Published in the Bruce Peninsula Press October 7, 2026 The Tobermory United annual pie sale is underway, and this year, it’s even bigger and better! Not only will there be cherry, apple and blueberry pies for pre-order, but also tourtiere and chicken pot pies! Prices are as follows: Tourtiere: 6” - $10.00; 8” - $20.00 Chicken pot pies: 6.5” deep-dish - $16.00 or 2 for $30.00 Apple, cherry and blueberry pies: 6” - $10.00 or 2 for $18.00 You can pre-order pies until October 25

This Sunday, our service is an embarrassment of riches. Firstly, we will be baptizing Christopher Kay-MacDonald. This will be the first baptism that will have occurred during my time at Tobermory United, and it is an honour and a privilege to baptize this earnest young man. It is also World Communion Sunday, and so, together with our siblings in faith throughout the world, we will share in Communion. Not only that, but Elaine has arranged for musical guests! Robert Thompson,

It is hard to write about Orange Shirt Sunday. Wearing orange on or around Sept. 30 means a lot of things. It means acknowledging that the Canadian government, in partnership with the churches, set up residential schools for more than a century in this country that were designed to break apart families and eliminate cultures that were millennia old. It means recognizing that the experiences in those schools created trauma for the students that had effects over generations. It

In 1886, the local history book Hewers of the Forests, Fishers of the Lakes tells us that after a couple of years of revival meetings and a missionary presence, a little church was built at the Tobermory Harbour. Saws and axes were used to cut the timber and oxen hauled out the logs. People who lived in the village as well as visiting fishermen focused “all their efforts toward completing the construction of the church.” When the church was almost finished, however, funds wer

You may have noticed in recent days that the geese are flocking into formation and flying overhead. Is this the beginning of their long, miraculous migration, or perhaps just a practice run? The monarchs that have been drawn to the butterfly bush on my deck for the last while, awe-inspiring in the way that they flutter and float, float and flutter, they too seem to have left for warmer climes. What ancient rhythms call these species? What ingrown knowing do they follow? This

On Wednesday evening, Summer in the Spirit held our last event for the 2026 season, “The Last Sweet Bite” of Summer, a poetry and dinner potluck, and wow, it was a powerful evening of offerings of both delicious food and moving pieces of spoken word and poetry. The spoken-word pieces offered by the featured guest, Trinidadian-Canadian storyteller and poet, Naomi Abiola, were jaw-dropping in their sincerity and tear-inducing in their power, especially Naomi’s first piece, “I

Many thanks to all who filled in for me in any way last week while I was on study leave. I attended the Great Lakes Creation Care Collaborative, a joint gathering with United Church of Canada folks from one side of the Great Lakes and United Church of Christ folks from the other. We were guided by Adrian Jacobs (Ganosono), Cayuga, from Six Nations, senior leader of Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation for the Christian Reformed Church in Canada. Using replicas of the histori

Did you stay up late and watch the Perseids meteor shower this week? I took my yoga mat out to my deck and just lay on my back gazing up at the night sky. The first thing I realized is that I should do this more often, even when there’s no meteor shower. To just lie on one’s back taking in the endless stars, the milky way hovering above like a comforting blanket, well, that’s something… And then, when a shooting star bolts through the sky in its fiery trajectory, that’s an ad

If you had to put words to it, how would you describe God’s Kingdom? Jesus himself seemed to have trouble describing it as just one thing, so he used many images. In Matthew 13, he describes it as like yeast mixed with flour until it is leavened; or like treasure hidden in a field; or like finding a pearl of great value; or like throwing a net into the sea and catching fish of every kind… We still can’t put a finger on the exact nature of the Kingdom of God, but we get the id

I write this on the morning before the day of the 54th annual Summer Chicken BBQ. Between now and late Saturday afternoon, 600 tarts will be wrapped. 600 potatoes will be baked. 600 containers of coleslaw and sour cream will be filled and 600 half chickens will be barbecued in the church parking lot. It will require many willing hands and souls to pull this off. We are doing what communities of faith have done for millennia – coming together to live and work in community, bec

published in the Bruce Peninsula Press, July 29, 2026 On June 23, a fire in the Bradley H. Davis Senior Apartments in Tobermory displaced all of the residents. Some have been able to move back in after a month; others will have to wait longer. The level of damage in the apartments is variable, from catastrophic to very little damage. Tobermory Community Outreach has partnered with the Meeting Place to establish a fund to help residents with essential needs as they return to t

Haven’t got your ticket yet for the Summer Chicken BBQ on August 1? There are tickets still available. The Summer Chicken BBQ, always held on the Saturday of Civic Holiday weekend, is a Tobermory tradition that goes back more than 50 years. The BBQ is different now -- drive-through pick-up, rather than a communal dinner – but the meal is the same: a mouth-watering barbecued half chicken, baked potato, coleslaw, sour cream, roll and dessert. Tickets can be ordered by calling 5

When you eat a meal, do you customarily say a blessing? If someone asks you to offer a blessing before a meal, do you feel prepared or panicked? In this, the third week of our summer worship series on sacred space, we explore the sacred space of where we live and the culture of our homes. We’ll look at the text in Matthew where Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish and feeds the multitudes. Did the fact that he blessed his meagre supplies have anything to do with it?

This sermon is called If a Tree Falls. It is based on Genesis 2:4-9 and 15-17 and it was preached on July 19, 2026.

At some point, will I stop being surprised by how the Holy Spirit works? I think not. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job, to show up in ways we could never have imagined, to place us in awe and a state of incredulity, our jaws dropping to the floor. What I’m talking about is how this Sunday is the second service in our series called “Sacred Space,” and how this Sunday we’re exploring the idea of the sacred space of the natural world, and how our text is about the sacredness of the

I was driving home from a meeting in Pike Bay on Tuesday evening, when Martha Aitkin called me. “Have you heard,” she said, “that there’s been a fire at the Brad Davis apartments?” “No, I have not,” I replied. “The folks are gathered at the Community Centre,” Martha said. “Everyone’s safe,” No injuries.” Thank goodness. The people who live at what most people just call “the apartments” are a stalwart bunch. Dislocated, having to leave their homes in a moment’s notice, and yet

Published in the Bruce Peninsula Press June 24, 2026 Tickets will become available for the Tobermory United Summer Chicken BBQ on July 1 for the event, which will take place Saturday August 1. The Chicken BBQ has been a beloved Tobermory tradition for more than fifty years! Tickets are $26.00, and each meal includes a barbecued half chicken, baked potato, sour cream, roll, coleslaw and dessert. Though the meal used to be a sit-down affair, it’s now a finely-tuned drive-throug

This sermon is called Sing a New Song. It is based on Psalm 104 and it was preached on June 21, 2026.

Many thanks to everyone who filled in for me in any way while I was away last week. I had dear friends visiting from Pittsburgh, so I got to be tourists with them. We hiked, went on a boat tour, ate ice cream, and it was so much fun! It was also an opportunity to see my life and the community in which I live and work through my friends’ eyes, and wow, I am blessed. It was good to step away for a week. It’s good to be back. This Sunday falls exactly on National Indigenous Peop

The Pride flag is flying brightly above the entrance to Tobermory United Church. It will stay there for the month of June, its rainbow colours a visual symbol of what Jan Mac Donald’s hand-painted sign already communicates: All are welcome in this place. Tobermory United’s annual Pride service is something that we take seriously. Preparations for this year’s service have been happening over the past many weeks. It all began with a conversation that occurred at the Jeff Bird c