Midweek Message – March 18, 2026

It’s been a bit of whirlwind since I came back to church on Sunday! A Transition Team last night, Leadership Team this evening, getting ready for the Annual Meeting which will be integrated into worship on Sunday, along with a few pastoral concerns, attendance at Food Bank, a United Churches for Dartmouth meeting, and soContinue reading “Midweek Message – March 18, 2026”

Midweek Message – February 18, 2026

Today is Ash Wednesday and normally I would seek out a church that was having a service. However it’s our regularly scheduled Leadership Team meeting this evening and since I’m leaving for Kenya on Friday, we can’t very well reschedule it. Here’s the Spiritual Reflection I did this morning for the United Churches for DartmouthContinue reading “Midweek Message – February 18, 2026”

Midweek Message – February 11, 2026

We are marking Baden Powell Sunday this week with participation from the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. I’m working on a campfire, tenting theme using Exodus 33: 7-11 & Deuteronomy 6: 4-9. Joyce and I will share a dialogue, we’ll have communion that reminds us that Jesus shared meals outside at times. Since we had suchContinue reading “Midweek Message – February 11, 2026”

Seeking Freedom, Building Home

More than 30 years ago, the Rev. Eleanor Scarlett arrived at Cole Harbour United Church as an intern. I was on her Lay Supervision Team, the group set up to support and evaluate her over the 8 months with us. She came to us from Toronto, after emigrating from Jamaica, she was had been aContinue reading “Seeking Freedom, Building Home”

Everybody Knows… and Still We Sing Hallelujah

A five-year-old boy and his father detained in Minneapolis and sent to a Texas ICE facility… An observer shot dead yesterday when he was already subdued by multiple ICE agents… 100 clergy of all faiths arrested for blocking a road while protesting the airlines that were flying people to ICE facilities…. It’s enough to makeContinue reading “Everybody Knows… and Still We Sing Hallelujah”

Rags of Light

Think globally, act locally. That’s a phrase that has been used in a variety of settings and organizations since the late 60s. There is no consensus on just who coined it and where it started, but the general premise is the same. “Think globally, act locally” urges people to consider the well being of theContinue reading “Rags of Light”

The Courage to Stay in the Dance of Love

This little plaque was given to me at my 8th birthday party, and it’s one of the few things I took with me when I left home as a young teenager. Now, I don’t think anyone, even the most religious amongst us would consider giving something like this to a child now. And in retrospect, alongContinue reading “The Courage to Stay in the Dance of Love”

Midweek Message – December 31, 2025

Happy New Year’s Eve! Ours will be very quiet as my husband has been sick since before Christmas. To the extent that there is a pile of presents still under the tree because we haven’t seen any close family. We start our series on the music and theology of Leonard Cohen this week: There’s aContinue reading “Midweek Message – December 31, 2025”

Lost in Translation: Rethinking the Birth of Jesus

I think it was the first year I was at the Atlantic School of Theology, and we were deep into some scripture studies, exploring when a particular passage was written, who was it was written to, the political context in which it was written etc. And then of course, what difference does that particular storyContinue reading “Lost in Translation: Rethinking the Birth of Jesus”

Born Again and Again

This is the 5th and final week in the Theological Banquet Series. I’ll recap in case you missed the earlier installments. This series is based on the book Undivided Love by Janet Gear, a United Church minister and theologian. She uses the metaphor of different courses at a banquet to describe different ways in whichContinue reading “Born Again and Again”