Prayer Letter: February 2025

Monday, February 3 - Friday, February 7:

This month, Trinity Christian College will host a full-month showing of the Cal and Ines Seerveld Art Collection, donated to the college by Dr. Cal Seerveld, a founding member of ICS. This remarkable collection includes over 60 artworks, featuring pieces by Krijger, works from young Patmos artists, and valuable art inherited from Ines' family, including works from her grandfather, Max Huber. ICS Junior Member Peter Enneson (M.Phil) has been instrumental in advancing this bequest and providing background research on the various artworks.

We give thanks for this generous gift, which will enrich Trinity’s community and all those who engage with these pieces. Please pray that this exhibition will serve as a source of inspiration and reflection, and that many will come to appreciate the beauty and depth of this collection.

Monday, February 10 - Friday, February 14:

On February 13, ICS will host a virtual open house for our MA (Phil) in Educational Leadership (MA-EL) program. This program is designed for Christian educators and administrators seeking to reinvigorate their teaching and leadership.

Please join us in praying that those who would most benefit from this program will find their way to this opportunity and that financial and logistical barriers will not stand in the way of their participation. May this open house be a time of meaningful connection and discernment for prospective students.

Monday, February 17 - Friday, February 21:

ICS enters Reading Week starting February 17. This is an important time of rest and reflection for both students and faculty. We ask for your prayers that this break will be restorative, allowing all in our community to return to their studies and teaching with renewed energy and passion.

From February 21 to 23, ICS faculty members Dr. Neal DeRoo and Dr. Gideon Strauss will attend the Jubilee Conference, with Dr. DeRoo delivering a lecture titled "How Philosophy Can Change the World." We pray that ICS’s presence at this conference will help equip the next generation of leaders and thinkers.

Please pray for Dr. DeRoo as he presents his lecture, that his words may be challenging and compelling. Pray for ICS faculty as they engage with students and participants, fostering meaningful conversations about faith and philosophy. Pray for the conference attendees, that they may encounter new ideas and leave encouraged in their vocations.

Monday, February 24 - Friday, February 28:

Applications for the ART in Orvieto program are due by February 28, which provides an opportunity for artists and scholars to explore the intersection between their art and their faith.

Please pray that this opportunity finds those who would thrive in it, especially in our difficult financial times. May this initiative continue to be a place where deep learning and creative expression come together in ways that honor God and inspire all who attend.

May this month be filled with moments of renewal as we seek wisdom together. Thank you for keeping ICS in your prayers!

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A Hope that Stays

“…and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”   —Romans 5:5 “Don’t climb too far up the hope tree, because when that branch snaps….”   I can’t exactly recall the first time I heard this colourful counsel, warning me to prepare myself for the likelihood of disappointment that all too often follows raised expectations. I think it might have come from the mouth of Henk Hart after I finally received my PhD, and we were discussing my career prospects in a shrinking academic job market. Better always to stay low to the ground, he advised, so you can more easily pick yourself up after the inevitability of disappointment.   However colourful and pithy this phrasing might be, something about it is off. In Romans 5 Paul tells us that true hope does not disappoint us, so by that logic we should fearlessly climb as high as we possibly can into its outermost branches. In that light, perhaps Henk was really advising me not to invest my hope in any specific expectation or particular outcome, but rather to remain tethered to a deeper hope that can help me weather such disappointment and give me the wherewithal to pick myself up and dust myself off when optimistic expectations are dashed, as they so often can be.   That way of understanding hope, I think, gets us closer to what Paul is talking about in Romans 5, and is also wonderfully developed in a new book by the Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han in his brief volume The Spirit of Hope. There Han describes hope as an attuning mood that we can spiritually cultivate—together and within ourselves—and thus use to orient us in any situation (p. 24). Hope in this sense is not attached to any particular outcome but is rather a way of tuning into life such that, whatever befalls us—as when our best and worst laid plans lie in ruins all around—we still find the capacity to say, “and yet…” (p. 39ff.).   In our day, says Han, hope has a powerful enemy: fear. So long as our culture is ruled by fear, as it so often seems to be, it cannot inspire hope. We must therefore fight tooth and nail against our culture of fear because, whereas hope unites us, fear isolates us. And this is where God’s love enters the picture. Hope does not disappoint us, says Paul, because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts….” Hope is thus the tuning that keeps us locked into the channel of divine love and the redemptive possibility such love presents. In Han’s words:   Fear and love are mutually exclusive. Hope, by contrast, includes love. Hope does not isolate. It reconciles, unites, and forms bonds. Fear agrees with neither trust nor community, with neither closeness nor touch. (11)   We know we are attuned to real hope, then, when we survey a broken world and nevertheless understand that it is not forever frozen into what it has become, that its wounds and scars can be thawed and healed by the renewing power of our Messiah’s love—love we are called to emulate.   Such hope, then, does not ask, ‘How might I best survive amidst these ruins?’ Rather it asks, ‘How can we build a new community of love and blessing from these scattered shards?’ Hope, then, sees possibility where fear sees only futility, and hope understands that this possibility is always available to us no matter how bad things get. As John Steinbeck put it in The Grapes of Wrath:   I have a little food’ plus ‘I have none’. If from this problem the sum is ‘We have a little food’, the thing is on its way, the movement has direction…. This is the beginning—from ‘I’ to ‘we’.   There is finally something audacious and intrepid about hope, this movement from ‘I’ to ‘We’. Han describes it as “a searching movement”:   It is an attempt to find a firm footing and a sense of direction. By going beyond the events of the past, beyond what already exists, it also enters into the unknown, goes down untrodden paths, and ventures into the open, into what-is-not-yet. It is headed for what is still unborn. It sets off toward the new, the altogether other, the unprecedented. (5)   In these dark times, friends, I pray that God’s love infuses us with the hope that does not disappoint us, but rather stays with us, so that we can find each other, escape our isolation, and be inspired to build the community of solidarity, justice, and peace that God’s shalom way gives us the power to imagine.   Shalom, friends!   Ron Kuipers

