Dear Friends,
The US presidential election looms ever near. Campaign signs, billboards and baseball caps supporting one candidate over another were seen hither and yon as we traipsed around New York City during our recent visit. If you’re anything like me, you watch nightly news updates, the debates, interviews and televised town hall meetings, with interest – and prayer. I follow as a concerned Canadian neighbour and global citizen: this one feels critical! Let us pray for our American friends and family members as they prepare to cast their ballots on Nov. 5.
In the course of the politicking, I have heard – and appreciated – the question sometimes asked: “What kind of country do we want to have?” This is an important thing to ponder, and we would do well to consider it in Canada, too. What does it mean for us as Christians to consider the collective good and to work for it?
When we think about addressing vast societal challenges both at home and around the world, it can feel daunting. Yet God created us to live and work together, not in isolation. In the opening chapters of Genesis, God says, “It is not good for the human being to be alone.” Through the story of Moses, God outlines how God’s people are meant to be a community. In the same way, the epistles of the New Testament remind the Church that we are members of one body, that we are to bear each other’s burdens. It’s within community that we find the strength to withstand the challenges and crises that plague our world, and to counter them by demonstrating another way: the way of love. Love of neighbour leads us to open our hearts, to recognize the inherent dignity and worth of every human being, to welcome all those whom society may have “written off.”
Tomorrow (Oct. 26), we’ll have the opportunity to pay attention to the practice of love within the context of community as the diocese’s Social Justice & Advocacy Committee hosts its annual Outreach & Advocacy Conference over Zoom. This year’s theme is “Communities of Resilience and Resistance.” Keynote speaker Rudy Turtle, former chief of Grassy Narrows First Nation, will join us online from Grassy Narrows. This community has shown extraordinary resilience and resistance for decades in the face of mercury poisoning that has devastated its members’ health, economy and traditional way of life.
Eight workshops – four in the morning and four in the afternoon – will further explore the theme of community resilience and resistance in different contexts: dismantling racism, deconstructing myths around homelessness and harm reduction, welcoming refugee claimants seeking asylum, helping ex-prisoners reintegrate into the community, pursing justice with and for people with disabilities, and taking climate change seriously. All of the sessions will be recorded and posted on the diocesan YouTube channel, so if you can’t decide, you can always watch the recordings later! At the end of the afternoon, there will be time for participants to share what they’ve learned from their workshops and how they might use these insights in their own communities, and to join in prayer together.
You can still register for any or all sessions of the conference through the diocesan website. The conference is online, so there’s no cost to attend and no traffic to contend with!
I encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, to sign up. Come with an open heart as we learn together about the practice of love – Jesus’ love – in the context of community.
Yours in Christ,
The Rt. Rev. Andrew Asbil
Bishop of Toronto
