words. faith. identity.
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The Scar Project
A sermon preached today in the Chapel of The Presbyterian College. _____________ Nadia Myre is an Algonquin and Quebecois artist originally from Maniwaki who now lives and works here in Montreal. She’s not well known across the country, but her work is significant enough that she has a solo show at the Musée des beaux-arts…
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Safe Sex?
I came across a quote about safe sex, today, from Wendell Berry, and was reminded of this article I wrote for the National Post about 14 years ago. I might change the tone and style slightly today, but the basic argument is one that I think is worth repeating. _______________ Sex-education and school children can…
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Bodies in a Digital World
My latest in the Christian Courier, also found here. ————— Who would have predicted that the vinyl LP would make such a comeback? But here we are. In 2018 you can get the latest musical release in 12-inch vinyl format, whether Ed Sheeran’s Divide or Kari Jobe’s The Garden. In our digital world, where a…
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Fashioning our Self
My latest in the Christian Courier, here. _____________ A good number of Canadians are sporting new outfits these January days. We are wearing our Christmas gifts – or, perhaps more likely, we are newly-attired from our own post-Christmas bargain shopping. There are a good many of us who got into a new pair of jeans…
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Advent Psalm (126)
Advent Psalm (126) Weary and sleepless, caught off guard by racing pulse, panic, vertigo; rare reprieve to breathe, palpable lostness. Heading for home, down old Highway 6 through tears, Aberfoyle, Puslinch, Clappison’s Corners, steering south on automatic pilot, college kid’s stick-shift Jetta. Over Skyway Bridge, past belching steelwork ugliness, along escarpment’s familiar lines; angled off-ramp…
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Judgment and Grace of Strangers
But this was the first and only time that someone had called me on it, essentially saying: “Hey man, stop being such an ass. Get off your phone and look at me.”
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New poem: “Geometry of Advent”
A new poem for the second Sunday of Advent (2017): And here is the poem within an alternative geometry (click on the poem/image to open it in a more readable format):
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Northern Advent (poem)
Northern Advent Scattered desiccated leaves cling to branches against autumn’s churning winds, resisting deciduous barrenness, new coloured prominence of Red Pine, Juniper, Hemlock. Feathered, long-distant migrants soar, flit, and fly from greyed terrain for southern home and habitat; wintering chickadees cache seeds in creviced bark for hunger’s moment. Poet’s romantic autumnal landscape lost on those…
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Face to Face in Quebec
My latest in the Christian Courier, found here. _________________ Quebec has been in the news again over recent weeks. And again it is in relation to questions of religious tolerance and religious accommodation. In this latest round of political and cultural controversy we are in the news because the government of Quebec has passed legislation…
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Daycare Debate (reprised)
There is, we discovered, no dearth of lines available to sooth parents who are wracked by guilt and fear in sending their child off to be cared for by near-strangers.
Got any book recommendations?
encrusted words 