Kidnapped Christian Peacemaker Team

One of the four Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) members captured in Iraq is from our neighborhood here in Toronto. Jim Loney was leading the team that is currently being held. Jim co-founded and continues to live in the Catholic Worker houses that are clustered on the street right behind us and are owned by our landlord. We had not yet had a chance to meet Jim as he has been in Iraq, I believe, since we arrived. See CPT's statement on the situation which blames the U.S. and the U.K.'s illegal war for the kidnappings and affirms the team's conviction that 'violent force ... should not be used should they be kidnapped, held hostage, or caught in the middle of a conflict situation.'

Please pray for Jim, for Jim's fellow Catholic workers, for the other team members and their friends and families, and most especially that the situation would somehow help to reduce violence in Iraq and demonstrate a different Christian way of being in the world.

Newspaper Article/ Baby

We met with a reporter from the Toronto Star tonight who wanted to talk about our emerging community and the "New Monasticism." Please pray that the article will be a boon to the community and aid in its growth. Angela has been nesting. The baby could come anytime now. Yikes!

Thanksgiving

My parents. Glad they made it another year! Blake's wedding. The new community coming. The chance to study. Flannel sheets. Yellow yarn. Doug. My students especially my little Jesuit and my Irish lass. Doug's work. Johanna's funny comments. Today when I asked her what is a family she started to sing: We all live in a yellow submarine. From whence who knows. It is so amazing to be part of birth and new life especially when you see that new life begin to bring new things into the world: a new voice, new thoughts, new energy, new love.... Simeons toothy smile. Friends. Friends. That I am still somehow Christ's.

Things

Angela and baby are doing well. The babe is most certainly getting more and more in a birthing postition. It has been amazing to watch Angela's belly drop before our eyes. I am amazed by Ben and Angela. They are doing a good job of planning and resting. Angela looks like some sort of Mother goddess. She has been more help to us than we have been to her. It seems we (Doug and I) are destined to be more in others debt than vice-versa. Doug is doing a good job as street pastor. He is fearless, friendly, compassionate and tough-minded. Exceptional in his ability to be tender and firm. I think that good things are going to come to our community life out of his work. Ben is getting good leads on jobs in labs. Johanna and Simeon have been screwed up a little by our vacation and the new people in the house they are acting like real ratskallians at night. School is going well. I am enjoying teaching but hate passing out grades. I made a girl cry the other day. U of T's grading philosophy is not mine but alas..... Other than that I am working my way into a decent thesis proposal.

Pennies for the Homeless

[Doug approaching the southeast corner of Yonge and Bloor from the South]

:Pennies for the Homeless?!

D: What do you need, I'll get you something?

:A couple of dollars.

D: I'll get you a hamburger or coffee or something.

:But they might be closed, they closed at eight.

D: there's McDonalds or coffee shops that are always open right there.

:okay. let's see. they close at eight sometimes


[walking into Harvey's, one of a chain of fastfood burger joints]

D: what do you want to get?

:I'll have a hamburger with everything on it and a small coke


[D: gets in line while :sets up at a table nearby]
D [with the burgers and a pepsi, starting to sit]: oh, I'll get a straw for you.

:don't worry about it

D: so what's your name?

:Iranee

D: Ira
I [interrupting]: Iranee, it's the masculine form of Irene.

D: Iraneus is my favorite theologian, one of my favorite theologians.

I: ah, most people don't know it ...

D: so what brought you to Toronto [guessing from Montreal by the name and the accent]

I: The two race tracks. They're the best in the world.

D: ahhh

I: If someone tells you races are fixed they don't know anything. It's not fixed. It's all logical. The riders can look at the lineup and tell you if they are going to win or not ... [more on horseracing] ... So what do you do in Toronto?

D: I just got a new job. Pastor. Started last week.

I: Where?

D: It's with the Mennonite Central Committee. Street Pastor. They have me starting with Sanctuary. Right up the street here, you probably know them.

I: A good place. They do good work for the homeless. I do the races ... I just stay out doors for the winter. Like the fresh air.

D:Yeah

I [launching into a long, long lesson on picking winners]: ... There are four kinds of horses: Frontrunners, Closers, Man-of-War (they can do both), and followers ...

D: Yeah

I [more on the lesson]: ... At the track 90 percent of people lose, 9% break even, 1% win. It's not fixed though. You gotta be smart. Study hard.

D: So are you in the 9% or the 1%.

I: 1%

[I: pauses, thinks for a second]. I just hurt my shoulder, my hand, gotta borrow money from my friend. You know.

D: Yeah.

I: [launches into another soliliquoy, this time on the track's superiority] ... best in the world ...

D: Better than Del Mar, I'm from Southern California.

I: Oh yeah ... [more on the track, now on its relation to picking the horses]

D [having finished his hamburger, cleans his place and siezes on a break in the lesson]: Gotta go, told my wife I'd be home by 8:30 and I'm late already.

I: But you learned something didn't you?

D: Yeah, if I ever go to the track ... [mutters something about not having enough knowledge yet as he heads toward the trash can]

I: Could teach you everything I know in a month and a half.

D: I'll probably see you again since I'll be at Sanctuary.

[D: heads out the door and makes mental note: next time I'll sieze control of the conversation at the start. It'll be all about Iraneus' recapitulatory Christology and political demonology]

At 1:26 PM, John said...
I'm guessing a girl on December 8 at 7lbs 9 oz. ....By the way Jodie - how do I make a 'post' instead of just a 'comment' on this website? I want to be on the homepage too and not just 'hidden!' :-)
At 11:11 AM, Elizabeth H. said...
This post has been removed by the author.
At 11:13 AM, Anonymous said...
John, That guess isn't exactly original. I think that you are just copying me. Jodie
At 12:32 PM, Benjamin ElzingaCheng said...
I'm putting money on Dec 12th, boy, 6 lbs, 8 ounces.Ben

The Coming Child

OK. So I am guessing a girl, born on December 9th, 7lbs, 8 ounces.
Jodie

Angela, Ben and Baby Frisky arrive!

Angela and Ben have arrived! Angela is looking fit and beautiful. They are getting their room ready to have a homebirth! Our community house will be blessed by birth! Doug starts his job this week with the MCC. Angie is also on the verge of being offered a new position doing relational ministry with girls emerging from foster care. Heather, too, we have heard has gotten a job organizing volunteers for 10,000 villages. Would love to get fuller updates from all of these folks in the future. I am currently slogging through end of the year course work and am trying to find a place that fits at the U of Toronto.

Shelter from the Storm

Johanna and Simeon and I trailed along to sanctuary for our first worship service (the ministry Doug will intern with as a preparation for his work with the MCC.) I am really struck by how nice things are coming along for our community. Our home is inexpensive, yet capacious. Our location is close to the nerve cell of so much social justice work. Doug's job is with thoughtful, creative, and engaged folks. That can jam in a way to deeply please us Dylan fans. We are finding place and moorings with in a very large, intimidating city. There are also so many moments of delightful serendipity as Ben and Angela's friends and family back in Vancouver recommend ministries, churches,and people that we too are being drawn too. At times I wish for the big, common project feel. Especially as we paint and try and make this place habitable. Ah, a nice Saturday with everyone here in work clothes taking the vines off the walls, cleaning the basement and the background, fixing the downstairs bathroom.... and then a picnic to follow. Yet, I am content with the known faithfulness of friends, acts of correlation and the hope for bigger and better tomorrows.