graffiti on the wall

schooled in a small town

2006-10-20T11:04:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I had my orientation to my teaching placement for this semester... in the small town of Hill Spring. I will be working with junior high students all the way from grade six to nine, and it looks as though it is going to be a lot of fun.
I will be starting out primarily with Social Studies. Remarkably, my class also has a "history" option that I will have full creative liscence with, so I am looking forward to doing some fun things with that class.

under construction

2006-10-06T09:07:00.000-06:00

Blogger has updated its program and it has messed with a lot of my settings. This might take me a little while to fix it so I like it.

it has begun

2006-10-06T08:16:00.001-06:00

Our defense didn't let us down on our way to winning the season opener over the Flames. I can't wait for the game on Saturday to see if we can make it two in a row.

placement

2006-10-04T16:09:00.000-06:00

Today was a big day, we found out where we are going to be placed for our first Professional Semester. I will be going to the small town of Hillspring and I will be working with Middle School students. I can't wait to get into the classroom!

quote of the day

2006-10-03T16:59:00.000-06:00

I feel like butter spread over too much bread
- Bilbo Baggins

the grammar nazi - part ii

2006-10-03T15:08:00.000-06:00

My little observation today is about personal pronouns, you know that fun stuff you stay up late at night ruminating over and over again in your mind.

In our age of political correctness, it is no longer appropriate to use the third personal pronoun "he" or "his" when referring to a singular subject of an unspecified gender. For example, it would be inappropriate to write "A teacher should consider all of the learning styles of the students in his class when preparing a lesson." Current convention dictates that this statement should read, "A teacher should consider all the learning styles of the students in his or her class when preparing a lesson."

This is simple enough when you are writing one or two sentences, but it gets extraordinarily redundant when you are trying to write a lengthy paper from an "objective" point of view and you are constantly typing out the phrase "his or her" every time a generic third person pronoun is needed. Some have suggested that interchanging "he" and "her" or "his" and "her" throughout a paper addresses this issue, but I am not so sure. On one hand it makes the work smoother to read, but I believe it draws too much attention away from the subject of the paper and places it onto the subject of political correctness. When I read a paper that uses the technique of "interchanging the pronouns" I can't help but count the number of times the masculine and feminine pronouns are used to see how "balanced" the writing is. This simply will not do.

I am not suggesting that we go back to the days of using the pronoun "he" all the time, I would suggest - at least suggest that we consider - something far more radical. Instead of writing "he or she" or interchanging "he" and "she" throughout a work, I think we should start using "their" as a gender neutral singular pronoun. Thus, my above example would read, "A teacher should consider all of the learning styles of the students in their class when preparing a lesson." Currently, this is one of the biggest grammar foibles a student can make, because "their" is exclusively a plural pronoun.

People use "their" as a singular pronoun in spoken English all the time, but in written English it has not been accepted. Perhaps this is the answer to the redundant "his or her" statements that are found throughout academic writing, or perhaps this suggestion opens up a Pandora’s Box, making it unsafe for all the grammatical rules we love and hold dear to our hearts.

this is who i am

2006-09-25T21:04:00.000-06:00

This is a cheesy little assignment that I had to do for one of my education classes, but it turned out to be a pretty accurate portrayal of myself, so I thought I would post it on my blog. I am not usually one for poetry, so please bear with my ways...

I am a husband, a student, a brother, and a son
I am a sojourner whose journey has only begun
I am the northern prairies of my childhood home
I am a view of the Rockies and Calgary’s Saddledome

I am a magnifying glass focusing sunshine rays
I am a study break clearing heads that are dazed
I am a hammock swinging between shady trees
I am a prayer of faith whispered in the breeze

I am a footnote dangling below the text
I am the curious voice wondering, “What comes next?”
I am a buzzing string on the bridge of a guitar
I am a letter from a friend who has journeyed afar

I am the crest of a wave breaking on the Great Lakes’ shore
I am a skeptic’s question continuously searching for more
I am a yellow highlighter running across the page
I am a message delivered from a podium on a stage

I am the blade of a plow turning once hardened soil
I am a late night study session burning midnight oil
I am a stiff cup of coffee, steaming and hot
I am the product of reason from which I was wrought

I am a coolie on the bank of the Old Man River
I am a teacher in training learning to deliver
I am a husband, a student, a brother, and a son
I am a sojourner whose journey has only begun

work and school

2006-09-20T16:04:00.000-06:00

I have taken on a part-time time job to help out with the ongoing expenses associated with going to school. I just started training with Convergys, which employs a lot of people here in Lethbridge. It is a call center that deals with customer support issues for over 50 different companies all over the world. Here in Lethbridge we take care of Comcast and I will be dealing with customers who are having problems with their Comcast internet service.

Convergys seems to work with student's schedules very well, so hopefully that will work out well with all the reading and lesson planning that I get to do. The extra cash will definitely be a great assistance.

professional semester one

2006-09-12T12:20:00.000-06:00

Jeremy asked about the classes I am taking this semester so I figured I would talk about them a little bit in a regular post...

As most of you know, I have just been admitted into the Faculty of Education after two years of undergraduate study in the pre-education program at the University of Lethbridge. The Ed program at the U of L is comprised of three professional semesters. In PSI we start the semester by taking a number of "seminar" style courses that specifically relate to various dymamics intrinsic to the profession of teaching.

My seminar courses include:

Curriculum & Instruction: here we learn all about lesson plans (including year planning and unit planning), and how to incorporate all the requirements from the Alberta "Program of Studies" into our lessons.
Evaluation: This course is all about how different students learn and how to fairly evaluate the learning that is taking place within the classroom.
Educational Psychology: I take this class for the first time this afternoon, but it looks pretty self explainatory.
Language in Education: Again, I havn't taken this course yet, but think it is all about teaching kids how to read.
Teaching Seminar: this is a course where we specifically talk about the role of the teacher, and we deal with practical things such as classroom management. We also develop Professional Portfolios, which we are required to work on throughout PS1, 2 & 3. By the end, these portfolios are designed to help us showcase our experience and abilities to potential employers.
Communications Technology: This course is primarily done online where we learn to incorperate a variety of technologies into the classroom setting. The Government of Alberta has specific technological requirments that all students are required to learn, so this class is designed to help us do this effectively in the classroom. Believe it or not, our first assignment was to create a blog and discuss how blogs could be used as learning tools. We were required to create a new blog if we already have one; mine is called techno-pedagogy (Wesla thought that was a really lame name, but I like it!).

These seminar courses run for eight weeks, until November 7th. Then we get assigned to a Teacher Associate in a classroom where we get to try and apply some of the things we have been learning. The practicum portion of the semseter runs until December 14th. The best thing about this schedule is that there is no final exam week, WOOO HOOO!

humbled by a softball

2006-09-06T15:41:00.000-06:00

I am back in Lethbridge and I am back into the swing of my Education program, which is great in many ways, but that is not the subject of my post today...

This past weekend my wife had me join her weekend softball team for a tournament in Okotoks... and I have never sucked at anything so bad in my entire life! Mind you I haven't played a game of ball this entire year and I was thrust into a competitive tournament at the end of the ball season, but that is just me making excuses. I struck out twice, and nearly every occasion when I got on base was due more to a poor play by the opposing team than to any ability that I was demonstrating with the bat. My hitting was poor, but my play in the field was absolutely terrible. On two occasions (in the same inning no less) I mis-read the distance on a fly ball as it was coming into right field, which resulted in the ball soaring over my head and rolling into the fence. In fact I didn't manage to catch a fly ball the entire weekend, and by the end I was praying that no hits would come in my direction.

I am a competitive guy. I like to do well. This was an absolutely humbling experience. On the bright side, Wesla also has me playing "Fall Ball" with another team in a much less competitive format. So, hopefully I will be able to shake off the cobwebs before winter sets in.

almost done with selling

2006-08-26T23:34:00.000-06:00

Things have been going fairly well in Edmonton (much better than the last little while in Virginia), although it looks as though I will not quite make my goal of seventy-five sales. I am still deciding on whether I should sell part time in Lethbridge/Calgary during September or if I should look for more "normal" job.

Personally, it has been nice spending time in Edmonton because I was able to visit with Wesla twice, including the opportunity to go with her to her cousin (Todd's) wedding. I also had a chance to hang out with my old buddy Matt and I am looking forward having some more laughs with him before the summer is done.

The best thing of all is that Wesla is taking next week off work and she will be hanging out with me up here in Edmonton. I am definitely looking forward to getting back to my normal routine.

a little road trip

2006-08-11T09:45:00.000-06:00

Well, I have done a little bit of driving since my last post, as you can see in this little mapquest image. Last Saturday we packed up the bags in our Virginia office and we transferred everything we could muster back to Alberta to finish off the summer.

I won't bore you with all the details, but it had to do with licensing issues, a saturated markets, overwhelming heat and humidity, and a desire to be back in Canada. We didn't have a lot of time to make this decision. In fact, last Friday we decided to leave, Saturday by 2:00pm we were on the road and we arrived in Lethbridge at 9:00am on Saturday morning. (After about 38 hours driving). We spent the night in Lethbridge, and then we were off to Edmonton to finish off our summer of selling ADT security systems.

So far things are looking up, besides the fact that I cannot stop thinking about going home, I have sold two systems in the past two days... when I had only three in my past three weeks in Virginia. I got to see Wesla on Monday when I was in Lethbridge, and I will get to see her again when she comes up for the weekend for a wedding here in Edmonton.

Anyone who knows me is well aware of my desire to have things well planned out... this has been a really challenging experience, learning to roll with the punches and trust that I will land on my feet after a bit of craziness in between.

lady in the water

2006-07-24T20:33:00.000-06:00

I am a real M. Night Shyamalan fan and I always look forward to the release of his films, and Lady in the Water was no exception. While I enjoyed the film, I must confess that I was a little disappointed - particularly with the ending of the film. Don't worry, I won't give anything away with this post...

I enjoyed the unique story behind the film, the humour (the most I recall seeing in a Shyamalan film), and the character development. I will not go into details about my dislikes, but in the end I really was not a fan of how the film ended - without question this was the most predictable of all the Shyamalan films.

My ranking of Shyamalan films ranks as follows:
1. Sixth Sense -it started it all, and it blew me away the first time I saw it
2. The Village - The story at face value is a little better than average, but when viewed in an allegorical light it is brilliant.
3. Unbreakable - A close third. A cool concept and and a sweet twist at the end.
4. Signs - A distant fourth. I like Mel Gibson, but he was not good enough to redeem the alien plot.
5. Lady in the Water - My feelings might change about this after I see the film again, but at this point it resides at the bottom of the list.

hangin' in the oc

2006-07-24T11:49:00.000-06:00

Ocean City, Maryland that is. Five of us guys went to the beach yesterday, and we had a good time. It was the first time I had ever had the opportunity to swim in the ocean, so that was fun. We also played a little beach v-ball and some frisbee.

Throughout the day there were planes flying over top the beach with banners advertising all kinds of things, such as "all you can eat pizza for $5.99." Needless to say we had to take advantage of that offer.

forever

2006-07-17T21:45:00.000-06:00

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post. Honestly there is not a whole lot of new stuff happening in my life at this point. I continue with my sales and I long for my wife's visit, which is coming up in just over a month now.

rap battle pinnacle style

2006-06-12T22:14:00.000-06:00

Ask anyone who knows me, I am about as white as they come. In fact my nickname in high school was "Crackerman," and that is no lie. Much to the surprise of everyone in my office I actually won a rap battle that was a fun little contest in our office. This video is from the preliminary round when I was facing Arlen.

still alive

2006-06-11T09:43:00.000-06:00

Game one was very painful... the good guys were up three nothing, in the end they lost and to top it off Rollie the goalie incurred a season ending injury.

After an undisciplined game two, of which I have no comment, the Copper and Blue have come back to make this visit to the Stanely Cup Finals interesting.

i'm in

2006-06-11T09:21:00.000-06:00

I could have included this in my previous post, but I thought this disserved its own place in the blogosphere...

After taking two years of undergraduate courses at the University of Lethbridge I have finally, and officially, been admitted into the Faculty of Education. This is good.

life goes on in virginia

2006-06-11T09:01:00.000-06:00

It has been far too long since my last post, but in all honesty not a lot has changed in my neck of the woods over the course of the past three weeks or so. I am still selling ADT Security systems (at the moment in southern Maryland), things are going well enough as far as work goes, and of course I still really miss my wife.

Wesla moves into our new house at the end of June and we are both really excited about that. I really wish I could be there for the big day, but at least Weida and Thomas (Wesla's sister and Weida's husband) are going to bring their truck down and help with the move; there is also a chance that Wesla's father will be able to make the trip down from Wetaskawin, if he is not working.

We had a really cool sales incentive this past week, every person who beat their best week of sales (I needed eight) would receive an Xbox 360. I came up two short, but at least it inspired me to keep pounding the doors.

i love the oilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-17T21:47:00.000-06:00

The Oilers have defeated the Sharks in fine fashion and they are going to the conference finals. This is so amazing, and can't wait to see my boys crush the Ducks. I didn't want to post anything related to the Oilers before this series was done, but now I just want to shout it out!

soggy

2006-05-08T19:27:00.000-06:00

It rained today and I got a little soggy, but I guess those are the breaks... though I am still smiling

so far so good

2006-05-05T08:42:00.000-06:00

So life is pretty good here in Virginia. I am bunked up with a group of five cool guys and we are meeting some cool people on the doors. I will try to get some picks and post them before too long.

