As the holidays approach join us in a fun and playful service exploring the beauty of giving and receiving from the heart. We invite you to join our patchwork community of narrators, ‘piece work’ players and musicians in recreating the beautiful message that unfolds throughout the story of The Quiltmakers Gift. It’s truly a story, … Continue reading The Quiltmakers Gift
There is a lot more that connects us than divides us, and that includes the celebrations of the holiday season. Nearly every major religion has a major holiday between the end of November and early January. Not surprisingly, they tend to have a common theme: the comfort of knowing that the long winters night will … Continue reading Everybody, Celebrate!
Our current existential dilemma – intimately intertwined over-population, over-consumption, and myriad environmental quagmires – can best be understood in the light of human behavioral characteristics that have arisen over evolutionary time. The “agenda of the gene”, is baked into our DNA: to reproduce, to consume, to compete and seek status ensured our survival through evolutionary … Continue reading Clever But Not Wise
Father James Neilson returns to our pulpit to deliver a sermon called: Comfort Me With Apples: Discerning the sacred and the profane by way of this nutritious and delicious fruit. An overview of how both Jewish and Christian cultures have considered apples within religious texts, rites, rituals and recipes. Fr. James Neilson, O. Praem., is … Continue reading Comfort Me With Apples
After my wife had a spinal fusion this last Summer (her second) I jokingly remarked, ‘We have to walk at least three miles a day before she doesn’t have to wear her support hose … THREE MILES … that’s more than normal people walk! She’s wearing me out!’ The friend I was talking to asked, … Continue reading “Isn’t It Annoying?”
For as long as she remembers, Renia Pruchnicki, founder, owner, and designer of Truth Belts – a vegan fashion company – has loved creating things. In high school, she started designing her own clothes, and it opened up a whole new world for her. After earning a Fashion Design at Ryerson University in Toronto and working … Continue reading 7th Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part
Join us as we continue our Seven Principles Sermon Series with an exploration of the 6th Principle: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. It’s also UN Sunday. Our speaker is Dr. Elliot Ratzman, visiting Assistant Professor in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at St Norbert College, and Visiting … Continue reading 6th Principle: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all
In our religious lives, the democratic process requires trust in the development of each individual conscience—a belief that such development is possible for each of us, as well as a commitment to cultivate our own conscience. We could call it a commitment to the value of each person. In the words of Theodore Parker, ‘Democracy … Continue reading 5th Principle: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large
“Search for Truth” When one starts a search for the truth, the individual must be prepared to accept finding out facts, hints, and data that may or will change, modify, challenge, contradict, and question what could be your deepest held personal beliefs. Searching for the truth can be a very emotional and intellectual trying experience. … Continue reading 4th Principle: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
In Dorothy Riddles scale of addressing levels of homophobia, it is suggested that acceptance still implies that there is something to accept; the existing climate of discrimination is ignored. We will explore the value of acceptance in our collective search and encouragement of spiritual growth and how we may actually be living out a supportive appreciation or … Continue reading 3rd Principle: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations
