[Ken Gray] It was a pleasure to visit the church of my childhood and later years, St. John the Divine in Victoria this past Sunday. I attended in order to co-sign a letter to Canadian Minister Mark Carney asking him to honour his previous commitments (Value(s), p. xv) to create policy which protects the environment... Continue Reading →
On the Beach
[Ken Gray] A favourite of our readers, five-and-a-half-year-old labradoodle, Juno, blogs on politics, art and culture, canine/human connections, and creation. She is supported by her production team PaPaw and MaPaw. To unbelievers, feel free to suspend belief, even for a moment. [Juno] โGod made me fast, very fast, and when I run, I feel his... Continue Reading →
Like father, like son — From son to father
With thanks to Bill Sundhu and Avi Lewis who wrote the following message. [Avi Lewis] My father Stephen Lewis is spectacularly uninterested in social media, so Iโm posting this myself (though he has read it and is prepared to suffer the indignity of all I'm about to reveal). When he was Canadaโs ambassador to the... Continue Reading →
Music at my funeral
https://youtu.be/hKgUxqXoc9M Today is the day that I will sit down and plan my own funeral, not the entire rite, but the music. Some will ask me if I am feeling poorly. Not at all. My arthritis continues to exert influence; hearing joins sight in disadvantage; diabetic management continues apace, and my memory fails increasingly each... Continue Reading →
Pilgrims at Sparrow Creek, and other places
Guest blog -- THE REVEREND LAUREL DYKSTRAPriest, Salal + Cedar; Vicar, St. Georgeโs, Fort Langleyย This article first appeared in TOPIC, the Newspaper of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, Canada. โThe geographical pilgrimage is the symbolic acting out of an inner journey.โ Thomas Merton From the 17th Century allegory Pilgrimโs Progress, to Annie Dillardโs 1970s... Continue Reading →
Famous 3-word phrases
A sermon for the congregation of St. Stephen Anglican Church, Summerland โ The 5th Sunday of Easter, May 18, 2025 While rector of St. Stephenโs some years ago I created a sermon series focused on four- or five-letter words. A four letter word sermon talked about LOVE. Five-letter editions unpacked FAITH and GRACE. Today, I... Continue Reading →
HABEMUS PAPAM Four votes to elect new pope
By Claire Giangravรฉ - Religion News Service (via Episcopal News Service) In a shocking vote that caught the Catholic world by surprise, the College of Cardinals elected Robert Francis Prevost, 69, the 267th pope on May 8. He is the first United States citizen to become the bishop of Rome. The Chicago-born Prevost has chosen... Continue Reading →
Easter, ongoing resurrection in Christ
No sermon from me today โ A rare weekend off. Enjoy instead a blog from the Centre for Action and Contemplation. Dean of Faculty Brian McLaren encourages us to make Easter an expansive celebration of resurrection. What might happen if every Easter we celebrated the resurrection not merely as the resuscitation of a single corpse... Continue Reading →
The Servant
A homily for Maundy Thursday, April 17, 2025St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton BCThe Very Rev. Ken Gray So what do Gosford Park, The Remains of the Day, Upstairs Downstairs, and Downton Abbey have in common? Apart from each showโs unique historical meta-narratives, each of these very English period dramas describe โlife downstairs,โ the loves, duties,... Continue Reading →
Stop, and smell the roses
A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton BC on the fifth Sunday in Lent, April 6th, 2025 โ The Very Rev. Ken Gray It is said by those who teach writing that every paragraph should start with a strong opening sentence. In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens opens with... Continue Reading →