Canada and the Nordic Model
Canada’s Supreme Court has struck down most of the previous laws related to prostitution in Canada deeming them unconstitutional because they breach the Charter rights of vulnerable and marginalized people and their right to “security of the person.” The present laws will stay in effect for one year giving the Parliament of Canada time to…
Continue readingFilling Our Lives
As we approach the most commercialized, consumerist, season of the year, it is appropriate to pause and consider our values once again. Let’s take a quick look at some of the messages given to us by the dominant culture at this time of year: buying things will make you happy if you buy one thing…
Continue readingGrace and Works
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:8-10. In…
Continue readingMessage in a Bottle
I saw a news story about a message in a bottle that had travelled approximately 4000 km from Gaspe, Quebec to East Passage, Ireland. The message, stuffed into a two litre plastic pop bottle had survived at sea for eight years and then been found by a nine year old boy. The girls who had…
Continue readingCold Capitalism
It has once again become fashionable to quote Ayn Rand.1 United States presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently announced his running mate to be Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan is the United States Representative for Wisconsin’s 1st congressional district who has his staff read this quote: “I swear—by my life and my love of it—that I will…
Continue readingCanada and Germany
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are set to meet together to discuss austerity, European debt, and stagnant economic growth in many countries of the world. Both Germany and Canada have weathered global economic downturns well and some look toward them both as models for other countries. Yet, both countries continue…
Continue readingWaiting On the World to Change
I wanted to use the lyrics of the song “Waiting On the World to Change” in a sermon I was giving. I felt like these words expressed well the response I was seeking to get from my audience. I felt that too many of us are sitting around waiting for the world to change and…
Continue readingImmigrants
In an article in The Globe and Mail, Michael Valpy and Joe Friesen propose that it is largely the religious traditions of immigrants that are keeping our places of worship from closing. They point to the increasing secularization of native-born Canadians and contrast this with the steady faith of new immigrants to Canada. In 1985,…
Continue readingTransformation
Recently, I had the privilege of being the “best man” at a wedding. I met the groom, whom I now count as a friend, seven years ago. We met through an organization called COSA# on the day that he was released from a federal penitentiary. This friend has been through many challenges and ups and…
Continue readingStarlings
Written By Randy Stonehill© 1989 Stonehillian Music/Word Music (a div. of Word, Inc.)/ASCAP Riding with my family in the ’58 BuickI can still recallHow we’d drive through the valleyTo my Grandmother’s houseEvery summer vacationWhen I was smallAnd I’d gaze out the windowAt the farms and the orchardsCounting the telephone poles passing byAnd the sound of…
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