Diocesan Theologian

Are we disenchanted or misenchanted? A We Together preview

Disenchantment, re-enchantment and misenchantment: these are the central terms and themes of a course I’m teaching this semester. In one of my lectures at the ...
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Why the church is called to listen and discern

Few words are more central to Christian life than “discernment.” A dictionary (Oxford Languages) offers two definitions, one simple, one complex and nuanced: the ability ...
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Behaving not believing

When Christians encounter people from other traditions, they are often inclined to ask, in a spirit of curiosity, “What do you believe?” This might seem ...
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My New Year’s resolution? “I am loved”

Nothing will make you feel like real change is impossible than personal struggles with transformation. The beginning of the New Year is almost always an ...
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Breaking bread together — practices for the church in an interreligious era

As someone committed to the work of interreligious dialogue, I take it for granted that others walk their own valid paths to ultimate reality. But ...
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Will it be God or Mammon? Contesting the religion of market capitalism

Self-deception — many in North America engage in it when they claim not to be religious. Many churchgoers also deceive themselves when we say that ...
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Beauty, the forgotten name of God

Holy Mystery, Poet of the World, empower us to know and praise you rightly. Teach us once more that you are not just the True, ...
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Will the new year bring anything new, or just more novelties?

The new is not the novel. The novel appears routinely — novel gadgets, novel operating systems, and even novel cultural trends. But the genuinely new ...
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Making sense of Advent expectation

“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.” ~ The Nicene Creed The ...
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Remembering nature as the place of God

The following sermon was delivered at the diocesan We Together conference, which took place in Nanaimo on Sept. 30–Oct. 1. You can watch this sermon ...
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Treasure in earthen vessels

Few questions are harder than asking, How do we serve as caretakers of broken institutions that, nonetheless, bear within them a healing treasure? While the ...
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Why stay in the Church? On pursuing integrity not purity

As we become increasingly aware of the historical cruelty of Anglican, Catholic and other Canadian churches — the most recent papal apology serving as yet ...
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The work of attention: a Lenten discipline

“Not only does the love of God have attention for its substance; the love of our neighbour, which we know to be the same love, ...
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Living out the Sermon on the Mount

This past week, I finally got around to reading a letter of historic importance — lost for nearly 90 years and republished only last January. ...
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Finding our place in a larger story

I play the role of lead actor in the story of my life, and even my nearest and dearest are but supporting actors. This claim ...
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