AVEL West

Ed Loucks - Who do you say that I am?

2010-04-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ed Loucks - Who do you say that I am? from AVEL West on Vimeo.

In preparation for the MNWO Conference Annual Meeting, several people are offering responses to the questions Jesus asks: Who do you say that I am?
In this video, Ed Loucks of Northland Presbytery responds to the question.

Feel free to share your response here: resources@confmnwo.mb.ca

Anna Stewart - Who do you say that I am?

2010-03-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the MNWO Conference Annual Meeting, several people are offering responses to the questions Jesus asks: Who do you say that I am?
In this video, Anna Stewart of Northland Presbytery responds to the question.

Feel free to share your response here: resources@confmnwo.mb.ca

Anna Stewart - Who do you say that I am? from AVEL West on Vimeo.

World Water Day

2010-03-23T08:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was World Water Day, and someone emailed me this really fun little animation from the Annie Leonard over at the Story of Stuff.

The video traces some of the issues with the use and marketing of bottled water.

There are more resources and more comprehensive information at The Story of Bottled Water website.

Also - I can't embed it but here is a fun little Colbert Report link to an interview with Annie Leonard.

Jim Jackson - Who do you say that I am?

2010-03-17T14:04:00.002-07:00

Another video in preparation for MNWO Conference Annual Meeting.

Jim Jackson - Who do you say that I am? from AVEL West on Vimeo.

Get on the Net!

2010-03-17T14:04:00.001-07:00

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Scripture for the Earth

2010-03-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

Hope Mennonite Church (in Winnipeg) made this fun little video listing 350 Bible verses that compel us to care for the Earth.

Watch below:

Del Sexsmith - Who Do You Say That I Am?

2010-03-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

This week Del Sexsmith of Winnipeg Presbytery shares his response to Jesus' question: Who do you say that I am?

Del Sexsmith - Who do you say that I am? from AVEL West on Vimeo.

Who do you say that I am? - Moderator Mardi Tindal

2010-02-24T11:13:00.001-08:00

In preparation for our 2010 Conference Annual Meeting, AVEL West is creating a series of videos to get us thinking about our theme “Who do you say that I am?”

Our videos show members of our Conference and their response to Jesus’ question. We welcome your response, too.

To get things started, we have a special message from Moderator Mardi Tindal. Mardi responded to the question when she visited the Conference office on her way to the youth event Zeebu.

Mardi Tindal - Who do you say that I am? from AVEL West on Vimeo.

Do you have a response to Jesus question? Who do you say that Jesus is? Feel free to contact Resource Librarian (resources@confmnwo.mb.ca) share your response with the Conference.

United Church of Christ, Philippines

2010-01-18T12:47:00.000-08:00

Two bishops from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines came and spoke to our conference about their partnership withe United Church of Canada, and some of their struggles in a tumultuous part of the world. These short videos were presented over the course of three weeks in the conference weekly email. Here all three are presented together.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali: Conflict & Conviction: Islam, Christianity & World Order - Slater Maguire Lecture 2009

2009-11-17T12:51:00.000-08:00

Last night, November 16th, the outspoken Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali delivered the annual Slater Maguire Lecture series at Saint Margaret's Anglican Church. The topic for his lecture was Titled "Conflict & Conviction: Islam, Christianity & World Order". Through the course of his lecture he addressed the long history of Chirstian-Islamic history, and concluded with some insights into how the long history of religious tensions and spiritual identity plays into contemporary conflict.
Critical of both Christianity and Islam, Bishop Nazir-Ali's lecture developed a thesis on religious groups being accountable to one another and to engage in directed, issue-specific inter-faith conversation. He proposed that in conversation between Christianity and Islam, there must be a mutual recognition of differing yet strongly held theology.

