Gypsy family deported

Photo: Brian Munro

A Hamilton congregation is grieving after one of its families was sent back to Hungary in February by the Immigration and Refugee

Board. Zoltan and Elizabeth Balla and their twin sons, Tamas and Kristian Balla, 18, (left) had fled Pec, Hungary and lived in Hamilton, Ont. for six years. They fought deportation on grounds that they were Roma or Gypsies and had been persecuted in their homeland. The Board ruled that Roma were no longer persecuted in Hungary. Zolan had been steadily employed; the twins were finishing high school.

After taking ESL classes at St. George’s Reformed Episcopal Church they became faithful members. The youth group had a send-off party for the twins. They presented them with a photo scrapbook of the good times they’d shared at St. Michael’s Youth Conferences, Christmas pageants, BBQs and canoe outings. “They were delightful kids,” said Rev. John Smith. “It was hard to say goodbye to them. We hope they’ll find ‘a place’ to fit back into.”

BCP in Afghanistan

The Senior Chaplain who accompanied a recent deployment of Canadian Forces to Afghanistan is using the Book of Common Prayer as the liturgy of choice for their services. The men and women serving with Major Malcolm Berry felt it was a book of “spiritual substance.”

Certainly classic phrases such as “In the midst of life we are in death; of whom may we seek for succour, but of Thee, O Lord” (601) would ring true on the battlefield. So would the petition from Prayers to be Used at Sea, albeit on a sea of sand and rock: “O God, thou art a strong tower of defence to all that flee unto thee:…suffer us not to sink under the weight of our sins, or the violence of the enemy.” The BCP also includes prayers for peace: “Bestow thy blessing…upon all who labour for peace and righteousness among the peoples; that the day may hasten when war shall be no more…” (51). About 2,500 Canadians are serving in the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.

Mennonite wins top prize

Rudy Wiebe (left) has won the prestigious $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Wiebe was nominated for his 2006 memoir Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest. The jury noted, “Rudy Wiebe’s evocative and moving memoir of his childhood in rural Saskatchewan finds universal truths amidst an isolated, little-known community. In prose that is both spare and eloquent, he conveys the riches of a hardscrabble inheritance: a love of words, reading and music, a sustaining yet unsentimental faith, and a bond with the natural world, all of which have provided a compass for his writing life.”

Last year the Mennonite Brethren Herald reported on Wiebe’s address to the Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg. “It’s a profound fallacy to think that thoughtful and imaginative people can’t be Christians,” said Wiebe. “A lot of life isn’t pretty. We struggle through it, and we struggle on.” Wiebe had known tragedy himself, including the suicide of his son. “There are things you can never resolve. Sometimes you have a damaged life, but God gives grace. You try to help others, even if you can’t help yourself.”