Embarking on Something New

Thursday, January 26, 2023

Friends, TEMC’ers and beyond: we are doing a brave thing this weekend. We’re launching a new ministry initiative. We don’t even know what to call it yet. But we know it needs your prayer and well-wishes and support.

It’ll be launched by our own Nupur James-Araujo, our beloved minister for children and youth, who now has “young adults” added to her portfolio. We don’t know exactly what a young adult is, but we figure it’s around 18-35 years old. Nupur and her husband Aaron have had a hankering for a version of church… Read more

Service is Perfect Freedom

Friday, January 13, 2023

Friends, I want to share with you an encouraging note I got the other day. Here it is:

We were talking about this the other night - how the church has become one of our most important communities. We are just at that stage of life where we can lean into it as a family, and it's a real joy. We haven't even gone to our place in the County once this fall, because we just feel we ought to be around on the weekends at the church. It's our turn, I suppose. Like countless other families before us, it's… Read more

Field Trip Report

Thursday, December 15, 2022

One of the pilgrims on a recent outing of your church’s council said, when he heard me call this a field trip, that he felt he needed a permission slip signed by his parents.

​Our church council did an unusual thing recently and met off-site. Rev. Jenny Andison of St. Paul’s Bloor Street was kind enough to show us around her beautiful sanctuary. That church and ours have a historic relationship, punctuated by the quarter century friendship of her predecessor, Barry Parker, and mine, Andrew Stirling.

… Read more

Good Habits

Thursday, December 8, 2022

I was talking with one of you about habits. Good habits. Like eating vegetables, going to church, exercising, going to church, saving money and, well, you know, going to church.

And you said this wise thing, noting how easy it is to grow out of good habits, especially with the 2+ years our world has struggled with COVID-19.

You said, “I can’t do it by myself.” 

This is the genius of Christianity. Lots of faiths, especially… Read more