Where should donations go?
It seems that money is a large part of my job. Every aspect of my work involves money in some way or another.
A tale of two speakers
Two church leaders came to my city last month: one was big, the other small. They both said things I found inspiring. But in the end, which one would I like to follow? I want to listen to the one who is big, but follow the one who is small. Willard Metzger, executive director of…
Overcome evil with good
Overcome Evil with Good by Ryan on April 28, 2013 One last post about my experience at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Quebec National Event this past week. As I’ve reflected on the flight home yesterday and throughout today, few questions/topics of a bit more philosophical nature keep recurring. I don’t necessarily claim…
Holding on to hope and judgment
Nova Scotia teen Rehtaeh Parsons recently committed suicide after humiliating pictures of her alleged rape and shame flooded social media. While the powers-that-be considered what to do, in a cyber version of frontier justice a loose network of computer hackers known as Anonymous claimed to have discovered the alleged culprits and threatened to go public…
Readers write
Where does the problem lie: With the people or the path?
Creating connections by erasing boundaries
I sat with my gospel choir colleagues, in a pew, while the host choir at Park Avenue Synagogue rehearsed a lovely Psalm setting in Hebrew. Some sang the Hebrew text with ease, some with difficulty – a reminder that faith generally means learning a language other than one’s own. After the synagogue choir sang in…
Today’s church in the ‘Age of Spirit’
For me, the Holy Spirit is the central character and protagonist of the New Testament, especially after Jesus’ death and resurrection. As John the Baptist was the forerunner—one who goes or is sent in advance to announce the coming of another—of Jesus, I see Jesus as the forerunner of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the…
What are you reading?
“What are you reading?” I’ll ask my mother, a friend or colleague. Partly I’m trolling for good titles, and partly I’m inviting them to tell me about their lives, what they are interested in, moved by, curious about or are learning. We read because it helps us navigate life. We draw from the content of…
Not as a I do
We can be sure that the children and youth around us are observing our money habits, sometimes in surprising detail. On a shopping trip with my then young children, one of them was pestering me to buy something that they all wanted. After using a lack of cash as an excuse not to buy the…
Our own best resource
With its 225 congregations, Mennonite Church Canada has more “franchises” across the country than Future Shop and Best Buy combined, making us our own best resource.
