My scariest road trip was late in the afternoon of Easter Saturday in April, 1999. Roland Sewell and I had just been up to the Albanian border to bring relief to the flood of incoming Kosovar refugees. Roland remained there distributing bread, sausages and essentials, while I returned to Kukes in the truck, carrying a refugee […]
Society
Ovine Metathesis
I play in a Salvation Army band, and I have on and off for sixty years. At band rehearsal this week we warmed up with Lois Bourgeois’s 16th century hymn tune known as “Old Hundredth”. Nowadays churchgoers sing the doxology “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” to Old Hundredth but mostly associate it with […]
My Life in Politics and its Lessons for Fundraisers
Last Friday I delivered pamphlets on behalf of a candidate for the city council here in Toronto. I did the same for our local MP at the last federal election, and then acted as a scrutineer when the votes were counted. That’s it! My career in local and national politics came to not much more […]
Dirty, or just stained? Theology in a coffee cup.
Swiss Chalet is a well known Canadian restaurant chain specialising in spit-roasted chicken. Their meals are modestly priced and somewhat unimaginative — good, basic, wholesome fare. Not the place to impress an important client, but ideal for Mother’s Day. MacDonalds for grown-ups, they used to call it. Let me say that I generally enjoy lunch […]
Faint Hope?
Image via Wikipedia Easter — Sunday, 4 April 2010. I went to church this morning and found myself wondering whether I believed what I was singing and saying. What does Easter really mean to me, and does it matter? As I have got older so I have thought rather less about life after death and […]
The Road to Hell?
Almost a month since my last post. Obviously, blogging every day, or even every week, wasn’t one of my resolutions at the New Year. Not that I would have kept it anyway, for I have been very busy with my work for The Salvation Army. Two weeks ago the island of Haiti suffered the latest […]