Creating Community

  First of all, thank you to those who turned out for the meeting on Tuesday evening to share with the presbytery how you thought things were going in this Interim Ministry time, some of the joys and the challenges and then for inviting me to stay with you another year! This means I will…

There Is a Crack…

How many of you can complete my title sentence? It’s from a Leonard Cohen piece called Anthem, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” The universe cracked open billions of years ago to let the light out. Just as we heard in our reading from Genesis, God said, “Let there…

How Many Times?

It’s apparent that the early church struggled with forgiveness. And we hear of Jesus instructions to Peter to forgive… not just seven times, but seventy seven times! Well Peter doesn’t much like that answer and he appeals to a higher power… he writes God a letter! Listen to Peter’s words: Dear God, I know it’s…

You Are Loved and You Matter

On my way in to the church on Thursday I listened to an interview with Mitch Albom, the man who wrote Tuesdays with Morrie. It’s the 20th anniversary of the book. For those of you who might not be familiar with it, Tuesdays with Morrie is the final lesson between a college professor, Morrie, and one…

The Armour of God

Tender. Passionate. Strong. Compassionate. Words that we could use to describe Jesus. They are also words I would use to describe Wonder Woman as she is portrayed in the movie. Here is a brief synopsis of it: Before she was Wonder Woman, she was Diana, princess of the Amazons, daughter of Hippolyta, who told her that…

What’s Your F Word? Fun

This is a dialogue amongst the members of the Executive Circle, how are explaining, in a humourous way, how the new governance model works. We are sitting on the chancel, in a semi-circle, as if we were at coffee time. Bill: I’d like to talk about the Idea Board Christine: Me too, it looks really…

What’s Your F Word: Family & Friendship

Family and friendship are my F words for today. How do we create healthy families and networks of friends? How do we live with respect in creation? How we share? That passage from Acts is one of my favourite parts of the Bible. A model of how the first followers of Jesus lived. Sharing, caring, and…

What’s Your F Word: Friction

Despite the fact that I was appointed to this pastoral charge as your Interim Minister after some conflict, NOBODY wanted to share a faith story about friction!  Is it because conflict is such a taboo subject in the church that we think that ‘good Christians’ don’t have conflict? Our reading from Matthew this week…

What’s Your F Word: Faith

Imagine the first Pentecost… That fearful band of followers of Jesus. Their beloved leader who was put to death, rose three days later and spent the next 50 days seemingly popping in and out of situations, still preaching, teaching and healing. And then he ascended into heaven. Gone away again. And then there was Pentecost… the day when the…