Closed: Trump Admin Officially Shuts Down the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifelineโs LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services Source: Trevor News โ Jul. 17, 2025 July 17, 2025 โ The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has officially terminated the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifelineโs LGBTQ+ Youth Specialized Services program. Starting today, contacts who reach... Continue Reading →
Carney on a Palestinian state, with restrictions
Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday placed restrictive conditions on the recognition of a Palestinian state, stressing the need to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the ongoing violations in the West Bank, while simultaneously rejecting any future Palestinian government that includes the Resistance movement Hamas,... Continue Reading →
No long sermon from me today
Amongst other gifts and duties, deacons preach in congregations as they connect us with the wider community In fact, no sermon at all today. As I now only preach on the first and third Sundays of each month today is truly a day of rest. Instead I share a reflection on sermons as an art... Continue Reading →
Itโs no laughing matter โ Or is it?
Years ago I suggested to a justice-seeking colleague that we should investigate the role of humour in our social and ecological justice advocacy. We can be awfully serious, I said. Off-putting even. She replied that the context โ human rights abuse; the climate crisis; avaricious market hegemony โ didnโt lend itself well to comedic treatment.... Continue Reading →
The Wisdom of Rage
Originally published on July 21, 2025 by our friends at the Center for Action and Contemplation (Richard Rohr) Sikh activist Valarie Kaur traveled to Guatemala to learn about the 20th-century genocide of Mayan Indigenous peoples. While there, she joined CAC teachers in an online event to explore how we might honor and learn from our... Continue Reading →
Godโs love made visible
A sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 20, 2025 for the congregation of St. Stephen, Summerland โ The Very Rev. Ken Gray Every once in a while I stumble across some very beautiful language, sometimes poetry, sometimes prose. Itโs good, if after one hearing I want to go back and hear it again,... Continue Reading →
Celtic spirituality, science, and climate disruption
Diana Beresford-Kroegerโs new book says nature holds the key to a healthy planetby Christopher White in Broadview Magazine -- Originally published Feb. 21, 2025 Diana Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, biochemist, writer and mystic. Raised in Ireland, she spent her youth immersed in Celtic spirituality and the medieval Irish Brehon laws, which are communal ways of... Continue Reading →
Let us be fearless โ Church as an imagination-shaping force
A Sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton BC - Sunday, July 13 2025 โ The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost โ The Very Rev. Ken Gray Mainstream media has not focused on a very special event that occurred a few days ago in New York City; church media certainly has however. the... Continue Reading →
Touched with tenderness โ Two online courses worth your consideration โ An invitation from Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh
Friends, As we struggle to make sense of all that is going on in our world and communities right now, I have increasingly been remembering familial stories about living with atrocities. Both of my parents were born during the Second World War, and stories about those years shaped my imagination growing up. These were stories... Continue Reading →
Hopeful words from Appalachia, Barbara Kingsolver
[Ken Gray] I have long admired the writing of Barbara Kingsolver. From her debut novels The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven, her early non-fiction essay collection High Tide in Tucson, her novel The Poisonwood Bible, and most recently the epic Pulitzer and Womenโs prize winning Demon Copperhead I have enjoyed her intelligent and insightful... Continue Reading →