St. Peter Lutheran Church in Kitchener Ontario - And Trilium?

 

Latest on St. Peters in Kitchener, Ontario

St. Peter's Church in Kitchener, Ontario, is currently involved in several significant projects that reflect its commitment to community and social justice. Here are the latest updates:

• Affordable Housing: The church is building 41 new affordable housing units within its walls, addressing the ongoing housing crisis in the community. These units are expected to be ready by fall of 2024, providing much-needed housing for those in need. 

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• Worship Services: St. Peter's Church offers a variety of worship services, including community worship on Sundays, in-person or online, and recordings of services for those who cannot attend in person. 

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• Community Engagement: The church actively engages with community issues such as Truth and Reconciliation, racism, and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, promoting a gospel of liberation and inclusivity. 

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• Redevelopment: The church is also involved in the redevelopment of Magnolia Apartments, aiming to create a renewed place for faith, justice, community, and the arts. 

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  These initiatives demonstrate St. Peter's Church's dedication to serving the community and addressing pressing social issues. [^image1^]
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I was shocked when I first saw the stories about my vicarage church, decades later, being turned into housing. The sister church, not far away from St. Peter, seemed to be 100% gone - except for housing. 

St. Peter is definitely radical now and the Lutheran seminary has just a hint of Lutheran training. The seminary's highlight is the chapel turned into floor space for dogs and cushions. So cute!

Five or more seminary faculty or students have now passed into another life. I am in the center row. Martin, our first-born, was soon to be delivered at Yale Divinity School.

This is the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary chapel, where I was one of the students, part of practice to teaching and learning more about traditional Lutheran worship and music. Dogs were never invited.

Fun Moments from the University of Phoenix, Yale University, and DEI

 

The University of Phoenix decided to sneak DEI into the classroom. I was asked and so I was paid for the revision of one of their graduate courses in master's courses in education. That particular course had some graphics in it - and I ignored them, one more superfluous thing. 

I was working on the revision with a supervisor, via Zoom. Everything was fine until her supervisor insisted on DEI. That fad was bubbling up slowly so I caught the sulphuric whiff right away. I said, "No chance. I am not going to ruin the English language with a fad." I was dropped from effort and soon announced I was done with anything from that department. 

Yesterday I was sent a questionnaire on the value of my UOP education, since I earned an MA in education there. I thought, "This will rattle HAL and be a lot of fun, especially with my name on it."

I was filling in boxes for that UOP survey and including detailed, sensitive responses, as requested, when the effort suddenly went blank and refused any and all responses. I must have hit a tender, sore spot in their search for truth.

Likewise, Yale Divinity School sent me a chance to attend their gathering at Little Rock. The leader of the event used he, his, they for his pronouns. I signed my response in three words - "ME MYSELF and I" - which ended all communications from that committee.

 

Linn Tonstad

Professor of Theology, Religion, and Sexuality

Phone: 

(203) 432-5373

Email: 

linn.tonstad@yale.edu(link sends e-mail)

Office: 

S204

Education 

B.A. La Sierra University
M.A.R. Yale Divinity School
Ph.D. Yale University

Superfluous Pronouns - Winning

 

All Time Views11,986,665

YDS Biography 

"Professor Tonstad is a constructive theologian working at the intersection of Christian theology with feminist and queer theory. Her first book, God and Difference: The Trinity, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Finitude(link is external), was published by Routledge in 2016 and was named both as a best new book in ethics and a best new book in theology in Christian Century in the spring of 2017." 

Employees at multiple federal agencies were ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon, according to internal memos obtained by ABC News that cited two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office seeking to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government.

"Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5.p.m. ET on Friday," according to one such message sent Friday morning to CDC staff.

I was a bit confused about media people "using their pronouns with their names" when writing to the White House. Apparently the journalists were still adding pronouns to their signatures to prove something as stale as yesterday's scrambled eggs. So the White House did not even respond to the pronoun abusers.

Recently someone from Yale Divinity encouraged me to drive down to Little Rock for some kind of YDS conference, ending the request with he, him, they or some vapid variation for the gender sensitive. I responded by saying "Me, myself, and I will not attend...ever." Messages stopped. 

Before that, the 1973 YDS graduate class seemed to be immune to a 50 year reunion. I wonder why.

I recently noticed that the University of Phoenix was still addicted to pronouns, in spite of their DEI flop. Recently they were still sending out messages with their names and a group of pronouns in parentheses. 

The View from Google Earth

 

Christmas Day is bound to unleash many memories. I enjoy using  Google Earth because the nosy satellite captures every place I have been, zooming down to observe the present state of various places called home for a period of time.

My earliest memory is living in Moline, Illinois, once a John Deere city.  I walked to Garfield Elementary and to John Deere Junior High. When I went out to the parking lot of the Melo Cream Donut Shop downtown, there was the emblem of John Deere facing me, painted on the back of one Deere building. I even walked to Moline Senior High, which always elicited reasons why the long walk was good for me and a lot shorter than when my parents trekked to their country schools. I even walked to Augustana College, not too far away. "It's good for what ales ya."

The old high school was converted into the community college, mocked as S.S.U. - Sixteenth Street University. We had the old high school albums and went over them at times. The names gave away the Swedish origins - John Johnson, Sven Svenson, John Svenson and Sven Johnson, etc. 

