This is the first in what will hopefully be a series of regular weekly blog posts where I talk about, well, whatever is on my mind! What’s on my mind this week is Communication. As the “program year” begins, we all want to make sure that people know about what’s going on at church. We communicate in a myriad of… View Post
Who? What? And what now?
All Saints by the Lake, Dorval Year C, Proper 22 September 1, 2019 As the summer ends and the world picks up its pace again, this year we hear for several weeks in a row the words of the prophet Jeremiah. Last week, we heard the story of Jeremiah’s call, from the very beginning of the book that bears his… View Post
Sabbath as Liberation
All Saints by the Lake, Dorval Year C, Proper 21 August 25, 2019 When a massive and catastrophic earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, aid and relief groups from around the world rushed to the stricken island. Among them were teams from Israel, some of whom were highly observant Orthodox Jews. As you probably know, the strict observance of the Jewish… View Post
Nice is Different from Good
The last book I started on this particular vacation was The Killing Moon, by N. K. Jemisin, a novel set in an alternate/fantasy version of ancient Egypt, where peace is considered the highest good and where a caste of priests maintains that peace by manipulating magic drawn from dreams. The book’s action revolves around the concept of “gathering”, in which people who are either dying anyway or who are deemed to be corrupted by violence are ushered into the afterlife by these priests in a kind of dream-magical assisted dying process.
Worship and Justice
Friday was a heck of a day.In the morning (Vancouver time) the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada heard a profoundly moving apology, read by Primate Fred Hiltz on behalf of the whole church, to the Indigenous peoples of this land for the spiritual abuse that was perpetrated on them over the course of the church’s history. The vote to establish a fully autonomous national indigenous church within the Anglican Church then passed with overwhelming majorities, and Indigenous Bishop Mark MacDonald, now raised to the status of Archbishop, was presented with a beautiful ceremonial cross in recognition of his leadership.