The new Wordpress template is done, and all the old Blogger posts have been imported. Please come and visit Waiting in Joyful Hope in its new location at blog.fatherdowd.net. It'll have the same familiar look, but with a few new features (like comments on the page itself, categories, search feature, etc.)

I'm going to keep this old blog in existence, to preserve the backlinks others may have set up on their websites. But this is my final post on the Blogspot site. Bye bye, Blogger — I learned blogging with you, but it's time to upgrade.

Finally, there are some custom functions that I had written for the Blogger site (like printer-friendly archives and posts, or the "send to a friend" function) which I will need to re-write for the new site. It should be fairly easy, though, because WordPress lets me get right into the underlying code. Hopefully those functions — and a host of new ones — will soon be coming your way!

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Just to let you all know, I've been working on some important changes to this blog. I am looking at using WordPress instead of Blogger, as it has some important features the service I am using now just doesn't have (like categories). Assuming I can get it working properly (and it is looking pretty good, actually), look for an announcement to redirect your browsers and links.

You can take a look at the work in progress at http://www.fatherdowd.net/blog/

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Monday, May 1: Study day at the Tim Hortons, corner Guy and DeMaisonneuve, from 10 am to 4 pm.

Wednesday, May 3: Final Exam. Be there.

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Got this in the mailbox today from Prof. Douglas Farrow:

The Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University

presents a special lecture in Jewish legal and political thought
and secular public policy

The Jewish Social Contract

by

David Novak
J. Richard and Dorothy Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies
University of Toronto

8 May 2006, 5 pm
Birks Building, 3520 University Street, Montreal


For more information visit www.mcgill.ca/prpp
Pluralism, Religion & Public Policy

Note from Fr. Tom: David Novak is an important participant in Jewish-Christian dialogue. He was one of the principal architects of the Dabru Emet statement on Christians and Christianity, and is a frequent contributor to First Things. He's a speaker worth a listen.

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This one from the West Island Chronicle.

UPDATE: And another link, this time from the Suburban!

UPDATE #2: Yet another link today, this time within the Montreal Gazette West Island section!

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I went out to my trailer today, for the first time since I closed it up last fall. Off came the tarp, and the rest was a piece of cake to set up. The campsite where it is located has not yet turned on the electricity or water (the season starts May 1) but I am good to go once they do. I'm looking forward to the next few months of getting away to my "getaway".

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Today was the press conference to announce the grand opening of our new chapel and prayer room at the Lakeshore hospital. The Executive Director of the hospital, as well as yours truly, a Rabbi, and an Imam, were all present as the main panel. We spoke about the place of the chapel in the healing mission of the hospital, and then there was an opporunity for pictures. Quite a bit of media was there, including Montreal's Téléjournal, who had a piece on the 6 pm news. I'll post more media links as they appear.

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I'm playing hooky from St. Luke's parish today, because my niece Alexandra had her Confirmation and First Communion at St. Martin de Porres parish in Ottawa. I confess, I did show up somewhat unannounced, so I didn't expect to do more than just concelebrate. But the pastor was very generous, and very kindly associated me with the confirmations, such that my Birthday Present received both these sacraments from her uncle! Pretty neat, and not just for her!

Oh, the reason I call her my Birthday Present is because she was born on my birthday. I told her the story again today of how special it was for me when she was born. And today has its own special character as well. God bless, Alex!

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If you've ever heard Sonia sing, you heart has been moved. There is a rare purity to her voice that is without tricks or rough edges. You just get the impression the music sounds exactly the way it should. I can't make it to her concert, but I encourage others to go!

What: works from Schubert to Mozart to Contemporary Musical Pieces
When: Saturday May 6, 2006 at 8pm
Where: The church of St. Andrew and St. Mark, 865 Lakeshore Drive, Dorval, Quebec.
Cost: Adults $15, Students $10, Families $25.

Please call (514) 626-4190 or email sonia.castiglione@sympatico.ca for tickets.

Proceeds to the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation

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I received a letter from the Archdiocese two days ago. I am getting transferred.

Where, you may ask? I will still be a half-time chaplain at the hospital, but my parish assignment will be changing. I will be returning to St. Thomas à Becket parish, as a half-time assistant, starting September 1.

Just call me Fr. Ping-Pong Ball.

Or, well, don't. It does sound funny.

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A very odd photoessay...

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This past week I've been a very busy bee, trying to get things ready for the GRAND OPENING of the new chapel at the Lakeshore General Hospital (where I minister). We are having a press conference on Monday to launch the thing, and then two days of open house for the neighbourhood clergy on the Thursday and Friday. We are hoping they will talk things up in their parishes etc. so that the two major days of open house, those for the public, will be an equivalent success.

