 Toward the end of the 2nd century, in the city of Carthage, a Christian thinker became concerned that ideas from Greek philosophy were entering Christianity and affecting it negatively. His name was Tertullian, the first Christian to write eloquently in Latin, and famous for the quip, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” What does the home of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle have to do with the city where Jesus taught and was crucified? It is a very memorable and emotion-laden line.
But Tertullian wrote it with an amazing degree of unintended irony because he himself was a classically trained scholar. His entire worldview, conceptual framework, and vocabulary were founded on his Greek philosophical inheritance. For example, Tertullian is credited with being among the first Christians to use technical Greek philosophical ideas like “hypostasis” and “ousia” through their Latin counterpart terms “persona” and “substantia” to understand God theologically. In short, Tertullian’s question, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” is answered, “Quite a lot, actually.” Last week on Beyond the Walls, we explored the theme “What Is This New Teaching?” This is taken from a scene in Acts 17 set in Athens. The Apostle Paul is visiting the city and is invited to share his ideas on the famous Areopagus (or “Hill of Ares,” the Greek god of war). The Areopagus was the location where a principal council of the Athenian democracy met. And although most of the crowd who listened to Paul left unpersuaded, we are told that at least two Athenians were converted and became Christians: a woman named Damaris and a man named Dionysius, who was a member of the Areopagus council. Centuries later a Christian philosopher was inspired by this story and wrote a number of influential treatises under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite. Building on the ideas of Plato and his successors, these texts expanded on the analogy of God and light, speaking eloquently of divine illumination. These texts directly inspired the medieval custom of using stained glass windows in churches as teaching tools — an art form that continues to this day. With our greater historical perspective today, we are able to assess our many religious inheritances: ideas developed by the ancient Israelites and Judeans alongside ancient Greek and Hellenistic thought. But Christianity also inherited ideas from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and more. And as the living tradition has continued to evolve and grow, along the way it learned from new peoples who were added to the faith, including Latin, Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and other peoples in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and in modern times, new inheritances from peoples all around the world from Indigenous Americans and Pacific Islanders, to Africans, East and South Asians. In Community of Christ, we recognize this with the informal motto that we seek “Truth wherever it is found.” As we encounter teachings that are new to us, let us recognize the diversity and depth of the traditions that are part of our Christian inheritance. May we ever be open to new insights and to recognizing the value of truth wherever it is found.
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 By Leandro Palacios, Director of Communications
When the Apostle Paul visited Athens, according to Acts 17, he became “deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols.” Although today we think of Athens as a place of philosophy and politics, the city was also intensely religious. It was connected to great religious festivals like the Eleusinian Mysteries, and divine images and cult objects were integrated into ordinary civic life. Walking through Athens, especially the Agora and sacred areas, Paul would have encountered statues of the city’s patron goddess Athena, as well as images of Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, the imperial cult, hero shrines, altars, processions, and other tangible expressions of devotion. But idolatry is not only the worship of statues. Idolatry happens whenever we mistake a limited image for the fullness of the divine. When God is imagined too narrowly, creation is also imagined too narrowly. A male image of God can become a sacred hierarchy, where maleness is treated as closer to the divine and gender roles are defended as if they were created by God. Biological sex can be treated as a divine boundary on human expression, as if what we do, what we wear, and whom we love should be determined by the bodies we were born with. Last weekend, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and many other cities around the world celebrated Pride. In this context, “pride” means “dignity”, not “hubris”. In fact, when we gather to celebrate human dignity, we are rejecting a type of idolatry rooted in hubris. This type of idolatry is based on an unfounded sense of certainty, the kind that, as the hymn says, limits “the truth of God to our poor reach of mind by notions of our day and sect, crude, partial, and confined.” Pride reminds us that God is not a man, not one gender, not one body, not one race, not one fixed image of holiness. The God who cannot be contained by human art, words, or imagination likewise cannot be confined by our inherited ideas of gender, sexuality, family, or love. Pride invites us to reject the inherited black-and-white boundaries our society and even the church have drawn around a creation that God made in a rainbow of colours. Pride is not just a party or a protest. Pride is not just for people who identify with the letters 2SLGBTQI+. Pride is the rejection of a type of idolatry that causes harm and division. Pride is a call to recognize and uphold the enduring principles that define our community: Worth of All Persons, Unity in Diversity, and Sacredness of Creation. Happy Pride!  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
