Did you know that James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was a graduate of the Presbyterian College, Montreal? Or that Cairine R. Mackay Wilson, the first woman to sit in the Senate of Canada, was a Presbyterian and benefactor of our theological school in Montreal?
I began this column in the Record last summer with an unapologetic affirmation of the centrality of Jesus Christ for our church’s faith and life, now and in the future. My last word is the same.
Death stirs up many emotions. Whenever I prepare to preach at a funeral, or attend a memorial service, I often find my thoughts moving in different directions, swirling really.
In a wonderful little book called The Return of the Prodigal Son, the spiritual writer Henri Nouwen reminds us that the world often seduces us to claim a false identity. It’s an illusion that we find everywhere.
Theologian Karl Barth once preached a sermon in which he described the resurrection of Jesus as a threat. I like that.
The Assembly Council adopted a motion that asked the church to examine whether it is wise stewardship to support three colleges financially. I spoke in favour of the motion because I believe it is time to think about how our church can prepare its leaders more effectively and efficiently.
I wasn’t in Malawi very long before I started questioning why things are the way they are. The way we consume resources while others go without raises disturbing questions of justice. It also highlights the way materialism seems to bankrupt our souls.
I have been trying to talk about what it means to bear witness to Jesus Christ in a secular age. But this begs an important question. Which Jesus and whose Christ?
As a denomination we’re beginning to understand in new ways that congregations matter and their existence cannot be assumed.
Nothing prepared me for the experience of sitting through the testimony of survivors of residential schools. I winced and I wept. It moved our church’s 1994 apology from my head to my heart.
Our ministry with youth is nothing more and nothing less than a participation with them in what the triune God is doing, across cultures, across social and economic groups and across generations. It involves everyone.
A few months ago a friend described Jesus Christ with these words, “His centre is everywhere, his circumference nowhere.” It wasn’t an entirely original thought, […]