Author Archives: Martha Tatarnic
About Martha Tatarnic
The Reverend Martha Tatarnic serves as the rector of St. George’s Anglican Church in St. Catharines. Previously, she has served in congregations in Orillia and Oakville. Her focus in congregational leadership has been in empowering justice initiatives and outreach in the small church, starting a new service, the possibilities and potentials of Anglican-Lutheran partnership, and forming disciples through the power of music. As a young mother navigating family life through the continually changing waters of modern-day life, she is passionate about connecting the dots between faith – worship - Scripture, and exploring the concerns, joys, questions, stresses, worries, celebrations, of Right Here, Right Now.Day of the Dead: reflections on the missing and murdered
I pray that November 2nd, The Day of the Dead, will be a time when we remember our loved ones and give thanks for the imprint of love that they have left on us. But I pray, too, that it will be a day of repentance. Repentance: turning around, turning around to look again for the ones we have failed. Continue reading
Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, and reflections on idolatry
The broader and deeper witness of Scripture is that the instinct behind any divine directive is to protect and care for us. In other words, if God is so concerned about idolatry, then there must be something destructive about idolatry from which God is seeking to protect us. Continue reading
Sacred stuff and deal breakers | Dream project blog: part four
At the beginning of July, an announcement was made in two of our St. Catharines Anglican churches. In this fourth blog in a series that considers the possibility of a parish merge, The Rev. Martha Tatarnic reflects: “It is an enormous task to imagine uprooting this community and to not just bring two complementary ministries together to make both stronger and more vital, but to actually try and fit together two unique characters and histories.” Continue reading
Formal conversation begins | Dream project blog: part three
At the beginning of July, an announcement was made in two of our St. Catharines Anglican churches. In this third blog in a series that considers the possibility of a parish merge, The Rev. Martha Tatarnic reflects: “You know that saying about, “the best-laid plans?” Sometimes despite our best-laid plans, things go off track anyway. But in the economy of God’s grace, sometimes despite our best-laid plans, God’s grace emerges doing more than we could ask or imagine.” Continue reading
Stranger dynamics | Dream project blog: part one
At the beginning of July, an announcement was made in two of our St. Catharines Anglican churches. Whatever the eventual outcome, at the start we know that there would be a painful goodbye, a move, and a need for one community to make space and welcome for another. Continue reading
Nothing left to do but sing: The Hip’s Farewell Tour
It doesn’t feel like one person’s illness—even if they are famous—should be so newsworthy… Human mortality isn’t actually news, and it is naïve to suggest it is. And yet, “There is nothing left to do but sing.” Continue reading
Doubt and grace
In my family, we have a saying that we referred to often when it felt like life is falling apart: “Things have a habit of working out.” But of course, this saying is only a nudge, it isn’t the full truth. Life does sometimes fall apart. But “God is not helpless among the ruins.” Things don’t always work out. But there is grace. Continue reading
The hardest worship—common prayer reflections from the floor of General Synod 2016
Every single person in that assembly would walk away knowing what it was to be hurt and disappointed. Every person there had now been faced with a choice – to let that hurt and disappointment rule, or to stay together. Continue reading
Sweeter than honey
As a parent, I fight a losing battle with sugar. But sugar isn’t evil. It is a powerful gift. We can learn and re-learn on each fresh new day how to choose God’s abundant life, that finicky recipe of restraint and indulgence, recognizing our agency in choosing to not have something that we can have, and giving thanks for the sweet gifts received along the way. Continue reading
Change is the constant
The church’s own sense of instability can open us to a new compassion for all of those who experience themselves as lost and struggling. And that sense of instability invites us to be more aware, and more generous, with what God has actually given us to offer the world’s need. Continue reading
