A sermon preached on Sunday Feb 5, 2023 at St. George's Cathedral, Cape Town,South Africa by Fr Michael Lapsley SS, Canon for Healing and Reconciliation at St Georges. In 1990 Fr. Michael was sent a letter bomb by the apartheid regime. It was hidden inside two religious magazines. He lost both hands and the sight... Continue Reading →
Beyond Words: Parish Vitality at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Kamloops
A Guest Post by the Very Reverend Dr. Kyle Norman) What passes for theology these days cannot rightly be called so. We discuss concepts and phraseology, but rarely do we contemplate the divine. This was an observation made by theologian Ronald Rohleiser. Rolheiser observed that theology, correctly defined, is theo logos, or “words about God”.... Continue Reading →
Time to roll up our sleeves
UPDATE: Given the recent legal change where adults in B.C. are no longer subject to criminal charges for the personal possession of small amounts of certain illegal drugs I have re-visited my blog from a year ago, thankful that some progress has been made on assessing the effectiveness of our drug rehabilitation programmes. I was... Continue Reading →
St. George’s rocks – Another reflection on Anglican parish vitality in Canada
We arrived at St. George’s; a long time Anglican Parish situated beside the waters of Victoria’s Cadboro Bay on a sunny January morning. It is a parish I know well having led and attended events, worship services, youth conferences, Cursillo weekends, ordinations and synod meetings there over many years. (My mother and I tried to... Continue Reading →
Passion, parishes and people — A brilliant idea
Thanks Lisa Vaughan who joined Neil Mancor and me this past week for a great conversation around Anglican parishes, leadership, community and outreach. Our Facebook Live broadcast brought together folks from Spiritual Formation for Discipleship: A Network for Canadian Anglicans and connected with others from all across our Canadian Church. Pew and Beyond is a... Continue Reading →
Parish a-plenty — St. Matthew’s Islington, Toronto UPDATED
To say that my recent blog concerning the future of Anglican parish ministry in Canada has attracted much interest and attention is no exaggeration. To date, almost 900 viewers have read all or part of the essay, some leaving comments and others (laity and all orders of clergy) requesting conversations. In order to moderate my... Continue Reading →
It’s all about leadership — Life in my little town – The church blog
Photo Credit: Loretta Cooper “Consider the ministry. You will have lots of time for reading, and will be able to run your own show by thirty.” Such was the claim made by the Rev. David Ashforth, coordinator of the West London Chaplaincy, an ecumenical student ministry at various colleges in West London (UK), including my... Continue Reading →
20,000, at last
It is commonly suggested that in North America at least, size matters! The larger the number, the longer the length, the heavier the tonnage, large is lovely. The more the merrier in our neoliberal economic world. So how do you react to the number 20,000? Is this a truly large number? With most people I... Continue Reading →
Ellie Johnson: An Appreciation — One year after her death in 2022
A photo of Ellie Johnson talking with Bishop Willie Pwaisiho in the Solomon Islands in May 1996 On bookstore shelves it is the biographies which interest me most. The great stories of great people both entertain and inspire me, and I don’t think I am alone. When I say “great” people I don’t mean those... Continue Reading →
Gotta put on my, ped’ling shoes
I play with my feet; true story. No I am not twiddling with my toes or trimming my nails during boring meetings or conversing with friends and colleagues; that would be rude. When I play the organ however, I play with my hands and in equal measure I play with my feet. People know that... Continue Reading →