From Calcutta to Toronto

This morning on the CBC, I heard Andy Barrie report that the St. Jamestown neighbourhood in Toronto is the second most densely populated place in the world, outside of Calcutta. Freedomize India: You looking for some places to serve when you come back? I've got some thoughts...

Dualisms in Worship

Yeah, yeah, I haven't written in forever. Things are busy in the real world, and that makes spending time here a little less important. I am touching down for a few moments today though in order to share something from Alan Hirsch's blog, which touches on something Ericka and I are up to in the real world: If we take the advice of the current Alternative Worship Movement, of which I am generally deeply appreciative, one of the tasks of the church in a postmodern context is to make ‘sacred spaces’, places filled with rich and fresh symbolism expressed new forms of media, where people can reconnect with God in new ways. And this all sounds right. But when this impulse is divorced, as it often is, from the overarching task of mission (and that of missional contextualization) then it simply becomes another way in which we separate the sacred from the secular. By setting up a place which we call ‘sacred’ because of the lighting, the incense, and religious feel, what are we thereby saying about the rest of life? Is it not sacred? We cannot escape the conclusion that by setting up so called ‘sacred spaces’ we by implication make all else ‘not-sacred’ thereby assigning a large aspect of life in a non-God, or secular, area. For the month of July, every other Saturday we will be hosting an intimate community gathering featuring a potluck meal, prayer, worship, and meditation on scripture at our church in Parkdale. The idea is to do something that helps us to grow in community, as community, to explore expressions reflective of our diverse community, in music, scriptural mediation and prayer. The question that hovers, is how to connect our time of worship with our means of reaching out to the broader community. What we will no doubt struggle to do is to connect the dots between what we do on any given Saturday night with how we live our lives throughout the rest of the week. It's always a struggle, and I pray that God guides us as we try to create such a space... For those interested, you're definitely welcome to attend: June 30, July 14, July 28 6.oopm Potluck (Bring something you can share) 7.00pm Worship Bonar-Parkdale Presbyterian Church 250 Dunn Avenue Toronto Ontario

2 Questions

Why is it that globalization is the enemy of global (and most specifically, environmental) health? Why is it that the move to bring things closer together often contributes to an increasing feeling of disconnect?