What a great way to start the new year, every year, but especially this year, early on New Year’s Day 2025, a walk in the woods enjoying a Northern Lights display. My friend and colleague, Louise, lives in Smithers, the Gem of Northern British Columbia. Despite warmer temperatures than normal this year, snow lay on... Continue Reading →
I totally get it! When things change for me, other changes follow. When clergy leave a parish (or cathedral) things they valued sometimes disappear. (Trust me on this.) Joseph had led the people of Israel during times of famine. His prophecy of good and bad times was fully realized. As a result he enjoyed the... Continue Reading →
Sometimes the best advice I receive comes from those closest to me: Longtime friends, work colleagues, family members including my wife, Kathie, and our two kids. Farewell Facebook, goodbye Elon Musk, but hello to family members, those of my own flesh, to my own son, tho recently told me that “everything is evil.” This seemed... Continue Reading →
Standing in a Penticton pulpit yesterday I thought aloud about suitable music for the Epiphany season. Today, on the Feast of Epiphany itself I have a suggestion which came to mind during yesterday’s sermon, a text by the English clergyman and theologian John Hanry Newman (1801-1890) who in 1833 wrote Lead Kindly Light enroute to... Continue Reading →
A sermon for the congregation of St. Stephen, Summerland Anglican ChurchSunday, November 17th 2024The Very Rev. Ken Gray During the 1970s while a student at the University of Calgary my friend, Rod, was a men’s residence supervisor. In those days, bomb threats were common on Canadian university campuses. One day Rod received a call advising... Continue Reading →
In small towns like ours here in Summerland, throughout most of Canada Remembrance Day observance is a major event. Shortly before 11:00 tomorrow downtown at the Memorial Park cenotaph literally hundreds of folks of all ages will brave rain, wind, or occasionally snow, all bundled up to join the parade or watch from the sidelines—veterans,... Continue Reading →
Walter Brueggemann is one of the foremost interpreters of the Old Testament of our day. As an American Christian educator he reflects here a day after the recent US federal election. He turns to Holy Scripture and to the prophet Elijah In the wake of the 2024 presidential election and its acute disappointment for many,... Continue Reading →
Letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on the U.S. presidential election / Bishop Rowe is the recently installed Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (USA and affiliated territories) Issued November 6, 2024 / Reprinted from here Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church, Early this morning, we learned that President Trump has been elected... Continue Reading →
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 30] (Sunday, October 27th, 2024)A SERMON for the congregation of St. Stephen, Summerland BCThe Very Rev. Ken Gray ON (MY) BLINDNESS When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide Lodged with... Continue Reading →
With thanks to photographers Linda Curle, Linda Carnegie, Lorne Hoover, and Nancy Montgomery Still my favourite movie, Casablanca, contains some brilliant cinematic lines: “Play it again Sam”; “We’ll always have Paris”; and “Round up the usual suspects.” Filmed in 1942 during the depths of the Second World War, the plot centres around Victor Laslo, a... Continue Reading →
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 