The Table Winnipeg

Hey all – we’re back at VA Cafe this week, in person. 10:45 a.m., Kids Table, Community Time, tunes, coffee available upstairs, and a different way of thinking about changing beliefs on tap downstairs. We’re gettin’ practical, folks.

Hey folks – this is a Full Circle Sunday, so we can all look forward to some Community Time, some music, and Kids Table. And, of course, to one more Sunday “in hell”. Or maybe “adjacent to hell”. I guess it all depends on what you mean by “hell”, right? And that’s exactly what we’re […]

And also a (very) short blurb! This week, we’ll be continuing our exploration of the history of human ideas about hell. It’s an alt.Sunday with something scheduled for Kids Table participants. We’ll have a chance to check in with one another, to offer care and support, and to work together to provide a safe space […]

Hey folks – for those of you expecting Part 2 of A (very) Short History of Hell, I’m sorry to disappoint. However, this Sunday is Mother’s Day. I initially thought it might be an interesting challenge to combine topics, but more worthy thoughts won out. We’ll return to that topic another time.

Given the subject line, I feel as though some explanation of how I decide what to explore in a Talky Bit might be in order. You might recall that a few months ago I asked for input from the community on what you think might be interesting to explore. I didn’t get a lot of responses and […]

Hey folks – if your world is anything like mine, people have been wishing you a “Happy Easter” this past week. As someone who grew up in a religious culture in which Easter was a big deal (I mean, resurrections don’t happen every day, right? Or do they?), having folks that I know are irreligious saying “Happy […]

This Sunday – Community Time, Music, Kids Table and a Talky Bit that explores happiness from the perspective of what motivates us as human beings. Boom…done…next – because sometimes I like to write a blurb that’ll fit on the screen of a phone. Details: Sunday – 10:45 a.m. at VA Cafe (171 McDermot Avenue) Important upcoming […]

Hey folks – this blurb has a few additional details at the end, so I would invite you to take the moments needed to read the whole thing. Let’s start with the details about this Sunday. We’ll gather at VA Cafe at 10:45 am for some music, Community Time and a Talky Bit. In a slight […]

Hey folks – housekeeping first. As you may have noticed, we just had two alt.Sundays in a row, but with Kids Table for both. This Sunday, which would normally be an alt.Sunday, kinda isn’t. We’ll have Community Time, music, and a Talky Bit…but no Kids Table programming. Let’s not call it anything, and just get […]

Let’s get together at VA Cafe (171 McDermot) at 10:45 a.m. to see if we can make sense of that subject line.

Hey folks – Just a quick note this week to let you know what’s up in our gathering this week. Most of you already know the logistics (10:45 a.m, VA Cafe, livestream here, podcast here later in the week). It’s officially and alt.Sunday, but because we had music last week, we’ll have a Talky Bit this week. You don’t […]

Hey folks…I expect I’ll have some company when I say that I’m tired of all the hate that seems to dominate our media spaces these days and that seems in danger of poisoning the water of our “every-day-ness” as well. One of my friends likes to say that “the antidote to bad culture is good culture”, […]

Hey folks…this a longer blurb than usual because it has extra info regarding Not Quite Christmas. If you care about that, read to the end. I know that we all experience this season differently. For some, it’s a time of connection, joy and celebration. For others, it’s a slog through a dark and complicated canyon of […]

Ever wonder why we do Souper Sundays? (And yes-this week is one of those.) I suppose the answer could be “ for the perogies” and that would be enough, but I suspect there are some other human hungers that a morning like this can feed. We will meet at VA Cafe at 10:45, catch up […]

Hey folks. This week our gathering will include music, Kids Table, some time to be still (an increasingly rare opportunity), and a Talky Bit for our consideration. In the Talky Bit we’ll be returning to our exploration of what ethics and morals might look like beyond the bounds of religion. In particular, we’ll begin to dig […]

Hey folks – this is a Full Circle Sunday, so we can look forward to the opportunity to connect in Community Time, sing together, have something for the youngest members of the community, and dig into something challenging in the Talky Bit. We’ll meet at 10:45 a.m. at VA Cafe. We’ll livestream here and podcast here later […]

I’m guessing, but my guess is that “healing” wasn’t likely included as a reason for most of the field trips any of us have been on. Personally, I can think of one noteworthy exception, which is the last time we gathered as a group at the Kapabamayak Achaak Healing Forest. This Sunday we are planning […]

