So … I'm a bit flabbergasted because this whole "virtual church" webcast thing is working. I mean really working. People are coming to our virtual pews. Sure, attendance may have to do partly with the...
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So … I'm a bit flabbergasted because this whole "virtual church" webcast thing is working. I mean really working. People are coming to our virtual pews. Sure, attendance may have to do partly with the...
It is 8:48 p.m. on Tuesday April 7, 2020. What we can gather from that date is that: A.It is Holy Week. B.We are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. And...
So, I'm a week into "self-isolation" as I went to Cuba for March Break. That is … me, Karen and the two "girls," who are both university students. The trip was good—other than the occasional panic att...
In July, my Uncle Len died. He was my mother's "brother" but he was never formally adopted into the Sullivan family. With Indigenous foster children in the 1950s and 1960s, you didn't worry about thin...
1 Kings 19:11-12 (KJV) And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the r...
Recently I've been away from the normal routines of ministry. The first week I was at a week-long meeting of the "Candidacy Board." This is a new body in the United Church that assesses, interviews an...
Psalm 133 (King James Version)Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's...
I don't go to a lot of weddings. Sure, I officiate at a whole whack of 'em, but I try to avoid the receptions etc. First off, most of the weddings I do are for people I don't really know—being a Unite...
Well, it's been a while. A lot has gone on in the life of the ol' revster Where do I start—oh yes, at the end. It's always good to start at the ending. I have resigned from a number of committees and ...
I did not grow up in a particularly religious family. We did go to church because, given some 1970s politics, my parents decided that hypocrisy was not conducive to faith. So, I have vague m...
Kwai Nedoba (Hello friends) So, a couple of years ago I found out that I have Indigenous ancestry. And with the help of my Nzazis (mother's brother) I researched it, and made application to the Nulheg...
Whew. Made it through the holidays … like a marathoner at the finish line, or a woman after having given birth: "Made it through." It's funny how we are about "the holidays"—we build up the ...
So things are ramping up. You know how it is—work, friends, hobbies—it's the summer, sure, but you still gotta get things done. I've been watching my wife Karen, who is a vice-principal at a local ele...
James 5: 7-12 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and th...
I was driving, one evening, to a Lodge meeting—a usual occurrence this year that I'm Grand Chaplain for the Masons in Ontario. To my great surprise, I began crying, just, out of the blue. I wasn't lis...
"Suffer the little children." At the outset, let me say that I am no "Scrooge"! I love Christmas. I love the lead up to Christmas: the dreary days of November, the lights of Advent, the Chr...
I don't know what happened. Maybe my "heart grew three sizes." Maybe the brainwashing finally kicked in. But the other day, as I was driving from here to there, doing minister stuff: visiting, going t...
Mid-November to mid-December is my favourite time of the year. As the northern world grows darker with the tilt of the earth, we compensate by adding more lights to our life. Evening by evening anothe...
Today is April 1st—yeah, I know, “April Fool’s Day”—and I begin my 15th year as the minister at Hallville, Heckston, Inkerman and South Mountain United Churches. I can’t say that I didn't intend to be here for this long (generally, most ministers in the United Church stay in a pastoral charge for three to five years). I know that I feel called by God to be here and “be” is in the present. I know that I wanted my daughters to grow up in one place and get to be a part of a community, church, school, civic, etc. I know that Karen (my wife) is a teacher, and teachers need to stay in their school board in order to retain their seniority.
The countdown is on. I will beginning my second sabbatical in less than 24 hours.
Now I have to expand on this term “sabbatical.” First, United Church ministers who remain in their pastoral charges more than five years are entitled to a three-month sabbatical (i.e., time away from normal ministry) for every five years they serve in a charge. So, I’ve been in the South Mountain-Hallville Pastoral Charge (SMHPC) for 14 years and about to take my second sabbatical.