CBC Radio - Testament "European Faith Communities" July 14/85 (w news)

good evening I'm Marian Fraser and this assessment we sent a great deal of time on this show with the established religious institutions which for many people provide their only sense of a contemporary social experience of religion typical listener to the show is probably a member of an established church in a community he is a large urban congregation or a small three point parish in northern parts of our provinces but tonight we're going to look at two very different faith communities both are in Europe and both address very specifically the difficult coming of age and faith experience really by all of us as we attempt to walk from our late teenage years and to adulthood the centers are at si and labrie they would appear to be very different on paper the French Protestant monastery in southern France and an evangelical retreat in this result but as you listening tonight's program I think you'll hear a shared sense of commitment to a process the process of briefly for most people leaving the real world and entering a period of spiritual release and at the same time spiritual concentration a time to focus uninterrupted on the question of how to live how to believe and how to survive the often painful loss of youthful idealism and yet replace it with a mature spiritual commitment [Music] today the community in rural France close to the famous abbey of Cluny and lies north of Lyon in that song wine region the people who come to today for an ecumenical experience there are many faiths and denominations or as none Spaniards Italians come up the Rhone Valley team south the Swiss arrive from the East via Geneva and from the north of dutch belgium Scandinavians and Germans take the train or drive to today there among rolling hills they're welcome registered and they apply for a cot in the bunkhouse of their adults or more primitive quarters are large tents for the young the community of today is not so much a series of dominance or imposing buildings quite the contrary the sixth up farm houses look like what they were but the spirit of this ecumenical gathering is what cannot be seen but only felt by the visitors the prior and founder is Rajesh's a former Swiss Calvinist who develop the community following the Second World War he has an order of several dozen protestant monks and nuns and a few catholic brothers and sisters play an important part in the canopy they all take vows of poverty celibacy and the community of goods visitors have come from all over the world and have included Pope John Paul the second and the Archbishop of Canterbury the worship services in the music have been recorded many times and are available on records and cassettes throughout the world you'll hear one of these services and a number of interviews recorded at today by Testament contributor here's an HESA [Music] where people can find what they cannot find indirectly of irregular purity and I mean especially for the young people young people find here a kind of Christianity which they can take a moment alone life there's no [Music] [Music] Tempe me and the youngsters they live in big fancy when you are here on the disk even when they are thousands of youngsters here on the floor and [Music] [Music] everybody will come to unity aimed at the [Music] [Music] this is the bell you mentioned it's 8 o'clock now it's reminding you that in half an hour give it a go now tell me a little bit about the services and the bell peals for about 10 minutes or so 5 to 10 minutes and it gives everyone a sign that it's time to finish what they're doing to stop everything around here stops at worships everybody who's here goes to worship and and the bells peal and people off I'll go in and it's dark and there's candles at the front a wall of daggers bit brick and each person comes in and begins to pray or begin to contemplate in their own way some people are neo some people support themselves with little stools if they get there early enough and then the belt stop and worship begins and then one of the brothers will begin to sing and everyone joins in in a way that specifically pitting and there's much silence than [Music] [Music] there's a reading more Assam or as prayer brother Raju will speak usually what daddy said in three or four languages because this place is not you know in you and this aren't any music I think those are two we give some suits place and they're very much [Music] [Music] we are in the plane will be trying to get so there must be one place where you try to unite the aspiration the things which are discovered in the different many countries in the world so we are the tiny place where we try to together all together and to read through and to share it with others who come who again bearer of the news you know I mean the current of life that's all the current of life where you have to have some some unique we try to be the plane unite [Music] [Music] the first time I went to tizzy [Music] the most important thing for me have been the prayer I don't know exactly why but doing the services Larissa's a real communion between all the people here even the people I think that even they are not so we it is a criminal they are always already living a clinical church an important thing I think is that I met Christian people will really Christian people and it has been very important for my [Music] [Music] [Music] I suppose the reason why young people are being attracted by the fact that today it reflects a gap within their own life they have been brought up perhaps in a very structured type of society their own family life the school University and they are