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Black History Month
At our 2018 Synod Assembly delegates engaged in some challenging conversations and exercises that identified how racialized differences, and the lack thereof, impacts the life of our church and its congregations. It accentuated the need for a better understanding of who we are as a predominantly white church and how...Read More -
Hope’s Lovely Sisters
I love Christmas. I’m no Scrooge. But year by year I have become more distressed, if not depressed, by the consumerist bacchanalia which dominates our North American commemoration of Jesus’ birth. Although we might try to deny it, most of us are quite aware of where we sit in humanity’s...Read More -
A Distressing Fact
Here’s a distressing fact. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the whitest denomination in the United States. The 2014 Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study found that 96% of the denomination’s members were white, 2% black and 2% mixed race or Latino. We don’t have similar demographic data for...Read More -
Transitions
The coming of autumn makes me think of transitions. And those who know me best know that I don’t particularly like them. When the kids were younger, I dreaded the approach of Labour Day and “back to school.” I liked the gentler routines of summer, the comfortable rhythms of just...Read More -
From Generation to Generation
I have a pretty unique perspective on the life of our church. In my work I interact with an amazingly wide variety of congregations and rostered leaders. I visit your churches. I worship with you. I share food and drink with you. I counsel with you. I celebrate your joys...Read More -
On Thoughts and Prayers
It’s a phrase we hear, read and perhaps say quite often. In moments of catastrophe and loss; in times of crisis or disaster, the flow of “thoughts and prayers” through my twitter feed can become a torrent. And in its wake there is often a subsequent torrent telling us in...Read More -
Takin’ It to the Streets
“Can you give me a blessing?” “Would you pray for my brother in Argentina? He is dying and I’m out running for him today.” “I am a Muslim and I think it is so wonderful that you are out here with us this morning.” “Thank you for doing this! Other than...Read More -
Easter Message from Bishop Pryse
"Behold I am doing a new thing!” (Isaiah 43:19) One of my favourite Scripture passages is Isaiah 43, verse 19. “Behold I am doing a new thing says the Lord; even now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?” It reminds me that our God is a creator God...Read More -
You Don’t Save What You Don’t Love
“You don’t save what you don’t love.” So says Margaret Atwood in her address to the 2018 Parliament of World Religions in Toronto in November 2018. “Unless people with faith get behind fixing the planet, it is not going to happen.” You can listen to a portion of her remarks...Read More -
On Re-Setting the Agenda for Congregational Councils
It’s that time of year when we conduct our Congregational AGM’s, elect new leaders and re-convene new Congregational Councils. Sometimes we struggle to identify those new leaders; people are reluctant to serve. In some congregations, council seats sit vacant. I wonder if that might have something to do with the cultures that...Read More
Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Member church of the Lutheran World Federation