words. faith. identity.
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Put in your place!
My latest column for the Christian Courier. ___________________ It is difficult to be indifferent when someone is “put in their place!” On the one hand, we are likely to experience real satisfaction, or a sense of justice, when another person is brought down a peg or two. “He was getting too big for his britches…
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Love is Love, Right?
My latest in the Christian Courier. —— You can hardly argue with the title of the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibit presently on display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibit is a display of wedding gowns and wedding attire created by Gaultier over the years. And the title of the exposition is the…
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A return to relics?
My latest column for the Christian Courier. ——————- I thought my 12-year-old son would find it both creepy and cool, but it turns out he just finds it weird, and kind of gross. In response to my question, he mimes the action of taking a man’s heart out the chest cavity and holds it up…
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Canada. A country of reconciliation?
My latest column for the Christian Courier. ________________________ What would be an honest answer to the question posed by the title of this column? Some might offer a half-hearted “We are trying?” in reply to that question. Others would say that even such a half-hearted answer gives us too much credit – that the correct…
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What are you not seeing?
My latest column, for the Christian Courier. _____________________ Up until a few years ago I had never seen them. I didn’t even know they were around, so didn’t know to look for them. But every Spring they are here. In fact, we are at peak season right now so there’s a good chance you will…
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Easter Breakfast, Anyone?
My latest column for Christian Courier – it can also be found on the website, here. __________________ Breakfast is a big deal here in Montreal, and breakfast restaurants are a point of pride for us. There is Eggspectation and Allo! mon coco and, of course, the classic Chez Cora. In fact, it’s just possible that…
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The Shape of Confession
An important element of Presbyterian and Reformed identity is our writing of, and deference to, confessions. The Presbyterian Church in Canada has three confessions that define our faith and theology – they are the Westminster Confession, the Declaration Concerning Church and Nation, and Living Faith. One of the things you quickly discover in looking at…
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“Praise the Mutilated World” – Sermon for memorial service of the Rev. Dr. Joe McLelland
I had the privilege, today, of preaching at the memorial service of the Rev. Dr. Joseph McLelland, former Professor of Religious Studies at McGill University and Faculty member of The Presbyterian College. I share that sermon here. ______________ Over these past few weeks, as I spent a bit of time surveying the life of Joe McLelland,…
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Love – Caress – Difference
In my book Becoming Two in Love I have created brief, first-person “moments” that give expression to the account and ethics of sexual difference that I otherwise describe somewhat abstractly. An ethics of sexual difference is one that affirms the fundamental mystery that the sexuate other is/represents. It is an ethics that entails a refusal of relations…
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The God of Silence – reflections on Endo’s novel, Scorsese’s film
My latest column for the Christian Courier, can be found here, or below. How is it possible for the ocean to be silent? Can the sea lose its voice? On the face of it this seems impossible. The waves come rolling in with rhythmic constancy – breaking and pounding against the shoreline. Even on those…
Got any book recommendations?
encrusted words 