Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week! Happy National Puppy Day! SPIRITUALITY The Lord’s Prayer’s Hard Plea Does God lead us into temptation? Do we have to ask him not to? As most Christians know from painful experience, temptation is as easy to find […]

Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week! CHRISTMAS The Real Saint Nicholas December 6 marks Saint Nicholas Day, and I thought I’d mark the beginning of the Christmas season by telling the story of Santa Claus’s namesake. But before I do, I should remark […]

by Donna Sinclair It’s one of the Lenten readings this year, from Paul’s letter to the Romans. “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” As we chose our assignments for a much-loved congregational tradition — a collection of reflections by members […]

Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week! CHRISTIAN HISTORY The Real St. Patrick ‘Tis the season for parades, green beer, shamrocks, and articles talking about why St. Patrick’s day isn’t all about parades, green beer, and shamrocks. First, a few misconceptions about Patrick…Read Full […]

 by Susan McCaslin This short essay written by Wood Lake author Susan McCaslin first appeared in Dialogue Magazine: “Haunting the Stacks” in the column “Resonance” in Dialogue, Winter 2017, p. 41.   http://www.dialogue2.ca/susan-mccaslin-haunting-the-stacks.html Many writers I most love were avid readers as children or became so at some point in their lives. For me as a […]

by Carolyn Pogue This posting originally appeared on the United Church Observer’s website at ucobserver.org/pogue_blog/  Reach out for what you need Dear Teacher, Thank you for demonstrating persistence, courage, belief in your own worth. We have your story although we do not have your name — only “The Woman who Bled for Twelve Years.” Was […]

Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week! SOCIAL JUSTICE The Lasting Trauma of Japanese American Incarceration On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt empowered military commanders to execute the “forced evacuation” of anyone with Japanese ancestry from the West Coast of the United […]

by Donna Sinclair One of the great pleasures of retirement is having time to re-read authors who have been enriched your life over the years. After listening to the Trump inauguration speech, with its warlike image of a God who blesses America but not, apparently, Muslims, refugees, or the rest of the world, I felt […]

Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week! LIVING Canada’s most famous groundhog says spring is coming soon Wiarton Willie has spoken! Canada’s most famous groundhog did not see his shadow this morning, which means an early spring is in store. The world awaited Willie’s […]

Each week, we bring you interesting stories from around the web. Here’s what caught our eye this week! RELIGION Why Can’t Women Pray at the Western Wall? Israel’s High Court has ordered the government and the rabbinic administration of the Western Wall to respond by Feb. 1 to a question: Why should women be denied […]