searching and they come to places like today and they find that here is the the movie is the environment whereby they can search and often find themselves find God in themselves [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] mrs. Brown what is really the attraction of today for so many people thousands and thousands of youngsters each year appear here to seek something that apparently they can find elsewhere what is your answer to this I think we are witnessing in the world today a great first Philippa team and I think perhaps our consumer society has reached a stage when whether people realize it or not one of the ways one of the only ways in which freedom can respond is to find freedom from one appetite before grown up to come to today is quite an accession experience in some ways one is very challenged to reconsider one's own priorities in living and one then purpose in living and I think that this brings you back through a simplification the thing that struck me first when I came here was the very imaginative way in which the brothers use small things to beautify their lives day by day for instance take a sample the prints of where we stayed with the rough concrete walls and at the end of the passage were little square windows in different colored glasses which added a note of joy and fancy very simply done with little cost now when my husband and I went home we reconsidered what we did every day what we owned the way we ordered our lives and we found that certain things were unnecessary and comfort until we try to review what we do in this light in the light of the gospel if you like and since young people are very critical of their parents quite rightly so I think that it does help to bridge the generation gap if one can simplify in life and try to jettison many things that are not strictly necessary and those in fact make one any happier personally we have found that finally renewed faith here has enabled us to pass on faith to our children in a way that I'm sure we would never be able to do had he not come to Tel University [Music] [Music] I bet sort of many remember the time before my competition so I wasn't actually conscious of the change I was always conscious after the change had come maybe but I don't find any strife at all in the family license I'm sure it's a great help but we have comfortably for example my third my second sister with third child has a very nervous disposition but my parents have been able to pass on to her the faith they have found here and a great comfort to her I know because in moments when she's really terribly despairing and because of her because of her nervousness and my mother's consoled her speaking to her in parables or something in child's language and this works wonders which always works in she clears up in the end when strangers come to today people who haven't been here and it doesn't really matter what denomination they are even if there is you don't think if they had to get something out of today have to make a commitment to the new way of life and isn't this commitment then regarded by many people in society as too great a sacrifice as something too much to give up the amenities of life they the things that society today regards is absolutely necessary I would say that this is not necessarily true one games far more than one gives up in fact in the rules today the prayers says somewhere that poverty is not in itself a merit it is the use of your possessions that can't and we don't live uncomfortable lives but we do have the joy and privilege of trying to put first in our lives the sharing of our sense of purpose which is certainly animated by God this is not something which only people who come to Tippie have found many have been lucky enough to find it elsewhere in lively parishes in the world I wouldn't like to give the impression that and nor would the brothers that says they had a monopoly on this kind of thing we just haven't have found it here also I would say about the commitment that people who come here are perhaps led on to reconsider life in a different way I would say that the commitment is probably progressive for some it could be sudden the emotional impact of meeting people of whom you can imagine that the Christ actually does live in them is something rather tremendous and I hadn't been fortunate enough to find it before coming here but as I say you might find it elsewhere I think because true to say that if you're thinking just in terms of what you personally get out of coming here you probably don't get anything out of it until it until you do commit yourself and give something because as it says in the Bible which is more blessed to give them to receive and the parable of the year the widow's cruse of oil the more she took out more came one realizes that this in fact does apply to life after what you have committed yourself but if people feel that they would give up a great deal I have been amazed in my own life the way things I had thought I might have to give up a sort of being given back to me but the more you give away the more you get it is extraordinary the proud today Himself says in the rule somewhere that one should not try and live 1/4 acidity and he speaks again of trying to find out each brothers gift so that he may give us his best and be encouraged and I think in any Christian community or family or when you become part of the church which is the body of Christ you very often do discover new gifts I know I personally I've been lucky enough with my husband who had less time to give to it than I in starting out the books taught in our parish for selling paperbacks and English language and I have