In Memoriam: Arvilla Sipma, an Inspiration to Adventure and Difference

by Dean Dettloff

Whenever Arvilla Sipma (1947-2024) was preparing to travel, which she did often, whether to somewhere new or somewhere familiar, she always seemed to have a related book, usually an historical novel. Reading was one of many means by which Arvilla primed herself to receive and explore the world around her, and she was eager to invite others into that exploration. If my wife Emily and I were planning to go somewhere, she would immediately recall a book or article she had read about this or that place, from Barcelona to Kathmandu, and more likely than not she could produce it within the day from a basement filled with texts. 

Her adventurous nature was in stark contrast to her origins in rural Iowa and Minnesota, where she grew up on a farm in a challenging environment. It did not take long for her to travel, first to university, at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and then to Paris and across Europe. A bout of cancer as a young woman gave her a perduring feeling that her life was a gift, one she was determined not to take for granted. Landing in Toronto, Arvilla made a career teaching languages with foreign students, always interested in the wide variety of human experience. From taking courses at the Institute for Christian Studies to living in the Innstead Co-op, Arvilla found a community of courageous and creative young people interested in faith, thoughtfulness, and justice.

Arvilla was an adventurous sort not only geographically, but spiritually, too. She had converted to Catholicism, but she clearly retained her formation as a Calvinist in the ICS mold, coming to inhabit the two spiritualities seamlessly. As a Catholic student at ICS myself, her example was a comfort to me, showing that one didn’t need to make some final choice, but could appreciate wherever the God of love and justice was speaking. Whether at Beaches Presbyterian Church where she and her husband Jim Olthuis attended or at Our Lady of Lourdes, a parish served by the Jesuits where she also went to Mass, Arvilla loved the Lord and her neighbor without friction between her ecumenical commitments.

When Emily and I moved to Toronto from the US, both from small towns ourselves, Arvilla became a fast friend. Eager to support ICS students, not only because of her marriage to longtime ICS Senior Member (now Emeritus) Jim Olthuis but also because of her own history with the Institute, Arvilla quickly welcomed us into the home that she and Jim had lovingly nested in not far from our apartment. Through the hospitality of Arvilla and Jim, we got to know the coffee shops, restaurants, characters, and community of our neighborhood.

As US expatriates, we routinely discussed the strange feeling of living outside of one’s home country, even one next door, especially as so many bizarre events have transpired in our shared country of origin. Arvilla would at once wish US Americans would take a wider view of the world, something she had worked so hard to cultivate, and in the same breath beam with pride when discussing an author or activist who shared our national identity. And as dual citizens, we would discuss the many benefits of the country we had all come to call home, while acknowledging so many of its problems mirrored the ones across the border. 

It strikes me only now, reflecting on Arvilla’s identities and generosity, how postmodern her life in fact was, embracing what others might take to be contradictions—Catholicism and Protestantism, dual citizenship, rural and urban life, etc.—as non-oppositional differences, unified in the course of a life well-lived and open to the Other.

What I will remember most about Arvilla is her love and care. It would be typical to find Arvilla in a coffee shop, where she was known warmly by staff, writing letters on stationary to friends and relatives, some of whom she had been writing with for decades. She talked regularly about her brothers, whom she cared for deeply, and about her cousins in North America, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden. 

Most of all, her relationship with Jim was one of mutuality, tenderness, and excitement, supporting one another’s well-being and ambitions and making room for each other’s unique expression of “human be(com)ing,” to borrow a phrase from Jim.

Arvilla passed unexpectedly in hospital on June 2nd, following six weeks of illness. As she joins the many saints who have preceded her, I find myself thinking of her willingness to take risks, her generosity and openness to newness, and the abiding love with which she cared for so many of us, all of which she will undoubtedly take with her on this next adventure.

Arvilla Sipma, pray for us.

* * *

Arvilla was an avid supporter of the work of the Institute for Christian Studies. At the request of the family, donations may be made in Arvilla's memory to ICS at www.icscanada.edu/support or by phone at 416-979-2331 ext. 223.

