The Sound of Community
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The Sound of Community

“Good morning, friends! It’s great to see so many faces today.” So begins the daily music singalong sessions with musician (and friend) Mendelt Hoekstra on Zoom. Mendelt creates connections for adults and youth with developmental disabilities across Ontario. Participants attend from their group homes, independent living dwellings and classrooms. Rachel and Janneke attend while at…

Why virtual church needs to stay
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Why virtual church needs to stay

Attending church virtually became as common as mandates and rapid tests over the course of the past two years. Churches pivoted and adapted to the changing landscape that Covid-19 created, and many embraced technology to connect people virtually. This has been a saving grace for all of us. During strict lockdowns we were able to…

Loss and connection in the time of covid

Loss and connection in the time of covid

I met James in 2008 when I interviewed him for a job. He was about my age. He had a son about my son’s age. He was recently divorced, too, just like me. He liked politics, Star Trek, old movies and NFL football, and I liked three out of four of those things, too. It…

The covid blues

The covid blues

For nearly two years now the globe has endured a series of lockdowns and emergency measures occasioned by the covid-19 pandemic. Until recently, I treated this as a temporary blip in our lives, assuming that we would soon be returning to normal. Earlier this year, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that masking mandates would be…

Pandemic gifts
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Pandemic gifts

The gold standard of science information transfer is the peer-reviewed written word. But the slow pace of publication and the impersonal interactions involved have made other forms of scientific communication popular. With anywhere from 300 to 35,000 participants, scientific meetings are one way for scientists to comment on, criticize or improve each other’s findings quickly….

Knit together
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Knit together

It was a simple beginning in a secondhand book store, several summers ago. Among a jumble of other craft books was a beautifully illustrated book of shawl patterns, perfect to take when next visiting a close friend of mine, Joyce, who is a talented knitter. The title was A Prayer Shawl Companion, written by Janet…

A home beyond time
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A home beyond time

It’s pretty hard to pass up a good homecoming story, and the writer Paul Kingsnorth unspooled a particularly potent one in the pages of the Roman Catholic magazine First Things recently. Kingsnorth tells the story of his conversion to Christianity over the past year – he was baptized in the freezing waters of the River…

Zoom church
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Zoom church

Church leaders have written much on “how COVID-19 changes everything.” Yet it seems that the goal of church leaders is that everything should eventually return to normal, despite their protestations to the contrary. The literature suggests that some lasting effects of the pandemic will include more virtual congregations, individualism and (gasp) lower financial offerings. Will…

Will Young Students ‘Zoom’ This Fall?
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Will Young Students ‘Zoom’ This Fall?

Children, like puppies, are always zooming around. They zoom until they drop exhausted, and it’s great fantastic fun. But Zooming with a capital Z – or whatever your video conferencing platform of choice may be – is not good for teaching students except as a last resort.

(Trying to) Choose Joy
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(Trying to) Choose Joy

To follow my previous column (CC May 11), our family has appreciated having a community nurse return to our home for weekly hours. I am thankful for the help with medications, pain management and extra time over the dinner hour. Though a sense of familiarity in routine has returned, I cannot ignore the persistent feelings of discontentment. Rachel and Janneke cannot verbalize this to me, but they are missing the informal connections with classmates.