It is tough being so far away from my lady, but we are keeping in touch every night and I even talked to my mom and my buddy Jayson last night... so that was pretty cool.

another one under the belt

2006-04-25T15:21:00.000-06:00

Well, I have just finished my fourth semester at the U of L. It was the most challenging semester for me academically, so far at any rate. I'm not sure if the classes have become more challenging, or if I have laid back a little bit now that I am pretty sure that I have made the cut into the Education faculty. (I should be hearing from them very soon, I expect to be starting my practical semesters this Fall!)

In other news, I leave for Virginia on Thursday. For those of you doing a double take (our office was slated for New Jersey), a sales district opened up in Virginia and our office manager felt that it was a better market, so that I where I will be heading out come Thursday. My blogging might be a little more sparse than usual until I get myself established, because I won't have my own computer, at least not at initially.

Hopefully I will be able to find a way to watch some Oilers games while I am down south, I am counting on them going all the way to the Cup!

offer accepted

2006-04-22T10:19:00.000-06:00

Wesla and I put an offer on a house the other day and we just heard that it has been accepted. It is a small two-story half duplex. I think we got a really good deal, especially considering how hot the real estate market seems to be throughout all the Alberta cities these days. Now we need to get our financing finalized, then everything should be all set.

this is crazy

2006-04-20T14:41:00.000-06:00

I as taking "study break" yesterday and the craziest thing happened. I was playing a computer game, then all the sudden I heard a loud "snap" from inside my computer followed by a rattling noise. I immediately shut my computer down and opened it up. I couldn't believe my eyes; my CD had exploded inside my disk drive!

I had never heard of anything like this happening before, but I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday and he confirmed that this is not outside the realm of possibility. I am so shocked, because CDs are not easy to break and I have no idea what could have caused this. Perhaps this is a sign that I need to stop playing video games and I need to get studying!

what is your plea? (the grammar nazi - part i)

2006-04-10T15:02:00.000-06:00

There is nothing like studying another language to sharpen your awareness of the subtleties found in your own native tongue. The only problem with this increased awareness is the is the potentiality of finding elements within your own language or dialect that drives you nuts...

More and more I find myself cringing every time I hear the someone use "pleaded" as the past participle form of the verb "to plea." This word is used all the time, especially when you are listening to the news, and it makes absolutely no sense to me. I say this because the verbs "to plea" and "to lead" come from the same word family. No one would say, "he leaded the horse around the field yesterday." That would be absurd, rather "he led" is the appropriate form of the verb. In the same way if someone has made a plea, the past tense form of the verb should be - in my opinion - "he pled" not "he pleaded."

If you start listening for it, you will hear it everywhere. Call me a grammar-Nazi, but it drives me nuts.

morning yearning

2006-04-08T12:48:00.000-06:00

My good friend Kevin recently introduced me to Ben Harper's music. Harper is a relatively little known recording artist with a loyal following, and I must say that I have been won over to the fold.

These are the lyrics from the title track off his latest album Both Side of the Gun.

Not only is his sound soulful, at times he is truly profound... at least in my humble opinion. The first two lines of his fourth verse, in particular, move me:

like a summer rose, i'm a victim of the fall
but am soon returning

Enough of my ramblings, here are the lyrics to his song in their entirety...

Morning Yearning
Written by: Ben Harper

a finger's touch upon my lips
it's a morning yearning
pull the curtains shut, try to keep it dark
but the sun is burning

the world awakens on the run
and will soon be earning
with hopes of better days to come
it's a morning yearning

another day, another chance to get it right
must i still be learning
baby crying kept us up all night
with her morning yearning

like a summer rose, i'm a victim of the fall
but am soon returning
your love's the warmest place the sun ever shines
my morning yearning

my world this coming summer

2006-03-18T17:51:00.000-07:00

Call me crazy, but I have taken a position with a company doing sales this summer on a commission basis. I am going to be selling ADT home security systems on a door-to-door basis, in New Jersey of all places. There are some obvious downsides and challenges associated with this move, but Wesla and I feel it has some significant potential benefits to our family in the long term.

By far, the most difficult thing about this summer is going to be the lengthy amount of time that Wesla and I are going to be apart. Another challenge is related to the stigma - and potential lack of income - associated with commission sales. The long term benefits essentially lie with my ability to do well in a summer job, selling a product that I can believe in, with the potential of making significantly more income than I could with a more traditional summer job. I am also really happy with the training that we have received up to this point, as I really do think the company gives its first year reps a very good idea about what they can expect in the field.

Since the beginning of this past school year Wesla and I pretty much decided that I would be working this summer - as opposed to taking summer courses like I did last summer. At the minimum level, that would require me to make enough money to cover my school expenses for my upcoming year (we really don't want to rack up any more student loans). For a while there I was seriously considering taking a plunge into the oil patch, but I have no experience doing that kind of work and I am not sure that I would be able to handle all of the physical demands associated with oil-field work. When this opportunity presented itself it seemed to be more of a match with my current skill set.

Anyway, as of yet, I haven't posted anything about my plans for the summer. As they stand, that is what I am planning to do.

overtime glory

2006-03-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

That was an intense game, and I must say that the Oilers needed that win so much more than the Flames. I cannot believe how good Samsonov is at moving the puck, his moves were brilliant setting up the overtime winner.

wow, a win

2006-03-15T12:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, the Oilers finally chalked one up in the win column for their new netminder. Personally, I think Roloson is going to be great once he finds his game - we must keep in mind that he has hardly played since the beginning of 06. It is going to be a dogfight all the way to the playoffs. All I can say is that I hope the Oilers come out big against the Flames tomorrow night... and in their three games coming up against the Canucks.

men's curling gold

2006-02-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

Brad Gushue's victory over the Fin's today was a big one in my books. It's too bad that the ladies had to settle for bronze, but they still played really well over the course of the Olympics. It is good to see that Canada is maintaining its position in one of its premier sports.

a bitter, bitter, sweet day

2006-02-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Canada get shut out by the Russians in the men's ice hockey quarter finals, and I feel like I have been kicked in the gut by a evil donkey. It is not just the loss, but magnitude of the Canadian loss. There were a few moment of life, and even a goal for the Canadians that came just after the referee had blown his whistle, but in the end the Russians were clearly the better team. There was only one player who really shone for the Canadians and that was Martin Brodeur.

The worst thing about this loss is that it will, likely, overshadow Canada's best day at the 2006 Winter Olympics. Our team has already won four medals today, including two golds. This is incredible day in so many respects, but this is not a great day. Canada has done well on many fronts, but there is one medal that shines more in my eyes than all the rest - men's hockey gold - and that dream is no more.

a little bit of r & r

2006-02-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

It was great to get away for the weekend. We were able to do a little bit of skiing at Lake Louise with our friends Rob & April in the second picture), with Wieda and Thomas, and with Dave and Gina. I must say, that in the past three days I have had more down-time than in the past six months... man has it been great!

need i say more?

2006-02-16T09:31:00.000-07:00

much ado about nothing

2006-02-10T14:58:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a good change that Wayne Gretzky's wife of 18 years, Janet Jones, has placed over $500,000 in bets on sporting events (read about it here). Who cares! As far as anyone knows she didn't place any bets on NHL play, and there is no evidence that Wayne placed any kinds of bets himself.

Some people are calling for Gretzky to stay away from Turin, in light of this controversy. I say we stop making life difficult for one of the greatest ambassadors we have in all of Canadian sport and stop trying to engineer controversy where there is none to be found.

the new wheels

2006-02-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since my last post. I will try and keep things a bit more regular in the next little while... anonymous asked about our new car, so here is a picture:

It is a Dodge SX 2.0 with a 5 - speed manual transmission and all the bells & whistles. It is a peppy little car and a lot of fun to drive. This is a huge blessing for us, and obviously we are very thankful to Wesla's dad for hooking us up.

2001 Ford Focus SE

2006-01-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

FOR SALE!

133,600 km
asking: $7,900

Click on my listing here if you would like to contact me

My wife and I love this car, the only reason why we are selling it is because my wife's dad just bought us a brand new car. (Thanks dad!). This really is a great buy for anyone who is looking for a newer, reliable car, that is good on gas and very functional.

playing with rocks and eating grits

2006-01-12T07:59:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a fun semester; what could be better than playing with rock and eating grits?

I still have three science requirements to fill to complete my BA, thankfully I don't have to do anything crazy link Organic Chemistry. This semester I am taking Archaeology and Geology, which will fill two of my science requirements. In our first Geology lab, last Friday, we spent three hours trekking around the Old Man River Valley searching for specimens from different geological time periods. We trudged through the mud, labeled rocks, and measured the slope of some bedrock... it sure beat taking notes for three hours.

My other three courses are German (of course), Medieval History, and the History and Culture of the American South. The HCAS will be my first 4000 level history course at the U of L and I am really looking forward - particularly because of its format. The learning will be primarily student led; the lessons will be based upon a series of student presentations and required readings. Next week we are going to be looking at the food that characterizes the American South (among other things) and we are going to be samplin' some grits. Sounds like fun to me.

memories of Christmas past

2006-01-09T21:27:00.000-07:00

This fine specimen dates back to Christmas 2003 when Wesla and I were still living in Ontario. This is a photo of Wesla's cousin Raymond in one of his finer moments as we were all sharing in a fun filled Christmas dinner. The Beitz's always included us in their family gatherings during the holidays when we were living in Western Canada, and as I am sure you can tell our time was always filled with many laughs.

This picture has since been referred to as the "caveman" shot. Yes, that is a whole turkey leg in Ray's hand, and his brother Rob has a whole turkey leg in his mouth. It's good to see that good natured sibling rivalry doesn't end as you get a little older and a little wiser.

another new home

2006-01-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since my last post, I will be sure to share more about all our adventures in the past few weeks, but for now I just wanted to make a note that Wesla and I have landed comfortably in our new home.

We are sharing a house with a retired lady from our church along with her married daughter and her husband. It is a cozy environment, but the five of us seem to be getting along very well. Wesla and I have two large bedrooms on the main floor; we have converted one of them into our own mini-livingroom. Linda, our land lady, also has a room upstairs and Val and Gary have the run of the basement. The main living room and the kitchen are common space.

This is our third abode in less than 12 months, but hey this is the transient student life.

letztlich bin ich fertig

2005-12-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am finished! At least for a few weeks anyway. I wrote my last test this morning, it was a German exam, and it turned out to be a little more difficult than I was expecting. It wasn't outragiously hard or anything like that, but for some reason the practice exams we are given always seem to be a lot easier than the exams we end up writing.

But enough of that, now it is time for me to relax and concentrate on getting all our stuff moved before we head out for a week of holiday visiting.

rantings of a beloved film

2005-12-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

I love the film House of Flying Daggers. The first time I saw it I was absolutely spellbound. The threads of love, honour, intrigue, and revenge are so immense within this movie's plot, they would be more appropriately described as chords. If there was even one more twist within HFD's plot it would border on the absurd. But, it doesn't challenge the boundaries of the conceivable quite that far. I would even go so far as to argue that the tragedy unveiled at the climax of HFD approaches Shakespearian heights, although that might be pushing it too far. At the very least it rips your heart out and stomps on it for a while.

Aside from the integrity of HFD's plot, it is a sensory explosion of sight and sound. I love the blend of eastern and western influences that are captured within its soundtrack - although I did not find its score as moving as I did when I watched Hero. The wardrobe is intricate and diverse, and the sets are simply stunning. The wide angle shots of the outdoor scenes as the film draws to a close are the most powerful. The vivid colours of the passage of the seasons are juxtaposed with the unfolding of events. Vibrant greens give way to the fall hues of yellow, orange, and red; finally, all is covered in a blanket of white snow. I must also add that the martial artistry in this film was also brilliant. But we have come to expect nothing less from films in this genre. The balance of this film's strengths is what puts it near the top of my list of favorites.

svend, svend, svend

2005-12-15T11:32:00.000-07:00

I couldn't agree more with the most recent editorial in Maclean's magazine "Svend Him Packing: Will the voters of Vancouver Centre please do the rest of Canada a favour?" (a little something my wife picked up for me as an early Christmas gift, thanks honey!).

Here is a little quip from the article:

...principled dissent is fine. Civil disobedience, too, has its place. But that's not what Robinson is about. He's a self-aggrandizing lout with a disdain for parliamentary and judicial institutions.

As far as I'm concerned we have enough corruption in our government as it is; we have no need to reelect fools who find themselves with the compulsion to stick gaudy a 20,000+ dollar ring into his or her pocket. What kind of message are we sending to our political leaders if we justify that kind of behaviour with another mandate?

my week to come

2005-12-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

Every other university seems to be done with exams. But alas, we are just getting started with finals. Then again I have always enjoyed partaking in a five course meal...

