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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1998-11-18, Page 17BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA Rev. Christine Johnson - Minister Church Office 887-6259 Home 887-6540 November 22, 1998 9:30 a.m. - Worship, Ethel United Church 11:00 a.m. - Worship, Brussels United Church 3:00 p.m. - Dedication Service for Project Uplift. A celebration of the completion of our accessibility and foyer renovations. Community is cordially invited. Reception to follow. Friday, November 27 - Possibility Day - "Getting Ready for Christmas" - A fun day of cooking and making crafts for chil- dren in grades JK - 6 - Please call 887-6259 to register. Cornerstone Bible Fellowship Ethel Communion - 9:45 -10:30 Family Bible Hour and Sunday School 11:00 - 12:00 Prayer & Bible Study Tuesday 8 p.m. John 14:6 - Jesus said, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, no one comes to the Father, but through Me." Everyone Welcome For more information call 887-6665 BLYTH UNITED CHURCH Come Worship The Lord With Us Sundays - 11:00 a.m. Worship Service & Sunday School Bring your "Mitten Tree" gifts to the White Gift Service on December 6 Minister - Rev. Cecil Wittich ALL ARE WELCOME /'07#.0t- 9t; 523-4224 r : rt. M HURON CHAPEL EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY CHURCH 526-7555 ASSOCIATE PASTOR - YOUTH - JEREMY SHUART 523-9788 Sunday 8:45 a.m. 10:00 a.m. 11 a.m. 8 p.m. Wednesday 7:30 p.m. Friday 7:30 p.m. - Morning Worship Service - Family Bible Hour - Morning Worship Service - Evening Service - Prayer & Bible Study - Youth 2teaae iota ua fait uonakip tkia Sunday Morning Worship Service - 10 a.m. Evening Worship Service - 7:30 p.m. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:12 BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH Rev. Adrian A. Van Geest Hwy. 4, Blyth 523-9233 Wheelchair accessible Brussels Mennonite Fellowship 9:30 a.m. - Worship Service 10:45 a.m. - Christian Education Everyone Welcome Pastor Ben Wiebe 887-6388 Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. Psalm 48:1 MELVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BRUSSELS 11:00 a.m. - Morning Service - Sunday School 9:30 a.m. - Belgrave Service Wheelchair accessible Nursery care available 2 p.m. Wednesday - Bible Study 9:30 a.m. Thursday - Optimum Wellness Programme We welcome you to come and worship with us. Rev. Cathrine Campbell - 887-9831 THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA You are welcome this Sunday NOVEMBER 22 - CELEBRATION OF THE REIGN OF CHRIST HOLY EUCHARIST Trinity, Blyth St.. John's, 9:30 a.m. Brussels Wheelchair accessible 11:15 a.m. Rev. Nancy Beale 887-9273 THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1998. PAGE 17. From the Minister's Study Will things ever be good, minister wonders By Rev. Christine Johnson Brussels, Ethel United Churches Right now, the United Church of Canada is facing the prospect of numerous lawsuits related to the Indian Residential School system. I wanted to make my congregations aware of this situation and to reflect upon some of the complexities involved from a faith perspective. It was an extremely difficult sermon to write and to present. It is based on the texts Isaiah 65:17-25 and Luke 21:5-19 and is entitled "Digging Deep." When we hear Isaiah's vision of a new heaven and a new earth, we have to wonder if things will ever be that good. Here is a vision of the world that offers to us a picture of what God's realm might be. Yet, to be perfectly honest, some days I feel like I've arrived. I say to myself, "Life doesn't get any better than this." And then other days, when I open my eyes to the world around me, I feel the sorrow and pain and I wonder if God's vision is just too unrealistic. Last Sunday, Restorative Justice Sunday is a day for thinking about the reality of broken relationships, of hurt and pain. It's a day to dream and wonder about finding solutions to mending those broken relationships. It's a day to read Isaiah's vision and wonder if it will ever come true. Currently, there are 92 lawsuits related to the Indian Residential Schools which name the United Church of Canada as defendant. On Tuesday, Oct. 27, our Moderator Bill Phipps offered an apology to Canada's First Nations peoples for its complicity in that system. I could ignore sharing this information. It would be easy to sweep it under the carpet. But this church is facing a situation that is not going away. This is a good time to search inside ourselves to contemplate the bigger issues, and see the complex realities at work. We need to dig deep into history, into human psychology to begin the difficult task of coming to