The 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…
DetailsOn Pride Sunday at Church of the Redeemer in Toronto one of our beloved Generous Space family members got up to preach – and preach they did! Lyds did such an amazing job (it might help that their parents are both biblical scholars and so Lyds has engaged good preaching their whole life) that we…
DetailsDear new parents and grandparents, Congratulations on your new little one! So precious is the gift of life from Creator God! Maybe you’ve already had a big gender-reveal party after ultra-sound confirmation. And now that the baby is here, you might be enjoying buying little outfits in pink or blue respectively. Perhaps you’re already dreaming…
DetailsEdna Bovas is a guest contributor to the Generous Space blog. They are currently serving as our Canada Summer Job’s student and are assisting with summer events and communications including the 2018 Generous Space CampOUT. What we assumed was the Big Dipper, and the lingering moon lent us their pale light. All remnants of the campfire,…
DetailsThe Ontario Generous Space Retreat has consistently been a life-giving and transformational event. This year, as we intentionally considered our theme of friendship, we once again encountered the richness of God’s presence with us, and the encouragement and hope of deep connection with each other. As I entered the new venue, I met some of…
DetailsAs the Ontario GS community prepares to gather for our 6th annual Ontario Generous Space Retreat (OGSR), we’re inviting our retreat participants and the broader GS community into some of our team’s reflections on this year’s theme: friendship. Our first reflection was by our E.D., Wendy VanderWal-Gritter. Our second reflection was from our Director of Community,…
DetailsAs the Ontario GS community prepares to gather for our 6th annual Ontario Generous Space Retreat (OGSR), we’re inviting our retreat participants and the broader GS community into some of our team’s reflections on this year’s theme: friendship. Our first reflection was by our E.D., Wendy VanderWal-Gritter. This reflection is from our Director of Community, Beth…
DetailsAs the Ontario GS community prepares to gather for our 6th annual Ontario Generous Space Retreat (OGSR), we’re inviting our retreat participants and the broader GS community into some of our team’s reflections on this year’s theme: friendship. Our first reflection is by our E.D., Wendy VanderWal-Gritter: It wasn’t long after the last Ontario Generous Space…
DetailsIn our Generous Space Groups across Canada, we open our meetings with a vision statement about “seeking the unity for which Jesus prayed.” We know our deep need of one another, even when we disagree – we see tensions as opportunities to learn to love across difference. Lately, we’ve seen tensions surface not so much…
DetailsOver the last few months, I had the privilege of joining several other Generous Space community members in auditing a course taught by Sylvia Keesmat entitled “Justice in the Biblical Story” at Wycliffe College. Sylvia, and her partner, Brian Walsh, host our annual Generous Space CampOUT at their farm in Cameron, Ontario. What follows are my…
Details
