News from the Field

While at a church planting conference in Montreal, I was able to explore the city for a day. I visited some drop-ins for those experiencing homelessness and, while eating lunch, I met a man. He was a true Montrealer whose family was from Ecuador. His head was adorned with long, curly hair; his body was adorned with style. He wanted to give me a tour of the city while on his bottle-picking route. I decided to take him up on his offer. We walked together for the day and I was able to experience the city from a powerful perspective – its hidden underside. 

Lately I’ve been wondering if Mary, mother of Jesus, would have been installed as a deacon if there was a CRC church at that time? I’m a big fan of how thought experiments can help us be more curious and explore the mysteries of our faith.  At the heart of my wondering, I would not focus on issues of Mary’s  place in the culture but focus more on her heart and her actions.

Among the young, there is a growing shift towards feelings of hopelessness about our planet’s future. This despairing fear is being termed “eco-anxiety.”  Writing for Vice.com, Marc-Aurèle Baly describes it as, “...the anticipation of a vague danger, a sort of fear without an object which leaves us unable to react in an articulate manner.” This overwhelming feeling of impending doom is leading to depression, apathy and despair. 

The Arabic phrase Allahu Akbar might be literally translated as “God is the greatest.” It is an expression we often hear in the American media devoid of any theological significance and as a trope to justify discrimination against Muslims and Islamic believers in God (Allah). And yet - for many religious Muslims - it is simply a reminder that God is in control and worthy to be praised. 

“Some neighborhoods, at any given time, can be up to 22 degrees hotter than other neighborhoods.” -Cheyenne Flores, Philadelphia Office of Sustainability

Most of us take for granted that we will enter a dark room and can flick on the lights, that our homes will be warm in winter, that we will look out the window of a car and watch the world go by. We just assume that the energy needed to make those things work will always be there. But the energy sources are changing.

The first time I sat in a Cree circle I was just fifteen years old. The Cree Elder did not present a ‘woe is me’ argument against white people for his young audience, rather, he spoke of the equality of all the nations as depicted on the medicine wheel. The medicine wheel portrays four colors: red, yellow, black (sometimes depicted as blue or green depending on the beliefs of the nation), and white that represent the equality of the four nations of the global population of humankind.

In the early hours of the morning on February 6th, a powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked south-eastern Türkiye (Turkey) near the Syrian border, killing hundreds of people as they slept, injuring thousands more, and reducing five-storey buildings to piles of rubble. A few hours later, another earthquake with a magnitude of 7.5 hit the region causing even more heartbreak and damage. These two earthquakes have been followed by more than one hundred smaller aftershocks.

Dylan Roof wanted to start a war. On June 17, 2015, Roof felt his white race was losing the battle in maintaining white Southerner’s way of life where black people knew their place. He had to find a way to wake up the rest of white America about this growing threat. He had to find a target that would trigger the race war he wanted and begin taking America back from the people unworthy in his eyes.  Author Jennifer Berry Hawes described Charleston, South Carolina was the perfect place to start the new war between the races.

Enjoy this look back at the top Do Justice articles written in 2022 (ranked by top pageviews).  It was a big year for us to be reading and praying about justice and you’ll see themes of this year in all of our top articles.  It is our hope and prayer that these articles blessed you and moved you to new action.