Of course, another good way to get the word out is to blog about it! So please take note of my new banner at the top of the blog, and if you have a chance to pop over for the open house at any point, come on down! You are most welcome.

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I attended my first meeting of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism (yes, I'm on the board of that too). It seems I've joined the Centre at a turning point in its history: the current Director has resigned to become a professor in Nigeria, the financial situation is not pretty, and the by-laws are about to go through a process of review (something which hasn't happened in 30 years, apparently). The Centre has to take a global look at its mission — something I fit well with, because I am a systems thinker.

On the way home, I started wondering what my own vision of ecumenism is. I share with you the following ideas.


Why bother?

The disunity found in the Christian world is a threat to the credibility of the Gospel. This realisation was what prompted the start of the ecumenical movement in the first place, flowing as it did out of the missionary movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. If we are serious about accomplishing the mission Christ has given us in the world today, a concern for Christian unity has to be part of our spiritual mindset.


The standard of unity

Jesus set the bar high when, during the Last Supper, he prayed to his heavenly Father in these words:

I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. (John 17: 20-23)

Jesus himself first pointed out the problem of disunity with regards to the credibility of the Gospel, but notice how he does not propose unity merely as some sort of marketing tactic. Instead he sets, as the standard of Christian unity, the unity of the Persons in the Trinity! Yikes! And yet, it must be possible. Every person who has received the Holy Spirit is a child of God by that very fact, sharing in the very "DNA" of the Father and Son. So the start of the path to Christian unity is for us to be constantly renewed in the presence and action of Holy Spirit in us. And since the Holy Spirit is generally understood to be the substantial, living Love between the Father and the Son, to be fully alive in the Holy Spirit means to be living the fulness of Christian love and charity. Genuine love is both the means and the standard of Christian unity, and Jesus himself said that the world would know we were really his disciples by how we love one another.


The measure of unity

It is very significant that Jesus prayed this prayer during the Last Supper. According to Tradition, it was during this supper that Jesus instituted the sacraments of Eucharist and Holy Orders, both of which are sacraments of unity. On a personal level, Jesus already taught us that, if we know we are a cause of a lack of love with a neighbour, we need to be reconciled with that person before we offer our gift at God's altar. But this also works on the level of Church communion: we will know that unity has been achieved between Christian confessions when we can properly "approach the altar" together as well. In practical terms, inter-confessional unity can be said to be achieved when (1) the members of each church are generally permitted to receive communion in the church of the other, and (2) when the ministers of each church are allowed to substitute for each other for the same spiritual functions.


How do we get there?

The best roadmap to Christian unity, in my opinion, was the Decree on Ecumenism, published in 1964 by the Second Vatican Council. Yes, I know, this is a document coming from just one church, but consider these points: this was the largest gathering of Christian leadership *EVER* in the history of Christianity, and it included participating observers from every major Christian denomination (and who, I might add, were heavily consulted in the preparation of the Declaration). Surely the Holy Spirit was in there somewhere, and if so, we should pay close attention to what He said.

What does this roadmap contain? Read it for yourself:

The term "ecumenical movement" indicates the initiatives and activities planned and undertaken, according to the various needs of the Church and as opportunities offer, to promote Christian unity. These are: first, every effort to avoid expressions, judgments and actions which do not represent the condition of our separated brethren with truth and fairness and so make mutual relations with them more difficult; then, "dialogue" between competent experts from different Churches and Communities. At these meetings, which are organized in a religious spirit, each explains the teaching of his Communion in greater depth and brings out clearly its distinctive features. In such dialogue, everyone gains a truer knowledge and more just appreciation of the teaching and religious life of both Communions. In addition, the way is prepared for cooperation between them in the duties for the common good of humanity which are demanded by every Christian conscience; and, wherever this is allowed, there is prayer in common. Finally, all are led to examine their own faithfulness to Christ's will for the Church and accordingly to undertake with vigor the task of renewal and reform.

When such actions are undertaken prudently and patiently by the Catholic faithful, with the attentive guidance of their bishops, they promote justice and truth, concord and collaboration, as well as the spirit of brotherly love and unity. This is the way that, when the obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical communion have been gradually overcome, all Christians will at last, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, be gathered into the one and only Church in that unity which Christ bestowed on His Church from the beginning.

