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he images of starving children in East Africa over the last few months got a lot of people talking about what’s causing the drought. Is it just normal climate variability? Is it a particularly nasty La Niña year? Or could it be linked to climate change?

The answer is we don’t know. Most reports are linking the drought and famine to La Niña, a natural weather event linked to cooler than normal sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean that can significantly affect global weather. The science on how climate change impacts La Niña is still unclear.

But even if we can’t say for sure what’s caused consecutive failed rainy seasons in the horn of Africa, one thing is clear:  Extreme weather is becoming increasingly common around the world. Whether it’s the deluges of rain on the Canadian prairies this spring, or the worst floods in 50 years currently devastating Thailand, or unprecedented heat waves in Russia last summer, something strange is happening.

The cost is high. Over six million acres of prairie farmland went unseeded in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta due to flooding in 2011. In the U.S., the National Weather Service announced that by the end of August the country had already experienced nine weather disasters with losses of at least $1 billion this year. This tied the record set in 2008—with four months left to go before year end.

While it is difficult to attribute climate change to any one event, we do know these events fit the climate change pattern. Said Sir John Beddington, the United Kingdom government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, about the East Africa famine: “Worldwide, events like this have a higher probability of occurring as a result of climate change.”

Whether or not the drought in East Africa can be attributed to climate change, at Canadian Foodgrains Bank we know that our partners in other countries are becoming increasingly concerned about drought. In a  recent survey of 40 agricultural projects in Africa that receive funding from the Foodgrains Bank, drought or excess rain was mentioned as a leading cause of hunger in almost 90 percent of the projects, with most of the concern centred on drought.

We also know that those who are most vulnerable to droughts and other extreme weather events are those who are already living on the edge of hunger. Many of these are smallholder farmers or pastoralists—people whose livelihoods depend almost entirely on the weather.

Canadians are responding to the needs of people still suffering from drought in East Africa by donating money—something that we, and other aid groups, are extremely grateful for. But another way to help would be to think about whether climate change might be putting these people at risk now, and in the future.

A group of saint ben’s folks will be doing just that on Wednesday November 9. We’ll hold an informal conversation around the impacts of climate change on global hunger, and we’ll invite people to write letters to their MPs encouraging action that will benefit those most vulnerable to climate change.  All are welcome at the home of Emily Cain and Tim Klaas for wine, conversation, and letter writing. To get the address or for more info, simply contact us.

For more information on how Foodgrains is responding, just click here. To listen to Carol Thiessen’s podcast on climate change and refugee issues by clicking here.

Carol Thiessen is a public policy advisor at Canadian Foodgrains Bank and regularly attends saint benedict’s table.

Our big event for the coming week is the House Concert with Jaylene Johnson and Margaret Howison, happening this Saturday November 5. The doors open at 7:00pm, with the music beginning at 7:30. It is taking place at the home of the Heinrichs, otherwise known as the Rivergate Inn located at 186 West Gate. For a suggested donation of $15, you get an evening of great live music, some food and drink, and time to get to know some new people in a relaxed atmosphere. We do ask that you sign up in advance, which you can do by contacting us here.

ccording to Harold Camping and his Family Radio ministry, May 21st was to have been the world’s judgment day. Some people hoped it would come true, the media covered it as if it were a circus, and most of us stood back and wondered what to make of it all. Join us this Wednesday, October 26, 7-9pm, at the church for an evening we’re calling Apocalypse When?

The evening will take the form of a panel discussion with Brian Froese, Michael Gilmour and Lissa Wray Beale, on how we might read and think about the biblical apocalyptic texts such as Revelation and Daniel.

Brian Froese is Assistant Professor of History at Canadian Mennonite University, Lissa Wray Beal is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Providence Theological Seminary, and Michael Gilmour is Associate Professor of New Testament and English Literature at Providence University College.

Admission is free; donations will be accepted to help cover the costs of the evening.

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nce again we’re collaborating with Booth University College to offer a film and theology series entitled Theology in the Dark. The basic idea is to invite people to head over to the film lab at Booth (which has a good sized screen, great sound and decent chairs) to watch a movie together and then to spend a bit of time in conversation around what we saw.

