“Welcome to Hopenhagen” billboards and wall paintings greeted us everywhere as we arrived in Copenhagen today. This city portrays a strong commitment to work toward climate justice. Surrounded by clean water and windmills, Denmark’s capital boasts that it has already created the framework for becoming the world’s leading climate metropolis. It has developed a heating infrastructure as well as a unique cycling culture: more than half the population cycle to and from work, and only one person in four owns a car.

Today Chris Tindal, Alanna Mitchell, and I head for Copenhagen to join Joy Kennedy and David MacDonald, who are already there from The United Church of Canada.

Last evening I was at Hillhurst United Church in Calgary. It was wonderful to be with these good folks, to speak to them, and to engage in some back-and-forth with other speakers. I did it all from the small apartment I call home in Toronto. And another speaker joined in from Copenhagen! It was another way to meet—a way that I expect and hope will become more common.

Late yesterday afternoon I received an e-mail from a faithful church member in rural Ontario. The words sounded harsh to me, questioning the Moderator’s priorities (going to Copenhagen) when the church at home needs so much attention. Most e-mail messages provide no real contact information, but this one had some clues. So I tracked down a phone number and had a good conversation with a wonderful woman last evening.

I’ve been out of the country this week fulfilling a leadership commitment to the North American Ecumenical Stewardship Center, made long before becoming Moderator. It sometimes seems easier to get a perspective on Canada from a distance, and at table with those of other nations.

I arrived a few minutes late to church. I had miss placed my iPod touch, and was looking for it before I left. (As I use it to follow along the church service).and I have been having trouble sleeping all week, so I woke up late.  The church was fuller then it had been all summer (or any church service I had been to in the summer), so we had run out of Church Bulletins by the time I arrived.

Across from the mountains,

There's a magnificent story in the bankruptcy of GM. One wouldn't think so to read the news, but this is, historically, like being on the walls of Rome as the barbarian hordes swept forward, like being a carib Indian with a video camera filming by satellite as Columbus' ships dropped anchor.

It symbolizes one of the great turning points of history because the post recession world is going to be very, very different from what we have known. five hundred years of history are about to fall away.

Often when I listen carefully to points of view within the church that are called "emerging" or "progressive,"  my impression is that they are missing something that is vital. This is obvious if you've read my posts here or my blog, to the point that some might wonder if I'll ever stop kvetching about it. Maybe, someday, but that day has not yet come, because I just came across a beautiful quote in a book that I'm reading by E. F. Scott that speaks to the concern that I feel about that "something missing" in how we at times approach development.