Authors: Alydia Smith

So, you have been asked to lead worship. When I do “Introduction to Worship Leadership” workshops, I always start with the same words: “You have an impossible task before you…” And then I expand with a common analogy fitting for the folks gathered, such as setting a feast where everyone...

As a team-building exercise in my CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) unit, we went rock climbing. I hated it and broke every one of my well-manicured nails. As a representative of the church, I went to various events and spaces that were not meant for me, a single Black woman, and...

Before the Thursday lunch program for those living without shelter, Mark and I would always have amazing, broad theological conversations about everything. No matter how much I prepped, it was never enough to engage Mark at his level. Our conversations always ended with, “Yes, but Alydia, will it stop me...

Blessings in this Easter season! Easter Sunday is now a month past. May, with its promised spring flowers, has arrived. However, in Alberta as I write this, we seem to be still in the grasp of winter. Just when we think spring is peeking through, we wake to another blast...

Hope springs eternal… At least in the kitchen, where my dad always has something growing that was never meant to survive a Canadian winter. Currently a Jamaican yam vine is climbing the wall of my kitchen, a resilient and persistent sign of hope springing in cold places! As you witness...

It’s one in the morning on Sunday, and I am practising the latest youth ministry fad—something to do with pool noodles and Bibles.… It’s like spaghetti, I remember one book saying, just throw things against the wall and see what sticks. I was willing to sacrifice the weeks of preparation...