I think I am a reasonably well-read person, but last week I learned 2 new words. One is prorogue, which as I assume you all know by now means to discontinue a session. And as we know, the governor general discontinued the current sitting of parliament. The other word is syncretism. And thanks to Google and Wikapedia, I have cut and pasted some definition/explanation as follows:

It is a truism that those who speak for God can and often do speak out of self interest, or in a tone that many people, like Ricky, find themselves repelled by. If so Gervais is in the company of a good many followers of Jesus, including me (and some of the people who have had to put up with me over the years). However, if, in the words of St. Anselm, God is "than which none greater can be conceived" then perhaps we should expect less from those who claim to speak about God, knowing that no one aside from Jesus (God’s only known offspring) is up to the task.

On my recent trip to the Holy Land I had the opportunity to converse with several American citizens who were  participating in the study tour. The experience was eye opening as a Canadian. Some stereotypes were reinforced (the connection between Republican politics and evangelicalism), while others were challeneged (the willingness of Americans to listen to the perspectives of outsiders, say, Canadians). Much of the conversation centered on the then upcoming election.

I ran into a student and his parents at Ikea, one day.

The student teacher relationship is in a constant state of flux. But it is a slow flux. The bumps and vagaries of daily in and outs are not nearly as important as the overall meta-curriculum that over arches the years of student teacher interaction. It is this long handed view that I have in mind when I think of the relationship, certainly not the constant flux of the in and out.

There was a baptism at my church this morning.  Two much-loved families in our church had two of their much-loved infants baptised.  I myself have a one-year-old son.  Don't tell anyone at my church (as if they don't remind us regularly), but my son is un-baptised.  SHHHHH!!!  Don't tell!!!  [Insert gobs of sarcasm here]

Ok.  The serivce ended with the celebrant saying, "Please welcome the newest members of the Body of Christ!"

"So what is Empathy? Empathy is the ability to comprehend with accuracy the precise thoughts and motivations of other people in such a way that they would say "Yes! That is exactly where I am coming from!"

I have, for a long time, been turned off by some models of psychology because they seemed constructed and/or contrived. For some, "New is True", but as far as I go, if I can't locate the idea somewhere in history, it's as good as rubbish. There is nothing new under the sun.