Everything Old is New Again (even this title)

“And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new’.” —Revelation 21:5 “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.” —Psalm 96:1 A curious thing happened to me between Christmas and New Year’s Eve: My nephew in Edmonton drew my attention to an LP that recently came into his possession called When in Our Music God is Glorified: A Recording of Congregational Singing. The back of the record sleeve lists ICS as one of its two institutional sponsors. Upon seeing this connection, my nephew asked me if I knew anything about the project. I had to confess I did not, as it predates my institutional memory (I first came to ICS in 1992 as a master’s student, and after making a few inquiries my best guess is that this recording was made in the early to mid 1980s). The album jacket says that the record was directed by Bert Polman, a hymnologist then working at Ontario Bible College. A quick Google search revealed that he would later teach at Redeemer University and then Calvin University, where he served as the Chair of the Music Department until 2013 when his life was tragically cut short by cancer. Now fully absorbed in this detective story, I next searched for Bert Polman’s name in ICS’s Institutional Repository and was greeted with three hits in the digitized archive of ICS’s Perspective magazine. One article, from 1976 (penned by none other than Lambert Zuidervaart when he was still an ICS student or ‘Junior Member’), reports on a talk Polman delivered as part of ICS’s Discovery lecture series called “Celebrating the Word-and-Sacrament.” In the article, Zuidervaart relays Polman’s conviction that the elements of Christian worship must be rooted in “an historical appreciation of Christian traditions.” Such appreciation, argues Polman, “reveals both that the Word and the Sacraments must enjoy a strong balance in our public celebrations, and that the Reformational principle, ‘Ecclesia reformata semper reformanda est’ means the Spirit makes all things new, not all new things.” This last phrase gave me pause, spurring me to think more about the distinction Polman here makes between renewal and novelty. What is the difference, I wondered, between ‘making all things new’ (Revelation 21:5) and ‘making all new things’? My first thought turned to the act of repairing a broken yet cherished possession, or maybe a neglected and dishevelled thrift store find in which we nevertheless spy good potential, so that it comes out ‘just like new’. The converse attitude, all too common in our consumer-industrial age, would be to dispose of the mounting pile of busted and unrepairable stuff we own (often designed with ‘built-in obsolescence’) and replace it with entirely new things, starting the vicious cycle all over again. Revelation 21, however, speaks of a Maker who so cherishes the fruits of that making that he throws nothing away, and instead busies himself lovingly restoring all that has been broken, desiring nothing more than to bring out the potential for blessing housed within every good thing he created. Yet, just as I start to understand Polman’s distinction in this way, I am also struck by the fact that one of the creatures God made, we humans, are uniquely capable of inaugurating new projects and initiating unanticipated trajectories, sometimes for good and very often for ill. Indeed, not only are we capable of making new things, but we are also called several times in the Psalms and even once in Isaiah to “sing a new song” and not simply to “make an old song new.” The Bible’s long-arc story of God making the broken world new and good again tells us that our part in addressing the wounds of a groaning creation will often require innovation, the imaginative development of new responses that somehow yet remain faithful to God’s original promise of renewal. God thus calls us to harness our imagination and creativity, our capacity for inaugurating new and surprising developments and trajectories, to this task. For remember, in “making all things new” God is also “about to do a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19).