Héctor Acero Ferrer Appointed Director of Lifelong Learning

ICS is delighted to announce the appointment of Héctor Acero Ferrer to the position of interim Director of Lifelong Learning on a term-limited contract basis starting on August 1, 2024.  Héctor has been the Associate Director of the Centre for Philosophy, Religion, and Social Ethics (CPRSE) at ICS since the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year and co-editor of ICS's Perspective magazine since September 2016, and he continues in those positions. Since 2022, Héctor has also been the Interim Program Coordinator of the BA in Christian Studies & Global Citizenship of Martin Luther University College at Wilfrid Laurier University. In that capacity he has not only chaired the BA Program Committee and taught extensively in the program, but has also facilitated the review of the BA in Christian Studies & Global Citizenship and  the creation of a new BA degree program. Héctor has been the Graduate Student Director of the Society for Ricoeur Studies since October 2021 and the Chair of the Young Adult Committee of the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) since May 2021. He also served as the President of the Board of Directors of Shalem Mental Health Network from 2016 to 2021.

Héctor completed a Master of Divinity degree at Regis College in the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto during 2010-2013 with a thesis titled, “Ministry as Theological Therapy: A Reinterpretation of ‘The Pastoral’ through Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Language-Games” and a Master of Arts in Philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies during 2013-2016 with a thesis titled, “Liberating Tradition: An Exploration of Liberation Theology through the Lens of Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics.” At present Héctor is working on a doctorate in philosophy in the joint PhD program of the Institute for Christian Studies and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with a dissertation on the topic, "Imagining Liberation Amidst Violence: Liberation Theology, Social Imagination, and the Voices of Conflict Survivors in Colombia’s Ecclesial Base Communities." 

In addition to many published papers, reports, and a book chapter, Héctor was one of the editors of both Gestures of Grace: Essays in Honour of Robert Sweetman (2023) and Seeking Stillness or The Sound of Wings: Scholarly and Artistic Comment on Art, Truth, and Society in Honour of Lambert Zuidervaart (2021). His two most recent conference papers were presented in 2023: in June, at the Sixième édition des ateliers d’été du Fonds Ricœur: Soi-même comme un autre in Paris, with the title, “Our-self as Another? Understanding the Development of Narrative Identity in Ecclesial Base Communities through the Lens of Paul Ricoeur (Part I),” and in October, at the 17th Annual Society for Ricoeur Studies Conference in Toronto, with the title, “Our-self as Another? Understanding the Development of Narrative Identity in Ecclesial Base Communities through the Lens of Paul Ricoeur (Part II).” Héctor was also instrumental in designing and presenting the recent ICS conference Beyond Culture Wars.

In his new role as ICS Director of Lifelong Learning Héctor will be tasked primarily with conducting a comprehensive review of the institution’s current public outreach initiatives and a survey of potential areas of growth in the field of continuing education, with the goal of developing a cohesive lifelong learning program in collaboration with the administration and faculty. We are grateful for Héctor's service in this new role and welcome his insights and expertise in developing this initiative at ICS.

Neal DeRoo Appointed Interim Director of MA-PhD Program

The Institute for Christian Studies is pleased to announce the appointment of Neal DeRoo to the position of Interim Director of the MA-PhD Program for a twelve-month period as of July 1, 2024. Dr. DeRoo has been a Senior Member and Professor of Philosophy at ICS since the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year. Before coming to ICS, Dr. DeRoo served the Christian community in a variety of ways, including as Canada Research Chair in Phenomenology and Philosophy of Religion at The King's University in Edmonton, as Director of the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service at Dordt College, and on various boards, including the Editorial Board of Christian Scholar's Review and the Board of Trustees of the ICS (2014-2016). He was also instrumental in designing the recent ICS conference Beyond the Culture Wars.

In addition to his work in Christian scholarship, Dr. DeRoo is also well known in academic philosophical circles, where his work reinterpreting spirituality as a foundational element of how we experience the world has made important contributions to topics as varied as racialization and genderization to how we worship God. He is the author or editor of eight books (with a ninth forthcoming), and has been invited to give lectures and lead seminars throughout North America and Europe.

These extensive connections throughout both Christian scholarship and academic philosophy will serve him well in his new role, as the Director of the MA-PhD Program will be tasked primarily with coordinating a comprehensive review of ICS's MA-PhD program during the 2024-2025 academic year, helping shape that program and its role at the ICS for the next 10 years. A secondary responsibility will be to work with ICS's Recruitment Coordinator in the recruitment of students into this program.

We are grateful for Dr. DeRoo's service in this role and welcome his insights and expertise in shaping ICS academic programming.