What can a shared meal teach us about ending division? In Acts 10, Peter has a vision that changes the direction of his ministry. He realizes that the ritual purity rules that had kept him separate from gentiles no longer define the boundaries of the good news. A barrier is erased, and the table becomes a place where people once kept apart can now share in sacred community. This reflection by John Hamer, Director of Outreach and Innovative Mission, was shared from the Ottawa congregation, with Pat Mooney as our reader, as part of Beyond the Walls on June 14, 2026. Ancient religions were not primarily about individual beliefs. Far more important were the things that you do and how you do them. Every activity was accompanied by rules and rituals designed to keep people in right relationship with divine forces operating in a very dangerous world. While rituals accompanied important life events like the birth of a child, marriages, and deaths, they also accompanied every little thing you might do daily, like stepping across the threshold of your door, or preparing a meal. When societies developed special priestly castes, the priests were often subject to even more specialized rules. These rituals were understood to purify the individual, enabling them to mediate with divine forces on behalf of the whole community. For example, in Hinduism, members of the priestly caste (known as the “Brahmins”) are required to follow strict dietary laws to maintain their ritual purity. If Brahmins eat from the same plate or share utensils with someone from a different caste, they become ritually impure. The resulting caste system has had enormous consequences for India, including discrimination against individuals who are literally “outcastes.” The Sikh religion was founded in the 15th century with the goal of overturning the caste system. All Sikh places of worship include a “langar” hall, where anyone of any caste or religion can come to eat a free meal. However, all must sit on the floor and eat together, sharing a meal that signifies a complete rejection of the rules of caste and ritual purity. Israelite religion in the 1st century AD was at a crossroads with two competing ideas that were both gaining momentum. On the one hand, prophets and teachers had begun to see the God of Israel as the God of the Universe—with the implication that God is not simply Lord of a single ethnic group, but must also be Lord of every nation. On the other hand, a growing focus on the five books of Moses meant that an ever-expanding number of Judeans had begun to observe purity rules. While these historically had only been maintained by Jewish priests, many sects like the Pharisees promoted the idea that all Judeans ought to live like a nation of priests—an entire people set apart through ritual purity. In Acts, Peter testifies that from childhood on, he has never eaten foods that Mosaic law labels as ritually “unclean.” As with the Brahmins in India, following these codes has meant that Peter has been unable to share meals with individuals who are not also following the same rules. Sharing a meal with a gentile would make Peter ritually unclean. And so, the idea of ritual impurity was effectively separating Peter from the people to whom he had been commissioned to bring the good news: all the nations (or “gentiles”) of the world. Peter’s vision that “what God has made clean, you must not call profane,” signals an end to Christian observance of ritual purity laws. Like the Sikh langar that sought to overturn the caste system, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper broke down the ritual barrier among early Christians by allowing those with Jewish backgrounds, like Peter, to share a sacred meal with new converts from all nations.  By Apostle Shannon McAdam
Several years ago I read the book The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker and it changed the way I think about every gathering that I plan. As we move into the season of camps and retreats, then quickly into Mission Centre Conferences as well, I think Priya Parker’s work can be helpful for all of us. The book is available in multiple languages, (see links below) and is an accessible, thoughtful read, but here are a few of the main takeaways:
 By John Hamer, Director of Outreach and Innovative Mission
