I (Richard Manley-Tannis aka me) began blogging with the United Church of Canada (UCCan) during the Emerging Spirit Programme in 2008. Though I approach the world through a Christian lens, I celebrate that all human truths fail to fully appreciate a universe & reality that cannot confine the Holy. In A Deacon’s Musing, I meander & ruminates, reflect & challenge. Hopefully some of it makes sense & I invite you to ask questions, push me to clarify & listen with intention!
I have journeyed journeyed with alternatives to the Canadian adjudicative judicial system & continues to endeavour to merge my practical conflict resolution & organisational development experience with appropriate theological & academic explorations. As well, I really appreciates the nuances of organisational & systems analysis. In such pursuits, I utilise such tools as Appreciative Inquiry & the Enneagram. In 2014, I began my PhD with The Taos Institute & Tilburg University. In this next journey of learning, which ended in 2020 with my graduation in the Netherlands, the completed project was an academic exploration of shifting the UCCan’s narrative from one of deficit and fear to one of abundance, mission and hope. The project ends with a practical application (i.e. workshops) to assist congregations live out the findings of the dissertation.
Since 2018, I have had honour to fill the role as Principal of St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon, SK, Canada. In this capacity I am excited to be part of a team that is engaged in nurturing and preparing leadership in the church through the explicit lens of justice!
Now I am wide-eyed-open to where Creator is next inviting me …
#MicroPoetry|September ’12 Verses
Every month I tweet #MicroPoetry! In 140 characters, they are part prayer, thought, reflection, challenge or something in-between. I look forward to sharing them with you and hope that they may lead to reflection,
#MicroPoetry|July ’12 Verses
Every month I tweet #MicroPoetry! In 140 characters, they are part prayer, thought, reflection, challenge or something in-between. I look forward to sharing them with you and hope that they may lead to reflection,
Thrills Gum
Thrills Gum I was thinking of calling this last blog, before holidays and Sabbatical, ‘An Epistle,’ but the flavour of Thrills Gum has been disturbing me since this blog began to write
Generations
30 Go, say to them, “Return to your tents.” 31 But you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances, that you shall teach them,
Control
I have been thinking a lot about control and what it means for communities of faith? What does it mean for Christianity as it enters a time and context when we are no longer at
Feather’s Fall|Stephen #1
The light was bright. He wanted to close his eyes. He longed to close them. But the inhibitor was doing its job – inhibiting! He sat in the chair surrounded by shiny metal walls with no seams. The questions had been asked and he didn’t have answers for them. Of course they thought he did, man he wish he did! He tried to tell them, in fact he cried it, yelled it, whined it, whimpered it … he wasn’t sure they realised he wasn’t some uber-touch-Way-preaching nut, because if they didn’t he wasn’t sure he could hold on much longer …
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