I think I will start things off with a History of Rock final for an appetizer, followed by a little Sociology of Family test to cleanse the palate. My American History and Post Confederation Canadian history finals will constitute my main course, and I will finish it all off with a German final for desert. Mmmm, it's gonna be tasty!

good blogin

2005-12-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

My good friend Kevin just dove into the blogosphere and I wanted to send word out. You can check out his ravings at http://justanotherdeadbeat.blogspot.com. In my eyes he is so much more than just another deadbeat, he is the deadbeat... no, I'm just kidding. Without a doubt he is the best friend I have made since moving to Lethbridge last year, I hope that isn't gushing too much. We work with the youth group at Central Church of Christ together. I am continuously humbled by his spiritual sincerity and his desire to truly engage in a life that is characterized by Christian discipleship. Plus, his youthfulness reminds me of what it was like to be nineteen!

I have also added a link, that I consider to be worth a look. Ryan Hampton is one of Kevin's best friends from his growin' up years in Calgary, now he is working with YWAM in Vancouver. You can check his blog out here http://laydownthegroove.blogspot.com.

I have refreshed some of my other links, so as my old friend Matty from way back in the day once said, feel affirmed.

victory of the vanquished

2005-12-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

It is one day late, but it is done! I just had to post this considering the amount of time I spent on it over the past few days.

Understanding the Gender Housework Gap and Addressing the Challenges it Poses to Marital Satisfaction

The number of hours North American women spend in the paid workforce has risen substantially since the mid-twentieth century and yet the number of hours men spend on family work has only increased marginally. Hochschild (1989) so famously described this social phenomenon as “the second shift.” This essay will begin by touching upon the origin of “traditional” gender roles and the significance they would have upon women as they were compelled to move from the domestic sphere and into the marketplace by a variety of economic and social forces. The following discussion will evaluate the contributions and shortcomings of three sociological perspectives that strive to make sense of the gendered disparity of housework, and the strategies they offer to narrow the gap. This is an issue of great concern for many social researchers because perceptions of fairness and equity in the division of household labour are intrinsically linked with marital satisfaction (Saginak & Saginak, 2005). But despite universal agreement relating to the importance of healthy intimate relationships, the inherent complexity of this issue remains an obstacle standing in the way of scholarly consensus. Ultimately, this essay will argue that a multifaceted strategy embracing the suggestions of multiple theories, combined with a willingness to engage in new avenues of research, will be needed to adequately understand and address the challenges of the housework gap between the sexes and the challenges it poses to marital satisfaction.

Having a clear understanding of the origins of “traditional” gender roles is essential in order to conceptualize the disparity of housework between women and men. In pre-industrial society men and women participated as co-workers in an economy where the home was the basic unit of both consumption and production (McDaniel & Tepperman, 2004). In that context, husbands and wives were intrinsically linked with the realms of the home and the market. The coming of the Industrial Revolution would give rise to a dramatic shift in family life and in gender ideology. Coltrane and Adams (2001) directly associate the nineteenth-century “cult of domesticity” with the need for men to quell the threat of women entering the new and highly competitive labour market (p. 102). The domestic sphere became the woman’s place, just as the market was cast as the man’s domain. In practice, the ideal of “separate spheres” was only realized for a select group of women – predominantly in the middle classes – and yet it would have a profound impact upon how the majority of men and women would come to understand themselves, both as members of the family and society as a whole (Coltrane & Adams, 2001). “Traditional” gender roles were a nineteenth century social construction, but their influence did not end there. The social myth that unpaid household work is “natural” for women continued to dominate much of the twentieth century and it continues to have a lingering effect to this day (Erickson, 2005).

The increasing number of women entering the paid workforce in the 1960s directly challenged the assumptions associated with “separate spheres.” However, economic need increasingly won out over the desire to maintain “traditional” gender roles. While some women were seeking the benefits of personal satisfaction and fulfillment when the entered the marketplace, the new economic reality was such that the purchasing power of a single family income had diminished and for many families two incomes were needed to maintain the coveted middle class standard of living (Coltrane & Adams, 2001).

The number of women who made the shift to the marketplace was so significant that Hochschild (1989) describes it as “the basic social revolution of our time” (p. 239). In the 1950s it was twice as likely for a father to be the sole breadwinner for a family as it is today (Saginak & Saginak, 2005). The number of married women in the paid workforce nearly doubled as it rose from 31.9 percent in 1960 to 61.9 percent in 1997 (Coltrane & Adams, 2001). Today, fully 75 percent of mothers participate in the labour market and 50 percent of married couples with children are dual-income families (Saginak & Saginak, 2005). Consequently, families comprised of two wage earners have come to represent the typical North American domestic unit.

Not only does this dramatic shift have consequences for the economy, dynamics within the family have also been fundamentally altered. In 1965 women were averaging 30 hours of unpaid household labour per week, whereas their male counterparts did about 5 hours (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, & Robinson, 2000). Over the course of the next three decades the average number of hours would steadily decrease for women stretching all the way down to 18 hours per week in 1995 (Bianchi et al., 2000). Meanwhile their participation in the labour market increased from below the 40 percent mark in the late 1960s to nearly 60 percent in the late 1990s (McDaniel & Tepperman, 2004). Throughout the same time period, the participation of men in the workforce dropped from about 79 to 76 percent while their contribution to family work increased from 5 hours to 10 hours (McDaniel &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp; Tepperman, 2004; Bianchi et al., 2000).

In 1965 women were averaging 6 times as many hours of unpaid household labour as men, by 1995 that gap narrowed to about twice as many hours (Bianchi et al., 2000). While this drop appears to be significant, closer examination reveals a less than equitable division of household labour between men and women. In addition to doing double the housework in 1995, there were 16 percent fewer women than men in the paid workforce (Bianchi et al., 2000; McDaniel & Tepperman, 2004). Bianchi et al. (2000) also argues that the decrease in the number of family work hours for women was exaggerated in part because they were having far fewer children in the 1990s than they were in the 1960s; thus, if birth rate would have stayed at the level it was in 1965 the volume of housework for women would have only decreased 6 hours. The disparity in housework becomes even more pronounced when the types of work done by men and women is closely examined (see below). Essentially, changes in the workplace during the later half of the twentieth century meant that women were doing significantly more paid work, and men had made only a slight increase in their participation with domestic tasks.

The time availability perspective is one of the social theories that strives to make sense of the disparity of housework between the sexes. This premise is based upon an egalitarian assumption that the division of household work will be rationally divided between the members of a household (Bianchi et al., 2000). At its most fundamental level, it asserts that the more hours a family member spends in the marketplace the fewer hours he or she will spend doing unpaid housework. There is one key piece of evidence supporting the time availability perspective: for both men and women, the number of hours in the paid workforce is inversely related to the number of hours spent on household activities (Erickson, 2005).

However, Erickson (2005) also reveals that even though the volume of housework decreases for working women, they still continue to bear the bulk of household responsibilities – regardless of the hours they spend in the labour market. Brines (1994) also found that unemployed men do very little housework, despite the amount of available time they have. The strongest critiques of the time availability hypothesis come from the proponents of the gender ideology perspective. The latter argues that involvement in household tasks is much more than a simple choice – it stems from the dynamics of deep power relationships (Bianchi et al., 2000). Furthermore, Bianchi et al. (2000) found that the variables of getting married, having children, and owning a home each significantly increased the volume of housework for women, but not for men. The abovementioned critiques also apply to Coverman’s (1985) research, but she does propose an interesting modification to this perspective. Coverman (1985) argues that in addition to the availability of time, demands must be placed upon men if they are going to respond by doing more housework. While the time availability perspective does provide some helpful insight into the division of household labour it falls short of exploring all the elements of this complex issue.

The personal resource theory proposes a more complex relationship between husbands and wives. The division of household labour is perceived to be a negotiated arrangement based upon power (Brines, 1994). Resources such as appearance, social status, education, and age can all bring power to a man or a woman within an intimate relationship; however, Brines (1994) argues that the most significant personal resource is income. Similarly, Becker (1981) suggests a personal resource perspective based upon microeconomic theory within the family. He argues that husbands and wives choose the roles that will be most efficient and productive for the family. Therefore, women’s “specialization” in childbearing leads them toward domestic roles, and men’s relative advantage in wage earning offers them higher “market efficiency” (Becker, 1981, pp. 16 & 23). In both variations the spouse with greater resources is able to “buy out” of household responsibilities (Erickson, 2005, p. 339).

According to personal resource theory, as women accumulate greater personal resources they will achieve increased power within their family structure – along with a smaller share of the domestic responsibility. Bianchi et al. (2000) confirms that the volume of housework for women with a college degree decreased by 2.01 hours per week and their husbands increased by an average of 2.02 hours (p. 216). However, even with this positive correlation between educational resources and a more egalitarian division of household labour, women are still averaging more housework than their husbands. Erickson (2005) also found that women who are economically dependent upon their husbands were more likely to take greater responsibility in childcare, whereas men who were economically dependent upon their wives would merely take an equal share of childcare and housework. Therefore, it is clear that personal resources determine the division of household labour to a certain extent, but the value of these resources seems to be applied differently for men than for women.

The gender ideology perspective is in many ways a response, by feminist scholars, to the shortcomings of the time availability and the personal resource perspectives to explain the lag in men’s domestic participation. Gender ideology proposes that the socialization of a person’s gender identity is the primary determinant the role she or he will take within the domestic realm (Coverman, 1985). This theory suggests that having a traditional gender ideology is directly proportional to size of the housework gap. The division of labour, from this perspective, is also linked with the expression of power in intimate relationships (Coltrane & Adams, 2001). Statistical evidence supports the assertion of gender ideology that many of the most undesirable household tasks bear the social classification of “women’s work.” In 1995 women were doing approximately double the amount of housework as their husbands, but when it came to the “core” household tasks – such as preparing and cleaning up after meals, housecleaning, and doing laundry – that disparity in creased anywhere between 3.8 to 9.5 times as many hours (Bianchi et al., 2000). Men tend to take responsibility for domestic tasks that are more enjoyable, less time consuming, and that have more flexible deadlines (Parkman, 2004). These responsibilities include outdoor chores, auto repairs, and paying bills (Bianchi et al., 2000). Coltrane and Adams (2001) further reinforce the thesis of gender ideology by providing evidence that men are more likely to view housework as being trivial, and that men tend to feel “entitled to relax after work and on the weekends” (p. 104).

The socialized gender identity of both women and men has an influence upon their willingness to engage in household tasks, but do egalitarian gender ideologies and increased levels of education directly translate into a decrease in the housework gap? Evidence shows that when either a man or a woman has an egalitarian gender ideology the wife will average about one less hour of housework per week; however, in neither case does this variable increase a man’s propensity to take an equal share of household responsibility (Bianchi et al., 2000). Erickson (2005) also found that a positive correlation between gender ideology and the volume of housework is only present with men who hold a traditional ideology. Regarding the influence of education upon the distribution of housework, men with college degrees did 2 more hours and women with college degrees did 1 less hour than those with a high school education or less (Bianchi et al., 2000). In the end, neither egalitarian ideologies nor increased education can be said to significantly narrow the gender housework gap. Therefore, gender ideology cannot be considered the definitive factor in shaping the division of household labour.

The insights gained from these sociological perspectives have value beyond scope of academic exercise: they offer potential strategies for deconstructing the dissatisfaction that is so often associated with “the second shift.” It is crucial for social researchers to move beyond merely explaining the disparity in division of housework because the perception of fairness this arena is a critical element of marital satisfaction (Saginak & Saginak, 2005). Whether or not the division of household labour is equal, it is critical for both women and men to perceive their share of the housework as fair. Currently this is not the case. With almost universal agreement, 89 percent of men feel as though the current division of domestic labour is fair – 55 percent of women have the same perception (Coltrane & Adams, 2001; Wilkie, Ferree, and Ratcliff, 1998). Improving the overall rate of marital satisfaction for women is more complex than simply compelling men to do more housework, as Wilkie et al. (1998) concluded, “men and women view marital satisfaction though a gendered lens” (p. 592). For instance, women are willing to do up to two-thirds of the housework before they feel the amount they are doing is unfair, whereas men perceive their share a unfair when it exceeds one-third of the whole (Coltrane & Adams, 2001). Providing strategies to raise the perception of fairness in the division of household labour among men – and especially women – should be one of the highest aims for social researchers in this field.

However, the inherent complexity of intimate relationships has hindered scholarly consensus relating to the causes of the gender housework gap. The vast array of variables that need to be considered when exploring this issue further complicates the matter. The time availability, personal resources, and gender ideology perspectives all provide windows of insight into this subject, but none of their theses can be definitively supported by statistical evidence. Therefore, new and creative avenues of research are needed within this field of study, both those that build upon existing perspectives and those that establish new foundations of inquiry.

