Topic: The infancy narratives from Luke and Matthew
Dates: Monday Dec 6 & 13 from 1.30-3.30 pm in main hall at BUC.
Leader: Ted Schmidt
Host: Allan Baker
Attendance: in person with pre-registration. Proof of double vaccinationis required.
Register: by email to allan.baker7878@gmail.com
The obscure birth of a child to a carpenter’s wife was, in view of what came out of it, a decisive moment in history.
C.H Dodd
The Christmas stories are not for children. Christians have for far too long treated the Infancy Narratives as either myth or as pretty harmless legends for kids. They are anything but. They are evangelical dynamite, brilliantly polished nuggets brimming with radical theological import. They challenge the Roman claim that the powerful Emperor Augustus is Lord and rules as “dominus et deus.” a common inscription of the time. In an absolutely outrageous claim, the evangelists point to the itinerant rabbi, murdered by the state as “dominus et deus.”
TED SCHMIDT former Religion Head at Neil McNeil High school is also the former editor of the Catholic New Times As well he is the author of Shabbes Goy: a Catholic Boyhood on a Jewish Street in a Protestant City (2001), Journeys to the Heart of Catholicism 2008, Never Neutral: A Teaching Life (2013), The Season (2017} and I Was a Catholic Zionist (2018)
In a lifetime of teaching he has been honoured by religion teachers and colleagues at large. In 1991 he received the Ontario English Teachers’ Award of Merit, the highest distinction the association grants. In 1998 he received the Glorya Nanne Award for his writing on Catholic education. In 2002 he received the Social Justice Award from the Toronto Secondary Catholic Teachers Association. In 2006 the Ontario Teachers’ Federation honoured him with the Greer Memorial Award for his “outstanding commitment to publicly funded education.” In 2013 received the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Medal for his work “in Education and Justice.”
A pioneer in Holocaust studies, he was the first teacher in Canada to systematically teach the Holocaust (1968) and has done several workshops for the Holocaust Remembrance committee. In 1993 he co-authored the Ministry of Education OAC course on Philosophy. For 30 years Ted has taught teacher training courses on scripture, social ethics as well as cross Canada retreats on biblical justice. For 3 years he lectured on Catholic education at the Faculty of Education at York University.
Ted Schmidt has appeared on Metro Morning, Canada A.M., Sunday Morning and Sunday Report (CBC), The Current, Studio 2. In 2005, he was Global TV’s commentator on the Papal funeral and regularly comments on Catholic issues for the CBC and CTV. An award winning columnist for the Catholic New Times he assumed the editorship from 2001-2006.
Ted is married to Joan his wife of 52 years. They have three grown children and 5 grandchildren. He can be reached at jtschmidt@bell.net