On May 24th, the ICS community will gather to celebrate our annual Convocation. This year's ceremony will include the granting of degrees to our Junior Members, and the delivery of the Convocation Address by ICS President Dr. Ronald A. Kuipers titled "Rescuing Lost Time."
Convocation will begin by 6:30pm ET on May 24th. The event is taking place in person in Toronto, but will also be available to livestream. If you'd like to join the livestream, you can watch the whole ceremony in real time on our YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/live/vPmQyHneo8c
We hope you will be able to join us either virtually or in person for this special night celebrating the accomplishments of our Junior Members.
Want to attend in person? Please email Danielle at dyett@icscanada.edu so we can plan to expect you in person and we'll send you more details. Feel free to also email if you have any questions about how to join online.
ICS Senior Member Emeritus Calvin Seerveld has just published the first volume in a new series called Tough Stuff from the Bible, Tendered Gently with Paideia Press. The first volume's title is: Encouraging Faith Manifestoes for People with Open Ears: Biblical Narrative History. This volume is a collection of 18 Biblical meditations interpreting both Old and New Testaments. They are a compilation of what was spoken to mostly local congregations in the Toronto, Ontario area of Canada, between 1977 and 2011, by Cal. You can read more about the volume and get a copy for yourself here.
Also, earlier in November 2023, Cal gave a live-translated interview on a Brazilian show entitled Entre Amigos Internacional, hosted by Rodolfo Amorim, Bruno Maroni, and Guilherme Iamarino.
On June 3rd, ICS will have its first Convocation in over two years. The ceremony will include the granting of degrees to Junior Members, and Dr. Barbara M. Carvill will be awarded the degree Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa), and deliver the Convocation Address.
Convocation will begin at 6:30pm EDT on June 3. We have reached the capacity limit of the space, but we invite you to watch a livestream of the whole ceremony on our YouTube channel at:
We hope you will be able to join us virtually for this special night celebrating the accomplishments of our Junior Members and the contribution of Dr. Carvill to the work and legacy of ICS.
Last year, ICS hosted our second annual Advent concert, Creator of the Stars of Night, for our wonderful friends and supporters. This year, unfortunately, we were not able to host a third concert. Yet thanks to the efforts of last year’s performers, the non-profit charity Incontra Vocal Ensemble, we are able to offer you this Christmas greeting, with a beautiful rendition of the hymn “O Holy Night” by two of their soloists and Artistic Director Matthew Otto. Please enjoy this performance in the video included below.
On behalf of everyone at ICS, I wish you all a joyous Christmas, and a New Year filled with blessing. A light has shone in the darkness, and in that hope we venture into the New Year, guided by our Redeemer’s glory. May God give us all the strength and resilience to continue our earthly journey, and the ability and energy to respond to our Maker’s call upon our lives.
Shalom, my friends! Shalom!
Ronald A. Kuipers President
P.S. There is still time to give to ICS before the end of the year. You can donate online via CanadaHelps. If you're in the US, you can visit the Friends of ICS page and donate via PayPal. If you have any questions about donating, feel free to email donate@icscanada.edu or call us at 416-979-2331 x223, or toll free at 1-888-326-5347 x223
May 16-17, 2019 were days to celebrate both Junior Member achievements and the pedagogical contributions of ICS Emeritus Dr. Doug Blomberg. Over the course of these two days, ICS Senior and Junior Members, Senators, Board Members, and administration gathered here in Toronto for ICS's annual Board and Senate meetings to discuss the activities of the past year and to envision together the future for ICS. This time of year is an integral part of ICS's institutional rhythm, and we are grateful for the opportunity to come together in celebration and in hope.
Members of the ICS community (like Dr. Lambert
Zuidervaart, pictured above with Dr. Blomberg)
celebrated Dr. Blomberg's work
These meetings were punctuated by an evening of celebration with the broader community for Dr. Blomberg's tenure as both Senior Member and President at ICS. Throughout the evening, friends and colleagues of Dr. Blomberg shared stories and memories of their time working with him, and reflected on his contributions to Reformational philosophy and the discipline of education. These reflections were marked by gratitude to both Doug and his wife Heather for their service to these communities and the institution of ICS.
2019 ICS Graduates: Benjamin Groenewold (PhD), Kiegan
Irish (MA) & Ann Post (MWS)
The following evening, the ICS community gathered from far and wide for the Convocation of Junior Members Benjamin Groenewold, Kiegan Irish, and Ann Post. The work done by each of these graduates covers topics like the history and philosophy of our relationship to technology, political philosophy, and artistic practice. Those who attended Convocation celebrated along with the graduates their commitment to their studies and their years spent at ICS sharing both their insights and their desire to learn and grow. In their unique ways, each graduate has made their mark on the shared life of the ICS community. The event was a joyful opportunity to express gratitude for their presence, commend them for their achievements, and pray for blessings as they pursue their future paths.
