I was blessed to be apart of the majority of learning/educational Passover last night, with the songs, the food, the stories, traditions and contemplative questions. As I reflected I began to build out in my mind and heart that we tend to misunderstand burden. The concept of release from burden when one is a caregiver sets us up to have interrupted or repressed grieving. For those unaware unprocessed grief can create the same mental, emotional and physiological responses as PTSD, even a misdiagnosis and mistreatement.
Why is this in mind? Well, I have played a role as caregiver with other relatives like my Mum and Dad, with various relatives. Though in the moments, and at that time in history it was and is being family. Though over time and even then, when the caring ended, as the loved one transitioned to the next adventure (as we would explain to my kids, the great tea party), some things always perplexed or landed wrong.
Yes it was emotionally draining, rolling with emotions and new experiences. Seeing my loved Granddad struggle physically with his emphysema. My Nan, who began to see the effects of dementia. My Granmda with her falls, and then in hospital in the last days where her mind had regressed to a point in time in history where I was no born, so I was either my uncle or cousin, but I still got to have time with her and show her love. With each of them. With my Mum as she journeyed towards the end with breast cancer, and her own mental health struggles. Same thing, it was hard emotionally.
But then the phrase, the essence being, “while isn’t it wonderful it is over” or “think of how much better things will be now”. Sentiments echoed with my own son.
Yet, NO.
It was time spent. It was time together. Yes, if our society did not have systemic issues of emotional constipation around chronic conditions. Emotional phobia of death. Perhaps these journeys would be more supportive by all. If our governments did not see citizens as the enemy and fight against supports or enforce constant cycles of advocacy to prove personhood… Yeah, caregiving is hard emotionally but it is being family. What breaks one’s spirit, heart and yes body, is the constant fighting with the world crafted by those elected that do no see the one with the chronic condition as person. That is the true draining.
And then because we are to see this work of caregiving (not the advocacy and systemic “isms” and prejudices as the burden) we are to be gladdened when the life is lost and grieving should be nicely wrapped up as the employer dictactes (no longer than 3 paid days if in Calgary, or 5 outside of town), and it better fit the description human resources provides as kin, God help you (and yes that is intentional, not blasphemous) if you family functions differently.
So as I reflect on my journey of family, as caregiver, my own chronic conditions. The support and story of loss, and what is reflected. I know the release, of unrepressed grieving. Of letting the tears flow anew, to understand that the burden was not the caring, and time with the loved one. The burden is what our systems create for proper care and support of professionals and ensuring those systems are properly equipped.
I encourage the caregivers, the personal ones, let us raise our voices. Let us push for proper caregivers allowances to reduce the systemic burden, to allow for our time with loved ones to exist so we can continue to care and together thrive.
Let us raise our voices for government to get out of the meta-fallacy-myth that citizens are out to defraud the system, and use the fact checker of the CRA at the end so that thriving can happen for those we care for.
Let us raise our voices, and stop the politicos and the populists and the anger mob from shaping the faux ballot box questions and direclty speak to those running and not accept the non answer anymore.
Let us raise our voices, and admit the burden that is being released in loss is constantly fighting for our loved ones to be seen as person.
Let us raise our voices, and celebrate the extra time we have had.
Tuesday April 16, 2024 @ 7 p.m., come and join speaker, passionate advocate and worker for reconciliation Mizze Walker at Knox United in Calgary, details and where to RSVP below
Whether it is my pre-19 year old return to the church life of justice & peace work or simply my political journey, or my post-19 return to church life that saw formation within the Franciscan charism, and a leaning to the calling of diaconal ministry, which is justice and education. One thing has always been being a provocateur for change for the better of the person and community. One tool we have for this is story, those who get it (like Jesus’ parables) get it and act, those that don’t (like Jesus said the purpose of the parables is) will still be lost and confused.
Doctor Who’s 60th annviersary regeneration of the Fourteenth Doctor, with the returning face of Ten, shows us two things (there are probably many, but we’ll keep it focused). The first is the end of an ableist trope in society, and the other, is showing the zero-sum that is the patriarchy system.
