When I was a boy, my thoughts at this time of year were almost exclusively focused on what I was going to get, or at least hoped to get, for Christmas. Now that I am a middle-aged man, my thoughts in early December focus on what carols I’ll get to sing, or hear sung, throughout the Christmas season. As I look outside and see the snow falling, I am reminded that Christmas and the season of gift giving are fast approaching. For many of us, conversations these days revolve around the gifts we are planning to give to family members and friends... Read More...

A Life In Medicine

Thomas Edward Cuddy (Ted to us) was recently recognized for a lifetime achievement by The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Manitoba. He served on their Board for 32 years. While involved in the Board work he also served on the Scientific and Scientific Review Committees of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba and Canada and spent time on the national Board. These activities were, of course, all as a volunteer.... Read More...

Harold Luross: A Brief look at A Long Life

In the late 1800’s a Norwegian farmer named Luraas emigrated with his family from Norway to the town of Sisseton, South Dakota, just south of the Red River Valley.

The story goes that they found the climate too cold for their livestock and the farm failed. They then headed north in 1905 to Atwater, Saskatchewan where they broke the land, settled in and became Canadians the same year Saskatchewan became a Canadian province.... Read More...

The Boylings have been in Westminster Church long enough, (since November,1969) that theirs are familiar faces to most people in the congregation. Phyllis has served in our choir from 1969 to 2004 (she actually started church choir singing at age 7 in a church in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan). Sid, who frequently reads the morning scriptures in our services, has served on the Worship Committee and for a number of years was responsible for recruiting and organizing the ushers and greeters in the narthex, a job, he says, which was a great happiness for him.... Read More...

80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNITED CHURCH

We have just passed our eightieth anniversary as a Canadian denomination. There are a few of our members who were born before the union officially took place, but hardly any of them will be old enough to remember the event. And none will remember in a personal way the declared intentions of what the entity was that the unionists were working to create. In this brief article I want to draw attention to a decision that was made very early on in the negotiations between the three uniting denominations about what the name of the “new” church was going to be called. Its name was to be the United Church of Canada.... Read More...

A LOOK-BACK TO AIDEN CONKLIN and HIS FAMILY

Does the name Aidan Conklin ring a bell? For many Westminster parishioners, the answer is likely yes. The more difficult question for those who grew up in the western end of Winnipeg is, ‘What kind of bell?’... Read More...

The editor of this worthy journal asked me to write a column on this quote from American minister Annie Dillard: “Whenever the church disengages from the culture, the culture always wins.” I said I’d be delighted to write for the newsletter. Only one problem: What did the quote mean? Did Ms. Dillard mean that the church needs more guitar- picking, sandal-shod ministers who talk earnestly about Jesus saving baby lambs?... Read More...