Category Religion
Northern Ramadan
The sun rose yesterday at eleven minutes before one a.m. in Pangnirtung in northern Canada. It set at 11:55 p.m. No, that is not a misprint. They had less than an hour of darkness. Looking at the Environment Canada website it seems to me that further north there is no sunrise or sunset, that […]
The Big Give II
Saturday morning I took part in The Big Give, but I have been waffling about telling you all about it. I did mention earlier than I wanted to participate in this free garage sale that was being held at 65 Ottawa churches, including Cedarview Alliance where I am a member. Participate I did, but […]
Municipal Tensions
Clashes between church and state are never pretty. There is a tension between the sacred and the secular, between worldviews that all too often seem diametrically opposed when you would expect them to be complementary. After all, both the state and religious authorities are ostensibly concerned with the well-being of the people. I guess it […]
Dervish Dance
I had mixed feelings about attending – but I am glad I did. Whirling dervishes are part of an obscure branch of Islam, an ecstatic dance performed only in a few places. I won’t go into details, you can look it up. I am extremely reluctant to contribute financially to something I don’t believe in, […]
The Big Give
I’m not really a garage sale sort of person. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate a bargain, but driving from place to place looking for one doesn’t appeal to me. It seems too much like work. I know there are people for whom garage sales are a major hobby. They are up at the […]
Mamertine Prison
It was the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. That was just a coincidence. Even though I am a skeptic I paid the small admission fee to see the cell where Paul (and supposedly Peter too) was held during his time as a prisoner in Rome. I am a skeptic. If you want me […]
The Church
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” That line is a paraphrase of a statement popularized by philosopher George Santayana. It was running through my mind a lot this week, with the news that Ottawa’s Northwestern United Church building is being sold to the mosque next door. I assume the reason […]
The Mosque
The first mosque I ever visited was in a Toronto building that started its life as a Presbyterian church. I don’t think that usage was predestined. It was the Summer of 1989 and the mosque visit was part of an orientation session being given before we moved to Africa. I think the idea was that, […]
Public Transit
Taking the bus is relatively boring. You get on, you pay your fare, you get off at your destination. One bus looks just like every other bus. It wasn’t like that when we visited Malta. The buses had a uniform colour scheme, but there was room for personalization and individuality. They’ve changed the system since […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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