This past Sunday was the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels or Michaelmas (Michael’s Mass). In some countries in the northern hemisphere, it’s a Christian version of celebrating the equinox. For Lutherans, it’s one of the only feasts to commemorate supernatural forces in the world. It was a strange movement coming from evangelical worlds that took supernatural entities literally…
The autumnal equinox has wheeled around once again. Every year I am reminded how this season has become my favourite season. Historically lacking the consumerist trappings of Christmas or Easter, it has been free to explode a worthy celebration on the world without forcing it into a plastic mould. Without knocking the lovers of pumpkin spice lattes, I can’t help…
I’m excited and honoured to introduce to you my friend and colleague, Lindsey Jorgensen-Skakum. I first met Lindsey when they were finishing their final year at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon while I was beginning my first year. Warm and welcoming in a kind and hearty way, Lindsey demonstrated the kind of hospitality and community we all desire when entering…
It’s time again for the summer solstice — Litha, Alban Heruin, Midsummer. The axial tilt of our earth is the nearest to the sun as it will ever be during the entire year. In Celtic lore, the four albans mark the two solstices as well as the two equinox days. Alban Heruin marks the celebration of the peak of summer…
I’m thrilled to introduce you all to Mariko and Rachel Tinaya with their beautiful children, Eli and Sparrow. I first met Mariko when I began my grad work in the Urban Studies program at Eastern University. She was an intelligent, insightful, cheerful person already a year advanced in the program. I was deeply unsure of my place in the MAUS…
“This is the kind of Friend You are – Without making me realize My soul’s anguished history, You slip into my house at night, And while I am sleeping, You silently carry off All my suffering and sordid past In Your beautiful Hands.” -Hafiz We downplay sleep. We downplay our need for sleep. We all experience sleep deprivation and its…
I’m sitting in front my screen, tapping absently at the keys trying to formulate a final paper for my Lutheran Confessions course. Nothing. I have plenty of material, but I have zero impetus to engage in medieval theology anymore. You would think a theology of grace would be liberating. But during the actual class, I found myself pulling my hair…
Dear Jean, I was distressed to learn that you suffered a heart attack last month, but was also relieved to hear of your improving health and current sabbatical. Did you sense my thoughts and prayers? Did they help? Did you need them? Did you want them? It’s not terribly courteous to question peoples’ “thoughts and prayers” these days. Scroll down…
I offered a didactic on ‘LGBTQ+ Health in Spiritual Care’ during my recent CPE Unit. Do you know what I discovered? There were hardly any credible pastoral care/spiritual care resources for LGBTQ+ people. I wasn’t surprised. Saddened, but not surprised. As I sifted through what little I could, I began to realize once again that there is practically nothing…
This silent prairie morning will explode into an irrational flurry of colourful vestments, litanies, songs, and the tender laying on of hands The day will burn on, hot and furious, (even as the church is quiet, peopled with intense gazes) and will raise a fire of “Now! Now! After twenty five years of toil, loss, confusion, suffering, joys, wonders, and…
