Yesterday we celebrated the life of the late Doris Phillips, many of you knew her. Her husband Bill is here every Sunday and most everyone in Halifax knows Bill! To help me shape the theme and tone of the celebration I met with Bill and his two sons Dave and Peter...

Almost fifteen years ago I was working at a Toronto church and helping coordinate the Out of the Cold program on Friday nights in the city’s east end. My role was to recruit volunteers, manage the evening of guests, volunteers...

About ten years ago I was asked to attend a gathering in Toronto of United Church congregations that were experiencing significant numerical growth. I was out in the suburbs at that time and our church had begun to focus its considerable gifts and enthusiasm around the mission of outreach...

A colleague of mine spent his sabbatical time looking at Jesus’ agricultural metaphors and finding more urban appropriate examples. Let’s face it most people today either live in an urban area or are moving there. Understanding the parables, the stories, the deeper truths of Jesus can be complicated by this shift of context...

A good friend of mine recently conducted a survey of churches in his small city. He called all of the churches, big and small, all denominations, and he called late at night so no one would be in the office. My friend wanted to hear all of the voicemails, and he did...

In our lesson from Samuel, we hear about a boy called to fill the vacuum left by priests who had so thoroughly abandoned their calling that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days” (1 Sam. 3:1). The sons of Eli were blaspheming God by using their position to fleece people who were just trying to worship God...

Presbyterian pastor and writer Mark Davis offers us a menu of possibilities when it comes to the definition of “world” in John’s Gospel. We’ve all heard references to “the world” in the Gospels, moreover we’ve heard these references in sermons and everyday conversation...

Some time ago at one of the first Faith Studies I led I asked each of the small groups that gathered in a different section of the church, “What are the different denominations you have experienced in a worship service?” The responses were mostly ones you might expect...

When I was a QEH high-school student I used to travel on the bus with this student from the west end. As our senior year was drawing to a close I asked him what his plans were for the coming academic year, would he go to a Community College, go to university, join the workforce or travel...

You are witnesses of these things. Luke 24:48

I was standing by the bus stop at Scotia Square waiting for my ride back to Tantallon. I was approached by a former parishioner and we talked for some time. When the bus pulled up I was surprised he wanted the conversation to continue...

If I were to ask you to identify someone you previously knew, someone whose very presence made others “better”, who brought out the best in everyone, who embodied an energy so good you wanted to be with her/him every opportunity you could, who would that be? Let me hasten to add this...

Resurrection is a complex, mysterious, and head-scratching word. What does it mean? When ministers like me stand up in the church and proclaim that we believe in Jesus’ resurrection from the grave, that Good Friday was not the final word, that Jesus has “returned” to God and together they form a partnership that knows no end, what exactly are we getting at...

I have referenced in previous sermons that my late mother was leader of the Halifax Civic Majorettes. For anyone under the age of 50 that fact will mean nothing, the term “majorette” is about as common as shoveling coal into your home or separate schools and hospitals for different church denominations...

This Lenten season I feel like every sermon has begun with a story about a visit I shared with someone at a coffee shop. So not to disappoint you…here we go again. In another city, at another time, I met a man who had attended the church I served for some time...

Some years ago I met a man who identified himself as a born again Christian, someone saved by Jesus, born from above to a new life. He was a friend of a parishioner and accepted her invitation to worship with her at a place and with people who gave her a sense of mission, community and compassion...

Some of you know that Lucy has started her first job, working at Lawton’s in the Professional Centre. She is really enjoying it. I would like to think Kim and I have each enhanced her skill-set with our own unique personality. Lucy doesn’t take everything personally, a good asset when working in custom service...

I’ve had some unusual and unique experiences as a Minister but one of the most jarring requests I have received came from a woman I had met many years before when I presided at her wedding. The marriage did not work out and from there things went from bad to worse...

Some of you are aware that I served a congregation in the eastern part of Toronto and worked primarily with the church’s outreach programs. The signature ministry then was the Out of the Cold Program, our church hosted all of the homeless persons in the east end of the city every Friday night...

As I inch closer to retirement I am keeping only a small fraction of the books I formerly owned. One of those special books I keep on my shelf is Robert Bellah’s Habits of the Heart. The title is from Alexis de Tocqueville who, writing about us in Democracy in America from 1835 to 1839...

This week my mind went back several years ago when I travelled to Cape Breton to attend, and participate in, a funeral. I took a bus to get there and two things stand out as memories of the trip. 1) the duct tape that covered the bathroom door...