Hi ho, Hi ho, It's off...for Labour Day

 

                                          Joseph as a Carpenter --George de la Tour 

During the Renaissance many painters depicted the boy Jesus in the workshop of his earthly father, Joseph. Tradition had it that Joseph was a carpenter, although it doesn't say so in the gospels, and he is the patron saint of labourers. 

This is Labour Day weekend with tomorrow's holiday meaning that even faithful worshippers will be inclined to be elsewhere, although attendance was pleasantly good at Trenton United today. There was a strong theme of Godly work and rest in the service and I spoke about the value of work on a number of occasions through the years. I wondered if many people cared about the history of the labour movement in this country or the dignity of honest work.

In some respects the issues of labour are as significant this year as ever. 

We are hearing that youth unemployment is high in Canada and job prospects for graduates of colleges and universities is bleak. A trade war and resulting downturn in the economy have resulted in precarious work situations for lots of people. 

In Ontario we have a premier who has decided that employees who have been working remotely should be back in the office full-time, resulting in soul-searching about the quality of life for families where commuting and lack of flexiblity will eat up hours without any evidence that this will be more efficient. 

We were almost caught in the Air Canada strike when we travelled to Newfoundland and while we were relieved to get there we were also shocked that the government ordered flight attendants back to work after twelve hours. 

The ongoing concerns about treatment of migrant labour are still important in this country although this pales in comparison with the awful hunting down of migrants in the United States. 

There are always reasons to consider the value of labour and the importance of sabbath, so why not this weekend? 

Public Prayer Ban in Quebec?

 

 On the Sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed[c] there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there.  A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she prevailed upon us.

                             Acts 16: 13-15 NRSVue

Disturbing. Absurd. The government of the province of Quebec has served notice that it will table legislation to ban prayer in public places, arguing that if people want to pray they can go to places of worship. According to a CBC report: 

Secularism Minister Jean-François Roberge said in a statement Thursday that the "proliferation of street prayer is a serious and sensitive issue." "The premier of Quebec has given me the mandate to strengthen secularism, and I am determined to fulfil this mandate diligently," he said."This fall, we will therefore introduce a bill to strengthen secularism in Quebec, in particular by banning street prayers."

His statement follows months of efforts by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government to reinforce secularism in the province, which includes adopting a law that requires immigrants to embrace the common culture of the province and tabling a bill to expand the province's religious symbols law to include school support staff.

We were in Quebec earlier this summer and we enjoy being in the province for lots of reasons but the mindless commitment to secularism is deeply disturbing, largely because it is a bureaucratic form of Islamophobia that has no place in a democratic society and violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

To their credit the Quebec's Catholic bishops have come out against Premier François Legault's desire to end prayer in public places, saying it would violate people's constitutional rights and suggesting, rightly, thata ban on public prayer would affect a wide range of activities practised by people of many faiths.

The absurdity is that prayer takes many forms, so would there be thought police to monitor the interior prayers of those thanking the Creator outdoors or those expressing a spontaneous verbal exclamation of gratitude to a Deity? Many congregations have annual outdoor services, including the one we attend. Will these be banned in Quebec? It's obvious that Premier Legault and his earnest sidekicks have no real understanding of the depth and breadth of prayer, nor of the biblical witness to worshipping en plein air. (see above)

The feds have also condemned this bizarre initiative so we'll see where it goes. 

Would the Secularism Ministry have come for the Jewish Christian apostle Paul as he prayed by the river? Proabably -- praying and prosyletizing!

 

The Well-Gardened Soul

 There is a book called The Well-Gardened Mind: the Transformative Power of Nature by therapist Sue Stuart--Smith and I would like to read it, along with a thousand other books that intrigue me.Yes, I am well aware that I'm living on borrowed time.

An introduction to a film interview with the author offers: 

The pace of life is the pace of plants.

Sue Stuart-Smith’s book The Well Gardened Mind, argues that our increasingly urbanised and technology-dependent lifestyles make it more important than ever to rediscover a closer relationship with the earth. Sue tells brilliant, illuminating stories of people struggling with stress, depression, trauma and addiction, from asylum seekers to veterans, inner-city young people to the retired.

