The sky was blue and so was the mood in the drop-in center. Everyone kind of moped, here on Main Street, in this place where the homeless and vulnerable gather daily for cheap meals and free conversation. I came in as I always do, Wednesdays at lunch, to sit at the long rectangular table and…
A lead crystal vase graces the shelf of our old hutch. I hold it, feeling its familiar weightiness. My finger traces the fluted rim until it catches on a jagged point and I’m transported back to my childhood. I was very young, but the event is engraved as deeply in my memory as the design…
On a regular basis Angela Reitsma Bick, Editor of Christian Courier, sends out an email to columnists like me with a reminder of due dates and with a heads-up about issue themes. In November she reminded us that the December issue would have two themes: Christmas (no surprise there) and “In Praise of Broken Things.”…
One of my earliest memories is of Christmas 1957. I was just short of three years old, and our family was living in a rented one-storey bungalow on Pershing Avenue in Wheaton, Illinois, then on the outskirts of town. We had a tree in the front bay window facing north, and the five of us…
I remember about five years ago, newly separated and in the thick of depression and emotional pain, I attended my church’s Blue Christmas service. It was my first Christmas in this new reality of no longer being a family of four, and I wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. And this service – created…
It is common to hear people say “our healthcare system is broken.” Or they say the education system is broken. The Emergencies Act inquiry is exposing how broken our police and security systems are, in spite of huge budgets, sophisticated equipment and impressive uniforms. In Egypt, COP 27 is exposing broken promises to reduce harmful…
There is a question that looms for pastors, elders and other church leaders this year. The last time we had to answer it was in 2016 and the next time will be in 2033. Should we cancel worship services on Sunday, December 25th? Most Presbyterian congregations normally hold services on Christmas Eve rather than on…
“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…
Most religions address the challenge of death with some concept of an afterlife. Islam presents the goal as paradise. Eastern religions speak of reincarnation, then escape into the great universal spirit. Most Materialists say, “When you’re dead, you’re dead,” with hope being in the next generations. Christians sometimes talk of life after death as “heaven,”…
During the Christmas season many of us are drawn into the world of miniatures, though we might not call it that. Ornaments hang on our trees depicting, at a hand-held scale, Jesus nestled in a manger or the wise men visiting a stable. Each year we carefully unwrap the figures of our nativity scenes –…
Picture God. We might have a mental picture, but the commandment against graven images tells us not to limit God with our pictures. The Scriptures are full of metaphors to help us relate to God: Father, King, Lord, Shepherd, Rock. When theologians describe God, they often use negatives. God is independent, immutable, infinite, indivisible, and…
My childhood church Christmas pageants ended with the distribution of treat bags to all the children. Capping a collection of nuts, hard Christmas candies, and chocolate drops was a mandarin orange. As a child I first searched for the longest cinnamon-flavoured ribbon and counted the number of chocolate drops; only later would my attention turn…
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