Paddy’s Barn

We have a local man of otherwise exemplary life, who when asked the population of the village, began enumerating from memory the inhabitants of every house, street by street! As I said to an enthusiastic fellow preacher once, “You are not economical in how you spend...

God’s Punishment?

Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel lost a baby boy at a time of great stress for the family. Alec Bell (as he was known) was deeply grieved, but accepted much self-blame for having been away at the time. Bell scarcely believed in God; perhaps Einstein’s God, for...

Broken-ness, All Broken… Where’s the Joy?

The scene is northeastern Japan, aerial photos before - property, estate housing, industry, transportation, roads, aircraft, sea craft. Then move the cursor from right to left and there is after: some outlines remain, but a brown sludge has crept even up the...

A Three Year Old and Martin Amis

In the 2001 census analysis of religious groups in Ontario, the largest grouping is Roman Catholic; the second largest is “no religion.” How many of the “no religion” populace are deterred or disgusted by a blatant use of power, emotional and social, by institutional...

A Lent World

Whether or not we believe in God, we have a dawning understanding that the world we live in is on loan to us, and that if we do not treat it with care, we may lose it. There was an enthusiastic bishop preaching in St James’ Cathedral, saying how when he awoke on a...

Changes & Chances

Almost any talk of science and faith reveals that many people believe that these two ways of looking at reality are in conflict. This was not so in the days of the great philosopher René Descartes, or the great scientist, Isaac Newton. They believed that God was in...