The first evening in our series takes place this Thursday October 6 at 7:00pm, when we’ll be viewing Of Gods and Men, the 2010 French drama film directed by Xavier Beauvois, dealing with the harmonious relationship between a community of nine Trappist monks and the largely Muslim population of of their local town, and how that is challenged with  life and death decisions by the outbreak of the Algerian Civil War.

The film premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix, the festival’s second most prestigious award. To watch a trailer of the film, simply click here.

There is no admission charge for the film, though we will have some appropriate drinks and movie snacks on hand for a donation! Please plan to arrive between 6:30 and 6:55, so that we can get everyone into the theatre before the college doors are locked. Booth University College is located at 442 Webb Place in downtown Winnipeg.

“W

e’re turning this place into a camp!”  Those words started it all.

As a family we enjoy many sports including climbing and mountain biking.  So when we moved to the country a number of years ago, a network of bike trails all around the bush on our property, and a number of bike bridges and stunts soon became part of the landscape.  One summer evening, we stood in the backyard, looking over the way things were developing there, and those “We’re turning this place into a camp” words were spoken.  An idea was spawned.

Maybe we could run a day camp – we could have a group of kids here for a week for a great time, and also give our own older kids some valuable and practical leadership experience.  In some ways this just felt like returning to our roots, as we directed a camp for over a decade.

One night, sitting around the campfire in our backyard with Jamie Howison, the camp idea came up in conversation.  Jamie said, “Hey, maybe we could run that as part of saint benedict’s table.”

A year later the first ever saint ben’s day camp became a reality.

And now, 3 years later, we have wrapped up the 4^th summer of running the week-long camp.  Over the years the camp has expanded to include 17 campers – kids from the st. benedict’s table community, kids from the area where we live, and 6 kids coming from an EAL classroom of African immigrants that our family volunteers with during the school year (their participation in the week made possible due to campership donations).  Our dream has always been to have a mix of ages of kids involved, and our campers were ages 8-15.

Our camp mornings begin with a Bible time of imagining Bible stories together, and then are spent in skill development in the areas of biking and bouldering.  After lunch, comes “Silly Stories” – crazy skits! Two of the skits allow campers to participate in them and they ALL wanted to be part of these, which kept me up late the night before writing in parts to accommodate them all!  Activities such as Capture the Flag, photo scavenger hunts, group bike rides at Birds Hill Park, a drum circle, a massive water fight, the trampoline, and a water slide down the slope of our backyard fill our afternoons.  The campers leave at 4pm, and then the preparations for the next day fill our evening.

Why do we do it?

As spring approaches, the real work starts.  Advertising, administrative tasks, registration forms and waivers.  New bike trails to build, free wood to find for building bridging on the trails, bridge construction, three days of weed-whacking said trails to get them in shape for riding again.  First aid materials to gather, the bouldering wall to tweak, change rooms to put up, the water slide to get ready.  We provide bikes for about half of the kids, and those bikes need to be kept tuned up and in good working order.  So, bike maintenance.  Trips to Value Village in search of  hideous dresses and wigs for our skits, creative, interactive Bible times to put together, skill classes to prepare so kids are challenged and learn, skits to write and practice and practice so that they bring great laughter and participation from the kids, games to research and work out that will be full of teamwork and fun.  And believe it or not, the list does go on!

Those that know us well see the amount of time and work and effort that goes into this, and the natural question they tend to ask is, “Why do you do it?

Yes indeed – why do we do it? We do it because we believe it matters.

It matters.  The kids who come matter.

It matters that they have unforgettable experience – not because we “wow-ed” them with entertainment, but because of their experience of an environment where they are free to be themselves, to not have to look around them and wonder what others are thinking of them or if they are acting in the culturally expected manner.  It matters to be part of a group that welcomes them to be part of shaping the experience.

It matters that they are in a place where they can work hard to be all they can be at whatever they are doing, to challenge themselves and push themselves to see what they can accomplish in the various skill areas offered.

It matters for us to, despite huge diversity of age and culture, form unique communities where we can connect, laugh together, create together, care for one another, help each other, and share from our hearts.  Rich community experiences shape and form us and create a hunger for more of this good thing called community – of something that feels like spending the week with a big family.

It matters to be nurtured spiritually through experiences that touch upon the deep integration of body and spirit – ways of relating, living, playing in creation and sharing community that bring together our activities and our spiritual formation.

