The news of the world over the last month has been very difficult to watch. The stories from Japan, Yemen and Libya seem to pile misery upon misery. No wonder that anyone who can seems to want to get out of those dangerous places as soon as they can.
One story I heard recently reported Christian leaders in Libya who say they have no intention of leaving the country. Religious sisters working in hospitals in the eastern coastal religion have been tending the wounded. The Catholic Church is the largest group in Libya but other churches are also living their ministry in the midst of much suffering and uncertainty. So our prayers are with Catholic, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox and our Pentacostal brothers and sisters.
Peter
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
How Safe Is Our Path?
Like many of you, I have been watching the disaster scenes from Japan with horror. Is this really taking place? Are those real people in those cars, slowing down as the wall fo water rushes toward them and they are swept away?
One interview today was shockingly real. A Canadian returning from Japan and his work with a nuclear plant described his experience. As he watched from a safe vantage point cars in the parking lot below were tossed about. A nearbye fishing plant was picked up and slammed into a cliff. He admitted that he was still shaking. This native son was so grateful to have his feet back on solid Canadian ground. He was never going back to Japan Then he warmly embraced his grand-daughter.
We Canadians often feel grateful when we return home to safe, familiar territory. But as people of faith, we have a second instinct, a counter cultural instinct to go out into a world which is increasingly uncertain. Our mission is to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. How safe does that make our path?
Peter
One interview today was shockingly real. A Canadian returning from Japan and his work with a nuclear plant described his experience. As he watched from a safe vantage point cars in the parking lot below were tossed about. A nearbye fishing plant was picked up and slammed into a cliff. He admitted that he was still shaking. This native son was so grateful to have his feet back on solid Canadian ground. He was never going back to Japan Then he warmly embraced his grand-daughter.
We Canadians often feel grateful when we return home to safe, familiar territory. But as people of faith, we have a second instinct, a counter cultural instinct to go out into a world which is increasingly uncertain. Our mission is to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. How safe does that make our path?
Peter
Sunday, March 6, 2011
How Can We Respond, As A Church, To The Need
Jan and I tried all the church doors until we finally found one that opened. This was 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, an African-American centre of protest in 1963. In September of that year, four members of the KKK dynamited the church killing four girls between the age of 11 and 14. The tragedy reminded the world of the cruel determination of those who resisted the dream of racial justice.
In 1997 Spike Lee produced a documentary about the four girls and the lives that were cut short. Since then their stories have been in my thoughts.
We were shown around the church by a man whom we took to be one of the deacons. Particularly moving was the gorgeous modern stained glass of a black Jesus on the cross, a gift from the people of Wales.
I asked if any of the families of those girls still attended and he said yes, there were still family members that attended worship now and then. He took great pains to tell us that this was not just a museum but was a living breathing congregation of Christians.
Amazing how the church provided such leadership and strength to the civil rights movement. I wonder if we could do so again in response to the immense needs in our world.
In 1997 Spike Lee produced a documentary about the four girls and the lives that were cut short. Since then their stories have been in my thoughts.
We were shown around the church by a man whom we took to be one of the deacons. Particularly moving was the gorgeous modern stained glass of a black Jesus on the cross, a gift from the people of Wales.
I asked if any of the families of those girls still attended and he said yes, there were still family members that attended worship now and then. He took great pains to tell us that this was not just a museum but was a living breathing congregation of Christians.
Amazing how the church provided such leadership and strength to the civil rights movement. I wonder if we could do so again in response to the immense needs in our world.
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