What is the ableist trope? In the Children in Need episode before the three episode 60th anniversary season, titled Skaro. The lead Dalek, who has always been shown as disabled, using a wheel chair, that equates to evil (think of villains with the hooked hand, badly scarred, of the fallacy that those with schizophrenia are violent even though they are more likely to be abused). The episode changed the story for Skaro to not be a wheel chair user, and the eruption of the implicit ableist bias of evil being challenged triggered those that fall within the hate category under the guise of why change or sci-fi was never “woke”; all stories challenge societal norms for growth, change and understanding. The X-Men have always done this, before succumbing to the ableist trope with Professor X becoming the villainous Onslaught in the 1990’s, he was a wheel chair user and a hero. In the 60th anniversary episodes of Dr. Who, a Unit lead was a wheel chair user, and bad ass heroic.
The second, being within the first episode, so was 10 not only back as 14, the other piece was the favourite companion, Donna, returning. She who had taken in the power of the Time Lords, and if she remembered would die. In the Star Beast, Donna and the Doctor re-connect to offset an invasion, it is a fun story reminiscient of the dynamic of 10 and Donna, reinvented with 14 and Donna as they try to accomplish the feat without Donna remembering. But she does, yet doesn’t die? What is discovered in the climatic piece, is that Donna, and her daughter had shared the power. The shattering of the zero sum, patriarchal way of society. Challenging the rugged individual, pull yourself up by your own boot straps, all success and power is your own– that which was viewed into Donna taking the power in, and would have destroyed. Yet here the story was flipped, power was shared, and then to save life– was freely given away to allow thriving…
Hmmm….
See the power of story. Yes I encourage you, lean into your stories, shows, movies. Dune Part 1 & 2, think it through what does it say about capitalism? About control and power? Value of person over product? How is value and a monetary system really determined? Yes, I am awaiting the return of Part 1 to a streaming service I subscribe to (looking at you Crave) so I do not have to pay an extra fee to rent. Though there is also something to be said about physical media.
Take time to understand the stories you enjoy. Take time to discuss with others. To go beyond the surface, if we could simply go beyond the surface our world may change for the better.
Whew, it has been awhile since I have posted an ecclectica. For long time followers of my almost 40 years of writing/publishing will remember this as an early 2000’s e-letter that started out to explore exclusively politics and in the run of various blogs and other publications has become a catch all for thoughts (though the justice/politics is still present).
Former PM Kim Campbell (first female PM of Canada), called out Pollievere’s character as a small time hate monger (many will remember the turn of the election for her 2 seats, being the Chretien face ad), though this far out from an election will it have the same impact as former PM’s Joe Clark’s better the devil I know comment that delivered a Martin-Liberal minority?
Former Calgary Mayor, Nenshi, when asked if he would run for the leadership of the Alberta NDP, made the quip that he was going to trade the purple for orange as he has accepted the role of assistant manager of the Orange Julius at Marlborough Mall. The outrage from the usual suspects in the ANDP around hidden misogyny, shows that since 2004 when I was pointing it out to them, they still do not understand the humour, culture or diversity of the NE of Calgary, and they continue to perpetuate their false paradigm to their detriment seat wise.
Alberta is suffering from the 2 party state mentality and having toxic hatred populism drive removal of minority rights, and loss of life does not matter to them. This is the governing party that equated death during a pandemic on the social capital individuals had. Social capital, is simply what value in the economy you have so those who don’t work full time, those who are old or draw benefits from the government, or access public services (like schools for instances) have low social capital. Another meta-myth, conservative populists have inflicted upon citizens is the idea that government funding works like a person’s bank statement. It does not, all the debits on a government statement have intangible connections to credit.
Simply put, Universal Basic Income, is a must for sustainability, creativity and a disruption of the gig economy that perpetuates health issues due to stress and lack of rest.
Just some things to think about, in the last Alberta budget, public post secondaries are only receiving 42% of funding from Alberta, 58% is to be raised by other means including fees and tuition increases, post secondary is being crafted to be like in America, something only the wealthy (not those that have the passion and experitse for the roles) can pursue. Oh and as the voucher system from the Southern US is further inflicted upon our K-12, with the budget line coming up a sa 4.8% decrease in funding per student. But aren’t you happy the private school charging between 5-25,000 a year tuition, plus a mandated fundraising amount, also qualifies for full per-student funding? The Alberta Advantage, only province that does this.
