Across the United Church, there are many approaches to marking Remembrance Day. In contributing a new selection of prayers for use in a Remembrance Sunday service, my hope was to address the wide variety of needs of different church congregations.
Most of the reformers left it up to individual Christians to decide whether signing was an appropriate expression of faith, but there were some who condemned it as a form of idolatry. Gradually, it fell out of favour with the majority of Protestants.
Reformers disagreed about whether to reject or use the crucifix, to adopt an unadorned cross, or to discard the symbol altogether. Most Protestant churches today tend to be less ornate—a direct reflection of the Reformation call to integrity.
For the first thousand years of Christianity, and particularly since the Council of Ephesus in 431, Mary has held a special place in Christian faith. But for just as long, there has been debate about how “special” that place ought to be.
I took these pictures last August while visiting my mother’s relatives in the central part of Saskatchewan on the Muskoday First Nation. They capture some of the 825 dancers that participated in the 25th annual traditional Powwow.