News from the Field

“Wait, how many times do I have to refuse an offer of something before I can accept it without causing offense?” This question is one of the first you must learn the answer to while living in the Middle Eastern country in which I have spent my last year and a half (precise location undisclosed for security). In answer, my local friend explains that in a culture like this one, one of the ways in which you show honour is by making offerings of relationship through hospitality not just once, but multiple times.

I have had the privilege of participating in several conferences this spring, each of which touched on a different aspect of my work on poverty in Canada. They explored issues including housing, reconciliation, polarization, income security, and climate change, and brought together church folks, academics, advocates, people with lived experience of poverty, service providers, and government representatives from across the country. 

Going to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto, ON, every year means deep fried ice cream waffles for me. I know this is not the healthiest thing to eat but it is so tasty. Guilty pleasures like this shouldn’t be our regular diet but an exclamation point on our life journey.

We have a hope in the risen Christ who overcame betrayal. How did betrayal benefit Judas Iscariot by giving Jesus to the Pharisees after receiving the lump sum amount? Even at the last supper, the last warning was made when Jesus said, ‘one of you will betray the son of God.’ 

Who was God in the life of Judas Iscariot at that moment? 

All in turn asking Jesus at dinner,’is it me?’

Until Judas’s turn and Jesus said ‘YES.’

“To bring justice to the children who never made it home is to be able to identify who they are, bringing peace to the families and truth about the children’s passing,” said Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir of the Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc.  

On May 27, 2021 Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc confirmed an unthinkable loss—the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the home community of the largest school in the residential school system. 

Everywhere we look in our culture you will find plastic. One place where you will not find plastic, however, is in the Bible.

Plastics, first created in 1907, began global production in the 1950s. Over the next 70 years, annual production increased nearly 230-fold to 460 million tons in 2019. This growth spurt birthed single-use plastics, now one of the most urgent environmental threats. These plastics, too often buried in landfills or dumped untreated in our water sources, have become emblematic of our culture's convenience obsession.

A Valentine’s Day Meditation Inflected by Liberation Theology

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. …  Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.  For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you (Acts 17:16-23, NIV) 

Although the story of Herod killing all the boy babies under two in Bethlehem is a post Christmas story, it is associated with it. The joy of birth comes after the immediate pain of childbirth. Joy mixed with grief is a clear juxtaposition in seminal life experiences. Jesus was born into this world as a baby in order to lay down his life as an adult in a grievous crucifixion. The joy and hope of new life and the pain and grief of a knowing mother was Mary’s experience.

For many Christians around the world, the day after Halloween was not just a day to recuperate from children’s sugar highs and pick up discarded candy wrappers from the sidewalk.  No, it was All Saints Day - the day in the church calendar to remember all those disciples - living and dead - whose lives inspire us to live more faithful, more loving, more Jesus-shaped lives.