“Today, I am feeling Saturday-after-a-week-of-radiation weary. I am also feeling gratitude. I’m grateful for glimpses of grace on city streets and beneath red maples. Grateful for feeling a little better this week than last. Glad that the finalized treatment schedule allows for a trip home before the summer ends.”

So goes an entry on Rev. David Giuliano’s blog (Web diary) dated July 21, 2007. Since May, the moderator of the United Church of Canada, has been blogging about his battle with cancer, offering not just a window into the effects of the disease but of faith in a time of struggle.

The blog, called The Valley of Shadows, can be accessed at  www.united-church.ca.

Mr. Giuliano had surgeries in the past to remove what were thought to be benign tumours on his forehead. But last year, he wrote, on the night he was installed as the new leader of the United Church, he had felt another tumour. Doctors later diagnosed them as malignant. The tumour has since been removed.