tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109394342011-08-10T04:51:00.413-02:30Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-10055462565734942832007-04-14T19:26:00.000-02:302007-04-14T19:33:03.222-02:30

Yes, I've been away for a while, (in case I still have any readers left!) partly because of Holy Week and Easter, partly because of Emily's rapidly-progressing pregnancy, and partly because I've just been too busy with other projects to post anything new.The most significant of these projects is the new Diocesan Youth Site, E:\mmaus. The URL is http://www.emmausyouth.org and I think it's

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-67874670529023277822007-03-09T18:54:00.000-03:302007-03-09T19:35:36.753-03:30

This is someone I found over on the Mayberry-Driven Church, and immediately thought 'Why haven't I heard of this guy before?' Drew Marshall is someone whose particular brand of Christianity is so much more rough and tumble -- so much more real -- than almost anything else in the vast evangelical-industrial complex. He hosts 'Canada's most-listened-to spiritual talkback show,' and he's really

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-936944908579311182007-03-02T09:12:00.000-03:302007-03-02T09:30:27.720-03:30

Last night we watched the Academy Award-Nominated movie 'Jesus Camp.' When all was said and done, I still agree that 'An Inconvenient Truth' deserved the Best Documentary Oscar more, but 'Jesus Camp' shed some light on an almost-as-disturbing trend.All the cry in the Anglican Church these days is to 'get the children involved,' or 'to something to entertain the children.' This movie

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-27906051504688664462007-02-28T09:57:00.000-03:302007-02-28T10:03:55.088-03:30

Congratulations to Danielle Seward, the Head Server at St. Matthew's, Heart's Delight-Islington! Danielle was recently crowned Miss Teen Newfoundland and Labrador. When she got home, she was driven through town in a triumphant motorcade. We're all real proud of you!

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-77850211589687077552006-12-29T10:14:00.000-03:302006-12-29T10:17:48.917-03:30

So in the lull after Christmas, I haven't gotten a chance to think of anything particularly profound to say. Instead, here's a rerun of this year's Christmas Eve sermon. We'll see you in the New Year!I’ve been turning a lot of things around in my head these past few weeks. I know that a lot of people will be waiting for me to say something profound about Christmas, so here it is: God bless

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-33203980298200647282006-12-19T17:30:00.000-03:302006-12-19T17:40:37.844-03:30

In the last post, I started to admit to some of the few perks of an ever-earlier Christmas bacchanal. Here's the other big one -- I can be a bit of a sucker for Christmas specials. And since the networks start running them as soon as they can, and then drop back to nearly nothing during the actual Christmas season, I guess you've got to get while the getting's good. For the record, I will

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-84026753051349305722006-12-11T13:03:00.000-03:302006-12-11T13:09:30.184-03:30

So perhaps I'll backtrack a little bit and soften the rather judgmental stance I took in my last post about getting Christmas underway too soon. I'll extend some credit to Michael Spencer of internetmonk.com for his recent post: Skip the Carping this Advent. Here's a snippet:Stay positive this Advent. Even the pagans like the calendars, the music and the candles. Let’s like it all so much that

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-44086273331842695642006-12-07T16:51:00.000-03:302006-12-07T16:56:17.779-03:30

Everyone else is doing it, so why can't I?I don't want to come off as a prude, or a kill-joy.That's just not the way that the world works anymore.It's the only way to get ready in time for Christmas.Christmas is good! Why shouldn't I be able to celebrate as soon as I want to?

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-15831963398860718642006-11-26T15:45:00.000-03:302006-11-26T15:46:14.764-03:30

A new way of thinking has been making its way through the Church. Once upon a time, the adage was 'once a deacon, always a deacon.' In other words, even after being ordained priest, by being first ordained a deacon, you will always be a deacon, and must always keep an element of servanthood, even in priestly ministry. I have always seen that as a good thing -- in that it keeps parish priests

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-1163509346015547502006-11-21T20:25:00.000-03:302006-11-21T20:25:24.059-03:30

I’ve had enough. I finally understand why going to the movies is so frustrating.Every time I go, they ask me for money.The people that sit next to me never seem happy to see me. The seats are too uncomfortable.No matter how many of his movies I go to, Steven Spielberg never comes to visit me.Sometimes movies are more than two hours long, and I’m late getting home.The movies are often playing

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-1162515424023560452006-11-02T21:05:00.000-03:302006-11-02T21:27:04.066-03:30

Check out what I just read this afternoon:Both parents attending church is the single largest indicator of whether a child will attend church in adulthood. (According to a recent study, when both parents attend church regularly, 72 percent of children continue in the faith. When only the father attends, that percentage drops to 55 percent. But when only the mother attends, just 15 percent of

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-1162388065621003882006-11-01T09:51:00.000-03:302006-11-13T20:27:34.403-03:30

Many thanks to Dennis Laing over at The Mayberry Driven Church for adding me on as a contributing author to their great site. He even posted a link to this blog, so now I have to sheepishly admit to the fact that I haven't posted any new content here in almost a whole year.So now I'll have to start putting something into Message from the Rector again...

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-1131199601184545062005-11-05T10:34:00.000-03:302005-11-05T10:42:47.260-03:30

Looking at the state of the church, it can sometimes be easy to become discouraged, especially as the days get greyer, the clocks go back and the nights get longer, and yet the excitement of the first snow and Christmas are not yet upon us. So I wanted to take a bit of time to focus on some of the positive things that have been going on in the parish over the last little while.The Parish's Youth

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-1129816090085279852005-09-25T11:16:00.000-02:302005-10-20T11:18:10.086-02:30

A member of my last parish once loaned me a book called ‘Scratch a Professor . . . Find a Fisherman,’ by the Rev. Bart Sarjeant, a retired priest in the American church. The book is a collection of his letters to the parishioners, and in one of them, he quotes an anonymous poem, called:How much time?Time seems to come in little boxes, each box is called a day.Thirty boxes make a carton, called a

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-1129815888015776882005-09-02T11:11:00.000-02:302005-10-20T11:14:48.020-02:30

Many times, people will ask me why I go by 'Father Jonathan' instead of 'Reverend Rowe.' Anglican clergy are called different things in different parts of the world, and in some places, 'Father' is more common, but for the most part in Newfoundland, it can still be a bit unusual, so I wanted to share a few thoughts about why I prefer one title to another.The word 'Reverend' with a D is not the

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10939434.post-1116358350224765352005-06-17T16:41:00.000-02:302005-06-23T10:39:25.886-02:30

Dear Friends,If you're reading this, it means you have successfully navigated through the cumbersome address of the parish's website and are interested in what I might have to say here.The other month, Emily and I went back to Wisconsin, where I was a seminarian at Nashotah House. Apparently, the latest scandal there had been that several students had been less than discreet in their blogs, and

Father Jonathannoreply@blogger.com1