Briarpatch articles from April 2004

Briarpatch archives from April 2004

Faith in the struggle.
April 1, 2004... Briarpatch magazine serves as a forum for people who participate in, support, or share an interest in movements working towards greater social justice. The magazine is published in Saskatchewan, but often our content is national or...

War dance: a community in crisis revives traditional ceremonies banned by church and state.
April 1, 2004... The singing begins and your attention is on the beat of the drum, the sound of the rattle, and the men's voices captured in song. A great feeling of empowerment overwhelms you as you go round and round. Your heart soars as you dance and dance....

Passion of the people: looking for dignity in the Catholic church.
April 1, 2004... "The Talmud tells the tale of two men walking past the ruins of an ancient synagogue. One of them, saddened by the desolate rubble, sighs and remarks, "How much money my ancestors invested here!" His friend gently rebukes him, "How many souls...

Dialogue: the first step towards peace: the Muslim community urges the formation of discussion groups to examine our shared sense of humanity and the need to eliminate weapons of mass destruction.
April 1, 2004... Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are a symptom of our failure; human failure to progress beyond the "Tribal" stage of our social (attitudes, values, behaviour) and political development. Our modern social and political values and arrangements...

Time to heed Saint Francis: Catholic Bishops spell out a plan for ecological salvation.
April 1, 2004... The beauty and grandeur of nature touches each one of us. From panoramic vistas to the tiniest living form, nature is a constant source of wonder and awe. To enter into ever-deeper relationship with God--the Creator and "Lover of...

Renewing the sacred balance: Faith & the Common Good, an interfaith organization, is urging everyone to participate in David Suzuki's Nature Challenge and live in sacred balance with all inhabitants of the Earth.
April 1, 2004... This is how Faith & the Common Good describes its campaign to engage citizen participation in working towards a truly sustainable future. Only the most insensitive would ignore the reality that humans are contaminating or destroying the...

My ministry of irritation: the Women's Celebration Group takes steps to address patriarchy in the Catholic Church, but fear of backlash causes internal problems.
April 1, 2004... A year-and-a-half ago, a handful of Catholic women met in the staff room of a separate school one evening and talked about their faith, sharing their experiences of what it is like to be a Catholic woman in a church that still refuses to ordain...

Quakers in Kurdistan: Iraqi doctors get a helping hand from Canadian friends.
April 1, 2004... In April 2003, Toronto Monthly Meeting (Quakers) contacted Dr. Dale Dewar, a member of Prairie Monthly Meeting living in Wynyard, Saskatchewan, with an unusual request. The worship group wanted to raise funds for a project in Iraq. They wanted...

Bridging the cultural gap: Shirley Major Bonk, a Metis Elder and Member of Intercultural Grandmothers Uniting (who started working together in 1993 to address the issue of violence) in conversation with Catherine Verrall.
April 1, 2004... Catherine Verrall: How has life been for you, as a Metis woman? Shirley Major Bonk: Being Metis, we had so many things against us. Being a woman made it even worse. We didn't belong anywhere. The Whites wouldn't accept us. The First Nations...

The rituals and politics of death.
April 1, 2004... "No group of people has any influence on history unless it has common rituals that name and demarcate the seasons and the meanings of their lives, both individually and together. " --Richard Rohr, Hope Against Darkness In every known...

Revolutionizing religion in the united states: for 16 years pastors for peace has been defying blockades and laws that get in their way.
April 1, 2004... The corporate media suggests that the religious right is the only voice of faith emerging from the American public: one that is behind its president 100 percent; one that doesn't bother to ask where those weapons of mass destruction are; one...

How to Tell Your Children About the Holocaust.
April 1, 2004... How to Tell Your Children About the Holocaust by Ruth Mandel McGilligan Books Toronto, 2003. Perhaps more than any other historical event, the Holocaust has elicited a voluminous amount of scholarly, literary and artistic responses....

Life with dignity, hope for the future: the Mennonite Central Committee is bringing us guilt-free shopping opportunities and the chance to use our purchases to strengthen economically depressed communities around the world.
April 1, 2004... Shefali Das has worked at Biborton Handmade Paper for seven years making photo albums, frames and greeting cards from the large sheets of paper that are handcrafted there. Shefali is married and has two children--a son who is seven and a...