And it matters to be nurtured spiritually in ways that are intentional and deliberate,  where time is set aside to encounter Christ in new and fresh ways as we together move into stories from the Bible, imagine them together, and open our hearts to what God what might want us to hear through those stories.  It matters that they can share their insights as they imagine these stories – imagine themselves in these stories of a shining man rolling a huge stone away from a tomb, imagine the face of Jesus and the life-giving words of hope and healing he offers  a woman as the powerful scent of perfume fills the room, imagine the thoughts and feelings of the crowd that is fed so very much from so very little, imagine what Jesus might be able to do and the good he might bring if we just offer him what we have – our hands, our mouths, our hearts.

“This was the best week of my life.”  “Can I come back again next year?”  With sweat pouring down his face during a bike ride: “That was SO much fun!  Can we ride some more?”  “This has been the most incredible week ever!”  After an interactive Bible story time: “I think Jesus is telling us that no matter how bad things seem, he will always be with me.”

Yes, it matters.

Corinne Plett

s Christians, we often assume that the findings of science are in conflict with the stuff of faith, leaving us to either ignore the sciences or just suspend that way of learning when we walk through the doors of the church. But is there in fact a necessary and deep divide between the two?

On Saturday September 24 from 10am to 4:30pm, a group of people will assemble at St Margaret’s Anglican Church to consider issues related to the relationship between science and faith. Sessions will be led by David Widdicombe (on St. Augustine’s reading of Genesis 1), CMU biology professor John Brubacher (on the importance of evolution in his work, and how this impacts his faith) and Roy Jeal of Booth University College (on St. Paul’s understanding of creation as set out in Romans 8).

The day is open to all, and the only cost is a $10 charge for a catered lunch. If you are interested, you can just come out on that day, as there is no pre-registration.

St Margaret’s Church is located at the corner of Westminster and Ethelbert Street.

“As a remarkably persistent sun looked down on a mosquito-less Manitoba, 17 people congregated on a small patch of land covered in forest and riddled with bike trails.  But single-track was hardly the only thing to run throughout that woodland.  There was a sense flowing through the forest that, together with those 17 individuals, we were part of a week-long episode; an episode bubbling with laughter, the most unlikely and wonderful friendships, and an overall sense of the beautifully bizarre and unpredictable happening again and again.  Sherlock Holmes was right: if one could lift the roofs off of the houses of ordinary people and watch their occupants, one would discover tales a thousand times stranger and more marvelous than any work of fiction.  And so, under that dome of ever shifting hue and texture called the prairie sky, in a small corner of the world, in a small corner of the universe, such a tale was told.  Below are parts of that tale in words and in pictures.”

- Davis

“At camp I liked seeing how everyone got to know one another and became friends.  Playing Capture the Flag was a great time because of all the teamwork.  Hiding out in the yard and on all the trails for the big game of Manhunt was exciting for everyone.  The water slide and water fight were fun – people liked getting wet on the hot days.  Everyone had fun learning how to ride trails and bridges during the biking times.” – Tirian

“People felt good about what they accomplished on the bouldering wall and at biking.  The whole camp was awesome.  I think the kids enjoyed being at a camp that felt like a family.  We all loved the Silly Stories.” – Tayah

“Possibly the only thing better than laughing is making other people laugh!  During the week of camp, I had great opportunities to do both.  These came during the daily “Silly Stories” time, right after lunch.  I loved walking out from behind the curtain in a ridiculous costume and having the campers start to laugh before I had even said anything.  After working hard practicing skits, having them go well was rewarding.  My favorite part, however, was watching the campers doing the same thing – having the same incredible opportunity to make people laugh by being part of the skits themselves.  Bringing joy!” – Cale

“We had a fantastic week of camp!  I loved seeing how the campers became a group of friends that created a unique and wonderful week.  They were positive, full of energy, ready to learn new skills and be challenged.  Each day we started with exploring a Bible story.  Together we brought our imaginations to these stories to try to see them, feel them, hear them, smell them.  In doing so we were able to discover how ordinary people can face hard things, say yes to God, and experience that, with God’s help, anything is possible.” – Corinne

Thanks to the community of st. benedict’s table, from the campers and from our family, for all your support and prayers and encouragement in this adventure.  We couldn’t have done it without you!

