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The Wycliffe Blog - Vestigia Dei
Vestigia Dei – is a Latin term meaning “traces of God.” As a theological term it is associated with natural theology – that is, the view that there are vestiges of God within creation. We’ve chosen this term as the title of the Wycliffe College blog because our hope is that through these writings, readers might glimpse evidences for God as our writers interact with the wider world.
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Women in Ministry? Light from Ancient GreekBy Catherine Sider-Hamilton Can a woman preach? Can women lead worship? Does God ordain authority for women in the church? It is a question that matters to me, as a woman and a priest in the Anglican church, now for more than 25 years. Greek points us toward an answer! Last week I read Genesis 1 with my Intermediate Greek Exegesis class. We read the creation story in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek... |
Tue, January 25, 2022 |
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When it comes to the church, how beautiful is small? Part 2By Stephen Andrews My dad was a “there-are-no-strangers-but-only-friends-I-haven’t-met-yet” kind of guy. He was disarmingly affable and could size up a situation that was full of flaws and point out what was good about it. If my dad’s church was troubled by waning numbers, I expect he would have gone about making more friends out of strangers. Happily, there are lots of folks in the church that are like my dad. Not easily given... |
Tue, January 25, 2022 |
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When it comes to the church, how beautiful is small? Part 1By Stephen Andrews Just when we thought that we were about to survive the coronapocalypse, the Omicron variant appeared from the viral swamp and, like the tail of the Balrog, swept us from the victory podium. So, for the next few months we renew our efforts to comply with mutating guidelines and policies, weary though we be, in the hope that if we all contract the disease, we shall not all do so... |
Mon, January 17, 2022 |
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Body Talk: Is there a Christian Way to Think About Our Bodies?By Judy Paulsen The first time I encountered the term eating disorder I was about twelve and read a letter addressed to Dear Abby, a syndicated advice column published in many North American newspapers. The letter was from the mother of a teenage girl who thought she was fat even though she was dangerously skinny. The woman’s daughter had stopped eating much of anything, and the mom was sick with worry. The term... |
Mon, January 10, 2022 |
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In the midst of Omicron discouragement, hopeBy Ephraim Radner The following comments were transcribed from opening remarks by Professor Ephraim Radner delivered at Morning Prayer in the Wycliffe College Founder’s Chapel, on Thursday, December 16, 2022. * I would imagine that some of us are feeling a bit discouraged right now in the face of some of the developments around the virus—the Omicron … and maybe in particular in the face of UofT’s... |
Thu, December 16, 2021 |
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The Alphabet—Greatest Invention of All Time?By Glen Taylor I believe our alphabet reflects one of the most significant inventions of all time. Without it, it would take years for me to learn the hundreds of pictographic signs that would be necessary to write this blog and for you to be able to read it. How was the alphabet invented? Before the alphabet, things were written by drawing a picture, for example, of a stick man representing a person.... |
Fri, December 10, 2021 |
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Lessons from the Front Lines of the B.C. FloodsBy Wycliffe College Student Paul Richards The atmospheric river that came was truly an inundation. Torrential rain for days caused mudslides, rivers to swell and burst their banks, roads and bridges to dissolve into nothing, and waters suddenly rising to dangerous levels and consuming homes, farms, and land. As the news steadily poured in of this terrible disaster in my province, the nearby community of Abbotsford was the hardest hit. Overflowing tributaries from the mountains to... |
Mon, December 06, 2021 |
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Hybrids WeBy George Sumner I once said in a Wycliffe class that there were two types of people, either/ors and both/ ands, at which point a student interjected, “but Professor, I think I am both a both/and and an either/or,” which proved the point. It’s an interesting question for the College, which was built after all across the street from its sibling Trinity, today both Anglican and ecumenically evangelical, ministerial and doctoral, pastoral and... |
Mon, November 22, 2021 |
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What is “discipleship”?By John Bowen A friend told me she once preached about discipleship. After the service, a parishioner came up to her and said, irately, “I am not a disciple. I am a member.” Oh well, I guess it was better than no reaction at all, and certainly better than, “Lovely sermon.” Like mission and missional, disciple and discipleship can be irritating words. Does anyone understand them? And do we really need them? It... |
Mon, November 22, 2021 |
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Loneliness—it’s now built inBy David Kupp There’s a growing ache at the heart of many of our western societies. Its name is loneliness. And a stream of actors has been calling it out of late: psychologists, pastors, pandemistas, even politicians. Loneliness has emerged as the faithful companion to our grandparents’ rural migration from the land and the village, as we chose city, industry, specialization, and dwindling household sizes, while riding the cultural horses of dehumanizing technology... |
Mon, November 15, 2021 |
