Acknowledging the painful errors of our past
A few decades ago, I heard a classmate-friend give a comparison and an example that has been clinging to me since.
A taste of the future
It has been said that the churches of the Christian West, our Anglican Church included, have tried to establish the meaning and practice of...
Celebrating community in Canada’s North
Almost 50 years ago, as a Lutheran synod staff person, I worked with representatives of Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches to create a viable...
Celebrating the Baptism of the Lord
In November last year, I was in Amman, Jordan, for the Majma (synod) of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. While there, I had the...
Six pasta bowls and domestic tyranny
Panic had left the man no room to be polite. An abrupt tap on my shoulder was all he could manage before getting down...
The care of body and soul
Reflecting my penchant for all things edible, I have several food magazine subscriptions and, just like Anglican church newsletters and newspapers, these magazines are seasonal...
Remembering and repenting as we pray for Jews
If you stand in the chancel of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Quebec City and look straight up, you’ll see four gilded...
Making Bible study special
“Are you an evangelical Christian?” a woman asked me recently. “It depends on what you mean by ‘evangelical,’" I replied. (Being “evangelical” has to...
Living branches
A recent visit to the Church of the Redeemer in downtown Toronto brought back the memory of a visit I made there on the...
For all the saints
The Christian festival of All Saints (November 1) seemed to slip past me almost unnoticed this year; but perhaps it’s still not too late to share my thoughts with you about saintly mentors.
25 years after Peers’s apology, glimmers of ‘true repentance’
How times have changed in the 25 years since former primate Michael Peers offered his apology to Canada’s Indigenous peoples on behalf of the Anglican Church of Canada.
The web of life
"Nature is a fine piece of cloth. You pull a thread here and it vibrates throughout the whole fabric."
—Joseph Sittler, Gravity and Grace: Reflections and...
No splash
“If you get the chance, we’d humbly request that our ‘worship hoedown’ be mentioned from stage, or added into your service announcement slides. Or,...
Seeing the fungus through the trees
I’ve always disliked church structures, an antipathy I credit to that potentially most monstrous of church creatures: the committee.
Jerusalem: A place of welcoming, sharing and learning
Jerusalem is often portrayed in the media as a place of conflict and hostility, a city where competing belief systems jostle and confront one...