And how is privatized insurance for your car and house going for you?
Shall we talk of the wound the Klein era government inflicted upon us with deregulations of utilities? How many households can’t qualify for the fixed rates due to bad credit as we are the most debt ridden populace in Canada? When they say 1 pay cheque away from homelessness, most are paid twice a month, let that settle in. And now the carbon tax is not the most expensive part of the bill, remove all those other fees caused by deregulation and privatization (cause of the market and choice don’tcha know) and now how much is your bill? Keeping in mind, California (An American state) ended this fiasco, and Klein and company still went forward with it.
Corporate tax rates? Here’s the thing, most corporations are small businesses. So an 8% rate aides them. Small businesses incorporate to limit personal liability (creditors can’t take your own stuff, just the companies). We can create a sliding scale just like income tax, where based on profits is what the corporation pays, from 8% to 45% (A wal-mart, loblaws level profits), which aides in solving revenue streams. This can then be used for the Heritage Fund (or what has probably become a politico slush fund), and robust investment in progressive and comprehensive housing, health, and education that draws most businesses.
As we traverse this world, since 2016 we have seen hatred arise once again. Yes it has always been there, but we really let it go mainstream, and become a credible alternative discussion point. That is on us, watch 12 angry men on Tubi, see how they handle the racist juror 10. It is time to tell them to sit down, and shut up. The rise of anti-semitism, queer hatred and Islamic hatred is unconsciouble, and needs to end. Oh yes, these are hatreds not phobias, it is not an irrational fear so some lawyer can make excuses for your actions in court (think back to the Ricki Lake trial, or the early days following 9-11 where even the racists claiming “islamophobia” couldn’t tell a Muslim from a Sikh, from an Italian in most or all cases), it is pure hatred, watch caused the rise of facism in Italy and Germany before World War II.
Oh, and what about the Alberta Goverment (UCP) telling AHS not to link to safe sex and sexual health information on social media? Syphillis epidemic, opioid poisonings, gonorhea and chlyamedia that have become treatment resistant, teen pregnancy… but who needs information even though a robust sexual health education with access to contraceptives has shown to reduce costs to the health system, reduce abortions (which populist Christian Nationalists, or the white supremacist, are always going on about), and increase engagement in society.
What is up with AISH??? We are in 2024, and spouses (married or common law) still cannot qualify based on spousal income. This is atrocious, what does this set up the other for in regards to neglect and domestic violence? Or even not going their, just personal ability to engage in society and economy, we are a world designed to have dual incomes in family households by capitalism but when it comes to the government we haven’t left an idealized upper middle class WASP myth.
What groups will be targetted to cement hate fuelled populism? Trans folks, disabled folks, temporary foreign workers– has one been missed?
Don’t you miss the days when populsim brought about positive things like universal health care, women’s rights, safe sex, LGBTQ rights, human rights and labour rights to name but a few (oh and an end to child labour, but we have to forget that one in Alberta where a 12 year old can work without parental consent, and there is no law around how young a child can be left alone at). Or when social conservative populists created ideas for credit and universal basic incomes (what was social credit at its core?) or the royalty formula because they did not see resources such as oil and gas a the government’s or the corporations, but the citizens (royalty formulas were devastated under the Klein government, and we have continued to pander to the corporation not the citizen since).
March 29, 2024 at 7 p.m. at St. David’s United Church there will be a benefit concert in support of Amigo Relief Missions ongoing work supporting the Ukraine.
Every time one plans a service, then the Holy Spirit shows up, the Land Acknowledgement becomes clearer and speaks of Mokinhstis, I am able to share of my Metis son with complex needs aiding in preparing the wreath and laying the wreath at their own ceremonies of Remembrance, share my learnings from the Indigenous Canada course that in WWI the largest ethnic group to serve for Canada, was Indigenous Folxs, and have the offeratory, go with the rhythm of the Hebrew Wisdom Poetry (can you guess the turn being noodled?). As always offeratory prayers, the prayer during the time of Remembrance, and the benediction were Holy Spirit moments as a fixed time and place, and are not recorded here. Here are the notes where it began, and the form the service took (please note the youtube song, only had a line quoted it was not played during the service, I included it here in case you had not heard it).