learned a tremendous amount from this far more than I've given me but I do know that many people have been helped by it and I've had the joy of bringing a young friend of ours here who is now going to the priesthood as a result of retreat seated in today and all these things finally giving me far more joy than I've ever [Music] which become what you are in your depth land of the living land of reconciliation land of simplicity throw open the doors of joy and common prayer will become the celebration of a festival without enemy church be a land of reconciliation the divisions of Christian in two different confessions will no longer be bearable the gospel calls them all to the members of the body of Christ not followers or packaging nor Patriots have their own confession Jesus prayed that they be one do everything possible to see that the younger generation are no longer victims of old or new separation God has called you to joy not to green to a great simplicity of means not as far as austerity artistic creation is a gift of God it sustains the wonder of law [Music] my breed is another faith community in Central Europe not that far from Tuesday actually high in the Swiss Alps above the Rhone Valley it was founded in 1955 by Edith and Francis Schaeffer as an evangelical Study Center since then dr. Francis Schaeffer has written 2,000 books many of them bestsellers and they've been translated into 25 languages he died in May last year and his widow Edith lives in the u.s. in one of the several l'bri affiliated communities throughout the world their daughter Susan Schaeffer McAuley and her husband Ronald have moved from England to run the labrie fellowship center in Switzerland you're gonna have to talk with them and the two students one in Norway and one from Zimbabwe at LaBrie you'll also hear a recording made by the late Francis Schaeffer to begin this is Ronald McCauley we're just to the south of Lake Geneva you leave Lake Geneva at the eastern end which is up near Moultrie you go on down to a little town called Eagle and then you make your way up into the mountains and you have this magnificent view worth a thousand meters so we're not right up at the top but there's a small village almost completely unspoiled called flame o hu e mo Zhi and the shape is found the chalet in 1955 and they were able to purchase the chalet shall I lay my lens which just on the outskirts of the village and then progressively one chalet off to another was added as the work became better known and grew and what we have here is what we call rather than a community so in one sense it is a community but it's really more like an extended family we've got 15 workers here some unmarried some married some who have children and we each of us live in a different chalet what does the degree mean by the way the Breeders means the shelter where a person can stop and be sheltered the wind for a while catch their breath get their bearings get the head sorted out if they're not a Christian when they come to become a Christian if they are a Christian to be established more in their faith and then to go back that content into the world the purpose on the on the public side would be seen to be a study center of some kind so from one aspect you might say the purpose is as you described to be a catalyst to help people to see what Christianity really is and how it relates to the world to our contemporary society how we respond to the difficult questions the people are the very common questions like how do you know God exists why is there evil in the world and what can we do about poverty all those sorts of questions the way we have it structured within the breed can be helpful to particular people in a very special way so that was the second area the third area which i think is actually more more exciting and which has always impressed me more was that they didn't lay out a plan that is a program they didn't say for the next three years we're gonna do this and then we're gonna gonna reach the students in Zurich and then we're going to go to parents and then we're going to go to London and so forth again not that it's wrong to do that but that they chose beads as a demonstration and this is overwhelming because you're here with me in in Weymouth and you can see that we're on the side of a little of a mountain in a tiny little village back away no one's ever heard of Weimar you won't even find it on the map and here is this man has got very great gifts it's not the shape in his life he could have gifted and they bury themselves rather like Jesus said and that's a grain of wheat falls in the ground and dies it remains life so they from a human point of view they bury themselves and they don't advertise they don't ask for money so don't make any plan and yet if you ask what are the significant forces influences within let's just say the evangelical community around the world one of the main ones I think you could say without being arrogant about it nothing else no one can live a credible sufficient before the universe in this form in the money system one of the greatest races would be Godard's film I don't know if you know God is filmed here to see it's a little old-fashioned now thank you it's a little old-fashioned though but it's a remarkable picture and he was dotted with showing trying to show the absurdity in the universe as he saw it as following yes potential philosophy he's so consequently in his film in his movie instead of having anybody go out through the doors they all went out through the windows he says it's a crazy world so everybody goes out through the windows and nobody goes out through the door the one thing daughter did