Towards the end of his lecture, Bishop Nazir-Ali commented that ours is an age where law and religion is no longer separate. The spread of Islam into Western Christian-based nations has lead to a new voice in these democracies, an Islamic voice that directly connects faith and public law.
This has quite pointedly opened a conversation about the moral basis of law, and its connections to religion. If we agree that laws must be moral, then the moral underpinning of laws must be discussed, argued the Bishop. Political conversation between Christian and Muslim groups can engage in the issue, he said.

Below I have included two videos of the lecture. They were both taken during the Bishop's introduction to his lecture, and therefore do not get into the complex issues I have mentioned above. Rather, these two videos lay the groundwork of the 'spiritual dimension' of his theology.
In the first video, Bishop Nazir-Ali argues that human beings are spiritual by nature, and religion is a kind of "glue" that binds spiritual beings as a society.
In these beginning remarks, he presents an apology for religious belief.
In the second video, he addresses the issue of religious wrong-doing. Human conflict, he says, belongs to the human world, and religion is not the major player in major conflict in the world. Instead, the Bishop points towards secular ideologies like nationalism and patriotism as sources of violence in the world.

Laura Robinson for the Winnipeg Free Press - Aboriginal Awareness

2009-11-16T13:42:00.000-08:00

This weekend the Winnipeg Free Press printed and article by Laura Robinson on the subject of Aboriginal awareness and the upcoming Olympic games in Vancouver. Robinson's article summarizes a history of Canadian Aborginal sport-related issues, and connects them to larger issues of poverty, (in)visibility, and Aboriginal rights. Here is an excerpt from the editorial:

"Earlier this year we saw aboriginal people in northern Manitoba fall critically ill and die from H1N1 flu in a way that wasn't happening in non-native communities.
If you go to these communities, you will find houses contaminated with mould, open insulation next to mattresses on floors in extraordinarily tiny living quarters and shared slop buckets as toilets instead of running water.
How shameful such conditions exist in a county this rich. Should the Olympic torch relay touch down amongst such poverty, there will be no photo ops inside mouldy, dilapidated homes. We'll see shots of excited children, but when the torch leaves, so will any attention and the nickels and dimes that happen to come along with it. Those children will again be abandoned by a sport system that only shows up to exploit their trust.
Canadians should not be lulled into a complacency that allows them to imagine poverty disappears in the lives of aboriginal people because we shoot through their community with a torch, or we buy Olympic gear made in Haiti, Vietnam, India, Bangladesh and China that sports an aboriginal design.
Or that just because aboriginal people will perform in the opening ceremonies their drinking water is now safe; their kids have sports and recreation programs and they'll be vying for a spot on our next Olympic team.
The Olympics and sport in general should not be an opiate or smokescreen for what is Canada's worst legacy of all: a deeply embedded racism that denies aboriginal people agency in their own lives."

Read the entire article here: "Aboriginal games continue"

Laura Robinson is also the filmmaker behind the United Church of Canada-approved film Niigaanibatowaad: Frontrunners, a award winning film inspired by the stories of the Aboriginal torch runners for the 1967 Pan American Games. This film is available on DVD for loan from the AVEL West Library.

Resource Highlight: For the Bible Tells Me So

2009-11-10T09:44:00.001-08:00

Daniel Karlsake's documentary For The Bible Tells Me So is a very sympathetic and Biblical questioning of issues of sexuality and Christianity. The documentary discusses how the faith and faith communities influence the lives of families with gay children and family members. It's a emotional film, but doesn't shy away from asking difficult and intelligent questions of the Bible and Christian belief.

The core of the film is scriptural exegesis and exploration and discusses some American faith-based conflicts on issues of sexual identity.

This video is available from AVEL for loan, and web content of the video also exists.

Sub Specie Aeterni has an interesting post on the film.

Paint Your Faith | WonderCafe

2009-11-06T12:29:00.001-08:00

Marcus Borg on Religious Pluralism online lecture

2009-11-06T09:16:00.001-08:00

I stumbled across this lecture that Marcus Borg gave on religious pluralism on Youtube. The lecture is from back in 2002, but there is still some pretty relevant stuff in there, especially for thinking about ecumenism and the United Church of Canada.

