Emancipation Day in Canada

 

                This plaque is at Cathedral Church of St. James, King Street E, Toronto, Ontario

 There is no longer Jew or Greek; 

there is no longer slave or free; 

there is no longer male and female,

 for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28 NRSVue

Here we are in the heart of the parboiled days of summer, trying to get stuff done early in the day before the thermometer climbs to 30C. There are lots of circumstances and situations that come to mind for blog entries,  including the possibility of a broader war in the Middle East  and a famine in Sudan. 

But this is Emancipation Day in Canada and every year I feel that we should pay attention to this commemoration of the official end of slavery in Canada in 1834. I've written before about the tireless efforts of British Parlimentarian, William Wilberforce, toward abolition in the British Empire. He was strongly motivated in this effort by his Christian faith. His efforts were strongly supported by John Wesley who died in the late 18th century before abolition. Wesley's last letter before death was to Wilberforce. (below) The United Church has deep Methodist roots. 

This past Sunday a plaque was installed at the historic Anglican Cathedral Church of St. James in the heart of Toronto. When the first St. James building opened for worship in 1800 it was attended by slave owners, as well as free Black people who had come from south of the border. Congregational records show that a large number of Black families were part of its history. 

This reminds us of the chequered history of many churches in this country. Bridge St. U.C. in Belleville, my last congregation before retirement, was founded in the early 1800s as a Methodist church and there were members who had enslaved Black men and women, all of whom were eventually freed. 

The United Church continues its efforts to be an anti-racist denomination, examining biases, repenting of past wrongs, engaging in conversations which will make a difference. 

https://united-church.ca/social-action/justice-initiatives/anti-racism

Dear Sir:

 Unless the divine power has raised you up to be as “Athanasius against the world,” I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy, which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God? O be not weary of well-doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it. 

Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by the circumstance, that a man who has a black skin being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a LAW in all of our Colonies that the OATH of a black man against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this! 

That He who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things is the prayer of, dear sir,

Your affectionate servant,

John Wesley