Alberta Bound...

In November, I appreciated the opportunity to visity the U of C and our intrepid chaplain, Kelly Johnson. I call the way Kelly  does chaplaincy as “chaplaincy on steroids”. In fact, our team in Alberta ( Kelly, Matt and Glenn) has a lot to teach the rest of us.They are each leveraging their strengths to develop new paradigms of campus chaplaincy ministry. In many ways, they have redefined and upgraded the position for a new millennium.



I had the privilege of sitting in on one of the chaplaincy Wednesday noon presentations for the U of C community. With Kelly's leadership, the chaplaincy provided a luncheon and an opportunity to hear an Iranian Christian Pastor , Afshin Latifzadeh,  speak on “Identity Issues in a Pluralistic Land” . Afshin was an academic who once lived in London, England and who could discuss his topic with an international perspective as well as with an inter-faith and inter-human appeal. His approach and personality was appealing with self-deprecating humour combined with solid content.

Afshin Latifzadeh

This is exactly the kind of event that we need to see more of. Kelly can pull it off because he has built credibility not only for himself but for the entire chaplaincy association. It is done on neutral turf and it has an appeal well beyond the Christian community.

Chaplains Hangin... Kelly (r)  Paul (2r)

 I spent some time with Kelly talking about the successes and struggles of being the de facto leader of an inter-faith chaplaincy at a major university. While I don’t have the privilege of telling you what they are, it is worth knowing that he very much appreciates the involvement of Paul Verhoef, the Christian Reformed chaplain, who happened to be the captain of the soccer team that my son David played for the previous summer while he was in Calgary.


There are several things to note. First, not only has the Muslim Student Association ( MSA) arisen as a force to be reckoned with across the country but there are various forms of Islam struggling for control and ascendency. Some of these forms are alarming.

Further, we talked about Pluralism. We are at variance with some of our mainline colleagues who tend to approach ecumenical or inter-faith discussions with the conviction that we are all either equally wrong or equally right. We cannot discuss our various faith positions without the caveat that we cannot really say we are "right". While it sounds equitable, this stance actually dishonors not only our own position but the position of those we are trying to hear. It puts all religions and truth claims through its own grid ( which, by the way, is seen to be the "right" one).

It is just so, well, "Canadian". Speaking as one who is Canuck to the core...we are  afraid of the possibility of strong disagreement( parliamentary conduct aside ) . So,in the interest of Tolerance - which once meant that we could disagree intensely, with charity and goodwill, about issues of ultimate importance , the rules are changed so that what remains is a neutered "common ground" which ought to offend no one. No one, that is, except believers of whatever tradition who are unhappy at finding that some of the very things they find most compelling about their beliefs are left on the cutting room floor.

To quote G.K. Chesterton  The point is ( speaking of those who promote the new curriculum of “tolerance”) is to propagandize acceptance of different ways, and indifference to their real content is as good a means as any.

More on this another time