By Joan Kessler

In the early morning hours of Saturday, September 24, Hurricane Fiona made contact with Atlantic Canada. With maximum sustained windspeeds of 145 km/hr gusting to nearly 180 km/hr, some 415,000 customers lost power. The community of Port-Aux-Basques on the southwest coast of Newfoundland bore the brunt of the intense storm with nearly 100 homes destroyed. Media images show heavily damaged homes teetering on the cliffs while others were washed out to sea because of high winds and strong storm surge. States of emergency were declared and shelters established for those displaced by Fiona. The cleanup cost we can surmise will be in the billions of dollars.

We know that climate change is impacting weather systems, causing storms to be more intense and more frequent. Photos of Atlantic Canada display coastlines that will be forever changed because of high winds and rising sea levels. Climate scientists report that fossil-fuel emissions are the leading cause of more intense tropical storms that make their way to Atlantic Canada. Ocean waters off the Maritimes have risen by 1.5 degrees over the past century. Warming waters give fuel to storm systems, making them stronger and more damaging, particularly to coastal communities.

The devastation left in the wake of Fiona has some people questioning how rebuilding takes place given the reality of storm systems becoming more severe and more frequent. Adaptation is what’s necessary according to climate scientists and activists. Living close to the ocean may no longer be possible. The discussion about rebuilding will need to consider location and proximity to the ocean; homes may have to be positioned further back, a heart-breaking reality to many who make their homes and livings near the water.

Coastal communities are not the only ones that need to adapt to the changing climate. As global citizens, we all must consider lifestyle changes in order to be ready for the effects of a warming planet. Possible adaptations include revamping building standards, limiting development in coastal areas, restoring wetlands to reduce flooding, and making different choices to protect our health during heatwaves.

This month, COP27 will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, with heads of state, activists, and members of the business community coming together for this annual gathering on climate action. Adaptation will be on the agenda, as participants will explore ways that countries can become more resilient in the face of climate change and help others to become the same. Isaiah’s prophecy calling us to pay attention to a new heaven and a new earth couldn’t be more timely or poignant. Our climate is changing and as God’s people we are called to participate in this new creation.

Explore… Isaiah 65:17–25

How does where you live impact the environment?
Adapting means changing. What changes to your lifestyle are you considering making to become more resilient against the effects of intense storms and changing weather patterns?

Prayer…

God of infinite possibilities, you are ever-changing and we are ever-changing. Our planet is in a constant state of flux. May we be adapters and leaders of change in our communities. Because nothing stays the same. Amen.

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From Joan Kessler

Since Russia’s war on Ukraine started eight months ago, our media has filled us with images of Ukrainian cities and villages destroyed by Russian bombs and missiles. Ukrainian religious life has not been spared from the violent destruction; hundreds of sites – including churches, synagogues, and mosques – have experienced heavy damage or total destruction because of the conflict. Priests and chaplains have been killed while others have been imprisoned.

According to international law, religious sites are protected as Cultural Property. Attacks on religious sites and artifacts are considered war crimes. Rendering a building inaccessible violates the human right to practice one’s religion. Russian government officials deny any intentional strikes on religious sites. And yet bullet holes riddle doors and religious artifacts; blown-out domes leave debris scattered in piles inside sanctuary spaces.

The conflict has exacerbated tense relations between the different Orthodox communities in Ukraine, with some holding historic ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. Ukraine, unlike Russia, is a pluralistic country, with many different faith traditions observed. The state does not control nor interfere in religious expression. Groups such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which are banned in Russia, find a home in Ukraine and can practice their religious beliefs. The destruction of churches, synagogues, and mosques is viewed by the people of Ukraine as an act of aggression towards their right to freedom of religion, and their Ukrainian way of life.

As places of worship and religious artifacts are damaged and destroyed by war, taking an inventory of such losses is proving difficult. A coalition of priests and religious leaders have put differences aside in an effort to come together to document the damage. The project, Backup Ukraine, is collecting 3D scans of Ukraine’s architectural heritage sites including its churches. It is an international response led by Danish project manager Tao Legene Thomsen. Thomsen calls the work a “passion project” and a “moral obligation.” He affirmed the importance of religious structures as a reflection of Ukraine’s historical power. Preservation of these centuries-old sites will be critical to the rebuilding a nation and its religious sovereignty.

Explore… Haggai 1:15b — 2:9

When the people of Judah return to their homeland after decades of being exile, they find the centre of their religious life has been destroyed. How much does a physical worship space mean to your life of faith?
Have you ever experienced the loss of a physical worship space? Due to fire or flood or renovations? How did it feel to be displaced? What sustained you in the time of separation?

Prayer…

God, in this time of war, we pray for all who have known destruction of their sacred spaces. We pray for their spiritual welfare as they look for you in the rubble and begin to imagine what rebuilding will look like. May they be comforted and surrounded by your presence and a hope for the future. Amen.

Learn more…

From Paul Turley

In our text for this week, Zacchaeus pledged, “half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”

In September 2022, Bill Gates, while announcing a $20 billion donation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reiterated his pledge to give away “virtually all of my wealth to the foundation.” Gates said, “I have an obligation to return my resources to society in ways that have the greatest impact for reducing suffering and improving lives. And I hope others in positions of great wealth and privilege will step up in this moment too.”

Gates, along with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates, has already given more than $50 billion to the foundation since 1994. In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffet launched The Giving Pledge. “The Giving Pledge is a promise by the world’s wealthiest individuals and families to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.” The Pledge launched with 40 of America’s wealthiest people. Today that number has doubled. Each person signed up has pledged to give away at least half of their wealth. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a part of Gate’s commitment to The Giving Pledge.

Last month, the Foundation launched its sixth annual Goalkeepers Report. The report focuses on the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN in 2015. The UN is working toward achieving all goals by 2030. This year’s Goalkeeper Report notes that nearly all the indicators measuring the achievement of the goals are below where they need to be at this halfway point in the journey.

“It’s no surprise that progress has stalled amid numerous crises,” said Bill Gates. “But this is not a reason to give up. Every action matters to save lives and reduce suffering. Turning away would be a mistake.”

In the last three weeks the Gates Foundation has announced grants totalling nearly US$128 million to support the development and accessibility of maternal vaccines for Group B Streptococcus and Respiratory Syncytial Virus, two of the leading causes of death for newborns and young infants in lower-income countries, and US$1.2 billion to support efforts to end all forms of polio globally.

Explore…Luke 19:1–10

What are some of the possible reasons the story of Zacchaeus includes the detail about him climbing a tree?
There are trees mentioned in the moments of creation, in Genesis 2 – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What ideas come to mind thinking about these trees and Zacchaeus’s tree?
Why does Jesus say, “Today salvation has come to this house” and why does he add, “because he too is a son of Abraham”?

