Ecumenism
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Rethinking Religious Engagement Through Worship: Airport Prayer Rooms as Sites of Secular Hospitality
Air travel is often accompanied by heightened emotions and elevated stress levels, arising from a range of challenges—from carefully managing check-in times and adhering to airline baggage allowances to the anxieties about confined spaces, turbulence, the potential impact of flight delays and cancellations, or more sinister imaginings of how flights might go wrong. In recognition of the diverse needs of travellers—whether of any faith or of none—many airports now provide a designated prayer or quiet room. It is my own practice, where time and circumstance permit, to make use of these rooms when passing through airports. I do so with a dual awareness: first of a personal concern—whether or not…
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“Surprise Theme!”: Canadian Christian Congregational Research
As I analyzed the interview transcripts, I soon realized that an unexpected theme was emerging. Most of the data collected fit nicely into the nodes that I had pre-determined by the semi-structured interview questions and the overall framework of the research project. However, something I wasn’t asking about repeatedly came up throughout the interviews. A surprise theme! The aim of the Divine Pulse Research Project is to “take the pulse” of the Canadian church. While other researchers look at church decline and new congregations, my calling is to explore “greatness” in Canadian Christian congregations. This is a qualitative research study exploring church growth through the lens of Jim Collins’ “Good to Great”…