Remembrance Sunday
Nov. 12, 2023
Centennial Presbyterian Church
Entry of the Word
Welcome
Taanshi, Oki, Amba’wastitch, Danit’ada, Tân’si, Welcome to Centennial Presbyterian Church on this Remembrance Day Sunday honouring Indigenous Remembrance Day from November 8 and Remembrance Day from Nov. 11, we pause to honour veterans of Canada, as our nation did yesterday and on Nov. 8.
I am Dr. Ty Ragan, a local instructor at various post secondaries, and as we begin would like to acknowledge that we are gathered here on Treaty 7 lands of the first peoples, that the North American Stone Henge 100 kilometres east of Calgary, shows us that for over 5200 years have gathered here for ceremony, trade, and community. We honour those first peoples, from the Metis Region 3, and the Blackfoot people the Tsuu Tinna, Iyahxe Nakoda, Siksika.
We know that we have benefited unfortunately from colonialisim, and authentically enter into the creation of the new as we hold the truth of the genocide, and steps forward in seeking to understand, to heal, and to transform as our service, and our teachings of Jesus today will show.
I encourage each of you, to take time to explore and learn our nation’s history, the proud, and the shameful, and over coffee and treats at the end of service to discover new and old friendships as we continue to journey together.
Please join me in the call to worship…
Call to Worship
Leader: Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;
All: Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood, as to understand; To be loved, as to love; For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.
Time of Praise:
1) SB 36 This Little Light of Mine
2) SB 129 Peace Like a River
Prayers:
God, we admit we miss the point.
We get lost in polarization, labels, and wanting to be right. We exist in a world that has weaponized religion, and your holy name to do atrocities. In our own story, of genocide, where we not only lived in the tension of profiting from war, but also from using conscription to further a political-religious agenda of conversion, assimilation and genocide for Indigenous veterans, who lost ability to return home after service, and then due to the Indian Act were not permitted to access supports from the Legion…left, as we discovered in Winnipeg in 1960 to literally freeze outside in the harsh winter.
We have turned our backs on veterans as a nation, as we allow flags of hatred to fly, and words of hatred, destruction to be voiced. As we lose ourselves in being right, or other siding everything, we forget that the holocaust took 13 million lives, and this was tapping into the darkest recesses of humanity. To cope, we continued our global colonization, and took another’s land, that has perpetuated tensions, war, and now, genocide between Israel and Palestine.
We get lost that those governments that perpetuate genocidal acts are not their citizens who suffer the repercussions, we get lost that terrorist organizations are not the people.
And all these atrocities clothed in Stars of David, Crescents, or Crosses, are not you or your teachings, even though your holy writings can be seen as texts of violence, we miss that from those times forward new ways have emerged, new tensions, clarity of commands to love.
We admit that we have sent off our young to war, and then forgotten them when they got home, elected those who were more annoyed that they came back, rather than giving a heroes’ conclusion.
This is one side of war we know of, and we live into, and allow to still flourish in our world, even though we rally yearly shouting lest we forget, and never again.
May those words be etched into our world and heal the hatred.
May we remember, may we never again turn a blind eye to atrocities here in our history, in our now, in our world where our peacekeepers have served and are serving….
As we pray how your beloved son taught us…
Lord’s Prayer
Assurance of Pardon
In the vote to enter World War II, two pastors of the gospel held in debate and tension that which may rest on our hearts. One wanted to stop abominable evil, the other say the abominable evil of the profit of corporations and the culling of the poor (which students at our local high school feel when the armed forces come hard recruiting at graduation time).
