The Mighty St. John - "there is a river"

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
 God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved;
    God will help it when the morning dawns.

                                            Psalm 46:4-5 NRSV

I attended the national meeting of the United Church called General Council only once during my decades of ministry. It was held in Fredericton, New Brunswick and a couple of important things occurred during that meeting. The Right Reverend Stan MacKay was elected moderator, becoming the first Aboriginal person to lead a Mainline Protestant denomination in Canada. There was also an often emotional debate about same-gender "unions" as they were termed then, the precursor to same-gender marriage, which is now the law of the land. I asked to be part of the working group presenting to the court.

The theme of this 42nd General Council was "There is a River" taken from Psalm 46, a pslam which also includes the phrase "be still and know that I am God." Each session began with "there is a river" worship and reflection, and of course we were not far from one of Canada's mightiest rivers, the St. John.

I was a strongly eco-faith guy even back then and I found it frustrating that while this was the theme, and a good one, we never went near the St. John, or heard anything about it's history or ecology. We certainly didn't go there for a "There is a River" worship session, nor did we call on Native leaders to share with us about the importance of the river, even though we elected an Aboriginal moderator. I did venture away from the University of New Brunswick a couple of times to spend time along the river.



All of this came to mind with news that the St. John River is rising, as it does in the Spring. There is already significant flooding along its banks and the downtown of the city of Fredericton may be inundated, the first time waters have been this high in a decade. We tend to think we can control the power of nature and then are humbled by its strength.

We can pray for all those affected by these floods and those who put themselves in harm's way to offer assistance. We could also pray that as Christians we always ask how the metaphors of our faith can be "grounded" and "watered" in a sense of place, to make that connection.

In a time when human-made climate change is altering the patterns and rhythms of the planet and its creatures, its more important that ever. We can be still and consider how God is inviting us to make a difference.

The Peaceable Kingdom in the DMZ

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

                                Isaiah 11:6-9

North and South Korean leaders participated in what may be a historic event this week. They signed an agreement called  Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification on the Korean Peninsula. This could mark the "beginning of the end" of a war that has separated these two nations for nearly seventy years, a conflict which led to the deaths of thousands as it was fought in the early fifties and caused untold hardship since then.

The meeting took place in the Demilitarized Zone between the countries, a strip of land four kilometres wide and 250 kilometres long. The irony is that while the DMZ has been a fortified ribbon of military tension, between North and South Korea, laced with landmines, it has also been emblematic of a different sort of peace, in terms of eco-systems. Because it has been a restricted area wildlife has flourished in what is essentially one of the most ecologically diverse reserves in Asia. The conflict between humans has allowed species to flourish which are in serious decline elsewhere. Someone has described it as an "accidental paradise."

This is from a Guardian piece:

Manchurian or red-crowned cranes and white-naped cranes are among the DMZ's most famous and visible denizens. Nearly 100 species of fish, perhaps 45 types of amphibians and reptiles and over 1,000 different insect species are also supposed to exist in the protected zone. Scientists estimate that over 1,600 types of vascular plants and more than 300 species of mushrooms, fungi and lichen are thriving in the DMZ. Mammals such as the rare Amur goral, Asiatic black bear, musk deer and spotted seal inhabit the DMZ's land and marine ecosystems. There are even reports of tigers, believed extinct on the peninsula since before Japanese occupation, roaming the DMZ's mountains.

None of this flora and fauna declares itself as North or South Korean. This has been the "peaceable kingdom" during these tense and aggressive decades of conflict, although I don't imagine the tiger and the deer lie down together.

Perhaps the two countries will work together for preservation of this unique zone and eventually provide scientific and eco-tourism opportunities. If we're praying for peace in the region we can certainly include the diverse creatures of air and water and land.

Read more about the peace agreement between North and South Korea in today's Lion Lamb blog

http://lionlamb-bowmanville.blogspot.ca/2018/04/giving-peace-chance-on-korean-peninsula.html



Amur Leopard

Hope for Groundlings, and the Planet

 

"According to the ancient story, humanity is literally a 'groundling' or earthling"

 

The Seven Pillars of Creation William Brown

 

Many of you will be aware that I have a passion for the wellbeing of the planet, rooted and grounded in my Christian faith. I often write about Creation-honouring themes in my Lion Lamb blog and then several years ago created this Groundling blog. I borrowed the term Groundling from William Brown's fascinating exploration of seven key creation passages from the Hebrew scriptures.

 

The pressures of time made it difficult to keep up two blogs, especially while I was still in pastoral ministry. The other challenge was bad news. As Christians we are Good News people but so much of what we hear about the environment is crushingly bad news. Climate change is truly an all-encompassing threat to the planet. We are plasticizing out waterways and oceans. And it is downright depressing that report after report tells us that species are in free-fall.

 

Gleaning the good news which is Good News is a challenge, but it's out there. I encourage you to read this article which the CBC created for Earth Month.

 

It has the title 13 Canadian environmentalists and innovators changing Earth for the better. Thirteen is usually an unlucky number in Western culture but not here  http://www.cbc.ca/life/wellness/13-canadian-environmentalists-and-innovators-changing-earth-for-the-better-1.4625341

 

We have so much to do, and so little time. Still, I thank God for those who are determined to make our world better. At times I would quip that I was "in the hope business" when asked my profession. As Christians we are in the hope business, and these activists and entrepeneurs can give us a welcome dose of hope.

 

 

 

 

Autumn Peltier Water Keeper

When we lived in Sudbury, Ontario Manitoulin Island was not that far away and we regularly visited this unique environment. The Bruce Peninsula extends spectacularly up into Manitoulin, and  there are waterfalls flowing over limestone cliffs. As a family we spent time in a lovely cabin on a small lake, loaned to us by congregants. I would attend worship on Sunday mornings at the Roman Catholic church on what I recall is the Wikwemikong First Nation. The church, in the round,  includes Aboriginal imagery throughout, including a baptismal font in the shape of a turtle, representing Turtle Island, our planetary home. I love this worship space.



Because of our past connection to Manitoulin I paid attention when I heard that a remarkable 13-year-old water keeper from there spoke at the United Nations General Assembly back in March, as part of World Water Day. Only five feet tall, Autumn Peltier needed a step stool at the podium and delivered a powerful message about protecting the waters of the Earth.

She said that it's time to "warrior up" (great phrase!), to stop polluting the planet and give water the same rights and protections as human beings, Autumn told the representatives from many nations:

Many people don't think water is alive or has a spirit. My people believe this to be true. Our water deserves to be treated as human with human rights. We need to acknowledge our waters with personhood so we can protect our waters."



In many Aboriginal cultures women are the water keepers and there is an ongoing witness to this role in the Sacred Water Walk which happens each year as indigenous women carry an open vessel of water great distances, relay-style,  as a way to bring awareness to endangered bodies of water. We know as well that scores of Native communities to do not have safe, drinkable water supplies, a shocking situation that successive federal governments have failed to address.

I'm grateful for the courage and witness that Autumn offers regarding the precious nature of water. I am reminded once again that Jesus described himself as Living Water. We can pray for all the water keepers as they set out again in 2018.

Learning From an Ugly Pond

 “But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
  and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
 Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
 In his hand is the life of every living thing
    and the breath of every human being.

 

Job 12:7-10  (NRSV)

 
I went searching through my iPhone photos for one -- just one -- of a pond which was on my cycling route when I was still working downtown in Belleville. I don't have any despite passing it regularly on my commute. I was there this morning and didn't take any then either because it's "hugly"

This is a storm run-off pond at the edge of the much more photogenic Bay of Quinte. I've posted many photos of that shoreline of the bay, which was also part of my "virtuous cycle." The pond is murky and from the rough trail a noisy factory and the railway tracks are the backdrop, so there is a reason I don't take pictures.

Yet this pond is remarkably alive. This morning a stump on the far side was covered with recently emerged turtles. The Red-winged blackbirds were in full voice, as were other birds. It was rare to go past in warmer weather without seeing a blue heron, or one or the other of a pair of elusive green herons. Swans and cormorants hang out there, as well as muskrats and an occasional beaver. Oh yes -- dragonflies and damselflies and butterflies and...you get the picture.

I often stopped for a moment as I cycled past this "ugly," inconsequential body of water which may well be toxic with the effluent of our storm sewers.

What is ugly in God's Creation? Not this place, even though it supposedly has a face that only a Mother can love. I'll continue to stop and gaze with affection and appreciation. I still have a lot to learn from this pond.

Basking in Creation

Yesterday was Earth Day and, lo and behold, Spring sprung in Southern Ontario. The previous Sunday we huddling inside, waiting for the power to fail. Yesterday we could enjoy mid-teen temperatures and trust that Winter was in the rear-view mirror.

We tied our canoe on the roof of our vehicle and headed twenty minutes north of Belleville to a put-in for the Moira River. There were some other canoeists at the landing but we headed south while they paddles north. We knew our destination, an area of maple swamp that is flooded sufficiently to navigate because of the Spring run-off. We found our way through this area and into another stream which virtually dries up by early Summer.

We did pause in the trees, both coming and going, and just listened. It was so calm that the mirror images of trees was stunning. Nearby a Pileated woodpecker pounded insistently, like someone rapping on a door in the dead of night to wake a friend. We heard ducks and frogs and red-winged blackbirds in a wonderful chorus. A turtle slowly emerged onto a log and a kingfisher skirted past us. Even though there wasn't a leaf in sight and no green anywhere the promise of new life was all around us.

Being on the water, away from other humans and human-created sounds was a blessing on this Earth Sunday. I hope you were able to venture out yesterday as well and bask in Creation.