not have and that is he didn't have anyone [Music] Francis Crick for example he is one of the discovers of the DNA template the form the DNA template we find the Francis Crick restate the charge universe an impersonal universe a universe that is ultimately impersonal and a world of chomp Fiat Francis Crick for example in one of his books begins to spell make halfway through the book begins to spell nature with a capital N in another way he calls nature in another book halfway through the book he begins to speak of nature as she in other words in the area of an intellectual concept that the world is really impressed at the same time he cannot live with it even in his own book I never forget I'll never forget when Timothy Leary came to visit us everybody comes to visit us but when Timothy Leary Kay divisionals in the hour he was sitting there and expounding the fact that he really believed in an impersonal universe and then in the midst of it all the sudden he said well he said that I cannot argue the DNA template putting a tape in his hands and saying my god what have I made when I've made my collection the basic in personality of the universe yet nevertheless has to personalize the DNA template here are these people who are declaring intellectually that there is no such thing is love there is no such thing as order there is no such thing as a distinct managements of mine yet nevertheless they cannot live that way so now I have put forward to 6 there is a universe and and there is no answer something that most well-meaning people have long decided that that slowly our society is falling apart or appears to be falling apart my question is is the work that you do in memory the works of Giovanni is doing that love the work that the water should be doing in today's is that work of these organizations enough to stem the tide of this integration what is the interesting thing to be in our society we don't know can we spend the time even we live in something which my father liked called up the post-christian with the our grandparents tended to live in a more unified culture where people thought that there was God they may have been scared stiff of him they may have decided no I'm not going to go along with this but that there they believed that there was a certain structure in the world well take right and wrong no no longer for sure about this now it's a very frightening thing to see say for instance in North America there are a lot of people who pay lip service to being Christians if you pass out questionnaires to a sample a lot of people will put a little tick in the box that says yes I'm a Christian they believe that they are Christians and yet what is that to have any society where do we see the hard tough difference and it's not making enough difference now I would say that this is possibly due to two or three reasons and then we can't predict where history is going to take us the reason we see so little effect in society is that people keep their Christianity in a religious compartment a personal experience so how do I feel does it make me feel great this has encouraged me personally now of course the personal relationship a personal experience of Christianity it's very important to the goodest and clear marriage or of any of living but often people are very confused about whether this is really true now truth is something hard it's clean and if something is true then it means something else is false now this is where we aren't don't do so well in the 20th century first of all people feel already insecure and they think well how could I know that much how could I be so sure that something is true or it may seem very intolerant so if I say I believe that something is really true then this maybe maybe means that the other woman that I'm having a coffee morning with that means that what she's saying is wrong so a lot of people's my age who get together a couple mornings will say what does you think that all roads lead to God now it seems a very hard thing to say if Christianity is true there is one road and Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life now that's a hard statement but if Christianity is true we're not going to get very far if we let it become lost through what ten things are generous and tolerant so wide and then we've lost this hard cutting ends and you can't get anywhere you can get no action and that people really understand what they are talking about what is truth now the second area is that we have been brainwashed in our generation into thinking that Christianity is something which is a private matter between ourselves and God and in fact if Christianity is true is quite wrong to leave it there so we're meant to be concerned about our neighbor now we've all been worried about accounts instance in New York City where a young girl will be mugged violently raped with people walking down the other side of those sidewalks not stopping maybe not even calling the police for her help let alone failing in not becoming involved that is not the Christian point of view we have the story synthesis of this mountain when men to stop were meant to take note during the last war in Germany it was not a Christian thing to know that the Jewish people were being shipped off to out roads and not do anything about it as Christians we are meant to make social and political statements and the active this is also part of doing what is right now this is something that we haven't done so much about the University where I study there are no questions no questions there is no question feelings no teachers and so you you were presented analytical philosophy basic philosophy and there seems to