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...

I saw the movie About Schmidt in 2002. Jack Nicolson was outstanding, portraying a man who retires at the same time his wife dies and his relationship with his only child is highly problematic. Like a lot of men his age Schmidt has fostered few relationships, relying on work to fill his sense of meaning and purpose. He was very close to his wife but now she is gone. As his career comes to an end...

Good Friday is coming soon. Whenever I think of the Cross I think of Clarence Jordan. Jordan was a son of the south, a man who earned both a doctorate in Agriculture and Greek. Jordan felt called to help change his native south by introducing Gospel values to a land torn apart by racial strife. The farm was called Koinonia, which translates a fellowship or community... 

Nostalgia. I don’t like it. But I hear it all the time. Even in my First Aid instruction last week the instructor made reference to how we should intervene in cases of emergency and offer to help. He then said, “Even in these times there are people who want to help”, inferring that “in these times” people would be reluctant to help. He was also inferring that in the past people would have been more willing to help. That may be true, I happen to agree that our social connections with each other are frayed, that we now silo ourselves into others who agree with us...

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. – James 1:19

I’ve been doing a lot of listening on the bus. If you are truly open to these kind of conversations you never know what you can learn. May all of us learn from each other, and thus learn from our God who calls us to relationship...

Our text is about a parade. Have you attended a parade? Have you marched in a parade? For me the answers are yes and yes. But all of these parade experiences come from my childhood. You see my mother once presided over all of the majorette groups in Halifax. Some of you likely have never heard of majorettes but at one time almost ever girl and young woman would have participated in the majorette experience. My mother had been a highly skilled majorette... 

Tomorrow I preside and preach at a funeral for a man who died suddenly while working out. It is a reminder that no matter how fit and positive your life our bodies are fragile and unpredictable. I am not someone who subscribes to the view “when it’s your time” you die. I will never attempt to dissuade people who hold to this theology, it just doesn’t work for me. For while I believe in Jesus, the dynamic quality of an active Holy Spirit and the love of a Creator who made all things I can’t square the idea of a God who arbitrarily chooses some to live and some to die on some kind of divine whim...

One major difference between the Christian denominations is the way they portray God. In most Protestant mainline churches God is less personal, and more virtue. In a philosophy class I took at Dalhousie university professor George Grant, a Christian, often spoke of God as Truth, Justice, and Love. God was experienced in the moments when our lives became instruments of Truth, Justice and Love...

Joe Jackson sings a song I just love, “You Can’t Get What You Want Till You Know What You Want.” The intent of the song is simple, if you want something to happen in your life the chances that that event or experience will occur rise dramatically IF you identify to yourself and others what that is...

Today I spoke to three people affected by cancer. One was a senior man who has just completed his treatments. Another was a widow whose husband died recently. And another was a parent whose adult child is living with cancer. In all three cases the conversation, driven by them, was about attitude. There is an emerging consensus that a positive attitude...

Big things and little things. I have a theory about those of us who want to make the world a better place. In our hearts we know the ambulance theory; when people are being pushed off the cliff and falling to the ground many of us feel called to be at the bottom, assisting the victims with their injuries. But how many will try to get to the source of the problem,..