Magic Statistics

A much-loved local coffee and art shop burned down last night. Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters was completely destroyed in the fire along with a used furniture shop. This is a great loss to Whitehorse artists and coffee lovers. The store’s owner Zola Doré is a generous supporter of good causes in our community. My friend Chris knows her personally and has a post at his blog.

St Jude’s Cathedral, Iqaluit, was extensively damaged by fire last Saturday night, 5 November. Arson is the suspected cause. The landmark igloo-shaped white-shingled building contained many unique hand-crafted furnishings and decorations made especially for the church, built in the early 1970s.

Beautiful handmade wall hangings and other Inuit art depicting religious scenes adorned its curved walls, and parishioners knelt on sealskin pads to worship. The Queen dedicated the church's carved soapstone font.

Now the church could be a write-off, along with the narwhal tusk cross, woven collection baskets, prayer books and everything else it contained.

The church offered much-needed spiritual support and consolation in the often-troubled Inuit community.

The church has been a sanctuary from the pain of violence and the high number of suicides in Iqaluit, offering services in both English and Inuktitut. It was the place where a generation of Iqaluit Anglicans baptized their children, celebrated weddings and grieved their dead.

The building suffered such extensive damage that it remains unclear whether any of the structure can be salvaged or it will have to be re-built from the ground up.

Reverend Captain Ron McLean says it's not sure if the structure is sound enough to save the building.

"Part of the problem is the smoke has gone in beyond the plywood on the walls," he says. "Worst-case scenario, if we had to strip it off then a lot of it is lost of course, and it means we're basically starting all over. But we would be still keeping the original footprint of the cathedral."

The Parish of Iqaluit’s home page has a lengthy report with photos on how the church came to be built. The distinctive igloo design was originally rejected because the estimated cost was too high, but then cash donations and offers of volunteer labour began to pour in from the local area and across the north. As well, the British Royal Family personally supported the project.

It is truly heart-breaking to think that this church building, built by aboriginal northerners for the people of Iqaluit, was deliberately torched. The clergy and parishioners of Iqaluit need prayer for strength, wisdom, and financial support. May the Lord cause this destruction to redound to his greater glory.

UPDATE (10 Nov.): Arson has been confirmed as the cause of the fire.

This week's Christian Carnival has almost 50 entries. Check it out.

From an interview with actor Dennis Quaid.

What do you want your son to know about Christianity?

I want him to know about Jesus and Jesus' life, why Jesus came here, why he was on earth. He came here and died for our sins. He came here to teach us how to live. He's an example to all of us—it seems like no matter how hard we try, even the best of us Christians, we can't come close, we fall short of living our life in that perfect way that he did. But it's all about keeping your eye on that.

Why Dennis Quaid loves Jesus.

Latest in an occasional series of prayers by Christians of age past. Previous entry here; complete list of entries here.

Almighty God, bestow upon us the meaning of words, the light of understanding, the nobility of diction, and the faith of the true nature. And grant that what we believe we may also speak. Amen.

St Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-368)
Bishop of Poitiers, Doctor of the Church

Hilary was born in Poitiers, Gaul, of wealthy pagan parents. After receiving a thorough education in Latin classics, he became an orator. He also married and had a daughter. At the age of about 35, he rejected his former paganism and became a Christian through a long process of study and thought. Robert Louis Wilken describes his path to conversion in The Spirit of Early Christian Thought, p. 86:

[Hilary] found himself turning to more spiritual pursuits. In his words he wished to pursue a life that was "worthy of the understanding that had been given us by God." Like Justin [Martyr] he began to read the Bible, and one passage that touched his soul was Exodus 3:14, where God the creator, "testifying about himself," said, "I am who I am." For Hilary this brief utterance penetrated more deeply into the mystery of the divine nature than anything he had heard or read from the philosophers. Shortly thereafter he was baptized and received into the church.

Around 353 he was chosen bishop of Poitiers and became an outspoken champion of orthodoxy against the Arians. St Augustine praised him as "the illustrious teacher of the churches". St Jerome wrote that Hilary was "a most eloquent man, and the trumpet of the Latins against the Arians". Hilary became known as "Athanasius of the West".

Almost immediately upon assuming the office of bishop, St Hilary became active in the debate over the Trinity then dividing the church. At that time, the defenders of the Council of Nicaea suffered official disfavour: Emperor Constantius, son and successor of Constantine the Great, supported the pro-Arian bishops. Hilary refused the emperor’s demand to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, whereupon Constantius exiled him to Phyrgia. Hilary made good use of his time in exile. He met with Greek-speaking church leaders and theologians and wrote important works on church doctrine. His most celebrated book is On the Trinity, a twelve-volume work in which Hilary refuted Arianism by proving the consubstantiability of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He became a hymn-writer after seeing that Arians used hymns to spread their false doctrines. Deciding that orthodox Christians should popularize their beliefs in the same way, he became the first Latin hymn-writer of the Church.

While in exile, St Hilary publicly and forcefully defended Nicene orthodoxy at church synods and councils in 356 and 359. The emperor decided that Hilary was causing too much trouble for Arians in the eastern church and so in 360 ordered him to return from exile to Poitiers. He was received back home in Gaul with great rejoicing and thanksgiving. When Constantius died in 361, official support for Arianism ended. Hilary’s eloquent defence of orthodoxy was decisive in removing or converting remaining Arian bishops, and he is recognised for the great achievement of restoring order to the church of his time. He died at Poitiers in 368.

St Hilary believed that the only way to learn about God was through adoration and devotion. God must be approached with a devout mind. True knowledge of God comes only through thinking with understanding formed by piety. Theology therefore requires the warmth of faith.

St Hilary was proclaimed Doctor of the Church in 1851 by Pope Pius IX.

A portal to St Hilary's writings can be found here. For more information on this saint, click here or here.

Source of prayer: Pocket Prayers, compiled by Christopher Herbert.