The Importance of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026

White Crucifixion by Jewish painter Marc Chagall depicts persecution of Russian Jews in scenes around the cross of Jewish Jesus

This is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

When we spent two weeks in Israel in 2023 we went to many places with Ruth's sister and brother-in-law. We went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, on our own. It was my fourth visit to Yad Vashem although my first to the newer site designed by Moshe Safdie and opened in 2005. The location is striking and the various aspects of the museum including the art gallery are sobering and powerful.

For all my deep reservations about the state of Israel and the domination of Palestinians at the time, I felt that it was essential to have this reminder about the horrors of anti-Semitism and the annihilation of six million Jews by the Nazis in the Shoah/Holocaust. Little did we know the horror that would unfold only six months later.

                                               Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum

In the past two years the horror of the Hamas attacks on Israel took place, Gaza has been reduced to rubble by the IDF with huge loss of life, and the West Bank is in turmoil. 

This has emboldened those who hate Jews around the world with attacks on synagogues and people, including the innocents killed by terrorists on a beach in Australia, 

It is essential that Canadians, including Christian followers of Jewish Jesus, decry anti-Semitism and remember what has happened and is still happening when hatred takes hold in societies. 

The Canadian government includes this in its description of this sombre day: 

On January 27, 1945, the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – where more than one million people were sent to gas chambers and to their agonizing deaths during the Holocaust – was liberated. In 2005, that day was designated as the annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Each year, Canadians and individuals all over the world take this opportunity to remember the victims of the atrocities of the Holocaust and reflect on the dangers of anti-Semitism.

                                                                  Yad Vashem Hall of Names

Poets and Final Farewells

Mr Commonsense @fopminui

In the Netherlands, when a person dies with no family or friends to attend the funeral, the ceremony is not left to silence. A civil servant is present, representing the community. And beside them stands a poet.

The idea was born to prevent the final farewell from becoming a purely bureaucratic act. The poet receives the few available details: a name, a date, perhaps a job, an address—sometimes only a single, minimal fact. From these fragments, a text is written especially for that life.

During the ceremony, the poem is read aloud. It does not celebrate achievements, nor does it invent affections. It carefully gathers what remains. It turns an anonymous goodbye into a human gesture.

It is not a grand public ritual. It is something simple, almost invisible. Yet in that moment, the deceased is no longer alone. Someone speaks their name. Someone acknowledges them. And perhaps this is the deepest meaning of the initiative: to remind us that a life, even when it ends in silence, deserves to be farewelled by a voice.

 I was the presider of at least 500 funeral and memorial services through my decades of ministry. Some of them were huge, attended by hundreds of people to the point of "standing room only." Others were quite small, including one where I recruited congregation members to attend for a lovely shy man who had no living family or friends. There were a few of almost runaway emotion,  including anger, and others that were so emotionless that a chill came over the space. I've conducted only a few services in retirement including the recent memorial for a neighbout in his 20s who died following a drug overdose. 

I do feel that every life should be honoured, if possible, and I've noted a number of times before in this blog that I'm unsettled so many lives are going unrecognized or mourned in a communal way, especially post-COVID pandemic. 

I was quite taken by the description, above, of the funeral practice for those who would otherwise go unmourned with a poem for the deceased. The phrase: "It turns an anonymous goodbye into a human gesture" is particularly meaningful. 

Do we need a Funeral Poets Farewell Society? Maybe. 

Bird-Brained with St. Francis in Lent

 

Archaeology & Art

@archaeologyart

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10h

Bird pins (brooches) made out of scrap materials by Japanese Americans held in internment camps during World War II. From The Art of Gaman: Arts & Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps 1942-1946 by Delphine Hirasuna (Ten Speed Press, 2005).

"My sweet little sisters, birds of the sky," Francis said, "you are bound to heaven, to God, your Creator. In every beat of your wings and every note of your songs, praise him. He has given you the greatest of gifts, the freedom of the air. You neither sow, nor reap, yet God provides for you the most delicious food, rivers, and lakes to quench your thirst, mountains, and valleys for your home, tall trees to build your nests, and the most beautiful clothing... from the The Little Flowers of St. Francis.

We currently have a guest in our home who is enchanted by the profusion of birds at our feeders in this intensely cold weather. They are chowing down on seeds and peanuts as well as frequenting our heated birdbath for a drink. Our guest has Alzheimer's Disease so she is asking the same questions about the birds on a five-minute loop, all offered with a sense of wonder and appreciation. We're figuring out how to answer with some variety!

I was taken by the Tweet above-- how appropriate -- created by "caged" Japanese Americans unjustly held in internment camps in the United States, as were Japanese Canadians during World War II. While their wings were clipped by racist governments they could still observe the birds of the air and imagine being free.

Cross-stitched gift from parishioner Vicki Stephens circa 1999

Recently I listened to a biologist who encouraged the audience to be aware of the birds we often take for granted yet are all around us, every day, even in Winter.

During Lent this year we're inviting the folk at Trenton United to be bird nerds (Ash Wednesday Feb 18). writing down what they see and hear. This will be in honour of the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis who legend tells us would preach to amd bless the birds and other creatures This attention to the birds can be a form of prayer and appreciation of Creator and Creation. I think we'll title this exercise Bird-Brained with St. Francis in Lent.

I just found out that composer Franz Lizst wrote pieces in tribute to St. Francis including Preaching to the Birds. Have a listen:

https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&p=st+francis+and+the+birds+legend&type=E210CA1286G0#id=1&vid=ef5b3965c63f971d50b38de991333616&action=view

                                     Bernard Hesling (1905 - 1987) - Saint Francis Preaching to The Birds

-29C and Unhoused

 

[Jesus said] Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,  I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 

Matthew 25: 34-36 NRSVue

This could well be the coldest start to a day this Winter in our part of Southern Ontario. When we lived in Sudbury there would be sustained frigid weather with "highs" of -30C but it's rare to have a day like this in Belleville and it may turn out to be a record for these parts. I actually felt nostalgic for the Near North as I headed out to the gym this morning.

I said a prayer last night for all those seeking shelter from the extreme temperatures. Shelters will be crowded and those "living rough" will struggle to stay alive, let alone warm. I listened to a person who works with the homeless who commented on the crisis of the growing number of unhoused persons in Ontario. She spoke about those who lose fingers and toes as a result of frostbite and the challenges of rehabilitation for those without an address.She expressed measured frustration with various levels of government buck-passing when lives are at stake. 

The surging reality of rural homelessness was highlighted in a new report from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in which 85,000 people were identified as experiencing homelessness in the province last year, 12,800 of whom were in rural and northern areas.The actual numbers could be considerably higher because it isn't straightforward to identify the homeless. It is the municipalities that must deal with the present reality of the unhoused, including encampments. 

Our congregation, Trenton United, provides the space for the Quinte West Warming Centre and we asked son Isaac, the Trenton UC minister, about numbers on any given night this season. He says that there have been nights with 20 or more people using the centre, a contrast with half a dozen to ten on a busy night in years past. 

So, when we are tempted to grouse about the cold, consider those without safe shelter during the day or night. We might ask how we can financially support accommodation for the unhoused as individuals and we can pray for compassionate governments. 

There is no mention of providing parkas and shelter beds in the passage above but I figure Jesus would go even further to say housing and dignity. 

                                                                     Encampment in Winterpeg