writings and blogging reflections as they come to me. opinions are strictly my own.
Blog / Writings
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I’ve sat across from more than a few weeping souls, now, who’ve been abruptly fired by the church. In their minds, it’s without just cause – and in all cases, they were told that, if they wanted severance pay, they needed to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Hush money. The more resourced ones sought legal advice…
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In the work that I do in my day job as Regional Minister for Church Planting here with The United Church on the west coast of Canada, I’m often asked the question: Why should we bother starting new communities of faith? After all, much of the church in my context appears to be dying these…
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This article originally appeared in the May 1, 2002 issue of FaithTides. When we bought our house in Victoria, BC, eight years ago, we had already been selected for a Habitat for Humanity build. The executive director of Habitat at the time told me that, because of their model, where Habitat holds the loan at…
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Way back in January 2016, in my heady Anglican years, I co-authored this ‘tract’ – a tongue-in-cheek manifesto of sorts, with my friend Matthew Cook – with some edits and support from Meagan C. and Jess Z-C, of course. Within a few weeks, it had jumped to over 13,000 views and numerous comments and emails…
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In around the year 2000, a motion came forward from the Africa Region of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) to ‘eject all the homosexuals’ from the World’s Student Christian Movements. Wisely, instead of debating that motion, the international movement, knowing that many of the northern / western movements were LGBTQ2SIA+ affirming, asked each global…
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This article originally appeared for CitiGate Vancouver in 2021 and can still be accessed here. A few years ago now, to celebrate my 40th birthday, I walked the iconic West Coast Trail. I came off of the trail on a Saturday evening, stayed on the Pacheedaht Nation’s campground and, on Sunday morning, walked into the…
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This originally appeared in the Times-Colonist Spiritually Speaking Section in 2013 “In whatever place you live, do not easily leave it.” —Abba Anthony, 3rd century AD We live in an age characterised by increased mobility. It is more and more common for us North Americans to live in many places, have several careers, and to travel often. With…
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“It’s called direct action – and it comes to us highly recommended.” – Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco – Direct Action. I‘ve been reflecting a bit on the direct actions for social and ecological justice that I’ve been a part of over the years that have shaped me as a human being. Here are some…
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A number of memes have been circulating claiming to be the words of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism (and one of the founders / forebears of my own church, The United Church of Canada). Though those are ok, they have a paraphrase of what Wesley said, rather than his actual words. Here are the…
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This apology, comes from my participation in the ?aps ciik cha chim hiy ap / Road to Reconciliation / Making it Right group in Port Alberni, BC. The non-indigenous United Church church planter, Sarah Williams of Courageous Community took 11 pages of notes in a day-long meeting of survivors of the Alberni Indian Residential ‘School’ who…