The Rev. Dr. Irina Dubinski
On this blog, you will find my weekly reflections that I write as part of my work in the Anglican Church, in which I was ordained in 2015. My vocation has been shaped by my studies at the University of Toronto, where I earned a Master of Divinity from Wycliffe College, Spiritual Direction Diploma from Regis College, PhD in Speech-Language Pathology, and BA in Linguistics. My ministry combines parish life with chaplaincy focused on end-of life care, and an interest in new clergy formation. My personal spirituality reflects an interest in the Orthodox heritage of my country of birth, my early faith experiences in the Evangelical church, transition to Anglicanism for theological and liturgical reasons, and formal training in Ignatian (Jesuit) spiritual direction. The practices I borrowed from each tradition comprise my own unique way of becoming aware of God’s presence and activity in the world, which I am delighted to share through my spiritual direction practice, and courses on prayer and meditation through art.
Pentecost 2023 – “relaxed” service
Today is someone’s birthday. That someone is the Church! What is a birthday? That’s the beginning of life outside the belly or egg, but not really THE beginning. Before you get “on the outside”, you already exist, act upon others, and others care for you. Yet, a birth defines the moment of starting your life…
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Ascension, 2023
May God “give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation… so that, withthe eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope towhich he has called you” (Ephesians 1:17-18) Ascension makes me wonder why at the end of his earthly time Jesus had to go up into the sky, rather than dissolve…
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Paul on Areopagus
Paul’s Speech on the Areopagus, delivered in Athens, is a dramatic tour de force of the New Testament. With remarkable fluency, Paul thinks on his feet and weaves together his knowledge of philosophy, literature, history, and culture. To appreciate it fully, let’s first travel much further back in time to consider the origins of the…
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Easter 5, 2023: Spiritual Home
At the last supper before his death, Jesus tried to offer a measure of peace to his friends. A traveling teacher without “a place to lay his head” for the past three years seemed to think that a promise of a “house with plenty of room” should be enough to lift his friends’ troubled hearts.…
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Good Shepherd (aka Vocations) Sunday, 2023
The middle Sunday of the Easter season is called the “Good Shepherd Sunday” as this week, we always read Ps 23, “the Lord is my Shepherd,” and John 10 that applies this analogy to Jesus over all of its 42 verses. This year, we read its beginning that presents Jesus, paradoxically, as the shepherd, gatekeeper…
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The Assurance of Thomas 2023
Longer than Lent, Eastertide has its own liturgical progression spanning the 50 days between the resurrection of Jesus and birth of the Church. So, we read Acts instead of the OT, the NT readings are from those attributed to Peter and John, as the presumed Church founders, and the gospel readings progress from Jesus’ appearances…
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Easter 2023
As I was planning what to say today, I reviewed some of my previous homilies. The opening line of “Easter, 2021” read: “It’s been a while since we’ve had a “normal” Easter!” At the time, I was referring to the fire that engulfed Notre Dame (Holy Week 2018), Sri Lanka bombings (Easter 2019), and first…
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Easter Vigil 2023
Those of you who lost friends and family might remember that multitude of tasks that hit you in the early days of each loss, which all seem insurmountable and yet keep you somewhat sane at the same time. I think it was like that for these 8 or so women, whose names the gospels mention…
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Good Friday 2023
Once again, we got through the difficult exercise of recalling, step by step, the details of Jesus’ final hours of life. Oh, why must we keep revisiting this unpleasant story year after year? As it is, this Friday is, frankly, only “good” in a sense of “holy/dedicated” and at all not “pleasant/beneficial”! The worst part…
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Maundy Thursday 2023
Tonight, after the flurry of this busy liturgy is complete, we will go home in silence, leaving our church stripped of adornments, without a blessing or communion. This will represent that sense of perceived absence of God that would have characterized the days when Jesus suffered and died. I imagine that those who gathered at…
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Eve of Palm Sunday 2023 – “Relaxed” Communion” The Tale of Two Donkeys
Do you know what it means to meditate? Have you tried it yet? Has someone tried teaching you? Now, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “meditation” is probably… BORING. Sitting quietly and thinking about nothing is not easy. But you know, there is a different way to do it, to pray…
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Palm Sunday 2023
What always catches my attention on Palm Sunday is the contrast between the joy with which it starts and the suffering with which it ends. We begin on the streets of Jerusalem with the thousands who gather to celebrate, and apparently, each year eat as many as 250,000 Passover lambs (?!). Jesus rides into all…
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Lazarus Sunday (the penultimate Sunday of Lent, 2023)
As next week is Palm Sunday, today is the last “regular” Sunday of Lent. In the early church, the eve of Palm Sunday was a special observance called “the announcement of Pascha”. It remained in the Orthodox church as “the Saturday of Lazarus,” an evening service focused on the story of Jesus bringing this man…