The newer Moline High is almost the same, but Augustana College has built many more buildings and lavish sports facilities, completely distancing itself from its origins and values. But I remember the Augustana College named from the Latin name for the Augsburg Confession. They bragged about their new college president being a DEI expert. Maybe they will scratch a dust pile over their mistake, the way a dog covers up his accident.

Christina and I met on the first day of class. I have her ID badge posted on my happy corner picture gallery. Also - a photo of us is kept of early graduation day, early to have a November wedding and trip to Canada.

St. Peter Lutheran Church in Kitchener, Ontario, where I vicared, is now being carved up as low cost housing.

 The once great library at Augustana was replaced by The Tredway.

Yale Divinity School worships ecology. 

Christina had lots of relatives in Southern Ontario, and I got to practice German with them and many members of St. Peter's in Kitchener. Christina started as a librarian at the nearby University of Waterloo, then upgraded by earning an MA in German at that school. As some are beginning to think, "They could walk from one school (Waterloo Lutheran Seminary and apartments) to another - UniWat," famous for computer innovations."

Long ago, Canadians asked for help in establishing Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. It now has almost no seminarians with a much bigger name - Martin Luther University Library.

The Waterloo Lutheran Seminary chapel has doggie time for the students. Aww.

 Why didn't we think of that, instead of a pipe organ, worship, and hymns?

We graduated from Kitchener-Waterloo quickly enough, which meant college degrees and master's degrees were completed between 1966 and 1972. Christina always enjoyed getting done early. She got a research job at Yale Medical School, where I also worked - as a lowly librarian assistant. I xeroxed, she researched. I tell MDs that I worked at Yale Medical Library, and that wakes them up.

Christina's family lived in South Bend, Indiana, after starting out with two daughters in post WWII camps in Germany. They found a small house - definitely a trend - within walking distance of Notre Dame. The professor Augustana kicked out of their school (non-renewal of his contract) was accepted by Notre Dame - Stanley Hauerwas. Hauerwas has his own website, and he was once brought back to Augustana for a lecture. He is 84.

Hauerwas was instrumental in moving me into the pastoral theology program for a PhD at Notre Dame, which I completed in 1982 . I never longed for cozy academic positions but pursued publishing instead. 

Not Recommending Someone's Daughter for Yale.

 

Tenured Yale Professor Linn Tonstead

Education 

B.A. La Sierra University
M.A.R. Yale Divinity School
Ph.D. Yale University

Biography 

Professor Tonstad is a constructive theologian working at the intersection of Christian theology with feminist and queer theory. Her first book, God and Difference: The Trinity, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Finitude(link is external), was published by Routledge in 2016 and was named both as a best new book in ethics and a best new book in theology in Christian Century in the spring of 2017. Her second book, Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics (link is external)was published by Cascade in 2018 and translated into French in 2022. She joined the Yale Divinity School faculty in 2012. Her teaching interests include Christian theology, queer theory, philosophy of religion, and theological method. Professor Tonstad has made contributions to various journals, including Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, and Theology & Sexuality. She is co-chair of the Theology and Religious Reflection unit of the American Academy of Religion. She is currently working on her third book, tentatively titled The Impossible Other: Theology, Queer Theory, and the Politics of Redemption. 

A friend was asked to write a recommendation for his daughter who is applying to Yale.  Worth a read.

Dear         ,

I am unwilling to write a letter of recommendation in support of your daughter's application to Yale.  I no longer do that.  It is not that I don't believe that she is qualified, on the contrary it is because I do.

You wouldn't ask me to write a letter of recommendation for her admission to Hamas.  But Yale is no different than Hamas, a cult that abides no disagreement, and a cult certain of its purpose and mission beyond reflection.  Yale is potentially even more dangerous. Hamas will be defeated shortly.  Yale will continue to send its graduates into positions of power for years.

A recent study at Harvard found that roughly 50% of the students and professors wouldn't discuss "uncomfortable" topics.  An essential life skill is the ability to change your mind. She won't learn that at any Ivy league school.  Their reputations are still so strong that their faculty, staff and graduates all possess the arrogant certainty of religious fanatics.

I am sorry to disappoint you.  I wish her the best in her search for a school,

Signed

Yale Divinity - A Lost Cause Years Ago - But Worse Now. - ELCA Is 100% For This - The Four Walther Sects Are Not Far Behind ELCA.

                                                   

                                                                                                          

Linn Tonstad FULL BIO

Professor of Theology, Religion, and Sexuality

(203) 432-5373

S204

linn.tonstad@yale.edu

Ghastly summary of her "theology" and honors.

Dance Floor

Yale divinity students forced to read from witch’s ‘spell’ at orientation

Raleigh Adams - Yale Divinity School •September 3, 2024

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OPINION: Yale’s orientation coerced students to participate in ‘spell’

Yale’s Divinity School coerced students to read from a “spell” written by a “witch” as part of its Before the Fall Orientation.

The three-day orientation between Aug. 21 to 23 saw a series of talks and activities preparing incoming students for the year ahead, interspersed with small group discussions.

One of these small group periods was the first activity of orientation. Participating as an incoming student in one of these circles, I saw how the discussion opened with a set of “Restorative Circle Rules.” These rules boiled down to a warning to be open minded: all viewpoints were expected to be heard, that you only have to take what you want from the circle and participate as wanted – at least nominally.

After this show of inclusion, we as students were led to read aloud, line by line and one by one, from Adrienne Brown’s “Radical Gratitude Spell.”