Yet in this tension, allowing prayer for your holy wisdom to enter into seeing beyond a simple binary of true or false, may we see through your Son’s heart, may we hear with his mother’s heart, may we know that in the midst of decisions, we make the best decision possible with the information available in the hear and now. And it is the right one then, and it is an impossibility of time to look back with our knowledge today and judge yesterday’s choice for that is what perpetuates shame and harm to self. Yet today’s wisdom shall change our world, and we will live into the tension of peace, and continuing to be the light that confounds the darkness from the immortal poetic words of the community of John, in his gospel, and drive that darkness back out.
Let that little light of ours shine.
Amen.
Announcements – Elders
Church Family Celebrations- Elders
Children’s Time: Time of Remembrance
Prayer
Last Post
Moment of Silence
Reveille
Hymn:
SB 254 Change My Heart O God
Scripture
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Matthew 5:1-12
This is the word of the Lord,
Thanks be to God.
Sermon
A Time of Blessing?
The beatitudes open up a time of teaching for Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew it is known as the Sermon on the Mount, in the Gospel of Luke, it takes a woe form and is the sermon on the Plain. Yet, we look at both in simplistic terms but when you listen deeper those in the blessed situations are actually in tension, in internal and external conflict, that if we are truly human, we would like to admit we want to avoid.
They are harder to connect with, than the ancient wisdom teachings in Ecclesiastes, who some say is Solomon, who in this morning’s poem prayer, shows us there is seasons of life that create the same tension. It is these seasons and blessings, we need to ponder and wonder, if these are truly blessings?
Taking a moment, to share through our own stories, as I share, take time to ponder your own stories that may intersect with these 4 passages:
A time for war
Canada differentiated itself from Great Britain on the world stage in World War I as the best shock troops in the world, Vimy Ridge was an example, we charged first and won. We lost many. Back home, conscription became the clarion call for separation by Quebec for having to swear an oath to a King they did not hold loyalty too. Conscription also became another tool of colonization, as Indigenous who were drafted or chose to serve, did not have a home to come back to as they could not return to reserve, they lost their status, and the Royal Canadian Legion would not serve them or help them, that came to a head in 1960 with one freezing to death in Winnipeg.
War saw many go and serve. My family members were among them, leaving farms and cities, some would never come home. We celebrated, as a nation at the end of the Great War, never to happen again. As the rise of darkness in Germany of Nazism, there was tension, many capitalists saw war as a means out of the great economic depression, eugenicists saw it as a means to cull the poor as they always have through conscription (just look at the levels of conscription, or how armed forces target lower income multi cultural neighbourhoods in Calgary high schools).
My Granddad was in the Signal Corps from Alberta via Montreal to Europe; my Grandpa and Great Uncle were on continent in the air force. Across the pond, my Great-Granddad Lewis served with honour in the Sherwood Foresters in World War I, and when his sons answered the call, he went in World War II as well, to which my Great-Granny was known, “well you bloody well know he thinks they can’t win without him, blooming idiot”.
My Nan, in England during the bombing, would share how they would go to the dancehalls, so at least when the bomb would kill them, they would die happy and with what loved ones were left, and how as the planes would return, they would count to see how many neighbours would be in mourning. She would watch the training, but due to shortages, soldiers being shipped out would learn to shoot a rifle using a broom handle.
Just some anecdotes as we ponder war and know that we currently have child soldiers from wars around the globe in our city shelters. We take time to acknowledge what is an is not a war, how long before Korea went beyond simply a police action? Did you know Canadian pilots were in Vietnam? The 6-day war that we are seeing play over and over, the Cold War, which had hot conflicts, the First Gulf War. Bravery to stay out of the invasion of Iraq. Friends and my own classmates off to Afghanistan, some came and were carried to final rest, some whose bodies only returned. To watch as the evil fought against years later would be handed the keys to the country, and the Taliban would continue the femicide unabetted.
Libya where it is fine for the rules to be thrown out, as Doctors without Borders hospitals are bombed by a superpower, a neighbour.
Russia invades Ukraine.
Hamas is conflated with Palestinians, yet the terrorists win, as the Israeli government moves to claim the final piece of land 2 million live on that is probably no bigger than the Properties of NE Calgary, and Israeli and Palestinian citizens die, over half of the population’s children. Fuelled by hatred.
