Our Highest Calling
Church, ministry and worship are not simply categories or activities that affect some of us, some of the time.
Communion of Saints
I sat in a quiet village in Switzerland in the footprint of a lost city.
Looking Out My Window
I notice that I am looking out my sanctuary and office windows asking myself, “What is going on out there and how can my church support it?”
A Plea to the West
As Muslims in Canada, we have repeatedly called upon our fellow Muslims to publicly disavow all relationships with Islamists and Islamism, and to cooperate—without any hesitation—with law enforcement and security agencies of our home country, Canada.
Standing Alone in the Church
If, according to the apostle Paul, singleness is the higher calling, why is it so often treated as a form of failure within the Christian community?
The Haynes Report
In September 2011, Rev. Gordon Haynes, then the associate secretary of Canada Ministries, was assigned a “research project to provide a report for the Life and Mission Agency for its use in charting a way forward with vision and an enabling …
Art, Music and Poetry Teach About Mental Illness
Aiming to deepen the church’s relationship with those who experience mental illness, Boarding Homes Ministry is distributing curriculum kits for free to congregations across Canada.
All posts in Features
Our Highest Calling
Putting worship first.
Living Faith is a declaration of faith of the Presbyterian Church. You can download it at presbyterian.ca. We suggest you read the passage being discussed each month. Additional reading: Members for...
Communion of Saints
Walking through history in Avenches, Switzerland.
From July 6 to 22, 2012, Connie Wardle participated in a pilgrimage through countries touched by the Protestant Reformation—France, Switzerland and Scotland. This is the sixth of a...
Looking Out My Window
Finding ways to be God’s light.
The back wall of our church's sanctuary is all windows. During worship, when I am not looking at the congregation, I look out these windows. I enjoy watching...
A Plea to the West
Two Canadian Muslims speak out.
Since 9/11 many Muslims around the world, including those who belong to Muslims Facing Tomorrow in Canada, have been warning our compatriots of the nature of Islamist threat...
Standing Alone in the Church
Why is being single second-rate?
Back in the summer of 2009 I mentioned, in a blog entry, the negatives of being single within the Christian community. I received several responses, from both sexes,...
The Haynes Report
In September 2011, Rev. Gordon Haynes, then the associate secretary of Canada Ministries, was assigned a "research project to provide a report for the Life and Mission Agency for...
Art, Music and Poetry Teach About Mental Illness
Boarding Homes Ministry Develops New Curriculum.
Aiming to deepen the church's relationship with those who experience mental illness, Boarding Homes Ministry is distributing curriculum kits for free to congregations across Canada. BHM, an ecumenical ministry,...
A Work in Progress
Coming back to church
Growing up in the 1950s my family went to a United church. Back in those days our social life revolved around the church and its activities. My grandfather...
Intentional Community
A spark to spread renewal across the church.
As I write this, the March issue of the Record has been available for only a couple of weeks. In that time I have had more feedback about...
The Good News
There’s so much, we take it for granted.
As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved.’ —Psalm 30 Every day I am faced with a mountain of it. Every morning I awaken to...
Theological Conversation
John Calvin in Geneva
St. Pierre Cathedral, Geneva From July 6 to 22, 2012, Connie Wardle participated in a pilgrimage through countries touched by the Protestant Reformation—France, Switzerland and Scotland. This is the...
Best Practices
Facing the future with joy and confidence.
Over the past six years, as the congregational development consultant for my synod, I have been in literally hundreds of churches. Many—maybe even most—of these congregations are in...
Broken Yet Beloved
A vision for the church. Part two.
Let me start with a story. Early in my ministry at St. Mark's, Toronto, our Christian education committee developed an idea for helping children and their families rediscover...
Justice Comes Slowly to Pakistan’s Prisoners
One Minister’s Fight for Christian Inmates.
Rev. Samson Javed, right, celebrates the opening of a barrack for Christian inmates at District Jail, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Kahwaja Muhammad Islam, a member of provincial assembly, cuts the...
The Cost of Discipleship
Working for the resistance during World War II
It was on the night of my mother's 16th birthday, May 10, 1940, that the small kingdom of the Netherlands was invaded by neighbouring German troops. So instead...
Maturing Your Faith
Learning from doubt
Living Faith is a declaration of faith of the Presbyterian Church. You can download it at presbyterian.ca. We suggest you read the passage being discussed each month. Additional reading: Can...
From Islam to Jesus
A lonely Christian tells his life story.
Summoned from the Margin: Homecoming of an African by Lamin Sanneh, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company The name Lamin Sanneh is hardly a household one for most Canadian Presbyterians, but...
The Rev. Stuart Bowyer Coles, B.A.
March 19, 1917 - March 23, 2013 (Toronto)
Was the eldest of five siblings born to Murray McCheyne Coles and Jennie Bowyer on a farm near Woodbridge Ontario. The Church Union struggle attending the formation of...
Poet, Pastor, Activist
Church mourns the death of Rev. Stuart Coles
Rev. Stuart Coles, pioneer-activist, poet and pastor, passed away March 23. The guiding force behind the church's Confession of Faith Concerning Church and Nation (1955) and one of the...
One Simple Rule
Explore your faith.
Jesus used the rule for all of the people he met: John the Baptist, the woman at the well, the blind man, the lepers, Mary and Martha, Zacchaeus,...