Prayer Letter: January 2025

As we step into the new year, we at ICS are grateful for your continued prayers and support for our mission to pursue wisdom in the classroom, in our community, and in the world. Please join us in prayer.

Monday, January 6 - Friday, January 10:

The winter term is upon us! We ask for your prayers for our faculty, students, and staff as they return from the holiday break and step back into their academic routines. Pray that they may return rested and rejuvenated, with renewed energy and inspiration for the tasks ahead.

This week marks the first day of winter classes at ICS. We are excited to welcome both new and returning students into our learning community. We ask that you keep these students in your prayers, that they may experience deep and meaningful engagement with the course materials and with each other. We also pray for our Senior Members as they teach and mentor students, guiding them in their intellectual and spiritual journeys.

We are also entering a crucial time in our promotional efforts for winter courses. Please pray for those working to share ICS’s offerings widely and for those considering joining us, that they may find a home for their questions and pursuits within our academic community. The courses being offered this term reflect the rich and diverse intellectual heritage of ICS. Here are a few highlights:

• Material Spirituality: Rethinking Religion with Dr. Neal DeRoo — This course challenges students to think about religion not as a separate sphere of life but as something deeply embedded in the material and historical contexts of human experience. Drawing on insights from phenomenology, secularism studies, and Continental philosophy, students will explore how religious traditions both shape and are shaped by the world around us.

• Rhetoric as Philosophy from Isocrates to the Age of Abelard and Heloise with Dr. Bob Sweetman — In this course, students will delve into the rich tradition of ancient and medieval rhetoric, examining how figures like Cicero, Augustine, and Heloise used rhetorical practices to engage philosophical questions. Students will consider how rhetoric might offer a model for philosophical discourse that is grounded in lived experience and practical wisdom.

• Meaning, Being, Knowing: The Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Implications of a Christian Ontology with Dr. Nik Ansell — This course invites students to explore a distinctive Christian understanding of ontology through the work of Herman Dooyeweerd and Hendrik Hart. By shifting the focus from abstract concepts of “being” to the idea that creation embodies meaning, this course challenges students to think about how we know ourselves, God, and the world.

• God in Flesh and Blood: Revolutions in Christology with Dr. Nik Ansell — This course explores key Christological questions, focusing on the portrayal of Jesus in the New Testament and how it connects to themes in the Hebrew Bible. Engaging with contemporary scholarship, students will consider the significance of Jesus’ humanity and divinity and the revolutionary implications of Christology for theology today.

We pray that these courses will be places of deep learning, thoughtful questioning, and mutual encouragement as students and instructors work together to pursue wisdom in faith.

On Sunday, January 12, ICS Senior Member Dr. Gideon Strauss will be preaching at ClearView Church in Oakville on the theme of justice. Please pray for Gideon as he prepares his message, that his words may reflect God’s heart for justice and inspire those who hear him to act justly in their daily lives. Pray also for the congregation at ClearView Church, that they may be encouraged and challenged in their faith as they reflect on what it means to seek justice in their communities.

Monday, January 13 - Friday, January 17:

This week, on January 15, the ICS Board of Trustees will meet to make important decisions regarding the stewardship of our institution’s resources and mission. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for the board members as they deliberate on these matters.

We are pleased to welcome four new members to the board:

• Stephanie Arel
• Eva Joosse
• Bronwyn Martin
• Patricia Webb

Please pray for these new board members as they step into their roles, that they may bring fresh perspectives and energy to their work on behalf of ICS. We are deeply grateful for their willingness to serve and for the unique gifts they bring to our community.

At the same time, we say goodbye to two outgoing board members, Ian DeWaard and Scott Macklin, who have faithfully served ICS during their terms. Please join us in offering prayers of thanksgiving for their contributions and for God’s continued blessing on their lives and vocations.

Monday, January 20 - Friday, January 24:

The ICS Senate will meet this week to discuss key academic policies and programs. The Senate plays an essential role in ensuring the academic integrity and vision of our institution. Please pray for clarity of thought and discernment for the senators as they consider the future direction of our academic offerings.

We ask especially for prayers for our Academic Dean, Dr. Gideon Strauss, as he leads these discussions, and for the external senators who bring valuable insights from other academic institutions and communities. May their conversations be fruitful and guided by a shared commitment to ICS’s mission of integrating faith and learning.

