Fascinated yet disturbed by it all. Practitioner of the spiritual arts. Diarist. Minister at St. John's United Church. The main monk at
@UnvirtuousAbbey
I had a funeral today for a man in my church. His daughter gave a eulogy and said she was born soon after her parents were married, then quipped, ‘Pregnancies were shorter back then.’
I was in a meeting when someone said "now that we are post-Covid"...9 dead in New Brunswick last week. Over 100 in hospital. Last week I went to a nursing home to do visits and three of them were quarantined. We're not post Covid, people just stopped caring for each other.
@hels
This Eggs in Purgatory from Bourdain’s Parts Unknown website went horribly for me after I made it for my family on New Year’s Day! I hate everything! 1/4 not 14! 1/2 not twelve! How were my hung over eyes to know the difference!
"1 Million March 4 Children" will be protesting in Moncton on Wednesday. This is a group claiming to support "parental rights"; however, these are anti-2SLGBTQIA+ rallies.
As United Churches in Moncton, we denounce these protests and we stand in solidarity with our kids.
I was listening to CBC radio at noon today about the tens of thousands of people descending on Cavendish and the person being interviewed said that people are done with Covid and want to have a good time. The next story was a YMCA camp being shut down due to a Covid outbreak.
An 88 year old man from my church heard that my son loved his fly fishing experience and he asked us if he could give him his fishing rod that he built when he was 16 years old. He hopes my son has as much fun as he did fishing New Brunswick rivers.
I was called to the hospital last night for a dying congregant. I went and had prayers and read scripture as she was alone. I just had a call from the family that she died two hours later. I don’t know why difference that makes but I gave thanks I could be there.
It’s time for us to say it out loud: The Conservative Party of the past is gone and now evangelical Christians are trying to turn our province and our schools into their churches AND WE CANNOT LET THEM. There’s no hope with Higgs.
There’s Hope with Holt!
One campaign is showing NBers what it will do to help fix the healthcare system, the other is laser-focused on turning back the clock on human rights.
I’m starting to think the Hope vs Hate election isn’t gonna go well for the Premier.
This makes no sense to me? Aren't we supposed to learn how to live with winter storms? Being told to 'take precautions' and 'stay home' goes against my personal rights. "Staying home until the storm passes" is ok if you want to live that way. Not me.
#SouthBruceOPP
is asking you to avoid travel until the storm passes. High winds and blowing snow have resulted in
@Huron_Kinloss
plows ceasing operations and the closure of
#Hwy21
from Amberley to Saugeen First Nation.
#PublicSafety
^km
I asked a man from the USA who was speeding through the campground in his urban tank to slow down since there are lots of kids and seniors around and he tried to pick a fight with me. ‘Come closer and say that’ so I put a big smile on, walked closer, and told him again. Idiot.
@darth
Halo lost her vision as a puppy due to a reaction to the medication from her spay surgery but she loves to swim and play at the beach and has a wonderful life!
This weekend, I drove to Cape Breton to meet my birth father for the first time. It was his 74th birthday. I also met my sister and my birth father’s nine siblings. I met many of my first cousins and their children. It was epic. Two days of celebrating so much love.
#MacSween
For my 50th birthday, the first time my birth father Joe got to wish me a happy birthday, he had a stole made for me with the McSween tartan. Oh my heart.
Thanks to Ancestry, I found my birth family. While the specifics have yet to be ironed out, one person wrote and said, "We may not find out how you're related but you belong to us now."
After 49 years.
Though, I have a father and brother who love me, it's ok to have this, too
I’m up late after having one of the most-emotional weekends of my life where we were on edge a lot. I finally learned, after 49 years, who my birth father is and he and his nine siblings welcomed my family with open arms. They are wonderful and good people. My brain is lit up.
Certain people: "We're not coming back to church until we don't have to wear masks."
Church: "Ok, you don't have to wear masks anymore."
Certain people: "lol we're still not coming"
There is a certain brand of cosplay Christian that has manifested in recent years where they spend so much time expressing themselves with acts of piety and naming spiritual warfare that I wonder how often they just got out and visited their parishioners and had a cup of tea?
Halo has a torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament plus a possible meniscus tear. Due to her vision impairment, she’s prone to stumbling so this caused an initial patellar luxation issue that we’ve tried to manage over the year with glucosamine & pain meds as needed. But now it’s surgery.