Prayer…

God of forgiveness and grace, today we know that salvation has come to our house and that, because of your forgiveness and grace, we too are your children. May we live in the generosity of your love. Amen.

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From Paul Turley

The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

The Pharisee was standing by himself. This is beginning to sound like a description of the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. His invasion of Ukraine, which began in February of this year, is costing the Russian people US$500 million a day and has so far involved more than 150,000 Russian troops.

Putin, whose actions have provoked many countries to institute sanctions against Russia, increasingly finds himself not only at odds with other nations but also within his own nation. More and more it looks as if he is standing by himself.

According to U.S. News and World Report, “Russian and Kremlin-backed leaders have escalated their unusual public acknowledgements of embarrassing battlefield losses in Ukraine while also beginning to turn negative attention on a previously forbidden target: the decision-making of President Vladimir Putin himself.”

In response to the president’s mobilization of 300,000 extra men with “military experience,” it is estimated that as many as 700,000 people have left Russia to avoid being drafted, or a family member being drafted, into the army to fight in Ukraine. While the government has promised that only those with military experience will be called up, in practice nothing legally prevents even those without such experience from being enlisted. In response, the Spring youth democratic movement called for renewed demonstrations against mobilization in the centres of Moscow, St. Petersburg, and in all Russian cities.

“Vladimir Putin has just announced a partial mobilization in Russia. This means that thousands of Russian men – our fathers, brothers and husbands – will be thrown into the meat grinder of war,” Spring wrote on their Instagram page. “Now war will truly come to every home and every family. The authorities used to say that only ‘professionals’ were fighting and that they would win. It turned out that they were not winning – and prisoners began to be recruited to the front. The war is no longer ‘out there’ – it has come to our country, our homes, for our relatives. The deputies and officials who daily yelled about the need for mobilization will remain in their warm chairs, alive and well. We believe that they should be mobilized and sent to Ukraine – let them die for their sick fantasies, and not send ordinary guys to their deaths.”

The 20th century gave witness to what can happen when dictators become isolated from those they are supposed to lead and from reality itself. Historians continue to try to calculate how many million perished in the Nazi camps and the Soviet gulags. Jesus’s story of a Pharisee standing alone and declaring himself not like other people, is surely the beginning of a road to despair and destruction.

Explore…Luke 18:9–14

The Pharisees are mostly not well regarded in Luke (Luke 11and 12), and tax collectors are not well regarded by the Pharisees (Luke 5:30, 7:34). What can we learn from Jesus’s decision to make a Pharisee and a tax collector the protagonists in this story?
What can we take from the description of the Pharisee as “standing by himself” and the tax collector as “standing far off”?
What does justification have to do with humility in this reading?

Prayer…

God of all goodness, teach us what true humility is and help us to experience your justice, your forgiveness, and your love. Amen.

Learn more…

From Fraser Macnaughton

Opposition to Vladimir Putin’s recent partial mobilization of the Russian male population is being met with stern resistance within the country. Protests against the mobilization order to recruit more people for Russia’s army appear to be continuing in the Russian republic of Dagestan, with videos showing standoffs between police and the public. Video footage posted on social media shows the police arresting demonstrators. A video appeared to show people angrily confronting an official arguing in favour of the draft at a recruitment centre. The official said that her son had been fighting in Ukraine since February. “You’re fighting for your children’s future,” shouted the woman, who was not identified, in front of a crowd outside a municipal building. “We don’t have a present, what kind of future are you talking about?” a man in the crowd responded. The order will see thousands more Russians drafted to be part of the war effort in Ukraine.

Meanwhile long queues of vehicles are at border crossing between Russia and Mongolia as people continue to flee the Kremlin’s partial mobilization order. The head of a checkpoint in the town of Altanbulag had more than 3,000 Russians entering Mongolia via the crossing.

Some brave souls are not giving up and taking more direct action. A drafting office in southwest Russia came under attack from a man who threw Molotov cocktails at the building in protest of the war in Ukraine. After having rammed a car into the entrance of the building, the man stands in the street and begins lobbing petrol bombs into the building. As the office soon alights, the man continues to throw Molotov cocktails and, as a film of the event shows, the blaze spreads rapidly.

In Siberia, another man shot a military draft officer to at his friend’s conscription. Video clips show the official being carried from the building and placed on to a stretcher. He appeared not to be moving. According to reports, the man said moments before opening fire, “nobody is going to go anywhere’

More than 2,000 people have been detained across Russia for protesting the draft, according to independent monitoring groups. With criticism of the conflict banned, the demonstrations were among the first signs of discontent since the war began.

Explore… Luke 18:1–8

How do you react when you see people taking justice into their own hands?
Can you think of any instances where prayer has been enough to change the course of something that is unjust?
How do you reconcile the support given to President Putin by the Russian Orthodox church to pursue the war in Ukraine with the gospel message of peace and justice?
Share any stories you know of ordinary people who never gave up?

Prayer…
May the Spirit of Christ help us as we navigate our way along his Way. Often we reach crossroads and are unsure of the correct path. May we have wisdom, may we have discernment, may we have grace to follow and never give up. Amen.

Learn more…

From Fraser Macnaughton

The victory of the Brothers of Italy Party, [ironically led by a woman Giorgia Meloni] in the recent Italian general election, has sparked a reaction from a network of groups, from those protecting refugees, to those advocating for more gay rights such as adoption, as well as progressive politicians. The election results mean that Italy now has the most right wing government since the era Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at the end of the second world war. Unsurprisingly Vladimir Putin of Russia was one of the first to offer his congratulations to the new administration.

This reflects trained that has become increasingly common across Europe and many other parts of the world in recent years. It is seen as backlash against the concepts of globalisation and a perceived undermining of the nation state, fertile ground for right wing nationalist parties to encourage their nationals to circle the wagons and keep anyone seen as the ‘other’ out, whether that be migrants, homosexuals, those of different ethnic backgrounds. Indeed anyone they see as a threat to the purity of the own nation.

The fear for Italians is that the right wing coalition of the Brothers of Italy party, the [Northern] League party, and the party of former darling of the right Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia, will produce a raft of legislation aimed at vulnerable groups.

Whether it is women seeking safe abortions, refugees being turned back at sea and refused help, or following up on their blocking of a law in parliament last year that would have criminalised homophobia, on the grounds it was against freedom of speech, many Italians will have reason to fear the future. The loud voices have indeed triumphed and not for the right reasons.

“We are facing an extreme right that is really worrying, especially if you look at their closeness with Viktor Orbàn’s Hungary, Poland and Russia,” said Mario Colamarino, president of the Mario Mieli Circle of Homosexual Culture association. New prime minister Meloni’s moral and economic inspiration is Viktor Orban, the man who in recent years has destroyed the opposition in Hungary and achieved legitimacy by weaponizing popular consensus. So much so that last month the European parliament declared Hungary could no longer be considered a full democracy. Perhaps most distressingly, Meloni declares in a rally ‘“I am Giorgia, I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am a Christian.’ For many of the Italian faithful, it may seem that God’s call to feed the hungry and relief the poor is a far cry from the new Italian government and make restoration of the community even harder.

