Local media outlets are promoting Advent calendars, but they’re really not that Christmassy. One suggested that the Cannabis Christmas Calendar might make for ‘Merrier Holidays,’ while Daily Hive featured the likes of ’24 Days of Soul Chocolate’ and ‘HBC Musical Advent…
Merry Christmas to everyone reading this blog. Thank you for checking in, but hopefully you won’t mind if I take next week off. Enjoy your holiday break; I will send out my next weekly update January 6. In the meantime,…
“This place saved my life, literally,” says Jeff Parsons. “I look back sometimes and wonder, ‘Where would I be today?’ Possibly dead . . . Union Gospel Mission (UGM) gave me an opportunity to look at life differently. It gave…
It was a dark and stormy night (December 12), and I was debating the wisdom of driving from East Van to the depths of Ladner – even for what seemed like a sure thing: Malcolm Guite and Friends. (I had…
When to start up with Christmas – the annual dilemma. Big box stores were restocked and ready to go on the very eve of Halloween. Purists won’t allow it to be mentioned until the advent of Advent (November 30), and…
Every year we hear the same story. Yet, though the story of Jesus’ incarnation has been with us for two millennia, it is still fresh every year. Why is that? First of all, the story has been told in so many ways –…
Most of us are out and about sharing good food and fellowship with friends and families during this season. But some groups make a particular point of sharing their abundance with the surrounding community. Union Gospel Mission Almost 3,000 people took…
Most of us will be sticking pretty close to home – or the homes of family and close friends –over the next few days, and the relative lack of public events underlines that reality. Of course, almost every church in…
As you begin this reflection, I invite you to start by reading Revelation 12, the most forgotten Christmas passage in scripture. Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the magi were not the only ones to witness the newborn king. A dragon also saw…
As our celebrations of the birth of Christ draw near, the stores are filled with toys and books, gadgets and bright lights, ribbons and bows. We are bombarded with messages to ‘buy more’ and ‘buy now’ because we’ve convinced ourselves…