I invited the kids to wear their Halloween costumes to church and as I was welcoming everyone to the service I noted that you could tell that this wasn't a Pentecostal church because there were four dinosaurs here today.
@BellMediaPR
Why don’t you just admit that your young executive had a meltdown and fired your leading on air person because he didn’t like that she had an opinion, journalistic integrity, and grey hair?
I remember when Austin was just some anti-French bonkers guy who went on and on about nothing and we all just shook our heads and now he's in cabinet making decisions on behalf of New Brunswickers.
New Brunswick is turning into a fundamentalist right-wing church and I hate it.
My daughter doesn’t feel comfortable going to a school assembly with 1100 mostly unmasked kids so guess what?
Her science teacher opened his classroom for kids who don’t feel safe at school.
I suspect a lot of kids from this era will enter the sciences, or love them more.
I had a funeral today for a lovely guy and his seven year old great grand daughter gave me a bracelet that she made for everyone at the funeral so we could remember her Poppa. I told her that was very thoughtful!
I did a funeral for a young father who died of Covid. His teenage kids sat in the front row. The last time they saw him was on Facetime in the ICU before he was intubated.
We have a survivorship bias problem with COVID. Most only know those who have survived and seem fine, leading them to assume (as our premier does) that COVID is no big deal. If you have long-COVID, or have lost someone to COVID, please share your story to raise awareness.
I honestly don’t think religious fundamentalists have any business holding public office. There are so many issues kids are struggling with in schools that this government could focus on but yet they choose this. Leave kids alone. Our schools are not your churches.
Remember this summer when she said we should all be wearing masks and the next day Higgs and Russell were like "lol no" and we never saw her again then we all had to wear masks again and Higgs and Russell said "we've always said to wear masks"
Listening to Conservative politicians in the New Brunswick legislature praying the Lord's Prayer while they don't enact a word of it makes my skin crawl. Also, why pray in Jesus' name when the legislature represents all New Brunswickers, not just evangelical Christians?
There seems to be a direct correlation between politicians no longer wearing masks, showing up for maskless photo ops, then announcing they have Covid.
I know it's hard to connect the dots on that one but I feel like there's a pattern?
Parishioner: "Just wanted to give you this church bulletin from a Methodist Church we went to in Florida in case you are looking for ideas!"
Me: *Looks at program*
*Sees eight pastors on staff*
*Sees 12 support staff*
*Sees budget update*
*Dies*
I’m getting message after message of people in my church getting Covid. Why churches aren’t masking doesn’t make sense to me; it’s the least thing we can do to show Christ’s care.
It’s an exhausting part of public life to constantly have to say ‘I’m not that kind of Christian’ in reference to those who seek to preach a Christ I don’t recognize nor follow. But here I am.
Christians who support Nationalism are showing their hand. Where are the Christians who don't? The ones of us who grew up napping in church pews were always taught to resist power and pride. We walked away from church institutions because we recognized the wolves. Speak up.
The kettle broke at the church. I drink a lot of tea when I'm here. So rather than call a meeting, price kettles, approve a kettle, or have someone say they have an old kettle at their cottage that they used to boil gasoline with, they just went out and bought a new kettle.
Today I did a chapel service at a nursing home and played guitar for the songs and read the scripture passage and did my best to engage the crowd and as I did I asked a question about the story and one woman put her hand up and asked, ‘Can you play Country Roads?’
So I did.
The rigid and frigid pastor Blaine Higgs let his tourism minister and staff take a tax-payer funded trip to France but he won’t bend the rules for less than a kilometre so this little diabetic boy can travel to school on a bus. So much for family values eh
I am proud to be a minister within the
@UnitedChurchCda
and seeing the response to a tweet that I made about rebuking a politician (See: John the Baptizer) reminds me of how important the voice of my church is especially in the cesspool of fundamentalism.
One of the nice things about being Gen X clergy is watching all the superstar clergy who are going to save the church come and go while we just do the work like we always did.
We kept our son home from school for an extra week to give his vaccine a chance to kick in some more. Before he left this morning he said, "Daddy, I'm scared." I told him how proud I am of him for being smart and wearing his mask and for being brave and getting his vaccine.
I did a wedding for young a couple in June. They came to church all the time and she sang in the choir. He died suddenly today. I’m shocked. My heart is broken for her and I feel sick to my stomach. He gushed about her on fb all the time.
