The Mystic Cave

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). All of us have a "there" back there, someplace we've left behind to get to where we are now. What would happen if we tried to go back, even for a visit? Would it still be there? Would we find ourselves, waiting? Credits: Music Credit: "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Be careful if you're going to start weeding. You don't know where it might end up. That's why Jesus said, "Live, and let live" ... sort of.  Credits: Music Credit: "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight , 2005; licensed under SOCAN...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Unity is hard to achieve in any human endeavour, especially in the realms of religion and politics. But sometimes the alternative is unthinkable. Credits: Music Credit: "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight , 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2021 Links: Web Sit...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Open mindedness has its risks. But open minds can lead to open doors, where any God-created thing can enter in.  Credits: Music Credit: "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight , 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2021 Links: Web Site: https://www.brianepearson.ca F...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). An insignificant man, humble and unassuming, is elevated to the church's highest position. He eschews ecclesiastical power for simple presence. But is that what the church wants?  Credits: Music Credit: "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight , 2005; l...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). The sign of ashes may be about our repentance. But dirt, or 'humus,' is the sign of our humanity, which is sometimes born of humiliation.  Credits: Music Credit: "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight , 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2021 Links: Web...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). A new young minister who likes to eat, an old farming community that likes to feed. What could go wrong?  Credits: Music Credit: "Into the Mystic" by Van Morrison, performed by Colin James, from the album, Limelight , 2005; licensed under SOCAN 2021 Links: Web Site: https://www.brianepearson.ca Face Boo...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). John Pentland talks about how Christian belief has changed: from a distant to a present God; from Jesus the answer to Jesus the question; and from a church set apart to a church engaged in the world, even online. It's a hopeful vision that leaves no one out, and promises exciting new discoveries for those wi...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). John Pentland invites us to imagine a church, not for dyed-in-the-wool believers, but for never-been-to-church seekers. All are welcome. Hillhurst United Church, where John's been the minister for over sixteen years, has seen its congregation grow, not only in its pews but also online. Its burgeoning members...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Many think of religion as a matter of the heart--loving God, loving your neighbour as yourself. But wars have been fought over the words we use to describe that love, and the ideas behind those words. For Christianity in particular, the words matter. Derwyn Costinak is an Anglican priest whose beliefs were formed...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Many think of religion as a matter of the heart--loving God, loving your neighbour as yourself. But wars have been fought over the words we use to describe that love, and the ideas behind those words. For Christianity in particular, the words matter. Derwyn Costinak is an Anglican priest whose beliefs were formed...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Having shared with us her spiritual journey, from the inclusion and support of her early years in the church to the hurt and frustration that led her to leave her ministry as an Anglican priest, Tara now joins me to consider the needs of the seeker--on the other side of church land. And what do we discover? It&ap...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Tara's journey looks a lot like my own: a church-going childhood, a sense of call, an ordained ministry; then hurt and disillusionment, leading her to leave the church, but with her faith intact, even if it expresses itself differently now. In this, the first part of our conversation, Tara tells us her story...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). In this episode, the first of the interview sessions, I talk with the author of Lost Rites: Leaving Church Land . That would be ... me. I just want to say, talking to oneself is highly underrated. Your personality begins to disintegrate as different parts step forward for their moment on the stage. But that'...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). All the church's failings began with faithfulness. Someone was trying to do the right thing. But then they clung to that thing, afraid of having to make difficult decisions, or to have faith, ever again. So the scriptures, the creeds, the sacraments, the ordered ministries--they all hardened into stone, like...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). We did the deed, performing an "irregular" wedding. We received the censure we were expecting. Everyone went back to their jobs. But for me, it was over. I would devote my time to my people at St. Stephen's and to our many engaging ministries, but also to my plans to leave. Something deep inside wa...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). The people of God, according to the Prophet Micah, already know what God requires of them: "to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God." But what if those are the very people who are unjust, unkind, and proud? What if someone has to step outside the bounds of their faith commu...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). What a difference a day makes. With the election of a new bishop for the Diocese of Calgary, the church was about take a turn to the past, leaving progressive parishes like mine feeling more like islands than parts of the mystical Body of Christ. And things would only get worse. Credits: Interlude: Toccata and Fu...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). We opened our doors and the world came in. Isn't that what's supposed to happen? We were changed as a result. Isn't that also what's supposed to happen? The lines between ourselves, as Christians, and others, each in their own religious guise, were blurring. The walls that kept our faith in an...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). As I was entering the "days of my greatest creativity," my church of St. Stephen's was, as well. We were learning to climb down Jacob's ladder, leading us back down to earth rather than up to heaven. Whatever delights awaited us in the next life, they could wait. We were finding fulfilment in...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Inner work manifests outwardly. Just as my soul work had opened new doors for my pastoral ministry, the parish's inner work was about to manifest in a massive building renovation to support its re-energized calling, as servants of God and of the world. The new space would not only serve the wider community,...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). It seems that we are our own weakest link. We can't help others if we can't help ourselves. We can't love others if we don't first love ourselves. So when, finally, I did the work necessary for the healing of my own soul, I was ready to assist in the healing of others. That meant becoming a me...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). If there's a turnaround in my story, it begins here. But it's a slow turning. I would be entering the years of "my greatest creativity," just as Bishop Bothwell had predicted, back in Niagara. But it wouldn't be with the church's approval, or with its blessing, as I might have imagin...

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). Sometimes, you can't rise up until you get down. All the way down. And a marriage breakup will do that for you. I don't care what the pious judges say. No one walks out the door easily. It tears you apart, and scars you for life. But somewhere in the violent darkness, life itself is calling out to you....

Click here to send me a text message (include your contact info if you want a reply). My new ministry, and our family's new life in Calgary, brought both joys and challenges. The diocese proved a lonely dysfunctional place. The parish needed a clean sweep. Only my home life seemed as it should be ... though in truth, that too was headed for trouble. I was writing again, and finding friends no...