by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
In a strange twist of fate, Levi’s provides a way better commissioning to go out and actively love and seek to renew the world, than I’ve heard in a church in a long time.
Commissioning
9 07 2010Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: Levi's, Braddock, Christian Mission
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Slick
4 06 2010by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
This oil slick, it’s making me sick.
Six weeks of seepage on the seabed and where are we at? Where are we now, and how, tell me how, will we recover from this ongoing abuse, corporate greed and misuse of a creation once called good.
I know what you’re thinking, and y’know, it’s got me thinking about what’s under the hood of my car, the gas it’s drinking, and these Canadian sands in the tar. No matter what I do, it’s complicated and I’m implicated in this spill, as much as BP and as much as you. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: BP, Corporate Greed, Oil Spill
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Operation 504 Rebuild
16 04 2010by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
I got off the phone yesterday with Tommy, and my heart sunk. Tommy and I first met two years ago when I travelled with a group of young adults from Ottawa, Ontario to New Orleans, Louisiana. Throughout that first trip, Tommy inspired us with his dedication to seeing lives and homes put back together. A young guy from Massachusetts, he had dropped everything to come work as a crew chief, and now serves as the liaison between homeowners and the rebuild project.
But here’s the think. The funding that had been promised to Episcopal Community Services of Louisiana has not yet arrived. This is the church-in-action, embracing its call and mission for others, as it helps to rebuild communities, still five years after they were devastated by Katrina.
They’re in the position of closing up shop, sending all of the volunteer crew chiefs home, and laying off all staff. What’s more is that they may not be able to complete the 8 homes they have under construction, including that of Mr. Hammond whose place we worked on in February of this year.
There are many more recent disasters in our collective memory, and I think that the story of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast has faded for many of us. But it’s still in need of help. Episcopal Community Services is trying to raise $60,000 in the next two weeks so that they can at very least complete what they’ve started.
If you can help by spreading the word, by donating a couple of dollars towards this goal, it will go a long way, and will greatly affect many lives in that community. Please help if you can, by clicking here to find out more, or to donate.
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: 504, New Orleans, Rebuild
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Mining Justice Campaign
12 01 2010by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
This morning I had the opportunity to sit down with Stefan Cherry, a policy analyst with the Mennonite Central Committee, and a church planter in the Vanier neighbourhood of Ottawa. Amongst the many things we discussed, was the MCC’s work on Mining Justice.
Canadian companies are a dominant force in the mining and resource extraction industry across the globe. Seventy-five percent of all mining companies in the world are based in Canada. In 2008 some 1200 companies operated in Canada and in 100 other countries. That’s not insignificant.
To round it all out, some of these companies receive subsidies from the Canadian government. This is a reason for great concern, especially considering the current environmental and human rights abuses that are being uncovered in many places throughout the world. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: El Salvador, Jamie Moffett, Mennonite Central Committee, Pacific Rim Mining
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Obama as Empire-Builder
5 01 2010by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
As I was looking through my feed reader, I noticed an interesting post by Fr. John Dear, on Gareth Higgins‘ blog from earlier in December, discussing Obama and Afghanistan. If I had noticed it earlier, I would have posted it alongside Brian’s reflection, “Swords or Peace?.” I didn’t post it then, but here it is:
It doesn’t seem to matter that most Americans want the war to stop, that most Afghanis want us out. It doesn’t even matter that only a hundred Al Qaeda members remain in Afghanistan. The rest have taken refuge in Pakistan. Our new war president says the war must continue.
“You would think that we don’t have enough to do here at home,” Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich said this week.
You would think that we don’t have 47 million Americans who go to bed hungry, 47 million Americans who don’t have any health care, 15 million Americans who are out of work, another 10 million Americans whose homes are threatened with foreclosure, people going bankrupt, and business failures. All these things are happening in our country and we’re acting like a latter-day version of the Roman Empire, reaching for empire while inside we rot. We have to challenge this because our future as a nation is at stake. If we continue to militarize, we lose our civil liberties, we lose our capacity to meet our needs here at home. Read the rest of this entry »
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Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
The Mysterious Death of Marcelo Rivera
31 12 2009by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Our friend Jamie Moffett, director of the film “The Ordinary Radicals” that followed Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw on their Jesus for President Book Tour recently posted this clip on his blog. Earlier this year, Jamie was down in El Salvador working on a documentary project.
