by Stuart Brown

Stuart Brown is Director of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism

Ce document est aussi disponible en français : Défis et Souhaits.

We are trying, bit by bit, to wean ourselves from our old habit of tying all the articles in any issue to a particular theme, because we want to offer you a platter of good things at each sitting. In this way, everyone will have a better chance of finding something they like. With the old system, we could provide a feast for the folks who were especially interested in the theme of the month, but we had to make others wait in the hopes of getting their special wishes in a later issue. From time to time, and specifically when we will have a batch of papers from a single conference, we will follow a precise theme, but we hope from now on to give you more variety than we used to.

Thus, John Hiemstra tells us about the moral and theological challenge which prosperity can bring to a society like Alberta's in the petroleum age.

The Bédards recount the challenges and blessings which have been with their mixed household, as they came from different churches and each tried to remain loyal to their original denomination and to support the partner in his or her faith; many spiritual benefits came to each of them.

The other two articles do have a common theme, as they consider the challenges surrounding the question of religious tribunals in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario; Roderick Macdonald brings a legal and academic perspective, while the vantage point for Linda Nicholls is more pastoral and theological. Both will sharpen our thinking about this matter, which will doubtless be feeding our public debates for many years to come.

In this issue you will find an exceptional quantity of other information, and we are sure that many of you will find it interesting and useful. There are also several books on our list, to help you with your shopping.

We hope to enlarge our company of authors, so we are telling all our readers that we will be happy to consider any articles on ecumenical and interfaith topics that you may wish to share.

It is my happy privilege, on behalf of our editorial team and all the staff at the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, to extend to all of you our best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a very happy 2006. May we be ever conscious of Jesus' wish that his disciples should be one, and may we be ever watchful, so that our thoughts and actions are consistent with this wish. Especially, we hope that Christians of different branches of the one family will learn to love one another in deed as well as word, and that we will always be good neighbours to the people who live around us and observe our living testimony every day.

As much as we can, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the company of the faithful (Gal. 6:10).