The Bedford House Blog

The first seven years

The first seven years “The first seven years of our lives form the emotional foundations we build our lives upon.” Says Canadian Doctor Gabor Mate. “And the first three years form our emotional floor. If these are solid, grounded, stable, we are able to withstand all of life’s emotional storms.”...

In a circle

In a circle. We sit equ-distance from the centre. The centre is a sacred place a safe place a place that no one owns wouldn’t it be nice if my seat were the centre and all would come to where I live see things through my eyes know my truths feel my heart wouldn’t it? I am but one spoke of this...

A Future Story

The gift of imagination is a divine birthright we have been given to use (or abuse) to be co-creators of our days, our families, and our communities. Bill Plotkin in his book “Soulcraft” captures a teaching about two threads, or two paths we can weave in our lives. The Survival Dance and the Soul...

2022 Annual Report

This year, the annual report is available as an “e-book” that you can read online.

Enough Already

Enough already Our local economy, our local watershed, is our household. In our household there are some with more than enough. In our household there are some with less than enough.   In a consumer culture we can forget how to depend on one another. How might we re-imagine our common good?...

Precarity

Winter 2023, draft for Bedford House Annual Report Here we are again at the end of another amazing year of grassroots relationship-growing. Lots of lessons learned. The challenges of being “guided by the voices of under-resourced catalysts” while trying to meet the expectations of an...

if the voices of marginalized peoples

I came across the Alliance model for change on a visit to Calgary last spring. Lead organizer Ryan Anderson gave me a thumbnail of how ordinary citizens have been Changing the Conversations in Calgary’s municipal politics.

Words of Wonder

Wind, rain, snow, moon

The Wind that wants to be seen

From my bedroom window I look up the driveway between the lilac hedges north over open fields from where winter arrives   most days She arrives with her weather silent and naked I have to look for her in treetops   But today She rushes at my doorstep Howling between the gaps in my door...

EDGEy conversation

EDGEy Conversation with Rev. Allan Smith-Reeve and Zoe Chaytors of the EDGE Network. 

The Rev. Allan Smith-Reeve knows about the power of social good initiatives. He has used Bedford House Community Ministry and its programs, such as Bridges Peterborough, to build relationships with his congregation at Greenwood United and to strengthen the community of Peterborough, Ontario.

EDGEy conversation

EDGEy conversation

EDGEy Conversation with Rev. Allan Smith-Reeve and Zoe Chaytors of the EDGE Network. 

The Rev. Allan Smith-Reeve knows about the power of social good initiatives. He has used Bedford House Community Ministry and its programs, such as Bridges Peterborough, to build relationships with his congregation at Greenwood United and to strengthen the community of Peterborough, Ontario.

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the seventh wave

the seventh wave

Can we hear the ancient call to repent and follow Jesus’ fearful path towards a counter-cultural witness? 

The second decade of this century saw three, inter-related, historic waves crashing on the shores of Canadian consciousness.  While each of these powerful realities are not new – we’ve been warned for decades that the reckoning is coming – it seems to me that the “seventh wave” – – the largest and most powerful in a series – has crashed this year on all three of these powerful realities.

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