In the final sessions of the 2025 World Conference, Community of Christ President Stassi Cramm made an exciting announcement: the church would resume hosting International Peace Forums triennially, beginning October 16–19, 2026. The Community of Christ Temple is dedicated to the promotion of world peace, and the Peace Forum has been at the heart of embodying that mission. The Peace Forum is a three-day event that includes addresses, panels, discussion sessions, workshops, hands-on activities, and the presentation of the church’s International Peace Award. The world is in critical need of peace—perhaps this year more than ever. Unfortunately, policies of the United States government have made travel to Independence, Missouri, impossible for some international visitors and have left others questioning whether this is a good time to cross international borders. For this reason, the Council of Twelve Apostles asked Community of Christ in Canada to host two remote locations for the Peace Forum: one in the greater Toronto area and one in Vancouver. The Canadian remote locations will participate with activities in Independence in much the same way that Canada hosted a remote location for the 2025 World Conference. For this year’s Peace Forum, the opening address, awards ceremony, plenary, and keynote speakers will all be livestreamed, and workshops will connect Toronto and Vancouver to Independence via videoconferencing. However, the Canadian sites will not just be places where we are watching something remotely. The Toronto and Vancouver sites will each include local speakers, workshops, and hands-on events in their own right. This will be a chance to meet visionaries and activists from around the world who are unable to travel to the United States to share. It will also give Canadians who are passionate about making the world a better place the opportunity to connect, get updated on current issues, and share strategies to effectively pursue peace. In addition, we want the Peace Forum to serve as an entry point for younger people in our extended church network. Community of Christ in Canada will be inviting youth and young adults participating in the conference to form focus groups to discuss what a peace church should look like. How can we be relevant to people who care about our planet and our place in it? We will also invite seekers who are not members of the church to share in the events. Although we will not be coming together in person this year for our annual Mission Centre Conference (the business meeting will be held online so that everyone across Canada can attend), the Peace Forum will provide a similar venue for sharing fellowship. We hope you’ll choose to find that fellowship by being part of the Peace Forum right here in Canada from Friday, October 16—Sunday, October 18. Save the date and stay tuned for more details as they become available.  By: Leandro Palacios, Director of Communications In the first weeks of February of 2026, I had the privilege of attending the International Writers’ Summit in the city of Roxas, in the heart of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. This was a unique event organized by the Community of Christ World Church and facilitated by the Spiritual Formations Team. About seventy leaders, musicians, artists, and young voices representing twenty-four countries around the world where our church is established — from Brazil to Nepal and from Canada to French Polynesia — gathered together. Every day we met to create worship resources — including music, poems, prayers, and sermon helps — that speak from the perspectives of people living in different places, who are of different genders, ages, and ethnic backgrounds, among many other diversities that made each participant truly unique. This was a life-changing opportunity for all those attending because we were able to experience the real diversity that exists within our church. Yes, we are one church. No matter where it is found, Community of Christ shares nine Enduring Principles, five Mission Initiatives, as well as a set of basic beliefs and an honest approach to history and scripture. Our statement on scripture, in particular, calls us to recognize that behind the words we read in the Bible, there are human authors shaped by the circumstances they were facing in the time and place of composition. This is what we call the context of scripture. To understand a specific passage of scripture, we need to make sure we understand the context, including who the author was, who they were writing to, where they lived, and what was happening in that part of the world at the time. When we understand the context, ancient texts that can sound obscure and challenging begin to speak to us in the present tense, allowing us to hear the living voice of God, which always addresses our own lives and our own context. Because our church exists today in so many places around the world, the living voice of God speaks to each one of us, addressing our context. As a result, for someone in Liberia or Australia, the beliefs and values we share will be lived, felt, and expressed very differently from someone in Norway or Honduras. One God, one scripture, but a living voice that acquires particular meaning according to the challenges and joys of life in diverse places. I learned about the importance of context during my seminary education. Not only for reading the Bible, but