We are gardeners with both flower and vegetable beds around our home and beyond. They are the source of both sorrow and joy as we watch the miracle of perennials emerging in Spring and the success of our veggies. We have already eaten lettuce, kale (ugh) peas, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, and a green pepper from our raised beds -- hurray! Of course we deal with the disappointments, including the sins of theft by critters and humans. We had tomato plants in a raised bed in a community garden one year and as they were ripening for harvest they all disappeared. We stick to root vegetables in that bed now. 

                                       “Hi, Mr. Shultz! How did that plant vitamin work on your garden?”
                                                                                Al Johns June 29, 1957

This summer drought has meant we are out at the crack of dawn to water our beds because plants would perish otherwise. We have wondered about retiring from gardening but we realize the psychological and spiritual benefits of continuing. We would like to think this effort is a spiritual discipline that contributes to the Well-Gardened Soul.

I have read some preview pages from Stuart-Smith's book and, lo and behold, she notes that there is a religious and spiritual background to the importance of gardening. She reminds us of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century theologian, composer, and gardener who developed the notion of veriditas. This is the life force of greening, in contrast to ariditas, the life-defying opposite. For Hildegard, humans thrive when nature thrives 

We all need well-gardened minds and souls. And when the body aches, there are drugs for that!

Here are a couple of links that may interest you. 

https://www.suestuartsmith.com/the-barn-garden

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.6815188

Do Animals Understand Death?

 

Moreover, I saw under the sun that, in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well.  I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter and for every work.”  I said to myself with regard to humans that God is testing[b] them to show that they are but animals. 

 For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.  

Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?  So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?

Ecclesiastes 3: 16- 21

One of the recent daily scripture readings was from the enigmatic book of the Older Testament called Ecclesiastes. It was from the same chapter, three, as the well known "for everything there is a season..." passage and I've never noticed it before, particulary the part about humans and animals dying. All creatures die, the writer says. We all share the same breath and then we're gone, so enjoy life while you can. 

As it happened I was reading the book Playing Possum after hearing a thought-provoking  interview with the author, Susana Monso. The title refers to the bizarre ability of the marsupial opossum to fake death by virtually dying with slowing heartrate and excreting noxious fluids. Possums are so near death that they can be poked and cut without reaction. What do they understand about this near-death experience? 

This famous photo of a “chimpanzee funeral” was taken in 2008 by Monica Szczupider, a volunteer at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center in Cameroon. 

In the introduction Monso, a professor of philosophy,  mentions a photo from National Geographic of a group of chimpanzees at a rescue centre in Cameroon watching quietly as a deceased comrade is walked by. Chimps tend to be noisy with relatively short attention spans but here they seem solemn and focussed on the departed. 

She uses the term "comparative thanatology" to describe her exploration of the cross-species understanding of death 

In our hubristic anthropomorphism we may have missed the sense of loss and even mourning expressed by other creatures. Yet if they have been brought into being by a Creator, why do we imagine that they are incapable of experiencing loss?

I've written before about my concern that we are living in a time when lots of people are dispensing with the rituals of grieving often developed by religions. Families often abandon cremated remains at funeral homes or announce that "gathering to be held at a later date" and never do so. I've had people express dismay and regret that their loved one wasn't sufficiently mourned because some family members didn't care to do so. 

Should we mourn other creatures as well? Do they mourn one another? 

 I've said farewell prayers over the graves of a couple of our dearly departed felines and I wept when our beloved Labrador Retriever shuffled off this mortal coil. Perhaps we should take those final breaths more seriously regardless of species. 

Neil Postman & Amusing Ourselves to Death

 

This year marks the 40th anniversary of a book by the late, great Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. I purchased and read it at the time and was deeply impressed by his arguments about the degradation of conversation in the public square. While looking for another book I found this one (this happens far too often!) 

As I leafed through it I was surprised by how many observations there are about religion, its importance, and the ways in which the "show business" ethos undermined the contributions religion can make to society. Postman, a non-observant Jew offered:“I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.”

