Eclectic Doctor

New Lunch & Learn Series

On May 23, 2024

Thursday May 16th members of Kitchissippi, Rideau Park, and Southminster united gathered at Southminster United Church for the first lunch and learn session in a series dedicated to exploring the United Church of Canada’s “Song of Faith.” The purpose of this event was to help participants better understand what the United Church believes and to foster a deeper appreciation of our shared faith.

The “Song of Faith,” adopted in 2006, is a poem that articulates the theological beliefs of the United Church of Canada. During our session, we focused on the beginning part of this important document. One of the main points we discussed was that despite beginning with the depiction of God as a Holy Mystery, the “Song of Faith” clearly states that God seeks a relationship with us and all of creation. This idea sparked a lively and thoughtful discussion among the participants.

God is Holy Mystery,

beyond complete knowledge,

above prefect description.

Yet,

in love,

the one eternal God seeks relationship.

Song of Faith (2006)

The approach of the “Song of Faith” as poetry which begins an acknowledgement of mystery, sets it apart from typical statements of faith. Instead of presenting definitive faith claims backed by scriptures, the committee that wrote the “Song of Faith” chose to use poetic language. This approach emphasizes a humble acceptance of the limits of human understanding and invites readers into a reflective and contemplative engagement with their faith.

Personally, I found that the apophatic nature of the opening line, which acknowledges the mystery of God, set the stage for the entire “Song of Faith.” This approach resonated with me as it encourages a sense of wonder and openness in our spiritual journey, rather than rigid certainty.

Participants brought their own lunches and eagerly engaged in conversation around the question prompts I provided. I also gave a brief introduction to the “Song of Faith” to provide some context for our discussion. The folks who came shared personal reflections and asked their own insightful questions.

As we concluded our session, several key takeaways emerged. We were reminded of the importance of continually reflecting on our faith and how it informs our actions. The “Song of Faith” encourages us to embrace our diversity, seek justice, and live with hope. Our hope is that these are values that will resonate deeply within our community and help guide us as we continue to live as disciples. Today we had our second Lunch and Learn at Rideau Park United where we looked at God who creates the universe full of possibilities, tends this creation by mending the broken and reconciling the estranged. I am looking forward to this continuing series, we will meet at Kitchissippi United Church next week ( May 30th ). All are welcome to join us in these great conversations. Together, we can grow in our understanding of the faith of the United Church along with our commitment to living out our faith in meaningful ways. Won’t you join us?

Lenten Reflection Series

By admin

On February 7, 2024

In Church Life, Spirituality

This Lent my cluster of United Churches have a lot of activities planned. I created a little webpage for our churches to advertise all of the things going on. Of note there will be a great little lunch and learn series which I am doing with Rev. Paul from Riverside United Church on becoming an invitational church. This idea was sparked by the work our denomination is doing on thinking about church growth. What I love about the United Church is that we are trying to hold in tension the idea of being doers of the world (our passion for social justice) as well as creating spaces for people to grow in their spiritual lives. These two ideas belong together and not collapsed into some sort of proselytization program or a pure social program. We act because of our faith, but we are comfortable with faith taking many forms in our communities. It should be a rich discussion – so bring a lunch and jump into the conversations.

The other thing I’m excited about is Rideau Park United Church is doing a sensory service for Ash Wednesday and we at Southminster are doing one for Good Friday. I used to do a Good Friday sensory service every year with Freedom Vineyard, so it will be a lot of fun to put together. I’m especially excited to work with out LNGO committee to create a social justice themed station where you can engage in actual social justice action!

A Year of Games (2023)

By admin

On January 8, 2024

In Gaming

I continue to track the games that we play each year. Due to busy schedules, COVID bringing caution to a lot of extra social gatherings, and Sharon and I playing a lot more games just after dinner this is the state of things. Skip Bo topped the chart hitting the table more than 48 times (we played it so often I know I didn’t record every play, also we usually play a few games) I’m not the biggest fan of this simple card game, but Sharon sure is and also my mother enjoyed it when I visited over Christmas. Fortunately Skip Bo was not our only go to game and often we would break out Space Base (10) and Roll for the Galaxy (8) both of which were favourites of my regular Tuesday night gaming group.

