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Giving ourselves like alms
Weeks into Lent, some of us may be dipping into those books of Lenten reflections more sporadically than we had hoped. We may feel a bit untethered from whatever observance we had intended. What do we do? Give up? Begin again? Or something else. It’s long been important to me, as I inhabit Lent, to…
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Directed Study Summer 2024
For the second year, attendance at Rural Routes Through the Holy will form part of a directed summer study offered by the Atlantic School of Theology. Dr. Marvin Lee Anderson will supervise the course. You can read the syllabus here. This is an excellent opportunity for those wanting to delve deeper into an exploration of…
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Rural Context and Culture for Ministry
Dr. Marvin Lee Anderson will be the instructor for this Atlantic School of Theology directed summer study course, in which attendance at Rural Routes Through the Holy (RRTH) forms a key component. Marvin has reflected and taught extensively on his experience of rural contexts. You can read his bio here. You can read the course…
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What is Rural Routes Through the Holy?
Learning, deepening, dreaming ~Finding our voices ~Realizing ourselves as ancestors of the future ~Attending to our neighbour ~Honouring the truth that, “small is also bountiful” ~Becoming community in God ~ Rural Routes was born in my imagination as I worked with small congregations. More than once I’ve arrived on pastoral charges that had a history,…
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Theme 2024 Beautiful to Behold: Broken Open Church
The two parts of this title need one another. You are, as a person, as a community, “beautiful to behold” by the Constant One who sees and holds you. You just are. You don’t earn it by scrambling to find the correct answer; to be bigger, younger, healthier, more right, more (or less) of anything. …
Read MoreRural Routes Through the Holy Schedule – 2024
Beautiful to Behold: Broken Open Church Thursday, June 13th9:30 Muffins, Coffee, Tea10:00 Welcome, Orientation to our time and place, check in and Worship11:15 – 12:15 Taster(s) 12:30 – 1:15 Lunch 1:15 -2: 45 Theme Presentation One and Rural Café2:45- – 3:15 Free time to walk the labyrinth, explore the prayer practices or book/resource/ market table)3:15 …
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In Epiphany pink is falling from the sky
This morning when I woke up I wanted to write about Epiphany, the season, rather than the day. I was reflecting on how fast we can feel our days move, how subtly, before we know it, the consumer and consuming pulse affects our rhythm. Our pace quickens. The seasons of the church year can become a way…
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I Will Cause You to Become
From the moment of his declaration that this is “the beginning of the good news”,Mark is off like a jack rabbit,like pressurized water suddenly set free,like a person running late in the winter,grabbing, on the way out the door,a bagel a scarf and a briefcase,sliding along the sidewalk, coat flapping, to the bus. Like a…
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Christmas at Home
I’ll wrap him, warm with love,well as I’m able,In my heart stable. Luci Shaw Pause before all that may wait for you today, whether a massive amount of cooking or a solitary meal, a journey, or settling in with a good book or a favourite show. Now, is the moment just after. All during Advent…
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Pocket Pauses for the 12 Days of Christmas
1~Silent night, Holy Light, In the dark came delight. Morning soft with the breath of a child, Fills our hearts with the wonder and wild Shape a cradle of me Shape a cradle of me. (CES) (to the tune of Silent Night) 2~ “Older than eternity, now he is new.” (Luci Shaw) 3~ Two days…
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An Advent Pause for Joy
I’ve been thinking again about the complexity of joy. In the very last line of a reading from the book of Ezra, the historian writes “the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping. And there, I think, we have it, the doorway to joy, the reality…
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