A publication of the Renewal Fellowship

A publication of the Renewal Fellowship

Channels

Introducing Channels Magazine

The Renewal Fellowship within The Presbyterian Church in Canada was founded in May 1982, and during the next year, plans were made to begin a magazine to reassure isolated and sometimes discouraged Presbyterians in Canada who wanted renewal that they were not alone. Word associations with media, communication, and television channels resonated with the old hymn, “Channels only, blessed Master”, and suggested the name Channels. And so, Channels – intended to be an instrument of blessing for The Presbyterian Church in Canada – debuted in the fall of 1983.

Over the next 23 years, some 66 issues were published. Channels succeeded in placing the Renewal Fellowship within a broader national and international context. Publishing articles written by internationally known authors such as Eugene Peterson, James I. Packer, Michael Green, Darrell Johnson, and John G. Stackhouse Jr. helped members of the Renewal Fellowship to realize that they were a part of a much wider movement.

Recognizing the high quality of this magazine prompted a desire to make a digital archive of all 66 issues. Each article is presented in text format, and at the bottom, a searchable, downloadable PDF copy of the issue opens at the page where the article originally appeared. Enjoy!

History Renewal

Renewal Day Report

By John Vissers. Over two hundred and forty Presbyterians gathered at Kortright Church, in Guelph, Ontario for a Renewal Day on October 31, 1987. Representing nineteen presbyteries and fifty-four congregations, those gathered listened to addresses on “The Church as A Caring Community” by the Rev. Calvin Brown of First Church, Nelson, British Columbia, and Dr. Stan Skarsten, of the Institute For Family Living in Toronto, Ontario, featured on the cover. … Read more

Ecumenism

Why I signed it

By J.I. Packer — Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium” (ECT) is the title of a programmatic statement composed by eight Protestants (leader, Charles Colson) and  seven Roman Catholics (leader, Richard John Neuhaus) and endorsed by 12 more Protestants and 13 more Roman Catholics. It appeared in the journal First Things in May of this year and, shortened, in the Spring edition of Touchstone. The statement is not, of course, official, nor has it any more authority than the personal credit of … Read more

Editorial Prayer

Editorial – Prayer

By Calvin Brown. Prayer is more powerful than habits, heredity, natural tendencies, and even the forces that hold the planets in place, since it can suspend the laws of the universe, if such be God's will. No other power on earth does the enemy of souls hate and fear as much as prayer. … Read more

Sexuality

Human Sexuality

Prepared by the Issues Committee of the Renewal Fellowship. Our culture has been in the process of throwing off the restraints of the Christian moral code, but for Christians, the written Word of God is to inform our decisions and guide our behaviour. … Read more