A hatred that World War II was fought in Europe to stop, that claimed over 13 million in the final solution, multiple births, Jewish, LGBTQ and the disabled. Atrocious deaths and experimentations, that we took the results of to continue forward. Will we now stand as they march in our own capitals and streets?
It is a time of war…
Lest we forget, will we ever truly know peace?
A time for peace
In the last few years, we have opened our homes, communities, and borders to refugees of conflicts, wars and genocides across the globe. In my own family story, as with many, war brides and war husbands came across the pond at the end of World War II, my Nan shared that she left home, with 50 quid in case her husband was not there, or she didn’t like Canada to come back after the journey. Our world in times of peace, can appear to be smaller than our false borders share, but do we allow for the healing?
Brad Paisley and John Fogerty have a song, Love and War, with many prophetic lines, but this one continues to ring in my ears and heart: they send you off to die for us and forget about you when you don’t.
My Great-Granddad, who fought in both great wars, then had to go to war with his own government, for what? That’s right, to care for veterans, because well, they made the error of coming home.
I was honoured in my decades of street ministry to carry on this family legacy, and learn how we care for veterans in Canada, and yes, it is a constant battle still. There was a five-year term where we gave up on lifetime care and shifted to a lump sum pay out.
I was able to connect many veterans with support in time of peace and not just Canadian, but allied nations. Did you know that in Canada you will be supported as soon as you sign the papers to join the armed forces? Pension is based on time in, but medical is there? Did you also know that if you were an allied nation in the war or peace keeping our government will provide care up to the level your government will care for you, and then bill your government?
Peace time though is also a time when we analyze data. Did you know the concept of first-person shooter games was developed after analyzing kill shots of the enemy in World War II, and realizing most kills were not intentional? Did you read the declassified in 2015 McGill CIA brain wash experiments on Canadian Air Force personnel, were they brainwashed then sought to see if they could undue. 60% success rate, my grandpa was among the 40% that was not undone.
We say never again, and lest we forget, yet hatred has resurged. We watch horrors overseas. We know simple ways to stop radicalization, yet we say it costs too much. We honour those that gave all with it costs too much to invest in your communities, and your descendants to ensure this never happens again.
It is a time of peace…
For Blessed are the peacemakers…
The iconic blue helmets of the United Nations, the high school across the parking lot bears the Prime Minister’s name, Lester B. Pearson. It took us far to long as a nation to recognize peacekeepers as veterans.
Much like the hospital symbol no longer holds safety in the rules of war, so to, does the blue helmet no longer mean safety.
Caught in the genocide of Bosnia, formerly Yugoslavia, in the late 1990’s, Canada contemplated conscription once more, and an inter-faith prayer meeting was held at a local Calgary college, as we realized friends in the armed forces were going, and that we would be next.
Rwanda, a colonizers nightmare showing the true horror of the practice, as the blue helmet did not protect, 8 held the line. Senator, and retired General Romeo Dallaire shared the atrocities witnessed in his book and documentary Shake Hands with the Devil, I was honoured to hold space with him at the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness Conference in 2016 as he shared about the man that did not fully come home and the road back.
Perfecting as a nation training special forces, assassins, and equipping others.
Selling arms to nations who do not believe all are equal.
Dealing with allies’ backlash, when our Government said NO to the coalition of the willing to invade Iraq, in what media calls Gulf War II.
ICROSS Canada, was a medical aid wing, I was blessed to support, who was retired peacekeepers from Bosnia, working with ICROSS International, to take what we considered unusable and repurpose in the 2/3 world.
Peacekeepers, watching as we forget. As those that held the line pass away. As monuments in Ottawa only 2 years ago were desecrated by Canadians.
Friends.
Saying their final prayers. Holding space with families.
Being a pall bearer for my Granddad, as he was laid to rest in the field of valour, when I was 16…
The first in that long walk…
I wish, and hope one day, I could say the last.
Blessed is the peacekeepers?
For they will be called children of God.
In grade 2, I was part of something amazing, a children will lead moment, in the tension of the Cold War, on Remembrance Day, Rundle schools wrote to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, US President Reagan, and Russian President Gorbachev, and then we walked out of class calling for an end to the arms race.
