Setting Sail: Conversations before General Synod
Latest columns
1999
When Ministry goes to the dogs
Would the school of Lay Ministry ever sponsor a course on Christian dog training, asked a member of the advisory team at a recent meeting? We were talking about the outer limits of the kinds of programs that might fit within the school’s mission. The speaker intended the question to be rhetorical. However, while some You see, the deeper issue that lies behind such a course title is “How does my work relate to my Christian faith?” And that is a very important question for all of us, including dog trainers, to ask.
read moreThe credo of the lapsed church-goer
“You can believe in God without going to church.”
I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard this remark. The same goes for its partner, “I can worship God without going to church.” Together they might be called The Credo of Lapsed Church-Goers. If you are a priest, listening to this [...]
Ministry to God’s battered and beaten
The police chaplain’s role has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Police chaplaincy used to be a ceremonial function until the 1980s, with the chaplain called upon to dedicate the occasional police building or to say blessings at police-related functions.
read moreSomething like “intentional loitering”
In October 1986, I came to the University of New Brunswick for what was, I thought, the closing chapter in my decade-long journey at that institution. I received my M.Sc. degree at fall convocation, and headed back to Toronto, to continue my M.Div. degree at Wycliffe College. Now, another decade later, I’m back. Three years [...]
read moreLife after the episcopacy
Before it actually happened, in June 1997, I looked forward to retirement as a milestone in my life, at least outwardly. It would complete almost 41 years of active ministry, including ministry in six parishes in the diocese of Huron and almost seven years as a suffragan bishop of the same diocese. Inwardly my feelings [...]
read moreWhere does the church stand on interfaith marriages?
I want very much to write these words without bias, with a corporate sense of our world, and in faithfulness to God, whom I serve through the church. To be totally objective is impossible. To be open to new possibilities, insights and experiences is both threatening and exciting.
My desire for unity within the Christian family [...]
Stepping into the shoes of others
In the early seventies, I lived in a draughty old house in England with half a dozen other students. The house was an ecumenical residence sponsored by the Orthodox church, and it so happens that my bedroom was directly above the chapel. The first morning after I arrived, I awakened to the smell of incense [...]
read moreA place for prayer
At dusk
I went to the place where
looking across the folds of hills
I might see you.
Wanting a vision, expecting none,
suddenly
there was a crease of light
where day meets night –
a mystical plant erupting
between earth and heaven.
“It’s too fast,” I thought,
and yet, this birth continued
inexorably,
swelling and rounding out until
complete at last and free
it seemed to me
to roll down [...]
