In 1946, Viola Desmond, a teacher and a businesswoman with her husband in Nova Scotia, took her car to New Glasgow on business.  On her way there, her car broke down.  As it was being fixed, she decided to wait it out by going to the movies.  Unaware of the segregation laws in New Glasgow, she bought a ticket for the main floor of...

The wedding at Cana

It is Jesus’ mother who pushes. John’s gospel doesn’t name her, but we know who she is: Mary, who was young and courageous and who took on the task of bringing Jesus into the world. This mother, who heard the voice of angels, saw shepherds and nobles alike come to see her newborn son, who muted her fears and...

“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...

I have a very clear memory from my childhood.  It has to do with food.  But also more than food.

At our house, we had a beautiful vegetable garden all along our fence in the backyard.  I remember my parents out there in the evenings, tending and watering, weeding and harvesting.  My specific memory is this: when I was young,...

In the news this past week, Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was in Britain this past week, addressing both houses of Parliament. She was there to ask Britain, and others, to help the movement of change in her country toward democracy and to be the “watchdogs” as these changes begin to take shape and form.  After...

On a camping trip to Ayer’s Rock, in central Australia, Lindy Chamberlain, cried out that her baby was gone. She had gone back to the campfire with her husband, while her nine week old daughter, Azaria, was asleep in the tent. Hearing Azaria cry, she went to check on her, but instead saw a dingo, a wild dog, walking away from the tent...