“A Cross a the Center”, A Sermon by Robert Campbell.

Rev. James Christies preached the following sermon, Sunday, January 30. His topic was "Beam Me Out Scottie". Captain Kirk of the TV show, Star Trek, was often on a strange planet calling to the Enterprise to get him back on board- Beam me up, Scottie.

Dr. Christie's sermon topic was not a typographical error! As his sermon makes clear. Thanks to James Campbell for the recording and the audio file.

What Good is God? In Search of Faith That Matters...
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A Communion Meditation, a Sermon by Rev. Robert Campbell.

Sermon for Loyalist Sunday, a Sermon by Rev. Robert Campbell.

Thanks to Ernest for allowing us to carry this video on our website. His text for the sermon was "God is Love” 1 John 4:8b. The sermon was entitled "When God Was A Woman".
Also, thanks to Len LaRue and Keith Strachan for handling the technical end of this upload. Read More...

Today we celebrate that Braden, James, Kayla and Tyler have heard God’s call in their lives as they have chosen to be confirmed – which is in effect an affirmation of their Baptism. They stood before us and declared their faith - and in so doing, have provided this community an opportunity to reflect upon God’s call in our own lives. Read More...

Sojourn in England

As I look out the window today, January the 14th, Temperature 37 degrees C with the wind chill, I recall the relatively balmy clime in London, England at this time last year. Fred was on a 6 month sabbatical leave to work with a colleague at St. Mary’s University in London. In the early 1970’s we spent 2 years in Salisbury and London so this was somewhat of a swan song at the other end of Fred’s career in academic medicine. Our daughter Katie is presently finishing her PhD in Water Toxicology in London. We were enjoying being near to her, if only for six months. Read More...

An Upstaging Of The Christmas Story

Monkeys. The story is told of a dozen monkeys in a large cage. In the middle of the cage is a ladder at the top of which is a bunch of bananas. Every time that any monkey tries to climb the ladder to acquire a banana, all the monkeys are hosed down with ice-cold water. Within a relatively short period of time, no one tries climbing the ladder anymore. Read More...

Some Eccentric Scientists

A more recent scientist, who made somewhat of a name for himself in experimental circles, despite being a theoretical physicist, was Wolfgang Pauli, an Austrian who is best remembered, perhaps, for the Pauli principle in physics but also, among many, for the Pauli ‘effect’. Pauli was a clumsy experimentalist and a notably poor lecturer but was a brilliant theoretician.... Read More...

Because of the vagaries of the church calendar and lectionary, Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth gets considerably more attention than Matthew’s account at Christmas-time. In Luke we follow the young couple on their journey to Bethlehem for the census and watch as the child born to Mary is laid in a manger because there is no room them the inn. We hear the angels’ announcement to the shepherds of the good news of a saviour and travel with them to Bethlehem to see this thing that has come to pass.... Read More...

There is an insightful scene in an episode of The Simpsons.

Police Chief Wiggum and Homer Simpson are in pursuit of a car. They are driving in what appears to be desert-like conditions. As the Chief radios in to HQ to inform them of their location he says: “We are directly under the earth’s sun NOW”.

Incredulous? Certainly. Lesson to be learned? Always.... Read More...

Are you having difficulty getting into the Christmas spirit this year? I’ve heard several comments from many that this is so. For some it is simply the lack of snow that makes it hard to believe Christmas is almost here. Christmas just isn’t Christmas without that white stuff gently falling – allowing holiday opportunities for tobogganing, skating and skiing with family and friends. Perhaps it is all the political turmoil in our country that challenges our Christmas spirit. For others, the lack of Christmas spirit has a much more serious source.... Read More...

A more recent scientist, of whom I know something at second-hand, is Geoffrey Hardy, the mathematician at Oxford whose textbook on pure mathematics was compulsory study for many undergraduates in the 1940-1960 period. A lifelong bachelor, Hardy lived with his sister in Oxford and in addition to pursuing his studies and supervision in Oxford, had several graduate students which he advised at the University of Bristol.... Read More...

One of the most unusual figures in science in the last number of centuries is perhaps Robert Hooke, a man for which I have considerable sympathy and admiration. Without examining his early life in any significant way, he was a graduate of Westminster School and entered Oxford University at the time at which Sir Isaac Newton was first making his name. He came from a poor family on a scholarship, and was generally derided by his colleagues at that time.... Read More...

