It would be neglectful of me, who is, among others here at St. Matthews, helping to lead our Renewal Task Force, to not talk about reform and renewal on this day we celebrate as Reformation Sunday.

This is the day we celebrate the free gift of grace for all through Jesus Christ. This is the day we celebrate that we are freed from captivity,...

Words are powerful.  The Hebrew people knew how powerful they were.

Creation itself begins with a word spoken. When we open our Bibles, on the first page it says, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the...

In John’s gospel, Jesus is using these great “I am” statements to tell us the truth about who he is. He calls upon the great traditions and stories of Moses, here specifically echoing the words that God whispers to Moses upon finding the bush that would not burn down. What is your name, what shall I say to the people, Moses...

“Travel Light” was the theme of the National Youth Gathering back in 2010. Over 1,000 Anglican and Lutheran youth made their way to Whitehorse, in the Yukon.  Now, it is never an easy thing to tell teenagers to travel lightly. They have stuff and want stuff.  But, that, of course, was part of the exercise. Acknowledging...

The flags were flying at half mast when my family and I drove back into Kitchener from an outing on Thursday. We had heard on the car radio that Nelson Mandela had just died at the age of 95.

Mandela had made the headlines again in recent months, as his health deteriorated and as family and friends kept a close watch and vigil outside his...

We all know the joy of finding something that was lost. It can be something small like a set of keys or a wallet or a cell phone, and we give a hoot of joy or silent thanks when we find it again. The joy we feel can be for much more important things, not necessarily our own, and we can experience it as a wider community when the lost is found.

...

Imagine. For eighteen years, the woman can’t straighten her spine. The weight of her life pressing down on her discs, curving her back, so that her frame of reference gets smaller and smaller. Her world becomes the circle just in front of her feet, no longer able to feel the sun on her face, no longer able to see the stars at night. Then...

On Monday we saw the forces of nature unleashed with a massive category EF5 tornado, the most powerful category for tornadoes. It ripped through the southern limits of Oklahoma City, directly in Moore, devastating the town and the people there.  24 people were killed, 9 of them school children, and 237 were injured.  The tornado cut a...

She stood lost in her own world.  It was made up of sunshine and a rose bush.  She stood before the bush contemplating the beauty of it.  She looked at the deep red petals, overlapping each other. Bending forward, she placed her nose closely to the rose and inhaled.  She stood straight again and kept looking at the bush with...

It’s been over 30 years since Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while presiding over the Eucharist during worship in El Salvador.  Originally picked for the position because he was a cautious, thoughtful man, some said because he was conservative. He took up the cause of human rights in his own country as he witnessed the death...