A few Sundays back, our beloved soprano Ellen McAteer sang the Lord’s Prayer with a ferocity I’ve rarely heard. This was at our 11 am traditional service, mind you. When she finished, we applauded. I wasn’t surprised. We applaud often at our 9:15 contemporary service. And Ellen’s version was celestial.
One might object that applause isn’t the best response to a prayer. “This is not a performance,” one… Read more
I’ve gotten to know someone who’s newer to worshiping at our church’s 9:15 service. She calls herself a “whooper.” If a song is particularly good, she whoops. ‘Not my fault,’ she said. ‘You guys led the good song.’
Recently we rang the bell and she prepared to whoop. To her astonishment, someone whooped before her. She looked around. There’s another whooper at Timothy Eaton?! The whoopers found one another and rejoiced. He’s been around a little longer, though inactive until recently.… Read more
Friends I am so glad to introduce you to one of the most innovative ministries I know in Canada, and worldwide. Because they’re coming to our church.
A Rocha is an evangelical ministry of creation care and conservation. It started in Portugal—the word is Portuguese for “the Rock,” after the place of its founding. Located on the southwestern coast of Portugal, it is a major migration point for birds flying between Europe and Africa, and was threatened with… Read more
So here’s a wild idea for the new year. I usually resolve to lose weight or spend my time more wisely or take up some hobby that actually takes decades to learn. This far more reasonable.
What if we worshiped in different spaces?
We have lovely spaces for worship in our building in addition to our magnificent sanctuary. Three of those seem perfect for our early service: the atrium, the west chapel, and the chancel. We do worship in each on special occasions already, but… Read more
An interview by Rev. Dr. Jason Byassee with Dr. Elaine Choi, Director of Music at TEMC.
Tell us about the Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting, which you’ve just won?
An opinion piece made the rounds among us pastor types recently. Its author was saying goodbye not just to a congregation, but to pastoral ministry. It’s an old and creaky narrative that congregations are stuck in their ways. We clergy fancy ourselves more forward-thinking than our timid flocks. It’s also a… Read more
Friends, I want to invite (nay—beg!) you to come to two events in the next two weeks as we start our church year.
Institutions like ours are good at starting out the year with dramatic statements. With bold plans and spreadsheets. With five-year plans and stirring announcements of ambitious goals. We need these. In fact, we will be doing some longer-range planning this fall. But these two events start us out in a different key. They are the work before the work.
On… Read more
Friends, I’d like to ask you to mark your calendars for an event early in the fall. It’ll take some doing to get to for some of our non-retirees especially, but it’s worth it.
There are lots of ways to pray. The ones we’re most familiar with are us asking God for stuff. This is good and helpful. But it’s only one way to pray. There are many more. One alternative is what’s often called “contemplative” prayer. It has more to do with attending to who God is. If prayer requests are an effort to improve the world… Read more
“How long’s it been since you’ve sat in this office?”
“I was last here when mom died. Before that it was when I got married.”
She has been at our church her whole life. Her mom died more than a decade ago. She was married some 30 years ago. I joke that she should come by more often at less momentous occasions. She graces my poor humour with a half-second’s smile.
My office is chock full of books. There are six comfortable… Read more