Text : john 12:1-11

Its been a hard weekend freinds, but it happened. Always just when you dont think it will happen God moves in mysterious ways. Once again I am left speachless from a gracefilled nourishing evening.

For those who would like to read, my sermon is ( behind here )

Text - john 5: 5-42

I think today was the first time I have ever moved a crowd to tears. I don't know what I did right, but it seems that all the forces that be fell into place in that pulpit for me.

Those who I have grown up with at St. Paul's, those who have even changed my diaper as a baby, all came up to me to thank and congratulate me. I am one of the luckiest people alive to have such a supportive parish. I even had complete strangers come up to me, in complete wonder thanking me for the clarity I provided.

Not just a few of those who came to me said I should not only be ordained already, but a priest non the less. The man who runs "our house" - an addictions treatment program for those living on the streets of vancouver- said to me " I dont care what you have planned for your life, this [ordination] is your calling, this is your life."

I am still digesting how to take that, but know that yesterday even though it was a 14 hr day with 4 services was one that I not soon forget.

When the world says "give up" the voice of hope whispers " try it one more time"

I've added my sermon for those who would like to( Read on )

Well ladies and gentlemen I am exhusted, but wow'd once more.

No I have not made up the word Homousian, its a real word with very deep seated meaning.

I have never had so many compliments in my life, besides speach pace issues, Everyone LOVED the sermon!

I have put it behind an LJ cut for those who are interested


Happy Homousian one and all!


Alex

( Read more )

Today was an amazing day.. preached all 3 services and then Vespers in the afternoon. I am beat, but man today was a day of total grace! I cant even find words to describe it....

I even had a prop, I wore a grand mask for the whole intro... really set the mood! was awsome!

Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Luke 18:9-14
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I am so freacking tired, I cant belive I am typing this!

Ive been up since 5 am and had 3 services today!
man I dont know how clergy do it, you guys seriously rock!

I was asked by a clergy freind of mine to come and preach @ his parish this morning which I did. He has 3 pilgrims going to Tazie this summer with the Bish and Diocess, so i came and added my 2 cents to the whole shabang.

I was honestly scared they would hate it, wouldnt connect, or would fall asleep. This parish isnt exactly n the Gene Robinson speaking tour calander, I was freaked out !

They were floored, loved it, and were very excited by my sermon. And they even paid me a lil Stipend! I was FLOORED! I did it cause I wanted to share, felt drawn to preach and it was great experience, I was almost in tears when they gave me that check.

latter there was a U2charist, and OMG AMAZING! what a stunning way to end the evening, Eucharist set the the music and lyrics of U2!

heres my sermon for anyone whos interested,

Comments as always are welcome!

now its time to pour this tired ass into bed!

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What a night!

Tonight I preached my first sermon, ever, at St Paul’s. Jebus I was nervous. I was sure no one would show up, as Tuesday in holy week, isn’t really one of the gangbuster days of the week. God was I wrong.
We have Monday – Wednesday service in the Labyrinth hall, very clam, cool, and simple, since by Sunday we will be exhausted, this is a time for self feeding, and reflection, before the “ team” goes resurrection style on Sunday. Most years, we are lucky to have more than 6 or 7 people at the service, like I said, its low key.

Not tonight.

We have almost 20 people there, and they all came to support me. Most came to say that they only came to hear my Sermon. These were people that we don’t normally see outside of Sunday. Most of them had watched me grow up, My first communion sponsors, the Altar guild, my Confirmation sponsors, and even my parents, BOTH my parents. (My mom is a non practicing Roman Catholic, she has been to church 4 times in her life, she’s holding out the 5th for death). Can I just say, I was so moved; I was moved to the very core of who I am.
Directly after my sermon, we had the peace, and I went over to give the peace to my parents, and my dad was all teary eyed, I could tell he was very proud of his son.

I am a very lucky man. I am loved, and supported by a parish that I call family, and home. Tonight, standing in front of my family, I have never felt so loved in my life.

Tonight was a night of Grace in Action.


I’ve attached my Sermon for any who are interested. Its no Dr. of Preaching material, but apparently for the first one, it was a hit.
( Read more )

Well guys.....

here is the finnished product...