In the meantime it is important to start putting the tools to use that current research has already provided: at the most fundamental level of the individual, in the family unit, in the workplace, and even at the level of government policy. The phenomenon of “the second shift” does not have to be accepted at face value and the myth of “traditional” gender roles does not have to be left standing. As Coverman (1985) suggested, demands for men to become more involved need to accompany the availability of time if they are going to engage level of domestic involvement that is perceived to be fairer in the eyes of women. It is important to empower women with greater personal resources through equal access to jobs and equitable pay scales. The government can lend further assistance to this matter by improving parental leave programs. In doing so the relative advantage of earning power that husband’s have over their wives would be reduced (Becker, 1981). Promoting education and an egalitarian gender ideology would provide yet another means of addressing the gender housework gap. The overall impact of these strategies will have the greatest potential if they are used in concert, rather than on their own. A multi-faceted approach, combined with insight gained from new avenues of research, will most adequately understand and address the challenges that the gendered housework gap poses to marital satisfaction.

References

Becker, G.S. (1981). A Treatise On The Family. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Bianchi, S.M., Milkie, M.A., Sayer, L.C., & Robinson, J.P. (2000). Is Anyone Doing the Housework? Trends in the Gender Division of Labor. Social Forces, 79, 191-228.

Brines, J. (1994). Economic Dependency, Gender, and the Division of Labor at Home. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 652-688.

Coltrane, S., & Adams, M. (2001). Men’s family work: Child-centered fathering and the sharing of domestic labor. In A. Sckolnick & J. Skolnick (Eds.), (pp. 101-114).

Coverman, S. (1985). Explaining Husbands’ Participation in Domestic Labor. Sociological Quarterly, 26, 81-97.

Erickson, R.J. (2005). Why Emotion Work Matters: Sex, Gender, and the Division of Household Labor. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 337-351.

Hochschild, R.A. (1989). The Second Shift: Inside the Two-Job Marriage. New York: Viking.

McDaniel, S.A., & Tepperman, L. (2004). Close Relations: An Introduction to the Sociology of Families, 2nd Edition. Toronto: Pearson.

Parkman, A.M. (2004). Bargaining Over Housework: The Frustrating Situation of Secondary Wage Earners. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 63, 765-794.

spanked

2005-12-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

I have one paper left to hand in before I dive into finals and it is totally kicking my butt. Unfortunately, it was due this morning and my work was not ready to be handed in - despite my best efforts to keeping working on it into the wee hours of the morning. And so I continue to plod along with the hope that I will have it done in time to hand it in tomorrow.

erlkönig

2005-12-02T22:49:00.000-07:00

This is a poem we are working on right now in our German class. It loses its feel in the English translation, but I still think it is a profound work.

The Erl-King
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Who's riding so late where winds blow wild
It is the father grasping his child;
He holds the boy embraced in his arm,
He clasps him snugly, he keeps him warm.

"My son, why cover your face in such fear?"
"You see the elf-king, father?
He's near! The king of the elves with crown and train!"
"My son, the mist is on the plain."

'Sweet lad, o come and join me, do!
Such pretty games I will play with you;
On the shore gay flowers their color unfold,
My mother has many garments of gold.'

"My father, my father, and can you not hear
The promise the elf-king breathes in my ear?"
"Be calm, stay calm, my child, lie low:
In withered leaves the night-winds blow."

'Will you, sweet lad, come along with me?
My daughters shall care for you tenderly;
In the night my daughters their revelry keep,
They'll rock you and dance you and sing you to sleep.'

"My father, my father, o can you not trace
The elf-king's daughters in that gloomy place?"
"My son, my son, I see it clear
How grey the ancient willows appear."

'I love you, your comeliness charms me, my boy!
And if you're not willing, my force I'll employ.'
"Now father, now father, he's seizing my arm.
Elf-king has done me a cruel harm."

The father shudders, his ride is wild,
In his arms he's holding the groaning child,
Reaches the court with toil and dread. -
The child he held in his arms was dead.

1782, translation by Edwin Zeydel, 1955

academic suicide

2005-11-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of our American History class yesterday our prof gave us some disturbing news concerning the papers we submitted last week. The first two papers she read had been plagiarized! She was obviously quite upset by this and no one in the class had anything to say. When you hear something like this from a prof you really start to question yourself - at least I sure did. The wheels start turning, "I am sure that I gave proper credit to all the sources I used in my paper, but did I miss something..."

It is easier than ever to access the work of others and pass it off as your own, but at the same time professors today are very sharp when it comes to catching this kind of academic short-cutting. Issues surrounding intellectual property have become increasingly important in the information age and I am glad to see that the faculty at the university take the issue as seriously as they do. I just feel for the two people who were busted. There is no excuse for plagiarism, but at the same time a part of my can sympathize because I have been up late working on a paper on many occasions thinking about how much easier it would be if I could just "borrow" someone else's work on a particular topic. Not to mention that the consequences of plagiarism are severe. Not only will the guilty students receive a failing grade on that assignment, this transgression will become a part of their permanent transcript and it will follow them throughout their academic carrier.

we didn't know what we were getting into...

2005-11-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Wesla and I love to go to the Movie Mill. It is a great little theater that shows old films at a discounted rate. Often, if we feel like being lazy on a Saturday afternoon, we will see what is playing on the Mill Website and we head 'er on out.

The following description for a movie called The Work and the Glory sounded interesting to us, especially since Wesla likes the "pioneer" time period:

In November of 1833, the state of Missouri turned a blind eye as hundreds of its peaceful inhabitants were hunted down and driven from their homes in the dead of night. Against this impending strife, a young man with a divine vision leads a people against the aggression of an anti-hero with a vulnerable past.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into...

Check out The Work and The Glory website for yourself if you like, we should have done that before we watched the movie. It turns out that the movie is the second part of a series of fictional books about Joseph Smith and the LDS church called American Zion.

On one hand, the movie was remarkably well done. The acting was superb, the sets and the costumes were top notch, and the plot really was quite interesting - in fact at the beginning of the film I couldn't quite tell if Smith was going to be portrayed as a messiah or a quack, it turned out that the former was the case.

As the movie progressed it became abundantly clear that it is a "soft-sell" evangelism tool for the Mormon faith. I don't object to Joseph Smith being portrayed on film, nor do I have anything against the LDS church telling a story that reflects upon the persecution they endured in the early part of the 19th century. What I do have a problem with is not being told that I am going to watch a movie about Joseph Smith, and then I sit down to watch a movie and it is all about the Mormon patriarch. In my humble opinion the promotional description of the movie deliberately leaves out the fact that the "hundreds of peaceful inhabitants" who were being persecuted were Mormon, as to not scare off potentially unsuspecting viewers from hearing their proselytizing message.

Obviously, there were several elements of the movie that got my back up. I will save my ranting to a few of the finer details.

First, everyone who was not a Mormon in the movie was portrayed as either a drunk, a gambler or a raving bigot who was out to kill the morning. Throughout the film the audience was led to identify a "doubter" who was slowly coming around to the faith, and to pity one of the sons of the doubter who was persecuting the faithful. Each argument directed toward the main character who was questioning the faith was a not so subtle apologetic directed toward an unbeliever in the audience. It was masterfully woven together, and it really ticked me off.

Second, several parallels in the movie were made between Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ. The most offensive moment to me was in one scene where Smith was in prison getting beaten up by a bunch of heathen thugs. They had Smith's eyes covered and they yelled at him, "Testify to us prophet, which one of us has struck you!" On another occasion, Smith had an encounter with an orthodox minister that was strikingly similar to many of Jesus' contests with the Pharisees. In the end Smith heals a crippled woman's hand. I was waiting for him to walk on water, but maybe they are saving that for the third installment of the series.

Finally, this is a movie based upon a fictional series of novels, but the audience is steadily left with the impression that it is retelling the historical events of the first days of the LDS church. Because this is a work of fiction, the author is free to take as much artistic license as s/he wants and the audience is left with no idea where historical reality ends and where imaginative reconstruction begins. My feeling is that many people would watch the movie and not question the historicity of many of the events that were portrayed in the film.

This experience has really made me think twice about evangelism, and how it feels for someone to be blindsided by it when s/he is least expecting it. If I was so upset by this experience, how often do we, as Christians, impose the same kinds of feelings upon others.

100

2005-11-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Weeeeee this is my 100th post!

just for jayson

2005-11-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

I am in the middle of writing a wack of papers, so I don't have a lot of time to post at the moment. I ran across these poker chips a while back and I was wondering if Jayson would like some of them for Christmas...

the kingmas invade lethbridge

2005-11-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

Auntie Wessy and Uncle Jay very much enjoyed the Kingma's invasion into Lethbridge this past weekend. Thomas and Weida (Wesla's sister) brought along their three little ones (Karston [4], Sarah [3], Jonathan [1]) for a little visit and we had a grand old time.

Wesla and I are not used to playing host to our family because we have lived so far away from our family for much of our married lives that we tend to be the ones who do the visiting. This time, it was great to play host and to get a little bit of insight into all the work that goes into caring for three children under the age of four.

my new toy

2005-11-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

My old Jornada 548 Pocket PC finally died the other day, so this meant I had to do some upgrading on some of my digital devices. I must confess, my old Joranda has served me well over the years. I picked it up for a sweet deal back in the day when I was working at Staples in Saskatoon. I earned credit for product knowledge from the HP website, combined with the free keyboard that Staples was throwing in I got the whole deal for about $80; that was back in 2001.

My primary use for the old Jornada was as an electronic organizer (it had Pocket Outlook, which is great), and as a word processor. The keyboard function was great for taking class notes. Fortunately, I have recently acquired the use of a laptop, so I don't have to worry about being without a word processor in a history class. However, I am missing the most recent use that I had for the old Pocket PC: listening to audiobooks.

For the past few months I have been a subscriber at http://www.audible.com and I have enjoyed listening to audiobooks (especially when I was delivering newspapers), but also when I am waiting for the bus or when I am cooking or doing some of other stuff around the house. I have seriously been missing the audiobooks ever since the Jornada died, so I started looking for a replacement. I found a great buy at Futureshop (which is a terrible thing to say if you have ever been an employee at Staples) on a 1 Gig Sankdisk MP3 Player for less than $125.

Part of what makes this preferable to something like the iPod shuffle is the digital display, and the price of course. I just picked my new toy up today, and I am looking forward to getting my audio locked and loaded.

moving again...

2005-11-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

It's not like we're moving away from Lethbridge any time soon, but we need to make another moving within the windy city before too long. At the beginning of September Wesla and I moved into a "shared accommodations" arrangement with a guy from our church. By in large it has been a pretty good deal, but he just got a significant promotion - which means he is moving to the Toronto area. This is a really good deal for him, and we are truly happy for him, but we REALLY don't want to move again. At this point we have our eyes open and Wesla found a lead for one new place that we are going to be checking out on Monday. I can't wait until we are going to be able to settle down a little bit and get a place of our own.

sleep, glorious sleep

2005-11-05T16:58:00.000-07:00

No longer am I counted among the ranks of the Lethbridge Herald paper carriers - oh what a shame! Actually, there were some things I really liked about the job: getting some exercise and listening to audiobooks as I delivered the papers were definite perks. The primary reason why I gave up the job boiled down the cumulative effect of all the early mornings. It wasn't so bad at the beginning of the semester, but when it came time to burn the midnight oil in order to complete a paper or to study for a test my obligation to be up at 5:30 am the next morning simply became too much of a burden. I put in 10 weeks of service in all, which isn't too bad, and in the end I earned enough money to pay for my books this past semester. All of the sudden sleeping in until 7:00 am seems to be a luxury.

P.S. What do you think of the new link I whipped up earlier today? Yesterday’s victory makes five wins in a row...

how sweet it is

2005-11-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

The Detriot Redwings have had only two losses in their first 14 games, and their second loss came at the hands of the Oilers in OT tonight.

This makes four straight wins for the Oil... and I must say they are looking good!

whose school is cool?

2005-11-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

Universities always make a big deal out of rankings in big publications like Mclean's annual university report, this years fourth annual review in the Globe and Mail is no exception.

There is a cool feature on the G & M website that allows you to compare the report cards of all the universities that were a part of the survey. For the most part I was impressed with how the U of L measured up. Some of the lowest marks came in the category of "reputation among employers" and "reputation for Grad Studies". The U of L is basically known for its education program and its management program, so that doesn't surprise me one bit. It was also interesting to note that almost all of the schools received poor ratings for "merit based scholarships". Does this mean schools are not shelling out enough cash, or does this simply reflect the reality that there can never be enough scholarships for starving students?

One thing that did surprise me was the "A" rating for the U of L library. This makes me wonder how many of the 300 U of L students who took the survey actually use the library. The staff in the library is great, the facility is beautiful, however its contents are simply not comparable to the other institutions on the list.

How does your Alma Mater stack up in the G & M report? Is the report a fiction or a reality in your eyes?

heat with a beat

2005-10-28T14:17:00.000-06:00

I just thought I would pass along one of the more interesting topics we have discussed in our History of Rock class.
Not only was Rev. C.L. Franklin one of the key players in the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s, he was a pioneer in the early days of soul music. His fire and brimstone sermons were so popular that they were recorded, put to music, and distributed by Chess Records. Fittingly, his immensely popular style became known as "brimstone with a beat".

