HELLO!

I hope to see some of you tomorrow, Saturday June 20^th, from 10 am to 1 pm, in our parking lot for the Woodlawn Community Bike Rally. Join Emily, Bethe and me (I will be coming a little later, around 1130 am) for bike related activities for the whole family & BBQ Lunch! Bring you bike or just come and hang out with us. Please note, the rain date is Sunday June 21^st from 1-3 pm. It’s a great way for us to meet our neighbours.

This Sunday we focus our attention on Indigenous People’s Sunday (June 21^st). Over the years, in various churches, I have used a variety of methods to communicate our solidarity, kin-ship and need for repentance with reference to this important relationship between God’s peoples. On some Sundays I have invited guest speakers from Indigenous communities, on some Sundays I have reflected on the 42 Calls for Action featured in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. You can read all them by clicking on this link: https://nctr.ca/about/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-of-canada-calls-to-action/ On some Sundays I have spoken of my journey of faith, growing up in Halifax, knowing little about Indigenous Peoples, their history, their spirituality, and what this journey has meant for the deepening of my faith. I do the latter, not to claim any particular knowledge but rather to point to what we, who are not Indigenous, stand to gain by exploring spirituality otherwise passed over in our colonial culture. Often, when we frame these conversations, we fail to acknowledge what we in non-Indigenous churches, lack, what we can learn, how we might grow, and how such growth can lead to more authentic reconciliation. I intend to use this latter approach on Sunday.

One story, shared with me by an Indigenous leader, opened my eyes in faith. He told me, he “knew Scripture better than most even though he had never read the entire Bible”. This leader has been tirelessly laying down his life for his community. The concept of dying to one’s self so life would come to others was so deeply embedded within this man. I became convinced the Spirit of God was at work preparing his heart for his proclamation of the truth, that our land is not a resource merely to be utilized but a gift from the Creator. He began, “In my tribe they say when we die, we become the salmon that feed our children. When I hunt, I always pray to the Creator to help me. When I take the animal’s life, I again pray to the Creator and offer thanks for allowing me to take the spirit of this animal to give life for my family. Then I always pour water into the animal’s mouth for the finish of his journey.” As I heard his story, I could hear, in the back of my mind, Psalms 42:1 in a way I had never heard before, “As the deer pants for water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” I absolutely love the natural beauty of the world in which I live. And I have been so privileged to see so many places of spectacular vistas. Psalms 42 reminds me—I need this reminder—the Creator’s most fabulous gift is love that passes all understanding, love that outlasts and outworks faith and hope, love that sustains us in our despair and offers, again and again, hope we need to become children of the living-loving God. I cherish this gift, this purpose, this truth, for there I find my lasting and unbreakable hope that I can love others as God has so freely loved me.

Peace, Kevin