Prayer Letter: December 2021

Wednesday, December 1- Friday, December 3:

Please take the opportunity this week to give thanks for our Board of Trustees as they continue to serve in their oversight of the mission and vision of ICS. At the Annual General meeting on Saturday, November 27th, we welcomed four new board members: Sandra Tang, Kevin Huinink, Dan Beerens, and Mario Matos. Please especially pray for these new members of the Board that they will find joy and blessing as they begin their term of service. Pray also for wisdom for John Joosse as Chair, and for Diane Stronks as Vice Chair in their leadership roles. We give thanks for each trustee and their faithful service to, and support of, ICS.

On December 1st, ICS will be hosting a virtual Open House for all students interested in our MA and PhD programs. The Open House will be held from 6:00-7:30 pm EST and is designed to introduce students to these programs and to answer questions about studying at ICS. Please pray that God will establish the work of our hands as we reach out to potential students that there will be interest in joining ICS in one of these programs. If you are interested, or know someone who is, please email Brenna at recruitment-coordinator@icscanada.edu.

Jason Mills (University of St. Michael’s College) recently defended his thesis entitled In Vitro Education: Examining the Virtual Culture of Online Pastoral Education, with ICS emeritus Doug Blomberg as his supervisor. This past month, Jason’s thesis was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal Academic Award through USMC’s Faculty of Theology. We would like to share prayers of gratitude and celebration for Jason’s hard work and his laudable achievement.

Monday, December 6 - Friday, December 10:

We want to pray for continued stamina and enthusiasm for our Senior and Junior Members as they finish out the semester and prepare to start their new courses in January. We pray for Gideon Strauss that he might have rhythm and creative energy in his administrative role as Academic Dean, and for strength and inspiration for all our Senior Members and faculty who are teaching in the winter semester.

On December 8th from 3-5 pm EST the course, The Radical Theopoetics of John D. Caputo, with Dr. Jim Olthuis will be visited by Dr. John D. Caputo himself! His online class session will be open to those interested in joining the discussion. Please RSVP in order to attend by emailing Brenna at: recruitment-coordinator@icscanada.edu. We pray that this will be an interesting and inspiring opportunity for the students in the class and those who join them.

On December 8-11, most of our Senior Members will be participating in the annual Reformational Philosophy Conference organized by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA). The theme of this year’s conference is “Philosophy in the Reformed Tradition 2021: Celebrating the Heritage, Facing the Challenges, and Embracing the Future.” On Thursday, December 9, President Ronald A. Kuipers will be chairing a panel on the topic: “Bridging the Theology-Reformational Philosophy Gap” along with panelists: Nik Ansell (ICS), Jeremy Ive, Gayle Doornbos (Dordt), and Jamie Smith (Calvin). That same day, Bob Sweetman is also participating on a panel about teaching Reformational Philosophy to the next generation alongside Maarten Verkerk, Lisa Lansang, Guilhermo Cavalho, and Michael Wagenman. Edith van der Boom will also be co-chairing breakout interest sessions on the topic of education. The conference also features book presentations by many Reformational authors, including Jonathan Chaplin on his latest monograph. ICS is one of the conference's sponsoring institutions, and the entire conference is online and free to register. Please pray with us for the involvement of each of these Senior Members in their respective presentations, that those and the conversations that come from them may provide far-reaching blessings to all involved. You can also find out more and join the conference here: https://www.reformationalphilosophy.org/rpc2021/.

Please continue to pray this month for the Educational Policy Committee and the Academic Council as they will be reviewing course proposals and policy proposals for presentation to the Senate at their winter meeting. Please pray for each of the members of these two committees, that they will have wisdom and clarity of thinking as they review these important documents, and for our Academic Dean, Gideon Strauss, as he leads the Senior Members in their academic programming and policy deliberations.

Monday, December 13 - Friday, December 17:

Monday, December 13 marks the end of our in-house colloquium, Philosophy Otherwise: Relearning the Philosophical Craft. This space to reflect on systemic oppression in the context of our disciplines of study and institutional tradition was only possible through the leadership of the CPRSE planning committee, consisting of Héctor Acero Ferrer, Abbi Hofstede, Danielle Yett, and Andrew Tebbutt. We are thankful for the conversations we’ve been able to have together as an academic community so far. Please pray for Héctor, Abbi, Danielle, and Andrew as they lead the closing session of this capacity-building event.

During this calendar year, the CPRSE team has had the support of ICS alumnus Andrew Tebbutt as our Postdoctoral Research Associate. Andrew has contributed generously to the life of our scholarly community, providing leadership for a number of publications and public outreach initiatives. Please pray for Andrew as he continues his work with the CPRSE during this winter term.

Thursday, December 16th, is the final day of classes for the fall semester at ICS and the 2022 winter semester is scheduled to begin on January 2nd. Please pray for our students in these last days of the fall semester that they will be able to complete their study requirements in good time. Please also pray along with us that the two-week holiday break will enable all of us to rest and recharge, and bring all of us back energized for the new year and all it brings.

