Canada

Shannon Perez, the CRC’s Justice and Reconciliation Mobilizer is leaving this team to become the Director of the Indigenous Family Centre in Winnipeg, MB.  The justice team at the CRC is deeply grateful for Shannon’s dedication, wisdom, and skill that she brought to reconciliation in the CRC.  We chat with Shannon about highlights from her time with the Canadian Indigenous Ministry Committee and what she’s looking forward to.  

June 20 is World Refugee Day, a day to honour the resilience and courage of refugees around the world and stand with them to show our support. This year, as we celebrate the contributions that people who were refugees have made to our communities, let us also acknowledge the barriers that the COVID-19 pandemic places on those seeking safety and protection. The pandemic has brought challenges to all of us and in particular to refugees abroad whose vulnerabilities have been exacerbated.

The path leads on to love,
And love is fearless in its ways,
For Love Himself was not afraid
To die that we'd be saved.

- The Way of Wisdom (Michael Card) 

On May 20th, the Climate Witness Project had the privilege of hosting a book talk with professor and author Finis Dunaway. His new book, Defending the Arctic Refuge: A Photographer, an Indigenous Nation, and a Fight for Environmental Justice, takes a look at how photographer Lenny Kohm’s grassroots advocacy alongside the Gwich’in people helped protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Recently I was asked “What caused you to care about the issue of human trafficking?”. It took me a second to respond. I heard about human trafficking for the first time when I was in the 9th grade. A woman came in and told us about what human trafficking is, how anyone could become a victim to it, the grooming tactics and how it was happening in places all around us. She told us it happens in areas near our homes and started listing off a bunch of popular places along with internet platforms.

"Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take." -Nehemiah 9:19

Have you ever witnessed the loud street preacher or self-proclaimed prophet, standing atop a soap box on a busy street corner? Their message could span a wide range, from the spiritual warnings of the future, to past misdeeds of people, to current displeasures with systems or governments. A group of friends and I have recently walked by one such gentleman and his particular message was promoting angry retribution for people who have committed particular crimes.

In memory of 215 Indigenous Children of Creator found in unmarked graves at a residential school in Kamloops BC, on the lands of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.

Jesus said, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. Matthew 19:4

The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth. - Isaiah 26:7 

This is an excerpt from a sermon I recently preached at the CRC’s Campus Ministry at the University of Toronto (my alma mater!).

Words spoken by the wise bring them favor, 

    but the lips of fools consume them.

The words of their mouths begin in foolishness,

    and their talk ends in wicked madness;

yet fools talk on and on.