During my years in ministry, beginning in 1980, I felt the growing pressure toward that entertainment model and a lighter approach to preaching and worship as a whole. There were people who intimated this to me, even though I was always a story-teller and included humour and visual images in sermons.  For some it was "the lighter the better." I always felt that there needed to be depth.

Forty years ago none of us could have anticipated the internet and the relentless flow of information that distracts us but certainly doesn't make us wiser, intellectually or spiritually.And yet Postman did.

 I saw recently that half of Americans don't read a single book in a year, and I imagine that Canadian stats would be simillar. Postman suggested in 1985 that books would never need to be banned as they were in Orwell's 1984 because we would follow the lead of Huxley's Brave New World where no one wanted to read one.  Why engage in the full meal of reading a long-form article or book when we can snack on bits and bites of info all day long? And why actually read scriptures and hear the message of God and Jesus when we can attend a worship spectacle? 

Curiously, I never noticed the artwork for the edition I had until unearthing it recently. A headless family is gathered around the glow of a television. Now its individuals bowing before the hand-held screen. 

I found an interview with Postman in an issue of Modern Reformation with the title  Has Evangelicalism Lost Its Voice. There is an important exchange about the importance of the word and Word in culture and religion: 

Much of the Judeo-Christian religion, as well as the Judeo-Christian culture that comes to us is based on the idea that through the word we can understand ourselves and our culture. That we the great genius of Greek culture, and Christianity inherited that idea. Sociology, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology, and everything else are somehow within the domain and can be put under control of the word. As culture moves away from the word toward pictures and moving pictures, it would be a new Reformation alright, but that could be a Reformation in reverse that seriously harms our traditional understanding of religion.

The Bicycle Mayor & Virtuous Cycles

                                          Cyclist on the Magog Loop (not one of us) 

Were you aware that there is a Bicycle Mayor in the city of Toronto? This was new to me as well but I heard an interview with Lanrick Bennett Jr. who was appointed to this position three years ago. He is also an Urbanist-in-Residence with the University of Toronto School of Cities. Two great titles!

Lanrick was engaging and articulate and talked about cycling as though it made sense for TO or any other urban setting, one mode of transportation among many. He supported the development of infrastructure for cycling and while the discussion wasn't about bike lanes I'm sure he would like to see more rather than less.  I think this is true, everywhere, even though Premier Doug Ford recently teed off on a court decision declaring his law to remove three Toronto bike lanes unconstitutional, calling it the "most ridiculous" ruling he has ever seen. Chairman Dougie is a progressive thinker, isn't he? 

A few weeks ago friends kindly invited us to join them near Magog, Quebec, a town of about 30,000 people. There are cycling paths everywhere  and we explored one in town and another along a river that took us to the Vermont border, a round trip of 44 kilometres. On our way in the morning there were few people out and about but on the way back the trail was busy and the parking lot had a Hunger Games feel to it. 

There were thousands of tourists availing themselves of the cycling paths of various degrees of challenge and the trails are excellent. We loved the experience and wished we didn't need to drive hundreds of kilometres to do what could happen in Ontario, although the scenery was worth the drive. Not long after our return I cycled 20+ km across Belleville with our 12-year old grandson but the trails are not well connected and I felt some grandfatherly apprehension at points. 

I've said before that while Jesus and the disciples didn't ride bicycles they probably would have if they'd been invented. Can you imagine the squabbles though? As a Christian I want to whatever I can to lessen my environmental footprint, to "live with respect in Creation" and I'd like to think that when I head out in the morning for a ride I'm making a modest effort.  

Apparently Lanrick was wearing the tee-shirt pictured below during the interview. What a great logo!

The Enduring Scourge of Plastic in Creation

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

    In wisdom you have made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
25 There is the sea, great and wide;
    creeping things innumerable are there,
    living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships
    and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

Psalm 104: 24-26 NRSV

Are you aware that there was an international conference held a few weeks ago to address the growing scourge of plastic waste, including the untold number of tons which make their way into waterways and oceans? There wasn't much coverage in the media.  Once again nations spun their wheels, or their propellers, because humanity is addicted to the stuff and we don't know how to detox. 

