Scratch
I rode with Grandma to church / in her clattery sedan. / guarding a tin of biscuits / I had watched her bake earlier. / We listened to a cassette / of Scourby narrating / the six days of creation / in mid-Atlantic drone.
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Objects of delight
James Paterson is an artist and “imagineer” who lives in Ontario. His award-winning wire sculptures are influenced by a childhood in the “vibrant and visually textured Kensington Market area of Toronto” and have been exhibited in Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia. Violet Nesdoly: What form did your early art take? James Paterson: I…
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A twist of the lens
When my youngest was very small, he always carried a kaleidoscope to church. Technically, it wasn’t a kaleidoscope but a teleidoscope for toddlers: a solid wooden toy he could keep in his pocket. We went to a large church with columns, candles and stained glass windows, and every Sunday, he’d inspect the sanctuary through his…
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A fragile marriage
Kelly Foster Lundquist’s memoir chronicles her ill-fated marriage to someone she deeply loved but barely knew. It’s also a social commentary on what it means to navigate being male and female in the eyes of God in the world one inhabits as a child – in her case, rural Mississippi and a culture soaked in…
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Ontario musicians think outside the box
Ontario’s rising faith-based musicians desire connection with their listeners. That’s what I heard when I spoke with four artists at various stages of their musical careers. They all felt isolated at different points across their musical journeys. When Emily Ruth, a singer-songwriter based in Newmarket, Ontario, began her career, she had to trailblaze: “There are…
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Permission to imagine
“And by this time either they had grown much smaller or the picture had grown bigger. Eustace jumped to pull it off the wall and found himself standing on the frame; in front of him was not glass but real sea, and wind and waves rushing up to the frame as they might to a…
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Church Life | Culture | News
Big questions for a young church
From scheduling facilities to doctrinal clashes, the pitfalls of communication can cause a host of challenges. For Pastor Ryan Chau and the staff of three congregations at Edmonton Chinese Baptist Church (ECBC), these challenges are written in triplicate for their trilingual church community. “Complex theological concepts can be really hard to communicate,” Chau explains, noting…
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What makes a book ‘Christian’?
I generally dislike allegory. I’m in good company. J.R.R. Tolkien once said, “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.” I never could connect with Pilgrim’s Progress. Nevertheless, I have no problem with the allegorical elements of Godhanger by…
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Finding empathy in the dark side of caregiving and ageing
Getting old is often not pretty: incontinence, managing medications and doctors’ visits (if one has the luxury of a family physician), navigating the medical system, making and getting to appointments – all of it can be overwhelming. Care management often falls to relatives. Yet some live too far away, some may be in similar circumstances…
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A rare book on singleness
Karissa Sovdi’s Surviving Christianity Unmarried is a rare book on singleness that left me feeling genuinely seen. At first I dreaded another Christian book on singlehood: well-meaning clichés and shallow encouragements that feel galaxies away from the lived experience of being single in the church. Sovdi’s uniquely invitational work disarmed my hesitation. Her writing is…
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Arts & Culture | Health | News
‘I’m not an artist’
Artist Jennie Vegt tries her best not to come into a patient’s room with an agenda. Her first priority is to make patients feel seen and to get to know their creative interests. Her goal is simple: “Let’s bring arts experiences to the bedside.” Since 2021, Vegt has been an artist-in-residence through the Artists on…
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Faithfulness in tough times
The first church I pastored, in inner-city Chicago, just moved its worship services online because the Mexican congregants fear Sunday morning ICE raids. Signs of tough times are all around. Two recent books don’t just counsel against despair, but suggest ways to move forward while deeply rooting ourselves in our faith. Towards resistance Hannah Reichel…
