‘Mama Debra’ opened her home to students and refugees

Remembering Debra Fieguth, Journalist & Activist, 62

Her mission in life was to be hospitable, especially to the stranger.

(Family Photo)

Debra Fieguth in 2008 with Eh Ka Moo, a five-year-old refugee she had helped bring to Canada from Myanmar.

BY Sue Careless

“Mama Debra” died on Mother’s Day.

Journalist Debra Fieguth had no children of her own but befriended hundreds of international students and immigrants.

Fieguth died suddenly on May 8 from an undiagnosed lung disease, which caused a massive stroke. She was 62.

At the time of her death, she was a senior writer at Faith Today. Such a position means “that we can assign that person almost any story and know it will be done well,” the magazine’s co-editor, Karen Stiller, said in her eulogy. Moreover, Debra “was someone intent on making the crooked straight, setting right what had been made wrong.”

Nor did the award-winning journalist shy away from tough topics. In “The Prisoner and the Professor”

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One-third/two-thirds split

Anglican Church of Canada deeply divided

Photo: Sue Careless

Bishop Lydia Mamakwa of the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh spoke against the same-sex marriage motion. 

BY Sue Careless

A motion to solemnize same-sex marriage that passed by one clergy vote at its General Synod has revealed just how deeply divided the Anglican Church of Canada is today.

Moreover, pastoral letters from its Primate and several bishops sent within days of synod closing on July 12 only confirm that the Church is not of one mind.

Several bishops who had voted in favour of the motion declared they would proceed with performing same-sex rites immediately

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Refreshing the Spirit

  

(Photos: Sue Careless)

From top: Richard Foster, Sharon Garlough Brown and Nathan Foster gave keynote addresses on 

spiritual formation in May at Wycliffe College in Toronto.

By Sue Careless

A TRIO OF WRITERS offering two generations’ experience in spiritual formation recently gathered in Toronto. Richard Foster, his son, Nathan, and Sharon Garlough Brown gave keynote addresses to about 170 participants in a Refresh! conference May 6-7 at Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto.

Thirty-eight years ago Richard Foster published his landmark work, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, which explored a dozen spiritual practices for the Christian life. Christianity Today named Celebration of Discipline one of the top ten books

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Former street kid new bishop

(Photo: Terry J. Saunders)

John Watton started living on the street when he was only 13.

(Staff) Just days after being consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Central Newfoundland, a former street kid went off to attend General Synod.

The Rev. John Watton was elected bishop of the Diocese of Central Newfoundland after seven ballots on April 30^th. He was consecrated on June 29^th at St. Martin’s Cathedral in Gander, where he had served as rector for the past 11 years. He succeeds Bishop David Torraville, who served for the past decade.

Born in Manitoba, Watton moved to Newfoundland as a child and grew up in a small community not far from Gander. He told the Gander Beacon that he started living on the street

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A Joyful Update

(Photo: Sue Careless)

J.I. Packer informs us that by God’s grace, his doctors recently have been able to reverse partially (not totally) the macular degeneration that was causing

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