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 […]
Year A, First Sunday after Christmas
Theme: Accompaniment: It takes all of us. Quotes It was no messenger or angel but one’s presence that saved them.Isaiah 63:9 Amended Be here now.Ram Dass Revised Common Lectionary Readings Alternate Readings Words to Introduce the Readings We celebrate a new year by singing out the old year and making commitments for the new. It […]
Advent Candle Lighting
Many Protestant congregations adopted an Advent Candle Lighting ritual several decades ago. I don’t recall having one in our church when I was a child, but I do remember it feeling like a special part of the December services when I would return from university for the holidays in the late 70s. Perhaps they became […]
Year A, Advent One
Theme: Raw and Ready Quotes A sage traveling all day is never far from the supplies in his cart, and however spectacular the views he remains calm and composed.Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching Invitation to Gather Before our eyes opened to this daynaught but darkness lay beneaththe lashes, closed, that sheltered us within the nightand let […]
Resources for inspiring community
Over the years, I have collected and written huge amounts of material and hope you might find it useful as you create opportunities for people to fall in love with being together, the most important achievement of church or any gathering we might hope to create. I’ve two projects underway. Lectionary-based Resources One of my […]
Over the Backyard Fence
Hello, my neighbours! It’s been too long! Scott and I have lived at XXXXXXX since XXXX. We’ve waved at a few of you, patted some of your pets, and said hello at the mailbox a few times. But we’ve not yet managed to get to know you. The challenges of the Coronavirus known as COVID-19 […]
What use is prayer?
A day of sorrow and anger elicits frustration with the act of prayer.
Rare
Last week, the theme I extracted from next year’s lectionary readings for the closest Sunday on the calendar, was Oh! But to Prevail! In other words, a Perspective(s) (our take on what a sermon should be) on persistence. With everything that has happened over the past thirty and counting months since my disciplinary review was […]
Remembering with a purpose
The news plasters us with the most horrific things humanity is capable of doing to itself or to the planet, our only home. I am so occupied by its normalcy that when upbeat, “trifling” stories hit the airwaves, I snark and change the channel, rolling my eyes at the insignificance of what is being explored. […]
Canada at 150
A Country Ready, at Last, for Its Most Important Journey Yet It is Canada Day and across the country, homes, people, cars, and garage doors are decked out in brilliant red and white like never before, on this, our 150th birthday. Celebrations and barbeques are ongoing. Concerts in public parks and along waterfronts are filled […]
Conversations with merit: Kingston, ON
This evening, West Hill members will be welcomed at Chalmers United Church for an important conversation about the future of church. With challenges that threaten to drag mainline denominations into a slow but deadly undertow, the events that have shaped West Hill into a congregation that welcomes people of all beliefs are of interest within […]
Finding Atheists: There is now an app
You are not alone. You now have an atheist app. So this might be the greatest thing you’ve ever come across or you might just roll your eyes. There is, of course, no real reason for you to use something like this and if you think you’d like to, there is no guarantee that you’re going […]
“No-fault Divorce”
This morning, in an article in the Vancouver Sun, “Will Gretta Vosper obtain ‘no-fault’ divorce from church?”, Douglas Todd raises the idea that Toronto Conference, using The United Church of Canada’s polity as found in The Manual, could place my name on the Discontinued Service List with the slightly more polite qualifier “Voluntary”. The piece of […]
A letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Events in the United States have triggered conversations here in Canada and will require responses on a growing number of fronts. I’m sharing a letter here that addresses two issues raised in the first couple of days after the election of Donald Trump: the possible overturning of President Obama’s refusal to continue with the Keystone […]
Colleague asks to be defrocked
My colleague, Beverley Burlock, a former classmate at Queen’s Theological College, has asked to be “defrocked”, removed from the roll of clergy of The United Church of Canada because of the manner in which it is reviewing my ministry under the auspices of my effectiveness. Beverley’s letter has saddened me and, I hope, has saddened […]
Walrus Talks Spirituality
Beyond the Beliefs that Divide It was a privilege to be able to participate in the Walrus Talks Spirituality event that took place at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts early in April. Joining me on the dias were Bishop Michael Ingham, Bishop Lewis Cardinal, Joan Garson, Natalie Bull, Timothy Caulfield, and […]
A Media Page – Finally!
I have so needed to do this and for so long! Finally, I managed to finish the job today and now have a single page with links to media sources listed on it! Yay! Say hello to my new Media Page! (You’ll need to click that link to get to it!) There are a number of links on […]
A Letter to the Seekers after Truth
A Letter Modeled after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, “Paul’s Letter to American Christians” This year, as we approached Martin Luther King, Jr, Day, something that, I know, is usually only celebrated in America, I returned to one of my favourite pieces of King’s writings, a sermon he preached in November, 1956. It […]