Noticings… (Weekly Spiritual Reflection)

Conversations”You have something very unique that no one else can offer.” We figure it was probably with our kids having birthday parties about 18 years ago that my spouse and I last went 5-pin bowling. That is, until this past weekend when we had a social time with the choir we sing in in Cobourg….

Patterns”We’ve always done it that way.” Last weekend was the annual 2-day spring meeting of our denominational regional council. As always, the best parts of such conferences are the reconnections we make with colleagues and friends within our region. And, as always, the worst parts of such conferences are when we get bogged down in…

Visioning”It’s a season of renewal.” Spring is doing its thing all around us. It’s a season of renewal. In church-land we call the fifty days after the Resurrection the ‘Season of Easter’, and it too is a season of renewal themes. Renewal is also the theme of the sermon series we’re in the midst of,…

Be You”He didn’t mean to try to cop his licks note-for-note.” One of the things guitar players like to do is to learn to play riffs and licks that their guitar heroes play. We obsess over these things. We’ll go over the riffs, over and over, slowing down the videos and recordings to see/hear just…

(This is our Moderator’s Easter message. I hope you enjoy it!) Hello, I’m the Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne, Moderator of The United Church of Canada. For the past several months, I have been thinking a lot about the nature of life and work in the church. Specifically, I have been thinking about the “bad…

Holy Week and Church”It’s heavy.” An answer to prayer arrived in my inbox. In the busyness of putting together all of our Holy Week services and the numerous reflections and sermons therein I was not sure what I had left in the creativity tank for today’s Noticings. And then my inbox went ‘ding’ and the…