[Craic] Easter Message from the Moderator of the United Church of Canada

Sun Apr 9 05:10:50 PDT 2023

Thank you Allan, a powerful and hopeful message! A tonic for our times.

Peace and Happy Easter to all!

Greg

On Sat, Apr 8, 2023 at 2:58 PM Allan Baker via craic <
craic at lists.integralshift.ca> wrote:

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> Broadview: Easter Calls Us to Change the World
> [image: GoldenAgeOfGaia-Masthead-920x180-c10-500x97-updated-2-100x97.jpg]
> goldenageofgaia.com
> /2023/04/07/broadview-easter-calls-us-to-change-the-world/
> <https://goldenageofgaia.com/2023/04/07/broadview-easter-calls-us-to-change-the-world/>
> Kathleen Mary WillisApril 7, 2023
>
> Illustration: Neil Webb
>
> *United Church moderator Carmen Lansdowne on why the hope of the
> Resurrection should spur us to envision a more just reality*
>
> By Carmen Lansdowne, Broadview, April 4, 2022
>
> https://broadview.org/carmen-lansdowne-easter-message/
>
> It’s a beautiful time to be changing the world.
>
> “What’s that?” you say. “Things are terrible!” And yes, there are shifting
> geopolitics — Russia’s war on Ukraine, China’s sweeping resumption of
> claims over almost the entire South China Sea, and North Korea’s antagonism
> of South Korea, Japan and the United States — all of which raise fears of a
> new Cold War. During COP27 in November, The Economist went so far as to
> suggest — incorrectly, in my view — that we should give up on a 1.5-degree
> goal for mitigation of the climate emergency, citing its impracticality and
> improbability.
>
> At the same time, roughly 90 percent of the world’s refugees hail from
> countries that are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
> That might seem like a faraway problem, but according to the BC Coroners
> Service over 600 people lost their lives to climate-related heat in British
> Columbia in 2021, and several others have died during climate-related
> floods, forest fires and extreme weather events since then. We’re also in
> the early days of a recession that will impact every household, and those
> households with the least resources will suffer most. It’s enough to break
> your heart.
>
> But still, I wake up every morning and think, “It’s a beautiful day to be
> changing the world.”
>
> The task feels so difficult. When we think of Easter, we think of leaning
> into hope in the face of the death-dealing forces that culminated in Jesus’
> crucifixion and the death of his physical body. We wait through Holy
> Saturday for the arrival of the Resurrection, and the assurance of hope
> against hope that death cannot, and does not, triumph over life.
>
> And that’s easy to think about when it’s one body, one voice, one Messiah.
>
> But in reality, our problems and our systems are so intricately interwoven
> that one misstep can have global consequences. Take, for example, the
> subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 in the United States, which sparked a
> global financial meltdown — all from selling risky mortgages as financial
> instruments to pensions and other large investors.
>
> Amartya Sen, an Indian philosopher and the 1998 Nobel laureate in
> economics, wrote about how our freedoms — and conversely, our “unfreedoms,”
> like poverty and tyranny — are connected to each other. When we have
> economic and political freedom, we tend to have freedom in other areas of
> our life. And the same goes with “unfreedoms.”
>
> We see that reality playing out in today’s context as we grapple with the
> intersections of individual needs and desires, the climate crisis, public
> health, public policy and an uncertain economy. It’s messy business, trying
> to pull at the threads of injustice.
>
> But it’s a beautiful time to be changing the world.
>
> If you think about everything that we knew about the world five, 10 or 15
> years ago, who would have predicted the situations we find ourselves in
> now? I suppose some people could have, but most of us did not expect that
> so many of our assumptions about the way that the world works would be so
> significantly disrupted. If we had anticipated it —had we known what was
> ahead of us — would we have made the same choices?
>
> But no matter what mistakes we have made, no matter what we have failed to
> see or do, the story of the crucifixion, the uncertainty and waiting of
> Holy Saturday, and the Resurrection on Easter remind us that life cannot be
> completely overcome by death. And, ultimately, there is purpose and meaning
> in the life and ministry of Christ.
>
> In the spirit of that hope, what is the world you would like to create 10
> years from now? If you could stretch your imagination in this most unlikely
> of stories, the Resurrection, and you could achieve any goal, what would it
> be? What would your life look like? Your family? Your community of faith?