If Franklin's name sounds familiar when considering the topic of soul music, that is largely due to the legacy of his daughter Aretha.

degrees of progress

2005-10-26T13:57:00.000-06:00

I came to the strangest and most wonderful realization yesterday. I was pondering the courses that I need to enroll in next semester, in the spring of 2006, and it dawned on me: after next semester I only have three more courses left in order to complete my BA degree! With that being said, I still won't be graduating from the U of L until the 2007-2008 school year because I also have three practical semesters that I have to finish in order to complete my Education degree. But hey, I am so excited because once this semester is done I only have two more semesters of cramming for tests and writing papers. I have always enjoyed academic writing, but at the same time I will be so happy to complete this portion of my education.

I also met with one of the faculty members in the Education Department this afternoon to discuss the finer points of my program and it turns out that I will be able to have two minors in my degree to go along with my program. So, I will have a History major along with German and Religious Studies minors; hopefully that will make me employable when it is all said and done.

It is not as though any of these things are new developments are anything new, it is just nice to look back over everything that I have been doing since moving to Lethbridge and to see degrees of progress.

some pictures

2005-10-25T16:06:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures taken by Wesla's boss

american history mid-term

2005-10-22T18:00:00.001-06:00

I am really enjoying my American History class, it seems to be filling in so many of the blanks in my mind concerning the historical roots of American ideology - including many of the differences of opinion within the nation of America. However, the disadvantages to a survey course such as this is two fold: many of the subjects cannot be addressed in detail, and the volume of material covered has the potential to be overwhelming.

Our midterm on Monday will test us on all the events from the establishment of the Chesapeake and New England colonies in the early 17th century to the end of the American Civil War. I type all of my notes with my laptop in class and I have in the neigbourhood of a 100 pages of notes to review. The one true saving grace for this course is that the Final is non-cumulative.

ich bin krank und müde

2005-10-18T17:58:00.000-06:00

I am sick and tired! Not in the colloquial sense, but rather in the sense that I should be in bed getting over this cold, doped up on NeoCitron and Nyquil, and not sitting here in my History of Rock Class. There is one big consolation to this night class: all the notes are posted on the net so I don't have to worry about writing anything down... it couldn't be sweeter.

juror duty cont...

2005-10-14T12:02:00.000-06:00

Thankfully, I received a letter from the Alberta department of justice excusing me from juror duty. I guess it pays to whine about how missing class could cause irreparable damage to my school year. I figure that I am paying good money for the classes I am enrolled in so I don't exactly want to miss them.

nhl 2005-2006

2005-10-13T22:22:00.000-06:00

I have been a Oilers fan going back to the glory days, and I am so glad to see the game back on the ice. I had my first chance to watch a game in the new regular season on Tuesday night, unfortunately it turned out to be a 3 - 1 loss to the Kings.

I must say that I enjoyed the new fast pace to the game, but it seemed to me that there were too many unnecessary penalties called. If it wasn't for the penalty trouble I think the Oilers could have pulled out another win to give them a undefeated 4 and 0 start to the season, but it wasn't meant to be. The Blue and Orange play host to the Stars on Friday, maybe they will do a better job than the hurtin' Flames did tonight.

thanksgiving

2005-10-13T19:43:00.000-06:00

We had a great time this past weekend with all of our Thanksgiving festivities. We spent most of our time visiting Wesla's family up and around Edmonton. We headed out Friday night after Wesla was done work and stayed the night at her dad's place in Wetaskawin. Saturday was the L'hirondelle family reunion (Wesla's mom's side) in Villneuve. We also spent one night at each of Wesla's married sister's homes. Good times with X-Box and Axis & Allies with the bro-in-laws.

new addition to the family

2005-09-25T20:09:00.000-06:00

Wesla and I have been talking about getting a pet for sometime, we finally decided upon getting some fish. The new place we moved into is already home to a small pooch, named Tara, so that ruled out getting a dog. Wesla's allergy to cats, in combination to my disdain for felines pretty much rules out the possibility that we will ever get a cat (at least one that will live in the house). Wesla cannot stand anything that "scurries", because they are too reminiscent of mice. So that leaves us with the possibility of getting some fish.

We set up or aquarium a week ago, and let it run for a week without any fish in order to filter out all the chlorine and such. On Saturday we added two small Zebra Danios, I only could pick out one in the picture. It was recommended that we only add a couple of small inexpensive fish to start with, because the fish tank needs to develop some more of the beneficial bacteria for an aquatic ecosystem before we add some more fish.

dan's in germany - danindeutschland

2005-09-23T14:10:00.000-06:00

This post is long overdue. Let me introduce you to Dan, I met him last year at the U of L, he is a great guy, and he has a new blog that I want to plug. It is appropriately called danindeutschland as he is spending this next year studying at a university in Germany.

Anyway, give his site a look-see, his witty posts are sure to be worth a laugh.

juror duty

2005-09-23T13:58:00.000-06:00

I received a letter in the mail today that made me more than a little apprehensive. It bore the title "Department of Justice" in a small - yet remarkably intimidating - font. It is not as though I have committed any recent crimes that would put in in fear of prosecution, tell me, why then was I afraid to open the envelope?

It turns out that I am not the "bad guy" that the Crown prosecutor has it out for, but rather, some other guy who is going to be tried by a jury of his peers. The jury selection summons requires prospective jurors to respond within five days or face the consequence of a fine, jail time, or both. Needless to say my response is already in the mail.

I quickly looked through all the factors that would exclude me from eligibility to serve on a jury; unfortunately, I don't think my psychosis qualifies as a genuine mental infirmity that renders me incapable of the duties of a juror. Is it possible that I could use conscious or religious vows as an excuse to preclude my service? Not really. So all I could do was check the box that states that "I wish to be exempt from serving as a juror because: bla, bla, student, bla, bla, don't have time, bla." We'll see if that cuts the mustard

the move

2005-09-07T12:11:00.000-06:00

My blogging has been extremely sparse of late, there are many reasons for that, but I will spare you the gratuitous details.

One of the biggest changes in the last few weeks has been our move within the city of Lethbridge. We were living in the family townhouse section of the U of L campus last year, which is on the West side of Lethbridge; now we are residing on the south side. One of the biggest reasons for making a move was to try and save some money on the rent, and we were also looking for something with a little bit more space. Our new place meets all the desired criteria. Two additional added bonuses include a dishwasher and in house laundry (these are luxuries that I am so thankful for).

We also have a new telephone number, if you are wanting it just drop me an email and I will hook you up.

a new job

2005-08-27T18:51:00.000-06:00

Just this past week I took on a new job that not too long ago I never would have imagined myself doing; on Tuesday I started delivering two paper routes for the Lethbridge Herald.

I have been looking for a very part-time job to help with a few of my university expenses that will not interfere with my studies or with my work at the church. The more I considered taking on a paper route, the more it seemed to fit the bill. And of course this job has an added bonus: it forces me to step aside from my books and computer and to get a little bit of exercise every day. By the time I had signed my name on the dotted line everything about this new opportunity seemed to be looking good, that was until my second day on the job rolled around.

I was full of confidence having survived my first day on the job. I was up good and early, with plenty of time to get my papers all delivered by my 7 am deadline. I was equipped with my paper delivering gear: I had my fancy new paper deliver bag and my trusty Saskatchewan Rough Riders cap. Full of determination I opened up the front door of my house only to make a horrifying discovery… I saw the rain pouring down out of the sky! Do you remember what it was like on Wednesday morning? It wasn’t pretty. It was at that moment I felt like hanging up my paper bag and going straight back to bed!

I knew when I signed up for this job I knew that on some days I would be required to endure some nasty weather, but I didn’t expect to be walking through – what seemed to me to be – a torrential monsoon on my second day!

Weary and rain soaked by the end of my second day on the job as a Lethbridge Herald paper carrier I was reminded of a significant lesson that I’m sure I will need to learn several more times before my life is done. It is one thing to accept in your mind that every person’s life journey – at times – takes a turn through the valley of the shadow, but it is a much different thing when it is your turn to walk that path for yourself.

gnp

2005-08-12T14:20:00.000-06:00

Glacier National Park was shockingly beautiful. My experience with Montana, before our most recent visit, had been dominated by the east end of the state, which isn't too much to look at. Having the opportunity to travel in the American portion of the Rockies in western Montana has completely changed my opinion about the natural, and rugged beauty of the state.

Wesla & I in Glacier National Park, Montana

having trouble sleeping?

2005-08-11T17:07:00.000-06:00

The content of this post is one of the projects I have been working on for my Medieval Church History class. I opted to post if for two reasons, one as a tangible excuse for why I have not posted for a very long time (this piece of work has occupied every ounce of my writing devotion in the last little while); secondly, in the off chance that someone (other than my prof) might give it the time of day.

I realize that for many people this topic is of little interest, so if you fall into that category, the following will likely serve little purpose - other than putting you to sleep.

The Foundations of Roman Primacy: A Window into the Division Between the Eastern Orthodox And Roman Catholic Churches

Despite substantial agreement in matters of faith, the differences between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church were eventually deemed to be irreconcilable. Political, cultural, linguistic, and religious issues all contributed to the growing antagonism between the Eastern and Western Christian traditions, which culminated in the schism of 1054. The concept – and at times the application – of Roman primacy was one of those key issues. Even in the earliest years of the church there was no consensus concerning the issue of ecclesiastical structure, but rather the Western conception of the papacy – that became substantially differentiated from the East – developed unevenly as it faced a myriad of concurrent forces. The emergence of the episcopate, the political consequences of the relationship between church and state, the increasing influence of Roman jurisprudence upon the theological dialogue, and the fragmentation of an empire recoiling from Germanic and Islamic invaders all had an impact upon the bishop of Rome staking claim to the title pontifex maximus. The forces that contributed to the gradual divide between East and West were many; exploring the foundations of the Catholic claim to Roman primacy, as one of them, offers a window into the wider and complex relationship that would emerge between the Greek and Latin faith traditions.

The canonical Book of Acts contains one of the earliest examples describing the application of ecclesiastical church authority. The decision made at the Council at Jerusalem (c. 42) based its authority upon, “the apostles and elders, with the whole church.” (Acts15:22). As the first Christian generation died – without experiencing the much anticipated second coming of Christ – a crisis of leadership and structure within the church forced it to adapt.(1)

The establishment of ecclesiastical order served the dual purpose of organizing and sustaining the growth of the Christian faith and of combating the inevitable appearance of heresy. Early in the second century, Ignatius made distinct references in his epistles to the growing roll that presbyters and deacons were playing as specific offices within the structure of the church. Even more significantly for the purpose of this study, at this early date Ignatius stressed obedience “to the bishop as to Jesus Christ.” (2) R. A. Markus describes the Christian church of this early period as a “polycentric entity;”(3) as such, bishops became the hub of faith in the Christian community as they oversaw the church within the cities of their residence.

The office of the bishop also played a critical role within the concept of apostolic succession. The belief that the pristine teachings of the apostles were passed down through the bishops in an unbroken chain of authority became an effective tool in the battle against deviant Christian beliefs. Tertullian (c. 160-220) challenged the heretics of his day to “unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from… one of the apostles.”(4) The bishop's claim to possess teaching that was passed down directly from the apostles was particularly valuable in combating the Gnostic heresies, whose authority was based upon the authority of “secret” revelations.(5) As the guardians of orthodoxy, bishops grew in power and authority within the body of the church; this is just one example of the growing distinction during this period between those who were deemed to be qualified to govern and rest of the population within the Christian community. While the division between clergy and laity had yet to be fully expressed, Walter Ullmann asserts that having an awareness of this distinction between clergy and laity is critical to understanding Latin Christendom in the medieval period.(6)

Not only did apostolic succession grant special distinction to the office of the bishop, congregations that were founded directly by an apostle held greater prestige – and often authority – within the wider Christian community. As mentioned above, the church in Jerusalem played a leading role in the first century; however, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem provided an opportunity for a new apostolic see to emerge as the leader in the Christian faith.(7) Both Alexandria and Antioch asserted significant influence in the third century, due to their apostolic foundations; the churches of Philippi, Ephesus, Corinth and Thessalonica all boasted apostolic foundations based upon the missionary work of Paul.(8) However, the church at Rome that held two distinct advantages that set it apart from all the rest. First, Rome possessed the unique claim of “dual apostolicity.” As the final resting place of Peter and Paul, not only did Rome hold a church that derived its position from two apostles – they were two apostles with enormous prestige. Secondly, the geographic location of Rome made the only church with apostolic foundations in the West. Based upon the number of presbyters and other clergy in the Roman church, Klaus Schatz estimates that it had grown to about 30,000 members by the middle of the third century.(9) Additionally, on occasion, the newly established churches in North Africa, Gaul, and Spain sought spiritual direction from Rome in a variety of matters. As time progressed, the metropolitan system became more entrenched in the East; which meant that Western bishops were just as likely to write to the bishop of Rome for direction as their own metropolitan – this was would never be the case in the East. With all this being said, Rome’s input concerning matters of faith in the wider regions of the Latin world was not always welcomed or heeded.(10)

It is of utmost importance when investigating the foundations of Roman primacy to distinguish between the theory and the capacity of the bishop of Rome to put it into practice. In the second and third centuries two attempts by the Roman See to exert its authority over the wider body of the church were initially met without success. One issue concerned the date of the Easter celebration; the other was over the issue of baptizing converts from heretical Christian sects.(11) It was in the midst of the second abovementioned controversy that Steven of Rome and Cyprian of Carthage became embroiled in a debate. Within their correspondence Steven used the Petrine text from Matthew 16:18-19 to directly support his personal position of authority, as the bishop of Rome: “18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." At the Seventh Council at Carthage (258), 86 bishops (mostly from Africa) united with Cyprian against the “tyrannical terror” expressed by his colleague’s desire to “set himself up as bishop of bishops.”(12) In Cyprian’s opinion, the Petrine text established the authority of all bishops, not one bishop above all the rest.(13) This exchange would only prove to be the beginning of a Roman bishop’s monarchial conception of his own position being challenged by another body in the wider church.