I am furious that evangelical Christians are mobilizing behind Higgs as if all followers of Jesus agree with him.
I can assure you: we don’t. As has been (well) said:
Our schools are not your churches.
Every New Brunswicker should be worried about organized division + hate entering our provincial discourse. I’m always in favour of diverse views + improving policy by working together, I am not in favour of hate + divisive politics and will stand against it at every opportunity.
There's a lot of things wrong with these fliers and this group (long tweet warning):
• They imply teachers are indoctrinating students, which is an attack on the backbone of our education system.
• They call transgender and non-binary students "deluded," which is
I just applied for my adoption disclosure information. Given that my birth mother already denied my request to contact her, a friend said, "You have a birth father, too, and he might want to know you exist." So here's hoping. I know these aren't Hallmark reunion movies but...
My wife’s brother in law is still missing after five days. We fear the worst and hold out hope. Richard means so much to so many. Searches have been called off but the family are still looking.
N.S. news: Search continues for missing man | CTV News
At the grave today a woman said ‘I don’t know if this is allowed’ but her friend always wanted to eat her pop tarts. They came two in a pack but she always ate them both and didn’t share, ‘so I want to leave these for her’ and I’m getting choked up and I said, ‘Of course, sure.’
At this point, I'll vote for anyone with empathy. I'm tired of Christian fundamentalists running this province. No party platform is perfect; however, if a politician can't relate to constituents in the smallest of ways, they shouldn't be in politics. People before politics.
Wow. Just had an email from our school asking parents not to protest at or near the school and not to use their kids to go against public health mandates while in school.
When the adults act like fools this is what happens.
I had a hard day but a good day. I buried a woman who I cared a great deal about. We lost her husband during the lock downs and couldn’t celebrate him so I celebrated them today. Ministry is powerful in the ways that our connections are beautiful.
Poor Halo has surgery tomorrow. We’re all really upset but it has to be done. Torn tendon. Big operation for our little girl with a three-month recovery.
During a typical Canadian summer evening, a young man wrote a song in tribute to his abiding love of patio lanterns (with a curious subplot about his lemonade addiction). That young man was Kim Mitchell and the song was so successful he never had work another day
#HeritageMoments
I haven't been this at peace with myself for as long as I can remember. I found the most amazing family. It took me decades of looking. They didn't know I existed yet when I knocked on the door I was welcomed home with such excitement that I'm still getting lots of messages.
I preached at the church where I was visiting for the wedding for my new sister and mentioned my birth family.
Afterwards, an older man shook my hand and said, ‘I knew and worked with your grandfather and he’d be very proud of you.’
I shook his hand a little harder.
My heart
An old man almost ran over me as I was walking towards Sobeys as he revved to get the handicap spot and when I through my arms up he gave me the finger so I opened my jacket. I was grateful to be wearing a clerical collar. I hope he was a Catholic.
My phone decided I didn't have any room left at the point in recording my sermon when I started criticizing the convoy BUT I deleted five apps and finished recording it. Long sermon.
I have been non-stop messaging with about 30 people in Cape Breton who are so excited to meet me, as excited as I am to meet them. They're having a welcome home party in the summer for my family at their family homestead. It's hard to explain it all. "You look JUST like us!"
Imagine losing your daughter to a fire in a tent because of her lack of access to housing, mental health and addiction resources and the Premier calls you up and makes it worse because he doubled down on his deeply held beliefs about homeless people.
A woman in my church stopped by the office yesterday morning and when she saw me she said she needed to hug me because I’ve had a rough week and gave me these. That’s healing in bottled form, right there!
I met a Baptist minister in my travels today who told me that they get 1000 people every Sunday and they are so blessed.
I replied, ‘Well, the Holy Spirit shows up at our church every Sunday and She’s all that really matters.’
I think I broke his brain.
I just had a call informing me that there was a security breach on my Windows PC. So I told the woman that I had to legally inform her that the police were monitoring the call and to please continue. She told me to ‘shut your bloody mouth’ and hung up on me. 😂
This son's and daughter's day stuff is getting a bit much. Whatever happened to the Generation X feeling of not being loved or appreciated by your parents while at the same time knowing that they cared enough to kill you if you ever got into trouble?
@BAStephenson60
Jesus said to let the children come to him and blessed them. They are at the centre of the Kindom. There are no qualifiers to their blessedness. He didn’t say, ‘Go ask your parents.’