Shaped by Words

We are halfway through ‘ordinary time,’ the Season after Pentecost. A time when we learn what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ. The gospel readings are full of questions. Questions are one of the ways the community of disciples seeks to understand Jesus and his ministry. We, too, seek to understand…

Shaped by Challenges

A woman enters the room, she has a shawl around her shoulders, she looks around and begins to speak: Jesus tried to have some privacy when he was in my hometown… But, you know what it is like when a famous person comes to town… even back then without Facebook and Twitter, we knew when…

Chaos and Clutter

I participate in Casa: An Experiment in Doing Church Online and this was my reflection from yesterday. Come and find the quiet centre in the crowded life we lead, find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed: clear the chaos and the clutter, clear our eyes, that we can see …

12 Reasons for the President of Maritime Conference to Attend the Annual Assembly of the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada!

How’s that for a title? I spent Thursday-Saturday on the beautiful, HILLY, campus of Acadia University as an ecumenical observer to their annual meeting. Prayer – Extemporaneous prayer was threaded through almost everything, there was no hesitation from clergy OR lay people to offer prayer before, during or after a presentation or discussion. Passion and…

Friday Five – Transportation

It’s Friday Five at Revgals and today it’s all about transportation! Car: I just got back from a little over three weeks away at a couple of church conferences and vacation.  I drove from Nova Scotia to Toronto; there were some who expressed surprise and a little incredulity that I was doing that distance on…

Affirm United – Workshops & Reflections

So many GREAT workshops and opportunities for engagement, it was hard to choose. Iridesce, the Living Apology was the first one I chose, Aaron Miechkota led the workshop. She is the project coordinator for Iridesce. The most powerful part for me was reading some of the stories from the Iridesce website, check them out! Some of…

Affirm United – Annual Meeting

Who knew that an annual meeting would inspire a blog post! One of the privileges of being the President of Maritime Conference is attending the Affirm United Conference which took place in Toronto this year.  The theme of the event this year was Many Voices – One Song. I arrived at Royal York Road United Church…

Denial Is My Spiritual Practice Too!

An unsolicited book review! Denial Is My Spiritual Practice by Rachel Hackenberg and Martha Spong  is a book that everyone needs to read! I received it on Thursday and finished it Sunday afternoon. Their courage and vulnerability in sharing such hard parts of their personal stories, stories that we often only share with our closest…

All My Life’s a Circle

Or a spiral or something… Fourteen years ago, about this time of year, I left my home in Nova Scotia to head to Ontario. Ordained for a little over a month, I was on my way to my settlement charge in Claremont, a ‘hamlet’ about an hour northeast of Toronto. I spent the first night…

Preaching, Teaching, Healing

I came in from the back with a shawl draped around me. I was so excited when I heard that my son Jesus was coming home for a visit. I had missed him since he started traveling around the countryside. His brothers and sisters were excited as well… after all, they hadn’t travelled much further…