also for understanding the ideas that theologians propose — we must understand who they are and what their context was. However, it wasn’t until I participated in the Writers’ Summit that I finally got a real taste of what this means. The diverse context of each one of the participants was expressed in fullness, unapologetically, and with absolute joy. The many languages and accents, the typical attire and hairstyles, the different rhythms of the songs each one sang, and above all, the stories we shared — and how scripture has provided guidance, comfort, and inspiration in the face of challenges I myself had never experienced, or in some cases even imagined. The Writers’ Summit was intense. I felt overwhelmed by emotions, from moments of outrage and exhaustion to moments of absolute, almost inexplicable joy — whether by doing something I had always looked at with suspicion, or by making a deep connection with someone very different from myself. All these feelings are expressed in the material we created together. The Spiritual Formations Team is currently compiling all this content, and these resources will be available in the near future. And yet, in the middle of all that diversity, something else became clear. We did not become the same. We did not lose our accents, our rhythms, our preferences, or our stories. But we began to share what Paul calls “the same mind.” Not the same opinions, not the same personalities, but a common orientation — a willingness to listen, to learn, to serve one another. Despite our differences, there was a shared commitment to humility, to curiosity, and to letting go of the need to conform or to impose our understanding. That common mind did not erase diversity; it allowed us to tangibly experience the presence of the Spirit among us. I want to share with you a little poem that I composed by compiling perceptions that stood out to others as we visited a market in the city of Roxas. Diverse eyes, ears, and noses noticed different things, and we were asked to describe God by bringing some of these observations: God is not just something you feel When you are overwhelmed with awe As you contemplate the wonders of nature And all the great things that humans have done. God is also a woman holding three dead chicken, Something sweet and gelatinous, Unnicely odor from the drainage, Voice of the voiceless, Soft hand of a new friend.  Last Saturday, November 22, more than 30 members from across Canada participated in our first Communications Town Hall—including eight from the Chilliwack congregation. This was an opportunity to meet face to face with the members of the Communications Team and learn more about what we do and what our priorities are for 2026. We also had a chance to hear questions and insights from attendees across the country, helping us better understand how our team can support ministries and programs at the local level as we move onward together.
In this article, we share key takeaways from this event, including highlights from the presentation and answers to some of the questions we heard from attendees from across Canada. Who We Are The Communications Team is currently composed of Jeanny Jakobsen from Saskatoon, SK, serving as Operations Specialist; Quinlan Stevenson from Stratford, ON, serving as Communications Coordinator; and Leandro Palacios from Toronto, ON, serving as Director. We are hoping to add a Graphic Designer to the team (if you are interested, you can find more details here). What We Do
To do that, we aim to clearly express who we are, what we do, and what we believe. This is why we uphold visual standards and communicate our identity, mission, message, and beliefs as stated in Sharing in Community of Christ, while reflecting the Canadian cultural context. Our Priorities for 2026 Key priorities include:
Feedback and Questions from the Town Hall 1. How do we develop and maintain relationships with local members who can no longer attend in person? The local community is unique and we want to continue to support this type of gathering. However, connecting with those who cannot attend in person does not have to be centered around the Sunday service (by adding more cameras and microphones), but by trying something new. For example, the Scarborough congregation holds their regular in-person service some Sundays but gathers every Thursday for a fully online service. That allows people who can no longer attend in person to participate fully, and “quality” becomes less about production and more about community. Our team is hoping to create and nurture connections with people across Canada, no matter what congregation they come from. Onward Together does not only mean that two mission centres are becoming one. It also means that to fully take advantage of the opportunities ahead of us, we must let go of thinking that our church community is only the people who used to come in person to our building. Identity based on a building has not helped us invite people to church in the last few decades. Instead, we want to promote Canada-wide communities that share common passion and vocation. This question was related to how to run a successful hybrid service. While IT recommendations and support are not functions of the Communications Team, we remind everyone that a guideline for online and hybrid services is available on our website. 