"You have a God who hears you, the power of love behind you, the Holy Spirit within you, and all of heaven ahead of you. If you have the Shepherd, you have grace for every sin, direction for every turn, a candle for every corner and an anchor for every storm. You have everything you need." -Max Lucado
On Easter Sunday Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc band who found 215 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in May of 2021signed a sacred covenant of reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver. The covenant is seen as a way to enact important steps of contrition according to Chief Rosanne Casimir. The covenant is an agreement over access to residential school records and archives as well as covenenting actions to memorialize children who attended the schools and provide healing services for families of loved ones who attended the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
We join in prayer for those in this covenant:
To the One who makes and always keeps promises, We join in prayer for those who signed this covenant. We pray for transparency and for the fulfillment promises made - including full access to records and archives. May we continue to take seriously the promises we make towards justice and be bound by the covenant of love and mercy You, God, hold us to. May this covenant be one of many that brings new life and restoration to our neighbours and to this land.
Rwanda is marking 30 years since the genocide within its borders that saw 800,000 Tutsi minority and Hutu moderates murdered in 100 days plus thousands more deaths in revenge killings and due to cholera in refugee camps outside of Rwanda. While Rwandans continue to pursue healing, reconciliation and political stability we join with them and pray.
Lord, we continue to pray with the people of Rwanda for the healing and restoration of their communities, families and country. We pray for continued awareness of the events of 30 years ago and join in the families of survivors in saying “never again.” In Rwanda, its neighbors and the countries of the world, may the paths of dehumanization and dominance be seen and dealt with long before violence is at hand. Lord have mercy.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Swiss government’s inaction on climate change violated the human rights of 2400 older Swiss women to a healthy life who brought the case to the court. This is a big case because it opens up the 46 countries of the European Council to similar charges brought against them because of lack of climate change.
Lord, our attempts at justice, accountability and righteousness pale next to the life you envision for your world. We pray that justice in the face of government inaction continues. And we pray that our leaders will be inspired to lead not because they are afraid of the legal consequences but because they are inspired by our common call to serve and keep this good creation. We pray that our hearts would not become hard to one another but would be soft in encouraging one another in love to enact climate policy that saves lives and livlihoods.
Thrive is thrilled to host a book discussion of A Body of Praise by W. David O. Taylor. This two-part conversation will begin on Thursday, April 18, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. We will be joined by Dr. Taylor, who will share a bit about his book and help us walk through some of the foundations of embodied worship. The second part of the conversation, to be cohosted by Katie Roelofs and Elly Boersma Sarkany, will happen later this spring (date TBD) and will focus on practical application for CRC churches. Learn more »
To learn more about the prayer item above read this blog from Patti Victor. On Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc signed “a sacred covenant” with the Roman Catholic archdioceses of Vancouver and Kamloops in ceremony. It outlines the historical record, will establish what the parties call shared truths and contain commitments to action in the future.
The Reformed family is a diverse family with a diverse range of opinions. Not all perspectives expressed on the blog represent the official positions of the Christian Reformed Church. Learn more about this blog, Reformed doctrines, and our diversity policy on our About page.
In order to steward ministry shares well, commenting isn’t available on Do Justice itself because we engage with comments and dialogue in other spaces. To comment on this post, please visit the Christian Reformed Centre for Public Dialogue’s Facebook page (for Canada-specific articles) or the Office of Social Justice’s Facebook page. Alternatively, please email us. We want to hear from you!
Read more about our comment policy.