For a long time I congratulated myself on not having any enemies. I can reluctantly accept that not everyone positively likes me, but I thought that at least I didn’t have any real enemies; there was no one I would go out of my way to hurt or who would do the same to me….
Just a few weeks ago, my wife Louisa and I were in a serious car accident in which we each broke a lot of our ribs. Thankfully, our ribs will heal in time, but my broken ribs got me thinking about the rest of my skeleton. There are 206 different bones in a human skeleton….
On June 28 a local pastor, promoting a forthcoming church activity, announced to his congregation that since the Stanley Cup was over, there was nothing left to cheer for. A few hours later, Canadians had plenty to cheer about when their national soccer team made history by qualifying for the round of 16 in FIFA’s…
I still remember the date. Sunday, August 24, 2025. I was travelling with my husband to Rockland, Ontario, where he was scheduled to preach at a little French church. For some time I had felt discomfort in my abdominal area, but discussions with my doctor usually concluded with the suggestion that it was due to…
Stewardship has been a useful concept to promote greater care for creation, but now the word itself may be more of a barrier than a help for the current debate about pipelines and energy policy in Canada. In the 1970s and 80s, the concept of responsible stewardship was helpful to draw attention to harmful environmental…
There are moments in life – profoundly ordinary and yet captivatingly beautiful moments – when all my senses are engaged. They converge into a kaleidoscope of things intangible, but exquisite; immanent, but somehow just beyond reach. It’s that walk in the woods, for instance, when last year’s leaves softly squish under each footstep. Ferns and…
Every year, across the church world, denominations gather their leaders together. Some call it synod. Others call it a general assembly, congress, conference or annual gathering. Whatever the title, the reality is the same: for a few days, 150 to 300 key leaders from churches, schools, ministries, charities and networks gather in one place. These…
This year marks Nancy’s and my 30th wedding anniversary. On our honeymoon, we travelled through the mid-Atlantic states, visiting sites associated with our respective family histories. In April and May of this year, we returned to some of these places, especially Baltimore, Annapolis, and St. Mary’s City, the first capital of Maryland in the seventeenth…
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…
Just before King’s Day in the Netherlands, and not long after the most recent No Kings protests in the U.S., I became a Canadian. So now I am a citizen of two countries and owe true allegiance, whatever that means, to two different kings. The citizenship ceremony took place in Scarborough, east Toronto. This is…
The news is filled with reports of wars and conflicts, in which modern weapons inflict widespread death and suffering. And those are just the conflicts that reach our feeds. We live in a time when small, local conflicts are increasing. Wars affect millions of civilians, both adults and children. Humans are, unfortunately, experts in the…
One of the turning points in British and Dutch history is the “Glorious Revolution” of 1688. It decisively influenced the development of Britain’s famously patchwork constitution, which remains until today. For the Dutch, it meant the forging of a military alliance with England against France, two Protestant commercial and naval powers united against Catholic absolutism….
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