John of John, Psalms & Sabbath Chains

 Then [Jesus] said to them, “The Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath,  so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

                                          Mark 2: 27-28 NRSVue

One of the most talked about novels of 2026 is John of John by Douglas Stuart. His debut novel, Shuggie Bain won the Booker Prize and some critics claim John of John is comparable. 

In the 1990s young John Calum returns to the remote isle of Harris after four years at art school on the mainland, essentially tricked into coming home by his stern father. The novel's title is explained when Cal is asked by an elderly passenger on the boat "Who do you belong to?" He replies: "John of John of Ian of Ian the Breabadair" — breabadair meaning weaver, a reference to his family's crofting heritage. Calum returns with long dyed hair and odd clothing, much to his father's chagrin. 

I won't go too deeply into what is a compelling story dealing with family secrets and long-standing tensions in a tight-knit and claustrophobic community. Harsh Presbyterianism is lurking in the background, almost another character in the book. John Sr. is a precentor in the dying local congregation, leading in the unaccompanied singing of the psalms in both English and Gaelic which are central to worship.

The result in the Gaelic speaking churches has been the beautiful, haunting, evocative sound of Gaelic psalm singing. Often considered a musical reflection of the surrounding environment, emulating the ebb and flow of the sea, Gaelic psalmody is an iconic symbol of the Hebrides – much in the same way that Male Voice Choir singing is symbolic of Wales. It is hard for outsiders to consider the possibility that this will not go on for ever as a musical expression of culture and faith.

There is also mention of putting the "Sabbath chains" in place. Puzzled, I did some research and discovered that the tradition of strict Sabbath observance on these Hebridean islands meant that playground swings and other equipment literally went under lock and key on Sundays, a day reserved for worship, rest, and presumably mind-numblng boredom. 

This brought to mind the friendly warnings I received as the new mainland minister when I took up duties in 1980 in several outport Newfoundland communities. Forget about using the canoe or the cross-country skis on Sundays that arrived in the moving van, hardly a temptation given that I had three services, morning, afternoon, and evening. No one would hang out laundry on Sunday or be seen berry picking. Shops were closed regardless of the religious convictions of the owners for fear of lost business. 

The biblical observance of the Sabbath was meant to set people free from relentless work. It was a powerful directive when the temptation was to relentless scratch out a living. The Sabbath was living, not a form of imprisonment. 

We both appreciated John of John, even though it a challenging story at times. 

The Legacy of the Group of Seven Painters

                                                                        Nellie Lake -- AY Jackson 

Yesterday was Group of Seven Day in Ontario, the recently established acknowledgement of these artists who exhibited together for the first time more than a century ago. They were vital to establishing a Canadian sense of landscape that broke from European conventions. Most of them had day jobs as graphic artists and art teachers as well as other roles.

The criticisms today are that they painted the natural world as though Indigenous peoples didn't exist, at least for the most part. In that respect they were still colonialist in their outlook. There were no women invited into the Group of Seven (actually ten), even though they admired painters such as Emily Carr. 

I continue to love their work, in part because we have spent lots of time in Group of Seven country. We took our canoe in a boxcar up into Algoma and paddled down the Sand River to Lake Superior. We have paddled into Killarney, and Neys and Algonquin parks, sometimes climbing to the spots where these artists set up easels. When I presented to the Lands for Life roundtable in Sudbury on behalf of Friends of Killarney Provincial Park in the late 1990s I showed several Group of Seven images painted in and around the park. 

                                                         Bay of Islands -- Franklin Carmichael 

For us these were spiritual experiences and always worth the physical effort as well as some terror in the midst of thunderstorms in remote spots. We loved their impressionistic perceptions of what they were viewing and their paintings enlivened our experience.

 I don't think anyone has written extensively about the spiritual and religious sensibilities of the eclectic Group of Seven as a whole, but I may just be ignorant. Lawren Harris, the wealthy benefactor of the group, was a Theosophist and this spiritual movement increasingly informed his work as the years went by. Certainly in that era organized religion could be constraining rather than liberating when it came to Creation and Creator.

The McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg was once devoted to Group of Seven artists and several are buried on the grounds. Now there is considerable attention to women and Aboriginal artists. The gallery did recognize Group of Seven Day and here is most of their social media post:

Happy Group of Seven Day!

On May 7, 1920, a daring group of artists known as the Group of Seven unveiled their inaugural exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) —launching a movement that would forever change the face of Canadian art. The Group—Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, F.H. Varley, Franklin Carmichael, and Frank (Franz) Johnston—were more than colleagues; they were friends, united by a shared passion to capture the spirit of the Canadian landscape. “The group of seven artists whose pictures are here exhibited have for several years held a like vision concerning Art in Canada,” wrote Lawren Harris in the original catalogue. That first exhibition sold just six works but drew more than 2,000 visitors, sparking conversation, controversy, and ultimately, a legacy. As A.Y. Jackson wrote to his mother: “It is attracting quite a lot of attention even if it is not understood.” Over time, the Group expanded, adding A.J. Casson, Edwin Holgate, and Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald—holding eight exhibitions in total and shaping a new vision for Canadian art.

Six Group of Seven grave markers -- Michael Canadian Collection

The Devotion of Johannes Vermeer

  Do you remember the film Girl with a Pearl Earring with young Scarlett Johansen as a quiet but alluring servant girl in the household of the 17th century painter Johannes Vermeer, played by Colin Firth? There was a lot of repressed passion as the servant becomes the model for what is perhaps the artist's most famous painting -- not a lot of his work survives. This speculative storyline makes for an okay movie but not a great one. 

A new book titled Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found by British art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon  paints a very different picture (please forgive me) of this painting and the life of Vermeer. Graham-Dixon draws on the extensive research of American economist John Michael Montias, who in the 1980s introduced economics into the study of Golden Age Dutch painting,

The premise is that Vermeer was a devout Christian and that most of his paintings can be traced to the patronage of one family who belonged to a small Christian sect. 

Kate Taylor interviewed Graham Dixon for the Globe and Mail a few weeks ago and here are a few paragraphs from her article (my apologies for the cut and paste):

 “Once you realize that all the paintings were painted for one house, owned by these profoundly idealistic, highly meditative Christian people, the pictures just make so much sense in that context,” Graham-Dixon said in an interview during a recent visit to Toronto. “In 20 years, everyone will be thinking that this is essentially the truth about Vermeer.” 

The first crucial piece of information was that the family owned two-thirds of Vermeer’s output and, at Pieter and Maria’s death, that art was inherited by their daughter, Magdalena. She died prematurely aged 26 – perhaps in childbirth – and her husband inherited the art. In turn, it was passed to his father, who finally auctioned it, scattering it to the winds about 20 years after Vermeer’s death in 1675 at age 43. 

Graham-Dixon speculates that Vermeer's The Music Lesson shows a religious gathering.

The Remonstrants were a pacifist group who objected to the Calvinist notion of predestination, believed in good works and freedom of worship, and argued that Catholics and Protestants, who had just fought the bloody 30 Years’ War from 1618-1648, should unite in their shared Christian faith.

“All the terrible atrocities and deaths and murders of the past 80 years, that’s now over, and these people believe that their message of tolerance will land on fertile ground. They actually believe that they are on the brink of world peace.” 

Dutch women were relatively independent in this period, compared to other European women, and the Remonstrant women delved further into their beliefs, founding a splinter movement known as the Collegians. They concluded that anyone could have a direct relationship with God and so dispensed with ministers in favour of meetings to discuss scripture and moral behaviour, similar to the Quaker movement in Britain. 

The further speculation is that the subject of the painting was young Magdalena. 

I enjoy a good romance but I find this line of thought quite meaningful. There is a luminous quality to Vermeer's work unlike virtually any other artist. Was it his attempt to capture the glow of fervour in this family and their fellow believers? Open this photo in gallery:

                                                                       The Milkmaid -- Vermeer

C'mon In, The Water's Fine!

