Mennonite theologian and teacher honoured

a release from Conrad Grebel University College

“When Jim Reimer speaks to Mennonites, he urges them to take the wider historical Christian tradition more seriously. And when he speaks to other Christians, he explains how Mennonites are a faithful part of that wider tradition.” This observation by Jeremy Bergen is an apt summary of Reimer’s career.

That career was honoured on a hot evening at the University of Toronto in late May. Tributes were offered by Mennonite theologians (many of whom were Reimer’s former students), by faculty at the Toronto School of Theology and by a Muslim theologian from Iran with whom Reimer has had many interfaith conversations.

A highlight of the evening was the surprise presentation to Reimer of a Festschrift in his honour. The collection of essays, entitled Creed and Conscience: Essays in Honour of A. James Reimer, was intended to interact with and promote Reimer's theological interests, as well as “to act as a gesture to the kind of person Reimer is, to the kind of career he displays to the Christian church and the larger academic community,” explained Paul Doerksen, who edited the book with Jeremy Bergen and Karl Koop.

Reimer’s wide-ranging theological interests include Scripture, the Anabaptist tradition, pacifism, modernity, technology, the ecumenical tradition, political theology, the work of Paul Tillich, the philosophy of George Grant, spirituality, and dialogue with Muslim theology. Many of these themes were addressed in the essays in the Festschrift.

Reimer has been a full-time faculty member at Conrad Grebel University College since 1986, and was instrumental in initiating the Master of Theological Studies program there. He has also been an adjunct professor at TST since 1982, teaching courses and supervising many theses. He provided the impetus for the development of the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (TMTC) at TST, and continues to serve as its Academic Advisor.

His contributions to TMTC have been acknowledged through the establishment of the A. James Reimer Award by former student Al Armstrong, who credits Reimer with changing his life through a rigorous encounter with the classical Christian theological tradition. The goal of the Reimer Award is to provide excellent Mennonite doctoral students in theology with funds on par with the scholarships offered in the sciences. Grebel invests donations to this Award and uses earnings to enlarge the fund and to provide an annual scholarship. Currently the fund is more than half way to the goal of $250,000. Each dollar donated is matched with $1.60 from the Ontario Trust for Student Support.

As Reimer enters his last year of full-time teaching, his commitment to encourage Mennonites to take the wider Christian tradition seriously will be expressed through the “Pastor’s Theology Seminar” that he will teach at Grebel under the title “Mennonites and Classical Theology”.

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Ice and quantum researchers win CFI funding

From the UW Media Relations Office

Five University of Waterloo researchers were recently awarded grants totalling $796,545 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), says a UW press release. "The money comes from CFI's leaders opportunity fund, which is designed to assist universities in attracting and retaining top faculty." This is the second of three articles on their research.

Geography professors Claude Duguay (principal investigator) and Richard Kelly received $243,070 for a Cryospheric Remote Sensing Research Facility.

“UW's research group will become a leading contributor to the science of remote sensing of ice and snow as a result of the CFI funding, Duguay says. ‘It will place our researchers in a strategic position for new and future satellite Earth observing missions that are designed to monitor the cryosphere — the frozen part of the Earth's surface.’

“Duguay says researchers will work closely with other universities and government agencies charged with delivering timely information to the public on the state of the Earth's frozen water stores. ‘The cryosphere has a significant impact on socio-economic activities in Canada,’ he says. He adds that freshwater ice freeze-up and break-up dates, the extent of snow cover and the volume of snow water, along with the duration of seasonal ground freezing, are important to the agriculture, transportation, hydropower and recreation sectors.”

Kevin Resch, professor of physics and astronomy, received $130,000 for a Laboratory for optical quantum computation and communication technologies.

“‘Quantum information seeks to harness the quantum world for new technologies in computing, communication and precision measurement,’ Resch explains. ‘Quantum effects, such as entanglement, superposition and the uncertainty principle, are often referred to as bizarre or paradoxical as they have no analogues in our everyday experience.’

“But with properly engineered quantum systems, he adds, those effects have profound implications for computing power and information security. ‘It will revolutionize how we process and share information.’

“As a result of those challenges, quantum information has attracted researchers from a diverse range of traditional disciplines spanning engineering, physics, computer science and mathematics.

“The CFI-funded lab will be used to construct optical sources of entanglement for investigations of entangled quantum systems and quantum nonlinear optics. ‘The research and its results will enhance Canada's reputation and scientific presence in experimental quantum information science,’ says Resch.”

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Cycling engineers report success

“The Next-Generation Cross-Canada bicycle tour was a great success,” report Benjamin Sanders and (far left) Eric Vieth. The two just-graduated electrical and computer engineering students started their journey on April 23 in Victoria, B.C. and finished on July 13 in St. John’s, Newfoundland — a trip of 8,776 kilometres (and 14 inner tubes). Their plan was to cycle across Canada, visiting high schools to raise awareness of the environment as well as of what UW’s engineering, science and environmental studies programs have to offer. And it appears they made an impression wherever they went. The pair gave 29 school presentations and spoke to more than 5,000 students. “Teachers were very excited that we were able to talk in first person about our stellar co-op experiences and our ability to promote a field of study that is commonly considered to be nerdy in such a positive and confident way,” says their report. They also attracted plenty of attention from the media, including the CBC, CTV, Global Television, the Winnipeg Sun, and the Ottawa Citizen. Photo: Julie Oliver, The Ottawa Citizen

CPA staff

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