We won a Nobel Prize
Anglicans share in the honour of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), and accepted by Hiroshima survivor Setsuko Thurlow on December 10 for the historic adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (Faith motivates Hiroshima survivor’s anti-nuke activism, Dec. 2017, p. 12).
Why? General Synod in 2007 passed a resolution to support ICAN. Anglicans should now take up the work that ICAN needs and requests. Write to your member of Parliament and to Prime Minister Trudeau urging that Canada sign and ratify that treaty.
Canada boycotted the ban treaty negotiations, claiming nuclear weapons are essential for our security. This kind of thinking brought North Korea to develop a nuclear arsenal. Now we face the real risk of nuclear war, with two unstable leaders, Kim Jongun and Donald Trump, uttering threats. In 1983, General Synod took a definitive stand that nuclear weapons are “against the will of God and the mind of Christ.” The Anglican Church of Canada heads the list of more than 70 NGOs making a public call to the Trudeau government to sign and ratify the ban treaty. Canada historically has worked for nuclear disarmament. Faith calls us to prayer and action on this threat to all God’s creatures.
Canon (lay) Phyllis Creighton
Toronto
Jesuits played key role in developing ‘inculturation’
It was good to read Mark MacDonald’s column discussing inculturation (Inculturation, Dec. 2017, p. 5) and its importance in spreading the good news of the gospel among Indigenous peoples. We Anglicans might want to remember the key role played in the development of inculturation by the Jesuits, the writings of whose founder, Ignatius of Loyola, are admired by many Anglicans.
The Rev. Paul Shore
Brandon, Man.
Pastoral rather than punitive?
It is disappointing that Archbishop Fred Hiltz would trivialize the collective leadership of the 39 primates of the Anglican Communion (Hiltz: Sanctions likely if marriage canon is amended, Dec. 2017, p. 1). If the primates are prepared to place sanctions on the Canadian church, perhaps it is not punitive, but rather a pastoral response to a perceived spiritual threat. Should our leadership not be thankful for the interest, and examine and address the primates’ concerns?
Bob Unrau
Winnipeg
‘Very poor journalism’
I read with interest your editorial, The arrival of God’s love (Dec. 2017, p. 4). When I encountered Joelle Kidd’s article, ‘The saddest and yet the happiest Christmas’ (p. 8), I was stunned. Kidd had obviously researched the Halifax Harbour tragedy in reading the book by Joyce Glasner. For you to use the same material, barely disguising your plagiarism of her article, for your own editorial is beyond belief. You really could not come up with your own ideas to illustrate your point? I find this extremely disappointing and very poor journalism.
Jonina Logan
Winnipeg
Editor’s note: Plagiarism, as defined by the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, is the practice of taking and using someone’s thoughts, writings, inventions and “passing them off as your own.” The editorial used quotes from a chapter in Joyce Glasner’s book, Christmas in Atlantic Canada, and acknowledged her book as the source. Also, the publisher received an advance copy. Fair use guidelines for quoting copyrighted/published material allow for text to be quoted—usually 300 words is considered reasonable. Editorials or Letters from the Editor sometimes refer to, repeat or expound details of an article within the paper to bring more emphasis, focus and attention to it. Please note that the editorial also refers to another story in the paper, Blue Christmas services offer comfort on the longest night (p. 5), which I also wanted to highlight in the December issue.