Mulroney and Gorbachev heard us, Gorbachev even invited a few students from NE Calgary to meet with him when he was in Calgary.
Will you simply forget, as we lower the last veteran into the field of valour?
Or seek out your children of God moment in challenging the status quo of our world?
Amen.
Offering
Dedication of the Offering
BP 663 God whose Giving Knows No Ending
(Tune: Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken)
Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession
The Holy Mystery, of Creator, that on the day we exited the Garden, you blessed us within this pain by giving us each other and creation to care for. We know that there is the horror of war, and the tension and work of peace. We pray for our King, Charles, Our Governor General Mary, our Prime Minister, Justin, Our Premier, Danielle, Our Mayor, Jyoti who live in this tension, and with the aftereffects of conflict within our communities. We pray your light, your wisdom to guide the world out of the current darkness fuelled by rage, and fear of change.
We pray for political guidance, to move out of hatred in our own province and our neighbour Saskatchewan who are placing children at risk, children that our veterans have fought for, and given much, so that they could be who they were created to be. The opportunity each of us has been blessed with, and now we are actively seeking to remove. Let us remember…what blessings this day honours in the darkness of loss.
We honour, encourage, and may we be brave enough to join the voices against hatred. May we see beyond the simplicity that conflict can be painted as, to see who truly suffers. May our voices and actions silence the audiology of hate in our land of the honk honk of convoys; see HH and 88 and shun; call on all levels of government to make the Swastika an illegal symbol as it flies to freely in our province and city. May our courage stand and speak against queer hatred that we mistakenly call a phobia, same with Islamic hate, antisemitism, racism, sexism; ableism, and the stereotypes that fuel them.
May we know and push back into the darkness the rise of neo-Nazism in the forms of Three Percenters, Sons of Odin, Take Back Alberta, MAGA, Pure Bloods, Convoy and Proud Boys to name but a few.
May we have the bravery of those who served, to stand with the citizens of Palestine and Israel, with Ukrainians, Sudanese, and those lost in war, invasions, and genocides today as our world has too soon forgotten what we state we will never forget.
May our courage extend to live into the blessing, it can be its own beatitude, of decolonization, knowing the truth of genocide here in Canada, and living to change the present and future as a church, as a community and as a country as we enact and go beyond the calls to action for reconciliation.
We pause for a moment, to remember all those lost in war, in peacekeeping, in peace time, in our own story of the journey with…
In a moment of quiet, we pray for those who need comfort, who grieve, who are healing, who needs us to be the light in their lives…
We seek to understand, we seek to love, we are thankful each day for our blessings, let us not forget the horrible cost they have come at and ensure those that sacrificed are honoured by continuing in the light, and not falling back into the abyss.
Amen.
Special Music:
A moment to honour the founding of the Cameroon Presbyterian Church
Readers of the site, know of Bruce Callow, I used to build communities with, an educator, musician and storyteller. He has shared his faith journey and science here, his time in Poland as well, and a few fundraisers he has been involved with to help Ukraine during Russia’s illegal invasion, there are two opportunities coming up (use the QR code to donate even if you can’t come) in Calgary with music:
It has been a bit slower of a week (and I hope I do no jinx myself, though the fill in work has been nice to keep living life). As such I was able to actually look at my microcredentials with applying for full-time/tenure roles and ensure they were all up to date (anyone ever feel we are being set up for death not by a thousand paper cuts, but by a thousand micro-credentials?) but I digress philosophically, one thing I realized is I had completed Indigenous Canada 2 possibly three times (it was used as hours for a pandemic practicum cycle at least twice) but never had purchased the certificate, and wouldn’t you know I had lost the ability to get onto the coursera account I used to have, so this week, I have dove back in.
Taking in, with one teaching role that sees each week students bringing forward what they are learning in their own process of reconciliation and decolonization brings to light that this is work, thankfully, not just within community services, but within all of Canada. As well, ties well into a Medicine Wheel day workshop I took that walked through the history as well in alignment with pulpit work I am doing.
