Sometimes the large chip on one’s shoulders can block one’s pathway to happiness. It’s easily one of the saddest parts of my work as a Minister and outreach worker to see genuinely kind persons who are loaded down with the baggage of low self-esteem and greeting each new interaction with the tinted lens of being the victim of attack. Recently I was shown an email by someone I admire and like very much...

At a foodbank this morning I witnessed a Residential Home participant passing out homemade muffins to the clients. Before the muffins were handed out a volunteer explained why the Home was providing the muffins. “We’re here because it is the 150th anniversary of Canada and we know Canadians are being challenged to offer 150 hours of volunteer time in 2017. The Canada 150 for 150 Volunteer Challenge will engage tens of thousands...

Stone soup is a great story told in many different ways, from many different cultural perspectives. When I served a different church 10 years ago we performed a version of this story that involved drifters (grifters?) coming into a town intent on fleecing the locals with a fable about making magical stone soup. The drifters successfully swindle the poor selfish townsfolk into believing the stone is what makes magical soup...

Some of you know I help facilitate the faith sharing and worship time at Brunswick Street United every Sunday night, 6-8 pm. We gather in a circle, everyone participates and I offer up a brief overview of the theme for the night, a little background on the scripture, and a question designed to promote conversation and stimulate deeper thinking on what God is doing in our lives...

In my vocation public speech is a way of life. We preachers spend every week discerning what the Spirit wants us to say. I spend a lot of time in walking prayer asking the Spirit to reveal some transformative Good News to our faith community. The Spirit never lets me down, though some weeks my own need to say something apart from that Good News obscures the message...

http://www.rawalker.ca/book-of-memories/2908264/Burrows-Bruce/service-details.php

John 14:1-6 - Sermon

How many of us gathered here today to celebrate Bruce’s life are part of the St. Luke’s Players Alumni? We the diaspora have a lot of shared experience and some wonderful memories. Bruce Burrows was a brother in arms. But you may not know how the St. Luke’s Players developed as a theatre group...

Every community needs a catalyst. We spend a lot of time focusing on the need for community and the process of building community but rarely do we highlight the need for those who bring community to life. I call these people catalysts. Every community needs one or more catalysts, persons who do several things well; 1) they know how to reach a number of different people, 2) they know the people whom they reach well enough to assess their talents...

How do we know when we have been heard? I am not speaking about the audible piece of being heard, although that can be problematic if the person you are speaking to can’t actually hear you. I am referencing conversations where the other gives space to you, listens enough to understand what you are saying and offers feedback in a way that demonstrates that you were heard. In our culture we tend to listen only long enough to jump in with a reference to our own situation...

There is a balance between action and reflection that needs to be addressed as we think about our “giving back” to our community. People share with me on a regular basis that they have a need to be connected to the community and that they want to “make a difference.” I always affirm and appreciate this spirit of generousity, this compassionate way of living, this desire to give to others with the same spirit we receive kindness from others... 

The United Church of Canada has a very long history of social engagement. We have never been so pious as to imagine that all persons need is a soul full of prayer and they will inherit salvation, a pathway to eternal life. That just does not fit with the character of our God, a God identified by Jesus in stories like the Good Samaritan, in the Great Commandments (love God, love neighbour, love self), in the separation of sheep and goats...

When we think about faith and the Earth the thinker and poet we most often go to for inspiration and ideas is Wendell Berry. He is after all the author of that beautiful piece of writing The Peace of Wild Things:

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Today is Earth Day and our church went on a nature hike to celebrate this occasion. 14 of us walked the Bluff Wilderness Trail near Timberlea and we walked approximately two and a half hours. There were two teenagers, a few seniors and a majority of people aged 40-50. We stopped once to reflect on the day and one of the walkers shared that she had read a study that concluded that if you walk under trees your stress goes down, your contentment goes up and you feel a sense of peace...

For those of us who are not medical professionals there is always the question of when is the appropriate time to respond to someone who is in medical care. Some Ministers go to the hospital to visit patients from their church every day. Some go to the hospital every other day. Some only go once a week, if the patient is not facing an urgent crisis...

I had a long coffee visit this week with a staff person whose job it is to work with a local community and to assist them to vet ideas and visions and in the end create some kind of project or program. I have been part of these public consultations and the input from the community has been impressive and lasting. This staff person is now tasked with the work of fostering continued community input...

Tonight at the church we held our fourth session of a 13 part exploration of United Church of Canada theology. Our text is John Young and Catherine MacLean’s book, The Big Questions: Doctrine Isn’t Dusty. The topic tonight was the authority of scripture. Some 25 people examined not only what the UCC believes about the Bible but what they individually believe is necessary to be found in our canon...

Satisfaction and joy. On Easter Monday I took the day off. It had been a busy weekend of late night hospital visits and various pastoral emergencies. The various church services and large crowds were energizing for me, an extrovert, but the pastoral care did leave me a little tired. So I was happy to stay home with my family and get some rest. I watched an interview with former Daily Show host Jon Stewart on his decision to walk away from his popular late night show...

Building community takes work. One technique I use is to delay my participation on coffee hour and spend that time calling/emailing the new people who have joined us for worship. I had a colleague who found this odd, especially coming from an extrovert like me. He really liked basking in the warm affection of the post-church worshipping community. People were in a good mood and were ready to tell “the clergy” what they thought...

I like how the Rev’d David Sellery describes our Easter text this morning. “They weren’t looking for the Risen Jesus. They were sure he was lost forever. And then he was there with them…walking and talking, explaining scripture, opening doors to spirituality. He moved with them so easily, so unobtrusively that they did not recognize the risen Savior until he revealed himself in the breaking of the bread.”...

Avowal by Denise Levertov

As swimmers dare to lie face to the sky and water bears them, as hawks rest upon air and air sustains them, so would I learn to attain freefall, and float into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace knowing no effort earns that all-surrounding grace...

This song written and performed by the Irish rock band U2 remains the strongest impression I carry of Good Friday. As many likely know the band U2 are Christians and their outlook on the suffering and witness of Jesus is framed through the lens of Martin Luther King’s life and death...