Welcome to my blog! Below you'll find evidence of two things that give me great joy - writing and taking photos. If you want to see some of the posts I'm most proud of, a list bloggers I respect and follow, and more information about me, check the top navigation bar. Thanks for visiting; please comment and join the conversation.
While riding transit, I pass time by reading books about LGBTQ+ theology. My wife Danice is usually happy for me to summarize them for her afterward so she doesn’t have to read them herself, but having witnessed my frequent laughter and eager underlining as I devoured Eve Tushnet’s book, Gay and Catholic, Danice now wants to read it too. That in itself may be enough of a review...
Middle section, second pew from the front, left side.
That's where my family sat every Sunday morning. It provided easy access to the stage for my pastor dad, who was always positioned closest to the aisle. It gave me a sense of being under the watchful gaze of the whole congregation: significant, but scrutinized...
One of my heroes passed away today at the tender young age of 99.
I feel so far away from the community that mourns her in Vancouver. As I was searching for ways to connect and remember, I found an article I wrote about her five years ago. I hope it gives you a window into the life of this woman who so inspired me...
Just as I was congratulating myself, I recalled a question that had burned itself into my memory while listening to one of my favorite podcasts, The Liturgists... “Is there anyone you would refuse go to the Table with?” The previous morning, members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church had traveled all the way to Portland to picket our gay Christian conference and demonstrate their impressive ability to each hold four offensive signs with two hands. Thankfully, a crowd of local Christians had kindly stood in front of them, in the pouring rain, creating a wall of love to buffer us from that hatred. As one of these Portlanders remarked, “It was Christians protecting Christians from Christians.” But suppose all these Christians, in all three categories, were invited together to the Table...
Two years ago, I was co-pastoring a little church in inner-city Vancouver. That Advent season, my co-pastor was leading us in imaginative storytelling: we'd take turns choosing a person from the Christmas narrative and telling the story from that character's viewpoint. I enjoyed listening to other people's reflections, but I whenever I tried to decide which character from the story I could best identify with, I lost focus.
My brain kept getting snagged on the fact that this would be my last closeted Christmas...
I can't help it; I'm a sucker for new year's resolutions. I know January 1st is really no different than any other 24-hour day. I know I can "start my best life now," whenever "now" happens to be. But there's something about New Year's Day that feels like the first crisp page of a journal. Plus it's a memorable marker in time. So here I raise my Ebenezer...
It’s been two and a half weeks since our staff returned to Toronto, and I’m still sitting here, trying to make sense of what happened during the three weeks of our Epic Road Trip across western Canada. At risk of stating the obvious, the trek, for me, was a mix of the expected and the unexpected. I expected to bond with my co-workers, and I did. We enjoyed so many shared experiences: the hotels (good and bad), the restaurants (good and bad), listening to the addictive Serial podcast (always good) as well as Danice’s highly educational musical playlists – overviews of music through the decades – and of course, lots and lots of Tim Horton’s, the one blessed constant across the many miles and time zones of Canada...