terms with the way our late 20th century world works. I want in some small measure to ward off an hysterical response which leads to blatant racism, blame, pointing fingers, resentment and continued misunderstanding. But there are no easy answers. Right now we are bearing great burdens in North America, from a legacy of colonial imperialism, from a missionary zeal to conquer and save souls for Christ. We have been part of a program to systematically shape others in a mold of our own design. You and I have done very well as a result of that program. Our education system has prepared us a highly-advanced technological society. But in the midst of our success, there are other groups who have not been able to adjust. For many native groups across Canada, the Indian Residential School system is simply a touchstone for a larger grief about nations destroyed and cultures annihilated. However, lawsuits are rarely good for problem solving tools, for establishing right relations with our neighbours. They rarely work for the common good. They are rarely a mechanism for healing. Yet, we as a church might pay the price. And in the process, we will be called to really and truly question whether or not we have a future as the United Church of Canada. We live within a litigation society and at this point there just seems to be nowhere else to go. My caution, my prayer is that we will be able to responsibly resolve these issues without further damage to our long-term relations with our neighbours. Can we work together in such a way that we will not be buried by hatred and resentment? Can we, through the power of God, break the cycle of pain and suffering? Can we, through the inspiration of God, choose to be part of the solution rather than to exacerbate the problems? The Indian Residential School System is only one marker along a vast history of this propensity that we have to do wrong in the name of trying to do right. The frustration of our current society in regards to the past is understandable. We did not create the past. We are simply the inheritors. There are those still living who were involved with the perpetuation of physical, mental and spiritual abuse, but most of us were not involved. History shows there were many clear-headed, warm-hearted Christian Canadians who tried to do their best and who indeed did the best they could given the circumstances. At one point in history, it was an absolute given that all people regardless of race or lineage should be educated so that they could be assimilated into what we call "Canadian" culture. And given the vastness of our land, the scope of the various Indian nations, residential schools seemed the right answer. But the larger issue is that somehow, and this is the dark moment of the soul that we all must face, we as human beings have a long history of making others suffer. In those moments when I think that Isaiah's vision has arrived, when I sit back and say to myself, "Life just doesn't get any better," I have to realize that a lot of people have paid a price so that I have privileges. As a colonial nation, the indigenous peoples were shoved aside, and we have a whole history of using African persons as slaves to build these two great nations. Yet it is never so easy to say who is responsible. Because when it comes right down to it, it is both us and them. No one is free from complicity. I was told a story recently about a Jamaican woman who realized with a great deal of pain that it was her own African people who sold her own people to the slave traders. "When I realized there were buyers, there had to be sellers." As I'm readfog it I'm thinking about how terrible these people are. How could they do these horrible things? But then, my heart drops into my stomach. I am descended from Scottish Protestants who emigrated to Ireland. Even while we know the reality of pain and suffering, we also must recognize the issues are never totally black and white, there is never complete right and complete wrong. There is brokenness on both sides. These schools were flawed. but many native persons credit these schools with giving them the education they needed to functior in our modem world. This whole situation simply points to a larger issue. How does the present make restitution for the past? And is it even possible? see what is so real in our society How do we face the need to and how do we as a community inflict hurt on others? How do we Continued on page 19 You are Welcome at the BLYTH COMMUNITY CHURCH OF GOD 9:45 a.m. - Sunday School for Children and Adults 11:00 a.m. - Morning Worship Bible Studies - Wednesday 10 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. Phone 523-4590 McConnell St., Blyth