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
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523-4224
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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