Earth Day and Kateri Tekakwitha

When I retired last year I brought home art work from my study for which there was no wall space. One piece, a reproduction of an icon by Robert Lenz languishes in a corner in a spare bedroom, sad to say. This is Lenz's imaginative depiction of one of the few "home-grown" Canadian saints. Well, so we claim. It's an embarrassment that when Kateri Tekakwitha was canonized in 2012 Canada and the United States squabbled over who could rightly claim this 17th century Mohawk woman. She was born in the United States but spent a good part of her life in Canada and was eventually buried at Kahnawake in Quebec.

Tradition tells us that Tekakwitha took a devout vow of perpetual virginity when she was in her late teens. This often seems to be a big deal in Roman Catholicism. Choosing not to marry, she left her village in the US and moved for the remaining five years of her life to the Jesuit mission village of Kahnawake,  south of Montreal in New France.

I love this icon because it portrays her as an environmental saint. She is holding turtle island, the aboriginal symbol of the earth, and she is surrounded by birch trees. Apparently she would make crosses from sticks and then hang them from trees as “stations” at which one should be reminded to pray. Her biography tells us, “she often went to the woods alone to speak to God and listen to Him in her heart and in the voice of nature.”

Kateri's Feast Day was on April 17th, appropriately close to Earth Day. Do we need "saints" of any kind these days? I'm not so sure, and it isn't part of our Protestant ethos. Yet we can admire those who point the way to deeper understanding of what it means to live God's compassion and the love of Christ. And if "God so loved the world" that God came to us in Jesus, the Christ, why not celebrate Kateri Tekakwitha on this Earth Day/Earth Sunday?

Blessing on the Woods

 

Lord bless the woods for perfect loveliness

For balm that heals the soul in care and stress!

 

When we lived in Halifax years ago I got to know a remarkable old man who despite approaching his 100th birthday was still mentally and physically vital. His name was Wilf Creighton and he became the Provincial Forester in Nova Scotia after spending time in Germany in the 1930's studying forestry. While he was there he learned fluent German and went to hear Hitler speak on a couple of occasions as he rose to power. Wilf also played hockey on a travelling Canadian team and had great photos of games on open-air rinks in the mountains. He also survived the Halifax Explosion as a boy and could spellbind an audience as he told the story of that fateful day.

 

One day Wilf drove us to his maple sugar bush operation north of Halifax and we roamed the woods (remember, almost 100!) He only fell once, and hopped back up again without a pause. Then we had a chin-wag in his cabin where I noticed the poster in the photo above on the wall. It is a prayer/poem by an American writer named Arthur Guiterman who was better known for his droll poetry.

 

The illustrations around the border are of many Nova Scotia creatures including moose and osprey and otters and a pileated woodpecker. The artist was William E. DeGarthe, a well-known painter in Nova Scotia in that day. He lived in Peggy's Cove and his studio is now a memorial gallery of his work.

 

Wilf told me that this poster was commissioned by the Department of Lands and Forests and was distributed to every school child in Nova Scotia, probably 75 years ago or more.  I thought it was lovely that this prayer giving thanks for the gifts of the woods was a gift to children of the province. He kindly took his tired old original and had copies made for me and his adult children. I cherish it.

 

Wilf died in 2008 at the age of 104.

 

We have all but expunged God from the education system and this poem is sentimental, but how can we go wrong with a blessing on the woods?

 

 

 



The Last (Plastic) Straw

Commonwealth Youth Forum

During Lent this year I followed the encouragement of the Church of England to give up plastic, as I was able, a less traditional but worthwhile choice during Christian season of reflection. Well, I discovered that abstaining from plastic, even partially, is nigh on impossible. Just raising my awareness of the omnipresence of plastics in my daily life was eye-opening and -honestly - discouraging. My Saturday Globe and Mail used to arrive secured with an elastic band, except when there was precipitation. Now it's always in a plastic bag bound so tightly I have to rip it open. We try to buy day-old fruits and veggies to reduce food waste, but they are often entombed in plastic. As grandparents plastic has become the uneasy reality of virtually every toy purchase and I feel as though we should go to confession when we treat them to a take-out meal.

Why have we allowed this to become so pervasive? I get positively ill when I drive past a marina where huge pleasure craft are shrink-wrapped in plastic. as are bales of hay in the fields. A CBC reporter undertook giving up plastic for a few weeks and realized that toilet paper rolls are wrapped in the sh... -stuff- and tin cans are lined with it. It's EVERYWHERE!



It's interesting that at the Commonwealth Conference, currently underway in London, there is an initiative to get the 53 participating countries to ban plastic straws. Billions of them are used every day around the world and they make their way into ditches, waterways and oceans. We largely stopped using plastic straws last year, carefully cleaning larger, sturdy straws for the grandlads. We get confused and even incredulous looks when we ask wait staff not to bring us straws when we're out for a meal.

I hope that Canada and other Commonwealth nations follow Britain's lead and ban straws. These countries represent more a billion people around the world, so it would make a significant difference. I look forward to returning to those soggy paper straws which always collapsed while drinking a milkshake (no, I don't!) 

What are your thoughts on the last straw?