Spirit Quest
Readers have asked True North to give space to spiritual matters. A search for more than half-a-year has confirmed the following biblical encouragement, the sense of which advises, Ye need but seek, and ye shall find. True North is proud to introduce The Reverend Hanns F. Skoutajan who has undertaken to provide readers with spiritual guidance. Hanns F. Skoutajan was born in Czechoslovakia and educated at Queen's University and Theological College in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of Muenster in Germany. Ordained into the United Church of Canada in 1956, he has served the church as chaplain and minister including sixteen years as the Minister of St. James-Bond United Church in Toronto. In 1986, Queen's University honoured him with the degree, Doctor of Divinity. Rev. Skoutajan, who retired in 1993, has turned author and film maker (see True North archives for Friday March 8 edition). He now lives in Ottawa with his wife, Marlene. Be sure to read Spirit Quest by The Reverend Hanns. May he brighten your pathway awhile … — Carl Dow, Editor.
Spirit Quest …
From the Pen of The Reverend Hanns
The editor of True North Perspectives has asked me to write a column on spirituality. Choosing me for this task makes me wonder whether he knows anything about the subject. Lack of knowledge on a certain subject has seldom been a deterrent to a writer penning an authoritative article on a matter.
Let me set out by giving my credentials. I have a bachelor's degree from a Canadian “Ivy League “ university where I majored in English, History and beer. Subsequently I achieved a master’s degree in theology that I discovered has little to do with spirituality. I then pursued postgraduate studies in ethics at a German university where shortage of food in the postwar years gave me a deep appreciation for matters of the spirit. I am an ordained clergyman and retired after 40 years of efforts to keep congregations from catching up on their sleep. Recently I heard of a church in suburban Toronto who on their bulletin board announced that rolling over in bed on a Sunday and uttering “O God” does not constitute church attendance. I of course had to do pastoral work, better known as “hatch, match and dispatch”.
I grew up in a home where my father and mother stayed away from the Lutheran and Catholic churches respectively. My best religious education was in an atheist Sunday school where I learned about evolution and given a healthy distrust for organized religion.
After escaping from the Nazis my parents and I came to Canada where we, urban people that we were, were settled on an abandoned homestead in northern Saskatchewan in a dilapidated log cabin with no electricity or water or toilet, fifteen miles from the nearest hamlet over roads that were scarcely passable much of the year. We came to the conclusion that if this part of the world was “god-forsaken” as it certainly appeared, there surely must be somewhere a god who does this forsaking. Thus we became believers.
It is my hope that this curriculum vitae entice you to look for my take on spirituality on a more or less regular basis. Meanwhile I shall proceed emboldened by the slogan: “keep on writing, you’ll think of something to say”.
Spiritually yours,
The Reverend Hans.
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