Habemus papem Franciscum.

               With these words intoned by the by the senior Cardinal Deacon from the Balcony of St. Peters Basilica in Rome last week, the world learned the name of the latest faith leader. White smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel told the world a choice had been made. The final step was to introduce him to the faithful and to the world.

Owen Sound is an older community. Those of us who live here, know that. We have eleven retirement and nursing homes. We have multiple services for seniors. We have three funeral homes. We consolidate and close schools because of declining enrollment.

Much of my work as a pastor involves what I call deep conversations. Mr. Jones has list his wife. We talk about what that means; the deep, abiding grief; the unfulfilled reams; the loneliness.

It also involved conversations around life changes.

I want to join a union.

No, not one of the traditional unions like the Canadian Auto Workers, who were recruiting among United Church ministers a while back. The union I want to join is The Union of Food Bank and Emergency Meal Program Volunteers. Sponsored by the York Region Food Network, they have a great web site at www.freedom90.ca. Check it out.

The UFBEMPV (now doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?) has no union dues. As volunteers at food banks and emergency meal programs, members have already paid their dues.

I am not your traditional penitent person. I have always had problems with Lent, the 40 days before Easter, the most joyous day in the Christian year.

I suspect my conflict began early, when growing up in Quebec it was important for the much smaller Protestants to clearly differentiate themselves from the overwhelmingly dominant, at least by numbers, Roman Catholics.

When all my friends talked about giving up this or that for Lent (usually involving candy) I kind of rebelled.

That attitude has stuck with me to this day.

Pigs are flying in Owen Sound.

I have proof.

The first proof I have is a picture taken last August in Woodstock of the lead staff of six key organizations which strive to address poverty in this city. They are all sitting together. They are all smiling.

I know the photo wasn’t staged, because most of them told me that they liked the photo and were glad to see it.

St. Valentine’s Day approaches and that means that in the next couple of weeks our church will see an increase in inquiries about summer weddings. I’ve already had inquiries for 2014, but as Owen Sound is kind of a last minute town, most people getting married only think a few months in advance.

St. Valentine’s Day is a popular day for a marriage proposals and always has been. But once the excitement wears off and reality hits, it can quickly become overwhelming.

One of the realities of living in our community is that as we age, the balance between the number of men and women changes.

Part of this is the simple fact that women outlive men. Often men are in higher risk occupations (although that is changing).

Those who have lost a life partner are called widows (or widowers if they are men).

You might be surprised to hear that in Owen Sound there are nearly 1600 women and just 315 men who are widowed. That compares to 118,000 men and 495,000 women who are widowed in Ontario.

A recent editorial in this newspaper lauded the policies of one of our provincial political party leaders, damned another and praised two reports, the Drummond Report and the Lankin/Sheikh report on social assistance reform.

When I was a child, milk was delivered to our home in glass bottles. The cream rose to the top and my mother poured it off for use in coffee or on cereal. The top of the bottle was stoppered with a paper disk with a tab attached. Later it was covered by a waxed paper label.

Living in Montreal, winters were cold. Milk was delivered in the early morning and left on the front step. Often it was cold enough to freeze the milk and the cream popped the top off the bottle, creating a round frozen cylinder. The cream still had to be skimmed off, though.

One of the unique architectural features of several churches in our community is a semi-circular, two story church hall. You can find them in the old Knox United Church, Central Westside and Meaford United Churches.

While the room style is less obvious at Central Westside, the open concept two story room with a balcony is very evident in the other two buildings.

You might wonder why they were built that way.

The reason is simple.

Sunday School.