by John more , cm the evening Nov. 8 ' at the (113qu Centre of the U.P.E.I. canprs, there m a twilight

«

student of U.P.E.I. who is well known as a basket-

ball star. He is a

devoted Christian. Laffin hes_xeqentlyt§eenwin_in“.-.m. Eumpeandinhistalk ' v he shared with the students assembled some of the things he saw and experienced there.

He talked specifically _. about two Christian “' ammunities whidm he visited in France. They are L'Arohe and Tai

L'Arche is a community founded by the Canadian Jean Vanier. It is centred around the mentally handicapped, who Jean Vanier calls the . wounded.

Art worked and lived «in the ccxmmity of L'Ardne. * He described how he worked with four handi— capped people, men and mo warren, on C explained how the object intL'Ardre is action, ead'1 person to strive for great efficiency, but for each person‘to strive to do what he can. " a».

{—5}!

, “Vi

Art talked ‘ “t how we are all handicapped. We alltneed help frcm others. 'lherefore, when you work at a place L'Arche, you/don't just give to the handicapped, you let them give to you. To illustrate this, he explained how he was very eubarrassed when a man at L'Arche walked Ip to him and hugged He was put off at first by this, but over time he grew to under- stand the man.

Art explained sauetifi in; the things he learned ” frtm the handicapped. He talked about the import— ance of patience, kind— ngssr and the other SmPle which perm,» "an

_ Perhaps the most lnportant thing Laffin talked about concerning L'Arche‘vfi¥5_tfiet?¥fieiuust' to séTZEIEw.‘ 455‘ my handicapped as cat’plete“ - r People. Whether a person,

1 of the world.

has trorble adding ten and ten, or whether he has stopped talking .becausehe has been re- vby the world,

:4?!» . : .

fo what they are. To bring everything to— gether, Art explained

how the mentally retarded,

“"fimti‘gh‘they‘may be" " handicapped in‘one way, are especially valuable because they show us a special kind of love, own unique love.

The other place that Art visited in France was Taize. Taize is a Protestant anastery. is also an ecumenical Christian ccnmmity, a gathering place for Christian youth from all OVer the world. ‘

It

It was not always this type of gathering place. It became this in the late sixties, when sane of the youth of France,

’ out of disillusionment

with life in general, flodced to the mcmks of Taize.-v’ They-talked with the Hanks, and it helped thanyto ‘make sane sense out of life.

Ever since it has been a spirin necca for youth V_ A It is V by young people ‘- seardiing, trying

to grasp a in

their lives: > "

Laffin also spoke in general terns about living a Christian life. It is hard to be a Christian these days, he explained. 'Ihere is a

ii_ tenptaticn to give in to ' easy escapes, like drugs,

booze and sex.

But he .said that we need listen to what we are being called-to in our

" lives as Christians. Everyone has a gift, every- one has satetl'fing to give to others. We. must discover what it is that we have to give, and then

i

Sane. enowragenent to those students present at the retreat. He told us :r'that it is inportant that

do form a Christian canmmity on the campus. v This would help those who

The UPEI Sun,Thursday,Nov.10,1977.page 9

u

T E RAP I. E

ART LAFFIN AS SISTER MARY ELEPHANT

faith (all of us) , and would allow those who are tarpted to believe to have a place to go to talk about it.

All the snidents present enjoyed Art's talk, as was expressed when Brian Walsh, president of the Act Continuation Carmittee, thanked him by saying that everything Art had said had had a lot of meaning for him and the other students assenbled.

I personally got a lot

out of Art's talk. He is a man who obviously has

a lot of faith, and he's the kind of person who's going to do scmething about it. He expressed this several times during his talk when he said that a Christian should not be satisfied just to believe, but should show it in his life.

The gathering was well attended by about 40 peopv is. We hope there Will be more activities of this kind at the new Chaplaincy Centre.

WHO BY

COME OR YOU HAY RUN THE

WHAT:

STAR UAR'S PARTY. . . WHERE' I‘ UOOKIE UOOI'I

{MAIN LOUNGE-MARION HALL}

WHY:

FOR THE HELL OF IT...

STAR DATE1 THURSDAY1 NOV- l0 AT BLUE] HOURS OR 2130 HOURS

: THE SIX PACK OF SPRITELY 7-UPS

RISK OF BEING STRUCK BY THE FORQE-