Prayers for Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland

 

Around 1:00 p.m. Sunday, water bombers could be seen from the Banting Park area, collecting water from the ocean to put out the Musgrave Harbour wildfire. (Submitted by Peter Barfoot)

O God, our refuge and strength, our help in times of trouble. 

We lift our prayers to you now that your creation is suffering. 
Have mercy on the lands ravaged by fires. 
Calm the winds that fan the flames, and send rain to the parched lands. 
Comfort all who have had to leave their homes; give them solace as they wait for news.
Give peace to those under evacuation alerts. 
Bless all those who help and support the evacuees. 
Protect all those who are fighting the fires, and keep them safe in difficult circumstances. 
Protect all whose health is at risk because of the smoke. 
Heal the people, heal the nature, and heal the land. 
God, in your unending mercy, we ask you to hear our prayers. 
Amen. 

We have been watching the weather forecast for a small outport village in Newfoundland for the past few days. Musgrave Harbour, less than a thousand souls, is a fishing community with a wharf and a few shops and not alot more. There is a gem of a public park named after one of the co-discoverers of insulin, Frederick Banting, whose World War II plane crashed near Musgrave Harbour in 1941, resulting in his untimely death. Both the village and the park have been evacuated because of the threat of a wildfire but a few days ago we were relieved to see that there was sustained rainfall, which surely would make a difference.

When I was ordained as a United Church minister in 1980 we moved from downtown Toronto to Carmanville NL, another outport not far along the shore from Musgrave Harbour. While we lived there we visited the long white sand beach of Banting Park before it was given this name. We took our youth group kids there and eventually returned with our young family. When we rgo back to Newfoundland, as we will next month, we will be on Change Islands,  just west of Fogo Island, and not far by water from Musgrave Harbour. 

Newfoundlanders are not strangers to wildfires and in the early 1960s there was a major fire in this area with the effects still visible when we moved there. But ask folk in the province if temperatures are higher and drought more common and they will respond with an emphatic yes. These are people who are attuned to weather and most agree that climate change is a signficant factor on land and in the sea.

As with so many other rural communities across the country, wildfires cause major disruptions and destruction even though the residents are not significant contributors to the causes of climate instability. While these communities may seem inconsequential to those of us in urban centres far away they have been home to generations of families.

The prayer above is from the Evangelical Lutheran Synod in British Columbia, across the country, and yet it certainly applies to the threat in Newfoundland. 

Good News today that the evacuation order has been lifted.