Politics and religion was the topic of Trinity Western University at “Faith Forward: Exploring Religion, Culture and Conflict,” its second public symposium. Over the course of March 12-14, four guest speakers gave keynote addresses, each discussing different aspects of the faith and politics debate. The lectures had modest attendance.

The event was organized by TWU professors Dr. John Dyck, Dr. Paul Rowe and Dr. Jens Zimmermann and funded by a partnership with CHNU Television, which granted $100,000 to production of the symposium over the next five years.

“The reason we’ve brought these people here is because these people are very clear with their ideas of religion and politics,” said Zimmermann.

Those who attend an Anglican Church have probably already heard the news. The Anglican Communion is effectively broken. The sad truth of the matter is that the Anglican Church of Canada, which has about 2000 parishes, has become schismatic. The split-off group, the Anglican Network of Canada, which is composed of the more orthodox members of the church, have split off and placed themselves under the authority of an archbishop outside of Canada.

My concern is not with a detailed examination of the history or the reasons behind the schism; that would require a much deeper examination of the history of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

The title of Michel Gondry’s latest film certainly evokes nostalgia for all who felt civic pride in returning a VHS cassette rewound.

Be Kind Rewind is the story of one declining video store (Be Kind Rewind) owned by an elderly Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover) and run by Mike (Mos Def). Mike’s best friend Jerry (Jack Black) is an eccentric junkyard owner who becomes magnetized after trying to sabotage an electrical plant. When Mr. Fletcher is informed that his store is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a new development, he goes on a fact-finding mission to a local video chain. Mike is left in charge of the store, and after Jerry demagnetizes all the tapes (erasing all their content), they start to make parodies (”sweds”) of the films in the store. The sweds catch on and they attempt to raise enough money save the store.

Do you ever got caught up in the moment? A seemingly ordinary moment where an instant later you become acutely aware of what God is doing around you? A moment where you are suddenly struck by His greatness and majesty – left speechless and in awe. It’s those times in which the dullness of life completely vanishes – if only for an instant – and we are left either feeling so incredibly insignificant because we have just caught a glimpse of the greatness of God, or our lives become so much more purposeful because we have seen a little bit of how He is using us. Rob Bell puts it well when he describes times like this as “ordinary moments in ordinary settings that all of a sudden become infused with something else: meaning, significance and hope.”

Have you ever thought, “Hey, my generation is pretty pathetic”? Our fathers and their fathers had small wars and world wars, dust bowls and not-so-great depressions, and Ravi Shankar and Woodstock. They engaged their environment and each other. In contrast, we have World of Warcraft and Star Wars, economic booms and hedge funds and dirty rap that’d make Serge Gainsbourg blush. We don’t engage our environment. We ignore what’s around us, numb our feelings and simply exist.

Our generation doesn’t have a rallying point. We don’t have passions. We don’t have goals. We don’t have commitment. Our human interaction has been debased to friend requests on MySpace and the annoying “ping” of instant messengers.

Brett Favre, the ultimate warrior, has dazzled us with his supreme skill and toughness for 17 seasons, but now the 38-year-old quarterback has decided to retire rather than suit up for another season with the Green Bay Packers. “I know I can still play”, said a teary-eyed Favre in a press conference, “but it’s like I told my wife, I’m just tired mentally.”

Trinity Western University nursing professor Sonya Grypma recently experienced the thrill of seeing her first book in print, after writing about Canadian nurses who served in China. The book, entitled Healing of Henan, focuses on a hospital where missionary nurses worked from 1888 to 1947.

Grypma did not seek out the inspiration for her book. Instead, she stumbled across some intriguing letters from Canadian nurses seven years ago.

“Before I found the letters I didn’t even know Canadian nurses were in China,” she said. Since then, Grypma has been studying the work of these nurses, leading up to the release of her book in January 2008.

Voter apathy. It’s a term frequently tossed around in politics. When elections roll around and people don’t vote, that’s voter apathy. Not really a fair term, as apathy translates literally to “lack of interest in anything.” A lack of votes can stem from reasons far beyond voter interest, reasons found in both the voters and the candidates.

This year, voting in the TWU Student Association elections was down nearly 50 per cent from last year. In 2007, over 800 votes were counted, whereas this year, only around 400 votes were cast. This dip is not fully explained by lower enrollment, but has been attributed to both voter and candidate apathy.