Prayer Letter: January 2018

From all of us at ICS to you, our faithful friends and supporters, may God’s richest blessings of love, joy and peace be yours in 2018. We hope you enjoy our new format of the Prayer Letter for January 2018. Please join us in prayer before the Lord.

Monday, January 1 - Friday, January 5:

Please pray for our advancement and administrative team (Harley Dekker, Vidya Williams, Jeffrey Hocking, Kathy Lynch, and Pat Webb) as they perform the vital tasks that contribute to the execution of our mission. Pray for strength and joy in service.

We ask for your prayers this week for Senior Members (Ron Kuipers, Bob Sweetman, Rebecca Smick, Nik Ansell, and Gideon Strauss) as they prepare for the Winter semester classes beginning next week. Please uphold them before the Lord as they seek work out their calling as teachers and mentors.

Please pray this week for our Junior Members who are returning from their homes, some from far away, that they might have safe travels. We ask too for their encouragement in their studies as they start a new semester of classes next week.

Monday, January 8 - Friday, January 12:

Please pray this week for Bob Sweetman who will be teaching the first class of the semester in his course: “Individuality in the Franciscan Thought of John Duns Scotus and William of Ockham”. Pray too for the students as they begin this new semester of learning.

Please pray this week for the Inter-Disciplinary Seminar for this year which is titled “The Legacy of Seerveld, Hart, and Olthuis.” It meets on Tuesdays from 1:45-4:45. The IDS has Nik Ansell and Bob Sweetman as the instructors of record but Cal Seerveld, Henk Hart and Jim Othius will be attending and participating in as many of the sessions as possible, especially those sessions in which their own work is spotlighted. The January sessions will be dedicated to Cal's work under four rubrics: Systematic Aesthetics, History of Aesthetic Theory, Theory of Art History, Biblical Literary Criticism/Hermeneutics.

On Thursday of this week, the first day of the courses: “Birthpangs of the New Creation: Judgment unto Salvation in the Book of Revelation” with Nik Ansell and “Imagining the Word with Ricoeur: Narrative, Action, and the Sacred in Ricoeur's Hermeneutic Phenomenology” with Ron Kuipers. Pray for Nik and Ron and all the students who will be participating in these courses.

Please pray for Julia de Boer this week as she defends her thesis The Allusivity of Grammar: Developing Theory and Pedagogy for Linguistic Aesthetics on Thursday of this week. Julia is one of Bob Sweetman’s MA students and we also ask for grace and strength for both Julia and Bob, as well as the other examiners in this important session.

Monday, January 15 - Friday, January 19:

This week, the Distance Education course “Curriculum: Organizing the World for Learning” begins. Please pray for Doug Blomberg and Joonyong Um as they prepare and work together to teach this online course. Pray too for the students, especially for those for whom this is their first experience with this type of learning.

Please pray for the board this week as it meets for the first time in 2018. For most of the board members, this will happen via conference call as they are spread across Canada. Pray that all will go smoothly with the technology and that they will have wisdom and insight as they seek to provide leadership in the working out of the mission and vision of ICS.

Every year, CPRSE gives an emerging scholar the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary work through its Research Associate position. We pray for the CPRSE’s current Research Associate, Richard Gauthier, as he prepares to present the fruits of his work at ICS in the spring of 2018.

Monday, January 22 - Friday, January 26:

Plans are underway to host a second Undergraduate Workshop in the spring of 2018. Please pray for the success of the planning team’s efforts to make this workshop an annual event of ICS’ community outreach calendar.

We thank God for the response to our Advent Appeal, still ongoing, which has been marvellous. At this time of writing, we are doing well to meet our targets in most areas, and we encourage everyone to continue to give as they are able so that we can continue to sustain our mission in Christian graduate education. We are deeply grateful to God for His provision, and also for you, our faithful members and donors.

Monday, January 29 - Wednesday, January 31:

Please join us in giving thanks for all Junior Members involved in the production of Critical Faith, ICS’ recently launched podcast. Through this new media platform, ICS will effectively share the fruits of the work of Senior and Junior Members with the broader community. We pray that Critical Faith will become a space for learning, dialogue, and reflection

We give thanks this week for the new opportunity we have in our Wayfinding program. On Wednesday, January 31st, Gideon Strauss will teach the first class in our new format of Vocational Wayfinding. The course will be offered in a hybrid format consisting of weekly online work and five in-person sessions. The in-person sessions will be hosted by Toronto District Christian High.

Please pray for the upcoming ICS summer course offering: ART IN ORVIETO—an immersive exploration of art, religion, and theology. Join us in prayer for Dr. Rebekah Smick, Dr. Thomas McIntire, David Holt, and Dr. John Skillen as they prepare for this three-week in-depth study of Christian understandings of the arts. This course will run July 15 to August 4, 2018, and consists of a graduate seminar and/or artists’ studio workshop in beautiful Orvieto, Italy. The deadline for application is March 31st so please pray that those who are interested will contact ICS quickly.

Annual Report and Perspective Online Now

The ICS 2016-2017 Annual Report and the latest issue of our newsletter <i>Perspective</i> are now available for viewing and download.  This issue of <i>Perspective</i> celebrates ICS's 50th anniversary with twelve full pages of content including articles by Fred Reinders, Barbara Carvill, Henk Hart and Doug Blomberg.

View or download the Fall 2017 issue of Perspective at www.icscanada.edu/perspective

View or download the 2016-2017 Annual Report at www.icscanada.edu/about/annual-report

ICS celebrates its Jubilee Anniversary

On November 11th, we celebrated 50 years of God’s blessing on the working out of the mission of ICS in Christian higher education to the academy, the Church, and the public sphere of civil society. Over 160 friends, staff, faculty, alumni, and students gathered at King’s Christian Collegiate in Oakville to worship and fellowship together. The Prayer and Thanksgiving Service, including the moving Meditation by Cal Seerveld, reminded us of the depth of God’s faithfulness over these 50 years; the fellowship around the tables at the Gala Luncheon in the beautiful atrium of King’s was a gift in remembering how good it is to be in community; and the Formal Program was a memorable weaving together of our “stories along the way” with contributions from ten speakers and a video presentation by Luke Seerveld. All in all, a wonderful reminder of what happens when a small band of God’s people take on a Kingdom endeavour.

Many thanks to the incredible staff at King’s Christian Collegiate who made it all work and to the many friends who joined us on the day and/or made a generous contribution to the expenses. And to our 50th Anniversary planning team--thank you for all your hard work in ensuring it was a day to remember!

ICS Launches Critical Faith, a Podcast Exploring the Contours of Religion in a Plural Society

In Critical Faith, ICS's new podcast, we will hear from researchers, activists, educators, students, and more as we try to think through what makes faith such a crucial component of so many of our lives. Along the way, we will also let ourselves be troubled by some hard questions about our own traditions, spiritualities, and communities.

To access Critical Faith click here.

In our inaugural episode, Neal DeRoo presents his paper, "Toward a Material Spirituality: Religion and Phenomenological Expression." The recording is the first of three parts, all from a Scripture, Faith, and Scholarship Seminar hosted at ICS last September. Neal DeRoo is Canada Research Chair in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Religion and Associate Professor of Philosophy at The King's University in Edmonton, Alberta, and the author of Futurity in Phenomenology: Promise and Method in Husserl, Levinas, and Derrida (Fordham: 2013).