Feeling our way forward
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Feeling our way forward

From grief to relief; from shock to anxiety; from weariness to embarrassment and many points in between. For this editorial, I asked members of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), “Now that the Human Sexuality Report has passed, with a good majority, how does it feel?” While the theological and biblical reflection has been intense, this…

Your church might need a rummage sale
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Your church might need a rummage sale

In Oshawa, Ontario, in 1978, an unremarkable mall called Five Points was built. I used to go there sometimes as a teen. Over time, business dried up as big box stores started cropping up on the outskirts of town. Eventually, Five Points was torn down and replaced, in 2017, with Dymon Self Storage – a…

In the valley of the shadow of covid
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In the valley of the shadow of covid

Severe pain radiated from the left side of my chest. My lungs felt scraped raw; two rib joints were so swollen they protruded like giant knuckles. “It’s just inflammation from your body fighting covid. There’s nothing we can do,” the attending doctor said, after several tests had normal results. “Go home and rest. Take Advil.”…

Harmonious encounters
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Harmonious encounters

This month’s theme is “duet,” which to me as a musician means singing. Duets can involve turn-taking, harmonising, or counter-melody, and each produces a different effect for the listener. How do voices work together, complementing or contrasting each other to create something greater than the single voice can manage? As well as a musician, I…

Judgements
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Judgements

I was lucky Conroy was in his office, or in total exasperation I would have spilled it all to the secretary – that’s how angry I was. “He’s not coming back in,” I told the principal. “I’ve had it with the kid. He’s a jerk, and he’s pushed me over the line. He’s out of…

Made for Flourishing
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Made for Flourishing

I play flute; my sister Joanna plays violin. We find that duets written for different instruments rarely share the melody. We’ve become adept at swapping parts. Bowing marks become creative suggestions for my breathing and Joanna lowers those soaring flute melodies by an octave. Not all duets are created equal. In our relationships large and…

Middle age metanoia
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Middle age metanoia

I turned 40 just before the start of the pandemic, and found myself grappling with the fairly common range of emotions that our society refers to as a “mid-life crisis.” I felt overburdened with responsibility and seriousness, constantly pressured by high expectations, and uncertain about where to go next in my career or how to…

The end of the world as we know it
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The end of the world as we know it

“Each morning comes along and you assume it will be similar enough to the previous one – that you will be safe, that your family will be alive, that you will be together, that life will remain mostly as it was.” That’s from Cloud Cuckoo Land, American author Anthony Doerr’s new book. “Then a moment…

Keep mending
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Keep mending

“Man is born broken,” playwright Eugene O’Neill once wrote. “He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” Mend was an important word in our fall campaign last year. But the truth is, mend has always been vital to our work. Christian Courier is a small publication with a huge vision. That’s why the…

Stay curious

Stay curious

We are more divided than ever, almost unable to share meaningfully across differences of opinion. Whether on vaccine mandates, covid restrictions, gender identity, freedom of expression or a myriad of other issues, we have become far too comfortable in our echo chambers. Our relentless non-engagement with one another is reinforced, today, by increasingly predictable patterns…

The tracks of Newcastle
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The tracks of Newcastle

Last January we found a creek down by the lake that had frozen smooth, just over three kilometres of it, perfect for skating. For a few wonderful weeks, the temperature stayed cold and skies were clear so we skated almost every day for hours. We were on the ice again by January 11 this year….

Urban exodus
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Urban exodus

When we moved to Terrace, B.C. in August 2019, most people we met assumed the relocation was job related. We’d shake our heads. “Affordability, simplicity, closer to family . . .” we’d start to explain the myriad of pushes and pulls. Most people probably didn’t hear past that first reason. Their eyebrows might raise as…