We need prophets today. We look for the clairvoyants who can somehow test the shadows of the future and, returning to the present, assure us of what is to come. We look to those folks claiming to be able to discern shades and spirits of future events, displaying power and control over the uncontrollable. No. We need those blossoming…
Category: Poetry
Thoughts from Joel McKerrow
I first met Joel at a justice weekend in British Colombia. His poetry and activism were beautiful and broken. Check out his musings via The Helplessness of the White-Saviour.
To My Friend on His Ordination
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…
The Space of Generations
I’m thumbing through my worn copy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Letters and Papers from Prison”. Good book. Classic book. Powerful book. When the world seems way too bleak for my tired heart to comprehend, I can find solace — sorrow and joy — in Bonhoeffer’s words. But it’s not just Bonhoeffer’s words that bring comfort and light. The book had a…
Song of Life
It’s another day of hitting the ground running. Making connections, contacts, finding space for a huge shipment of food, hearing horror stories, & making backup plan after backup plan. Lac La Biche has been amazing. During one of the worst crises Alberta has ever seen, the County has facilitated a tremendous relief effort. And who can forget the forest firefighters?…
Holy Ground at Smitty’s: Honouring One Another’s Stepping Stones
My First Nations and Metis friends often tell me how bereft of ceremony white culture is. Having been honoured over the past decade to be a part of indigenous ceremonies to varying degrees, I would have to agree. We gloss over coming-of-ages, the starting of new homes, or the journeys we take in our pursuits of God. However, even within…