The Rev. Dr. Walter Brueggemann died this past Thursday, June 5, 2025, at the age of 92. He was a professor of Hebrew Bible-the Older Testament, and a prolific author of over 100 books. Although, ironically, he was an ordained minister, he apparently never served as a parish pastor—even though he was a mentor to countless pastors. To read his obituary, click here.
The ruins of the Anglican church in Jasper, the fire destroyed about 30% of the town. The United Church was also destroyed, nothing remains of it.
This weekend we attended the Nordlys Film and Arts Festival. Nordlys is Norwegian for Northern Lights. Visiting the festival this year was Montreal actor, Felix-Antione Duval, the main character in Shepherds. After the film, Duval participated in a Q & A. Altogether there were 9 films. The Last Repair Shop was a U.S. film about a L.A. music repair shop, which provides free repairs for schoolchildren’s musical instruments, telling the stories of some of their staff. The Teachers’ Lounge was a thought-provoking German film focussing on several contemporary themes/controveries in educational institutions. Wicked LittleLetters was a British film with way too much coarse language, as the title suggests. Blackberry tells the story of the once-popular Blackberry mobile phone—too much coarse language in this film too, as well as abusive CEOs. I won’t comment on the other films except my favourite. Readers can check out the festival website at: nordlysfestival.com.
My favourite was a 44 minute documentary called Magic Hours, about movie theatres in small towns of Alberta having to close, and/or struggling to keep their doors open. It was by Calgary filmmaker, Levi Holwell, who also attended the festival and participated in a Q & A. Here is the trailer: https://youtu.be/msAzB_4-Gyw
