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Why Youth Leave the Church

Read this article, featuring ground-breaking new research on youth and the Canadian Church. This article first appeared in Faith Today magazine. "Hemorrhaging Faith identifies four major reasons why youth find Church worthwhile and stay in or return to it. These "drivers" to ...

A Visit to South Sudan

This article about my visit to South Sudan refugee camps appeared in Faith Today magazine and won the 2012 A.C. Forrest Memorial Award for excellence in religious journalism.  Click here to read this article. "Even at 5000 feet above it, I knew ...

Write Local

■  A woman building a ballet slipper business, who caught the attention of American Idol's Randy Jackson. ■  A senior with an astonishingly large collection of moose figurines. ■  A musician creating a ministry of music for those who are dying and ...

Goodbye Good Friend

In Mexico, where we were when we received the news of my brother-in-law Doug’s  tragic and incredibly premature passing, there are underground systems of tunnels that include deep pools of green water called cenotes. The water is cool and clear. It seems ...

Burger King and Writers

  There will be no more professional writers in the future. That was the headline for a Globe and Mail story last week, mainly about how free content, e-books and self-publishing are making it almost impossible for authors to make a living. ...

Slaughter’s Controversial Article

I finally had the opportunity, and took the chunk of time required, to read Anne Marie Slaughter's controversial article Why Women Still Can't Have it All, published in Atlantic Magazine (July/Aug). Slaughter was the first woman director of policy planning at the ...

The power of not knowing

The other day I interviewed Reg Bibby, one of Canada's leading sociologists. It was for a story on why youth leave the Church and why they sometimes stay. What made the interview so remarkable to me wasn't what Bibby knew, which was ...

A funny thing happened

A funny thing happened to me on the way to this website. When I left for my assignment in South Sudan, this site was well on its way to being complete. When I returned, after six days of touring refugee camps and ...

My Big Writing Challenge

This week, I am off on a writing assignment like I have never had before. I have accepted an invitation to travel to two refugee camps in South Sudan with Samaritan's Purse, a charity probably best known for encouraging ordinary Canadians to ...

The Crying Interview

I'm certain that it is unprofessional to break down and start crying during an interview for a magazine story — especially when you're the one doing the interviewing. But that's what I did near the end of a gruelling hour-and a-half long ...

The Mess on my Desk

Recently, an Indigo flyer caught my eye, and then my scissors. It came for Mother's Day and was an advertisement for the books Mom would love. But what I loved was its collection of quotes about books and writers. Quotes that I ...

Bible Study Gone Bad

The column Bible Study Gone Bad can be found at The United Church Observer. Click here to read the full column.

Karen Stiller's Newsyletter

Every now and then I write a short e-newsletter. I’d love to have you join.

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