Year A, Advent Four
Theme: Babies and Stars: Promise or Potential? Quotes Potential has a shelf lifeMargaret Atwood All we are not stares back at what we are.W. H. Auden Revised Common Lectionary Readings Isaiah 7:10-16Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19Romans 1:1-7Matthew 1:18-25 For complete texts, please see Vanderbilt Lectionary Resources: Revised Common Lectionary Texts For commentary on original texts, please see […]
Year A, Advent Two
Theme: Those Crazies; They Have Always Been with Us Quotes Being crazy isn’t enoughDr. Seuss Looks like what drives me crazyDon’t have no effect on you–But I’m gonna keep on at itTill it drives you crazy, too.Langston Hughes, Selected Poems In a world full of people, there’s only some want to fly.Isn’t that crazy.But we’re never […]
New Book!
Time or Too Late: Chasing the Dream of a Progressive Christian Faith Dreams One January Saturday in 2004, a blizzard slowly crossed the province, turning roads to treachery with both snow and the impatience of drivers eager to get where they were going. I awoke to watch the skies drift down in grey and white […]
Here All Belong
It has been months since I wrote new words to a well-loved tune but yesterday morning, three hours before the service started at West Hill United, I felt inspired to do so. It is the first song I’ve been able to write since the review of my effectiveness was initiated by The United Church of […]
A Progressive Path
I was delighted to see that Clair Woodbury referred to the Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity’s points in his article in the Edmonton Journal today, Christianity for the Questioning Generation. Clair undertook to write a response to his granddaughter’s request for a brief outline of Christianity that she could share in her pluralistic school. It took him […]
Confronting the Unbelievers
The United Church Observer, a magazine that explores issues relevant to The United Church of Canada (UCC) and its members from an arm’s length position, has drop-kicked the conversation on whether clergy who no longer believe have a place in the UCC’s pulpits. Confronting the Unbelievers was published in its May issue.* It is a conversation that […]
to the glory of good
On Sunday, March 15th, Eric Andrew-Gee of the Toronto Star joined us in our weekly gathering. It was a busy morning. We’d removed half the pews that Saturday in one of our first efforts at continuing our work toward creating a barrier-free community, this time focused on the challenges that traditional forms of gathering as […]
the atheist minister – a faithstreet feature
Thank you, Becky Garrison, FaithStreet journalist, for the wonderful feature article, The Atheist Minister, she wrote. Here are her opening words: “Gretta Vosper describes herself as both a minister and an atheist. That may sound like an oxymoron to some, but her work and witness offer a model that speaks to those who no longer believe […]
with or without god goes uk
It’s been two years in the making and the dates are drawing near but the question still needs to be asked. Are there enough people in the United Kingdom that care about religion or what’s becoming of Christianity for me to bother heading over there to speak about innovations in the practice of church? Even […]
what I said … progressive christianity
On a progressive pursuit, in whatever discipline, there must always be the risk of raising one’s consciousness beyond where it had previously been. But a raised consciousness cannot be forced back to what it once was; you move forward on such a journey, not backward. Facebook post, Skeptimergent, May 28 2014
what is progressive christianity?
(Originally published, The Salt Shaker, Newsletter of West Hill United Church, March 2008.) There are a lot of different ways in which the term progressive is applied to Christianity. For many, a welcoming church that encourages the participation of others who were once barred from full participation—nowadays primarily either women or LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender)—is […]
why are you doing this?
Sometimes, I wonder. Usually, though, the reason is very clear to me. We’re killing each other and we’re killing our planet. Whether it is by slowly poisoning ourselves with chemicals or shooting one other, whether it is by extracting carbon from the earth and spewing it into the atmosphere or spilling millions of miniscule plastic balls […]
we believe
The following is an excerpt from a speech I gave at the Renewing Faith, Renewing Congregations conference in Peterborough, Ontario in November of 2005. Parts of it were adapted for a chapter in my book With or Without God. It was originally written in defense of the integrity of the ministry we are creating at West Hill […]
what does it mean to be christian? part 2
The following is the second of a two part article on what it means to be a Christian adapted for use in The Salt Shaker, West Hill United Church’s newsletter. It appeared in its original form in the 2006 summer issue of the magazine Women’s Concerns*. Like the first part, this one can’t be taken on its own, […]
what does it mean to be christian? part 1
This is Part 1 of a two part article adapted for use in West Hill United Church’s newsletter, The Salt Shaker. The original appeared in the magazine Women’s Concerns, Summer 2006. It is not the kind of Part 1 that can stand alone; it seriously needs Part 2. Seriously. Don’t leave me hanging here…. Who […]