Whoever is not against us is for us

Each week in my Church and Ministry course we look at the weekly gospel lesson from the lectionary. This week it was a passage from Mark (9:39-50). The disciples have just told Jesus that they saw someone casting out demons in his name and they tried to stop the man because he was not following Jesus. Jesus, however, tells them not to stop the man..."whoever is not against us is for us." This short story is followed by admonitions against committing wrongdoings.

Tonight we had a guest speaker - an ordained priest in the Anglican Church who is also Cree and a residential school survivor. Although he spent most of the class speaking of aboriginal history in general he also shared some of his own stories with us. He offered us a complex view of the role the residential school had played in his own life. Initially he only had positive things to say about this experience - he received a good education, he learned to play football and hockey. Later on in the class someone asked him about his own discernment process, how he had come to be an Anglican priest, and how he reconciled this with his identity as an aboriginal person. In this moment he shared with us that he had indeed suffered severe physical abuse while he was at the residential school but that he now sees these experiences as a blessing in his life. These experiences have allowed him to identify with those to whom he ministers. It was so impressive for me to see how he had been able to take such negative experiences and find goodness in them. Obviously not an easy task and many people struggle to make meaning of traumatic experiences in their own lives and to move beyond them - of course never forgetting (and nor should they be forgotten). In terms of discernment, he emphasised how it important it is to first know yourself. It's hard to imagine becoming a leader in a church that has caused you so much pain. But knowing who he is as a native person and who he is as a Christian allowed him to work through this process and to redeem his experiences. Invaluable insights.

Returning to Jesus' words: "whoever is not against us is for us." I wish this message was proclaimed more loudly these days. I think we're much more accustomed to hearing "either you're for us or you're against us." Wouldn't the world be such a better place if we adhered to the first statement. What would Canada look like today if our ancestors hadn't mistreated the aboriginal people as history has played out? We certainly can't say the reserves were created to protect us from these 'dangerous indians who were out to get us'; it simply is not true. What if we realised and truly believed that we're all in this together. Just because we have different cultures and traditions does not mean that we're in opposition. Our goals may not be 100% identical yet I would argue that most of us crave for similar ends. We want to live in peace, we want to be loved, we want the freedom to express ourselves and our beliefs without fear of judgement or reprisal. If only we were more blind to our differences and more able to recognise our similarities.

In this course our weekly assignment is to reflect upon what we have experienced in class. These are just my initial thoughts - rough indeed. It truly pains me that aboriginal rights don't seem to be a mainstream issue in Canada. We seem blind to the injustices that exist in our own backyard. Why are aboriginal rights not a more prominent social justice issue?

I Hart House

Ok, so I should be doing homework right now but I'll get to it soon enough. I just wanted to write about my new favourite discovery at the U of T: Hart House. It's this gorgeous old building (and huge) that is now a student's services centre. They have a theatre, athletics facilities, a beautiful courtyard, and lots of other clubs and activities. The very best part is that it is 5 minutes from my dorm. This morning I had my first yoga class (10 beautiful more weeks of yoga left!). What a great way to start the day and real quality instruction. And after my Greek class this afternoon I tried out the pool. A 4 lane 25-yard pool just as I like ;) But it beats the Regina Y hands down because of its incredible vaulted ceiling. So much nicer to look at than water stained ceiling tiles (don't worry Y, I still like you too). Anyways, I have no excuse now not to lose those 10 lbs I put on while south of the border. I'll just need to pace myself with this cafeteria food (dessert with lunch & supper! - good thing I only eat 6 meals a week there). Well that was a nice break. Back to my reading...starting with more of Who Wrote the Bible?, which I totally recommend reading (it's very non-academic and well written).

my room

The beginning of the end....

Well not really, although I think I will indeed be working my butt off this semester. I've now been to all my classes and have my 4 day weekend! Which will actually be spent doing all the reading and assignments due next week because yes, there really is that much to get done. But it really shouldn't feel like work because I'm in love with the subject matter. At least that is my hope.

My first course is Intro to New Testament Greek which I have twice a week. So my most recent task has been trying to memorise the Greek alphabet using some homemade flash cards. I think I'm starting to catch on which is good because we're already expected to be able to "read" - that is sound out - greek words and passages. Our textbook is highly motivating though. After only 4 chapters we've already learned 26 words which means we can already read 11.65% of the New Testament. This is because there are actually only 5,437 total different words in the New Testament, and the word and (kai) occurs 9, 153 times and accounts for 6.7% of the total word count. So I guess I still have a ways to go before I can actually read and understand but it's encouraging none the less.

Wednesday was a longer day. I had Intro to the Old Testament in the morning. The profressor for this course formerly taught at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary (until her position was cut because of financial reasons - so now Waterloo doesn't even have an Old Testamant professor - which is kind of ridiculous and especially unfortunate). But it's nice to know I'm not the only Lutheran on campus. We have several former Lutherans but none that have stuck with it ;) I think this course will be a fair bit of review for myself but also learning some crucial things. Like the order of the OT books, historical timelines, etc. Plus exploring all the crazy stories which is half the fun.

