New Kid on the Blog

I spoke Tuesday at the Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria 12-Step Recovery Service, and as I am unlikely to share this elsewhere thought I would come back to this blog and leave it here... Based on Psalm 96 and Matthew 18:12-14 Judgement I got to indulge my overacting ability last week when I was asked to come in and play John the Baptist in a school assembly here in the Cathedral for the school next door. After shocking a few of the tots by shouting ‘Repent – the kingdom of God is at hand’ as I walked in wearing a hairy poncho of some kind, I was asked questions by the children which I was asked by the teacher to answer as if I was in character. One of those questions was a very astute one – is God angry at us? It comes from John’s quote to the pharisees in the book of Matthew ‘you hypocrites, who told you could flee from the wrath to come.’. And it’s not a bad question. It certainly seems that in some streams of what is broadly called the Christian tradition that God seem...

Here's the second article I wrote for our local Times Colonist newspaper. I think I'll reproduce the whole thing here - but do go have a look at the site, there's lots of interesting and stimulating pieces on the Spiritually Speaking Blog from a variety of contributors. Link here . Over the weekend it was, as always, my privilege to publish some thoughts in Faith Forum under the title ‘Finding God is not as hard as you might think”. I’ve been grateful to those in my own faith community of The Anglican Church of St John the Divine who responded with encouragement to the ‘thinking out loud’ that makes up such articles, as well as those who on social media have shared, replied, and offered thoughtful reflection on what I wrote. One response, however, has particularly stuck with me, asked at the social time following our Church service on Sunday – “I really liked what you said about finding God, but what I really want to know is how to have a relationship with God....

Here's an article I wrote last week for the local paper, the Times Colonist. Rather than putting the full text here I'm going to put the link up and invite y'all to go visit! https://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/blogs/spiritually-speaking/finding-god-is-not-as-hard-as-you-think-1.23939156

So time to share a sermon, this one from July 7th, to give a little background to where my thinking processes have moved to since I regularly wrote here sooooo long ago, and to give an idea of where I think we should be going, as a church, as people of God, and as those who seek to follow Christ... With our new church website I can't embed it here, but here's the link: https://www.stjohnthedivine.bc.ca/podcasts/media/2019-07-07-let-us-not-grow-weary-of-doing-what-is-right

One of my recently discovered new favourite songs:  Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - You Worry Me

So, I got married recently...and it was wonderful, particularly as I got to marry a wonderful, super smart, big hearted, beautiful woman. The ceremony was in church, which was not our original plan (Elvis in Vegas, or a Marriage Commissioner on the beach) - but Sabina graciously allowed us to mark this auspicious occasion in a place special to me, amongst a community I love and who have been overwhelmingly supportive of me, in a way that was deeply meaningful to me. This was indeed gracious as my now-wife is from a Sikh culture and has less-than-positive experience of the institutional church having spent time as a child in a Catholic and (not always tolerant) Anglican School setting. I worked with my Bishop in forming a service based on the interfaith liturgy of the Anglican Church of Canada, we were blessed with a speaker who is one of North America's foremost Comparative Religion scholars and who wove together Sikh and Christian tradition in a profound and thoughtful se...

Just this last week we finished the 42nd General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada - and it was a real series of ups and downs, so much so that I wrote some pieces for our church website which I think is worth reproducing here. Firstly, though, a bit of background - this was an historic Synod for lots of reasons (which come in the second piece), but in the middle of it was an important vote on inclusivising our Marriage Canon (Canon XXI) - one of the laws which govern the church, and contain the 'Doctrine' of the Anglican Church of Canada - to take away reference to 'Marriage is between a man and a woman' and change it to 'Marriage is between two partners' - thereby enshrining equal marriage for all, including same-gendered partnerships, in Church law. The reality is that the Canon doesn't forbid same-gendered marriage, and as such I have (with the permission of my Bishop and the support of my community) already been privileged to officiate at same-...

It's been a very long time since I've used this blog, but now seems like a good time to return. I've missed writing things to throw out into the ether, and the interactions and relationships which came from them and I've certainly missed the wisdom which has been shared in response to what I post. I think I should say something of why things have been so quiet here. It's partly because this was an outlet, a way of expressing the quirky world of Clergy life in rural England - where collegial relationships were limited and a (somewhat overworked) Vicar needed to have a place to think out loud. That changed when I came here to Canada, way back in July 2013, as I found myself on a team of lay and ordained ministers who gave each other space to think, to muse, to discuss, to learn. It was, and is, a liberation - and though that team has changed composition over this past six years it continues to be a creative, supportive partnership, Another reason for les...