On behalf of the Board of the Renewal Fellowship, I want to extend our thanks to the Presbyterian Record for what it has meant to many Presbyterians past and present across our denomination. Over the years, we have benefited from the shared experience of having a national printed periodical that connected, challenged, and gave voice to what it meant to be Christian, Presbyterian, and Reformed in our congregations, in our communities, and across Canada.
In recent years, the Record has been very generous in giving the Renewal Fellowship a regular column to bring an encouraging voice of God's renewal and mission within our denomination. Our past Executive Directors, Calvin Brown, and more recently, Fred Stewart, have been regular contributors, along with others, bringing a prophetic and pastoral perspective of God's on-going renewal in our personal, congregational, and denominational life and witness. Most recently, we were pleased that in the Viewpoint column of the November issue, our Annual General Meeting was covered, and in particular, the topic of Being Present presented by Liz Honeyford and Alex MacLeod. To David Harris and the editorial staff, we are grateful, and the loss of the Record is also a loss of a positive and established relationship that the Renewal Fellowship will miss.
As a Board, we have also been asked to recommend an alternative periodical, and though it does not have the same denominational flavour and perspective as the Presbyterian Record, we would encourage readers to consider Faith Today, published by EFC (Evangelical Fellowship of Canada). The editors of Faith Today have made an arrangement with the Record whereby they will be advertising in the December Record issue, then gifting to the Record's mailing list copies of Faith Today in both January and March. Presbyterians can then subscribe or not as they may wish. Personally, I have found that Faith Today strives to bring a consistent perspective that is open to engaging various world views, ideologies, and theologies without compromising the basic orthodoxy of the Christian faith.
In this way, I have found the editorials, articles, and regular columns helpful, as one who is seeking to be an engaged Christian and pastor participating in God's renewal and kingdom work in a Canadian context. As an example, in a recent sermon on the topic of stewardship at Glenbrook PC, I referred to an article in the March/April 2016 edition of Faith Today called "Being, Doing and Having" which I found to be helpful in my research and preparation. Further, in the January/February 2016 issue of Faith Today, there was a timely article entitled "Responding to a Refugee Crisis in 1915" written by Rev. Peter Bush, pastor of Westwood PC in Winnipeg MB. If you are looking for a printed and online alternative for the Presbyterian Record, I would encourage you to give Faith Today a try.
Pastor Ian McWhinnie, Mississauga, Ontario <pastorian@glenbrook.ca>