Canada

September 30th 2022 is the second time Canada will mark a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. It coincides with Orange Shirt Day, a grassroots commemoration marked by the wearing of Orange Shirts for children forced to leave their families and attend residential schools.

A Navajo Vacation Bible School (VBS) group stopped overnight at our Denver, Colorado church basement as they headed northward to conduct a VBS on another Reservation. Of course, on their return trip home, our church broke bread with the weary VBS group and the leader shared their VBS experience with this writer.    

"Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon." - Isaiah 58:10 (NLT)

Jacqui Mignault is one of the writers behind weekly Do Justice prayers. As a pastor, she talks about what it’s like to practice bringing current events before God. If you’ve ever wondered how to acknowledge current events in worship, this is the episode for you.

If you spend enough time with those dedicated to addressing the urgent issues of our time, you will eventually hear that we need to get people to ‘pay attention’.  Whether you and your friends are urging your city council to curb urban sprawl, encouraging your church to dedicate funds to alleviate global hunger, or organizing your school to take action against racial injustice, it’s easy to lament that nobody is noticing what’s going on.  Nobody is seeing what’s going on!  We need to get people to look and see what’s happening!  How can we get people to pay attention? 

Lead, kindly Light, amid the gloom of evening.
Lord, lead me on! Lord, lead me on!
On through the night! On to your radiance!
Lead, kindly Light! 

- John Henry Newman

Another summer of extreme heat, wildfires, drought, and flooding events around the world may have you and your church more concerned than ever about climate change. The CRCNA’s Climate Witness Project offers resources, events, and projects to help churches explore our role as people called by God to help heal a suffering earth. If your church is ready to go deeper, you might join Christians around the world this fall in observing the Season of Creation. 

On a warm Sunday evening in downtown Thorold, a young couple and their two girls walked down the street.  Suddenly, the smell of dinner caught their nose. They peeked inside the school door only to be welcomed and invited to stay for a meal. They met new people and ate their fill. To their surprise, this gathering had been organized by a Christian group called a “missional community.” That’s what our church plant, The Table, calls ourselves: a missional community.

On August 21, 2022 the CRC celebrates its annual opportunity to reflect on justice and what it means for our lives. Designated by Synod 2017, this date will mark a fifth annual, denomination-wide, Day of Justice and encourages church members to experience unity as a denomination as we consider the meaning of Biblical justice, lament injustices in our world, and commit to the transforming work of standing alongside people whom society oppresses and pushes to the margins.