I recently had the priviledge of representing WSCF-E at the United Nations Commision on the Status of Women (UNCSW).

SCM alumnus Jean Lee journeyed to Egypt in December 2009 to join a massive international delegation expressing its solidarity with the Palestinian people, by attempting to cross the Egyptian border into blockaded Gaza Strip. Here is her first-hand account.

Greetings on a snowy winter morning in Taize, France! Taize worship (a form of worship involving the repeated singing of a variety of short refrains generally in a dark and candle lit atmosphere) seems to be only the tip of the iceberg of what this community is all about.

Three members from SCM at York have traveled to Vancouver during reading week to join with all those in the Coast Salish Territories demanding indigenous rights and action on poverty and homelessness.

Why are we taking a stand against a popular international sporting event which claims global harmony and the spirit of healthy national pride?

The biggest news of the last few weeks has of course been the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

by David Ball
SCM General Secretary

In breaking news, several SCM Canada alumni – including former member of the board, Jean Lee – have joined an international Gaza Freedom March in Egypt to break the unjust blockade of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. And we look over the past year.

by Sheryl Johnson
Co-Chair, SCM Canada

Late one night this week, after Monday when SCMers across Canada launched SCM’s climate justice statement, and many of us stood on street corners collecting petition signatures for Canada to take a strong role at the Copenhagen talks, after I had gone to a lecture on climate change, I got a phone call…

by David Ball
SCM General Secretary

Today is an important day – the opening of major climate talks in Copenhagen. And with the Canadian government openly refusing to be a leader on tackling the climate crisis, it’s time to turn up the heat – let’s call on them to “change the attitude, not the climate!”

We’re back from Pilgrimage. Twelve young adults journeyed together to the School of Assassins protest and vigil at Fort Benning, Georgia.

SCM’s Movement Blog will feature profiles of the young adults making the five day journey south on our “spiritual activist road-trip” from Nov 19-23. Check back regularly, and follow our trip on our Twitter feed

SCM’s Movement Blog will feature profiles of the young adults making the five day journey south on our spiritual activist road-trip from Nov 19-23. Check back regularly, and follow our trip on our Twitter feed !

SCM’s Movement Blog will feature profiles of the young adults making the five day journey south on our spiritual activist road-trip from Nov 19-23. Check back regularly, and follow our trip on our Twitter feed !

It’s November 11. Remembrance Day. I’m heading up to York University for a remembrance service (more on that below). Listen to a podcast of SCM York’s Alternative Remembrance Day service.

by Sheryl Johnson
SCM Co-Chair

On October 24, 2009, SCMers from across Canada participated in the worldwide 350 day of Action, leading up to December’s Climate Change conference happening in Copenhagen. The main event for Canada took place on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and so a few SCMers from York and the University of Toronto made the 4.5 hour trek to Ottawa for the day.

by David Ball
General Secretary

This morning, we drove down from Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows First Nation) the final time of this 10-day delegation with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

by David Ball
SCM General Secretary

KENORA ON – “What does Thanksgiving mean in Canada?” asks Anna, a North Carolinian fellow delegate with Christian Peacemaker Teams, to the server at Ho Ho’s Chinese Restaurant in Kenora, Ontario. A moment of puzzled thought, then a shrug. “I don’t actually know. I think it just means be thankful.”

by Sheryl Johnson
SCM Co-Chair

Over the first weekend in October, the SCM board met in Toronto. After a summer of jobs, rest, holidays, travel, work, and not-so ordinary schedules, the “order” of fall seemed certainly upon us as we met to discern SCM’s path this year.

I am on my second day of a peacemaker delegation on the issue of Aboriginal Justice with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), and thinking a lot about my friends and my involvement in the SCM.

Tomorrow, I am traveling on SCM’s behalf to Grassy Narrows First Nation (Asubpeeschoseewagong), with a delegation of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).

A quick update for all you SCMers and supporters out there. I just put the finishing touches on a short audio-video slideshow, What is SCM? An Intro to the Movement which tells a bit about SCM’s vision, our history, and the voices of some of the students involved. Former General Co-Secretary Emily Carr and I worked on this slideshow on the train during our Western tour earlier this year, and we hope you enjoy it (one of these days, we’ll actually have an intro movie to SCM with some interviews).