On Friday, December 17th, we will share in a time of fun and fellowship at our annual Christmas Party -- again this year held virtually. We ask for prayer for Elizabet Aras, our Registrar, as she makes plans for our time together. It isn’t always easy to creatively design a party such as this virtually but last year we held the party remotely and it was a great success. Pray too that it might be a wonderful evening of giving thanks for and celebrating the gifts we have in one another in this blessed community of learning at ICS.

Rebekah Smick would greatly appreciate your prayers as she carries out her work at ICS. The many months of the pandemic have inhibited her work on ICS’s Art in Orvieto summer study program in Orvieto, Italy, which is an important component of our new Master of Worldview Studies in Art, Religion, and Theology. But she has found that she has been able to focus more on some of her writing projects during the pandemic. She would be very grateful for your prayers as she brings some of these projects to completion. She would also appreciate your prayers in her ongoing work with her students who now come to us from across the globe because of our general shift to online teaching during the pandemic.

Monday, December 20 - Friday, December 24:

During the year 2021, ICS/CPRSE invited a series of scholars, practitioners, and community leaders to provide leadership to multiple events and publications aimed at better understanding our complicity in systems of oppression as an institution of higher education. We are extremely grateful to everyone who, in the midst of very busy schedules, took the time to share their expertise, experiences, and wisdom with us. Please pray in thanksgiving for the generosity of Nadine Bowers Du Toit, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Kevin Huinink, Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo, Cheri DiNovo, Matau Setshase, María Acosta, Ntando Mlambo, Lori-Anne Dolloff, and Elisabeth Paquette; whose contributions to the life of our community have been invaluable.

As we look forward to next week when we celebrate Christmas by the giving and receiving of gifts, we thank God for our committed and faithful friends for their gifts of encouragement and faithful support in prayer and financial gifts. We pray for each one of you that you will receive the amazing gifts of love, joy, and peace this Christmas season and be filled with hope with what God will do in the new year.

Please pray for Rebekah Smick and Thomas McIntire and their greater family in various locations across Canada and in Britain. They have been thankful for God’s mercies in the birth of a new grandson during the pandemic and for the safe return of his parents from Myanmar to Britain at the beginning of the pandemic in time for his birth. They are hoping that this family might be able to visit them in Toronto at Christmas for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, but are waiting to see if the discovery of the Omicron variant will affect those plans. Please pray for wisdom as they make decisions as a family around the possibility of travelling at this time.

Please pray today for the families of the rest of our staff, Senior Members, and Junior Members as they find ways to celebrate the birth of our Saviour amidst the restraints of the pandemic. Most of our families are spread far and wide and so it won’t be possible for all to be together in person. Pray that despite the separation, families can find joy and inspiration in their virtual get-togethers. As well, we ask for special prayers for those families who may be suffering because of illness or grieving a loss in their family.

May the blessings of love, joy and peace be yours as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour this Christmas week.

Monday, December 27 - Friday, December 31:

As 2021 draws to a close, we give thanks for another fruitful year of work at ICS and for all our supporters and friends who made that work possible through their prayers and financial gifts. We especially give thanks to God for the strength and wisdom he gave us in this second pandemic year to steadfastly pursue our vision. We pray for God's blessing upon our staff, faculty and students as we work out our mission, in the classroom and beyond, throughout this next year.

We sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading our latest issue of Perspective and have been inspired by the students’ testimonies and the articles on ‘burning questions’ at ICS. If you have not yet received this issue in the mail or by email, you can follow this link: perspective.icscanada.edu/latest-issue to read the issue for yourself. If you would like to join in the spirit of giving before the year ends, you can find the letter that accompanied the issue and some additional information about ways to donate here.

The Power of Listening

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of Peace

—Luke 1:78-79

The gospel of Luke begins in a very intriguing way. The angel Gabriel appears to the priest Zechariah in the sanctuary of the temple and tells him that his elderly wife Elizabeth, thought to be barren, will conceive and bear a son whom he must name John. When Zechariah questions the possibility of such a miracle, he is struck dumb, and Gabriel tells him that his tongue will only be loosened once these things have come to pass.

At this point, two women, Elizabeth and Mary, take centre stage. (Perhaps it is no coincidence that the voices of these two women emerge only after a man’s voice has been silenced?) Both women find themselves miraculously pregnant, and we are told the children they carry, John and Jesus, bear a people’s hopes for a redeemed future. One will prepare the way and help make people’s hearts ready to receive the other’s message of salvation through forgiveness (vs. 76-77). When Mary visits Elizabeth and Zechariah, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy, and Mary then gives her song of praise to a God of mercy who will lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things (vs. 52-53).

As a man reading this story, I have become very interested in the song Zechariah later gives once he is finally able to speak again. What will he say after long months of silent listening? I wonder if, during his time of silence, he heard Mary’s song and pondered her words in his heart—the same way Mary would later treasure the message that the shepherds brought to her after she had given birth to Jesus (Luke 2:19)? I like to think his song displays the wisdom that comes from such listening and shows how his heart has thereby been opened to the God of mercy that Mary first proclaimed.

