband falls through brings her face to face with her own disappointment with God. And yet in the midst of these struggles is a holiness that Karen discovers that comes, often slowly, from allowing yourself to be changed by the One who never changes.

Karen Stiller, author of The Minister’s Wife, is a former Trustee and was made an Associate Alumnus at Wycliffe’s Spring Convocation 2019.

Fawna Andrews is a social worker and married to the principal of Wycliffe College.

Together they find great joy in their two adult daughters and two adorable grandsons.

BOOK REVIEW:

God is Always Bigger: Reflections by a Hopeful Critic Review by Jeremy McClung communicate old truths in new ways (What if discipleship was viewed as apprenticeship to Jesus?); his knack for casting a different spin on familiar topics (Could “career” and “vocation” be two different things?); his willingness to tackle tough issues (How can clergy from diverse theological perspectives learn to appreciate one another?); and his inclination to critique common prejudices and assumptions (Should Pietism really be treated like a “swear word”?).

Q: What kind of preacher delivers a sermon against Amazing Grace?

A: A guest preacher, surprising an unsuspecting congregation with what he calls a “preach-and-run.”

The name of that preacher is John Bowen, former Wycliffe professor and director of the Institute of Evangelism. His latest publication, God is Always Bigger, is a compilation of forty of his sermons, talks, and articles grouped into loose categories, each introduced by a brief explanatory note. The writing is crisp, engaging, and easily accessible for a wide Christian audience.

Bowen’s unique gifts and outlook bring unity to a diverse set of topics, ranging from personal to practical to doctrinal.

The book demonstrates his ability to

Of course, his signature dry humour makes an appearance on almost every page, but what is even more noticeable is the humility and vulnerability with which Bowen offers glimpses into his inner life. Whether in questioning the value of years devoted to a particular ministry or reflecting on the feelings of helplessness that come with major surgery, Bowen opens his soul to readers in a refreshingly personal way.

Former students, colleagues, and others who have known Bowen personally will experience this book as a delightful conversation with an old friend.

However, those who have never met this remarkable man will also enjoy and benefit from reading this memoirmeets-devotional—particularly fellow “hopeful critics” who think outside of the box. In its pages they will find a kindred spirit who speaks with courage, wisdom, creativity, and most of all, hope.

Wycliffe College Professor Emeritus of Evangelism, John Bowen, was named recipient of a 2021 Lambeth Award— the Alphege Award for Evangelism and Witness—for his attractive articulation of the love of God for all people, with a particular heart for those who have not yet heard the name of Jesus, and for his mentoring and discipling of Christian leaders. Announced by the Archbishop of Canterbury on April 7, 2021, the Lambeth Awards, which recognize outstanding contributions to the Church and wider society, have been given to over 30 individuals.

Jeremy McClung is the founding pastor of Muskoka Community Church and a 3rd year PhD candidate at Wycliffe College, studying pastoral theology and homiletics.

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A long obedience

in the “gentilization” of the Christian movement goes back a long way.

(Wycliffe Professor Emeritus of New Testament) Terence Donaldson’s most recent book, Gentile Christian Identity from Cornelius to Constantine (Eerdmans, October 29, 2020) traces the development of early Christian identity.

American New Testament Scholar Ben Witherington conducted a Q & A with Donaldson—published in 19 parts for his Patheos blog ( https://www.patheos.com/blogs/bibleandculture/ )—and granted permission for us to share this excerpt below.

Q. This book reflects an enormous amount of good research and reflection on both primary and secondary sources, though this subject has been treated in part by you in previous monographs. How long did it take you to put this detailed work together, especially considering the substantial discussion of the period beyond the NT era up to Constantine?

A. Thanks for the question, Ben, and for this opportunity to engage in some extended 20

As you have noted, I have dealt with various aspects of these questions in my previous work. In that work, though, I came at these questions mostly from the Jewish side, wondering how it was that the early Jewish disciples came so quickly to believe that the message of Jesus as Messiah was something conversation about my book. While I have for gentiles as well and how they made been working on this as my main research theological sense of it all (especially in work project since 2009 or so, my interest in on Matthew and Paul). This led me to look these questions more generally goes back as at Jewish attitudes towards gentiles more far as my first year of theological education generally, especially the ways in which Jews in the mid-1970s. In the early stages of a could conceive of gentiles as standing in a standard survey course on church history, positive relationship with the God of Israel.

