Ask the Nominees: Week 5
Each week leading up to GC43, we are asking the Moderator Nominees one question to help everyone get to know them.
Q: What movie (or Netflix or TV series) are you most looking forward to watching, or have you enjoyed most recently, and why?
Rev. Susan Beaver
“Wynonna Earp.” Good versus evil. Strong women leads. A few more guns than I like but strong women leads.
Tessa Blaikie Whitecloud
Every year I borrow a friend’s Netflix to show “The Mask You Live In” to my students. It’s a great way for them to understand that gender roles are also harmful to men, and feminism is about liberating everyone from oppression. For downtime though, I love watching “Chopped” especially “Chopped- Kids.” My family has enjoyed most of the resulting creations, there’s a few though that they judged "never to be made again."
Rev. Dr. Richard Bott
I am sitting on pins and needles, waiting for the next season of “Doctor Who” to start. (Yeah, Jodie Whittaker!) Every new actor who plays The Doctor has to balance the tension of holding the character's previous incarnations, while bringing in their own twist. It sometimes reminds me of the experience of being a new minister in a congregation.
Rev. David Hart
My favourite movie of all time is “Contact,” based on the novel written by Carl Sagan, and starring Jodie Foster. A brilliant scientist and a passionate theologian explore the shared role of faith in the search for God and for intelligent life in the cosmos. More recently, “Arrival,” starring Amy Adams as a gifted linguistics professor, explores the importance of effective communication, not just with extraterrestrials but with each other. Awesome films connecting culture and faith!
Rev. Cathy Larmond
I enjoyed "The Last Jedi." The final scene, where a child tells the stories, and then brings the broom to himself with the Force, makes me wonder. The Jedi had controlled who was trained. Now the Force was free among the people again. In our world, the Spirit is free as God directs, and the stories of God at work within God’s people are available to all. Do we trust God and God’s Spirit?
Rev. Dr. Catherine Faith MacLean
I don’t watch much TV but people often suggest I would enjoy “Call the Midwife.” I’d like to take time to watch it. I am intrigued by a popular show set on the cusp of second-wave feminism that looks thoughtfully at women’s health, religion, and medicine.
Dr. Colin Phillips
I’m a proud Scot and can’t wait for the fourth season of the BBC series, “Shetland,” and its tales of Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez, to come to Netflix. It’s brilliantly written with a lot of suspense and more attention paid to storytelling, and there’s a touch of humour that reminds me of being wi’ my ain folk.
Rev. Wanda Stride
I have been binge watching the adaptation of Margaret Atwood's “The Handmaid's Tale.” Enjoy isn't the right word. I fear that poor June will never get out of Gilead because the show has become so popular, but it is a terrifying depiction of a distortion of scripture to justify personal power. As a feminist, I feel it's an important story to hear, but I'm not sure two (and counting?) seasons are good for anyone's health. Let's pray someone, somewhere, heeds the warnings contained within, and we never have to fight our way through such a dictatorship.
Rev. Dr. Martha ter Kuile
A bit of a guilty secret, but I love British police dramas. I watch them for the scenery, the accents, the moral complications, and most of all the fantastic female cops. Not easy to name a favourite, but Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) in “Prime Suspect” remains hard to beat. Right now I am watching “Line of Duty.”
Rev. Donalee Williams
“Game of Thrones” season eight. Because dragons! And ice zombies! Yes, I am waiting for George R.R. Martin's next book, however I have enjoyed the TV show's interpretative imagining of the story and its characters. I have loved the fantasy genre since I was a teenager, and I revel in epic tales of imagination, magic, and other 'impossible' things.