The Edict of Milan, issued by Emperors Constantine and Licinius in 313, was a turning point in the relationship between the church and the state. The new hybrid institution that emerged as a result added dynamic new elements to the development of Roman primacy. Constantine hoped that Christianity would be a catalyst for unity in his increasingly divided empire; this desire elevated the church from the status of a persecuted religious sect to the recipient of imperial favour. The donation of the Lateran palace and the establishment of St. Peter’s Basilica are but two tactile examples of how the Roman See directly benefited from this new relationship.(14) Bernhard Schimmelphfennig also listed freedom from taxation and special legal jurisdiction over legal cases relating to matters of church discipline as added to the church in Rome during the first half of the fourth century.(15) The initial insurgence of wealth, status and prestige initially belonged to the church as a whole; however, there is no question that holding the position of bishop in the capital city of the Roman Empire directly contributed to the growth of Roman primacy. Constantine’s decision to move the empire’s capital to Byzantium, thereby establishing Constantinople as ‘New Rome’ in 330, endowed a second bishop with the benefit of overseeing a church in a capital city. Over the long term, not only did this shift in imperial power create a powerful rival to Roman primacy in the East, it offered the Roman bishop greater independence from the emperor who was now situated in a distant eastern city. However, this did not mean that the bishop of Rome was left without imperial influence, the emperor continued to rule the West through an exarch, first in Milan and later in Ravenna.(16) This development forged new centers of political power in the West that would, at times, pose a threat to the growing notion of Roman primacy.

Constantine’s Synodal Letter which convened the first universal or ecumenical council in Nicea (325) expressed the newfound interest that emperors would take in “matters which concern the faith of the Church.”(17) A fragmented faith was of no use to an emperor who was in search of a catalyst. Despite Constantine’s best efforts, the Arian heresy persisted long after his death – up until the reign of Theodosius; but the manner in which this issue was eventually resolved would further exasperate tensions between East and West.(18) Meanwhile, the Council at Sardica (343), which has never been recognized by the Orthodox Church, was a failed attempt to bring resolution to the Arian controversy. In the end it only served to further enflame the East, particularly as a result of Canon V, which made the Bishop of Rome the appellate judge in disputes between bishops, thus granting him the power of jurisdiction.(19) When Theodosius summoned the Council of Constantinople in 381, it ratified the faith of Nicea, in principle; but this gathering was anything but ecumenical. Not only did the West go without a single representative at the council, Cannon III granted the bishop of Constantinople second honour “after the bishop of Rome; because Constantinople is New Rome.”(20) On this surface, this canon does not appear to be a direct affront to the growing concept of Roman primacy because Constantinople appears to remain subordinate to Rome. However, up to this point Constantinople’s prestige was far outranked by the other Eastern apostolic patriarchates of Antioch and Alexandria; by taking the position of second place, Constantinople became the number one see in the East and a genuine rival to Rome within the body of the church as a whole.

Damasus of Rome (366-384) immediately responded to Canon III in a pronouncement that distinguished the source of his authority from that of the bishop of Constantinople. Damasus asserted that his authority was not derived from a synod – it came directly from Christ – a claim which he based, once again, upon the Petrine text in Matthew 16:18-19.(21) In contrast to the collegial understanding of the bishop’s role – that was maintained at the Council of Constantinople – Siricius (384-399) and Innocent I (402-417) continued to build upon the Western monarchical conception of the bishop of Rome. Innocent argued that Rome, as the only see with apostolic foundations in the West, should have governing authority over the surrounding area.(22) Decretals composed by Siricius were written with the intention of having authority beyond the boundaries of southern Italy; it was during this period that the term “pope” became reserved exclusively for the bishop of Rome.(23)

At the turn of the fifth century, the assertions of Roman jurisdiction were becoming more clearly defined, yet the application of this authority was still rather limited – even in the West. Both Ambrose (c. 339-397) and Augustine (354-430) were great western thinkers whose writings are often used to support Rome’s claim to primacy. In many cases they endorsed the belief that the emperor should maintain a posture of servitude before the bishops; however, neither Ambrose nor Augustine supported Roman primacy.(24) Augustine held two councils in Carthage (419 & 424) to address the Pelagian controversy, a heresy that found its greatest audience in Rome itself. In the correspondence between Pope Innocent and Augustine of Hippo it became clear that they had two very different views about where the authority for resolving this issue resided; Innocent’s perspective was monarchical, Augustine’s still identified with the earlier ecclesiastical tradition common to the East.(25) Despite the inability of Rome to exert lasting and universally recognized authority during this period, significant ideological groundwork was established in the West; additionally, the appearance of Vandal (and later Muslim) forces in North Africa effectively eliminated a powerful intellectual opponent to Rome primacy in the West.

Up to this point, the church had enjoyed the protection and patronage of the state in exchange for taking the junior role in their partnership. The onslaught of Germanic invasions in the West significantly altered this relationship. The destruction and plunder wrought at the hands of the Visigoths (410) and the Vandals (455) changed the face of “Old” Rome. Its population spiralled downward from a robust half million down to about 100,000; whereas the population of Constantinople was quickly rising throughout this period. It reached the half million mark by the turn of the sixth century.(26) Not only were absolute numbers reduced with Rome’s city limits, demographics shifted as the Greek-speaking elite population in Rome fled to Constantinople. Markus brings further clarity to this shift in Rome’s population. In asserts that Christian intellectuals and the clergy were taking upon the mantel left by the pagan Roman aristocracy; all the while the Hellenistic civilization of the Byzantine Empire continued to advance in the East.(27) Throughout the West the established infrastructure disintegrated in the face of barbarian invasions, the administration of the Roman Catholic Church was the only viable institution that remained and it started to embrace a new role.

Building upon the foundations of Roman primacy that had already been established, Pope Leo I (440-461) infused an essential new ingredient into this ideology by combining Roman jurisprudence with a theological vocabulary. Ullmann goes to great lengths to demonstrate how previous claims to Roman primacy – that were founded purely based upon apostolic succession and the Petrine text of Matthew 16:18-19 – were fragile at best; the medieval papacy would be forged upon “the juristic foundations laid by Leo.”(28) In his fourth sermon Leo declared, “it is Peter who properly rules each one of those whom Christ also rules principally. Great and wonderful a share in his power did God see fit to bestow upon this man, dearly beloved.”(29) These words describe a mystical union between Peter and Christ, as such, Christ’s commission bestows Peter with Power of Jurisdiction – full teaching authority in the church, and with Plenitude of Power – the full capacity to make laws that govern the church. Not only is Peter mystically connected with Christ in this advanced Petrinology, Peter’s ministry to the church continues through the pope – directly. In reference to Peter’s ongoing work in the church Leo proclaimed, “Regard him as present in the lowliness of my person… His dignity does not fade even in an unworthy heir.”(30) The belief in apostolic succession, which was universally accepted within the Eastern and Western traditions, underwent an epic development under the reasoning of Leo I. The pope inherited his authority directly from Peter himself, not from the pope who preceded him. As such, it was through Leo’s advanced Petrinology that a divine monarchy was established in the office of the papacy, which essentially became an organ of government. Where the Eastern Church widely acknowledged the succession from Peter that was held by the Roman bishop, the mystical and juristic connections Leo made between his office and Peter would remain foreign to Orthodox belief. Considering Leo’s contributions to Roman primacy, and his identification with Peter, it should be no surprise that he was the first pope to be buried at St. Peter’s.(31)

The third and fourth ecumenical councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451) were called to address the complex Christological debates that were raging between the leaders of the Eastern patriarchates. Nestorius was condemned as a heretic in Ephesus, however debate continued. Once again, in Chalcedon, it was in the best interest of the emperor to restore a semblance of unity to the Eastern portion of the empire. Pope Leo played an intermediary role at Chalcedon; an extract from the Acts of Chalcedon reveals that his Tome was received with the words, “Peter has spoken thus through Leo.”(32) Yet, this statement should not give the impression that this eastern council was recognizing a unique authority in the bishop of Rome; Canon XXVIII of Chalcedon once again granted Constantinople with “equal privileges” with old imperial Rome; this was a concession that Leo refused to accept.(33)

The challenges faced by the Roman patriarch, both from the eastern emperor and the patriarch of Constantinople, are exemplified by Emperor Zeno’s Henotikon of 482. The Henotikon was an ingenuous design inspired by Acacius, the Patriarch of Constantinople.(34) Essentially, the Henotikon was a compromise with the Monophysite doctrine that had been condemned at the Council of Chalcedon back in 451, thereby alleviating the ongoing struggle between the Eastern patriarchs (who were still divided over the issue) while simultaneously undermining the authority of Leo – whose Tome was foundational in the development of the faith of 451. This ongoing participation (or interference) of the eastern emperors in the development of orthodoxy compelled Pope Gelasius I (492-496) to address the Byzantine Emperor, Anastasias I, with these words in 494: "There are indeed, most august Emperor, two powers by which this world is chiefly ruled: the sacred authority of the Popes and the royal power. Of these the priestly power is much more important, because it has to render account for the kings of men themselves at the Divine tribunal."(35) Gelasius also makes a significant contribution to the concept of Roman primacy, in an area where the jurisdictional developments made by Leo were still wanting – in respect to the role of the temporal ruler.(36) The Gelasian doctrine proposed that the pontiff bore greater authority than the emperor because he also carried the heavier responsibility – the burden of teaching the church, and ultimately salvation. Therefore, the role of the emperor was intrinsically subsidiary. He was to provide protection for the spiritual authorities, while they ruled in matters of orthodoxy.

The Gelasian doctrine had little opportunity to be applied in the West, at least in the near future, as emperor Justinian ascended to the eastern throne just a short time later. Not only did Justinian attempt to reunify the fragmented empire by reclaiming territory lost in the West to the Ostrogoths, in a series of costly wars between 535 and 553, the emperor took for himself the authoritative position in determining the doctrine of the church.(37) Consequently, the papacy reached an all time low point its ability to apply authority over the church. All power became concentrated in the hands of the emperor. Justinian exerted such jurisdiction over the bishop of Rome that all pontiffs, starting with Pelagius I in 555, had to be confirmed by his representative – the exarch of Ravenna – before they could be consecrated as pope.(38) The long-term impact of Justinian’s military conquests would be cut short by the Lombard invasion in 568, but his reign would not be without having a significant lasting effect. Among many other things, the Justinian Code greatly increased the secular administrative responsibilities of the pope within the empire.(39)

Pope Gregory I (590-604) ascended to Peter’s throne during a period when life in Rome was characterized by famine, siege, and plague. Gregory is often described as the first medieval pope because of his decisive leadership in the midst of these trials and because of his ability to apply the power of jurisdiction that had been so clearly defined by the popes who came before him. The Lombard invasions greatly reduced the value of the city of Rome in the eyes of the Eastern emperor. Justinian’s efforts to recapture Rome proved to be costly and ineffective, which reduced Rome to the status of little more than a fringe border town within the status of the empire as a whole. This political context forced Gregory to “look west” for a commodity the church had taken for granted ever since its union with the state – security. Gregory accomplished this by reaching out to the invaders. One of Gregory’s epistles was a letter addressed to all the bishops in Italy imploring them to reach out to “all the Lombards in your districts” with the teaching of the Catholic faith.(40) Gregory also expressed the extent of his leadership in the tone of his letter to Bruinchild, Queen of the Franks. Gregory’s efforts had significant political consequences for the political authority of the Roman pontiff, but it is important to keep in mind that his interests were genuinely spiritual. Having a monk’s background, his concern was for the spiritual integrity of the Frankish church when he addressed how “certain priests in those parts live so immodestly and wickedly that it is a shame for us to hear of it and lamentable to tell it.”(41) Throughout this period Gregory became increasingly involved in the administrative affairs of the military and politics, which further defined the role of the pontiff in the Roman see. The Germanic invasions were a political wedge between the East and the West; this division was only compounded when Islamic forces threatened the stability of the empire in the East. There was no longer any hope for a Roman pontiff to secure military support from an Eastern emperor. It is for this reason that Henry Chadwick concludes that from this point, “it is much more difficult to write the history of both Eastern and Western Christendom as if it were a single story.”(42)

In review, it would have been impossible to establish the foundations of Roman primacy without the formation of ecclesiastical order in the church. The concept of apostolic succession as a defense against heresy, and the role the bishop came to play as the protector and administrator of the faith was another significant development in the early period. The church at Rome was also distinguished from the early period because of its double apostolic association with Peter and Paul and because it was the only see with apostolic foundations in the West. Following the union between church and state, Rome was the initial benefactor of being the church in the capital city of the empire, and the bishop of Rome was given a measure of independence when Capital was moved to Constantinople. The ecumenical councils challenged the notion of Roman primacy, particularly as the churches in the East resented Rome’s claim that its honourable position afforded it additional authority. Popes Leo, Gelasius, and Gregory advanced Petrinology by employing Roman jurisprudence, asserting authority of bishops over temporal leaders, and by putting into practice the theory of Roman primacy in new and decisive ways. During this foundational period the concept of Roman primacy tended to be much more theorized that realized; and yet the foundations of Roman primacy would become the idealized template – looked back upon by all future generations of Roman bishops seeking to assert their authority.

