Spirituality – 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!

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!

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.

Southminster United Church

By admin

On December 7, 2022

In Spirituality, Teaching, Theology

Southminster is an amazing church in the Glebe (right close to Lansdowne Park). I will be preaching there on the following dates:

Jan. 15th, 29th. Feb 26th.

O Beautiful Dust My Lenten Companion

By admin

On April 19, 2022

In General, Spirituality, Theology

A few years back I had the privilege of co-authoring a paper with my friend Robbie Walker. Robbie is a queer Pentecostal theologian (PhD candidate Trinity College, Toronto). I am not sure how I first encountered Robbie, I think it was through Generous Spaciousness way back, but however it happened I’ve been blessed by Robbie’s keen mind and authentic Christian faith. And I especially enjoyed the way that Robbie shaped our work together trying to understand some of the ways that our evangelical kin approach or avoid issues of LGBTQ+ inclusion.

The Gift of the Diversity of Christian Worship

By admin

On March 4, 2022

In Music, Spirituality, Teaching, Theology

Last year I had the opportunity to deliver a series of lectures and conversations about the diversity of expressions of worship in the Christian Church. I wanted to create a space where we could reflect on our own experiences of liturgy and worship as well as explore a few different approaches and practices that would challenge us to learn from each other. I had a great and engaged group of learners for the journey with the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality – and now I’m preparing to offer this teaching through the Atlantic School of Theology‘s continuing education series in May-June 2022. I am pretty excited.

Intro to North American Evangelicalism

By admin

On March 3, 2022

In Spirituality, Teaching, Theology

I am preparing to deliver a course through the Ottawa School of Theology and Spirituality in September (2022) on Evangelicalism. This is the abstract I submitted for their pamphlet:

Who are the Evangelicals? Together we will explore the story of Evangelicalism in North America. Our focus is on those traditions who have identified with Evangelicalism in Canada and the United States. We will look at evangelicals through the lenses of the Fundamentalist movement, post-war neo-evangelicalism, and evangelicals today.

Decolonization Series

By drfrank

On September 24, 2021

In politics, Spirituality, Theology

Examining the hidden ideas that inhabit our imaginations is the serious need of our day. We often allow internalized entitlements, ideologies, and even racisms to colour our thinking and our acting in the world. Leaving these ideas unexamined does make sense; these hidden ideas are often the underpinnings of who we believe we are in this world. To tackle any of these ideas is both painful and risky. But it is absolutely necessary. It is those same, often unexamined, assumptions that do harm to others. Our privilege always comes with a price, a price we really do not want to think too much about.

What I Would Do Differently (part 1)

By drfrank

On July 6, 2018

In Spirituality, Theology, Uncategorized

Frank speaking at a retreat — Frank speaking at Pastor’s Retreat

It has been quite a few years now since I’ve pastored a church. During this time I’ve reflected a lot on what I did wrong and what I did right. I still have a lot of fond memories of the good things we, as a church, did in our city and even beyond our city. The road trips to do teaching workshops, exploring notions of justice in community, training up leaders who went out to serve in other congregations, and even the deep enduring friendships that we cultivated. These good things definitely have their counterpoints in the things I wish I had done differently. Some of these things we got right in the beginning, but somehow, they were overtaken or misaligned by the demands of pastoral ministry. As a result we’ve had to work through a few relationship stumbles from those days and there are still a few we have yet to work through, especially from the last couple of years of Freedom Vineyard. As these reflections percolate in my heart I thought it would be helpful to me, and possibly others, to reflect on them here. I want to reflect on the first idea, more ideas will come and more will come on each idea I am sure.

Category: Spirituality Page 1 of 2