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Refugees

Learn more on the Office of Social Justice or Centre for Public Dialogue website.

An Advent Challenge: What if Aleppo was my Home?

The last couple of weeks I’ve had a pretty trying wake-up call to the refugee crisis. Probably with Advent and U.S. Thanksgiving on the radar, God just wanted to say something to me about my contentment and entitlement or about my apathetic anticipation of Jesus’ slow return.

Books that Keep Me Hoping

When we turn on the TV or read the news online and in papers these days, we often find stories of injustices and violence in our own communities and around the world. With the brokenness around us, we long to hear more stories of hope, reconciliation, and redemption. Over the years I have read a few memorable books that have reminded me of the power of human spirit and displays of courage, compassion, strength, forgiveness, and resilience in the midst of tragedy and injustices.

Cautious Optimism on Budget 2016

Budgets are moral documents. They reveal to us the priorities of our government, especially with respect to the needs of marginalized people. They call us as Christian citizens to respond, whether with praise or constructive criticism.

Live Justly for Lent: for Busy Parents

“No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”   - John Chrysostom     

I have three children. I work full-time. I volunteer in several ministries at my church. I am busy. Busy. Busy. Busy. But I also know that as a Christian, I am called to make mercy and justice, advocacy and generosity, a way of life.

Tracing Refugee Journeys: From Nigeria to Italy

In late 2015 I had a chance to learn firsthand about this mass migration. I saw up close the forces pushing people to risk everything, the pull of Europe and the wealthy North, and the greed of those who profit from the migrant’s dangerous journey, taking desperate people’s money, their bodies, and sometimes, it seems, their souls in payment.

Our Top 10 Articles in 2015

It’s been a great year for Do Justice. Thanks for reading and learning along with us, as we wrestled with faith with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (Karl Barth)!

Advent: The Spiritual Work of Waiting

I’ve cried a lot this Advent. Watching video clips of Syrian refugees arriving in the Toronto airport gets me every time. (Watch this one from Vancouver. I dare you to stay dry-eyed.) I watch them with awe; I still can’t quite believe that Canada has done such a 180 degree turn and chosen to welcome more than 25,000 of these beautiful children of God.

The Blessing of my Refugee Friends

I first began volunteering as a mentor to refugees because I wanted to be involved in some kind of ministry that reached beyond the boundaries of my everyday life at home and through my church. Being a mentor fit well because I could work it around my schedule and it gave me opportunity to connect with needy people from different places in the world. I enjoyed helping those first families, and still call them my friends, but much of the blessing for me at that time came from the sense of accomplishment I felt about having helped someone. 

Worship Resources for Peace in a Time of Fear

In response to the San Bernardino shooting and increasingly hostile anti-Arab and anti-Muslim rhetoric, the Office of Race Relations and Office of Social Justice have collaborated on this litany and prayer. The litany is drawn from the Christian Reformed Church’s three confessions, the Contemporary Testimony (Our World Belongs to God), and one Ecumenical Faith Declaration (Belhar Confession).

Litany

People of God, from where does your hope come this day?

Advent Activities for the Refugee Crisis

I want to prepare for this advent season. I want to remember why I am a Christian. I want to recognize Christ in the suffering and the marginalized.

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