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Blind Man Healed (Lent 4, 2023)
As Jesus and his disciples walked along, they saw a man blind from birth, prompting the disciples to ask, “Teacher, who sinned, this man or his parents?” This may sound as though they were out for a leisurely walk, engaged in an academic discussion. But in the preceding chapter of John, we read about the…
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Samaritan Woman (Lent 3, 2023)
The Samaritan woman whom Jesus meets at the well has consistently made it onto every list of “the bad girls of the Bible” ever compiled. The usual interpretation paints a picture of a woman living on the outskirts of the society, so much so that she prefers to come to the well when all others…
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Covenants (Lent 2, 2023)
Did you know that the season of Lent is actually NOT about becoming as miserable as possible in anticipation of Good Friday? Historically, Lent was the time of baptismal preparation, when those new to the faith prepared for their initiation rites, those already in the church reaffirmed their commitment, and those who had strained relationships…
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The Temptation of Jesus (Lent 1, 2023)
Lent has begun for us, and tomorrow it will begin for the Orthodox church. Christians around the world will be giving up some daily comforts to mirror Jesus’ own fast that he undertook immediately following his baptism. What is potentially confusing, however, is that in 6 weeks, we will arrive with Jesus on Golgotha; whereas…
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Ash Wednesday 2023
In the early church, baptisms were often performed on the night before Easter. So what is now our Lent was, at the time, the final stage in spiritual formation of the newest believers in Christ. I suspect it was natural that those who prepared, supported and celebrated with the candidates, and eventually the entire communities…
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Transfiguration 2023
Today we read the story in which Jesus takes Peter, James, and John on a mountain climb. Once at the top, the disciples see a fantastical vision – we call it Transfiguration, a fancy word for a transformation into something more beautiful. Jesus’ body and clothing seem to glow with a supernatural light, they also…
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“I planted, Apollos watered”
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth”, wrote Paul to the congregation he had established in Corinth. Who was this Apollos? According to a few scriptural and early historical sources, he appears to have played a role in the early churches of Ephesus and Corinth alongside Paul. Yet, as a Hellenized Jew born…
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“You are the Light of the World”
We are nearing the end of the “bridge” season between Christmastide and Lent – the time when our readings tend to focus on life purpose, and feature the symbolism of light. Introduced on Christmas day with the prologue to John, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all”, the light shines…
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Presentation of the Lord
On Feb 2 – yes, Groundhog Day – we will observe the Presentation of the Lord, aka Purification of Mary, or in some languages – simply “the Meeting” (e.g., Sretenie). We also call it Candlemas, and bless the candles to use over the coming year, perhaps due to the reference to light we find in…
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St Timothy (Patronal Feast on Jan 26th or 22nd)
Today, we are remembering the namesake of our church, our patron saint Timothy. The limited extent of historical information we have about him is neatly summarized in two objects in our church: the stained glass window depicting his life (a gift from our first ever people’s warden!), and the carved lectern stand. The window shows…
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The Calling of First Disciples
The readings between Epiphany and Lent tend to focus on revelation, vocation, and beginning. Last week, we reflected on the baptism of Jesus as the inaugural event in his ministry, and today, we are looking at how it began for his first followers – the two curious Galileans who approached Jesus to learn more, perhaps,…
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Baptism of the Lord, Year A
I am delighted to be here with you for the first time, celebrating the Baptism of the Lord, which marks the first Sunday post-Christmastide. Some of us like the sense of a new beginning and reclaiming the space and time taken up by the decor and festivities; others are more like my son, who asks…
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Christmas Day
Merry Christmas! Thank you for being here to marvel together, again, at the great mystery of the Incarnation: that God has chosen to dwell among us in the flesh as a helpless newborn, yes, but also within each one of us. Last night, the children presented to us the drama from the gospel of Luke.…
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Christmas Eve
Our culture favors epic genres, superhero battles, fast-paced, attention grabbing displays of brutality and force. At Christmas, on the other hand, we seem to fall into sweet sentimentality, as we sing of the silence of the night, and a newborn who never cried. However, it’s likely that Jesus’ birth was neither gentle or grand, but…
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Advent 4 – Mary’s Sunday
Traditionally, we refer to the 4th Sunday of Advent as “Mary’s Sunday”. Two years out of three, our gospel readings truly focus on Mary, by telling either the Annunciation or Visitation with Elizabeth episodes, both from the gospel of Luke. This year, however, we hear more about Joseph: his reaction to what didn’t seem like…
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Irina's Art 