EXPLORE

How do you react to situation where people claim to be doing God’s work or acting in God’s name when at odds with your understanding of the gospel.
Do you think Jesus’ injunction to pray for your enemies could also include fellow Christians
How do we navigate through the interminable mix of politics and faith where loud voices re not in praise of God but rather engendering division.

PRAY

We are called to pray without ceasing. We are called to pray for our enemies. Sometimes we have to wise up and realise they might be standing next to us in church. May we have the grace to engage gently, to love unceasingly and be Christ to all, as we are able Amen.

Unite Against Italian Nationalism

From Sandra Rooney

From the moment the announcement came from Buckingham Palace, September 8, of Queen Elizabeth’s death, tributes and condolences have poured in from all corners of the globe, from heads-of-state and common folk. President Joe Biden ordered all flags at U.S. federal and military facilities to fly at half staff during the ten-day mourning period, and governors across the country did the same. Some people remembered encounters with Her Majesty, others have learned bits of history from her 70+ year reign which they had all but forgotten or perhaps never even know. As a U.S. citizen, I don’t think we have anyone who remotely resembles what Queen Elizabeth represents, no one who might be described as “a national treasure,” as Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said of Her Majesty, adding that “throughout her life she had represented the very best of the United Kingdom.”

In Britain, as they bade farewell to the queen, with all the rituals of tribute and mourning, London correspondent Mark Landler suggested it masked something he called “far messier: a rupture to the national psyche.” He put it this way, “the queen’s death last week, at 96, is a genuinely traumatic event, leaving many in this stoic country anxious and unmoored. As they come to terms with the loss of a figure who embodied Britain, they are unsure of their nation’s identity, its economic and social well-being, or even its role in the world.”

Author Hari Kunzru, in a guest column in the Times, said “Queen Elizabeth’s death at the age of 96 ends the longest reign in British history, and comes at a time when the life of the nation—and its future--feel uncertain.” He went on to say that “many Britons mourn the nation’s lost imperial grandeur, and for them the pageantry of monarch and Elizabeth’s presence as its leading player have been a balm for the ache of a changing world.” He suggested that the monarchy had been a screen onto which people could project their own fantasies and that her “greatest asset as queen was her blankness.” Others have called her the glue that has kept the country together through the rapid changes and difficult circumstances of the past 70 years.

Reporting also indicates that mourning for the queen has exposed a generational divide, older people saying she represented the only stability in a time of national and global turmoil, younger people saying the monarchy serves no purpose. Some former British colonies around the world, beginning to re-examine their relationship with the monarchy, have announced plans to hold referendums on becoming republics in the near future. There are also questions about the legacy of the British Empire and the cruelty meted out to people in its former colonies. African leaders largely have publicly mourned the queen’s passing and offered condolences to Britain and her family, but there are those among a younger generation of Africans growing up in a post-colonial world who say it is dishonest to ignore the ugly side of colonial history.

Only history will tell the rest of the story, but the 70+ year reign of Queen Elizabeth II will long be remembered for the courage and stability she represented during those years of rapid change and challenge.

Explore. . . 2 Timothy 1:1-14

In whom do you place your faith today? Why?
Who in your life has been a “treasure”? Why?
To whom do you turn for answers to the troubling questions of today?
How do you deal with the “mixed baggage” of some of those to whom you look for guidance and inspiration?

Prayer

We give thanks for those who guided our path when we were young, those who believed in us when we doubted ourselves, comforted us when we grieved, stood fast when we wavered, those who lighted a candle for us when we were in darkness, and those who inspired us to be more that we thought we could be. We pray we may be led to live lives of service, compassion and justice. Amen

Learn more. . .

From Sandra Rooney

Ever since the James Webb Space Telescope sent its first infrared images back to Earth, we have heard a lot about those amazing images and their significance. Today, let’s bring our attention a little closer to home, to planet Earth. Mother Nature, too, continues to teach us new things.

Take the lessons we’re learning from beavers. Ever since early settlers began to move into beavers’ territory there have been conflicts. They flood roads, fields, and other areas people want dry. They fell trees we might prefer they left standing. In response, farmers and ranchers, such as Horace Smith in Nevada, have waged war against them, shooting them or even using dynamite on their dams. In response to complaints, the federal government in the U.S. killed almost 25,000 beavers last year.

However, there is a growing number of ranchers, scientists and others whose experience suggests something else. Mr. Smith’s son Agee eventually took over the ranch after his father died in 2014. He has found it to be in his best interests to make peace with the beavers. In fact, he acknowledges that allowing the beavers to work on the land is one of the best things he’s done. Why?

With global warming intensifying droughts, floods, and wild fires, it turns out that what beavers do naturally is helping to mitigate the consequences of severe natural disasters. Last year, when Nevada experienced one of the worst droughts on record, beaver pools kept enough water for Smith’s cattle, and when exceptionally hard rains came, the beavers’ network of dams slowed the water rushing down the mountain, protecting his hay crop. Slowing water also reduces erosion and recharges groundwater. In Smith’s case, the beavers’ work has widened creeks into wetlands. When they run through sagebrush desert, they clean the water and create new meadows, which then become a buffer against wildfires. Wetlands also address the issue of biodiversity loss by creating habitat for a wide variety of species.

Two scientists who study beavers and hydrology, Chris Jordan and Emily Fairfax, writing for a research journal this year, said of beavers that they are, “a key part of a national climate action plan,” and in reality “are a force of 15–40 million highly skilled environmental engineers.” The new California state budget designates about $1.5 million a year to restoring beavers for climate resilience and biodiversity benefits.

Those who recognize the benefits of the beavers’ “free labour” do acknowledge that it has limitations. Beavers are wild, swimming animals, obsessed with building dams. There is no negotiating with them. But when human-beaver conflicts arise, experts are working to find ways to address the issue without killing them or dynamiting their homes. Caroline Nash, a river scientist, emphasizes that projects need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, saying that it’s about determining where beavers’ survival interests align with humans’ survival interests.

Explore… Proverbs 8:22–31

What is your understanding of wisdom?
How do you distinguish between knowledge and wisdom?
In what ways are we learning about the wisdom of all inhabitants of the earth, including plants and animals?
How do you experience the wisdom of the earth?

Prayer…

We pray we may rejoice daily in the wisdom of the world in which we live, in our surroundings, and in all that makes our lives possible. May we be energized by the wisdom we see exhibited in everything that surrounds us. May we learn from the wisdom of creation. Amen.

