Lent this year begins on Wednesday March 5, and stretches for six weeks, ending with Holy Week and Easter on Sunday April 20th. This year, we’ll be gathering on Wednesdays in Room 102 for soup, and for special music, and Holden Evening Prayer in the chapel. Within that prayer, Pr. Katherine and I will also be offering reflections on...

Claimed and Named: Walking on the Baptismal Road

Today in our gospel reading from John, we hear John the Baptist re-telling the story of Jesus’ baptism. John tells a slightly different story around this event than do the other gospel accounts, but John’s gospel carries on our theme for Epiphany – that of Jesus’ baptism...

“Downton Abbey.”
How many of you are following this hit TV series on PBS?
I’m a recent convert.

There was something in the opening episode of Season Four that caught my attention.
I was struck by how a problem between two characters was resolved.

Mr. Carson, the head butler at Downton Abbey, and Charlie Grigg, a stage...

In all of the Christmas story, angels figure prominently.

And we’re not talking about “Hallmark” angels – you know, the beatific, cute cherubs with halos and wings and white flowing gowns that were all the rage some years ago.

The word “angel” from the Greek, means basically: “messenger of God”,...

Because many of us are so familiar with the Christmas story – of Mary, and Joseph and the baby Jesus in the manger… Because year after year we hear the familiar story repeated…

…the effect of this is that we start to think of the Christmas story as a story that is predictable, a story unfolding as planned.
We know what...

“Travel Light” was the theme of the National Youth Gathering back in 2010. Over 1,000 Anglican and Lutheran youth made their way to Whitehorse, in the Yukon.  Now, it is never an easy thing to tell teenagers to travel lightly. They have stuff and want stuff.  But, that, of course, was part of the exercise. Acknowledging...

The flags were flying at half mast when my family and I drove back into Kitchener from an outing on Thursday. We had heard on the car radio that Nelson Mandela had just died at the age of 95.

Mandela had made the headlines again in recent months, as his health deteriorated and as family and friends kept a close watch and vigil outside his...

Are you feeling overwhelmed and anxious, these days?

Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Many of us these days are starting to feel the crunch of the end-less “to-do” list:
Christmas shopping, card-writing, decorating, planning the Christmas parties.
In my extended family, this is the year my wife and I are scheduled to host...

Every Monday after Loaves & Fishes lunch, four of us would hang out a little bit afterwards to play a round of euchre.

But last Monday, I witnessed something around our euchre table that really made me pause.

One of the lunch guests joined us, but not to play; but instead, to watch us play, to listen and learn.
Not only did she NOT know how...

The Sadducees ask Jesus a very detailed, specific question – about who a certain widow would be married to while in heaven, especially given that, on earth, she had seven different husbands.

This very specific, detailed question reminds me of the type of questions I remember hearing among some of my friends in grade-school, or was it early...