Sharon and I also enjoyed many roll and writes up at the cottage, they are great to take out on the deck and not worry about pieces blowing away. We get a nice breeze on our deck that keeps the mosquitos away! Lost Cities Roll and Write (14) topped our list of lazy summer days games. The cottage was also where we discovered a cooperative game, Burgle Bros. (4) that Sharon absolutely loves. And to round out the cottage gaming we played a lot of Project L (15) which is a great tetris like game, really simple to explain too. I kinda played that one out, but Sharon still enjoys it.

My Tuesday night group continues to play Rage (34 but I’m sure I missed recording a few) almost every time we get together. This game was such a big hit that one of our gamers had his brother in Austria hunt down a few new copies of the German version of the game. I still think this is the best version in terms of rules. We mostly role play in that group with Forbidden Lands (14) being the current jam for us. We have a bunch more Free League games to get to the table as well.

A surprising entry this year was a dollar store purchase of Downforce (11). There were a bunch of games that Winners offloaded to the Dollar Store chain and folks on the gaming boards were really excited. I managed to snag this and Ishtar which really didn’t grab our attention. Downforce looked a bit too simple but we gave it a try and ended up liking it much more than Formula Dé which was the last race game we really enjoyed.

The only other game that made it to the table a significant amount of times is a new game I kickstarted: Point City (9). From the makers of Point Salad, this is a great filler game. Oh, and there is Auction 45s (9) which we play with our friends Dale and Ady. It is a traditional Euchre variant played on the East Coast (Maritimes and New England).

Overall I played 64 different games this year, it feels like a slow year for gaming, but there was a lot going on. Next year I’m hoping to game a lot more!

What I’ve Learned

By admin

On January 3, 2024

In Spirituality, Theology

In September I signed a two-year contract with Southminster United Church as their congregational minister. This is a student position as I’m completing the Supervised Learning Experience(SME) with the United Church of Canada (part of the candidacy pathway). I am really appreciating the process and all of the training and mentoring involved. As a minister I have never felt more supported. Even my educational supervisor, Rev. Jenni Leslie, has been such a blessing, I did not expect to have so much hands on mentoring and it has been so helpful. I am also loving the experience of Southminster itself. Our church has its challenges certainly, but Southminster is a warm, welcoming community with a passion to continue worshipping in Old Ottawa South, I can work with that.

At the same time I had already agreed to 10 hours teaching at Algonquin College (2 courses NET1001 and CST8117). While teaching I also have been enrolled at Atlantic School of Theology (AST at SMU) completing a testamur. My PhD in theology is a teaching degree and so the testamur matches it to an MDiv which I cover off easily, but not the four denominational formation courses I wanted to take anyway and an advanced preaching summer course I’m hoping to do this coming summer. This meant that while ministering and teaching I was also writing papers for Rev. Dr. Catherine Faith MacLean’s excellent United Church Theology course. I also finished up an anti-racism course on ChurchX (required by the denomination) and have been working on developing a course on poverty and privilege with a group out of Peterborough. Needless to say I have been a busy boy.

Other than the inevitable marking, all of these are things I absolutely loved doing.

But what I’ve learned is that the 42+ hours a week I committed to is way too much for me. So this semester I’m scaling back my Algonquin teaching considerably. I have agreed to just 5 hours and only working on one course: NET3010 which is the BitNet web programming course I enjoy. I’m also only doing one of the lab sections so that means marking will be exams and one lab’s worth (about 25 students) of lab assignments. I think that will be a lot more doable. At least I hope this will be the case.

I’ve also learned that I really love doing pastoral work. After all I’ve been through with the church I had pretty much given up on working as a minister. But the challenge is quite thrilling and ministry is full of those teachable moments that keep me coming back to teaching positions. I’m also enjoying seeing new faces in the congregation, some returning and some just finding their way to our sacred space. I was overjoyed to receive authorization to celebrate communion with Southminster, and Christmas Eve was my first communion service there. I’m so looking forward to new opportunities to serve Southminster and our wider community spiritually this coming year.

