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

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

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?

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

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

I just looked at the forecast for Tobermory. There appears to be sun and double-digit temperatures forecast for the upcoming week. Hallelujah! It still seems unusual not to find a weather alert, after so many days this winter with sometimes multiple alerts on the same day… The birds, the green, the flowers, it all seems somewhat miraculous. In fact, even though I’m not a birder, there have been birds of such beauty in my backyard this week that I had to find their names. It w

I almost always write the word Pentecost followed by an exclamation mark. It’s because it was just that kind of day. There Jesus’ followers are, having a meeting (this practice began early) when the Holy Spirit shows up with wind and tongues of fire! See, the exclamation mark is needed! Suddenly, everyone can understand one another, no matter the language. Suddenly, it is obvious that Jesus’ followers are to boldly take up his mission, though Jesus himself is no longer with t

Many, many thanks to all those who helped with the Spring Chicken BBQ on May 13, and especially to the 402 people who purchased dinners! When I tell folks that we served 400 dinners on Wednesday, if they are people who are not familiar with the process, they gasp. But for those who are familiar with the process, the ones who fill the sour cream containers or run the dinners out to the cars or sell tickets to everyone they know, it’s just what we do. Everyone does their job, a

Have you ever read about the origin of Mother’s Day? It is actually the brainchild of feminist social activist, author and poet Julia Ward Howe, back in 1870. The carnage of the American civil war was still fresh on everyone’s mind at that time, then the Franco-Prussian war began. Howe and many others had had enough of war, so Julia Ward Howe wrote the Mothers’ Day Proclamation, an appeal to women around the world to unite for peace. Believing that women had a duty to use pol

This Sunday, we celebrate Mental Health Sunday. This is a relatively new celebration on the liturgical calendar, but important, indeed. I have come to believe that mental health is like physical health, it ranges on a continuum on any given day for every person on the planet. Celebrating Mental Health Sunday, as the worship page on the United Church of Canada states, “is part of the church’s effort to create communities of radical belonging for all people, including those li

Has Spring actually arrived? Has it? There are daffodils blooming in Owen Sound. Not quite here yet, but at least it is now reasonable to believe that it’s a possibility! My goodness, Spring seems like an absolute miracle when it’s been such a long winter… It seems appropriate that we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday this Sunday, as lambs also are a sure sign of Spring. Did you know that the most-painted depiction of Jesus in the catacombs in Rome is of him carrying a lamb on h

Many thanks to all who filled in for me while I was away last week, I haven’t watched the service on Youtube yet, but I hear through the grapevine that Holy Humour Sunday was well celebrated! I was told one of the jokes today, and I’d include it here, but I never remember jokes, so I can’t. But, it was funny! This Sunday, we celebrate Earth Sunday, in honour of Earth Day, April 22. It’s so appropriate to celebrate Earth Day at this time of year. I’m not even a birder, but it

This is the week when it all begins… Palm Sunday on Sunday morning; an early celebration of Good Friday on Sunday evening, with the Community Easter Cantata Choir service, “In Calvary’s Shadow;” followed by an intimate service of foot washing and Communion on Maundy Thursday; and then a celebration of the miracle of resurrection on Easter Sunday! In this one week, as we accompany Jesus to the cross, it’s possible to feel a whole range of human emotions, from expectation, to t

Apparently “Jesus wept” is the shortest verse in the Bible – the King James version, anyways. This brief sentence appears in the account of the raising of Lazarus, which we will encounter on Sunday. In this account, Jesus is summoned because his friend Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha, has died. Upon coming to the place where Lazarus’ body has been put to rest, Jesus, surrounded by a weeping Mary and other friends, begins to weep too. This says a lot. It reinforces the ide

Sometimes the Holy Spirit just drops things into your lap – like the fact that this Sunday is International Women’s Day and the lectionary Gospel scripture just happens to be Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. There are so few accounts of women in the Bible, so I’m really glad that the lectionary served one of them up for us on this important day. Did you know that Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman is the longest sustained conversation that he h