Thank you to everyone who posted a suggestion on the topics... i appreciate the guidance!

Its hidden, so you all dont need to scroll down and down and down...

Id love to hear some feedback, if anyone has any...

Cheers!

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Ok peeps...

heres the word, yo yo

I GOT IT!

I start March 16th @ Branch 3, Perma part time.... 17.5 hrs a week

*happy dance*

MMMMMM bankers hours


and I get to WEAR A TIE!

Deliouse!

Poll #935240 Reaserch paper Topics
Open to: Friends, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

Which one would provide a more interesting Paper for you to read?

Please help me, I need Guidence. This is for my RELS 1220 course. I am suppost to find a topic that interests me. Well IT ALL DOES! It is a research paper, and shouldnt be overly broad, and be supported by at least 10-12 sources.

Cheers Guys!

I wanted to take a moment and “Unpack” my feelings, responses and personally derived issues around the “primates” meeting in Tanzania.

( Read more )

Soooooo today was Day 1 @ school! YAHHOOOOOOOO

I have good classes, and the teachers are amazing. They are very patient and seemingly excited by their chosen materials and subjects. It’s refreshing to hear people talk with such convictions in their voices about topics.

I have taken:
BCAP 1200 – MS office 2003
BCAP 3200 – Management information systems
RELS 1220 – Religions of the West

The one-person to note is my RELS 1220 teacher. He is Time Stevenson, Former United minister, Current second term member of city council, and one of the first people in Canada to marry his same sex partner. I have to admit; I'm a little in awwwwee when I'm in his class. I JUST FREAKING LOVE CANADA! To be sitting in a class room with Muslims, Jews, Atheists and other Christian denominations reading passages from the bible, while hearing lectures on those passages from an openly gay man, member of city council and the church is just amazing. TAKE THAT AINKINOLA!

I’ve already picked out the annoying ones, and so far, they’re holding true to form, they’re getting on my last nerves…. OHHHHH to be in school!

All in all, I am blest to be in school, and thrilled to bits I like it!

ESFP -
"Entertainer". Radiates attractive warmth and optimism. Smooth, witty, charming, clever. Fun to be with. Very generous. 8.5% of the total population.

So I slept like crap last night!
Corrigan had to go home yesterday afternoon, so I was all alone in bed. it felt weird, cold, and unfammilliar, even though its my own bed! His smell was still all over the place in our bedroom, so my body kept waking me up, expecting him to be behind me, ready to snuggle, but he wasnt :( Even Gommie bear jr (a stuffed teady bear he gave me for Christmas that have his voice in it) didnt do the trick!
Apparently he slept the same.
its getting harder and harder to let him go as time moves on.
I never belived in love at first sight....... I do now......

So today I got my Student ID card and books! I cant wait! im sooo excited! Arriving at the campus it felt like home... Well for the amount of money im spending on my education, IT SHOULD!
Look Ma.... im going to be all SMRT and be able to read d'em books now!

Happy New years! I hope it was a restfull amazing enjoyable family event for everyone!
blessings in the year ahead to all!

Sooooo Sadam Hussein is dead. It shouldnt come as a big surprise. I think the whole world, including Sadam knew he would die at some point in his life by the hand of the american lead forces. Direclty or not, but was it fair?

I read reports of his execution last night before I went to bed, and it was to say the least disturbing. Thank fully for him it was fast, and done in an apperantly open process, unlike the mudrers he ordered while in power. However there are reports that he was humliated up until the very moment of his death. I also heard video commentary yesterday saying the americans would hand him over to Iraqi control, but wouldnt really leave him until he was actually hung, to make sure he was not further humilliated in death, burned or tourtured.

What does this humilation get for the Iraqi peoples? Do they feel vindicated to belittle another human being, regardless of his crimes or postion? Does potential desecration of his body bring better closure to there wounds?

I find capital punishment demeaning to socitey, esp in a time and space when we have the ability and resources to be so much better than that. Being said, I do however agree there are moments and crimes when capital punishment is nessasary and warented. Rape, anything to do with harming children, mudrer ect.