be no option no option zigzix and I started off breathing fast and I know a legal philosophy but then I I found that every time when when tried to get another aspect for example what about gold I mean easy really did anything people get very usually they get very aggressive and they don't like to talk by these days I mean it's that effect is that really fast and I feel that people they don't want to break up they get aggressive when you talk about God and as exactly what the Bible says the Bible says that we have rebelled against God and therefore when God is mentioned we don't like it when when the Bible says a man is a sinner you don't like it did lovey have anything to do with you becoming a Christian yeah I became a Christian when huh one and a half years ago and it was how old are you now me ask 25 so it was it was my own finding away about because I saw I saw all the negative things I saw soft philosophy I saw what that meant emptiness and how the people were all also how they were I mean shouldn't everybody should work for a better world then that type of philosophy it's difficult to see how you can make him by the world I found and also people reading these things it didn't think and it's one thing in philosophy that I really don't like and that is you have a theory and that's it you never put it to a person you never demand the consensus for example between the philosopher and his philosophy you do that your religious people but not a philosophy not your ideology and this is always annoyed me in a sense that why should these people be free from that amount because if if the theory is true it should also be able to leave it out all the budget the one who's there make that theory and that's what I saw what do you get here I think it's more knowledge about how to live a Christian life in all sense of life and not just having a spiritual life it's something that incorporates your whole life are you the reality you know you like to reality and I came here because s I am a new question and as my university is you play very eyes a stick and socialistic you must achieve I have no one to go and talk to I mean they go tell me about Christian philosophers because they don't know any they don't tell me about any anything that I can relate to that is different because they they haven't got it not in the library nothing and so I want to become here also to know about literature different Christian literature because Christian philosophers and also to to get a more theological background you feel sometimes that because you are a question you're not taking so seriously it's not interesting enough times but they know what you need I think and so it's nice to come and be taken seriously you know people need to understand sense my name is Clark Campion and I'm electronic engineer PhD engineering degree from Zimbabwe I'm born and bred in Zimbabwe and let my last America yes are you a worker here at lovely I'm a worthy student came as a student and I brought stay on as a helper worker I take it that you're a committed Christian I am I am a born-again committed Christian I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in the middle of the Kalahari Desert in quite different circumstances to many Christians that I have met I was involved in the hippie era of the late sixties early seventies into drugs and music and sex and everything and eventually was kicked out of South Africa by the South African Police because of my involvement in drugs and I decided to leave for Europe by trying to hitchhike my way to Africa to Angola where I would take this boat to Portugal and I just pack my bags and left and and I wandered off into the desert and after getting over the first sand dune I realized that I was completely lost I'd lost all my bearings and I wondered for three days without food or without water I was totally dehydrated my lips were cracked and bleeding Mars were puffed up with foam I've been bitten by what they call Santi which is a common flea in the desert and they call underneath the skin exist I've been bitten by some insert or spider in my hair and I had ear infection I was in a terrible state I was hallucinating from the drugs that I've been taking and on the third day I first start woke up walked three or four meters to fell down got a walk three or four meters and fell down and I realized that I was on the verge of death and as I've heard does happen before person dies your life flashes before you and I crossed out and I lay down there and I woke up and I realized that I was within seconds of death and my life literally flashed before me and one incident that was very clear and kept coming back in the pictures of my life from a child was the incident of this friend that had been converted to Christianity and I had known that he was a very serious drug taker it was on too hard line drive by hearing and open cocaine and I'd seen a difference in his life and all I can remember him saying you have to be born again and I looked up to the very very hot desert sand and wonder the guard guard whether there was a guard where do you real and was your real for me and could he do anything for me and he my despair I had nothing else to lose but both of us God and I said if you're there any future sister I want to be born again I want to die no I want to put the towel over my head die and I want to just walk our life all over again I want to be born again literally well I thought that was the last bit of life that I had in me and no one knows how long our lazy could have been minutes it could have been ours and I was picked up by two missionaries black missionaries who had found my clothing that I