Having an understanding of these foundations, at the most basic level, provides a window into the complex relationship that would emerge between the Orthodox and Catholic churches because it was one of the key contributors to the widening gulf that would, in time, become a break between East and West. In the context of an ecumenical dialogue shortly after Vatican II, Emmanuel Lanne, a Catholic theologian, went so far as to say, “…that the primacy of Rome is the principle obstacle standing in the way of reconstituted unity with the Orthodox Churches.”(43) Both of these traditions held (and hold) unswervingly to the principle of apostolic succession; however, the Orthodox Church maintains the notion of a collegial episcopate and the Roman Catholic’s is monarchial. For those in the East the title ‘first among the bishops’ simply honours one bishop as the first among equals, but in the Western tradition this same distinction elevates one bishop to the position of supreme pontiff. To have an understanding of this key issue that continues to stand as a barrier preventing unity between the Eastern and Western churches is to see one example of how these churches have developed widely divergent interpretations of a shared heritage.

End Notes:

Bernhard, Schimmelphfennig, The Papacy, 3rd ed. (New York, 1992), 2.
Ignatius. To the Trallians. In The Apostolic Fathers, J. B. Lightfoot trans. & J. R. Harmer ed. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1974; originally published, 1956), 73.
R. A. Markus, From Augustine to Gregory the Great: History and Christianity in Late Antiquity, (London, 1983), 358.
Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, In The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 Peter Holmes trans. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1973), 258.
Klaus Schatz, Papal Primacy: From Its Origins to the Present (Collegeville, Minnesota, 1996), 7.
Walter Ullmann, The Growth Of Papal Government In The Middle Ages: A study in the ideological relation of clerical and lay power. 3rd ed. (London, 1970; originally published 1955), 2.
Schimmelphfennig, 3.
Schatz, 19
Ibid.
Henry Chadwick, The Early Church, Revised ed. (London, 1993; originally published 1967), 239.
Schatz, 11-13.
Seventh Council Of Carthage Under Cyprian, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325: Volume V Hippolytus,Cyprian, Caius, Novatian. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson eds. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971), 565.
Cyprian, Epistle XXVI, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325: Volume V Hippolytus,Cyprian, Caius, Novatian. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson eds. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971), 305.
Geoffrey Barraclough, The Medieval Papacy, 1st American ed. (New York, 1968), 19.
Schimmelphfennig, 35. These tax benefits were diminished in subsequent years as the empire came under financial strain.
Ibid., 16.
Constantine, The Synodal Letter, 325, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of The Christian Church (Second Series): Volume XIV The Seven Ecumenical Councils. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace eds. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971), 53.
Chadwick, 133.
Council of Sardica, Canon V, 343, in Documents of the Christian Church. H. Bettenson ed.; in The Middle Ages: Volume I: Sources of Medieval History, 3rd ed, edited by: Brian Tierney, (London, 1978), 62. This gathering turned out to be little more than a Western synod and its assertions granted far more jurisdiction to Rome than it actually possessed at the time.
Council of Constantinople, Canon III, 381, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of The Christian Church (Second Series): Volume XIV The Seven Ecumenical Councils. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace eds. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971), 178.
Barraclough, 24.
Schimmelphfennig, 39.
Schatz, 28-9.
Schimmelphfennig, 46.
Markus, 356.
Schimmelphfennig, 16.
Markus, 357-8.
Walter Ullmann, “Leo I and the Theme of Papal Primacy,” Journal of Theological Studies 11 (1960), 46.
Leo, The Great. Sermons. In The Fathers of the Church: Volume 93. Jane Patricia Freeland and Agnes Josephine Conway trans. (Washington, D.C., 1996), IV, ii.
Ibid., III, iv.
Chadwick, 244.
Council of Chalcedon, 451, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of The Christian Church (Second Series): Volume XIV The Seven Ecumenical Councils. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace eds. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1971), 259.
Ibid., 287.
Chadwick, 205.
Pope Gelasius I, Letter to Anastasias I, 494, in Church and State Through the Centuries. Sidney Z. Ehler and John B. Morrall eds. Westminster, Maryland, 1954; in Readings in Church History Volume I: From Pentecost To The Protestant Revolt, Colman J. Barry ed, (New York, 1959), 147.
Ullmann, Growth, 15.
Schatz, 47.
Barraclough, 29.
Schimmelphfennig, 53.
Pope Gregory I, Epistle XVII, in A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of The Christian Church (Second Series): Volume XII Leo The Great, Gregory The Great. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace eds. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1969), 78-9.
Pope Gregory I, Letter to Mauricius Augustus, in Selected Epistles of Gregory the Great. J. Barmby, trans. New York, 1895; in The Middle Ages: Volume I: Sources of Medieval History, 3rd ed, edited by: Brian Tierney, (New York, 1978), 66.
Chadwick, 289.
Emmanuel Lanne, “To What Extent is Roman Primacy unacceptable to the Eastern Churches?” in Papal Ministry In The Church, Küng, Hans, ed. (New York, 1971), 62.

half done!

2005-07-28T09:39:00.001-06:00

It feels good to be half done my current session of summer courses. Last Friday I wrote my Sociology of Youth final, and I tackled my Medieval Church History midterm on Monday. Between now and the end of August all I have to worry about is one paper and one final exam.

Without question, these have been two of the best classes I have had the opportunity to attend since coming to the U of L. They are both academically challenging and engaging in content. I am especially enjoying the research involved in my research project; I will be writing on the foundations of papal supremacy in late antiquity and the early middle ages (particularly from the 4th to the 6th centuries).

Since I have less school work to worry about, at least for the next few weeks, I am kicking around the idea of signing up for casual labour at the student employment office. Making a few extra hundred bucks will go a long way toward buying some more books in the fall.

reflections on my father

2005-07-26T11:31:00.000-06:00

Jayson's recent post intitled The Guitar has inspired me to make some similar reflections on my weblog today. He poses this question:

Do you ever have those moments in your childhood that you wish you could just keep in your pocket and pull it out and experience it whenever you need it, like putting on a warm comforter that your grandmother made on a cold day? Times when just think about it, and you feel warm inside even to your very soul and being?

In response to that question, my answer would be: "yes, but...". Like Jayson, I must confess that I don't have an abundance of memories to draw from that fit within the category described above, but I would also like to add that new experiences continue to be added to my list of treasured memories. Just yesterday I spoke with my father on the phone for over an hour (which is a first in and of itself), but even more significantly, it seems to me that we are starting to connect on a level that I never would have hoped for or even expected - we are becoming friends.

In this post I may very well have crossed over the line into the realm of "after-school special cheese". However, I would like to elaborate on the steps I have been taking in my relationship with my father. Our relationship has never been characterized by closeness in a conventional sense. My father is a man of few words and a character that is demonstrated through hard work and personal integrity. He never sat me down to lecture me on his philosophy of living, but rather this was something he demonstrated through his actions. As such, our conversations have almost always been to the point, and our extended discussions have typically been centered around work, sports, weather, and the like.

This is what makes our conversation on the phone yesterday stand out to me. We touched upon issues of hope, pain, personal identity, loneliness, and our dreams for the future. Perhaps it is just me, entering a new phase of growth within my own life that I can now appreciate a conversation of this nature, or perhaps we are both growing. Whatever the case may be, I look forward to building new memories that will be a source of comfort in days yet to come.

faith expressed

2005-07-24T16:28:00.000-06:00

In recent weeks my faith has been challenged and inspired by the example of a young man named Shemelas, who recently immigrated from Ethiopia to Canada. Without question, in his fourteen years of life he has endured challenges far beyond my comprehension. After having been separated for about five years from his father, who is also a recent immigrant to Canada, he has finally been able to join his family in a new and distant land. Not only is he starting a new life here in Canada, he is also taking profound steps in his Christian journey.

Below you can see a picture of Shemelas along with Pastor Wes who baptized him.

These are Shemelas' own words that he shared with us before his baptism:

Today is my second birthday that means I born from spirit and water. My baptism shows that I believe Jesus died and buried to my sins and then he rised from death. I was waiting to see this day for such a long time. To me this day is great, and I will celebrate this day as my birthday.

Jesus is my Lord, Saviour, and I believe and love in him. Before Jesus came to the world we were out of the Kingdom of God, we did not have right to have eternal life. But after Jesus came to the world this things are changed. Jesus is bridge that connects God and humans, he is also the one who makes us to be called children of God.

I am so happy and proud to be with you and to have fellowship with you in Jesus' name. And I just want to say thank you to our pastor and to all members of Central Church of Christ. Thank you and God bless you and our church.

hopefully I am not selling out, at least not too much

2005-07-23T17:46:00.000-06:00

I am relatively new to the blogosphere. The uninhibited nature inherent within this venue of communication is especially significant in my mind. The thoughts we share are published in the public domain without having been filtered by the commercial interests of the world in which we live. So many of the messages we see and hear every day have been crafted with the purpose of fanning the flame of our addiction to consumer goods; however, in the blogosphere we have the capacity to step outside the boundaries in which the corporate elite would have us live.

Having said all this, I realize that it is hypocritical of me to place a link in this post to a website that is selling a specific product. (In fact, when I look back to many of my previous posts I make direct reference to consumer goods, but I digress...). I wanted to share this link because it contains an offer for three free audio books. Not only do I love the format, the price couldn't be better.

In order for you to get these audiobooks without being on the hook for purchasing future volumes you need to cancel your membership within 14 days. There is a wide range of titles to choose from, and I can't think of a time in my life when I ever turned down three free books.

If this sounds interesting to you check out the offer at audible.com

bachelor for a weekend

2005-07-21T21:02:00.000-06:00

I just got back from taking my wife to the airport in Calgary. She is traveling along with her three sisters to her cousin's wedding in Port Elgin, Ontario this Saturday. I wish I could have made the trip with her; but alas, finances and summer courses at the U put a damper on idea mighty fast.

(I just had to insert this picture of lovely bachelor cuisine.)

All things considered, I don't think I will be getting into too much trouble this weekend. I will be writing my Sociology final tomorrow (I'll be hitting the books as soon as I am done this post), I have a games all nighter with the youth group Friday/Saturday, and another little mid-term to prepare for on Monday.

fun with leadership/personal growth cliches

2005-07-20T13:18:00.000-06:00

Rye Shy had something like this posted on his blog not too long ago, so I thought I would share in the laughs

cultural insight

2005-07-18T16:58:00.000-06:00

I can't help but agree with this cultural insight that I encountered today:

The present reality is that modernism is not being replaced by postmodernism… rather the two are like tectonic plates which continue to rub against each other.

Sociologist David Lyons

The question is, on which tectonic plate do you make your residence? Or do you find yourself caught upon that distructive, and hopeless, faultline that runs between these worldviews?

an interesting little survey

2005-07-17T22:45:00.000-06:00

This is my theological worldview according to a survey I took, that was created by someone who I don't know. While this is by no means definitive, it is certainly interesting.

You scored as You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan

68%

Emergent/Postmodern

61%

Modern Liberal

57%

Neo orthodox

54%

Reformed Evangelical

46%

Roman Catholic

39%

Classical Liberal

36%

Charismatic/Pentecostal

29%

Fundamentalist

25%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

When I took this survey I didn't spend a lot of time "thinking" about my answers, I went with my "gut" response (what does that say about my theological worldview???). I thought that the results were interesting and not all that surprising. In this are reflected both my more "conservative" roots at the very top of the list and my more "liberal" experience since that point in time.

391 days too long

2005-07-13T16:48:00.000-06:00

I have mixed feelings about the end of the NHL lockout. On one hand I am elated, because I really did miss watching the Edmonton Oilers beat the Calgary Flames; but then again, I can't believe it has taken this long to come to come up with an agreement that doesn't look all that different than countless proposals that could have saved the 2004/2005 season. It is difficult to pick sides in an argument between billionaire owners and millionaire players, especially in light of the fact that the fans are the real losers in the end. Ultimately, I am just glad to see that we are going to have hockey this fall.

I must confess that there is one potential situation that will get me very excited about the coming NHL season, if the Oilers win the draft lottery and pick Sidney Crosby in the first round. It might almost be like taking a trip back to the mid-80s.

the intensity of a three week course

2005-07-13T00:01:00.000-06:00

When was the last time you finished the third of a course in five days, wrote a mid-term on the sixth, followed by a group presentation and a term paper all before day eleven? Thankfully, all I have left to do is the term paper at this point, and then the final - of course!