I was suddenly struck by the fact that the major figures under discussion—Justin, Returning to your question more directly, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, and so on— the impetus for this specific project occurred were all gentiles. How did it come about, I when I was reading Romans 11 for some wondered, that a movement centred on a purpose or other and my attention was Jewish Messiah, a movement that consisted caught by the way Paul addresses his readers entirely of Jewish believers at the outset, (or at least some of them) in verse 13: “I am had within a century become a largely speaking to you gentiles.” Thinking about gentile affair? In the process of working this from the perspective of non-Jewish on a term paper, I read Justin’s Dialogue listeners, I wondered what they would have with Trypho and also happened to stumble made of the term. In Jewish usage, of course, across James Parkes’ The Conflict of the the term ethnē (literally “nations”) was used Church and the Synagogue, and thus to refer to non-Jews, outsiders, members of encountered the adversus Judaeos tradition all other ethnic groups. People are generally (the argument “against the Jews”), which not inclined to think of themselves in terms added a troubling dimension to the of some other group’s term for outsiders, question. So my interest in what has come and so it is unlikely that ethnē would have to be called “the parting of the ways” and had any intrinsic appeal for non-Jews as an

identity term. Non-Jewish Christ-believers, me the opportunity to explore the question however, found themselves in a social in a sustained way. Here it readily became world where “gentiles” (ethnē) was a basic apparent that the question was significant. category. Thus the question: What did they At the same time, I realized as the project make of this ascribed identity? began to take shape that to do it justice, I would need to involve myself in a number Fortunately, at about this time I had a full- of areas where, despite some general year sabbatical (most of which was spent at familiarity, I could not claim any particular the University of Cambridge), which gave expertise—a list that eventually included

ethnicity, social identity theory, postcolonialism, Greco-Roman ethnography, Roman imperial ideology and (to a lesser extent) ante-Nicene literature.

This, together with some unexpected administrative responsibilities, meant that it became a ten-year project of research and writing.

New volume celebrates life and work of Christopher Seitz In this volume dedicated to the life and work of Christopher Seitz, Senior Research Professor at Wycliffe College, biblical scholars and theologians approach the question of who Israel’s God is for Christians. Each essay reflects upon the implications of biblical theology and theological exegesis for interpretation of the Old and New Testament bound together in a single scriptural legacy. Contributors approach the question from multiple disciplinary vantage points. Essays on both Testaments focus on figural exegesis, critical exegesis, and the value of diachronic understandings of the Old Testament’s compositional history for the sake of a richer synchronic reading.

Ephraim Radner et al. (ed). The Identity of Israel’s God in Christian Scripture.

Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2020.

Calling all former residents

Among those with Wycliffe College associations who have contributed to this volume are:

Community is a hallmark of the Wycliffe experience—and not just for students. Are you a former resident of Wycliffe College who would like to reconnect with your fellow residents? We are building a community of former residents and would love to include you. Please email

• Ephraim Radner (The Exegesis of the One God) • Mark W. Elliott (The Character of the Biblical God) • Leslie Demson (“In Time of Tumult You Remembered to Have Compassion”: Form-Critical Treatments of Habakkuk 3) • Joseph L. Mangina (On Reading with Stereoptic Vision: Figural Exegesis and History in John 9), and • Annette Brownlee (Searching for Christ in All the Scriptures: Preaching Backward and Forward).

This collection is offered in celebration of the life and work of Christopher Seitz.

His rich and wide-ranging scholarly efforts have provided scholars and students alike a treasure trove of resources related to this critical question.

your current contact information to karen.selvaraj@wycliffe.utoronto.ca and we will be in touch. Please also help us get the word out by forwarding this copy of Insight to any former residents you know, and encouraging them to connect with us. Thank you.

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The enduring and always present past opher Seitz

By Christopher Seitz As was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said today “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether” – Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural address, quoting Psalm 19:9.

In my final year of University, I was a tour leader in Europe.

Joining two other colleagues, with 12 students cramped into VW buses, we crisscrossed Western Europe. We biked the countryside of Holland, kayaked on the Danube, gazed upon Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral, were dazzled by London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Munich, Madrid, Vienna, Salzburg, each in its turn,

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and even climbed the highest mountain in Austria. The list of adventures could go on.

One day we set aside, however, I doubt any of us will forget. A visit to Dachau in the now leafy suburbs of Munich. Bare corridors of hell.

Grim, spartan efficient death chambers, cluttered now only with black and white photos telling the horrible story. No one said a word.

There it sits, untouched, just as it once was, accessed by impeccable public transport, on the outskirts of a booming, elegant metropolis.

And having been preserved, one imagines it will never be torn down. A stark reminder of the horrors Germans perpetrated,

maintained by them for just this reason.

Forty-five years later my wife and I were on research leave in Göttingen, in lower Saxony. The Berlin wall now dismantled, and the capital city in various states of magnificent reconstruction, there on the border of the former East Germany is preserved a lone “Check-point Charlie,” near the village of Duderstadt. Again, a carefully maintained monument to the evils of communism, with almost too much information crammed into its halls, in an effort not to forget even one tiny bit.

The past is preserved in Europe.

People know they are who they are in the light of it. Dark and light intermixed, the soaring cathedral and the descent into infernos of war, bloody revolt, pogrom and holocaust.