Learn more…

It was war. Then, a rancher’s truce with some pesky beavers paid off

From Joan Kessler

Over recent months, soundscapes have become a regular hit on my playlist. According to Wikipedia, soundscape represents an acoustic environment that is discernible to humans by its context. For example, there are coffeeshop soundscapes and busy NYC street soundscapes recorded and mixed to help us get in the zone for the task is at hand; or to simply feel like we are with people and part of a social network and mood lift we feel from such noises. In the early days of the pandemic in 2020, while we were spending our time at home socially isolated, soundscapes reminded us of human activities and interactions that we were once part of.

The silence of COVID and human noise, however, brought an unexpected gift. We began to notice the sounds of nature right outside our doors. Birdsongs, lapping waves, pebbles and sticks crackling under our feet as we made our way to parks and wilderness reserves, reminded us of the fragility of our natural soundscape. Acoustic ecologist, Gordon Hempton has dedicated his career to collecting natural sounds and has studied the ecological impact of noise pollution on our environment. He describes silence not as the absence of something but the presence of everything.

Noise pollution is having a detrimental effect on our natural soundscape around the globe. The haunting call of the loon across a lake is in danger of disappearing as are other songbirds like the whippoorwill and chickadee. As avian populations decline, those that remain sing more quietly and this causes the “song culture” to breakdown, leaving those left to copy the sounds of other species. Diversity breaks down as a result. The presence of insects and their noises are also being threatened by increased wildfire activity, agricultural pesticides, deforestation, and the decline of wetland habitats. Warming temperatures are also cited as a cause of metabolic changes in insect behavior.

Quiet Parks International, formerly known as the One Square Inch of Silence Foundation, is committed to saving quiet for the benefit of all. Their mission to identify quiet spaces and advocate for a world where everyone has access to daily quiet and opportunities to listen to sounds of nature. There are numerous health benefits to spending time in the silence of nature such as a reduction in stress, anxiety and repetition of thoughts, as well as lowering blood pressure. Exposure to nature sounds also improves cognitive function, concentration and overall wellbeing through a sense of calm and inner peace. Earlier this year, Grasslands National Park in southwestern Saskatchewan received Canada’s first Quiet Park designation. Quiet Parks International works with a volunteer base that records and monitors natural sounds and advocates through education a culture of quiet and addresses the harmful effects on ecosystems the harmful effects of human caused noise pollution.

This Sunday’s focus for the Season of Creation is Fauna and Flora. Psalm 104:14-23 sings of God’s delight in creation. Each plant, animal, and geological feature is honored and valued. And perhaps this Sunday, we focus on the silence we crave, the inner peace we long to cultivate, and spend some time outdoors on a trail or in a secluded area, away from human interference and noise. What do you hear?

Explore….Psalm 104:14-23

What is your quiet place that you go to in order to connect with nature?
How can communities of faith address and minimize noise pollution?
Hempton defines silence as not the absence of something but the presence of everything. How do you interpret this statement in your own spiritual life?

Prayer...

Quiet One, may I be open to the music of nature’s symphony. May I turn off the noise of humanity and seek your Quiet Presence in the call of the loon, the wind through the trees, the water rushing over smooth rocks. Slow me down and connect me to my natural world so that when I hear, I might also act to protect. Amen.

Learn More:

From Paul Turley

On Christmas Day, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope was launched. Six months later it was ready to send its first infrared images back to Earth.

Those images allow us to see deeper into the universe and therefore deeper into the past than we have ever been able to see before now.

NASA says: The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency

The first image courtesy the James Webb has sent us are of a galaxy cluster that is over 5 billion light-years away from us. Beyond that galaxy cluster – actually, through that cluster, the James Webb can see galaxies that are 13 billion years old, some of the oldest we have ever observed.

"There are many more galaxies with obvious disks, bulges, spiral arms … appearing earlier in cosmic time than we thought," says Karl Glazebrook, from the James Webb Australian Data Centre at Swinburne University in Melbourne. ‘"We can see fainter galaxies than ever before, we can see more detail than ever before, and now we can see what the human eye would see at these very ancient times."

Earlier this year, the Hubble Space Telescope, until the advent of the James Webb, our most powerful and sophisticated lens on the universe, snapped what is thought to be a star that formed about 900 million years after the Big Bang.

The "star" was dubbed Earendel, meaning "morning star" in Olde English. Now, The James Webb has shown us more detail. Earendel is estimated to be about 50 times the mass of the Sun and millions of times as bright and is the most distant star we yet know of. It’s currently 28 billion light-years away and its light has travelled 12.9 billion years to be detected by the James Webb. It existed just 900 million years after the big bang in a galaxy that astronomers have nicknamed the Sunrise Arc.

As well as exploring the age of our universe to better understand how galaxies form, the James Webb will help astronomers explore exoplanets – planets beyond our solar system.

“Exoplanet science as a field is pretty new,” says Munazza Alam, an astrophysicist at Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. ‘Since the first exoplanet discovery in 1992, scientists have found thousands of exotic planets teeming in the universe. They’re everywhere,”

Alam will be particularly using the James Webb to explore Jupiter and Neptune-sized exoplanets, and she’s excited to get started. “We're really just at the tip of the iceberg.”

Explore… Job 38:4-5

How does learning more about the wonders of the universe change or enhance your understanding of Job 38:4-5?
The Lord asks Job, ‘Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?’ Other translations have, ‘have you considered…’ how can you and your faith community explore and consider what it means to be human in what we are learning is an almost infinitely large and complex universe?

Prayer…

God, along with the writer of Psalm 8, we marvel, considering the vastness of the heavens, that you are mindful of us. Expand our minds and our hearts so that we may better experience your vast love for all the cosmos. Amen.

Learn more…

From Paul Turley

Americans are fed up with the role of big money in political campaigns.

So says the Brennan Center for Justice. The Brennan Center is part of New York University and is named for Justice William J. Brennan Jr., a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. “The campaign finance system is broken. Super PACs and shadowy non-profits give enormous sway to the super-wealthy and big corporations,” the Brennan Center says. “The solution is: small donor public financing to put power back in the hands of individuals.”

Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a Democrat-sponsored bill seeking to overhaul campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of big money and foreign interests in elections. Specifically, the bill would require any organization that spends more than $10,000 in a federal election or gives more than $10,000 to a group spending in a federal election, to reveal its major political donors. The bill, as well as restricting foreign spending seeking to influence elections, would have established a voluntary small donor matching program paid for by a new Election Assistance and Innovation Fund. A U.S. House candidate would receive $6 from the fund for every $1 raised, up to $200 per donor.

The United States is not the only democracy where there are concerns about money and its influence on politics. In New Zealand, the Greens political party have, for the past five years, campaigned, as yet without success, to lower the amount an individual can give to a political party before their name is disclosed publicly. Currently, the Labour government is proposing to lower the limit for public disclosure of donors from $15,000 to $5,000 by the 2023 election. The Greens have proposed a NZ$1,000 threshold, with others calling for an even lower amount.