Monday, January 27 - Friday, January 31:

As the month draws to a close, many of our students are working hard to complete their outstanding coursework from the fall term. January 31 is the deadline for submitting final papers and projects. Please pray for our students during this time, that they may find inspiration as they complete their assignments. Pray also for their mental health and well-being, that they may find balance and peace amid the demands of academic work.

This week also marks the beginning of our program review process for ICS’s three main academic programs:

• MA in Educational Leadership (MA-EL)
• Lifelong Learning (Master of Worldview Studies, MWS)
• MA and PhD in Philosophy

These reviews are crucial in ensuring that our programs remain rigorous, relevant, and responsive to the needs of our students and the broader community. Please pray for those involved in this process, that they may approach the task with wisdom, humility, and a deep sense of purpose. We pray that the outcomes of these reviews will strengthen ICS’s academic offerings and help us better serve our students in their journeys of learning and faith.

As we begin this new year, we are deeply grateful for your prayers and support. May God continue to bless our work at ICS and guide us in the pursuit of wisdom, justice, and community.

Donating to ICS ICS has been proudly donor-funded since we first opened our doors in 1967. Our supporters make the education, events, and publications we offer possible. So please consider giving in support of this work! Please contact Vidya if you need help donating at 416-979-2331 x223 or email her at vwilliams@icscanada.edu.

CanadaHelps (CAN) Credit card over the phone (CAN) Friends of ICS (USA)

Prayer Letter: November 2024

As we enter November, we find ourselves at a meaningful time for reflection and preparation. With the term in full swing, our students are considering the themes they’ve engaged with so far, discerning how these ideas might inspire their final papers and projects. We ask you to join us in prayer that these moments of reflection would bring about creativity and insight as students look forward to sharing their work with others.

Monday, November 4 - Friday, November 8

This week marks the launch of regrowth, a series of monthly reflections by President Ron Kuipers, now available at medium.com/regrowth. In regrowth, Ron searches for healing and renewal in all things. One of the neat things about Medium is that users that have a free account (you can still read the articles without one) can publicly highlight their favourite passages and comment on them, allowing productive discussion and community-building. We hope that regrowth allows the ICS community to celebrate the insights that Ron has offered to us over the years and spark important conversations among ICS folk and beyond. You can sign up for free and follow regrowth here.

Additionally, on November 4, we will gather for our Fall Scripture of Faith and Scholarship symposium (zoom link). Entitled “What is ‘Christian’ about Christian Education? Formation and Learning,” Dr. Edith van der Boom, will present a vision of Christian education as concerning the whole person. According to van der Boom, Christian education necessarily emphasizes the importance of love, knowledge, and embodied learning spaces. These spaces nurture a deep connection with Christ, personal growth, and formation. Please join us in praying that Edith’s presentation offers educators of all stripes an opportunity to come together and discuss practices that enrich their shared learning journeys.

On November 5, from 6-9PM, Dr. Jim Olthuis will open The Radical Theopoetics of John D. Caputo to guests (RSVP). We hope this unique event will inspire reflection on the intersections between theology, philosophy, and poetry, and the work of John Caputo. Please pray for Jim and all who attend.

Monday, November 11 - Friday, November 15

This week we begin distributing the Advent Appeal, ICS’s annual financial appeal. We invite you to pray with us that our community of supporters will come together generously, enabling our students and faculty to continue the meaningful work of spreading the good news of God’s renewal. It’s a time of great need, and we are profoundly grateful for the faithful support that allows us to carry out our mission.

Also, we begin ramping up our promotional efforts for courses in our upcoming winter term. These include:

• Material Spirituality: Rethinking Religion (with Dr. Neal DeRoo) - Explore how religion shapes our experience of the world, rather than being just one type of experience among others. Using insights from religious studies, phenomenology, secularism, and Continental philosophy, examine how religion is influenced by historical and material contexts while also shaping them. 
• Rhetoric as Philosophy from Isocrates to the Age of Abelard and Heloise (with Dr. Bob Sweetman) - Explore the ancient and medieval study of rhetoric, focusing on its claim to be a philosophical discourse, via texts by Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Abelard, and Heloise. In the process, consider whether historical philosophies should be viewed as speculative sciences, arts of living, or something else entirely.
• God in Flesh and Blood: Revolutions in Christology (with Dr. Nik Ansell) - Examine Christology from the perspective of biblical theology, focusing on how the New Testament relates to themes from the Hebrew Bible. While traditional theologians often explore systematic questions about Christ’s nature and atonement, this course will emphasize how Old Testament concepts like exile and return inform our understanding of Jesus’ birth and crucifixion. Explore questions such as: How do early followers’ worship of Jesus before the Resurrection shape our view of his humanity and divinity? What implications arise from Mary’s encounter with Gabriel? How does Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary connect to figures like Jael and Judith? Guiding this exploration of contemporary Christological issues will be works by James Dunn, Jane Schaberg, and NT Wright.