2. Can you blur faces in photos we share with the Communications Team? No. Before sharing photos with us, you need to ask permission from anyone whose face is clearly visible. 3. What are the minimum communications channels a congregation should manage? We heard questions like: Can someone help us update our website? Should we be on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X? How much time should we dedicate to these things? You don’t have to be on every social media platform and you don’t need to have your own website. But of course, you can. However, the more channels the more time it will take to manage them. Here's what we suggest: Appoint a Communications Officer if you haven’t yet. This way we can ensure that all the information about your events, ministries, and contact information are up to date on the website of Community of Christ in Canada. This is more important than managing your own website because communityofchrist.ca will normally rank higher on Google searches. If someone in the congregation uses Facebook regularly, they can dedicate one hour per week to manage your congregation’s Facebook page. If someone in the congregation uses Instagram regularly, they can dedicate one hour per week to share photos on a church account. Instagram posts can be automatically shared on Facebook. What about TikTok, X, YouTube? These platforms require more content creation. Content has to be about a topic, not about promotion or invitation to a church event, the algorithms don’t like promotional content unless you pay for it. Online channels are not the only way to promote your activities. For example, in Toronto, a small note in a free magazine brought hundreds of people to our in-person lectures. Think of what might work in your area, like a bulletin board at the library or community centre. 4. Are you creating media content that we can post on social media? We encourage you to share in your congregation’s social media channels all the content that we publish online as Community of Christ in Canada. But we do not create content tailored for your local events and ministries. We can work with your Communications Officer to build templates so that you can create quality graphics and video that will look professional and follow current social media trends. 5. Are we developing guidelines for congregations to effectively and safely promote their work on social media? We are. Once those become available early next year, we will publish them on the website and announce them in our newsletters and social media. I want to thank all those who participated in the first of many Communications Town Halls. I am looking forward to seeing you at our next session (the date will be published shortly). In the meantime, should you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Leandro Palacios Director of Communications – Community of Christ in Canada [email protected]  By Leandro Palacios, Director of Communications How do we keep members connected across great distances? To what extent should we embrace new technologies and trends in our efforts to spread the Gospel? How far should we go in adapting our places of worship to new tools? Although we might think these questions belong to the modern age, they have a long history in Community of Christ. A century ago, as the church was re-establishing its presence in Independence, Missouri, while maintaining strong roots in Lamoni, Iowa, President Fred M. Smith saw the need to reach out to members scattered across the world. Travelling often between the two cities, he envisioned a new way to connect them: through the airwaves. Radio was still new and exciting, and very few Christian denominations had dared to use it. That didn’t stop our church leaders from setting up a radio station, authorized by the U.S. government under the call sign KFIX (later KLDS). This made the RLDS church one of the first denominations in the United States to own a licensed station. The first broadcast took place in January 1925 from Lamoni and reached members in several nearby states. Later, a radio antenna was installed on the tower of the Stone Church in Independence, and the broadcasts began reaching listeners as far as Canada and beyond. A hundred years later, these same questions still echo — perhaps louder than ever. Many members today wonder how we can stay connected across great distances while still honouring regional traditions as we move onward together as one mission centre. The internet and social media give us powerful ways to reach each other, but they also bring new challenges. Is TikTok an appropriate way to share the Gospel? How do we communicate effectively on Facebook? How do we keep our online spaces safe and inclusive? The choices we make today are as significant as those made by our pioneers who once raised an antenna over one of our most sacred spaces. And because what we do today is history, we are called to tell the story — so that 100 years from now, someone else might be inspired to boldly try something new, something we cannot yet imagine! Where to start? We will consider how to tell the story at our first