Simon Chapple, director of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington points out that in Canada, the maximum amount of an anonymous donation is C$200, while in Ireland it is currently €100. Chapple says, “Giving NZ$200 to a political party is huge for an ordinary New Zealander, and the reality is only a very small minority would need to disclose their names under such a law.”

In Australia, which held national elections in May this year, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that more than a third of donations to political parties have been kept secret by the parties. Nationally, donations of less than $14,300 do not need to be declared. And those amounts over $14,300 are not made public for up to 18 months after they have been made. The Australia Labor party, the winners of the May 2022 election, have vowed to introduce legislation in the next 12 months that will require parties to declare donations over $1,000 and disclose them publicly in real time.

The need for transparency in political donations is vital to retaining and building trust in democrat systems. Reducing the influence of the wealthy and powerful and increasing the participation of ordinary voters goes a long way toward ensuring engagement in and the integrity of democracies. This same drive for fairness and active engagement is at the heart of Jesus’s words in our text.

Explore… Luke 14:1, 7–14

Jesus calls what he says in verses 7-11 a parable. In what ways do you see the words as parabolic?
What do you think Jesus means when he says, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted,” and what might they mean in your faith community today?
What does it mean for you or your faith community to engage in ministry with people who cannot repay you?

Prayer…

God of justice and radical welcome, teach us what it means to be your people of inclusion and openness. May we work in joy for the good of all. In the name of the one who welcomes all.

Amen.

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From Paul Turley

One of the persistent myths used by those who seek to prevent asylum seekers from entering their nation is the idea that there is an orderly, international or national, asylum seeker resettlement program. If those seeking asylum, the myth goes, would only be patient, they would eventually find themselves at the top of the queue.

There is no queue, orderly or otherwise.

Refugee and asylum seeker organizations point out the obvious again and again; when people are forced to leave their homes, they do so quickly and suddenly. The urgency is to get away from danger and move, hopefully toward safety. Orderly queues, even if such existed, are not front of mind.

An asylum seeker is, according to Amnesty International, “a person who has left their country and is seeking protection from persecution and serious human rights violations in another country, but who hasn’t yet been legally recognized as a refugee and is waiting to receive a decision on their asylum claim. Seeking asylum is a human right.”

This myth of the orderly queue allowed the last conservative government in Australia to promote the idea that asylum seekers who tried to reach the Australian mainland by boat were less worthy of human rights protections than asylum seekers still languishing in Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries.

The same promotion of the myth helped the Trump administration sell its “Remain in Mexico” immigration policy that required asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their applications were processed.

At the beginning of July, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Biden administration’s decision to end this policy and allow those who cross the border to make a claim for asylum.

The U.S. secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas said, “Their proceedings will continue in immigration court, where they will pursue their claims for asylum, and if those claims are unsuccessful, they will be swiftly removed from the United States.”

For those of us who follow the teachings of the Christian and Hebrew scriptures, the call to care for the widow, the orphan, and the alien/stranger is clear. So clear that, for Jesus, human need trumps all, even the God-given instruction to do no work on the Sabbath. What is shocking in our text is that there was a religious class who were quite comfortable with publicly stating a position that was so cruel and so inhumane.

Explore… Luke 13:10–17

Our story takes place in what should have been the heart and soul of the God-inspired compassionate society, the synagogue. Why do you think it was important to the author of Luke to tell us where this event took place?
How would you define hypocrisy?
In what practical ways does your faith community exemplify or demonstrate the humanity of all?

Prayer…

God of all compassion. Forgive us for the ways we sort other human beings into grades and classifications. Forgive us for our inability to see the world as you do. Help us to see the barriers, even in our own faith communities, that make it difficult for all people to live in their full, God-given humanity. Amen.

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From Fraser Macnaughton

One of the enduring narratives in the Russian invasion of Ukraine is that, according to Vladimir Putin, Ukraine was never a country or had its own language, so all Russia is doing is correcting the fallacy of Ukrainian statehood. The latest example of that comes with the news that President Zelensky has removed the head of Ukraine’s security agency as well as the country’s prosecutor general. Both have been fired because it had come to light that many members of their agencies had collaborated with Russia. The sheer number of treason cases lays bare the huge challenge of Russian infiltration faced by Ukraine as it battles Moscow in what it says is a fight for survival. This is due in no small part to the historical narrative of the Russian story that clearly is having an influence on many Ukrainians, parallels of which are littered throughout history, particularly with regard to imperial powers.

Russian president Vladimir Putin began his invasion on February 24th calling it a “special military operation” to demilitarize its neighbour and rid it of dangerous nationalists. Putin has argued that Ukraine has no experience of “genuine statehood” outside the USSR and that by seeking to abandon its Soviet legacy, it has delegitimized itself.

Kyiv and the West say the invasion was an imperialist land grab and attempt to reconquer a country that broke free of Moscow's rule with the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.

These arguments descend into an ideological battle for the “cloud of witnesses” of past eras, leading to further unsettling of populations in the here and now.

President Zelensky said more than 60 officials from the SBU security service and prosecutor’s office were working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied territories, and 651 treason and collaboration cases have been opened against law enforcement officials. This strikes at the heart of Ukrainian identity and nationhood.

Academics at Ukrainian universities meantime are fighting a subtler battle away from the artillery exchanges on the frontlines. According to Taras Pshenychnyi, deputy dean of the history department of the National University in Kyiv, “Russia uses history as a weapon.” Pshenychnyi wrote his doctoral thesis on the Holodomor – the devastating famine Stalin created in Ukraine in the early 1930s, which claimed the lives of more than three million people and was itself suppressed from Soviet history. “It has done it before,” says Pshenychnyi. “This is why the conflict is happening now: because Russia has stolen and misinterpreted the history of Ukraine.”

Explore… Hebrews 11:29 — 12:2

Share how you might feel about someone or some group seeking to alter your faith story or your personal history.
How precious do you hold your “cloud of witnesses” as a support for your faith.
What comparisons can you draw between the current situation facing Ukrainians and the Hebrew people in the Old Testament.

Prayer…

Some talk of us having two faiths… a resting faith and a wrestling faith. They are not mutually exclusive. May we recognize the times we need to persevere in our faith, wrestle with it, proclaim it, but also take some time to rest in it, just as Jesus himself took time out from his tasks, to be more aware of the divine Presence. Amen.

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From Sandra Rooney

Daily the news reminds us that in so many places people are suffering – from drought, or forest fires, or flooding, and increasingly from heat. We may be tempted to think it’s all inevitable and hopeless. But the truth is that individuals, as well as communities, are taking action and there is cause for hope.