Create, Post, Connect: Using Multimedia on the Web

2009-10-30T13:19:00.000-07:00

This morning I attended a workshop on integrating video, audio and social-networking into the United Church's resource base.

The workshop presenter was Laurie Cirivello, who has developed some wonderfully innovative media sharing and news organization tools. She has been part of developing the Rapidian, a Grand Rapids-based news source that features really brilliant ways of user intereaction.

She presented the slideshow Using Video To Tell Your Non-Profit Story, whch is available through slideshare (Powerpoint not required).

Here is a little AVEL promo video I created using some of my new skills.

Phyllis Tickle in Winnipeg - Oct. 31st,

2009-10-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

Phyllis Tickle on "The Great Emergence"

Phyllis Tickle, a prominent Christian author and speaker is holding an event at the end of this month to promote her new book The Great Emergence. She is speaking at Booth College and conducting a day-long seminar.

More information about Tickle can be found at Emerging Spirit. Information for the event is at Faith Forum.

Dwight Friesen at Transcona Memorial Church

2009-09-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

Blogger and Professor Dwight Friesen will be speaking at a two-day conference at Transcona Memorial United Church in Winnipeg.

The conference runs Oct 2-3, and Friesen will speaking on the topic of "Being Missional in the Suburbs". There is information available to download from the Transcona Memorial Website here.

Dr. Friesen blogs regularly and teaches at Mars Hill Graduate School.

There will also be a screening of the CBC documentary The Battle of the Bag at the conference. The Battle of the Bag is available at the AVEL library.

Book Launch Event: The Green Psalter by Arthur Walker Jones

2009-09-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Arthur Walker Jones, a faculty member at the University of Winnipeg's Faculty of Theology is launching his latest book, The Green Psalter on October 22nd at Prairie Ink restaraunt in Mcnally Robinson Booksellers at Grant Park in Winnipeg.

You can buy the book, I'm presuming, at McNally Robinson Booksellers. Also, it is available online at Barnes and Noble here.

Of course, Walker-Jones book will be added to the Resource Library and available for loan.

First Post!

2009-09-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the AVEL West Blog. I hope this page can be a resource for the United Church of Canada community to share, interact, and discover sources of information for intellectual and spiritual growth.

While I'll be the primary poster on this blog, I hope to include guest postings from people across the United Church.

The movement toward an AVEL West blog stems from a need for our library to step into league with other libraries. Information is no longer physical - videos, books and other "physical" media will always exist, but there is a plethora of new information and new media available on the web. Libraries are on the cutting edge of technology. We are no longer fortresses of book shelves - we are facilitators of information and resources for eduacation, learning and interaction.

Here is just a few things to look forward to:

Resource reviews - At least bi-weekly, and hopefully more often, I intend to feature a new resource from the AVEL's collection. This may be a book, a film or video, or a website.

Digital media - You'll also find on this site links to various online publications that might be helpful for congregations, leaders, or spiritual seekers. This includes wedbinars, YouTube videos, PDF documents and other blogs and websites.

UCC News and Information - I'm happy to be working in an evironment that thrives in the life of the national and international community of the United Church of Canada. As things about the UCC cross my desk and inbox I'll be posting them here.

For starters, here are just a couple websites that I turn to regularly for information:

The Alban Institute is a main source of many of our Christian publications. In addition to publishing high-quality Christian resources books and videos, The Alban Institute provides digital resources and webinars.
The Christian Century is a long-running periodical with high-quality and diverse information. Most of the content is available online.
First Things, a personal favourite, is an more acdemic-style periodical. Perhaps more convsevatively minded than most United Church theology, First Things nevertheless provides a depth of intellectual imaginiation and rigour that few Christian resources can match.

Check back often for updates!