Come and eat
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Come and eat

It was my sister-in-law who first pointed out to me that there is free food going to waste all over our neighbourhood. Every growing season, fruit trees hang over the fences of yards and spill into streets and alleyways. The neighbour who owns one of these trees tells me that the fruit is free for…

Deregulation of GMOs causes concern for Council of Churches
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Deregulation of GMOs causes concern for Council of Churches

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For three months last year, Health Canada invited feedback on new rules for “Novel Food Regulations” with a specific focus on plant breeding. Since 2006, the insertion of foreign DNA has triggered a Health Canada safety assessment of genetically modified plants and foods. As new genetic engineering techniques like CRISPR have been developed, plant breeders…

The Bad Kimchi Club
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The Bad Kimchi Club

It’s one of those days – all gray and grouchy, the sun seeming to have pulled the sheets over its head and gone back to sleep. I’m sipping coffee on my yellow recliner, trying to feel as happy as the chair looks.  And that’s when she calls. “Emily?” my pastor’s wife says. “I made you…

Come hungry
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Come hungry

We’re all hungry. Some are hungry for literal food. We might be hungry for the social engagement of eating together. COVID has prompted hunger for many aspects of life. We hunger for communion – with people and with God. God promises a banquet. In my high school we had Junior/Senior Banquets, not proms. We could…

Edenic landscapes II
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Edenic landscapes II

Many of us have been influenced by classical ideals when it comes to our ideas about landscapes and gardens. This can be shown in two ways. First, through ideas about reason, order, and even God. For people as far back as at least the 5th century B.C.E. – Plato’s time, roughly – the mind was…

Chickadee grace
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Chickadee grace

As I write this from Edmonton, Alberta, it’s looking to be a long, cold winter exacerbated by a pandemic that requires limited human-to-human contact. Normally our house is full on Christmas Day with our children, their partners and grandchildren, as well as a couple of dogs. Tables are stretched, extra chairs are hauled up from…