ACP Member Articles
Anglican Journal
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John Ernest Irving, who headed the New Brunswick-based Irving business empire with his brothers, died at the age of 78 on July 21 after a brief illness.
Typically known as Jack, he built much of the company infrastructure in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, becoming executive vice-president of Irving Oil and a director of all Irving businesses. He was responsible for and managed a number of Irving companies and was particularly associated with Ocean Steel and Strescon, leading suppliers of steel and architectural concrete in the region.
"Jack was a great brother and friend," his brother J.K. Irving said in a statement. "We enjoyed many happy years growing up together at home and in the business. He will be greatly missed."
Born in 1932, Irving graduated from Rothesay Collegiate School, Rothesay, N.B. in 1950 and attended Acadia University, Wolfville, N.S. from 1950 to 1952. At that point he decided to finish his studies with the best professor in the Maritimes, his father Kenneth Colin (K.C.) Irving, and joined the family business with father and brothers.
Irving was a member of the Order of Canada, a companion of the Order of The Business Hall of Fame, an inaugural member of the New Brunswick Business Hall of Fame, recipient of an honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University of New Brunswick and an honourary Doctorate in Civil Laws from Acadia University and is an Alumnus Honoris Causa of Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.
When he was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2007, his decades of work fostering economic development throughout New Brunswick and the Atlantic region were recognized. The citation also said: Notably, he led the restoration of heritage properties in Saint John, which helped revitalize the downtown core. He is also known as a generous philanthropist who has supported educational institutions and arts in the Maritimes."
Irving was an active member of the congregation at Trinity Anglican Church in Saint John, where a visitation was held on Friday, July 23, 2010, and a funeral service was planned for Saturday, July 24. The rector, the Rev. Ranall Ingalls, said that he was a very quiet and faithful member of the church.
He is survived by his wife, Suzanne Heather Cameron ne Farrer, his children John Keillor Farrer Irving, Colin Dargarvel Irving, Anne Cameron I. Oxley and six grandchildren.
Anglican Journal
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Cape TownThe end of the Cold War led to the false hope that all humans would be treated equally, says Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
But the world's inability to avoid crises such as the recent recession, climate change and volcanic ash illustrates the risk of not working together, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town said.
"The countries most responsible for devastating changes are the least vulnerable to the consequences, of which the price is being paid by the poor and the weak," he said.
"We all have just one world Unless we work out a way to live together, we will end up at the bottom of the pit together," Tutu said.
Solutions to the ongoing economic crisis will only be found in the faith communities, Tutu said while noting, "More than political will, the moral imperative is lacking; we realize more and more [the global financial crisis] is a moral and ethical matter."
Tutu was speaking at the handing over last week of a report on globalization by Uniting Reformed Church of South Africa theologian the Rev. Allan Boesak, and the Rev. Johann Weusmann of the Evangelical Reformed Church in Germany titled Dreaming a Different World.
The Evangelical Reformed Church in Germany in 2007 embarked on a project to study the effects of globalization in the context of the Accra Confession, a 2004 statement of the then World Alliance of Reformed Churches that critiqued neoliberal economics. The German church worked with the church in South Africa to gain the perspective of a developing country.
Much of the "very activist" report, as Boesak described it, is devoted to economic issues, and is explicitly meant as ammunition in what is seen as the battle against the domination by a financial elite using "empire logic."
Just as Christ rose up against the Roman empire, it is the duty of Christians to resist the "lordless powers" of the global capitalist empire, the report says. It looks at issues such as the global food crisis, financial markets, ecology and militarism. It sets out a detailed programme for "breaking the dominance of financial markets over the real economy." The report distinguishes between globalization and globalism.
"Globalization is an historical, rational phenomenon, the product of technological, civilizational development. It inaugurates a new phase in our history, presenting humanity with immense challenges, but working for the larger socio-economic virtue.
"Globalism is an ideological phenomenon, in the service of a certain hegemony, driven by neo-liberal capitalism, not a benign and neutral process, but ideologically driven in the service of the rich and powerful, globally."
Anglican Journal
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Vienna
Faith leaders can play a key role in the fight against the HIV pandemic if their public statements help combat stigma and discrimination, a meeting of faith groups in Vienna in advance of the 18th International AIDS Conference has heard. "Religious leaders have the trust and confidence of their communities and can help break these barriers and create a more supportive environment," the Netherlands AIDS ambassador Marijke Wijnroks told a July 17 multi-faith conference in the Austrian capital. Wijnroks acknowledged that faith communities have been "on the frontline of the response to HIV and AIDS". Still, religious leaders through their language have also contributed to the burden of the disease, she warned. "Public positions and statements of some faith-based organisations have at times been unhelpful, or even harmful," said Wijnroks. "Deeply judgmental comments on populations such as men having sex with men and people living with HIV have alienated people at risk and contributed to stigma and discrimination." Earlier, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, told the meeting that faith leaders need to exercise care about the way they use statements from the Scriptures when dealing with HIV and AIDS. "Language is very much a matter of ideology and power," said Tveit, a Norwegian theologian who took office as the head of the Geneva-based WCC in January. This means, "not only being accountable about what pieces of our faith texts we quote but how we use these texts". In recent months church leaders in countries including Uganda and Malawi have supported criminal penalties being applied against homosexuals. AIDS campaigners warn this can mean people at risk from HIV being driven underground. Tveit was part of an opening panel at the multi-faith meeting looking at how faith traditions promote work towards universal access to HIV treatment, care, support and prevention. "This has to do with a basic issue of justice," said the WCC leader. Tveit recalled that back in 1987 the main governing body of the WCC had affirmed the "right to medical and pastoral care regardless of socio-economic status, race, sex, sexual orientation or sexual relationship". He said, "We should keep our commitments to do what we know we have to do." The International AIDS Conference is held every two years. It is drawing more than 20 000 medical professionals, scientists, policy makers, persons living with HIV and others working in the field of HIV and AIDS. In 2010 it runs from 18 to 23 July. Jan Beagle, the deputy executive director of UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV and AIDS, said faith communities can help bridge a "disconnect" between the scientific world and the world of culture, religion and communities. "We are not asking religious leaders to hand out condoms, unless that is acceptable within your traditions, but to partner with us in approaches to HIV prevention education, health care and referral," Beagle told the faith groups' conference. UNAIDS is to launch a high-level commission on HIV prevention, with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu as one of its co-chairs, during the Vienna conference. The multi-faith conference was organized by a working group convened by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, an international network of churches and church-related organizations. "The world expects people of faith to be working together," said the Rev. Richard Fee, the alliance's chairperson, a Presbyterian church leader from Canada. "We have recognised that and it is time we started doing that." Stephen Brown, managing editor of ENInews, is in Vienna as part of an EAA media team.
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