So I wanted to share and encouage all to engage, the first link from YouTube is actor Dan Levy’s discussions on the course, and the link following that is for the free course ($67 for the certificate):
It is a type of service I hold in tension. Remembrance Day. Reverance and honour for those that serve, and have given so much to enjoy freedoms.
Knowing how hollow lest we forget and never again have rang in our hearts since World War II and the Holocaust.
Living into decolonization and truth and reconciliation.
Yet letting Ecclesiastes poem prayer from 3:1-8, rest in my soul is it truly simply seasonal?
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. (from the New International Version).
Does looking at rhythm of life, allow for us to ignore learning from our shared story? Our history?
What would happen if we truly understood the meaning of lest we forget?
But then the wisdom keeper, Brother Jesus, opening up his own teachings of the Sermon on the Mount from the First Nations Version:
When Creator Sets Free (Jesus) saw this great crowd, he went back up into the mountainside and sat down to teach the people. His followers came to him there, so he took a deep breath, opened his mouth , and began to share his wisdom with them, and teach them how to see Creator’s good road.
Creator’s blessing rests on the poor, the ones with broken spirits. The good road from above is theirs to walk.
Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who walk a trail of tears, for Creator will wipe the tears from their eyes and comfort them.
Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who walk softly and in a humble manner. The earth, land, and sky will welcome them and always be their home.
Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who are merciful and kind to others. Their kindness will find its way back to them—full circle.
Creator’s blessing rests on the pure of heart. They are the ones who will see the Great Spirit.
Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who make peace. It will be said of them, “They are children of the Great Spirit!”
Creator’s blessing rests on the ones who are hunted down and mistreated for doing what is right, for they are walking the good road from above.
Have we truly learned? Do we understand the journey? As we look upon our world where hatred is resurging, anti-semitism has become a default setting, we try to hide racism, sexism, ableism (and others) in the language of phobias which as one trained in psychology I can tell you is a fallacy. Do we remember? When we forget even the rules of conflict that were established so we could pretend war is a just endeavour and see children, civillians, hospitals, refugee camps bombed and the vilest of weapons used.
Yes we open our borders for refugees from war and genocide, yet do we ever stop and ask what it would take to build a world where these plagues were healed and cured?
I set in tension in a decolonizing, deconstructing church, Christendom (Christ of Empire) in its last gasps that sees conflating Brother Jesus with money, prestige and white supremacy in Christian Nationalism, as I look upon religion and national flags which always did not sit right, but now have another message.
The atrocity of colonization throughout time immemorial.
Heal together.
And turn up the heat in a body of creation, like a body that is ill, to burn the disease out.
Finally, have a vaccine made in reconciliation that will vaccinate humanity from the darkside of our souls.
From being lost, in the eternal abyss that Dante so marvelously described in his Divine Comedy of the rings of Hell that has been fully on display in politics in my province and our neighbour to the west.
Can we move into Purgatorio at the very least? Even though Paradisio should be the goal.
I look upon the Union Jack that draped the coffin of my Granddad, a funeral with honours, that I, with my brother, carried him to final rest in the field of valour.
News clippings of my Great-Granddad, who fought for veterans to be cared for, and not forgotten when they made the error of not dying a heroes death like some Klingon battle cry.
For some gave some, some gave all, and some who returned or served were further abused by their government allowing foreign espionage agencies to experiemnt one them.
Do we truly comprehend what it means to be a peacemaker/keeper?
The tension and conflict as we emerge into a child of the Great Spirit?
I will admit that I tend to find the Calgary Expo overwhelming due to size, scope and price. I was an attendee in the early days when it was a gathering, with notable Calgarian, John Byrne, at the old carpenter’s hall in Kensignton, then the Acadia Rec Centre, and other arenas around town where there was sellers, artists, writers and you could spend time sharing and connecting.
Yesterday, at Thorncliffe-Greenview Community Association, gave a similiar vibe to those early days with the Gen X comic and toy show, it was fun to connect with different exhibitors, and actor, Garrett Wang from Star Trek Voyager (forever an ensign, but who the USS Chinook from Calgary, made a Lt. Commander yesterday).
Paul Vargis
Ty
A Monk's Musings 