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ere’s news on an upcoming retreat at St Benedict’s Conference Centre. Led by two saint ben’s members, this “Summer Sabbath” offers an opportunity to take some time to read, pray, reflect and rediscover your love for life and for God. It takes place August 11 through 14, under the leadership of Kalyn Falk and Rachel Twigg Boyce.

For more information or to register, just click here. And by the way, not that I’m suggesting that nuns would ever lead you astray, but the info on the retreat centre’s site wrongly says it is for adults “40+”. Not so… it is for adults of all ages.

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very year at about this time, I like to take the liberty of offering up my own personal recommendations of what you might want to see at the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival. There’s usually one or two shows that in my books are the real gems of the festival, and this year is no exception. The two must-see shows are the Robert Glasper Trio at the West End Cultural Centre on June 24, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band at the Pyramid Cabaret on June 25. Read on a bit, and I’ll tell you why.

But before going there, it is fair to ask why I would bother doing this on a church website? Well, mostly because I do believe that it is important that as a church we really should engage the arts and culture in a critically thoughtful way.  And because I really, really like jazz, this is one area of the arts on which my opinion might actually be worth sharing.

My tendency is to look for shows taking place in clubs or smaller venues, as I think that is where jazz is best experienced. Occasionally I have taken in one of the larger theatre shows—last year’s concert by the legendary Sonny Rollins at the Pantages Theatre being a notable example—but on the whole I am happiest in a smaller room. Frankly, this year’s Jazz Festival doesn’t include anyone who could entice me into one of the bigger venues. Certainly the year’s big name headliner, the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, won’t do it for me. The Orchestra is very good at what they do, and Marsalis himself is a technically brilliant player, but on the whole this will be a pretty conservative big band show. The whole Marsalis/Lincoln Center agenda seems one of conserving the jazz tradition and of elevating its profile as “America’s classical music,” and I’m afraid for me it just isn’t all that interesting. Great players, solid arrangements, and a very articulate bandleader… but that isn’t enough to get me to part with $65.

So on to my recommendations.  Hands down, Robert Glasper is one of the best jazz pianists currently on the scene, and his trio format offerings are very, very fine. While still very much rooted in the conventions of jazz, the trio explores and expands the edges in very listenable and engaging way. And the West End really is a nice room for jazz.  You can hear a free streaming concert by the trio, recorded at New York’s legendary Village Vanguard simply by clicking here. (Incidently, the young pianist also records and performs in a unit called The Robert Glasper Experiment, which actually pushes into hip hop and fusion… maybe we’ll get to experience that some other year.)

As for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, simply put they are a blast. I saw them here a couple of years back at the Centennial Concert Hall, when they warmed up for Al Green. This time around they’re at the much more intimate Pyramid, and I’d imagine that they’ll just about tear the roof off the place. Think of a New Orleans brass band, ramped up, rocking and pushing the boundaries just to the breaking point… this one will be a lot of fun. There’s a great little documentary available here.

Now, a few more general recommendations which somehow manage to cluster on June 22:

Mark McLean’s Playground – June 22, 8pm at Aqua Books (or free at noon that day in the Market Square).

• A serious drummer, with a solid jazz track record.

Greene/Allen Project – June 22, 10pm at Aqua Books

• This one features the sax player Jimmy Greene (of the U of M Jazz Studies program), along with saxophonist Kris Allen and pianist Jen Allen.

The New Gary Burton Quartet – June 22, 7:30pm at the Art Gallery

• One of the best vibraphone players of all time…

I might also mention Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, June 23 at the West End.  While what I’ve heard from the most recent album suggests it is really more of a pop record than it is jazz, this guy can play. You can watch him meet the challenge of Wynton Marsalis at the House of Blues in New Orleans. And as you watch, remember that he is first and foremost a trombone player…

I’m afraid when it comes to the other major headliners, I just can’t recommend Pink Martini. They are pretty wildly popular – making their third Jazz Festival appearance in just five years – but for my tastes they hover just on the verge of being a novelty act, albeit a musically very competent one.  And while Robert Plant and The Band of Joy will be a strong draw for many, it is a serious stretch to categorize Plant as a jazz singer… though I suspect the Led Zeppelin fans in the city will be delighted!

Jamie Howison

bit of audio from our 2011 celebration of Easter, making a matter record something that has become an Easter Day tradition at saint benedict’s table. Take a listen, and let your imagination fill in the blanks…

• To listen to a sound bite of our Easter Day tradition, simply click the arrow