The Riddle of the Christ

The Bethlehem event provides no easy answers. You’ll want to take your questions there nonetheless.

The Bethlehem event provides no easy answers. You'll want to take your questions there nonetheless.


By any kind of reckoning, it shouldn't have been there. But it was.

In one of the hottest summers on record -- 1991 -- a solid ice pack blocked the sea lanes leading to northern Labrador. And it brought the summer voyage of Myron Arms and his companions on his 50-foot sailing cutter to an abrupt halt.

"That's not just ice out there," Myron lamented to a shipmate, "it's a virtual barrier of ice, covering up to 90 percent of the sea in places. Ice so sharp it could slice through our sailboat's fiberglass hull like a knife through putty."

Since the pack did break up most years, it seemed inexplicable that it should be there now. For Arms and his crew, the ocean of ice brought frustration, but for the people living along more than 600 miles of Labrador's eastern coast, was a source of real hardship. There are no roads in that part of the world; everything comes in and out by boat ...