 1 Out of deep, unordered water God created land and life;

world of bird and beast, and later, twosome people, husband, wife.

There is water in the river bringing life to tree and plant.

Let creation praise its giver: there is water in the font.

                                        Voices United 453

It occurred to me yesterday that even though the United Church and other mainline/old-line denominations state that they have two sacraments this is the official stance rather than the liturgical reality for many congregations. Most churches still celebrate communion on a regular basis, but the same can't be said for baptism. There are lots of congregations that don't baptize anyone in the course of a year. Closing churches sell off their "holy hardware" including baptismal fonts. 

How things have changed. When I was ordained in 1980 I immediately began baptizing lots of infants --reluctantly. At that time a newborn was still registered by a clergyperson, harking back to the days when most babies were born in their outport homes rather than in a hospital and supposedly everyone was Christian. So, in order to receive the "baby bonus" a child had to be baptized and registered by a church. This made me a civil servant, sending in the forms and receiving fifty cents for every one submitted. I found this an appalling misrepresentation of the meaning of baptism.

Even after we returned to the mainland I presided at lots of baptisms, mostly but not all infants. It was not uncommon to have six to eight families lined up at the front of the sanctuary, several times a year. Keeping names straight was a challenge. 

As I look back I realize I never baptized anyone of any age by total immersion the way some denominations do such as the Baptists and Pentecostals. 

The past three Sundays Ruth and I have gone the immersion route, swimming prior to worship at North Beach Provincial Park in Prince Edward County. We were literally the first vehicle into this day park each week at 8:00 AM and for a few blessed minutes we were the only ones around other than staff. Yesterday we swam twice, first in Lake Ontario which was...bracing...then in  the lagoon on the other side of the sand dunes -- blessedly much warmer. 

While we didn't formally renew our baptismal vows there was a sense each time that this was a holy dunking. There is something about swimming, and particularly swimming in a lake or a river or an ocean that is sacred for us, even when it's cold enough to take your breath away. We both get in some actual swimming but we also lay on our backs to appreciate the birds and the clouds.

Each week we've felt enlivened, invigorated, as we headed on to the service at Trenton United. 

I realize as well that there are sections in Voices United along with hymns in other resources that are essentially dry-docked for a lot of congregations because baptisms happen so seldom anymore. There are plenty of good ones. Should we take the plunge and have a Baptism hymn fest from time to time, a reminder of the aqueous joy of the sacrament? 

Did Jesus and the disciples know how to swim?  I think so, even though there was the whole walking on water thing for Jesus and he was baptized in a river. 

4      I stand at the edge, lookin' down

too scared to swim, afraid I'll drown 

    give me the courage to journey on,

        River run deep, River run free. 

                        More Voices 163

Excommunicated!

 

Newly consecrated Bishops, from left, Marc Hanappier, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, Michael Goldade and Pascal Schreiber stand at the end of their consecration ceremony at the Society of St. Pius X seminary in Econe, Switzerland, on Wednesday, July 1. (Baz Ratner/AP via CNN Newsource)

Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it, in particular those of being in communtion with other members of the congregation, and of receiving the sacraments..

How did I end up being a Protestant minister, a pastor of the United Church of Canada? What is the spiritual lineage of those of us who are part of a tradition that finds its way back to Martin Luther, the Catholic priest who hoped for reform and eventually broke from Rome? Perhaps we should say that the Roman Catholic church broke from Martin Luther and excommunicated him for his radical notion of grace. 

Most Protestant denominations and groups don't use the word "excommunicate" although they have processes to shun or disenfranchise members who don't adhere to their orthodoxies. Even the United Church has protocols to discipline or "defrock" errant members and clergy. 

This past week the Vatican and Pope Leo took the extreme step of giving the ecclesiastic boot to several clerics who have been ringleaders of a group of traditionalists who want to return to the Latin Mass that hasn't been used, officially, in more than sixty years. They resist other reforms as well. Despite attempts by Popes Francis and Leo to address the rebellious behaviour it came to a head this week. According to this CTV report: 

The Vatican announced Thursday that priests and members of a breakaway Catholic group that ordained four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV’s wishes are in schism and excommunicated. The Society of Saint Pius X, an ultra-traditionalist group, went ahead with the ordinations on Wednesday without papal approval and despite appeals from Leo to reverse the decision.