discarded as I walked along the way because it was too here he came and they said to me it was a miracle that I was alive they are destinos and jackals that live in an area that as soon as they see something walking and and livestock they were attacked and so from that day onwards numerous miracles happen in my life and I'm grateful today that it happened that way in that I was not preached to to become a Christian I was not brainwashed or conditioned or talked to by men or influenced by men's doctrine and so I know my experience is very real and the change that took place in my life was more than words could express the scripture says if any man is in Christ Jesus he's a new creation and I certainly became a new creation my whole manner of speech my way of thinking my way of walk from a hippie driving down the street every part of me changed a very looks changed I went and I studied after that went to university and my life just took a fantastic turn for the good I needed a place to come to to wait upon God to try and put aside the problems of Africa and find some of the answers some of these very complex question and I had read about LaBrie in South Africa and Francis Schaeffer's material and I realized that there was a place that I'm sure would have the answer to my question and I wrote to them and they welcomed me here and it has truly been a shelter to me it has been a place where I've been able to come into the beautiful serenity of the mountains India the surrounding area the peace the tranquility and just meditate and wait upon God and speak with the workers here and listen to text and read the books and just wait upon God and sometimes the answers are not answered intellectually but there are third in the spirit as Jesus said he said I'll give you a peace which passes all understanding and this is what the breathing me today I found a piece here which cannot be explained doesn't have an understanding but he does because they end up immunity to faith was prepared in Vancouver by jürgen HESA and produced by Don Noah readings with Isis can deny the sound engineer was very family this year the United Church of Canada celebrates its 60th anniversary since its founding in 1925 Sears reflects for a few moments on its accomplishments is the immediate past moderator the very Reverend Clark McDonald since its inception and birth in 1925 the United Church of Canada has had a checkered history it came into being when the Methodist Church and the Congregationalist Church in its totality entered a union with the Presbyterian Church or 71% of it very shortly after the United Church was born of course we had in Canada the dirty thirties and the depression it was during that time that the United Church proved itself to be a supporter in many instances of the plight and needs of people in distress it setup in the churches and made the churches available to the people in a variety of ways and in congregations I can remember as a small boy in Nova Scotia listening to announcements by the minister from the pulpit for vegetables and fruit and other things to be sent to Western Canada where at that time there was dire needs at the same time we were sending clothing to various missions in downtown centers in the Maritimes and in central Canada so that the church proved itself to be a caring Church it was at the same time a church that was deeply concerned to make its theology which it received from its three traditions its own the board of evangelism and social service in this regard was one of the most active religious bodies in Canada under the leadership of persons such as dr. jr. much more whose name was a household word in those times the church invade against various forms of sin and evil as it saw it in society one of the things that perhaps we are justifiably criticized for is that the evangelical component has begun to wing that there is not the same intensity and fervor to quote save souls as there used to be but our church is involved in sharing the faith Bible study groups are on the increase in the United Church of Canada someone was just saying to me today that 10 or 15 years ago if you quoted sociologists and psychologists that was the way to get a hearing in the church today the way to get a hearing in the church at the quote theology or to advance theological notions and Bible studies and this has become a strong benchmark for the United Church of Canada in our present time now we are faced with a recession if not a depression in this country and what is the church doing about that the United Church along with other churches is trying to get at the root causes of unemployment is encouraging government in briefs that are sent to them to get involved in massive housing development projects that pert would provide adequate efficient housing for people in our very sometimes in temperate climate here and also which would be work intensive the church is involved in the peace issue it's involved in human justice towards the people in prisons it's involved in the the human rights of of women abused women and children now along with all of this the church is doing these things today and has been doing them for the last 10 12 years in cooperation with other churches and we are branching out today in a concern not only for interdenominational meaning with other Christian bodies but interface groupings where we relate to people of Jewish Hindu Buddhist Muslim and other faith backgrounds these are some of the highlights as I see them all the life and work of the United Church in the last 60 years dr. Clark McDonald in Toronto later that season you can hear a half-hour documentary in the 200th anniversary