Speaking
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After church on Easter Sunday, my husband, songwriter and musician, Scott Kearns, and I head out to the airport to begin the long trip through time zones and datelines so that we can arrive in Melbourne, Australia a week before Common Dreams, the Second International Gathering of Religious Progressives, happening between Thursday, April 15th and Sunday April 18, 2010.
Organized by a number of smaller progressive groups around Australia and New Zealand, Common Dreams brings together speakers and participants from around the world. It is my honour to be the keynote speaker at this year's gathering. Scott will be providing music leadership and premiering a song he has written on the conference's theme. Other presenters include theologian Lloyd Geering; Fred Plumer, President of The Center for Progressive Christianity in the States, Val Webb, award-winning author of Like Catching Water in a Net; Human Attempts to Describe the Divine, and Glyn Cardy, Rector at St. Matthew's in the City, home of the notorious Joseph and Mary in bed billboard. Following Melbourne, I will be speaking in Adelaide, April 20; Canberra, April 21; Sydney, April 24 and 25, Brisbane, May 2 and 3, and then flying over to New Zealand. There, I will be addressing groups in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. It is a wonderful privilege to share the hope I have for a church that can make a significant positive difference in the world. Beyond division, religion's most identifying trait, I so believe their can be cooperation and cohesion, two things we desperately need in the fragmented world in which we live. Join me here regularly as I blog about the trip, the people I meet, the inspiration they offer, and the challenges they face as they, too, seek to move toward a more beautiful future. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 April 2010 )
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When I have the opportunity to engage the public in conversations about the evolution of religion or the necessity for religions to move beyond their role as mediators of a narrative that includes a supernatural component, I am often challenged by those who argue that the God I say we need to move away from doesn't exist. The argument is that we no longer believe in a male God who lives in the sky and intervenes in human affairs to offer us a way to follow, to reward us for good behaviour, or to chastise us and discipline us for running off the divinely ordained rails. My response has always been that the concept of God toward which many in leadership roles in liberal mainline denominations have migrated is not the same God that is still mightily known and entrenched in the world around us. And so, I say, it's not a straw man, it's what people really believe.
Now I have proof. Watch this video from the November 17th edition of The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Each of the other panelists draw upon the reality of that God even if it is initially presented as an "absurd dream" created to help us cope with our "absurd lives."
Enjoy. I did.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 19 November 2009 )
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As a panelist on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, November 17th at 8:00 on TVO, I'll be discussing the evolution of faith. The question on everyone's mind is "Can faith evolve? Which, of course, leads to the next question, "If yes, will it?" Tune in, or if you missed the segment, pick it up on TVO's site. |
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Tune in to The John Oakley Show, each Tuesday morning on AM640 at 9:00 for The Culture Wars where The Rev. Charles McVety, of the Canada Christian College, and I go head to head on current events and political issues. It is always invigorating! And, if you want to put in your two cents worth, call in and tell Victor, "Gretta sent me!" |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 24 October 2008 )
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