 Some of that plastic is visible, an eyesore,  as we discover each summer as we visit Newfoundland, including this year. In June of 2024 we visited the astonishing Haida Gwaii, the archipelago off the coast of British Columbia. Sadly we had evidence from beaches in both directions that Canada is plasticized from sea to shining sea. Much of the plastic in the oceans is invisible, tiny particles and nurdles we don't notice but ends up in every ecosystem on the planet. 

The bible has nothing to say about plastics because this invention is only about a century old. Scripture has a lot to say about caring for Creation, including the oceans. I feel strongly that this is an issue for Christians to address, even though it might not seem to be "gospel" at first blush. 

There is a project in Italy called Archeoplastica that is both artiistic and chilling. Here are a few paragraphs from an article in The Guardian: 

Enzo Suma, a naturalist guide, has always picked up rubbish during his walks along Carovigno beach, a stretch of coastline lapped by clear blue waters close to his home in Salento, an area of Puglia in the heel of Italy’s boot.

During one walk, Suma, 44, spotted a washed-up bottle of Ambre Solaire sunscreen. He was about to throw it away when he noticed something unusual: the price printed on the bottle was in lire, meaning it must have been produced before the euro replaced the lira in Italy.In fact, after delving further, he was astonished to discover that the bottle dated back to the late 1960s.

A clear testament to the longevity of plastic and its persistence in the environment, the vintage suntan lotion became the catalyst for Suma’s creation of Archeoplastica, an online museum that comprises more than 500 plastic relics washed ashore on beaches all over Italy.

“Whereas before I didn’t pay too much attention to what I collected, from that moment on I started to look at everything very, very carefully,” said Suma, who studied environmental science at Ca’ Foscari university in Venice before returning to Puglia.

He added: “It’s one thing to be taught that plastic lasts for centuries and never degrades, and another to see it with your own eyes.”

About 11m tonnes of plastic waste ends up in the world’s oceans each year via rivers or after being dumped by people along shorelines or chucked into the sea from fishing vessels.

The most recent discovery, which is yet to be officially added to the Archeoplastica inventory, is a 45rpm vinyl record picked up on a beach by a seven-year-old boy who was in Puglia on holiday with his family. After Suma’s nephew miraculously managed to bend the record back in the shape, it was played on an old turntable and was revealed to be Jimmy Fontana’s Il Mondo, a song released in 1965.

Gratitude to Dr. Deirdre Nunan

 

yipeng.ge

 My dear colleague and friend Dr. Deirdre Nunan went from working as an orthopaedic surgeon in Gaza and immediately onto the streets back in Canada to protest Canadian complicity in Israel’s crimes against Palestinian children in Gaza.

It's hard not to feel helpless and hopeless about the endless suffering in Gaza, the daily deaths of children seeking food as they starve. 

This is a chilling image of a selfless trauma physician, originally from Saskatchewan, who has willingly put herself in harm's way to save the lives of starving children and others injured people in Gaza. These people are often suffering from terrible wounds incurred when they were seeking food aid. 

“What I’m living through right now is the worst thing I’ve ever experienced,” says Dr. Deidre Nunan (far right), an orthopedic surgeon who is just finishing work near Khan Younis, Gaza. (Photo courtesy of Deidre Nunan)

It's hard to imagine how Dr. Nunan finds the courage and strength to return to this scene of horror again and again. Many of the medical personnel work without food and sleep to the point that they collapse. Her witness should encourage all of us to care about what is happening there and to provide support through our dollars and prayers.

Here are links to a CBC Radio Saskatchewan interview from last month and an article in the United Church magazine, Broadview from April this year. 

https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-88-saskatoon-morning/clip/16159324-saskatchewan-born-surgeon-working-gaza-speaks-cbc-sees-happening

https://broadview.org/canadian-doctor-gaza/

The Accidental Ecologist & Blessed Iconographer

 

I came upon an image by Pembrokeshire, Great Britain artist, Liza Adamczewski, and I was immediately smitten. She and her husband have been rewilding a farm property as a nature sanctuary and she creates these Garden Icons, as she calls them. She describes herself as the Accidental Ecologist, a wonderful moniker. 