Hey folks – I hope your long weekend was a good one, and I’m looking forward to being back in a shared space with you. We’ll gather at VA Cafe at 10:45 a.m. to share what songwriter Leonard Cohen once called ” a slice of…life” with one another, and to reflect a bit on some possible lessons being outdoors […]

Let me start with a disclaimer. If I was asked to sit in / jam with a musical hero of mine (say, the bass player Marcus Miller), I would sheepishly decline, partly out of deference but also because I would so clearly be out of my league. I won’t be starting the Talky Bit on […]

Tim Plett is still away, so it's my turn to take over the talkie bit. I recently spent a few weeks travelling around Ireland, and in true ‘other Tim’ fashion, I'm going to reflect on that experience a bit this week. I'm going to look specifically at the political and social unrest that defined much […]

Hi all, Tim Plett is away this week and next, and so we get to hear from some others in the community. This week it’s Misty’s turn! Here’s what to expect: “Since ChatGPT came out a couple of years ago, there has been much chatter and perhaps renewed fear about Artificial Intelligence.  Much of my […]

Hey folks. This Sunday launches us into a season in our life together that I would love to see people take full advantage of. Over the next month or so we will experience a combination of having the Talky Bit facilitated by people we don’t often get to hear from, interspersed with long weekends with no gatherings. When […]

Note: this is a longer blurb so read past the bottom of the intitial screen if you want all the info. This week is a regular gathering at VA Cafe (171 McDermot Ave) at 10:45 a.m., with a livestream and a podcast.My dad was a subtle teacher. I can’t remember a single formal “son, let me tell […]

Hey folks – after our field trip to the Pride Parade and Festival last week (we were there for the nicest part of the day!), we’re back at VA Cafe (171 McDermot Avenue / lower level) this week. Kids Table is on. Music is on.  Community Time is on. In the Talky Bit we’ll be […]

This is the podcast of what we did at The Table for Mothers Day. It’s not typical of the occasion because although it’s about the impact of mothers, it’s also about the ripple effects of change including the reconsideration of what we beleive about all sorts of foundational matters, such as the shape of the […]

Hey all – I ‘ve heard from a couple of folks this morning who got the second and third emails for the week, but not the first one. My mom would have said something like, “What a shmoz”.  (I don’t know what that is exactly but it’s something like this.) So – here’s the first email but […]

Hey folks – it’s time to get your winter self out from under the covers to be with people! Or, if that’s not your story, it’s another opportunity to get together to explore what we believe. Either way, it would be lovely to see you at VA Cafe this Sunday at 10:45 a.m.  We will have […]

Hey folks – this coming Sunday is, of course, Easter. Although ancient liturgical calendars don’t mention this fact, it’s also an alt.Sunday. So, because in the unique orbit of The Table an alt.Sunday means anything could happen, we’re going to have some breathing, some Community Time, a short Talky Bit and a long feast and hangout time. A […]

Ah yes. This is the weekend to “spring forward”. I will confess that I wasn’t exactly feeling spring vibes while I was clearing our most recent snowfall, but the pragmatic part of me knows that the earth needs the moisture. And I do long to see the green things again, so let it snow, let it […]

Hey folks – with my apologies for the late notice, this is both a Full Circle Sunday (Kids Table is ON for the third week this month!)  AND a Souper Sunday! So many good things at once! Something I was reading this past week posited the idea that our increasingly fractured culture could be mended in no […]

Details first – this Sunday will be a Full Circle Sunday. I know…that’s a change in rhythm. If the regular pattern of second and fourth Sundays being Full Circle is one you plan around, regard this as an exception. So – here’s our schedule for the balance of February, including info about Kids Table dates: Feb 4th […]

Hey folks – it’s a rhetorical question, but have you ever felt misunderstood? It can be rather painful, especially if we’ve extended ourselves on someone else’s behalf and it fell flat, or even worse seemed to cause hurt or harm. When it comes to living love, learning how (and why) to address the gap between what we intended […]

Some days I feel like we’re surrounded by hate. My head knows that isn’t true, and I’m grateful to say that my life experience also tells me that isn’t the whole story. But if I choose to attend to the news or even to what sort of topics of conversation seem to come most quickly to […]

Hey folks – I’m going to put several details at the end of this blurb, and I would encourage you to read it all because it contains particulars about our seasonal gatherings that you should be aware of. I’m not sure how it works in your space, but in ours it is around this time of […]

