Year A, Second Sunday after Christmas

Theme: Supersized Superheroes Quotes What do we do with our lives;we leave only a mark.Will our story shine like a lightor end in the dark? Give it all or nothingTerry Britten, Gary Lyle, We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) Superheroes were born in the minds of people desperate to be rescued.Jodi Picoult, The Tenth Circle […]

Year A, Advent Three

Theme: Hard Work Quotes Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents When you live for a strong purpose, then hard work isn’t an option; it’s a necessity.Steve Pavlina Revised Common Lectionary Readings Isaiah 35:1-10, Reconsidered For the information of […]

Year A, Advent Two

Theme: Those Crazies; They Have Always Been with Us Quotes Being crazy isn’t enoughDr. Seuss Looks like what drives me crazyDon’t have no effect on you–But I’m gonna keep on at itTill it drives you crazy, too.Langston Hughes, Selected Poems In a world full of people, there’s only some want to fly.Isn’t that crazy.But we’re never […]

Shared Humanity

Many of us were moved by the movie Avatar, and some of us most deeply by the greeting spoken by that Na’vi, “I see you.” It is a powerful moment of recognition and an equally powerful reminder to be fully present to the other. But James Cameron didn’t come up with the idea. It has […]

My Response To Being Found To Be Unsuitable

This past Thursday, my lawyers, Julian Falconer and Akosua Matthews, the Chair of West Hill’s Board, Randy Bowes, and about fifty supporters from West Hill and the wider church accompanied me to a meeting of Toronto Conference’s sub-Executive Committee. West Hill and I had been invited to make presentations to the Committee in response to the […]

Sea Change in The United Church of Canada: Part One

The process that led to the review of my effectiveness Over the next few days, I’m going to be posting material pertinent to the United Church disciplinary process that has come to light because of the current review of my effectiveness. That may be of little interest to some of you, especially if you’re not clergy in the […]

My Answers to the Questions of Ordination

Yesterday was a big day. I met with the Toronto Conference Ministry Personnel Committee. Well, they were actually members of the Toronto Conference Interview Committee which normally interviews candidates for the ministry, but that committee had been seconded to act as the committee that would hear my beliefs and decide whether or not they constituted […]

Here All Belong

It has been months since I wrote new words to a well-loved tune but yesterday morning, three hours before the service started at West Hill United, I felt inspired to do so. It is the first song I’ve been able to write since the review of my effectiveness was initiated by The United Church of […]

Getting Your Religion at the Gym?

For many, something other than religion meets the definition of religion It’s true. Fewer and fewer people in North America are heading to church on Sunday morning. Religion, well, its Christian iteration, is on the wane. But for hundreds of thousands of those who avoid church, alternate sources of inspiration, engagement, community, and well-being exist. We […]

Do you really want to risk that?

  A letter to United Church of Canada elected officials and senior staff from Ben Robertson, Windsor, NS To paraphrase Blaise Pascal, I apologize for writing such a long letter; I didn’t have time to write a shorter one. As a member of the United Church of Canada, I am writing to express my deep […]

The Rev. John Shuck, Presbyterian Church (USA), Letter of Support

August 21, 2015 The Right Reverend Jordan Cantwell Moderator, UCC 3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300 Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4 Nora Sanders General Secretary, UCC 3250 Bloor St. West, Suite 300 Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4 Canada David Allen Executive Secretary – Toronto Conference 65 Mayall Avenue, Toronto, ON M3L 1E7 The Reverend Bryan Ransom President […]

Visionary Support …

… and how you can get involved It has been a challenging few months since Toronto Conference of the United Church ordered that I be reviewed due to concerns over the effectiveness of my ministry. But I have been uplifted by the wonderful support I’ve received and I wanted to share some of that with you and […]

Dividing the United Church

Today, at its meeting in Cornerbrook, NL, the General Council of The United Church of Canada (UCC) sent two petitions to a Commission rather than dealing with them with all its Commissioners in attendance. The two proposals had been triggered by both the review of my effectiveness ordered by Toronto Conference’s sub-Executive Committee and the sending of […]

The Complexities of Language: Atheist

On Sunday, I shared the following with my congregation. You’ll get the point as you read it. It has to do with the pastoral care of the congregation, as you’ll see, but it may also be a helpful piece for you to share with others as you have the conversation about beliefs, perspectives, and the […]

The Church of Gleaned Practices

There is a group currently meeting in Houston that calls its members “spiritual naturalists”. They are, for the most part, people who do not believe in doctrinal claims of any religious sort, but who have noticed that the act of everyday living seems to demand something more from them. So they get together twice a […]

semantics sleight of hand

For the past many years, I’ve been struggling against the power of the Christian story within the traditional church and outside of it. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Baha’i, and so many other religious streams ply stories of a cosmology that includes either a deity residing in a supernatural realm or a life that is more (or […]

All Roads

For this Sunday, the service is looking at privilege. So my hymn writing challenge veered off in that direction. An abrupt shift in the first verse might be disconcerting but it evidences the kind of “scales falling from our eyes” reality that consciousness raising so often is. And I hope that the song ends with […]

to the glory of good

On Sunday, March 15th, Eric Andrew-Gee of the Toronto Star joined us in our weekly gathering. It was a busy morning. We’d removed half the pews that Saturday in one of our first efforts at continuing our work toward creating a barrier-free community, this time focused on the challenges that traditional forms of gathering as […]

women rock

It might seem a bit cheeky, but I thought that since rewrite for this week’s traditional hymn should focus on women and we’ve had a Women Rock service at West Hill several times, that I’d use the tune Toplady to which Rock of Ages is most often sung so here it is! This year, in addition to focusing […]

what is a theologically barrier-free church?

I am often asked questions about the work that I and the congregation I serve do. These quick answer videos are meant to help you understand that. If you’ve any question you’d like answered, don’t hesitate to ask me through the contact page. I’ll be happy to consider it for a quick answer video. Thanks […]