of Methodism in Canada and the 60 years since union with the congregational and Presbyterian Church age and that concludes Testaments for another week next Sunday listen for leaving the order I think you by day-day McCall on nuns and priests under painful decision to leave their orders so executive producer Don Lord and technician down harder on Marian Fraser goodnight [Music] stereo morning weekdays from 6:14 644 in Newfoundland now with more music I'm Terry Campbell join me for four hours of the best in the solo chamber vocal and orchestral repertoire we have arts reports as well in the second third and fourth hours stereo morning Monday to Friday on CBC stereo a volunteer firefighter has died in the British Columbia forest fires I'm bother fed with the CBC News a spokesman for the provinces ministry of forests as a fireman has been killed while working on a small fire north of golden british columbia he was apparently struck by a falling rock and is the first fatality on the fire lines this year his name has not yet been released meanwhile some of the residents of Canal flats have begun returning home even though an evacuation order is still in effect the fires which forced the evacuation of the tiny village last week have quieted down Manitoba's agriculture minister says the morley government should set the record straight with respect to government subsidies received by Canadian and American farmers a US farm group is now in Washington lobbying for an investigation into what it says our unfair subsidies received by Canadian farmers marry food trucks support the American farm organization US wheat associates argue that a farmer in North Dakota nowadays about $1 24 a bushel to ship we to West Coast export terminals meanwhile farmers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan say just over 20 cents a bushel the routine says that aspect of the Americans argument is correct but it is not complete he says US farmers received twice as much from their government in the way of price guarantees then Canadian farmers received from Ottawa and he adds governments belonging to the European Economic Community offer their farmers tweets on the subsidies through what Americans receive a Canadian government yeah react very swiftly in terms of putting the records straight up to what the US government has done in the past in terms of assistance and the programs that they've had and and they do have and clearly set the record straight this whiskey says it's important that the Canadian government will react because American politicians may simply launch a study of Canadian policy to please financially troubled US farmers CBC News Winnipeg doctors say President Reagan is recovering well following almost three hours of major surgery yesterday to remove a tumor from his colon it was only discovered Friday and there's been some criticism of his doctors they're not finding it earlier Rick McGinnis ray report mr. Reagan sat through some briefings this morning in spite of a morphine injection for pain and a tube running from his nose to his stomach doctors removed a tumor five centimeters across from his colon and another 60 centimeters of intestine to ensure they had it all there's a 50% chance it was cancerous but they won't know for sure until tests are completed tomorrow the Washington press carries reports critical of his doctors today it quotes outside specialists who say they should have done more exhaustive tests when they first discovered a smaller polyp on the colon 14 months ago the president's physicians say they had no reason to search for more problems at the time but the Reagan's older brother had a similar operation just 11 days ago suggesting the problem runs in the family and doctors should have been looking for other abnormalities during surgery mr. Reagan took the unprecedented step of transferring his power to Vice President George Bush he reclaimed his office about eight hours later when the anesthetic wore off as if to emphasize he's back in control he was given a national security briefing this morning now remain in hospital for a week to ten days there's little time for the 74 year old president to rest up he's in the middle of a pressing budget battle with his Senate but for the next little while he'll be doing all of his fighting over the bedside phone Rick McGinnis race CBC News Washington police in New Zealand have posted round-the-clock protection for the French consul as the manhunt continues for the saboteurs who blew up a Greenpeace vessel security has also been increased at the French Embassy in Wellington the precautions have been taken because of speculation about a French Connection in the bombing the Rainbow Warrior sank last week killing one crew member the ship was in the South Pacific to take part in a protest against French nuclear testing in the region the 126 running of the Queen's Plate in Toronto was won today by a huge filly named Lala yet she defeated the favorite Imperial choice and took the first prize first-place prize of more than one hundred and seventy four thousand dollars it's the first time a ceiling is won the prestigious event since 1967 and that's the CBC News Now with a look at the Metro Toronto weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow right now the temperature is 24 degrees and we can expect cloudy periods tonight and overnight fog patches the low tonight should be near 19 degrees and the outlook to Monday partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing in the late afternoon in the evening the high on Monday should be near 27 the temperature again now 24 degrees this is BBC stereos Toronto 94.1 Peterborough 103.9