Wednesday evening I have a Church and Ministry course. I'm still not entirely sure what will be covered in this course as we don't have any books or a syllabus. We are spending the first two weeks of class introducing ourselves. This means sharing as much or as little as you would like. Our first class was pretty intense. Hearing someone's story is such a powerful experience. And being able to recognise our shared experiences and our differences is so cool. Unfortunately it's a larger class (as are all of my classes - between 30 and 40 people) and so is not quite as conducive to sharing but it seems to be working. Next week the other half will be sharing their stories (myself included). One common theme that seems to be shared is the amazing courage people have to take this leap of faith and come to seminary. It doesn't seem to have been an easy decision for anyone I've met yet but we're all glad to be here. This class will also be a really good balance as the rest of my timetable is heavy on the academics.

My days become longer as the week progresses. Thursday I have 3 classes! We'll that's also because Greek is twice a week (Tues & Thurs) as opposed to once a week like the rest of my classes. Thursday mornings begin with Systematic Theology. I have yet to totally understand what the Systematic part is. On our syllabus the professor titled the course Intro to (Systematic) Theology. He hasn't yet explained why the parentheses but next week our class topic is "what is theology?" so perhaps that question will be answered then. This should be a fun class where we get to delve into those questions of who is god, why is there suffering, what does all this mean for our own life and action. We'll see what kind of answers I come up with at the end of the semester.

In the afternoon I have Greek once again. Yes, the alphabet is coming along. And I've also learned how to pronounce the diphthongs. Thursday night I have Intro to the New Testament at St. Michael's college (it's one of the Catholic colleges at the Toronto School of Theology). The professor seems really great - somewhat of a free spirit and very excited about the New Testament. It seems that this course won't be so much an intro to the books of the New Testament as an intro to the different methods of studying the New Testament. I think this will also be some review for me since I've taken a similar course in my undergrad, from an equally amazing but completely different professor, so I'm looking forward to getting some new insight and different perspectives. Provided I'm still awake by the time this class comes around ;) Thursday is a very long day.

And now my weekend begins. Today my plans include picking up some spider plants from a woman I met on craigslist, going to the bank so I can pay my U of T bill, and heading to the library to use their printer. Tonight is Foot Liberation Night at Emmanuel College. There will be an hour long Salsa class followed by a dance in the chapel. The great thing about this program is that it includes people of all ages and all life circumstances. This event is a family event and will have things for the kids to do. They will also have a cash bar for the rest of us ;) I think I will fit in here just fine, even if I am Lutheran.

Tomorrow it begins

Well I've been in Toronto for one week now and I'm still surviving. I've eaten at the residence cafeteria 3 times now and it's actually really great. They have some pretty impressive vegetarian fare which makes me very happy - Thai curry, lentils, mixed bean casseroles ;) yummy. I don't think I need to worry about going hungry this year. I guess I've been keeping pretty busy since I last posted. I've done a lot of neighbourhood exploring. There is just so much here - anything you are looking for you can find here. And there are all these wonderful quiet residential areas just off the main streets. You turn the corner and all of a sudden all the noise disappears. It's a thing of beauty. My friends Michael and Mandy took me to their favourite sushi restaurant on Sunday night. Now I haven't had much sushi but I have to say that this sushi was very good. I would definitely go back. And apparently if you order for pickup you get 20% off your order, which I will have to take advantage of. What else did I do this weekend? A visit to Honest Ed's which is most certainly an experience. They blow Wal-mart out of the water, plus it's not Wal-mart. It's probably the gaudiest store you'll ever set foot in (flashing lights and giant signs everywhere) but it's Honest Ed's. You just go there for the experience (and some really good deals). Saturday night we also did a bit of star searching seeing as the Film Fest is on. We didn't have a whole lot of luck. Our biggest brush with fame was seeing the writer(?) who won the Academy Award for Crash. We were holding out for Heath Ledger but it just didn't happen for us. Today's big excitement is that I finally have a phone!!! Very excited about that. Let me know if you'd like the number and I'll pass it on. I like getting phone calls.

Anyways, I have my first class tomorrow. Greek in the afternoon. The rest follow on Wednesday and Thursday. I have to say I'm really looking forward to starting class. Exploring has been fun but I'm yearning for a little more structure in my life. What can I say? I like order ;) But not too much of course. So, I hope to have another post later on this week for all of you who are interested in my classes and so forth...

Toronto may be a big city...

But as I was getting my student card this morning I ran into one of the 3 people I knew were in Toronto. John, one of the former chaplains at Campion College in Regina, is also in town beginning an MDiv at Regis College (also part of the Toronto School of Theology). I had been told he was in Toronto but knew nothing more than that. So what are the chances we would both be getting student cards at the same time. Strange how those things unfold. So far Toronto has been pretty awesome. But my next big challenge is to find a job. Keeping my fingers crossed that it won't be too difficult a task. It's kind of unfortunate that my phone won't be hooked up until Monday. That definitely adds an element of difficulty to the whole process. But we'll see what I can get done in the meantime. I just realised that I have a Thursday night course this semester which will interfere in my weekly Grey's Anatomy. We'll also have to see if there's any way to remedy this tragedy. I guess I'll have to befriend some unsuspecting generous stranger who owns a vcr. But I likely will survive even without my weekly fix of Grey's Anatomy. I might be grumpy but I'll survive.

I still have 4 days before classes start so hopefully I can keep myself busy until then. The Weakerthans and Metric are playing for free tomorrow evening as part of first year orientation. I also need to find some furniture to fill up my spacious suite. It's definitely a little larger than I was expecting. Part of my mission this weekend will be to find some decent thrift shops. Until then...

Me & the Boys