Heat records are being set all across the globe. Heat waves are growing longer, hotter and more frequent, and that trend is not expected to change. Extreme heat is not just uncomfortable, it’s bad for everyone’s health, which means heat-related deaths are on the rise. We know older adults are at greater risk, but there are many others too – the homeless, who spend their days outdoors, and laborers who must work all day outside. Add to that, urban landscapes with their asphalt streets, buildings packed close together, lack of green space, and all those gas powered automobiles have become “heat islands.”

In response, some large municipalities are beginning to act. A number of large cities have appointed “heat officers” to coordinate both ways to care for those most immediately affected, and to actually cool cities. Miami, Florida, was the first to appoint a “Chief Heat Officer,” in June 2021. Miami was closely followed by Phoenix and Los Angeles. A quick Google search found others in Athens, Santiago, and Monterrey, Mexico.

Using vegetation, in particular trees, is one way to mitigate the heat in our urban heat islands. Vegetation, it turns out, sometimes also has to do with another issue – flooding during a rainy season. Brad Lancaster’s story illustrates this. He lives on an eighth of an acre in downtown Tucson, Arizona, where annual rainfall is less than 12 inches. Although it didn’t rain much, he noticed that when it did most of it found its way down city streets, causing dangerous flooding in low areas. Yet that amount of rainfall exceeded the amount of water used by the population from the municipal water supply, much of which must come from the Colorado River, 300 miles away and dwindling.

Lancaster saw what was happening in his neighbourhood – rainwater running down the sides of the streets, kept there by curbs, when it could be used to support the growth of plants, including trees, along the sides of the streets. What he did first was illegal, but he knew he would need to prove the benefits before trying to persuade public officials. So he illegally made a curb cut beside his property and his experiment began. To make a long story short, Lancaster’s plan succeeded and he went on to help legalize the harvest of street runoff in the city of Tucson, to freely irrigate street-side property, creating safer streets during heavy rains, and enabling the growth of food-bearing native vegetation. Lancaster has written a handbook called Water Harvesting, which sold around the globe. He lectures at the University of Arizona and serves as an advisor to numerous environmental groups. All because he carefully observed what nature could do and believed he could make a difference.

Explore… Hebrews 11:1–3, 8–16

What is faith for you?
Where do you find hope these days?
What restores your faith?
As followers of Jesus, what are we called to do, even if we’re uncertain about the outcome?
What bold action might you or your faith community be called to take?

Prayer…

Oh, great Creator, we have inherited a world more magnificent that we can comprehend. May we learn how to live in harmony with all of creation, and with one another. Amen.

Learn more…

From Fraser Macnaughton

The recent battle for the leader of the Conservative party in Britain (and by default to become prime minister) has been a rollercoaster of political faith mongering for the party members.

Following the resignation of sitting PM Boris Johnson after a series of scandals, candidates for his role flooded the market with, at one point, up to 11 MPs declaring their candidacy. A powerful committee of back bench MPs who run these contests insisted that each candidate must first garner the support of at least 20 MP colleagues, in order to qualify to be on the ballot. A few failed at the first hurdle. Once MPs by ballot have whittled the candidates down to two, only then do members of the party at large have a chance to vote for X or Y. The final result will not be known until September. Meanwhile, a disgraced prime minister continues in power till then.

Not surprisingly, much of the battleground for MP’s support was around various core values of Conservative doctrine – low taxes, small government, breaks for business, and so on. Many candidates chose to take these as the essence of the faith that had deserted the party under Johnson’s leadership. One of the favourites, Rishi Sunak, criticized fellow candidates, seeking to distinguish himself from the rest of the field by declining to promise lavish tax cuts immediately, but instead stressing the importance of not believing in “fairy tales.” Another, Tom Tugendhat, stopped short of pledging new business tax cuts, saying they could not be “the only round in the magazine,” but said he would slash fuel duty by 10p and reverse the national insurance increase. Meantime, one outsider, Kemi Badenoch, in an energetic speech in front of union jack flags that earned her a standing ovation, criticized the “betrayal” of rivals’ tax cut pledges – which she said they would not keep. She added she would not enter into a bidding war with MPs who claim “my tax cut is bigger than yours” but that she was committed to reducing taxes on businesses, families, and individuals.

Given that the last PM was seen as not being trustworthy, the pitch to return to “core Conservative values” always seems to play out well with the membership. It remains to be seen whether the party can recover the trust of the country as well.

Explore… Luke 12:13–21

At what point do your political faith values converge with your Christian faith values?
Where they might diverge, how do you reconcile the one with the other?
Amidst much talk of culture wars, where do you think Christian faith sits?
To what extent do you think politics uses Christian faith to make it more appealing or justifiable?

Prayer…

Amidst the maelstrom of political upheaval and the latest media headlines, may we keep aware, keep discerning, where the work of the Spirit is leading, so that our faith does not get pushed out, or abused, for other more tempting ends. Amen.

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From Sandra Rooney

We can’t seem to escape the mass killing in our communities. In the United States, we are haunted by them. A gunman shot and killed seven, injuring dozens more during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois. That same weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark, there was a mall shooting that left three killed, four seriously injured, a total of 30 wounded. Back in the U.S., people are still grieving the 19 children and two teachers killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. And that incident had followed a shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, that killed ten and left three others injured. By the time this is read, there will probably be others.

Flags are ordered flown at half-staff and politicians are quick to speak up with “our thoughts and prayers are with you,” but they are slow to act in meaningful ways. We thought something would surely happen after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago, that left 28 dead, and then, again after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. But very little has happened in the U.S. to prevent such killings.

Tish Harrison Warren, a priest in the Anglican Church in North America, wrote Uvalde in The New York Times, May 30. She noted that The Guardian had summed up “thoughts and prayers” as “obfuscation and inaction.” And the National Parents Union called for policy changes and “more than thoughts and prayers.” Sam Garza, pastor and youth worker at First United Methodist Church told Warren that “If people just say ‘thoughts and prayers’ or put something like that on their Facebook page, but don’t give another thought to Uvalde, that’s not helpful.” Garza added that prayer can spur action. John Lira, a Catholic running for Congress in Uvalde’s district, said that while his faith was important to him, “Thoughts and prayers are not enough… We need thoughts and prayers and policies.”

Warren noted that the Christian tradition coming from monastic practice tells us that “prayer and work, contemplation and action, are held together and inform one another.” She continued, “I believe that through prayer, God sends us into the hard work of loving others, in action and in policy.”

In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, a couple of parents whose children were killed saw their mission to prevent such attacks and “to choose love, belief, and hope instead of anger.” As a result they co-founded Sandy Hook Promise Foundation a month after the killings. Today it’s easy to despair of being able to stop mass shootings in schools, but the success of the Sandy Hook Promise at schools across the country indicates otherwise. Nicole Hockley, CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, spoke at a press conference on May 26, and she warned about falling into a sense of hopeless because then, “you’re not going to take any action, and we need everyone to be leaning into the action.”

