Dr Paul Kariya is Senior Policy Advisor for the Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative, an alliance of nine BC First Nations which focuses on job creation and protection of the Great Bear Rainforest. Prior to this, Paul was the Executive Director of Clean Energy BC, and Executive Director of Pacific Salmon Foundation. He has worked in the public sector, both federally and provincially, and was an adjunct faculty member at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC. Paul holds a BA (Hon) from UBC and a MA and PhD from Clark University in Massachusetts, and is a Trudeau Foundation Mentor. Paul grew up on the West Coast of Vancouver Island as the son of a Japanese-Canadian salmon fisherman. Love of the ocean and for God’s creation comes from these beginnings. Paul is married and has three adult children.
This summer, after 10 years as an international trustee, I retired from the board of A Rocha. How is it that the son of an immigrant fisherman from Japan came to be involved with creation care?
By ‘plastic theology’ I don’t mean theology that is cheap, disposable and tacky! I want to reflect on the spiritual power and importance of something that has only been around for a very short time yet has become all-pervasive and all of us have become dependent upon.
Sometimes the Christian Gospel is described as a universal message that speaks to all cultures. I profoundly disagree! The Gospel is not a set of abstract philosophical concepts that are ‘culture free’ (as if such a thing were possible). Rather, it becomes Good News when it is grounded within the earthy realities of particular places […]
History is written in the landscapes of the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. Baalbek with its magnificent Roman ruins, more ancient rounded hills known as tells, and long rusted barbed wire and tank emplacements. For good or ill we leave our mark on the land long after we have gone. Can people tell what we believe about God from what we write in the landscape?
Most places that we know around the world have witnessed what has been called a ‘thinning of life’. How anyone lives experiences like this will, of course, depend on what kind of person they are. Miranda and I have an arts training and background, and at times our response to these multiple losses has been emotional and quite personal.
The grand drama of Easter took place as a three-day-event around the special Shabbat during Passover. Holy Saturday is the least remembered day of the Easter Mystery: after Good Friday and before Easter Sunday. Yet all of Jesus’ claims and actions regarding Sabbath point to this climactic place in time.
As I spent time in homes and churches in Cape Town, talking to ordinary residents, faith leaders and a few politicians and experts, I found myself reflecting on the issues this water crisis reveals, so here are a few personal thoughts as a result of many conversations and wide-ranging reading.
Where do we start? What can we do if we want to take seriously God’s commands to care for the poor, steward the planet, and participate in bringing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?
Advent and Christmas remind us that the Christ-child came to bring peace. We remember that we need peace with God, and we remember that we need peace with our neighbor. But does Christ’s birth have anything to do with bringing peace between us and animals – does the advent mean goodwill to manatees?
Biology professor R. Alexander Pyron argues that ‘The only reason we should conserve biodiversity is for ourselves, to create a stable future for human beings.’ At the heart of this is a belief that humanity is the sole species that matters, and possesses not only the creative technological capacity but also the moral will to solve all of its own problems. This is the neo-religious myth of human progress, rooted in neither science nor logic.