While he was down there, he came across the story of Marcelo Rivera, an environmental and anti-mining activist who was disappeared and later found murdered. Rivera was working to draw attention to the harmful effects of a gold-mining operation led by the Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining Company.
This week, according to Democracy Now, another “prominent anti-mining activist has been assassinated in El Salvador.” According to the organisation, “thirty-two-year-old Dora “Alicia” Recinos Sorto was shot dead near her home. One of her children was also injured in the shooting. Sorto was an active member of the Cabañas Environment Committee.”
The CEC has been active in campaigning against the reopening of a gold mine owned by Pacific Rim. What’s more valuable, gold or lives?
Comments : 2 Comments »
Tags: El Salvador, Jamie Moffett, Marcelo Rivera, Pacific Rim Mining
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Advent III :: Turning the Corner
13 12 2009by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
I think that maybe we’re turning the corner. Maybe, just maybe, this time of waiting and expectation can birth joy and exuberance. I’m still not sure, still not certain what will come. Surely the spirit of God is moving. Surely the way of the Lord is being prepared.
The past weeks have been difficult. The past months somewhat overwhelming. This year, walking in advent hope and expectation has come with its share of challenges.
On numerous occasions in the past few weeks, I’ve been caught referring to advent as “lent.” Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: 350, Advent, Copenhagen, Lent
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
21st Century Breakdown
12 09 2009by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Despite everything Mark Carney’s been saying lately about the end of a recession, I think I’m more apt to agree with Green Day that we’re still in the midst of a 21st Century Breakdown.
Maybe it’s all the rain we’ve been getting in the nation’s capital lately, but I think I’m less apt to pronounce the bounce-back from one of the biggest hits our economy’s taken since 1929 and following. Optimism may have its place, but there’s a difference between optimism and ignorance. I think I’ll probably throw my lot in with Jeff Rubin before I put my faith in Carney. I’m not sure the worst of it is over.
We’ve squandered so much, and continue to do so at an ever-increasing rate. Perhaps it’s not all that far out there that this world’s going to shrink, that the resource wars will increase, and that things may get a whole lot messier. We may not be talking Apocalypse Very Soon, but we may need to think about the ways in which our excessive consumption is going to increase global conflict. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Blue Like Jazz and the God-Man
4 08 2009by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
“What do you mean God isn’t an old white European male? When did that happen? That’s exactly who it was, last time I saw a Sunday School flannelgraph…”
You know? I’ve tried. And recently I tried again to pick up books from Donald Miller’s catalogue to make my way through them. And yet, despite the number of times I’ve been told how refreshing they are, how these books open up a whole new world of Christian faith, how we’re able to blow apart the box we’ve created for God, I’ve still got some issues. Maybe it’s just me…If I were capable of speaking objectively, I’d talk about many life-giving aspects of these stories. I like the flow, the heart-on-sleeve honesty, and the On The Road kinda feel.
But here’s my problem. And maybe it’s just that this has become my new Kryptonite, but the capital-He God still really bugs me. And He is everywhere in those books. He’s in multiple sentences per page. He just looms throughout the stories. And I suppose that could be quite intentional. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 11 Comments »
Tags: Blue Like Jazz, Gender
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Bridging the Gap
24 06 2009by Andrew Stephens-Rennie
A few weeks back I started to write about notions of healthy sexuality in Christian community. One of the things that prompted me to do so was simply a lack of nuanced writing on the subject, whether in print, on the web, or wherever. This isn’t to say that there aren’t all sorts of books and materials out there that cover the topic, but I’m honestly just not satisfied with the idea of leaving it up to Joshua Harris or Lauren Winner to be the final arbiters in this discussion.
Floating in the back of my mind through all of this has been the thought that if Christians cannot manage to have meaningful, open, frank conversations about heterosexual relationships, then it’s not going to be easy to have meaningful, frank conversations about broader questions of sexuality.
That’s why I’m hopeful about today’s Bridging the Gap synchroblog. Bringing together bloggers gay and straight, from a variety of faith perspectives, Wendy Gritter and the folks from New Direction are stimulating the dialogue. Here’s what it’s all about: Read the rest of this entry »
Comments : 7 Comments »
Tags: Bridging the Gap, New Direction, Synchroblog
Categories : Andrew Stephens-Rennie