Notice the boldness of the second paragraph? It says that if we follow the roadmap of the first paragraph, the end result will be a common celebration of the Eucharist — the measure, as I have already pointed out, of Christian unity. That hopeful tone just sounds to me like the voice of the Holy Spirit.


So what about the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism?

There is a lot more in the Declaration than the brief bit I copied, but even now we have a good place to start to look for what kinds of activies the Centre can focus on. These would be:

1. Promotion of mutual understanding
   
   All Christians are responsible before God to make sure we do not bear false witness against our neighbours. Ecumenically speaking, however, this can only be avoided if we truly get to know the perspective of the "other" (something mentioned in the Declaration in point #9). The Centre could help all churches "acquire a more adequate understanding of the respective doctrines of our separated brethren, their history, their spiritual and liturgical life, their religious psychology and general background" (point #9 again) by organizing conferences, symposia, festschiften, and so on.
   
2. Organization of dialogue opportunities
   
   While there do exist certain "official" dialogues between the various churches, these often lack a certain focus. In many cases it is unofficial groups, like Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) or the Groupe des Dombes that are able to make the most progress in overcoming theological barriers. Eventually some sort of official decisions would need to be made by the church hierarchies regarding concrete acceptance of the results of such dialogues, but in the meantime the Centre could contribute quite a bit by organizing "groups of theological interest", always seeking some deeper unity behind the questions which divide. The latter must always be at least possible, thanks to the basic moral principle that humans are always seeking the good, even when what we happen to be affirming at the moment might be a deficient good. What is the "particular good" that the doctrine and practice of the "other" seeks to affirm? If we look for the particular goods behind the various statements, we often find ourselves discovering a deeper unity behind the differences — even if that is simply the discovery of the basic humanity of the other, and the common quest for the fulness of life.
   
   
3. Joint charitable action and work for social justice
   
   Christians are called to animate the temporal order with the Spirit of Christ, and this is a practical mission that can already be shared on a broad level by the various Christian churches. #12 of the Declaration mentions several possible areas of cooperation:
   
   

   This cooperation, which has already begun in many countries, should be developed more and more, particularly in regions where a social and technical evolution is taking place be it in a just evaluation of the dignity of the human person, the establishment of the blessings of peace, the application of Gospel principles to social life, the advancement of the arts and sciences in a truly Christian spirit, or also in the use of various remedies to relieve the afflictions of our times such as famine and natural disasters, illiteracy and poverty, housing shortage and the unequal distribution of wealth.

   
   With regards to work for social justice, the differences in the moral theology of the different Churches sometimes makes this hard to accomplish. Almost without exception, however, Christian churches agree that the principle of religious freedom should be respected, in that no one should ever be *coerced* with regards to religious beliefs and practice. Surely the defense of the right of freedom of conscience, under attack in many parts of the world, can be a way for Christians to work together, extending then further to pro-life work, work for economic justice, and so on. The Center for Ecumenism could slowly develop an "active agency" arm to work for all these aims, and thus pave the way for Christian unity.
   
   
4. The promotion of ecumenical spirituality and common prayer
   
   The term "spiritual ecumenism" refers to the thirst for holiness and accompanying change of heart that comes from a genuine brush with God. And this spiritual ecumenism is, in many ways, the heart and soul of the ecumenical movement itself, because a sincere and humble desire for holiness can be easily recognized across denominational boundaries. Each community of Christians contains "hidden saints" whose greatest desire is to live in communion with God at all times, and these persons, given the chance to share their journey together, would be a powerful force for growth in unity. The Centre could organize "spiritual seminars" where an ecumenical spirituality is promoted, organize ecumenical retreats around particular spiritual disciplines, and even promote "field trips" between Christian communities, to give these "hidden saints" a chance to discover one another. One the connections are made, the Holy Spirit would take over from there I am sure.
   

One final point the Declaration made with regards to the road map is "the task of renewal and reform" in each particular church. In all honesty, I think this is an area where the Centre cannot really have a directive role, simply because nobody likes being told by outsiders and strangers what their problems are and how they need to change (and besides, there is just too great a risk of giving bad advice anyway). Nevertheless, there is something the Centre could do, to act as a "catalyst" for this process of renewal and reform.

To "renew" something means, literally, to "make new something which has become old". The Centre could promote a greater study of the ancient treasures of the Christian tradition, through Patristic and historical studies, and thereby stimulate a process of renewal within the churches.

