A video of her acceptance speech at the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing is here A transcript is below. (Check against delivery.) [Maggie Helwig] This is not my book. This book belongs to a community. I am cognizant that I am in the kind of room which I am not in very often, and... Continue Reading →
A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour, Penticton, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Sunday, May 3rd, 2026, by the Very Rev. Ken Gray JOHN 14:1-14 A few weeks ago, on the 5th Sunday in Lent, I preached on the text from John’s Gospel: “I am the resurrection and the life.” At the time I... Continue Reading →
What is it about a painting? One image in two dimensions, a snapshot in this age of streamers – how can it compete for our attention? One answer could be the simple fact of genius compressed into a frame. The quote above, from a newsletter from The Observer, has me thinking about the photographic task,... Continue Reading →
How the first American pope is reclaiming Christian values from the Trump administration By Christopher Lamb at CNN Flying to Algeria at the start of his landmark tour of Africa on Monday, Pope Leo had a choice. He could ignore Donald Trump’s extraordinary overnight social media tirade against him, or he could tackle it head... Continue Reading →
CAC faculty member Brian McLaren reflects on the person of Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480–547) whose world closely resembles ours today. History, it seems, repeats itself. Hopefully Benedict's solution helps us on our way. Long live wisdom. It’s not hard to imagine a world that seems to be falling apart with political division and corruption,... Continue Reading →
Ikonostasis, Orthodox Monastery, Birchdale on Kootenay Lake BC - David Burrows photo Extract from an interview in Sunday’s New York Times between David Bentley Hart and Peter Wehner - The complete interview is worth a careful read David Bentley Hart is one of the world’s most formidable and provocative theological minds. He is an Eastern... Continue Reading →
From Jim Palmer on Facebook [Ken Gray writes] In my never-ending attempt to deal with my own ego needs I found this piece by Jim Palmer interesting and encouraging. In other words: “What to do when the spotlight fades . . .” [Jim Palmer] There is an old Jewish legend that in every generation there... Continue Reading →
[Notes from a CBC article here] Former politician, diplomat and activist Stephen Lewis has died at age 88. Lewis was a former leader of the Ontario NDP, Canadian ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime journalist and environmental activist. The Lewis family said in a statement on Tuesday that he died peacefully in hospice... Continue Reading →
To those of you who already know Ruth, you know what is wrong with this picture. To those of you who do not know her, you need to understand that Ruth is typically NOT the one eating, but more likely the one preparing and setting out the food. She is an extroverted personality who loves... Continue Reading →
Schoolgirls in Iran (Photo by Paul Keller via Creative Commons license, edits by the Century) Article Mac Loftin in The Christian Century, March 9, 2026 The brief biblical account of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents raises the question of what faith demands when politics fails to stop the killing. The massacre of the innocents is... Continue Reading →
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 