I still remember my first (and only) UFO sighting.

A young lad I was, and “it” happened when I was driving down a residential street late one evening.

Some peculiar lights caught my eye, and before I even knew what was going on, I had stopped my car, jumped out, and started flagging any traffic around me to stop and do the same. I was successful in stopping a large dude on a motorcycle to whom I proudly announced: LOOK, a UFO!!!! Read More...

“What I like about scientists,” said John Wilmott, Minister of supply 1945-47 in the United Kingdom Government, “ is that they are a team so that one need not know their names.” It is perhaps from public statements of this kind that the public gets the predominant impression of the scientist as a colorless, odorless, passionless pioneer who works continually and unemotionally in the far off corner of some dreary and aseptic laboratory. Scientists are different but not different from each other.... Read More...

I am confused.

Work through this with me: The Bible says: God is love (1 John 4:8). The Bible says: Love is not jealous (1 Corinthians 13:4). The Bible says: God’s name is jealous and this God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14).

See my conundrum? Read More...

Not in my backyard.

This was said to “certain individuals” who messed around with Churches that Saint Paul had founded.

The way in which Paul expressed that displeasure was so intensely harsh, that most of our Bibles do not have the guts (= rhymes with walls) to translate said anger into English... Read More...

Whilst living in Toronto, I would often see a man in the Subway (i.e., Transit – as opposed to the place you go to lose weight the way Jared did). Perhaps a modern-day Prophet, the Subway gentleman wore a sandwich board that announced: Repent, The End Is Near. I was often tempted to ask him what his sign meant, because words are subject to such a wide swath of interpretation.

Repent is one such word... Read More...

I am impressed with people who have “negotiated” their way out of a speeding ticket, or “bartered” for an amount below the advertised sale price. To find the origin of said activity, all we need do is hit the big “rewind” button…

We read in Genesis 18:20ff that God decided to act on the outcry against the sin of the original twin-cities (Sodom and Gomorrah), and that God intended to destroy the city in its entirety... Read More...

This time of year thoughts turn to baking, decorating, crowded malls and even-worsethan- usual-drivers (it appears that many Manitobans suffer from amnesia brought on by the fi rst snow – have you never driven in this before?)... Read More...

The first words that came out of my mouth were in the German language. Ditto for all my children. When I grew up there were no “bilingual programs” in schools, so we learned English at school AND went to “German School” every Saturday morning (wonderfully painful memories those are).

My maternal grandmother believed that not unlike the generations described above, God also spoke German. She would even quote scripture to prove it citing the phrase: “Und Gott sagte…” (= and God said&hellip. Case closed…God speaks German! Read More...

Towards the beginning of every year in my World Religions Class at the U of W, I have the students engage in an exercise. I bring an inanimate object into Class and “hide it” under the lectern so that the students can not see it. I then ask for a volunteer to come and look at the object (even touch it), but to leave it hidden from the Class. The volunteer is instructed to try and describe the object to his/her classmates until the Class “knows” and/or identifies the object. In all the years that I have done this, no Class has ever identified the object. Sorry, not even close enough to SMELL the cigar… Read More...

Sehnsucht ist so grausam.

Words. You just looked at four (4) words. Did they make any sense to you?

The gist of the above is that the longings and yearnings that you and I have can be very cruel and depressing. Admittedly, it’s a rather bleak view into the existential angst that life may embody.... Read More...

The story of The Flood (Genesis 6-9) ranks among one of the “classics” in the biblical text. It operates on many levels, but covers at least the following bases: sin, God’s reaction to it, punishment, renewal and the rainbow... Read More...

As I eagerly await the first signs of my perennials coming back to life (how do they know when to do that?), I think of weeds. Of “plants”, they are among the first up in Spring, and often the last to go down in Fall. Why are there weeds?... Read More...

2,000 years ago, Philo stated that no one could seriously believe that Eve was created from Adam’s rib. It’s just a myth, said Philo. A story to assist us in understanding that which can not be understood; namely, humankind being created in the image of God... Read More...

I have always been fascinated by the discussion of – and the reaction to – the subject of “myth” with regard to biblical stories. Case in point, how God created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs... Read More...