Rossbrook House celebrates 50 years of "unconditional love'

Fifty years ago, three members of the order of the Roman Catholic Sisters of the Holy names of Jesus and Mary decided no child in Winnipeg’s inner city should ever have to be alone. 

The three women were Sisters Geraldine MacNamara, Marylyn Gibney, and Lesley Sacouman. Together, they founded Rossbrook House, a drop-in centre for youth who had nowhere else to go. 

On Tuesday, 50 years to the day Rossbrook House opened in 1976, the organization held a celebration to mark the work of the three founders and the many staff and volunteers who followed in their footsteps. 

Read my story about Rossbrook House and the sisters who founded it in the Free Press.

Photo above by Mikaela MacKenzie, Free Press

Get your wills ready to defend immigrants and other vulnerable people: American Episcopal bishop to clergy

I was talking to an American friend who, like me, is appalled by the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis and other parts of the U.S.

I told her how helpless I feel as a Canadian while watching the U.S. dissolve into fear, uncertainty and mistrust. Apart from not travelling to that country and not buying American products, what can I do?

“You can write,” she said. Sure, I replied, but I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to dump on America; I don’t live there. “Go ahead,” she said. “We are dumping on ourselves.”

With my American friend’s encouragement, I will say something. But not in my words; I’ll let some American Christians do it.

Read what they are saying in my latest Free Press column.

Does Manitoba need a Christian Heritage Month? Does Canada? Yes, say supporters

Does Manitoba need a Christian Heritage Month? Does Canada? Yes, says an evangelical couple in Toronto. And now a Progressive Conservative MLA in Manitoba has joined them, introducing a private member’s bill, The Christian Heritage Month Act, to declare the month of December as Christian Heritage Month in the province. 

Already, about 50 towns and cities in Canada have declared December Christian Heritage Month in their communities, including Toronto, Calgary, Ottawa, Saskatoon, Kingston and Nanaimo, along with the province of Saskatchewan. 

Reaction by church leaders in Manitoba is mixed. Some welcome it, some are cautious, some oppose it. Whether or not it happens will be decided by politicians in spring. 

Read my column about it in the Free Press.

Some top religion stories of 2025

 

What were the top religion stories of 2025? If you go by the amount of media attention, the number one choice is clear: The death of Pope Francis and the surprise election of Pope Leo of the U.S. 

But there were other top religion stories, like the election of Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury — the first woman to lead the worldwide Anglican Communion. Her election led to another big story that hasn’t received much media attention: The potential schism in the Anglican church. (A story for 2026.) 

Other stories included a report from the Pew Research Center that found that Sub-Saharan Africa has become the part of the world with the largest number of Christians, the increasing number of people persecuted for their faith and continuing questions about whether or not there is widespread revival among youth in Canada, the U.S. and the UK. (Spoiler alert: There is no proof it is happening.) 

Read about those, and some other top religion stories for 2025, in my latest Free Press column.

New uses for places of worship: Stories about ways congregations are responding to needs in their communities

 

I’m working on a feature about churches that are creatively converting their buildings and properties into community hubs and affordable housing. It got me thinking about the various articles I have written on this topic, going back 15 years—nine articles in total. 

It’s an important issue; sometime in the next five to ten years, a third of Canada’s estimated 27,000 places of worship (most of them churches) are slated to close due to falling attendance.

What can be done? And what is already happening? If you want to learn more, check out some of the links below. 

My first article on the topic was in 2010, when I wrote an overview of the situation in Canada titled Keeping Faith in Historic Churches. 

I did another one in 2015, titled Does it Matter if a Historic Church Closes? The answer, unsurprisingly, is yes—for various reasons, including all the community, newcomer, arts and recovery groups that would lose space. 

In 2017, I wrote about The Halo Effect, or What are Places of Worship Really Worth to a Community? It’s about a way of calculating the economic value of places of worship in a community—and what would be lost if they disappeared. (I wrote about it again in 2023 for Canadian Affairs; according to the Halo Effect, places of worship are worth over $18 billion to the Canadian economy.) 

In 2019, I wrote about a church in Ottawa that had been converted into a meeting and convention space. “We worked with the community to repurpose it,” Leanne Moussa, president of allsaints Development Inc., said of how the building became a popular venue for weddings, funerals, parties, conferences, theatre, concerts and other events. 

In 2024, I interviewed Mark Elsdon, editor of the book Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition. Elsdon created the book to get congregations to start thinking now about what happens when there are no longer enough people to make their church viable. Rather than wait until there are few options on the table, “Let’s talk about it now, get in front of it,” he said. 

And this year I interviewed leaders of some Lutheran churches in Canada who are converting their buildings and properties into affordable housing. I was taken by the words of Jennifer Hoover, the congregational redevelopment advisor for the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, about a new way for congregations to view the changes they are experiencing today. 

“We need to reframe that narrative, away from one of having failed,” she said, explaining that it is a chance for congregations “to think about what new thing is possible, about new ways they can use the building in ways that are consistent with their mission, vision and values.” 

Also in 2025 I did a story about Winnipeg’s Lutheran Church of the Cross, which closed so its building could be converted into apartments for seniors. And one about how Gordon King Memorial Church in Winnipeg has reimagined itself as a community hub, including a popular coffee house named “Gordie’s.”

It’s an ongoing story; with so many buildings slated to close, there will be many more opportunities to write about this topic.

Photo above: St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Kitchener, which is converting its Christian education wing into affordable housing.

 

 

News about the Canadian government and religion (the kind that doesn't fit the anti-religion narrative)

We live at a time when some people of faith (mostly conservative Christians) view the current government as anti-religion for various reasons. Some of them are worth informed discussion, while others are based on misinformation—often deliberately stoked by groups who benefit from hair-on-fire fear mongering.

 

So it’s nice to offer a different take on news about the Canadian government and religion, starting with an unusual decision by Statistics Canada to break with over 150 years of tradition by asking Canadians about their religious affiliation every five years, not every ten years, starting in 2026.

 

This is a change from how the agency has only asked the question every ten years, since 1871. Now the time span is just five years.

 

The reason for the change is to get a better handle on the rise of the “nones” in Canada; it is expected to go above 40 per cent next year. At the same time, there is a dramatic rise in the number of Canadians who are part of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths. 

 

That is followed by news about how the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reached out to faith groups in fall to ask them to talk to their members about measles. As one observer put it, the request shows that the government views faith groups as trustworthy partners when it comes to sharing messages about this outbreak.

 

Read about those stories in my recent Free Press column.

Palestinian family from Gaza in Winnipeg for medical care gets help from Mennonite Central Committee, Muslim organizations

 

A Palestinian family that came to Winnipeg from Gaza to get medical care for their son is adjusting to life in Winnipeg, thanks to help from local organizations like Mennonite Central Committee, the Manitoba Islamic Association and the Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute.

The couple and their four children, who are under the age of 12, were brought to Manitoba in mid-November by the provincial government so that one of the children, a boy, can receive complex medical care.

When MCC was approached by the Manitoba government to be the lead partner in helping the family, the organization was quick to agree, said Darryl Loewen, executive director of the MCC Manitoba office.

“Welcoming and supporting this family is a small but concrete act of care and kindness in the face of an unprecedented, human-made humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” he said. “We’re helping one family find safety and essential medical care because we can, and because it’s what MCC tries to do by being the hands and feet of Christ.”

 

Read my story in the Winnipeg Free Press.

Photo above: Palestinian family members gather in their apartment. MCC photo by Jessica Burtnick.