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Why the Church Cares

Learn more about God's call to do justice as an integral part of Christian mission, vocation, and discipleship. Find out where the CRC stands on justice issues and the deep theology motivation those decisions.

Busting Myths About the Safe Third Country Agreement

The Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) has been receiving increased attention as Canada recently announced additional protocol that came into effect on March 25, creating significant barriers to those seeking asylum in Canada. The STCA is an agreement between Canada and the US that was implemented in 2004. The agreement between the two countries recognizes each other as a safe country and stipulates that asylum seekers must make their refugee claim in the first safe country they arrive in. 

God's Great Reversal

This year for Lent, my local congregation planned an overall theme titled, “God's Great Reversal.” In that spirit I chose to reflect on a subtext of reversal that I have experienced from emptiness to fullness… or how I have called it, glass half emptiness to an ongoing process of filling.

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Waiting at the Airport

December 9th, I took a circuitous route to the airport making some last minute pick ups. It was the usual dark and cold of winter in the B.C. interior. I traced my way through the lamp lit roads of the city following Siri’s voice directing me towards a friend’s parents’ house where I would dig a plastic bag out of a storage box. I hoped the neighbours wouldn’t be concerned given the late hour.  All day I’d been sending a flurry of texts trying to arrange a collection of winter coats of various sizes and ensuring the final set up of the apartment was finished.

Is our Help Making Partners or Beggars?

As part of DARC (Decolonization and Anti-racism Collective, the new name for the Canadian Advisory Committee on Antiracism), I was asked to talk with BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) people to hear their honest experiences with the CRCNA. I was honoured to talk with a brilliant woman who is a Doctor in Education and a Professor at the University of Alberta.

Beatitudes for a New Year

The calendar has turned, and so it is time (in the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem ‘In Memorium CVI’) to “ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky// the flying cloud, the frosty light: the year is dying in the night”.  It’s time, to quote the same poem, to “ring out the old, ring in the new”.

Tennyson’s poem suggests that the changing of the calendar can be an opportunity for change that has less to do with personal resolutions and more to do with ‘ringing in’ a more just, humane, and peaceable world.  As he ends the poem: 

The First Covenant

The first covenant made by my Haudenosaunee people and Europeans was with the Dutch in 1613. In 1609 Dutch explorer Henry Hudson “discovered” the Hudson River that flows from Henderson Lake in the Adirondack Mountains to New York City, New York. This city was originally called New Amsterdam in the early years of the Dutch colony. In the early 1600’s the Dutch were the leading colonizing power with colonies in places from North America to Taiwan.

The Lights of Advent - Candles and Kilowatt hours

On the first Sunday of Advent, our pastor spoke on the first eighteen verses of the gospel of John. It has many intriguing references to light and encompasses creation, the new creation and the source of life.

I am a strong believer in the amazing and complex interconnectedness of our life here on earth. For that reason, I sometimes have a difficult time analysing the challenges of creation care without trying to see how it fits together with things like material wealth/poverty and racism.

Prepare the Way for the Lord

“A voice of one calling, “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3, NIV)
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Go and Do Likewise

Recently, I had an opportunity to meditate on Luke 10:25-37, the passage on the Good Samaritan. Since I was commemorating the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, I read it from the Indigenous people and white settlers' relational lens instead of the first century Samaritans and Jews relational lens. When I read it through this lens, the parable spoke so much truth to our current reality and through this blog, I am sharing three insights that I was able to glean.

5 Words

If you had to pick 5 words that expressed who you are- your identity- what would they be? You may choose words like “woman”, “teacher” or “introvert” but what else?  What about the honest, raw words; words you may not want to admit to yourself?

What about “depressed”, if you struggle with depression. Or “unlovable,” if you’ve been abandoned by your partner. Or “Immigrant” or “refugee,” if you were from another country. These identities carry stigma, especially these days as we try to fit in. 

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