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This article on embedded seminaries, and how they can work well, appeared in In Trust magazine. You can read more here.  The Oxford dictionary defines embedded as “fixed firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass.” Thirty-six percent of members of the Association ...

THE OFFICE OF ALAN HAYES, director of the Toronto School of Theology, boasts a beautiful, leafy view over Queen’s Park, an urban forest in the heart of downtown Toronto. Silver maple, northern red oak, and an equestrian statue of King Edward VII ...

There is going to be a big snow storm tonight, and so that means our writers group is meeting again. That's just what happens. But who cares about the weather outside when inside a cozy, art-filled room there are writers inspiring each other? This ...

Let's Protect Our Children: 18 National Faith Leaders Speak Out, edited by Karen Stiller and Doug Blackburn This collection of reflections on child protection issues was published in 2014 by World Vision Canada. It was a meaningful project to work on.

As an editor I have had writers push back on edits. I've been amazed at times how angry and defensive some writers get, and how uninhibited they are in expressing it. It's not that they can't push back, it's just that they ...

Bliss. I just finished a huge article. The topic was unwieldy: how boards of embedded theological schools (those that live and breathe on a university campus) can best guide their schools to success. Or kind of. That was kind of the topic. ...

Years ago, I crept away from my first ever writing conference like Eeyore on a bad day. Other people had wheelbarrows full of books and knapsacks full of trophies, or so it seemed. I had nothing. It all felt impossible. Instead of ...

The other day one of my boys said something so earnest, so honest, so…insulting really, that I wanted to rush straight to Facebook to post it so all the world could see a bit of my world  more clearly. It was  funny, ...

No more cheery waves to the cars zooming past our house in the morning when I collect the papers. My high of peace and good will from the Festival of Faith and Writing has long since ended. However, there are a few ...

This morning, not quite done with reunion cuddling, I slipped back into bed after wiping counters, washing the frying pan that produced the eggplant parmesan waiting for me when I arrived home last night, fetching the papers from the curb (and smiling, ...

Another turkey. Another abandoned attempt at making turkey soup. I always start the soup. I almost always forsake it half way through. I think that is because making turkey soup, by definition, follows thawing, wrestling, tying, roasting, resting, carving a turkey. And ...

The recent scandal of the Eastside Vancouver charity PHS Society and its massive mishandling and inappropriate spending of money -- funds that would presumably have gone to some of the most desperate neighbourhoods in Canada, sickened me. Such abuse of money. Such entitlement. ...