Well, hello. I’m back. I have good news and bad news about my vacation time. We’ll start with the bad news: A three-day train trip from Toronto to Jasper, sadly, is not a good experience for an 85 year old with mobility issues (my mother). What started as a highly anticipated bucket-list experience – my mother, my sister and I travelling west by train – turned into a very difficult time for all of us, as my mother’s walker would not fit in the passageways of the train and she

Tobermory United Church is gearing up to once again host the annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper, Feb. 17, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Tobermory Community Centre. The meal includes pancakes, farmers’ sausages, homemade baked beans, fruit, desserts and refreshments. Not only will you be served a wonderful meal, but in the midst of a stormy winter, it will be great to get out and see some friends and neighbours! Admission is by donation. The following morning, February 18, all ar

Well, it’s been a week… One of those weeks where the weather dictates our activities, a week of cancelling, rescheduling, shovelling, shifting meetings to Zoom, but in the midst of all that, also gratitude. Gratitude for warm shelter, for the people who plow the roads and the ones who show up in emergencies even in a blizzard. The key to winter in Tobermory seems to be flexibility. As I said in a Zoom meeting on Thursday, “Blessed are the flexible.” We are in the middle of th

It’s a powerful question. Powerful now and powerful in the Gospel of John when Jesus asks it of two of John the Baptist’s disciples. The disciples answer, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” And so it begins, the teaching relationship that unfolded over three years and countless miles and the witnessing of miracles and the authorities always hovering in the background, ready to shut things down. A relationship that begins here and will end at the cross… Each of the Gospels has a