Hey folks – this week we’re going to dive head first into a couple of ancient examples of the evolution of belief as well as touching on some contemporary examples of what can happen when we hold old ideas as non-negotiable, even in the face of mounting evidence that they need to change. I won’t […]

Hey folks – this is an alt.Sunday. To me, that feels a bit like an occasion for opening a gift – one where you know it’ll be good because it’s been thoughtfully chosen with you in mind, but you don’t know what it actually is until you tear off the paper. This Sunday, the gift comes […]

As I write this, I’m looking out the window at a winter wonderland. Lots of fluffy white stuff on the ground, in the trees – it’s like the set for a Hallmark movie. (Not that I’ve ever actually watched one, you understand, but friends of mine have and they would agree.) But here’ the thing. […]

No, I’m not talking about some sort of prophetic “seeing through” to a date for the apocalypse or a moment where there is Divine intervention in history that brings our present experience to a screeching halt. Although, these days, one could perhaps be forgiven for those inclinations, especially if you grew up looking over your proverbial […]

I can still remember the first time I heard someone, in this instance a prof in my undergrad studies, say that faith was an act of imagination. Being the good fundamentalist kid I was (at that point), I was appalled! “No! What I / we believe is the TRUTH – imagination has nothing to do […]

You know, the gauge of the merit of a resistance movement hinges in many ways on what is being resisted. Most of us would find ourselves cheering for movements that resist things like oppression, slavery, unethical business practices, and overall injustice. We might not always find ourselves onside with how such movements behave; the actions they […]

Well now…might as well launch right into the fall with a big ‘ol question. In this case, it’s a question that can take us many places, including deeper into our exploration of rest as resistance and healing. By way of outlining some thoughts about possible answers to that question, here’s a response from Tricia Hersey, […]

Hey folks! I was in Staples earlier this week and found myself surrounded by parents with school age kids and all of a sudden the penny dropped. We’re coming up on the last Sunday in August! People are coming back from holidays, maybe we’re starting to feel the incoming changes of rhythm that go with September. […]

Hey folks. Just a short blurb this week, to make some breathing room in your inbox after last week’s double dose.

Hey folks – I’m looking forward to being back with you in person this Sunday, and I hope the long weekend was a good one for each of you. This is a Full Circle Sunday, so we can anticipate some music, Community Time, a Talky Bit, and fresh coffee (or other tantalizing beverage) should you […]

Hi everyone! This week is a Full-Circle Sunday, and we’re going to be hearing from Misty! Here’s a little bit of what to expect: “Misty here: I’ll be doing my best to fill in for Tim Plett this week as he is on vacation. As she usually does, Judi’s talk got me thinking.  Judi talked […]

Hi all! Tim Plett is back on vacation for the next three weeks, and so some of us from the community will be taking over the talkie bits. I'm up this week, and I'll be talking about the in-between places, the dark nights of the soul, the wildernesses, the deserts, the intermingled messes that exist […]

Hey folks – I’m sending this email again with my apologies for the inbox clutter. The previous version was pretty much unreadable on my phone (the byproduct of working on one device and sending on another, perhaps), so I thought I would send a readable one. If you wrestled your way through the other one, ignore […]

Hi All, Sorry for the lateness of the blurb, but sometimes when Tim Plett is away, things go awry, as is the case this week. Tim's absence, however, means that we get to hear from Judi! Here's what to expect: Sunday morning I'll be talking about thoughts I have had about building community during a […]

Hey all – lots of content in this blurb so top up your beverage, get comfy, and read on… This week marks the second gathering at our new address – 171 McDermot Avenue, the everyday home of VA Café and the weekly home of The Table. Our first visit last week solidly confirmed a couple […]

Since we’re speaking of exploring, let me begin with something both exciting and necessary –  info about our new venue! This Sunday (June 11th) will be our first gathering at VA Cafe, 171 McDermot Avenue! You can find a link to the location on Google Maps. We will meet at our usual time (10:45 a.m.). Our plan […]

Hey folks – it’s an in-person Sunday at 170 Scott, starting at 10:45 a.m. We will have music, Community Time, and…the Parent Panel!  All five of our panelists from the first Parent Panel are able to be present for the second portion (no small feat – a huge shout-out to Jane, Shereen, Karen, Theresa and Roanna […]