Sharing stories of life, faith, and ministry in the United Church and beyond.

They say a picture is worth more than 1,000 words, and I agree.

To try to understand the Rohingya crisis, I had read much about who the Rohingya Muslims are…

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Her Eyes: A Rohingya Child in Bangladesh" href="/blogs/round-table/her-eyes-rohingya-child-bangladesh"> A Rohingya girl, having just crossed the border from Myanmar, shows her new identity card that she was given by United Nations workers in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

People sometimes share that they forget I am a person who is totally blind. I experience this as a good thing, an acknowledgment that they feel acceptance, and…

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Disability, Who Me?" href="/blogs/round-table/disability-who-me"> Sharon Ballantyne wearing a colourful minister's stole across her shoulders. Sharon Ballantyne is ministry personnel, serving a rural pastoral charge about two hours northeast of Toronto. A 2018 McGeachy Senior scholar, her work is focusing on equity.

“Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness, Morning by morning new mercies I see…”

For no reason I could think of, this was the song I was…

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Note from Nora: God in Unexpected Places" href="/blogs/round-table/note-nora-god-unexpected-places"> Two black dogs play together in the fall leaves.

In the summer of 2018, our church decided to try Vacation Bible School camp (VBS).

The last time the United Church had organized a Vacations Bible School in…

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Freezies, Games, Prayer, (and More Freezies)" href="/blogs/round-table/freezies-games-prayer-and-more-freezies"> A group of campers at the Vacation Bible School hold a bunch of snails and slugs.

When I acquired HIV in 1987, it was “a death sentence”. One of the first comments made by my GP in 1990 in Regina, when he gave me the HIV+ test result, was that I…

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The End of AIDS by 2030?" href="/blogs/round-table/end-aids-2030"> Some of the chaplains at the 22nd International AIDS Conference.

At the ACT Alliance General Assembly, the church continues to twist itself in knots about sex and sexuality.

The Struggle for Inclusion Continues" href="/blogs/round-table/struggle-inclusion-continues"> A heart shaped illustration with human figures of all different colours.

A reflection on the speaker selection for a gender justice panel at the ACT Alliance General Assembly in Uppsala, Sweden, which consisted of a majority of…

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Making Space for Gender Justice" href="/blogs/round-table/making-space-gender-justice"> A photo of the gender justice panel at the ACT Alliance General Assembly shows it consisted of five men and two women.
Time is such a precious commodity, and we often complain about not having enough of it.

Last weekend when the GC43 Executive Elect met to continue discerning…
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Note from Nora: Traffic Jam Prayer" href="/blogs/round-table/note-nora-traffic-jam-prayer"> A photo of a car dashboard during a traffic jam, when the speedometer reads zero.

Ignoring the call for justice is simply not an option for followers of Christ. On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on October 17, I…

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The Call for Justice is Not an Option" href="/blogs/round-table/call-justice-not-option"> A discarded orange teddy bear sits atop an old bicycle tire and other garbage in a dump.

The word “formation” makes me think of fashioning something out of raw material — perhaps with the hands, like a piece of wood or a lump of clay or a garment.…

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Being Formed" href="/blogs/round-table/being-formed"> A potter's hands covered with wet clay and shaping a vessel on the pottery wheel in India.