In times past, the tree would come into the house just in time for Christmas – often on Christmas Eve! – and brighten the home with cheer for the 12 days of celebration, just as the days begin to lighten and the hope of the New Year is around the corner. Now – in spite of all the comforts and improvements the modern world was supposed to bring us – it seems we want to wish away the last two months of the year as we string up artificial light in an attempt to drive out the deep darkness that so easily crowds in on our lives.
This will be Bp Critch’s inaugural sermon as the newly elected bishop of the Diocese of Mahajanga in St Luke’s Cathedral in the seap...
continue readingTHE ANGLICAN CHURCH of Canada is about to have a big conversation. The Primate’s Commission’s seven Hypotheses will likely dominate the wo...
continue readingFOR TOO LONG, we have danced around the reality of the Anglican Church of Canada’s decline in finances and attendance, with Church House releasing statistics only sporadically, and various leaders offering soothing sermons on how God is doing something special — along the lines of our declining numbers being a picture of the upside-down kingdom.
continue readingST. MICHAEL’S Youth Conference has many traditions and practices that give shape to our six days of shared life together. These traditions and practices are built around a vital core that we hope each of us has come holding already – but which is important enough for us to revisit at any time. At the heart of St. Michael’s Youth Conference, alive and beating strong, is Jesus Christ and the gospel: that is, the good news of God’s love and forgiveness and the new life we ar...
continue readingFOR TOO LONG, we have danced around the reality of the Anglican Church of Canada’s decline in finances and attendance, with Church House releasing statistics only sporadically, and various leade...
HE WAS ANXIOUS. Or perhaps agitated would better describe it. A bishop who wasn’t his, threatened a faith that was. The Reverend Samuel J. Stone was just 27 years old and a newly ordained curate...
CAN YOU REMEMBER a time when you were desperately thirsty? Maybe on a hot day working in the sun. Or after a long hike. Or maybe you’ve been stranded somewhere for a long time without water. Wha...
continue readingTHE WORD “conversion” has taken a beating of late but a June conference in Toronto is not giving up on the term (full disclosure – I am one of the organizers of the Communion Partner...
continue readingEASTER is the most important festival for Christians, because it is the basis of our faith.
continue readingON NOV. 20, 2023, Bp. Andrew Asbil issued an “important liturgical note” to the Diocese of Toronto. His choice of date was intentional: he noted that it is was the “Trans Day o...
continue readingIN THE GOSPEL LESSON for this first Sunday in Lent, we have Saint Matthew’s account of the temptations of Jesus. This lesson is clearly intended to establish in our minds the meaning and the mes...
continue readingAccording to Jonathan Haidt’s and Greg Lukianoff’s book The Coddling of the American Mind, the spike in anxiety and depression is also related to “Great Untruths” that have spr...
continue readingHAVE YOU EVER been envious of the shepherds that first Christmas night – when they had all those angels speaking to them, telling them about God – or felt how wonderful it would have been...
continue readingIN THE FALL of 1857 New York City was still reeling from the failure of the New York City branch of the Ohio Life Insurance Co. Other banks crashed and over 5,000 businesses went under. Meanwhile, a s...
continue readingIT WAS A JOY to bring you independent news, features and commentary over the past year. We have been serving Canadian Anglicans since 2004 – and, uniquely, our constituency includes both the Ang...
continue readingA proud tree stands storey upon shopping- mall storey tall, set ablaze by red lights. Its image captured by pilgrims flocking in hope to make their days merry and bright.
continue reading“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” (Romans 13:11)
continue readingIn his hands are the caverns of the earth and the heights of the hills are his also. (Psalm 95:4)
continue readingAS A university student in my early twenties, I protested the removal of rent control in Ontario, boycotted Nike, and experimented with radical feminist philosophy. Beyond that, my revolutionary spiri...
continue readingANGELS are one of the stranger elements in many Bible stories. Yet it seems important to God to tell us about these frightening messengers. What’s the first thing angels often say in the Bibl...
continue readingThe Prayer Book Society of Canada (PBSC) is deeply concerned by the rapid expansion in our country of “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAiD), which is one of the world’s most permissiv...
continue readingI SNEAK into the church hall at St. Peter’s Cathedral, Charlottetown. It turns out all the chairs have been set up facing the entryway. As you can imagine, my stealth attempt is completely unsuc...
continue readingThe General Synod has “authority and jurisdiction in all matters affecting in any way the general interest and well-being of the whole Church.” -From Section 6 of the Declaration of...
continue readingSix-year-old Eva was dead. She had fallen from an upstairs banister. It was 1863, and the Reverend George Butler and his wife Josephine had lost their only daughter. Within a few years, the family mov...
continue readingTHERE IS A weariness haunting some of our brothers and sisters in pews and pulpits across the nation. For decades they proclaimed, they articulated, the centrality and authority of holy Scripture to t...
continue readingWritten as a letter to my nine-year-old daughter on the subject of Christmas and the Incarnation
continue readingWith apologies to John Updike* * In 1960, the American man of letters, John Updike, published his famous poem, “Seven Stanzas at Easter.” Written some years before for a church poetry c...
continue readingWE HAVE A big story to tell. It is a story that changes everyone who truly hears it. It is a story that convicts, heals, transforms and reconciles. But, sadly, we are prone to being d...
continue readingTHE DIOCESE OF TORONTO took its theme for synod this year from the Gospel According to St. John: “Cast the net” (21:6). It is a wonderful passage of Scripture to reflect on as a diocese. I...
continue reading“COME for the money; stay for the winter.” Extremely harsh northern Saskatchewan winters and Council of the North salaries, lower than in the south, were part of the deal. But for clergy w...
continue readingA FRIEND of mine has corrected me more than once when I’ve written about “our church.” It’s Christ’s church, he points out. At first, I thought he was being nitpicky, alt...
continue readingFOURTEEN BISHOPS – including nine of the Church of England’s 42 diocesans – have issued a 3,800-word paper that makes a theological case for preserving the Church’s historic do...
continue readingTHIS IS an abbreviated version of the panel discussion that concluded the Mere Anglicanism Conference held Jan. 26-28 in Charleston, S.C. The theme of the conference was “Telling a More Beautifu...
continue readingTHE GOSPELS teach us that Jesus is Lord, that having risen and ascended, he rules over heaven and earth. In the Nicene Creed we say that Christ is “seated at the right hand of the Father”&...
continue readingMY AGNOSTIC-LEANING-ATHEIST friend tells me he got up at 5:00 a.m. to watch the coronation of King Charles, and found it very moving. He talked about...
continue readingIF YOU COULD turn stones into bread, would you? If you could fly like a bird, would you? If you were offered all the money in the world, would you take it
continue readingPERHAPS GOOD FRIDAY should be called Good Death Day as it would keep before us the paradox of what is going on. What good is any crucifixion, especially this crucifixion? Christ’s crucifixion...
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