In case you missed this....A number of Moderators of The United Church of Canada will join Karen Hilfman Millson and Mardi Tindal for this celebration as we enter our 90th year. Join them as they reflect on what makes our denomination unique, and what nurtures our spirituality. June 10, 12:00 Eastern time. Register for this webinar here: 

I’ve been overwhelmed by the tweets about my response to Margaret Wente’s Globe and Mail article on ‘The collapse of the liberal church.’ Thank you!

Mark’s account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes was heard in many churches last Sunday morning. Along with Mark’s words, I’ve been re-reading Mary Oliver’s  poetry, inspired by Mark 6: 30-44.

“Accept the miracle” Oliver writes in her poem, Logos. “Accept, too, each spoken word, spoken with love.”

Moderator Mardi Tindal is scheduled to be on CBC radio's "As It Happens" this evening, responding to Sen.

I’ve been meeting for the past two days with the committee planning the 41st General Council in Ottawa this August, and I’m very excited about what’s taking shape. Tomorrow morning I head to Tatamagouche Centre in Nova Scotia to lead a ‘Soul, Community and Creation’ retreat. Monica Graham’s story in today’s Halifax Chronicle Herald has captured some important insights about how I have come to understand the relationship between these three:

Celebrate Earth Day with us April 22 at 3:00 p.m. EDT in a live interactive webcast. 

United Church of Canada Moderator Mardi Tindal contributes to this article on "the Jesus Year" as a young adult spiritual phenomena: “Those in their 30s now, as Douglas Coupland said, are the first generation to be raised without religion,” Tindal explains. “If they turn to Jesus, it wouldn't surprise me. He was a model for living a life of transcendence...."

Hope was born in a stable, and those the world had judged wise came to see. After witnessing this fragile new hope, the Magi “went home by a different way.” They were not the same.

My thoughts this Epiphany are filled with both the fragile new hope that I saw born at the UN climate change talks in Durban, and the bitter disappointment that calls us to go home by a new and different way.

I have seen miracles. I have seen God act powerfully, mysteriously and miraculously. I pay special attention to miracles at Christmas.

In our United Church Song of Faith we sing of how “God tends the universe, mending the broken and reconciling the estranged.” We go on to sing of the initiative that God took in the birth of Jesus, to make this mending and reconciling visible in a new way.