Whew! Now that I have that off my chest, I must confess the good advice that my wife gave me the other day,

"Don't complain, you wanted to take summer courses!"

P.S. I must also say how happy I am that the term paper in my 6 week course (Medieval Church History) has been moved back from August 3rd to the 8th, which means I will be able to enjoy the long weekend!

a small move

2005-07-06T17:28:00.000-06:00

Some time ago I published a post about the desire Wesla and I have for finding a new place here in Lethbridge to hang our hats. Living on campus at the U has some perks, but it has really been our desire to find something a little bit cheaper. Over the course of the past month or so we have looked at a number of different places, but the difference in expense really wasn't a big enough incentive for us to go through the painful experience of packing our stuff up into small containers.

Until recently, I thought we would be signing on for another year long lease at the student family housing (yes, they make you sign another year long lease at the U of L, even after you have been living there for a year), but fortunately another opportunity presented itself. A friend from our church who owns a house is looking to rent out some space in his house, and he offered to rent us the upper floor. The only drawback is having a shared kitchen and bathroom, but on the other side we will now have access to a dishwasher and a washer & dryer! All this for a price that is in the range of what we were looking for when we starting looking for a different place. We are going to be making the small move at the end of July.

spin and statistics

2005-07-05T16:29:00.000-06:00

So far, I am really enjoying this new round of summer session courses. I am only two days into the summer semester II, so there is no pressure - yet. Sociology classes are always fun because you get to look at stats, spin them different ways, and see what kinds of conclusions you can draw (based upon your assumptions, your methodology, and the like).

When you are looking at stats it is also healthy to be a little bit cynical of the conclusions that are being drawn, but I have never heard it put in quite this way before:

"Statistics are like pornography, they give you a sense of intimacy you don't really have."

(Professor James Penner, quoting an associate)

I believe this is true of so much of the "scientific" data that we rely upon in the social sciences. Without question, there is value to be found in the research and findings, but there are also so many variables that cannot be controlled or measured when we turn the microscope upon ourselves.

a week of down time (but where has it gone?)

2005-06-30T19:14:00.000-06:00

This week has almost come and gone, but it has been a good one. I have really enjoyed the down time, as I am between summer semesters, but at the same time I am looking forward to getting back to the academics. During this coming summer session I am enrolled in Medieval Church History and Sociology of Youth; remarkably, I am actually looking forward to the content of both these classes.

For the first time this summer I have actually engaged in some deutschlernen, if I don't get on top of that I will be in for a rude awakening come September when I step into the intermediate class, German 1500.

soggy camping fun

2005-06-29T13:15:00.000-06:00

This is me getting wet while I try in vain to keep our stuff dry

Wesla, Weida, and Wynne

Mmm smores!

This past weekend we went camping with some family and friends, there were twelve of us in all. Despite the rain we had a great time and we were able to celebrate Wesla's big 25th B-Day.

moutain top experience

2005-06-27T16:40:00.000-06:00

mountain top experience

Another shot from the top of table moutain

This shot dates back to last weekend when we hiked to the top of table mountain wtih some of the youth from our church. It was a great experience, even though they beat us all the way to the top!

P.S. When you click on the top photo you can just make out the rollerblading scar I wrote about back in April in a hurtin' unit

finished my first practicum

2005-06-23T14:10:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was my last day of my first summer semester at the U of L, with that came the end of my first practicum. Overall, things went very well. The teacher associate that I was observing was amazing in many ways, and the class was great too. I found it hard to get into the journaling portion of the course, but I was able to slog through the requirements and get the job done.

Today I had my interview with the prof who was facilitating the seminar sections of the course and supervising us in the field. I wasn't worried about the content of the interview, but I was thrown for a bit of a loop when I discovered just how it was going to be conducted. In each of the categories that were being evaluated I had to say what I thought I deserved in the course, and then the prof would put something different down if she disagreed. Man, did that ever take me out if my comfort zone! On more than one occasion she asked me why I was so hard on myself, and I guess I had never realized how much that is the case. When we were going through each one of the categories I was so afraid that I would rate myself higher than what the professor believed that I would 'play it safe' by picking a lower mark.

Maybe I shouldn't read too much into this, but I couldn't help but consider the deeper spiritual and emotional significance of what came out of that interview. What does my attitude about myself say about my self-image? Does this in any way give some kind of insight into unresolved issues of guilt?

a different read

2005-06-21T20:55:00.000-06:00

Today I picked up a book unlike any I have ever read before. It is a documentary called Down to this by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall. I am only about seventy pages into it, but it definitely has me intrigued. It is about one man's experience living for one year one Toronto's inner-city streets. He was raised with every privilege, and yet he was compelled to take this drastic step in his life, and obviously he has turned it into a book.

He is slowly revealing his motivations for making this move as the book progresses, I won't reveal anything that I have discovered to this point in the off chance that you are interesting in picking this book up, but I will say that it certainly does provide some first hand insight into life on the streets.

There is one quote that has particularly stood out to me.

"If it is true that absolute power corrupts absolutely, then so does powerlessness"

In these words the author is describing how powerlessness has pushed him to do things that his convictions would never allow under 'normal' circumstances. Activities such as: accepting welfare, begging, or even to stealing all became reality when he was pushed to the brink of powerlessness.

go for the flavour

2005-06-15T16:04:00.000-06:00

My new favorite snack is without question the new Tostitos product: "Hint of Jalapeno" nachos. Simply put, they are amazing. They are not insanely spicy, but they add just a little extra kick, especially when compared to a plain nacho when you are dipping into some salsa.

i guess i'm it

2005-06-14T15:49:00.000-06:00

Jayson laid a tag down on me a couple of days ago, now here I am trying to catch up with things...

How many books do I own?

I have a little over 300 books, and Wesla has about that many again

Last book I bought?

Fiction: Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (second hand)
Non-Fiction: Paris: 1919 by Margaret MacMillan

Last book I read?

The last book I read was Digital Fortress, I am still working on Paris: 1919.

5 Books that meant a lot to me (in no particular order)?

1. The Message paraphrased/translated by Eugene Peterson. I constantly find myself going back to his quasi-translation in my devotional reading.

2. The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This is a book where the testimony of a man's life gives extra credance to the words he placed upon the written page.

3. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. These are remarkable works of fiction that inspire the mind and stir the soul.

4. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It is not so much the content of this book, or its theme that makes it so engagin to me, but rather the way it is written; every time I pick it up I am unable to put it down until I am finished.

5. Tale of the Tardy Oxcart by Charles Swindoll. This is a book of engaging, interesting, and funny sermon illustrations that have saved my butt on more than one occasion. There are many illustration anthologies out there, but this one, in my opinion, is one of the best.

I am sending out tags to: Greg & Estelle ... you it!

steppin' it up, perhaps, we'll see

2005-06-10T10:53:00.000-06:00

This last weekend was Wesla and I took part in our youth camp, which was held at Waterton Park. Not only was the experience a lot of fun, it was remarkably refreshing in a number of ways. It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of young people for an extended period of time, and it was great to be able to cut loose and get a little bit stupid. There was a lot of adult help at the camp, so I wasn't worrying about logistics the whole time, I was actually able to spend quality time with the campers.

Out of the twenty-five or so campers about eight of them brought their guitars, and we were able to have some great jam sessions. Some of them were really into helping out with the worship sets, there were up to six of us leading the songs at one time! We were also able to bust out some great games of Axis & Allies and Settlers of Catan into the wee hours of the morning.

This is a time of transition for the youth group at our church as Lisa Latimer, who has been the youth leader at Central Church of Christ for the past three years or so, has just moved to Calgary with her husband - where he just got a new job. The opportunity that is presenting itself, combined with the experience of this past weekend has really got me searching and discerning about what role (if any) I should (or could) play within the context of this ministry.

My primary concern about getting involved is centered around my ability to do a good job with the youth, while at the same time being able to maintain my commitments to my family, and to my studies at the University. Pastor Wes and I have been speaking about this at some length, and there seems to be a good possibility that sharing the responsibility with a second leader might be a solution to this issue.

I am going to be helping out with the youth event tonight and I am looking forward to seeing what transpires.

interesting

2005-06-07T21:29:00.000-06:00

This is a blog with an interesting concept, Postsecret is a place where you can anonymously email your deepest secrets on one side of a postcard for the world to see.

just feeling blue

2005-06-06T23:03:00.000-06:00

I had one of those days today. There is no one reason. So I thought I should mix it up with a little humor (please see below).

the funniest prayer request ever!

2005-06-06T22:32:00.000-06:00

Hands down, it was the funniest thing I have ever heard in a church service. It was last Thanksgiving, and Wesla and I were visiting my grandparents in Tofield. We were mixing and mingling when we met a man and his wife who were also visitors that particular morning. They were married just one day earlier, and the new groom wanted to visit with the pastor who ministered to him while he was in prison, yes that's right he had also just gotten out of prison. (I know there is another joke inherent within this senerio, but I'm not going there!) We talked for a while longer, he was clearly uncomfortable with his unfamiliar surroundings, but he was also determined to go to church, and so he stayed for the service.

Nothing eventful happened until it came time for the prayer. Everyone was invited to share the many reasons why we were thankful to God, since it was Thanksgiving and all. Being a farming community, many of the folks gave thanks for the harvest. With each person who shared the eyes of the visitor grew wider and wider, he was bursting at the seams until he could contain himself no longer, he just had to share the prayer of thanksgiving that was weighing upon his heart. He said, "Many of you are giving thanks today for seeds sown and harvests reaped, well, my wife and I were married yesterday and I would like to give thanks for the seeds that were sown - we are also hoping for a harvest someday very soon."

At that moment every bit of air was sucked out of the auditorium in one great gasp. Instantly the face of the new bride turned a shade of red I cannot even begin to describe, and there was an awkward silence that lasted until someone finally dared to laugh. This gave permission to the whole congregation to do the same. Even better than the good laugh, we were able to pray for God to bless their union and to grant them the gift of a child.

water for the weary

2005-06-03T16:33:00.000-06:00

It may be soggy and overcast, but at least there is a little bit of green on the horizon. Having moved from southern Ontario, which always seemed to be green and stunningly beautiful, Lethbridge resembles little more than a desert wasteland.

This shot was taken off our townhouse balcony, if you look closely you can see the new billboard overlooking our skyline.

a teacher's integrity

2005-06-01T17:09:00.000-06:00

We had a very interesting discussion in our ed 2500 class today relating how a teacher is to handle potentially controversial issues in the classroom. This all started with some of the content in a story that my Teacher Associate is reading to her grade five class, it is called Bridge to Terabithia. Part of what was so shocking to me was the overt references to Christian faith in the content of the story, even to the point where it went into some significant detail of Christian belief - and we must remember that this is a public school. When I spoke to the teacher after the class about this kind of content being allowed in the classroom, she explained that this book has been approved as an appropriate resource in the Alberta curriculum and so there are no issues about this book being used. She further elaborated that if the content of her lessons dealt in any way with some of the finer theological points she would speak to her students about the different religious beliefs that people hold.

This issue really became interesting when it came time to discuss it with my peers back at the university during our seminar session. The moment I related this question to the class, there was instantly a stream of discussion coming from all angles. A deeper level of significance was uncovered when we considered the question, "What is a teacher to do when he or she is called to teacher material in the curriculum that is in conflict with her or his own personal views?"

Is it possible to have integrity as a teacher while at the same time teaching a lesson that contradicts his or her own value system? To what extent should a teacher challenge the system? Is a teacher to simply teacher the material as the curriculum demands or hit the road?

men's retreat

2005-05-29T13:43:00.000-06:00

I went to the men's retreat this past weekend at Pine Lake. It is such a beautiful spot, and I had not been there in about six years, so I had a bit of nostalgia. Steve McMillan, the new pastor at Oak Park Church of Christ, was the key note speaker and he had some good thoughts to share. I really appreciated his use of humor.

It was also great to catch up with some old friends, particularly some of the men I knew from Oak Park when I was interning there, back in 1999-2000. I had some time to speak with John Nicholson, who is always and encouragement, and Eric Nyrose as well.

Some of the highlights included getting my but kicked at Settlers of Catan, an intense horseshoe tournament, and an intense game of slow pitch. My horseshoe partner and I went undefeated at the tournament but we had to drop out because we were not able to stay for the whole weekend. I would have loved the opportunity to challenge John Nicholson for the championship.

more ed 2500

2005-05-27T10:25:00.000-06:00

This past week I started the 'observation' portion of my Education 2500 practicum. I am working with a grade 5 class. They are a great bunch of kids, and there is so much I can learn from the teacher - she has over 29 years experience. The purpose of this initial practicum is primarily observation so I will not be teaching full lessons at this point, but I do have many opportunities to do one-on-one tutoring and that sort of thing.

As a part of this course we also have two 'gallery visits'. This when our university class goes as a group to observe a classroom. Obviously, this has great potential for distraction for the performers in a classroom. For our first gallery observation we went to a school that has an adjoining room with a huge one-way mirror, which allows us to observe the classroom without being a distraction. It was like viewing a giant, wide-screen, reality television.