Christians to offer apology at Gay Pride Parade

"I'm sorry."

That's what a group of Winnipeg Christians will be saying from the sidelines on June 2 during the annual Gay Pride Parade.

"Christians have caused a great deal of harm and alienation for people in the LGBT community," says Jamie Arpin-Ricci, pastor of Little Flowers Church in the city's West End and organizer of the Winnipeg I'm Sorry campaign.

"As Christians we have done wrong, and we want to say sorry," he says. "This is one way of making an unqualified apology and publicly committing ourselves to do better."

Overheard

Rob Ford: T.O. superhero

'Maybe he's cleaning up the city by smoking all the crack in it. You're next, prostitution rings.'

-- Daily Show host Jon Stewart, weighing in on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's crack cocaine-video scandal.

One true thing

Faith Briefs

Announcements for Faith Briefs must be in our office by Monday, 4 p.m., prior to the intended date of publication. Due to space restrictions, publication is not guaranteed. Please post information on website: http://wfp.to/events

-- The Art of Manifesting (Bringing Abundance Into Your Life) Spiritualist Fellowship Church, 300 Arlington Street at Portage Ave., every Monday until May 27, We will discuss and demonstrate Fundamentals of the Spiritualist philosophy, mediumship, and spiritual healing, Spiritualist Fellowship Church, 204-222-0071, $40.

Engaging story has hope for human nature

ON the last day of Christmas holidays, an 11-year-old boy in Montreal finds out his parents are splitting up.

Hurt and bewildered, he prays to the sky to help him. The next day an ice storm begins. The boy, his family and their neighbours find their lives permanently altered by the devastating ice storm of 1998.

This first book by French-born Montrealer Pierre Szalowski is a lighthearted novel with a touch of magic realism: the boy (who's never named) believes he caused the storm, and his friend Alex eventually believes this, too.

First published in French in 2007, it's now being released in English in Canada and the Anglophone Canadians will have the odd experience of reading a story, set in Canada, told in British-inflected English -- for example, translator Alison Anderson, apparently an American, uses "face flannel" for washcloth, "mobile" for cellphone and "flatmate" for roommate.

PST hike chance to teach students real economic costs

Do you know what the nose game is?

For those who are self-employed or study in isolation, the nose game is a juvenile way of determining who, within a group, must perform a less-than-desirable chore or task. I learned the rules of this game the hard way. A couple of years ago, my amazing colleague, John Robinson, was going on sabbatical. This meant we needed someone to teach the Grade 12 economics course.

Guess who lost the nose game?

So there I was, forced to teach micro and macroeconomics, never having taken an economics course in my life. Although the task was daunting and difficult, I soon fell head-over-heels in love with economics. I would come to each class and exclaim, "Guess what! I just learned about...!" My students were very kind and were gracious with my new enthusiasm.

POETRY: Bold meditation on murder mixes banal, bizarre

TORONTO'S Kathryn Mockler begins The Saddest Place on Earth (DC, 70 pages, $18) with some sage advice: "It is not a good idea to be in the same room as / someone who is just about to murder you."

Thus begins a meditation on murder that oscillates between thoughts banal and bizarre. Mockler tends towards the sardonic.

Many poems read like micro-fictions or dialogues: "This weekend I'm going to rock out, he said. / Good for you, I said. I'm planning to kill myself."

The collection's highlight, Serial Killers, presents a science-fictional, Hollywood high-concept premise as its kick-off: "Humanity is stopped in its tracks when / everyone is sterilized to eliminate the human / race. Basically it's mass suicide."

On the Night Table with Randi Gage

Randi Gage

Winnipeg palliative care specialist, 2013 YWCA Woman of Distinction

"Last fall I found all the discussions and dismay surrounding Catholic Church issues kept pointing to the release of the Third Secret of Fatima. So I went in search of more information and found several books, which, I might add, are not easy reads. The one I finished is called Fatima: Tragedy and Triumph by Friar Francois de Marie des Anges and Georges de Jesus. It recounts the information and misinformation about the 1917 prophecy up to 1999. It contains some very interesting bits of history. Currently I am reading The Awesome Fatima Consecrations by Father Paul Trinchard. He offers insight into the different views of the whole Fatima controversy. Overall, it is interesting and thought-provoking, but it does make me want to throw it all the wall at times. I usually read fluff, so for me to read history is an adventure."

Raunchy Canadian memoir like short-term fling

THIS raunchy Canadian memoir, which the New York Times called a "smell-all," is like a short-term fling. It starts off passionately, laced with impressions of sex and scent, but soon becomes dull and uninspiring. Alas, there is no interest in pleasuring the reader. Just the writer.

"I am in Seville, standing under a bitter orange tree in full bloom in the arms of Rom°n, the Spanish boy who is not yet my lover," writes author Denyse Beaulieu. "I am in the pulsing, molten-gold heart of Seville, thrust into her fragrant flesh, and there is no need for Rom°n to take me to bed at dawn; he's already given me the night."

Beaulieu, 50, was born in Winnipeg, grew up in Montr©al, and has lived in Paris for most of her adult life. She is the author of The Sex Game Book: A Cultural History of Sexuality, and reviews perfumes for her blog, Grain de Musc.

In The Perfume Lover she chronicles the creation of a personalized perfume based on her recollection of a night of youthful passion.

Let’s converse, not convert

Donna Harris has a challenge for a reader of the faith page: She would like to have a serious face-to-face discussion with you about God.

“I think one of the things I’d like to do is sit down and talk to a person of faith and see what they believe,” says Harris, president of the Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics of Manitoba (HAAM).

Baptized Roman Catholic, Harris describes her family as not terribly religious and she would like a better understanding of why people of faith, particularly Christians, believe in God.

“My rational, science-based mind doesn’t include belief in a supreme being,” says Harris, who recently spoke to a confirmation class at Windsor Park United Church about atheism and humanism.