I’m sad for the children and teens who live in families where they don’t feel safe to share their journeys of finding identity with their parents. And I’m sad that we don’t seem to know how to help such families, choosing rather to pit generations against each other. I’m sad […]
This summer, I am researching and writing about contemplation and healing. I am also reading, this past week, about protesting across the US. One phrase that has been grounding my thinking about contemplation and healing is that the connection between the two is about our need for a “compassionate consent […]
We pretend that we all agree that genocide is wrong, but I don’t think it’s true. If we agreed that genocide was wrong, would we still be teaching it in Sunday Schools? How many children still hear the stories of Joshua “conquering” the promised land as a great, God-given victory? […]
I would like to suggest a simple proposal: let’s never give any authority to anyone who dehumanizes others. Recently I was reading a collection of survivor accounts from the residential schools that Canadians forced upon Indigenous children until as late as 1996. Once again, I had to face the hard […]
A recent trip to Winnipeg led us to a visit of the new and impressive Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR). This long-awaited museum is a stunning landmark for Winnipeg. Entering between the “roots” of the building, one starts at the bottom, appropriately with an introduction to our mixed record […]
It doesn’t get much better than the right kind of sad song that somehow leaves you, all at once, feeling like you’ve been stripped of your armour, yet you’re stronger, braver and more hopeful. For me, the music must fit, must open me up, stirring something deep inside. Good words, […]
Perhaps you’ve appreciated that somehow Easter has largely escaped numerous attempts to turn it into a massive excuse for more consumerism. (The article, “Holy Crossmas” in Slate does a good job of summing up some reasons.) So far, the commercial side is largely limited to the mildly pagan Easter eggs […]
Ever since John of the Cross immortalized a certain kind of spiritual crisis in a poem called “Dark Night of the Soul,” people have used that term to refer to a time when it has particularly felt that God has been absent and unreachable. When I think of the darkest […]
[I’ve recently returned from a two week learning tour in Colombia. For most of the group this trip was a part of St. Stephen’s University’s program on International Studies. For me it was to better understand my duties as part of the board for MCC Canada – the relief, peace […]
As, I assume, is true of just about any culture in which one is raised, my experience of being shaped by a fairly conservative, evangelical culture (in my case it was suburban Mennonite flavoured) gave me much to be thankful for as well as much that was less than helpful. […]