When Dan and Emily Coyne attend Sunday services at their church in Evanston, Illinois, they bring their Bibles – and their whistles. The Bibles are so they can follow along with sermons. The whistles are to warn their neighbours if Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are in the area. “They’re with us all the…
When I first walked into my new school, I remember feeling like everyone else already spoke a language I didn’t know. It was the language of faith. Each morning began with prayer, each classroom wall carried a verse from the Bible, and every conversation seemed to circle back to church youth groups or worship songs….
After church, early in my first pastorate, Peter stopped me at the door. He said, “Tom, you have a problem in your preaching.” My countenance fell, but I kept listening. “You say ‘you’ too much, instead of ‘us.’” He was right, and his assessment was profound. The lesson permeated my whole career. Peter was a…
The euphoria about a federal budget that promises to give birth to a new, strong Canada feels more like post-partum depression ten days later. It is understandable that the budget puts funds in many buckets to deal with economic uncertainty and survive Trump. Tax cuts, incentives for private investment, infrastructure projects and workforce retraining policies…
The first human temptation was about power; Adam and Eve thought they could be like God. Cain killed Abel because sin overpowered him. Even Jesus was tempted to use his power for his own selfish needs, to test God, and to succeed by the world’s ways. Jesus resisted the devil’s options for power, but most…
When you’re a journalist, the story you are interested in isn’t always the story you find, so you have to think how to bring the two together. That was an insight I heard from Miles Smit, a participant in the summer intensive programme “God in the City”, held in Toronto this August. I had not…
On November 4, Canadians will see an “all-in-one” budget bill. It will include a revamped housing strategy, new climate change plans, immigration system reform, national projects, new defence plans and priorities, a deficit reduction strategy, tax changes that affect equity and cuts to existing federal programs. While all of the proposed measures are connected and…
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when I was reporting on all things agriculture around the Annapolis Valley, I heard farmers bragging that, unlike in the Okanagan, we didn’t have to irrigate our crops. Well, that was then. Now, climate change is imposing a very different scene. In the summer of 2025, the rain just…
Lazy! That was a charge. We had a La-Z-boy chair at home, but being lazy was forbidden. We were a busy family. I had a paper route at age 12, sold Fuller Brush at 15 and worked full-time every summer thereafter. I was a product of the Protestant work ethic, Dutch immigrant culture and Depression…
While scrolling Instagram, I came across the book Digital Liturgies by Samuel James. Since becoming a stay-at-home mom, I check my phone even more often than before. This activity allows me to connect with others and catch up on news. Although instant connectivity has many benefits, it also has some serious repercussions. In a world…
In today’s hyperconnected world, information comes at us fast and furious, from every direction – earthquakes, wars, culture wars. Because we are human and emotionally wired, it’s natural that these things provoke us and inflame our hearts to want to do something. Yet what can we do with this abundance of troublesome information aside from…
David Cameron wanted to be Prime Minister of the UK. He ran for the position in two general elections and won both times. He was leader of the Conservative party for over 10 years. But he didn’t really like leading. His party was deeply divided over the question of whether the UK should stay in…
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