The term "reform" is something which is generally understood, but which is also generally controversial, in that it there must always be a careful discernment between true "reformation" and false "deformation". Still, even here the Centre could make a genuine contribution, by having an on-going study program of the great reformation movements in the history of the Church. What motivated them? What made some successful, and why did some seem to flop? From this could come a vision of what "reform" really is, and help members of churches discern better between true and false reform.


How do we pay for all this?

The answer: it depends! In the past the Centre for Ecumenism has depended on contributions from the major Christian denominations, and this should definitely continue as a sign of their commitment to the ecumenical project. The Centre has also raised some revenue by means of the programming it offers, such as journal subscriptions, as well as through services rendered (such as professional consultations on inter-faith topics). Things like a seminar or a symposium could be set up to pay for itself, depending on only a modest success to break even. But ultimately, however, a broader base of support needs to be established for all this work, meaning that participation in the work of ecumenism needs to extended more effectively to the "ordinary" Christians in the pews on a weekend. There are only two ways to do this: to go broader, and to go deeper.

To go broader means to extend the visible presence of the Centre beyond the city of Montreal. If this is truly a "Canadian" centre for ecumenism, some sort of "chapter" system should be established so that the Centre is truly operative throughout the nation. Each chapter could be responsible, among other things, to make a particular contribution to the overall budget of the Centre, helping assure its ongoing viability.

To go deeper means to go more deeply into the hearts of people who are themselves devoted already to the service of the Lord. I am thinking here of the "hidden saints", as well of that special class of "person of vision" who is able to see the big picture and is willing to support it if a concrete plan is put forward. These kinds of people are often willing to financially contribute a worthwhile project or organization — in fact, the enjoy doing so. And the more the "ordinary Christian" is exposed to a positive experience of ecumenisn, the more the spirit of ecumenism settles in peoples' hearts. Beyond that, we just don't need to be afraid to ask!


And what about structure?

This is actually the easiest question of all — once the rest has been settled! A clear vision and mission, combined with a realistic appraisial of available resources, should lead to a clear and relatively simple organizational structure. I'm glad to know that the members of the committee reviewing the Centre by-laws want to start by reviewing the mission of the Centre, because structure really should flow from mission rather than simply be cooked up from theoretical models. Unity of mission leads to unity of purpose, which is far more valuable than org charts.

Of course, behind this is the question of the mission of Christ (i.e. just why *did* he come to Earth?), and behind that is the ultimate question of all: what is salvation? This is, in my honest opinion, THE KEY THEOLOGICAL QUESTION of the 21st century. Whoever the Centre hires to be its next Director had better have a good sense of what this question means, or else we'll just have a caretaker and not a real leader at the helm. Please keep us in your prayers.

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I got an email last week from Brian Walsh of Maximus Media Group, asking me if I'd like to post a notice on my blog regarding the new reality documentary series God or the Girl. It is about 4 men trying to discern between marriage or the priesthood.

Let me start by saying I hate reality TV. And while I had heard of this show before, I had visions of how wrong this could go. I remember when I was in the seminary, we let in this reporter and gave him broad access to seminary life. We were hoping a balanced portrait would emerge, but instead we got the front-page headline "Sex life sacrificed for grace of God". Yeesh. So I wasn't too open to the idea, especially since I hadn't seen the show myself. And as I hadn't any intention of seeing the show, it didn't look like I'd be putting anything on my blog anytime soon.

The Holy Spirit, however, has a sense of humour. Late last evening I was channel surfing and I came across the show. I decided to give it 1 minute of my time — and then another, and another. It was really good! Now I was pretty tired, so I didn't watch the whole thing (and I still don't like reality TV), but it was very honest and compelling.

Anybody else seen it? Your thoughts?

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All together now: "INDEED HE IS RISEN!"

May the blessing of Easter come upon all of you. As for me, my day has been great. After the masses at the parish this morning, I got to Ottawa for Easter supper with my family. I had a couple of nice surprises — first, my aunt Bernice (father's sister) was there, and we had an interesting chat regarding (among other things) Islam and the West. I've been reading a very interesting book call No God But God (which I highly recommend) and it let me have at least a couple of intelligent things to say on the subject.

As a second nice surprise, my cousin Paul, along with his wife Frances and their kids Bobby, Sarah, Julia, and Sebastian, showed up for a brief visit. I hadn't seen them in ages — not since my ordination 4.5 years ago, at least.

Easter supper was delicious, and after everybody else took off I had a chance to chat with my sister about her new job working as a caregiver for disabled persons. I'm very proud of her and I'm glad to see her nursing skills being polished up — she has so much compassion in her, it only makes sense her hands work in conjunction with her heart.

God bless to all my blog readers!

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