Communications Town Hall. Everything we do when we gather can become part of our shared story of community and discipleship if we remember that these moments belong to a greater story that reaches all the way back to the first disciples. Storytelling can transform the way we live and share our mission. Join us as we learn how to tell the story of Community of Christ in Canada—together! Communications Town Hall 📅 Saturday, November 22 ⌚ 10 am PT / 11 am MT / 12 pm CT / 1 pm ET 🖥️ On Zoom – open to members and seekers Meeting ID: 878 5553 5695 Passcode: 081015  We’re launching a new quarterly Communications Townhall to connect with congregations, members, and seekers across Canada and strengthen how we share our stories and celebrate missional success. This will be a space for conversation, learning, and collaboration. Our first meeting will be November 22. Come meet Communications Officers and other dedicated individuals guiding communications efforts at the local level. Get to know the people serving in our national Communications Team. Help us ask the right questions and find the right answers—together. All are welcome—young and old, tech-savvy and tech-beginner, members and seekers alike. Together, we’ll talk about how communications can help you achieve your goals, and we’ll take note of any local concerns or challenges you are aware of. Our first Townhall will focus on “Telling the Story.” Too often, our event announcements stop at dates and locations. But how do we make our invitations more engaging? How do we tell stories that make others want to join us? How can we share our stories so that our mission is remembered and celebrated? We’ll explore questions like:
We’ll also look at simple ways to:
Each gathering can become part of our shared story of community and discipleship. Storytelling can transform the way we live and share our mission. Join us as we learn how to tell the story of Community of Christ in Canada—together. 📅 Saturday, November 22 ⌚ 10 am PT / 11 am MT / 12 pm CT / 1 pm ET 🖥️ On Zoom – open to members and seekers Meeting ID: 878 5553 5695
Passcode: 081015  By John Hamer, Canada East Mission Centre Historian A tour bus loaded with 30 church heritage enthusiasts spent Thanksgiving weekend in Toronto as part of the 2025 Drawn from the Nations of the World Community of Christ Historic Sites Foundation (CCHSF) tour. Canada was the first country where the church was established after its 1830 organization in the United States, and a congregation was first organized in Toronto in 1836. Apostle Heber C. Kimball predicted by revelation that fellow Apostle Parley P. Pratt would “go to Upper Canada, even to the city of Toronto, the capital,” where he would “find a people prepared for the gospel.” During a missionary trip to the city, Pratt and five companions met John and Leonora Taylor, who were part of a small group of religious seekers dissenting from the Methodist church. After a good deal of preaching and discussions, the Taylors and many members of their group were baptized into our church, forming the nucleus of the original Toronto Congregation. The Taylors lived on Duchess Street (now renamed Richmond Street), just two blocks west of the present-day Centre Place church. The CCHSF tour group also visited the sites of St. Andrew’s Market, where the Toronto Congregation rented a meeting space in the 1890s, and the sites of the former Camden Street Church (1900–1906) and the former Soho Street Church (1906–1926). At the turn of the 20th century, Toronto was home to R.C. Evans, perhaps the greatest orator in the history of our church. Beginning in 1905, the congregation leveraged Evans’ talents by renting out the largest theatres in the city, filling them to capacity — including Massey Hall, one of the sites visited by the tour. The tour also visited Nathan Phillips Square, Sankofa (formerly Dundas) Square, the historic Distillery District, Polson Pier, and went on a walking tour of historic sites in Toronto’s Old Town neighbourhood (where Centre Place is located). The visit to Centre Place included viewing historic books, photographs, documents, and artifacts preserved in the Doris Hillyard Library, including the Dale & Judy Luffman first edition Inspired Version of the Bible (1867) and the Clair Shepherdson Saints’ Harp hymnal (1871). On Sunday morning, the tour took part in a special hybrid Beyond the Walls service, getting to see firsthand everything that goes into producing the livestream. In addition to stops at Toronto and Niagara Falls, the tour visited heritage sites in Independence, Missouri; Omaha, Nebraska; Lamoni, Iowa; Nauvoo and Plano, Illinois; and Kirtland, Ohio. CCHSF is a church affiliate charged with supporting historic sites including Heritage Plaza in Independence, Liberty Hall in Lamoni, and the Stone Church in Plano. In addition to raising funds and supporting historic tours, the foundation has created a wealth of resources including the Children in Church History lesson plan series. You can learn more and access these resources on their website. References [1] Terryl L. Givens and Matthew J. Grow, Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism (Oxford: 2011), 83. |
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