2020 will be remembered in the USA for Covid, our reluctant and resentful flirtation with a disease whose cousins were ever present in past generations, much like the air one breathed. 2020 will also be remembered—if it too isn’t toppled and canceled—as the culmination of a mentality that says statues must be felled, complex historical figures eliminated, ideas and people we now judge lesser than ourselves expunged. We are an enlightened age, and from our high moral perch we gaze down upon a past and declare what must go and what can stay.

Where did this mentality come from and why does it stand out in its confident, staggering selfrighteousness? Why is it that Angela Merkel—daughter of an East German pastor—shudders when a Silicon Valley mogul with more money than a former DDR economy, declares what can and cannot be said?

I teach the Hebrew Bible for a living. Often people have decided way ahead of time that this Old Testament is chronologically deficient, so I am accustomed to this sort of thinking. Chesterton called it “chronological snobbery.”

What has always sobered me, after years of studying and teaching the Old Testament, is this: What kind of people write history in which they are so obviously placed in a bad light, faults exposed, sins recorded, errors viewed under an all-searching light, complaining Jonahs and scandalously deficient

monarchs, whose best is crowded about by the worst? For all to see and recall. Like a Dachau in a suburb, or a carefully preserved Check-point Charlie.

One could actually say, this is what makes the Old Testament record what it uniquely is. Gives it the claim to be sacred. Because the people loved and chosen stand under the Holy God and are under account to Him, and not to themselves or others. “My sins are ever before me,” says the psalmist. And this is the same psalmist who also declares there is One who forgives, who places sins far away, as far as the east is from the west, so that we might fear Him. But what if this Old Testament reality is not so? We will construct standards of morality from whatever enthusiasms are winning the day. We will throw the past into the river, topple inconvenient reminders with righteous urgency, and haul away by night statues, language, and customs we have judged less than ourselves. All so that we might forget we too are standing under a higher authority, and that inside of each one of us are monuments to the wrong and the less. And there is no place to dump this that a future generation cannot find. There on our outskirts is the Dachau after all.

In the epilogue of one of the most popular twentieth-century novels, F. Scott Fitzgerald spoke of trying to flee the past to the “fresh, green breast of the new world.” Gatsby wanted to un-do the knots of time. In the end he succeeded in pulling time down on his own head. The statue thrown into the river was himself.

Cancel culture is not just a culture that cancels the past. It is a culture that cancels culture itself, that rich paradox of the good and the evil, the enduring and always present past.

Lincoln lived in this frame of mind. It makes him America’s greatest and wisest president. “As was said three thousand (and one hundred and fifty) years ago, so still it must be said today.” And with that, his mind and heart moved effortlessly to the words of the 19th Psalm of the messy king David. A president mindful of, and standing confidently under, the eternal judgments of a higher authority, leavening the hard judgments he would himself have to make so as to heal a nation torn asunder.

Christopher Seitz is Senior Research Professor at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. He lives with his wife in South Carolina, USA. A version of this piece was originally published on the website of First Things under the title, “Canceling Culture.”

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An E-newsletter For Alumni

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We are always looking to expand the reach of the College and to share with others the exciting things that God is doing through Wycliffe. If you would like additional copies of this magazine to pass along to friends who are unfamiliar with Wycliffe College, please let us know and we will be happy to send them!

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Perseverance This has been a year requiring perseverance, and we are grateful for our steadfast supporters who have continued to pray and support the mission of Wycliffe College through financial gifts.

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You can make your gift today at www.wycliffecollege.ca Your prayers and financial support are greatly needed, and so appreciated. Thank you.

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Services are livestreamed at: https://www.wycliffecollege.ca/livechapel

Insight EDITORIAL BOARD

Connie Chan Rob Henderson

The Wycliffe College Newsletter for Alumni and Friends July 2021, No. 90

ISSN 1192-2761 (Print) ISSN 2563-2892 (Online)

INSIGHT is published twice yearly by Wycliffe College Communications

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Barbara Jenkins Shelley McLagan

Patricia Paddey Thomas Power

Marion Taylor

CONTRIBUTORS

Fawna Andrews Stephen Andrews Carol Boettcher Sharon Dewey Hetke Terence Donaldson Heejun Kim

Gaby Klukas Richard LeSueur Jeremy McClung Shelley McLagan Alex Newman Patricia Paddey

Thomas Power Christopher Seitz Karen Selvaraj Marilyn Sinclair Karen Stiller Jonathan Turtle

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FRONT COVER IMAGE: The Wycliffe College’s crest, cast in stone on the side of Leonard Hall displays the school’s Latin motto, “Verbum Domini Manet,” which translates, “The Word of the Lord endures.”

The image was captured for Insight’s front cover by Paul Patterson, Director of Operations at Wycliffe College.