“The desert and the sown” seems an accurate way to describe contrasting ways of life in the ancient Middle East: nomadic herding and settled agriculture. I’ve tried to find an original source of the phrase; although it isn’t in the Bible, it describes the language of the Old Testament. It’s also the title of a…
She tends tomatoes on her fire escape, / defying concrete with stubborn green hope. / Each morning, water can in hand, / she climbs three flights to meet her miracle.
When the City of Toronto released its 2026 budget, 30 percent of bike lane projects in Toronto’s 2025-2027 plan had been amended, paused or deferred indefinitely. This wasn’t in response to budgetary constraints but new legislation: Bill 212 (passed in 2024) and Bill 60 (passed in 2025). Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher, a Data Sciences Institute Postdoctoral Fellow…
Dr. Darcy Visscher, associate professor of biology at The King’s University in Edmonton, has always loved animals; from farm creatures to large African mammals, Visscher is fascinated by animal behaviour and the role humans play in impacting it. Visscher analyzes the role of animal behaviour patterns in both rural and urban landscapes by building and…
There is nothing I like better than being in the wilderness. But here I am, stuck in a city where the wild beauty of the earth is tamped down by the busyness of living, amongst brick, steel and wood buildings, connected by miles of asphalt roads. Between too sporadic excursions, my imagination must survive on…
If you get fired up over snipes and cellys, are delighted by dirty dangles, or revel in the beauty of going bardownski, there’s a good chance that you’re from small town Canada. If you’re ferda all the way and know that only a pigeon would crease crank his own tendy in warmies, there’s a good…
In April, Christian Courier’s Editor spoke with Rev. Albert Postma about his newly-permanent role as Executive Director-Canada of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in North America and – for this theme issue on rural Canada – drilled down into the health of rural churches, which make up a significant portion of the CRC historically and…
I grew up in the suburbs. Wide lawns, front and back, with tulips, roses, and raspberry bushes. My dad grew green beans on a chicken-wire trellis at the side of the house. The neighbours had a swimming pool. In our backyard, there were big trees, which my dad said were older than the house, part…
Over the past few decades, the differences of interests, experiences and identities between rural and urban Canada have gotten starker, or at least more politically salient. In the most recent Alberta election, for example, the winning United Conservative Party formed a government with zero seats in Edmonton and only five seats in urban Calgary, while…
Warning: If you belong to a rural Christian community and you don’t heed the following advice, your leadership will go crazy and your community will likely decrease in size. Just joking. Sort of. Rural leadership. Is it different from urban leadership? I believe it is. I have served as a leader in both urban and…
I grew up as a farm kid who helped milk cows and feed chickens before catching the bus to school. It was on the farm that I learned many of the core values that still drive my work in the city, such as no waste, work hard, care for creation. In my parenting years I…
Almost 40 years ago, by accident or by the hand of God (these can look remarkably similar) we bought a decrepit old house in a very tiny rural town. We bought it only because we needed a place to live in that vicinity, it was available, and it was affordable. Oh, and there was a…
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