As much as Sadam Hussein really was just an evil vendictive man, who only looked after his own intentions at the cost of millions of Iraqi and International lives, I still mourn the death of the person, who was a father, husband, and son. ( that being said, I DO NOT condon his treatment of Iraqis, His regime or crimes commited by Sadam while he was in power, I do belive he was a very evil man)

I hope now, this marks the moment of light and peace for Iraq, and that light and peace come unto Sadam and his familly.

Corrigans here, so Lj's will be hit and miss. will up date before new years.

His name is John. He is a quiet man, keeps to himself. He is full of the stories of a life once lived well. Trips around the world, the company he used to head, and how much he was proud of his family. His family has now forgotten about him, his apartment is on the streets of Vancouver. People ridicule, walk over, and neglect him. Everyone he thought would help has left him. Or did they? How many people who walk past him know that he’s one of the best supporting characters in the Nativity story?

Christmass for most is the secularized hallmark Christmass of magazines and popular TV. Christmass today is all about, wealth, personal gain and gifts. You read in the paper almost everyday about how people are in a flat panic to shop. Every year people pour more and more money into gifts for each other, while the people outside our own doors are hungry, alone, forgotten, and cold. Do those who come to church on Christmass Eve to celebrate the Nativity of our Savior really know or understand that they are witnessing a living nativity, just steps from their own bedrooms?

In the Gospels over the next two days we hear of the coming of the Christ Child. Most encounter the story of Christmass as memories from their childhood in church. Most kids get parts in their parishes nativity play. Proud families in the front row snapping pictures as they try and remember the few lines that they had practiced since thanksgiving. I, like everyone, love the angels, the pomp and excitement of the Christmass story. The doubting of Joseph and Mary's own perceived unworthiness of the call to be God bearer. Who can forget the throngs of angels, full of seraphim and cherubim, playing unending hymns of praise, and the star in all of its bright joy. The simple radiance of the Christ Child, arms outstretched to the world. Yet the Shepard’s have always captivated me. Their strong silent position in the story of Christmass motivates me to search out the real story of the heralds to the first Christmass.

In Luke’s Gospel we hear of the angels appearance to the Shepard’s, and their amazement and wonder at the sight of the Christ child. They are charged with spreading the word to the world, that “for there is born to you, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Gospel of Luke) And yet, with such an impressive message, in the manger scene the Shepard’s sit pensive and alert, quiet and humbled, forgotten and walked over. For surely a Shepard can’t share in the same majesty of the birth of the Son of God.

My manger scene is in the faces of those who are around me. The unnamed hundreds on the streets this Christmass, in care homes or alone. John for me is but one Shepard, heralding the message of Christmass to a world void of compassion, witness or time for those who aren’t affluent, who aren’t majestic. Walking around Downtown tonight, I was able to place the figures of my crèche in the faces of the community. My Joseph was a younger man sleeping on a cardboard mat outside a fast food joint on Davie Street. Mary was the woman at the cross walk, crying for some money for some food, trying to ask someone for help, pushed aside by shoppers trying to get to the next big sale. Christ was all around me. Every face, every smile, every encounter I had with someone, radiated with the innocent face of the child in the manger that cold dark night in Bethlehem.

Though not your typical Shepard, nor the “ hallmark ideal” John and the rest of my nativity scene are my reason for the season. Through them I hear the message of the nativity every day. Through them I see the joy of the Christ child that first night. With them I hear the throngs of angles, and with them I rejoice once more at the birth of our Savior. They are a true reflection of a present day nativity scene. Growing up as a child the manger scene at my parents was always different, complete with pooping moose, Peekachu, stone snail and the three wise mice. Those differences made it special for me, made it a home for my Christmass traditions. Christ came into the world surrounded by the forgotten, it is those forgotten I choose to remember in my creche every year.

I pray as you come to the manger this Christmass remember the John’s in your own neighborhoods. Look into your own hearts and realize that those around who are silent, are the Sheppard’s of the Manger, and through them we hear the true message of Christmass. “The Word became flesh and lived among us. From God's fullness we have all received.” (Jn 1: 1-18) HALLELUIA!

Merry Christmass to each and every one of you.

I really hate my job.....
yes.... braindead boredum is great...
not having to be mentally involved in your job is fantastic at times
tonight was painfull!
GOOOD LORD!
You now what I feel like?????
I feel like a sexy party!