“Vanity” means pride and arrogance, bedroom furniture or the lyrics: “You’re so vain. You probably think this song is about you.” Ecclesiastes sings this song, too, except it sings it about us: “Vanity, vanity, everything is vanity.” At least, that was the old translation. The NIV changed the translation to “meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.”…
Summer is over and Christian schools are beginning again. In Edmonton, the school year will likely be more intense than usual given the report of the July 1 Christian Courier story, “Tense Elections in Edmonton,” regarding the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the Edmonton Society for Christian Education (ESCE). It was, reportedly, a “long night…
In North America today there is a certain first-person narrative that frequently grabs the attention of the secular media. The typical storyline runs like this: “I was raised in a Christian home where I was taught not to question the beliefs of my church community. My parents believed in, say, a literal six-day creation, a…
Arise Canada, a new non-profit in Hamilton, Ontario that began in the Fall of 2023, is testing a unique approach to congregant care. Two churches are engaged in the 12-week pilot program while Hildy Sloots, the founder, introduces the program to other churches. The response from church leaders and congregants so far has been overwhelmingly…
“I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.” – 1 Cor. 1:10 In November, my column provided the (lamentable) statistic that there…
Tonight was basement communion. It was a bowl full of broken bread and glasses full of blackberry wine. Everyone came hungry despite eating supper at home. And we sat, eight to the table, and we feasted. We feasted on laughter and spinach dip. On tears and green grapes. On liturgy and church and doctrine and…
It is sunburn weather today. A bare-feet, more-popsicles, sit-beside-the-fan kind of day. On summer days like this, we move more slowly and drink more water, paying attention to the demands of the body. Take care, self-care and air conditioning. When Angela Reitsma Bick mentioned that the theme for this August issue was The Body, the…
At first, it felt a bit surreal. After two years of pandemic restrictions, Christian summer camping was finally returning to normal. One of the highlights of each summer for me is serving for a week as chaplain at Camp Douglas, the Presbyterian camp on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. After checking in at Horseshoe Bay ferry…
As a child, I found preachers’ talk about being the body of Christ more disturbing than comforting. Frightening fantasies of strange bodies danced in my head while the minister droned on. Children’s songs about being hands and feet for Jesus and “Be Careful, Little Eyes What You See”, used body images to teach me to…
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