On November 13, from 6-8PM, Dr. Nik Ansell welcomes guests into Biblical Foundations (RSVP). Please pray that students and visitors alike will find new perspectives and encouragement as they explore how, after so many years, Scripture still speaks anew.

Finally, we invite you to join us in prayer for those attending the Board meeting on November 15. May God grant them wisdom and discernment as they make important decisions for ICS.

Monday, November 18 - Friday, November 22

This week, we relaunch Ground Motive, a dialogue forum that features opinions from the larger ICS community. It concerns the crossroads of philosophy, religion, and social ethics (medium.com/ground-motive). We pray that Ground Motive will foster vital conversations on topics that matter deeply to our community and beyond.

On November 21 at 7PM, prospective students are invited to join us for an information night on Art in Orvieto, our summer program with Dr. Rebekah Smick in Orvieto, Italy (RSVP). This three-week residency invites participants to explore the intersection of art, religion, and theology. Please pray that prospective students find the inspiration and direction they need as they consider this transformative opportunity.

On November 19, from 2-5PM, Dr. Neal DeRoo welcomes guests into Religion, Life, and Society (RSVP). Consider attending to get a taste of our Newest Senior Member’s take on the Reformational tradition. Please keep him and those attending in your prayers as they dive into questions of reformational philosophy in the context of today’s social landscape.

Monday, November 25 - Friday, November 29

As we enter the last week of November, we invite you to pray with us for our American friends celebrating Thanksgiving. Many of our new cohort of students come from the United States, and we pray that this holiday offers a time of fellowship, gratitude, and respite as they head into the final weeks of their semester.

We also look forward to sharing the fall issue of Perspective, which will be available in a new digital format at medium.com/perspective-ics. This issue, titled Building Up in Love, introduces our new students and invites readers to reflect and discuss what it means to “Build Up in Love” in today’s world. We pray that this message spreads widely, encouraging all who read it.

On November 28, from 2-5PM, Dr. Ron Kuipers welcomes guests into his class Philosophy at the Limit: Richard Kearney (RSVP). This session will explore the boundaries of philosophical inquiry, asking us to consider how our understanding shifts at the edge of intellectual knowledge. Please consider attending and pray for Ron, along with all those participating.

As we close the month and look towards the start of Advent on December 1, we pray for new life and direction in our world and hearts. May this season of anticipation bring renewed hope, guiding each of us to deeper purpose and commitment.

Thank you for your prayers and ongoing support. It is through your faithfulness that we’re to continue our work with strength and hope.

Take the Help

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

—Hebrews 4:15-16

What kind of season are we living in, friends? In a time when our society is fracturing along growing fissures of frozen identity, in a time when anxious people of all political stripes are retreating into the presumed safety of their echo chambers, in a time when otherwise democratic nations are openly flirting with fascism, well, such time is, to say the least, eukairon—a time of need.

What we need more than ever in these times, I submit, are imaginations inspired by our Redeemer’s shalom way, revealed to us in scripture. Cultivating such an imagination will encourage us to build fellowship and solidarity with those people we are all too often tempted to write off, enabling us to peer into any and every human face and see there disclosed our Maker’s very image.

For almost six decades now, ICS has striven to help people from all walks of life answer God’s invitation to enter the promised kingdom of shalom, where everyone and everything is enfolded in the loving embrace of God’s justice and peace, divine arms that reach out to us in this very moment to—as the inspiring hymn goes— “gather us in”:

Not in the dark of buildings confining
Not in some heaven light years away
But here in this place the new light is shining
Now is the kingdom, now is the day

What an alter call this is! Jesus our Redeemer has been where we are, knows how we suffer, and has withstood the test. He is eager for us to bathe ourselves in his Father’s grace, just as he did. “Approach the throne with boldness!,” proclaims the writer of Hebrews, or in The Message’s translation: “So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.”

Thank you, friends, for the role you play in helping ICS impart this hopeful and empowering message to everyone we serve. I believe God created ICS precisely for such a time as this—a time of need, yes, but also a time to be rescued and retrieved, liberated to serve God’s healing and renewing work.

Shalom!

Ron Kuipers

(you can find this article, as well as others, at medium.com/regrowth)