When I informed one of my online friends that I spent a week hanging out with a bunch of radically left, queer Christians, his response was “ew.” I’m quite certain that it wasn’t the “left” or “queer” thing that made him feel icky. It was the “Christian” thing. I understand his instinctive reaction. There’s a lot of baggage that goes along with the label “Christian.” So let me be clear what the Student Christian Movement is, and what it is not.

Greetings from Toronto and the University of Toronto SCM, host of this year’s Shine! General Conference (coming up May 2-10!)! Plans for this year’s special conference are coming together well, and we are particularly excited for the Queer and Christian Without Contradiction Gathering which will be enmeshed with SCM’s annual Conference.

As I write, I’m on the train with my Toronto counterpart, SCM’s new National Co-Coordinator, Emily Carr, for a grand ‘SCM Epiphany’ recruitment tour. I love the train… watching the country roll by, having some time to reflect on the future of SCM and how we can better support student involvement and leadership in this rather unique and visionary movement. The prairies, the mountains… it’s all so beautiful and humbling.

Reflecting on the recent political drama being carried out by the politicians in the Canadian Parliament, Katherine (SCM Eastern Rep) and I were joking about if Parliament were to institute “group norms” similar to those guidelines that are used at SCM gatherings to create safe space for all participating. Much hilarity ensued…

As I write it’s almost 1 a.m. I am on an island that is 30 minutes off of the time-space continuum and upon which things happen quite differently from what I am used to; it all seems hidden in a fog. No, this is not the mysterious magical island on the show Lost. I am in fact in St. John’s, Newfoundland enjoying spectacular hospitality and friendliness.

Happy Women’s Day! March 8 marks the International Women’s Day.

I am a delegate at the 53rd commission on the status of women, held by and put on by the United Nations in New York. I am here as a representative of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), which is encompassed in the UN-recognized organization “ecumenical women.”

Early in December, Mitchell Anderson and Sheryl Johnson had the opportunity to attend a roundtable hosted by Tony Blair and Belinda Stronach to mark the launch of the Faith Acts Fellows Programme, an opportunity for young adults from Canada, the US, and the UK of a variety of religious traditions to embark on a 9-month internship.

Hey, check out an interview I did this morning (frightfully early when it was minus 14 outside) on CKUW radio

Just a quick post to let people know how our Pilgrimage to the School of the Americas is going. We set out next Wednesday for a week-long social justice road trip to the gates of a US army base notorious for training human rights abusers in Latin America.

I had the pleasure of attending a young adult pre-conference, entitled New Fire, to the National Council of Churches, USA Annual Meeting in Denver Colorado. The pre-conference involved young adult representatives from many American denominations (mainly Mainline Protestant, but also some Catholic, Orthodox, and “Evangelical” Protestant) as well as individuals from Ecumenical organizations.

It’s strange – all of a sudden I am hit by emotion. It’s weird – I was so unemotional while in Georgia, only connected on an intellectual level, really.

Coffee tonight with a great friend, youth minister, and sometime-SCMer was quite fantastic. Together, our conversation spanned a number of issues, but what was most poignant for me was the realization that both of us felt that something is changing within humanity right now – like we’re on the cusp of a transformation, at the eve of God’s revolutionary reign. Sometimes it is really amazing to see how the Spirit is working through so many avenues to create pockets of resistance, to bring about revolutionary transformation.

I left the Advocacy Commission yesterday feeling energized about the work of the movement. This is why (or at least one of the reasons)we’re here! We are called to live out our faith by working for justice.

by Beidy Casas-Aragon
SCM Canada Steward to the WSCF General Assembly

I first encountered Rubem Alves’ work through a Theology course I took in 1994 when I read his book “La Teologia como Juego” (Theology as a Game). I really fell in love with his work. Since then I have read a lot of his books and have been following the evolution in his ways of thinking. Today he has confirmed what he is doing in his writing and his theology -he plays, and he does it with words, which is something quite difficult, yet he’s great!