John Kamphof (Board Chair), Dr. Ronald A. Kuipers
(President), and Dr. John Kok (Senate Chair)
This year's Convocation also included the exaugural address of Dr. Blomberg entitled, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." In his address, Dr. Blomberg shared some of the influences on the course of his academic career and explored his fascination with distinctly Reformational pedagogy. He reflected on the role of the body in an approach to education, and put forward a biblical understanding of the human person that is inextricably and integrally developed “from the ground up.”
The transcript of Dr. Blomberg's address may be found here in the ICS Institutional Repository, and video of the full address may be watched below and on ICS's YouTube channel.
You can also find more photos from the Convocation ceremony below. (Click on the square at the bottom of the slideshow to make full screen)
Are we now in a "post-truth" era, as the Oxford Dictionaries seemed to suggest when choosing that phrase as the International Word of the Year in 2016? Are appeals to emotion and personal opinions really replacing factual truth? Has truth become irrelevant? Tracing our Western conception of truth to its pre-Socratic origin as a godlike search for that which is uncreated and indestructible, Lambert says a philosophy in line with the Jewish and Christian wisdom traditions would see truth instead as a way of life, as something we do rather than merely assert.
The importance of this endeavour is readily apparent in these times of "alternative facts" and "fake news". A conception of truth rooted in what is good rather than mere theoretical immutability would help us work together to live in the truth, indeed in faithfulness, rather than taking uncertainty as our cue to discard the possibility of truth altogether. But what then of our longtime servant "factual truth"? In this inspiring and intriguing address, Lambert displays the biblical underpinnings for his ongoing work on a new theory of factual truth, within a broader conception of truth that we may summarise as the call to love God above all, and our neighbours as ourselves.
The website for ICS's new MWS concentration "Wayfinding" has gone public, with a link to it from our "Academics" menu and a link back to it from the program's Twitter page. Please visit www.icscanada.edu/wayfinding and enjoy a short introductory slideshow before going on to discover the main page and the lively ICSWayfinders Twitter feed that hosts many interesting discussions and references to materials of interest to vocational wayfinders.
At noon on Monday February 29, CPRSE Director Ron Kuipers participated in a Google Hangout live video interview with ICS Associate Professor Gideon Strauss, plus Aya Hayashi and Jeffrey Ansloos, responding to the work of philosopher Richard Kearney on identity, imagination, and the other. Visit the Youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lldK6q09-sE for more information and to watch the recorded video.
A short video describing the Justice and Faith Project undertaken in partnership with the Christian Reformed Church's Canadian Ministries is now available on the CPRSE's project website. The video describes the project's purpose and methods, and future activities including opportunities for community engagement. Click here to go to the project page and watch the video.
Harry Anastasiou graduated from the ICS Master of Philosophy program in 1979. Since then he has gone on to become a peace pioneer and Professor in Portland State University's Conflict Resolution Graduate Program.
Harry contacted us while passing through Toronto, wanting to visit his old school. On March 16, 2014 he kindly sat down for an impromptu interview with Doug Blomberg so that we could record his story, his thoughts about how ICS provided a foundation for his work in international peace and conflict resolution, and his insights on the nature of conflict.
The ICS community gathered this past Saturday afternoon in St. Joseph Chapel at Regis College to install the Presidents Dr Rev Tom Wolthuis and Ms Dawn Wolthuis who presented the Inaugural Address titled “He’s Got the Whole World...” (Tom Wolthuis) “...in His Hands” (Dawn Wolthuis). We also gathered to recognize and celebrate the academic achievements of seven of its Junior Members. Degrees were conferred upon Daniel Mullin (PhD – VU/ICS), Thomas McCormick (PhD - ICS), Jelle Huisman (MA), Rebecca Tait (MA), Andrew Tebbutt (MA), Elita Fung (MWS) and Clinton Stockwell (MWS). It was a wonderful afternoon of celebration!
Picture, from left to right: Tom Wolthuis, Henriette Thompson, Daniel Mullin, Andrew Tebbut, Elita Fung, Clinton Stockwell, Dawn Wolthuis, Nicholas Terpstra.
Three new videos are available on the ICS Youtube channel. They derive from the event "Imagination's Truths: re-envisioning imagination in philosophy, religion and the arts" which took place on October 13, 2012, and was cosponsored by ICS, Emmanual College, and the Toronto School of Theology.
The first video, recorded before the event began, is Richard Kearney being interviewed by our own Rebekah Smick on the subject of the role that imagination plays in our ability to express truth and deal with trauma.
Bob Sweetman's address to the 2008 ICS Worldview Conference is now available for viewing on YouTube. Links to both the paper and the video can be found in our Research Portal.
For those of you who missed the addresses and conferrals of honorary doctorates, or who just want to see them again, videos of the addresses and conferrals of Samson Makhado and Fred Reinders are now available at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL04CEF56D269C03A0
ICS was very pleased to host the Gala Launch of the Centre for Philosophy, Religion and Social Ethics at a reception and banquet held on Monday evening, October 24th at the University of Toronto Faculty Club. The evening began with a reception at 5:30 in the main lounge, at which several invited speakers offered congratulatory remarks from various academic institutions and the Reid Trust. The reception also included a draw for five prizes of a choice of one of Lambert Zuidervaart’s two recent books: Art In Public and Dog Kissed Tears.
