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Weekly Roundup
January 28, 2007 - 7:24 p.m.

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Five days without updating...I'm losing my touch. Here's the roundup.

Winter has finally settled over Toronto. A cold mass of air has swept in, trailing snow and ice behind. I enjoy the cold, and really don't mind the snow. It's the salt that's a pain. Shoes and pants just a mess. Whinge.

It's been an interesting few days...Tuesday night Amy and I went to hear Lieutenant-General Rom�o Dallaire, the commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda in 1993-94. If you've seen Hotel Rwanda, Nick Nolte's character was based on him. On Tuesday the real Dallaire spoke about global humanity and the responsibility of the "have" nations to help and defend the "have nots", even from themselves. It was a powerful talk from someone who'd seen the worst that people can do to one another.

On Wednesday Andrew Hutchison, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, was at Trinity to preside and preach at the Eucharist. Wycliffe College, the other Anglican seminary in Toronto, was visiting so it was a grand event. Of course, whenever a bishop visits there are always a few hiccups...he or she never knows the liturgy as practiced at your church, everyone's all geeked up, etc. We didn't have too many crashes, but it might have been smoother. Especially with Wycliffe visiting...shoot.

Afterward the Primate spoke to the combined colleges, which was interesting. The two schools have a reputation for being on the opposite ends of the political/theological spectrum and right now the Anglican world is about as polarized as a via media can get. Of course the reputations are only half true...I know people at Wycliffe who're as lefty as they come, and people at Trinity who're quite conservative. Still, there were a few charged moments, which Plus-Plus* handled with aplomb.

Then last night Amy and I went to see the Trinity College Dramatic Society's production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. It was actually pretty good, which was something of a disappointment. Really bad theatre is a lot of fun.

And finally, this morning, we went to St. Anne's, where I did a field placement in my first year and where we used to attend before I got swept up in the process. This term will probably be the last time, other than summer holidays, when Amy and I will be able to go to church and actually sit together.

Unless she joins the Acolytes Guild, of course...

* I almost forgot...Plus-Plus refers to the Primate of the Canadian church. It's shorthand taken from clergy signatures - if the plus follows the name it's a priest, if the plus precedes it's a bishop. It's actually a cross, not a plus, but when using a keyboard one has no handy cross key, so...

i.e. "Rowan Williams+" is a priest, "+Rowan Williams" is a bishop. In the Anglican Communion, "++Rowan Williams" would be the Primate or Presiding Bishop of a national church, while "+++Rowan Williams" is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Hence, ++Andrew Hutchison visited Trinity. As we planned his visit we just referred to him as Plus-Plus, or Plus-Plus Andy. I wonder if he was amused.

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