God Provides
Providence. The very word sounds old – fashioned, perhaps a bit out of touch and even boring. Maybe people used to talk that way, but […]
Faith
Living Faith: The Unauthorized Version
In this living faith, unauthorized and not published by Wood Lake books, in the beginning Presbyterians started life in Canada as Settlers. Some say we’ve been settling ever since.
Seconding a Sentiment
There are many talented people in the Presbyterian church. They could be, should be sharing their gifts as part of a national and denominational strategy for making our worship vibrant and joyful, and for effectively sharing our faith. Are they? And is there a strategy?
Giddy Confusion
Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived, according to Søren Kierkegaard. What is true about life is just […]
A Probabilities Test
Sexual abuse is grim; sexual abuse in the church is even grimmer, because the church sets high moral standards for its adherents and especially its […]
The Note of Victory
What does it mean to believe in the resurrection? Some of you may be surprised to know that both the Bible and the earliest confessions […]
People of God
I recently had an opportunity to speak with a young man at his grandmother’s funeral. He was wrestling with issues of faith and of knowing. […]
House Calls
I look around the living room as we sing, smiling at those who are gathered in worship and friendship. We have variations in skin colour, […]
Change is Coming
There is a joke I have told from time to time that I am sure most us have heard before. Question: How many Presbyterians does […]
Watch and See
April 17 reading: Liturgy of the Passion – Matthew 26:14-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54 What language shall I borrow? What can we say? How can we—how […]
Trumpets, Organ Benches and Church Doors
One thing is sure: one size no longer fits all. This variety in our worship and our music will require more from church musicians and more, not less, support, imagination and deep theology from our congregations.
A Winter’s Feast in Grand Rapids
There is an energy, a hungry spirit of enquiry at the Calvin Symposium on Worship, held each January in Grand Rapids. The Symposium shows a passionate commitment to exploring and supporting the arts of worship that we Presbyterians can learn from.
Encountering God is the Goal
My German classics professor, trying to explain to us how a verb in Greek could have two apparently opposite meanings, put it ever so succinctly: […]
Simply Christian in a Secular Age
Most Canadians, young and old, don’t attend church even though they believe in God. The reasons are varied and complex and it may be that some find the church’s theology hopelessly conservative and outdated. But it’s also possible that they stay away because they don’t see the point.
Jesus. Himself. Alone.
Last Sunday in Epiphany March 6, 2011 reading: Matthew 17:1-9 It’s a long, hard climb up Mount Tabor, where tradition says Jesus was transfigured. The […]
Table Talk
I remember with fondness the Sunday lunchtime con-versations I enjoyed during my first pastorate in North Carolina. It was the regular practice for us to […]
Barth’s Rhythms
God Crosses the Frontier God crosses the frontier It is a real one On one side, God All majesty, holiness, righteousness On the other side, […]
Members For Eternity
The meaning of church membership is relatively difficult to define in a very comprehensive way. We know the sacrament of baptism is the moment of […]
Fundamentalists by Default
So the younger generations don’t attend church? Maybe that’s because they see the church as the “new atheists” charge, having blind faith, which is often […]
Joyful Sounds from the Caintown Choir
There’s a small book in my bookshelf called “Canadian Vibrations”. Actually, it’s called “Canadian Vibrations Canadiennes,” a unabashedly bilingual collection of traditional Canadian folksongs along with songs by Canadian singer-songwriters.