In response, the Vatican’s doctrinal office on Thursday published a decree saying that the four bishops are excommunicated, along with the two bishops who participated in the ordination ceremony. Excommunication means they are excluded from the sacraments of the church.

It added in an explanatory note that priests belonging to the society and lay members who “formally adhere” to the group are also in schism and excommunicated.

There have been Roman Catholic clerics who have been cautioned and censored in the past half century for expressing "dangerous" views on subjects including such as the ordination of women. Some of us Protestants might consider them progressive rather than a threat to church doctrine and order. This current bunch are regressive and often obnoxious, usually older men playing liturgical dress-up insisting that old institutional ways are Christ's ways.

We'll see how this develops. 

One Nation Under God? America at 250

 

Today marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and for many Americans this is a moment of uncertainty and even mourning over the listing ship of democracy. Some are choosing not to fly the American flag today or to display it upside down as a distress signal. 

There are also plenty of patriots who are enthused about the current administration and convinced that whatever stormy waters the country is experiencing, all will be well.

Among this happy throng are millions of conservative Christians who are convinced that they are in the midst of a revival of Christian values. In recent days some of them are hailing the phrase "one nation under God," claiming it is enshrined in the Constitution and must be upheld  It may be a sign of the times that this claim is "fake news."  The phrase is part of the Pledge of Allegiance although it wasn't added until 1954. This was during what is termed the Red Scare, a few years of madness when Senator Joseph McCarthy convinced much of the American citizenry that the communists were plotting against democracy in the country. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs or were blackballed during this conspiracy theory. 

One current right-wing Christian leader credits Trump with "doing more for religious liberty than any other President in U.S. history” and there are plenty of others who share this sentiment. Of course, this liberty doesn't seem to include Christians who hold different values from Christian Nationalists or those from other religions. This sure comes across as idolatry to me, but what do I know, I live in the 51st state. 

I have family members in the States and those who are most pious are the ones who seem to be okay with what I consider an alarming drift away from both democracy and the teaching of Christ. I believe in the separation of church and state but they can complement one another. From my side of the border I'm not seeing this. 

We can pray for those who are determined to uphold democratic values in the United States. We can pray for those whose religious values, including Christians, lean toward compassion and equality. Without them its hard to imagine the United States holding together for another 25 years, let alone 250, 

The BBC "Comes to Jesus"

 

                                                              Jesus Walks on Water Icon 

1. Tell me the stories of Jesus I love to hear;
   Things I would ask Him to tell me if He were here;
   Scenes by the wayside, tales of the sea,
   Stories of Jesus, tell them to me.

I had to chuckle in a "Dad joke" way when I saw the Variety opening "The BBC is experiencing a 'come to Jesus' moment." The venerable British Broadcasting Corporation is creating a four-part series about the life of Jesus of Nazareth to be released in 2027. 

According to the BBC's news release: 

Ambitious new landmark series on the life and world of Jesus Christ announced

Jesus Christ is one of the most recognised and influential figures in human history --  yet what we know about him comes from remarkably few sources.

This ambitious series will bring life and focus like never before. With new historical research and insights, there has never been a more compelling moment to re-look at the evidence and follow the path of Jesus' life to map  how he sparked a revolution that continues to impact our lives 2000 years later. 

                                                          The Greatest Story Ever Told film, 1965

Is it just me or is there a gosh golly "Greatest Story Ever Told" feel to this introduction?  That's okay, I have a high tolerance for talking heads documentaries so I hope I can watch it and not be disappointed. 

There was a in-depth series by PBS back in the late 1990s called From Jesus to Christ and I recall it being worthwhile. It's still available online so I may take a look. And I'll continue to read my New Testament where I have regular "come to Jesus" moments. I might even re-watch The Life of Brian.