Not bad things to learn.

I’m hoping that this season will also afford me more time to curate this blog consistently. We’ll see, I have hope.

Have a blessed New Year!

Frank preaching at Southminster United Church in Ottawa

It is Official

By admin

On March 6, 2023

In Uncategorized

Frank at Melville United in borrowed stole

I am now the Preaching Facilitator for Southminster United Church. It took us quite a bit of work to decide on what role I would play in the church seeing as my current teaching responsibilities take up a fair chunk of my time already. This means that in addition to presiding over the worship and delivering weekly sermons, I will be spending time spiritually accompanying the congregation as we orient ourselves toward the future. I have a bit of training and reading to do in preparation for this role, but I am looking forward to connecting with the various groups that rent our facilities as well as the folk who have been faithfully serving on committees and projects.

If you are in the area, why not drop by a Sunday and see what is going on. You can catch our services and my sermons on our Facebook page.

Where I Will Be This Month

By admin

On February 4, 2023

In Uncategorized

February is going to be a full month and I am excited. In addition to my regular teaching at Algonquin College, you can catch me ministering at Southminster United Church on the 26th for the beginning of Lent. I may also be there on the 12th to fill in for a guest minister, but I am happy to have most of this month free to begin other projects. Starting in March I should be spending a lot more time with this great congregation. For Ash Wednesday Southminster and Trinity Anglican are holding a joint service with Rev. Mark Whittall presiding. I went to school with Mark (St. Paul) and am really looking forward to coming and helping out in whatever way I can. You might also want to come out to join us for our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper.

February 13th I am scheduled to be teaching an online version of my History of North American Evangelicals course with the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality. A five part lecture and conversation series which will help us better understand the roots of this diverse and influential movement. If you have not already registered I am sure there are spots available.

Hope to see you somewhere in the midst of this full month of teaching and ministering.

UPDATE: I am preaching through most of the Lenten season at Southminster. Services are simultaneously broadcast online.

Following Jesus Today Article

By admin

On January 9, 2023

In Spirituality, Theology

I contributed a short reflection on what it means to follow Jesus in the world today to this new book. I was tickled to see that I knew other authors who also contributed. If you want to read something encouraging about how folks from different Christian traditions understand following Jesus today, I highly recommend.

Programming Chops Video Series

By admin

On January 2, 2023

In Programming, Teaching

challenge of programming opening slide — Opening Slide for First Video of Series

I have begun to publish my new series of programming chops, what follows is from the readme file in the root branch of the dedicated GitHub repository for the project. Keep an eye here for updates to the links!

Year End Gaming Report

By admin

On January 1, 2023

In Gaming

Lost Cities Roll and Write (Kosmos Games)

Another year has come and gone, COVID has made gaming fairly sparse, but I did manage to play 66 different tabletop games this year with friends and family (no solo games for me). The top two games we played this year are both games my partner, Sharon, and I love to play together: Lost Cities Roll & Write (Kosmos games) and the classic Skip-Bo (AMIGO/Mattel) a game as old as I am! Both are easy games to set up and play and it is not surprising that a roll & write made it to the top as we played a lot of these games on our cottage deck knowing that wind is not so much of an issue with dice.

North American Evangelicalism (OSTS)

By admin

On December 23, 2022

In Teaching, Theology

First slide from this series with the title of the course: Intro to N. Am. Evangelicalism

I was quite happy with how this course turned out, lots of really great student engagement as we looked at the history and current state of evangelicalism in North America. Wanting to reach a broader audience, OSTS has invited me to run this lecture series online in the second half of their winter semester (Feb. 3 to Mar. 20). You can read my blog post describing this series here. This course is great for evangelicals, post-evangelicals, and those just interested in influential forms of Christianity. My students last semester told me that they gained a new awareness of the breadth and depth of this diverse movement, and many were surprised at which traditions have evangelical roots. In North America it is easy to see that most, if not all, Christian traditions (and even some world religions) are either reactionary to evangelicalism or currently engaging with evangelicalism in constructive ways. Evangelicals are everywhere. Come join with us as we explore where they come from, how they have evolved, and where they might be heading.