Sandy Hook Promise offer two major programs: “Start with Hello” for K-12 students, and “Say Something” for Grades 6 and up, based on research that shows that “most school shooters were bullied and that they left warning signs before committing atrocities.” “Start with Hello” is intended to help kids start conversations with other kids and recognize signs of social isolation. The program, which is being used across the country, has reached 8 million students. “Say Something” focuses on helping older students recognize warning signs and how to report that to school staff.

While Sandy Hook Promise only addresses one dimension of efforts to stop mass shootings, it is a promising start as caring citizens and politicians continue to seek additional answers.

Explore… Luke 11:1-13

What is prayer for you?
What haunts you?
When are you motivated to pray? What form does your prayer tend to take?
When has prayer helped you to see how to take some form of action?

Prayer…

Oh merciful creator, as we open our hearts and minds to feel your guiding presence, may we find ourselves able to be truly present with those who grieve and mourn. May we be bold to speak when boldness is required, compassionate when others would look away, prepared to stay the course when others would give up in despair. Amen.

Learn more…

From Sandra Rooney

Hear the news on any given day and there’s no denying there are plenty of serious concerns, often voiced with angry rhetoric, to distract as well as divide us. Jenny Rowland-Shea, deputy director for Public Lands at the Center for American Progress, says she and her colleagues are seeing a disturbing trend among some right-wing environmental activists in the United States and western Europe, whose underlying concept could be described as a violent defense of “a romantic, and racially white, image of ‘nature.’” Taken to its extreme, some have “explicitly embraced the label of ‘eco-fascism.’” Pointing to recent incidents, they found “the alleged perpetrator of the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, claimed this identify, as did those in the 2019 El Paso, Texas, and Christchurch, New Zealand massacres. Each blamed migrants, and people of colour in general, for denigrating nature, and claimed that killing to lower population numbers was helpful for the environment.”

As fewer people argue over whether climate change is real, there seems to be more debate about what humans can do about it. Over the years some have used doomsday narratives hoping to scare people into action. Particular emphasis on overpopulation can be traced back to 1968 and Paul Ehrlich’s bestselling book, in which he predicted that the growing number of people would lead to everything from global famine to world war. Betsy Hartmann, professor emerita of development studies at Hampshire College, while not wanting to diminish the urgency of the issues, suggests this kind of thinking may encourages people to “suspend their basic ethical frameworks.”

Most mainstream environmental groups have moved away from focusing on population growth. However, Jacquelyn Gill, paleo ecologist at the University of Maine, says the idea still comes up in conversation about climate, even though there is clear evidence that “fossil fuel use in wealthier, whiter countries has had a far greater climate impact than the number of people in any high-birthrate nation.”

“Despair is a key link between a growing global ultra-right movement and a fringe Eco-fascist environmentalist,” says Jeff Sparrow, who has written about the Christchurch massacre, saying, “Nothing good comes out of despair.” Meg Ruttan Walker, a climate activist based near Toronto, says instead of doom and societal collapse, people need to learn that concerted action can make a difference.

One place that is happening is high in the Himalayas, where the massive glaciers have shrunk many times faster over the past four decades than during the previous seven centuries, threatening agriculture and the water supply for millions of people across South Asia. In this area, one of the driest places on Earth, people depend on water trickling down from those glaciers, which scientists predict could disappear completely by the end of this century.

Sonam Wangchuk, a local educator/environmentalist and his students came up with a way to store water by freezing it during the cold months, keeping it frozen and slowing the pace of it melting. They are building stupas, so called because they resemble Buddhist monuments seen around the area. The stupas are built on a foundation of brush and branches, which help to freeze the water more quickly. Their low surface area keeps the sun from melting it. A pipe is put in upstream to bring the water down. At the stupa the water pushes up to the top where it splashes in the air. As it falls, it freezes on the brush. Stupas may be as much as 160 feet high and store millions of gallons water. In the spring the ice begins to melt, becoming streams, irrigating fields.

Wangchuk acknowledges that this is just a temporary solution to a much larger problem, saying, “Our call should become an SOS call for the bigger world out there. It’s because of their activities that we suffer, for no fault of ours.”

Explore… Luke 10:38-42

What do you imagine Jesus might have been saying to Mary and the others that day?
To whom do you listen to learn about the issues of the day?
Who helps shape the way you respond to critical issues?
What role does the faith community have in addressing critical issues?
Where do you see groups acting together to make positive changes?

Prayer…

We pray for wisdom to discern truth from fiction, for steadfast companions to light our way when we feel ourselves in darkness. May we see the promise in each new day. Amen.

Learn more…

From Sandra Rooney

I suspect we’ve all read about the challenges churches are facing as a result of the past two years of COVID-19, along with those related to the omnipresence of digital media shaping our lives. “Strangers Are Good for Us” was the title of a recent piece by David Sax on the Opinion page of The New York Times. While not a religious piece, Sax does note that, “Most religious faiths instruct us to welcome the strangers we encounter,” adding, “Engagement with strangers is at the core of our social contract.”

He begins and ends his column with the story of watching his young son at the playground and how easily he began playing with another child, with no thought as to whether he knew him. At the same time, these days, most parents will be busy with their smart phones or listening to something with AirPods in their ears, clearly not wanting to engage in friendly conversation. Scrolling through the news on his own phone, Sax read that what he called “a fast-casual” restaurant chain was experimenting with replacing cashiers with “virtual cashiers.” He was struck by how that was just another example of the way modern life keeps us “insulated from strangers.”

We used to have numerous occasions during our day when we would come into some kind of contact with people we didn’t know but whom we either simply acknowledged with a greeting or with whom we had a more extended conversation. Not today. Living in New York City, he said, he could easily go a week without actually speaking to anyone.

“It shouldn’t be this way,” Sax say, repeating, “Engagement with strangers is at the core of our social contract.” Even chance conversations with those we don’t know broadens our horizons. Anytime we ignore strangers, for whatever reason, Sax says we weaken that contract. Such interactions with strangers “connect us to the community, teach us empathy, build civility…”

Then Sax references Gillian Sandstrom, a senior lecturer at the Universality of Essex, who has been studying the significance of people who are outside our social networks. She has found that even the small, transactional relationships we have talking to strangers are important for our social and emotional well-being. Even though she’s an introvert, she forces herself to speak to strangers every day, because it enriches her life.

Sax goes on to say, “our recent aversion to strangers is a by-production of technological evolution,” which enables us to avoid much of the casual interaction that once was a normal part of our daily lives. And then COVID fears caused us to seek refuge in what that same digital technology offers, further separating us from strangers.

