Post 24/2023 Saturday 1 July . . . Much of my reading, apart from books, happens online. Certainly not all of it, but more than I ever did during my gainful employment years as a writer-editor. This week I concentrated on riffling through magazines passed on by friends Willard and Alice. What pleasure and agony print holds.

Agony? Well, for one, one has to read selectively. There’s no way to consume the whole in a months’ worth collection, certainly not in just a few sittings. It’s the scan, skim, select principle, where among the many you find that content you want to read (or listen to if there’s an audio option). Print abounds with a wealth of interest and substance–and that other part of agony, truth.

A long time ago I read that there are only three objectives of written communication: to inform, entertain, inspire. If I may say so, social media has a long way to go to catch up with the printed word.

In Canadian Mennonite (May 19, 2023) I was delighted to see the Feature, Commerce, church and belonging, on the late Milo Shantz, written by his son, Marcus, president of Conrad Grebel University College, Waterloo, Ontario.

Milo shepherded multiple successes as a businessman and served the church on numerous committees and boards. There were ups and downs on the business front and a fair share of judgements from church people, as when he obtained a liquor license for the restaurant, he started in the town he helped to resurrect from a faltering economy in the 1970s.

Milo and his brother, Ross, founded Hybrid Turkeys, now the world’s largest exporter of turkey breeding stock. After selling the turkey business in 1981, Milo focused largely on property development in and around St. Jacobs, Ontario. With his brother he established a charitable foundation that gave most of its donations to Mennonite Church-related causes.

Milo sometimes wondered to what extend he was accepted as “belonging” in the community he was helping. Marcus compares his father to the tax collector Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) the latter often portrayed as an outsider, ill at ease in the wider community.

Marcus adds an intriguing twist to the usual interpretation of Zacchaeus (and Milo) feeling that they didn’t quite belong to their communities. To the contrary, a closer reading of Luke shows Zacchaeus speaking in the present tense, saying that he is in the practice of giving half of what he owns to the poor. And, if he has defrauded anyone, he pays them back fourfold. It’s what he does, living righteously, even as he is blindly put in the same company of unsavory, dishonest tax collectors.

Faith mattered to Milo. This concluding word from Marcus: “Business people pose a challenge for Mennonite churches. I think that’s partly because they are very much ‘in the world,’ facing practical dilemmas and pragmatic choices all of the time. Yet I believe that if we asked them, most would say their faith matters in the work, and they think deeply about what it means to be faithful in their occupations. They might also be wary of having that conversation in a church setting, for fear of being misunderstood or misjudged.

“Can our congregations be a space for these conversations” What can our churches do to seek out and save those who might be lost to us because of their careers and vocations?”

In The Christian Century (May 2023) I was delighted to read Julian the theologian, by Amy Frykholm. senior editor at the Century. Julian of Norwich (c 1343 – after 1416), who for half of her life lived as an anchoress in an anchor-hold on the east coast of England. where she wrote two versions of the same book: Revelation of Divine Love.

Frykholm says, “For Julian, the Trinity is first felt–as joy, as bliss–and then understood. We usually have it the other way around-, if we ever get to the feeling part at all.” Also, “In Julian’s theology, sin is like the stuff that goes into the compost. It isn’t yet what it will be.”

Julian answers her almost exasperated self, what she calls her “ghostly understanding,” with What? You wish to know the Lord’s meaning in this thing” Know it well, love was his meaning. Who showed it to you” Love. What did he show you” Love. Why did he show it to you? For love.”

Frykholm concludes, “It seems that 650 years later, we are still trying to perceive this ghostly understanding and hear Julian’s message of absolute divine love.”

In Sharing the Practice, The Quarterly Journal of the Academy of Parish Clergy (December 2022), I found an article friend and former work colleague Willard E. Roth had written. Commenting on the contributors, the editor said Willard’s “insightful review essays . . . are always worth reading.” Amen.

The article, Clocks and calendars: time in reverie, includes notations on Willard and Alice’s treasured family timepieces; a daily calendar, Word and Worship produced by Paulist Press; and the book, The While Stone: The art of letting go, by Esther de Waal, 2021.

Willard lists how clocks and watches, as in heirlooms and gifts, have helped in “tracking time today, yesterday, tomorrow.” He notes, “Clocks track time today even as they help us to recall yesterday and anticipate tomorrow.”

“Word and Worship,” Willard writes, “integrates the Benedictine lifestyle into a practical daily calendar which I have reviewed most years this century in this publication. The While Stone, likewise, accents Benedictine ways along with Celtic perspectives as a retirement memoir.”

This was the last print edition of Sharing the Practice. An online edition will be the final one. The Academy of Parish Clergy, itself, is disbanding this year, after more than 50 years of serving clergy through the magazine and annual meetings.

Trial by fire

The current wildfires burning in Canada have a parallel with fires in Australia in 2019/2020. I picked up a discarded copy of Macleans (March 2020) at Goshen Public Library. It is Canada’s national magazine.

The article, Trial By Fire, said, “More than 190 Canadians from eight provinces and two territories have travelled to Australia since December to lend their expertise during that country’s devastating fire season, returning a favour Aussie crews have extended to this country over the decades. But some crises are worse than others, and the Canadians who landed Down Under this year have found themselves in the middle of an epochal event. As of this writing, the bushfires have claimed at least 30 people, including nine firefighters, killed an estimated one billion animals, destroyed more than 12 million hectares of land–an area roughly equal to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia combined. Hundreds of thousands of residents had been asked to flee their homes, while businesses were destroyed and smoke polluted the air over much of the country.”

The article mentions other devasting fires of this century, the 20th century and one in 1851 that killed a dozen people and a million sheep. It also notes the then current political resistance to increased attention and action related to addressing climate issues.

A note

Ironically, this week I took delivery of a new pair of walking/hiking shoes. The color: Dark Smoke. The dangerous air quality from the Canadian wildfires is keeping us indoors. It was particularly acute for two days this week. Also, Marty is recovering from an injury sustained a week ago. We’ll get out for a short walk today.

Happy Canada Day, July 1! Happy USA Independence Day, July 4!

I chuckle at the cartoon I saw that shows pets queuing to buy headphones. “It happens every year at this time,” the clerk said.

Be the “sparkler” only you can be.

-John