The newest member of the TakeNote team This piece by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas is part of Sustainable Faith: An Interfaith Season of Creation, a series from Massachusetts Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) in which leaders from across Massachusetts' religious and ethical traditions write, in the first person, about how their faith connects with... Continue Reading →
The story of Orange Shirt Day — Not everyone knows the story, until now
Published by the CBC Kids team | Last Updated June 04, 2024 Orange Shirt Day began in Williams Lake in 2013 and has since spread to schools across B.C. and Canada. (Orangeshirtday.org) Orange Shirt Day (September 30th) is a day when we honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada.... Continue Reading →
“White supremacist organizing is on the rise, and we must do more to fight it”
[CBC News] “B.C. politicians and leaders are denouncing an apparent gathering of white nationalists on the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc reserve, just east of Kamloops. Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 Rosanne Casimir says the nation received reports Sunday morning of a gathering of roughly 30 men, donning white face masks and black caps, standing together around the... Continue Reading →
And in the end, martyrdom, and justice for the oppressed
With thanks to Fr. Michael Lapsley, himself no stranger to violence and suffering, who shared Dorothy’s story this past week on Facebook. I have never heard this story, but others have. She deserveS beatification if not sainthood. Such an inspiration to us all. KJG When the gunmen asked the 73-year-old nun if she was carrying... Continue Reading →
“You must go at your life with a broadax” — Remembering Annie Dillard
Daniel Lewis, Sept. 16, 2026 The New York Times Annie Dillard, who as a young American writer walked into the woods and came out with a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the wonders and horrors of creation, the modern classic “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” died on Tuesday at her home in South Wellfleet, Mass. She was... Continue Reading →
Vive le Canada
Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's speech on the 25th anniversary of the 911 terrorist attack ~ Sep 11, 2026 at Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador https://youtu.be/sw-CzpbjA6E Formatted here as a poem, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's speech is one for the ages. Infused by his typical fighting spirit, though graciously offered, his words are a paean to... Continue Reading →
Humanity must stop pretending it doesn’t know what it’s doing to the Earth
That's the message from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, marking 1 September as both the start of the Orthodox ecclesiastical year and the Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Natural Environment, an observance the Ecumenical Patriarchate established in 1989 and which now brings Christian communities together worldwide: "a symbol and practical promotion of the unity... Continue Reading →
Haiti: “The biggest disgrace is indifference”
by Jim Hodgson - Reposted from Unwrapping Development More than 42 years after my first visit to Haiti, I can’t disagree with that assessment. It was offered June 16 by UN secretary general António Guterres near the end of his one-day visit to Port-au-Prince. The visit came 40 years after the fall of the Duvalier family dictatorship;... Continue Reading →
The unwinding of our climate
From The Guardian daily newsletter, Monday, Aug 31, 2026 - Hettie O’Brien, FIRST EDITION Over the weekend, rescue workers in Nepal and Tibet raced to find people who are still trapped in villages affected by catastrophic flash floods. As of this morning, the death toll stands at 903, and more than 4,000 people are missing.... Continue Reading →
RIP Wendell Berry
A Poem on Hope It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old, for hope must not depend on feeling good and there’s the dream of loneliness at absolute midnight. You also have withdrawn belief in the present reality of the future, which surely will surprise us, and hope is harder... Continue Reading →