Hi everyone, I’m Jamie! As part of my introduction as Generous Space’s newest staff member, Wendy asked me to prepare a post about some of my writing and publishing so far. Ever since I was a kid I knew I was meant to be a writer. That was no surprise to anyone, as writing was…
DetailsRadical self-love, to me, isn’t love that is blind to our flaws and failures, it is profound acceptance of them and proclamation in the face of them that we are enough, and in fact deeply worthy of love and belonging – first and foremost from ourselves.
DetailsWelcome to part 4 of our “Let’s Talk About Sexual Ethics” series. The first two posts consider the evolution of the sex ethics conversation in the Generous Space community. If you haven’t already read them, I invite you to do so here and here. In these posts, I unpack how a values-centered approach to sexual…
DetailsLast week, I posted a two part reflection (which can be found here and here) as a precursor to the release of this video in which I unpack centred-set sexual ethics. Included in this video are some of the key reflection questions that I invite people to consider if they choose to incorporate this framework.…
DetailsIn Part 1 I introduced the shift that Generous Space has made from a rules-based approach to sexual ethics to a values-centered perspective. Now I want to unpack more specifics about how that takes shape in our community. Our first retreat six years ago was where I encountered the reality of polyamory in the context…
Details[image description: a cartoon chalkboard that reads “Let’s Talk Sex”] For anyone who denies that God has a sense of humour, I wish they could be privy to the dialogue I have with the divine about the increasing opportunities I have to speak on the topic of sexual ethics. While I protest in Moses-esque questioning…
DetailsBecca Sawyer is our Events Manager (you can read more about her here!). Becca delivered a sermon entitled “All Things Hold Together” at the 2018 West Coast Generous Space Retreat. You can watch the full sermon below as a part of our Queer Sermon Series. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold…
DetailsGenerous Space community member Robbie Walker brings us the second sermon in our Queer Sermon Series. We launched our first East Coast Generous Space Retreat in July 2018 and Robbie blessed us with his sermon, “We Are The Beloved,” during our Sunday morning Communion Service. You can watch the full sermon below:
DetailsSunday mornings at the Generous Space retreat are a rich time of connection and community through worship, preaching, and celebrating Communion. Without fail, God shows up and strengthens us as those who are Beloved and those who Belong. We’re excited to share with you this collection of sermons from these special retreat services and look…
DetailsThe theme for our 2018 spring retreat in Ontario was friendship. In a world of online connection with hundreds of “friends”, many of us are searching for deeper meaning and experience in our relationships. LGBTQ+ folks, often out of necessity, have both challenged assumptions and reimagined the potential of friendship and/or chosen family. This may…
DetailsI have known Karen Keen a long time and she is someone I have always appreciated as thoughtful and respectful in dialogue. I was thrilled to hear she was releasing a book called, “Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships.” Karen is a biblical scholar who has navigated many different facets of the integration…
DetailsThe Generous Space Community is committed to the value of hospitality. The animating question for that value is, “Whose voices are missing?” As an extension of this value, at our retreats we make space for those whose experience and stories are needed for the larger community to be able to listen, learn, and love. In…
DetailsIn the last few weeks the ministry has been approached by several documentary projects looking for people to share their stories of surviving conversion therapy. This traumatic phenomenon is in the spotlight as Hollywood weighs in with feature films like Boy Erased and The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Campaigns like Born Perfect are hard at…
DetailsThis week I really wanted to throw in the towel. Embracing tension, searching for nuance, thinking the best of, treating with respect, choosing kindness. These are things I deeply value. And yet this week, I seriously wondered whether embodying these attributes actually just made me complicit with injustice and oppression. I wanted to yell and…
DetailsBeing an ally is not for the faint of heart. It is a paradoxical mix of both fierce love and deep sensitivity; of both bold risk-taking and the capacity to weather messing up without making it about you; of both speaking out and being constantly teachable. Being an ally will break your heart. It will…
DetailsI have been serving as an advocate for LGBTQ+ people for a long time. But as a mainly straight person, it took me a long time to really understand, at a deep-gut level, what being an ally was all about and what Pride celebrations were all about. And I have to wonder if maybe some…
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