Sax closes his piece, going back to the playground, where he noticed the other father watching the children, who then goes over and asks his son who he is playing with. The child answers, “I don’t know his name, but he’s my friend.”

Days after Sax’s story, a Times back-page human interest story told of a general store in a small Montana town. Founded in 1900, it continues to this day to be an important fixture of the tiny town. Owner, 72-year-old Katy Martin seeks to stock just about anything anyone might want, from ranchers and miners to business people and other professionals. The store attracts locals and visitors from all over the country. “People feel comfortable coming here,” she said. “They stand in line and they talk. It doesn’t have to be about anything big. They share their stories and what is happening in their lives. That makes us more compassionate.”

Explore… Luke 10:25–37

What do you imagine the Samaritan’s motive for helping the stranger might have been?
When was the last time you spoke to a stranger? How did it feel?
When have you avoided speaking to or helping a stranger? Why?
Where does empathy come from, and the desire to help a stranger?
How do we build a truly caring community?

Prayer…

Oh, Merciful Creator, you made us to be in community, each different from the other and yet to love and care for one another. Help us to recognize our humanness in the other, in the stranger, and to be the change we would see in our world. Amen.

Learn more…

From Joan Kessler

Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-winning film Belfast tells the story of a middle-class family living through the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The story begins in August, 1969, and a nine-year old Buddy is playing in his quiet, close-knit street in Belfast. But the day has a dark and tragic end when a group of Protestant rioters come down the street with the message the Catholics are no longer welcome in the neighbourhood. Stores are looted and a car bombing detonates right in front of Buddy’s home. Buddy’s mother bravely rescues her sons from the scene.

Allegiances are drawn, neighbors struggle to protect their street, and Buddy’s mother is left to keep her sons out of gang life while their father works away in England. Buddy wonders and reflects with friends and family over the differences and polarities he is growing up with. The girl he likes in his class happens to be a Catholic and he wonders what kind of future would be possible.

The question that hangs over Buddy and is his family is whether to stay or to leave Belfast and join his father in England where he has a chance of a job promotion and a safe place. In one scene, the family attends a Sunday church service and the minister delivers a fire-and-brimstone message about the fork in the road of life. In one direction, a straight and narrow highway. “Which road will you take?” the minister demands of his congregants. Buddy spends much of the movie concerned over this existential question. He draws his own picture of a fork in the road, one path is labelled “good” and the other “bad.” He wakes his brother in the middle of the night and in a worried voice asks, “What road are we supposed to take? I can’t remember?”

Buddy’s wise grandparents, Pop and Granny, also reflect on the current turn of events in Belfast, aware their son wants to relocate his family to England where they will find safety and prosperity. But it is not a straightforward move for any of them. The ties to Belfast are strong and Pop comments that everyone is leaving home. Granny accepts this reality and responds that people have to move on. To this, Pop replies, “Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart … You don’t usually buy your wisdom with a walk in the park. Your heart just has to explode.”

Buddy’s father is being pressured by the local Protestant gang to lend his support to their violent cause, to which he resists. But another riot in the neighbourhood sees Buddy pressured to loot the local store, ultimately placing he and his mother in harms way. A standoff ensues between the leader of the gang and Buddy’s father. Pa (Buddy’s father) disarms the gang leader and Buddy and his mother are unharmed. Following this riot and the death of the grandfather, the family makes a decision about their future.

Explore… 2 Kings 5:1–14

To go or to stay? Have you experienced a “fork-in-the-road” dilemma? How did you decide which road to take?
Namaan, who suffered from leprosy, is disappointed by Elisha’s response to his disease. Have you experienced disappointment in the face of suffering?
Was Elisha’s response to Namaan’s request for healing a compassionate one? Why or why not?

Prayer…
God, sometimes the hardest person to be compassionate with is myself. When fork-in-the-road moments overwhelm me, may I draw on your Source for grace, care and compassion to make the best decision. Amen.

Read more…

Belfast: the movie spoiler

From Joan Kessler

In the early morning hours of December 23, 2021, a monument created by Danish artist Jens Galschiot to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre was removed from the University of Hong Kong campus. The Pillar of Shame depicts the agony and human suffering of the democracy protest that turned violent and saw thousands of students killed on June 4, 1989.

The sculpture was intentionally designed to create discomfort on the part of the viewer and to serve as a reminder of the cost of the pursuit of freedom and democracy. The twisted facial expressions convey the agony of Tiananmen Square and allow the artwork to stand as a constant reminder of this part of Hong Kong’s history. The removal of the Pillar of Shame was taken as an attempt to erase collective memory of the massacre but defenders of Hong Kong democracy say they will not be deterred.

Even before the removal of Galshiot’s monument to the tragedy, observing the June 4th anniversary was becoming increasingly restricted. The 30th anniversary of the massacre in 2019 was the last time it was marked in Hong Kong by a mass gathering in Victoria Park. In 2020, a national security law came into effect, essentially banning public gatherings in Hong Kong. COVID-19 restrictions were also cited as a reason for the discontinuation of public vigils in Hong Kong. Memorial church services traditionally held to commemorate the anniversary are no longer taking place out of fear of breaking the law. Taipei, Taiwan, has become the new centre for remembrance as it continues to resist China’s claims to sovereignty. There is a sense of renewed urgency to share the story of what happened at Tiananmen Square to ensure that this history is passed on and the last vestiges of freedom of speech and democracy are preserved. In a recent Globe and Mail story (Saturday, June 4/22) covering the turn of events in Hong Kong, Mabel Tung, chair of the Vancouver Society in Support of Democratic Movement, encouraged those who live in democratic nations around the world to “pick up the torch and make sure the flame of freedom and democracy remain burning.”

This week, we read that Elijah’s work as a prophet is winding down. Elisha, his young accompanier, is adamant that he will not leave Elijah’s side. In a miraculous scene, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separate the two of them and Elijah ascends to heaven in a whirlwind. But as he departs, Elijah’s mantle falls to the ground and Elisha picks it up. With the mantle in hand, Elisha asks, “Where is the God of Elijah?” He strikes the water before him on the bank of the Jordan and the water parts allowing Elisha to cross over. This story sees Elisha empowered to pick up the mantle and carry on the work Elijah started as a prophet.

As we remember this month the solemn anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the efforts of one regime to erase it from the memory of history, may we work alongside those who have been and continue to be tireless defenders of freedom and democracy.

Explore… 2 Kings 2:1–2, 6–14

How have you picked up the mantle and carried on the legacy left by a loved one? Was it a natural handover or did it you have to move out of your comfort zone?
What matters of justice and freedom, like Tiananmen Square, are in danger of being erased from history and our collective memory?

Prayer…

Holy One, may we never forget the gift of freedom and democracy so that we might be the voice of memory. Strengthen us to pick up the mantle of those who have gone before us and fought the fight for justice and truth. Amen.

Read more…

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