Traditional Christian icons have been created for centuries  for the purpose of contemplation and veneration of the saints. The act of bringing them into being is a form of prayer. The notion of including non-human creatures is brilliant, in my estimation, and I love these. 

Apparently Adamczewski has been criticized by some Christian gate-keepers who see her work as blasphemy rather than a widening of the circle of these creatures who inform our sense of wonder and appreciation in Creation. I have no real idea of her religious convictions or aversions, but I delight in the spirituality of these paintings. So original and powerful -- a blessing. https://x.com/lizaadamczewski/status/1949385275706102170

I wrote this blog on a Sunday morning and while we would usually be in church we were instead kayaking on the Bay of Quinte with herons and egrets, ospreys and kingfishers all around us. This tweet, or whatever it's called now, was certainly appropriate. 

Liza Adamczewski or the accidental ecologist

@lizaadamczewski

Sunday has arrived again. The day of rest. I hope wherever you are, you can stretch yourself out like a hare on a sunny day and take time leisurely to contemplate the world and your place in it. Just to sit and do nothing is a luxury. So if you get the chance, take it.

Swimming Toward Beauty and Bliss

                               Immersed in the joy of swimming in nature. (Image from Pexels via Pixabay)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved;  with you I am well pleased.”

Mark 1: 9-11 NRSVue

 A couple of weeks ago, during the heatwave now known as the Summer of 2005, we went to North Beach Provincial Park with our four grandchildren and their parents. The waves on Lake Ontario were rolling in but weren't overwhelming so we were able to do a fair amount of watery frolicking with the kids, ages five to twelve. They all love being in the water and the oldest is becoming an accomplished swimmer. 

We've had the opportunity to do what the Brits call "wild swimming" and Canadians call, well, swimming, ten times or more this summer. The wild part in Britain refers to swimming in lakes and rivers, something we tend to take for granted here. Pools are great, swimming en plein air is even better. 

I came upon an excerpt from a book called The Spirituality Gap by Abi Millar and a chapter on nature spirituality. Here are a few paragraphs about swimming: 

It’s a balmy morning in early June, the first day that truly feels like summer. In honor of the season’s arrival, I book a slot at my local swimming lake and slip into a swimsuit. The water, warm and welcoming, cradles my body as I drift into a gentle lap around the perimeter. Dragonflies hover midair. Ducks bob along nearby. The light shimmers across the surface, and I feel myself loosen—mind, body, breath.

Floating on my back, I’m suddenly time-traveling—back to childhood holidays, afternoons in swimming pools, whole worlds built in my imagination. It’s like time has folded in on itself, delivering me to some unbroken inner self. Maybe that’s what it means to be “in the now.” Here, I’m not zipping past nature or admiring it at a distance. I’m in it. Held by it. Engulfed.

There’s a magic to wild swimming, and clearly I’m not alone in sensing it. In a 2022 poll from the Outdoor Swimming Society, 94% of members said the primary reason they swim outside is joy. Over half also named spiritual reasons—seeking a connection with nature and the deeper self.

The author notes the challenges of climate change and the urgency of addressing it, as well as our grief over what has changed and is now the proverbial freight train of dire circumstances. She offers this: 

The door to the woods, as poet Mary Oliver once wrote, is the door to the temple. But what does that mean when the woods are burning? When the temple is crumbling?

Perhaps it means this: that joy and grief are not opposites. That reverence and rage can live in the same breath. That being awake to the beauty of the Earth doesn’t mean denying its peril—but loving it even more fiercely because of it.

This is so well said. 

I'm convinced that while there is no scriptural evidence to support this contention, Jesus and the Galilee disciples were swimmers and they enjoyed it. As boys growing up near the lake, why wouldn't they, although Peter may have panicked when he attempted to walk on water. 

Please say a prayer for us as we take the icy baptismal plunge into the waters of the North Atlantic while we are in Newfoundland, perhaps several times.  The irony is that while the water will be cold it is much milder than it was when we lived there nearly half a century ago, and much of the province is tinder dry due to drought. We will do our best to be awake to the beauty around us. You may be able to hear our gasps and hoots from Southern Ontario.