Citizens of a city on a hill
In the final days of January, a Christian acquaintance of mine started sharing social media posts supporting the “Freedom convoy” of truckers driving across Canada. The destination of this large moving protest was Ottawa, where the protesters planned to present their demands to federal leaders. Initially billed as a protest against the vaccine mandate for…
Biblical companions on my cancer journey
My family does cancer in a big way. In my immediate family of five members, there have been 10 occasions when a doctor told one of us that we have cancer, or that, despite the treatments, the cancer has returned. My wife Esther has had two rounds of breast cancer. Our son Tim, who was…
Readers write: February 7, 2022 issue
Writers speak out in support of sexual-abuse survivor Re: “A survivor of sexual abuse speaks out,” Jan. 10, page 13. I love that phrase that you use to describe yourself: “a fierce pacifist.” That is what I want to be, too, and yet it is sometimes just easier to be meek and go with the…
Passing on what we have received
There is something about snowstorms that brings out the best in people. A stuck car will quickly attract a group to help push it out. My wife and I often find our neighbour has shovelled our walks before we get to them. After one particularly intense storm, six neighbours got their snowblowers together and worked…
Harold Cardinal
Cree chief, lawyer and author Harold Cardinal speaks at a symposium on “Native Peoples” at the University of Waterloo, Ont., in 1976. The event was planned by Conrad Grebel College students, and attracted Indigenous students from other universities, as well as Dene and Haudenosaunee participants and civil servants. Prominent topics included Indigenous control of their…
Communion with creation
I’ve been pondering a new-to-me thought in the last few weeks. In reviewing the Scripture texts selected for Anabaptist World Fellowship Sunday this year, from the worship resources produced by Indonesian Anabaptist church leaders, I stayed with Psalm 104. Pastor Antonius from Yogyakarta talks about the importance of creation in revealing God’s glory. Creation reveals…
Solitude and community
Almost 400 years ago, the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, “All of humanity’s problems stem from [people’s] inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Pascal was probably being hyperbolic, but he was making a profound point, one that aligns with something I discovered and wrote about during my own recent season of…
Be at peace?
I once memorized Romans 12, and verse 18 always stuck with me: “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” As Christians, shouldn’t we be at peace with everyone? Shouldn’t we make all efforts to mend relationships and right wrongs? Well, maybe it doesn’t always work out…
‘The ears of the family’
A few months ago, my wife and I watched a film called CODA. Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a child of deaf adults (CODA). Her parents and brother, who is also deaf, rely on her to interpret the outside world to them. They need her to be present on the fishing boat on which they earn their…