I have spoken before in this space about Advent as a time of active waiting and expecting, and I think that listening, pondering, and treasuring are great words to describe such a spiritual posture. So much harm comes by way of our failure to listen, and so much healing, blessing and joy comes by way of tarrying with others long enough to truly hear what they are saying to us—sometimes without words and always long after our premature assumption to know what they must be saying. At this point, something real and important finally dawns on us, like the “dawn from on high” Zechariah proclaims—the Messiah who gives light to our darkness and guides our feet into the way of peace.

This Advent, I am challenging myself to listen, really listen. Where is the voice proclaiming the way of our Messiah’s shalom? Is it coming from a place I might not expect? Do I have the ears to hear it?

Friends, I wish you a blessed Christmas as you ponder God’s way of justice, mercy, and peace, and as you strive to listen to all the various voices that might guide us into it.

Shalom!

Ron Kuipers

In Memoriam: Inès Cécile Naudin ten Cate-Seerveld

by Mary Vander Vennen

Late on the night of October 28, 2021, Inès Seerveld passed away in her sleep after a long struggle with dementia. God gave her a merciful ending, but her death for me marked the end of a friendship of nearly a lifetime. I’d like to tell you a bit about her.

Inès was born in the Netherlands in 1931 to a highly educated and cultured family. She was second in a family of three children, the only daughter between two brothers. Her mother was Swiss, her father Dutch. They valued education highly, and Inès benefited from a classical education weighted toward Greek and Latin. Inès spoke Swiss German, Dutch, German, French, and English fluently and had at least a speaking acquaintance with Italian and reading acquaintance with Spanish. Her professional education was in the field of social work, where she wrote a thesis on dealing in merciful justice with delinquent children. She graduated with the equivalent of a master’s degree in social work.

Because when she married Cal they moved to the United States and started a family, she never pursued work in that field in the U.S. However the principles and practice she was taught never left her. Inès was gentle, with a generous heart for the needy and displaced. She served as a volunteer at the Toronto Lighthouse Ministry teaching English to immigrants, later serving several years on its Board. She served as a deacon at the Willowdale Christian Reformed Church. She was a faithful, loving mother to Anya, Gioia, and Luke and a supportive wife to Cal. She and Cal served as hosts to a great variety of guests over the years. Many of Cal’s students remember the homemade muffins she sometimes sent along to his classes.

Inès had a rich inner life, very interested in history, geography, the world of animals. Her favorite TV station was the Nature Channel. She loved drama and theatre. For years, the four of us had season subscriptions to the Goodman Theatre in downtown Chicago. She was well acquainted with the world of art, not only appreciating it but substantially supporting artists and art projects. Some years ago Ruth Huber, Inès' mother, donated a substantial sum to the Institute for Christian Studies to establish the Ruth Memorial Fund, the interest to be used to sponsor art events at the ICS. Now with an additional legacy from Inès, the fund will be re-named in both their honor. 

At Trinity Christian College, Cal and Inès also set up the Seerveld Arts in Society (SAIS) fund in an effort to enrich the neighborhood and students. It was designed and carried out by Trinity faculty members, has since developed into the Seerveld Gallery, and has enabled projects like John Bakker's Roseland Portrait Project, which consists of 400 portraits of ordinary people mounted on boxes. This project has been exhibited in police headquarters, malls, and churches and has led to great public relations for Trinity. It will be exhibited in Texas later next year.

Inès endured her illness patiently and uncomplainingly. Cal cared for her faithfully and heroically, determined not to subject her to a long-term care facility. God granted his desire.

I first met Inès when she and Cal accepted a position to teach philosophy at Belhaven College and moved to Jackson, Mississippi in 1958. My husband Bob was already on the faculty there and encouraged Cal to come. Cal and Bob had a beautiful collegial relationship over decades at three different institutions. Our children and theirs are approximately the same age, and they still are in touch. Together, the four of us went through the various stages of family life and the joys and crises of small, struggling institutions. Now Cal and I have each lost a spouse. But the fact of our long relationship I consider to be one of the great blessings of my life. God has been utterly faithful through all these years.

Senior Members Presenting at Annual Reformational Philosophy Conference

On December 8-11, most of our Senior Members will be participating in the annual Reformational Philosophy Conference organized by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA). The theme of this year’s conference is “Philosophy in the Reformed Tradition 2021: Celebrating the Heritage, Facing the Challenges, and Embracing the Future.” 

On Thursday, December 9, President Ronald A. Kuipers will be chairing a panel on the topic: “Bridging the Theology-Reformational Philosophy Gap” along with panelists: Nik Ansell (ICS), Jeremy Ive, Gayle Doornbos (Dordt), and Jamie Smith (Calvin). That same day, Bob Sweetman is also participating on a panel about teaching Reformational Philosophy to the next generation alongside Maarten Verkerk, Lisa Lansang, Guilhermo Cavalho, and Michael Wagenman. Edith van der Boom will also be co-chairing breakout interest sessions on the topic of education. The conference also features book presentations by many Reformational authors, including Jonathan Chaplin on his latest monograph. 

ICS is one of the conference's sponsoring institutions, and the entire conference is online and free to register. You can also find out more information (including a full conference program) and register to join the conference here: https://www.reformationalphilosophy.org/rpc2021/.