Pastoral Reflections on Jacques Derrida’s The Work of Mourning. In his beautiful series of reflections on the deaths of his friends and contemporaries (figures such as Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and Sarah Kofman), Jacques Derrida writes of the work of mourning. It is work of sorts because we must bring

Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth? I will, with God’s help. –The sixth promise of The Baptismal Covenant By far, the most frequent creation care question asked by Anglicans is “What can I do to care

Abid Munir is an active member of our congregation, serving on vestry and representing the parish of St. Mary Magdalene at PWRDF meetings in the diocese. On a recent visit to our church, Bishop Geoff asked him to share his story and he agreed. Abid was born in Peshawar, a

When many people think of a church, they think of people on a Sunday morning and a full-time priest leading worship. Yet for over 60 percent of the congregations in Rupert’s Land, that isn’t the reality. I asked some people from some of these churches what difference it makes in

April’s issue on Creative Disruptions has four articles that offer their own takes on breaking away from the norm. Heather McCance writes about how parishes that don’t have a full-time incumbent worship. Heather Birtles shares the story of a parishioner from St. Mary Magdalene whose life has seen many upheavals. Beverley Eert

This piece concludes Kirsten Pinto Gfroerer’s explorations of the monastic traditions. Her first piece, “Reading the Great Spiritual Writers of the Past,” appeared in January 2019’s issue, and her second, “Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience: Re-learning How to Give,” appeared in February 2019. No matter what the conditions of our life,

When I moved to Winnipeg in the summer of 2017, my furniture took quite a few days to catch up with me. A friend had accompanied me on the road trip here from southern Ontario, but she flew back before the moving truck arrived. Since I didn’t start working at

There’s an old cartoon that shows a minister walking into the church office. He is on crutches with bandages, bruises, and braces all over his body. In the foreground the parish administrator is asking him: “So how did the singles group take your suggestion that they start calling themselves The

Though this letter is published with permission, the author has requested to remain anonymous. One Sunday, my priest gave a sermon on Job. He focused on being lonely and being alone, and kept referring to words from an old song by that title. I tried to find the message, but

March’s issue on Alone-ness explores being alone and being lonely. We’ll hear from a parishioner (who’s asked to remain anonymous), who talks about the loneliness she’s dealt with since the passing of her husband. Michelle Owens writes about being alone versus being lonely. And Donald McKenzie shares his thoughts on being single in the Church.

You might think Living with Less lines up well with Stewardship – if you reduce your consumption, you can give more money to the Church. But that flows from a hopelessly narrow concept of stewardship, one that completely misses the mark. Stewardship is an expansive concept, and its larger meaning is living

Last month, Kirsten Pinto Gfroerer put together a primer on “Reading the Great Spiritual Writers of the Past.” She will be continuing her exploration of the monastic traditions in via media this month and next. During the season of Advent in 2018, I overheard a wise woman complain that there

When I was invited to add stewardship ministry to the roles I had while on staff in the Diocese of Toronto, I realized I didn’t really know what that meant. Was it about parish fundraising to meet the budget? Was it about living as a faithful disciple? At that point, I

For over 30 years, I have been engaged in a personal, political, and perhaps even holy war against consumerism. I’m probably not winning, but I’m still fighting it. I live communally with five other women, I share a car, I darn my socks, I buy my clothes second hand. I