> What would Canada look like?
>
> For me, the changed world that I would create would be one of deep
> spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice. Not just because that’s
> the new call and vision of The United Church of Canada, but because I think
> that those words perfectly express our faith. We need all three.
>
> We need deep spirituality, including the strength and integrity to aspire
> to a higher purpose. Whether that’s through participation in a Taizé music
> service, centring prayer, meditation or Sunday worship — or even just
> reading on our own every morning or using a daily prayer and reflection app
> — attending to our spirits is an important part of what allows us to
> flourish as humans.
>
> Bold discipleship, for me, is the communal part of faith. There is a
> wholeness in community. We gather together as fellow travellers on the
> road, coming to discern what Jesus would call us to do in a given
> circumstance. Community is the best of who we can become together as
> humans. We were not made to live alone. We are a messy bunch, but when we
> commit to caring for one another and the planet, and to spiritual
> transformation for all, we can move mountains. This is my vision for our
> bold discipleship together.
>
> Even when I disagree with someone politically, I’m still going to check in
> on them after a severe weather event or bring them a casserole when their
> spouse is in the hospital. It’s easy to do that for the people we love
> most, but we need to be doing it much more for everyone. Instead of writing
> each other off and refusing to think outside our own boxes, we need to
> build bridges.
>
> My parents own a beautiful painting by Ukrainian Canadian painter Peter
> Shostak. Based on a true story, it features a wintry scene with local
> Indigenous people standing atop a hill overlooking Ukrainian settlers
> marooned on a sandbar in the Saskatchewan River.
>
> They arrived as refugees during Stalin’s rule and had enough money to get
> to Edmonton, but not to Bonnyville, Alta., so they built a raft. Only then
> they got stuck. The Cree helped to loosen them, took the women and children
> by horseback to Bonnyville, and returned for the men with fresh horses.
>
> Shostak had wanted to paint a series of Indigenous-settler encounters in
> Canada that told the story of inclusion, aid and community that Indigenous
> peoples had shown across time, especially to the Ukrainian community. The
> acts of welcome and kindness are, for me, examples of bold discipleship.
> They bear witness to the story of how we can be better together.
>
> Which brings me to the call to daring justice. In my view, scanning the
> horizon for a hint of justice has become the trickiest business.
> Identity-based forms of justice — like racial justice, LGBTQ2S+ justice and
> gender justice — are often protected by law. Some are protected better than
> others, and none are protected perfectly in practice.
>
> But when we look at climate justice or economic justice, the through-line
> becomes harder to see. For example, yes, we should invest in renewable
> energy. But at what cost to countries in Africa producing solar panels with
> virtually no safe disposal systems?
>
> And yet, we must keep dreaming about what a just and sustainable world
> looks like. Let’s dream about a world where those with disabilities don’t
> have to fight for accessibility because our buildings and our workplaces
> are already designed with their needs in mind.
>
> Let’s dream about a world where faith communities celebrate diverse sexual
> orientations and gender identities. Let’s dream about a world where profits
> are never more important than “doing no harm.”
>
> Let’s dream about a world where there is energy abundance combined with
> smarter choices about the energy that we use in the first place. And let’s
> dream about a world where we only take what we need, trusting that the
> earth will regenerate itself and that there will always be more.
>
> The story of Easter reveals that God can do so much more than we can even
> imagine — even overcoming death. With God, our dreams can be much bigger
> than we can fathom.
>
> So while the challenges of our current world make it seem like we’re only
> headed for the death-dealing crucifixion of Good Friday, let us remember
> that we have the power to come together — through deep spirituality, bold
> discipleship and daring justice — to dream a new heaven and a new earth
> into being, through the power and grace of Easter.
>
> It’s a beautiful time to be changing the world.
>
> ****
> Rt. Rev. Carmen Lansdowne is the 44th moderator of The United Church of
> Canada.
>
> This story first appeared in Broadview’s April/May 2023 issue with the
> title “A new earth.”
> ------------------------------
>
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