Encampment by Maggie Helwig for the Win

 

We have normalized delinquent, disorderly behaviour in our cities for too long

Robyn Urback

Back in November Robin Urback wrote an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail about the challenges of homelessness in Toronto with this headline and with her usual directness. She comes out swinging, as these two paragraphs demonstrate:  

For years, a vocal minority of social activists have effectively dictated public policy in Canadian cities. Homeless encampments in parks and beside playgrounds have not simply been tolerated, but recharacterized as legitimate neighbourhoods to be protected...

It is not simply a matter of restoring the use of public spaces for everyone, but restoring a sense of order, of social cohesion, of faith in the institutions of governance. Because the longer visible signs of social decay are allowed to fester, the more inclined those with means will be to simply check out – figuratively and literally – leaving those without the ability to relocate to deal with playgrounds littered with drug paraphernalia. No one wants to live in a place where they perceive the rights of those breaking the law to take precedence over those who have chosen to abide by them.

Urback doesn't quite call those who support those who are in homeless encampments as "liberal bleeding hearts"  but she comes close. There were many responses including one from a former Toronto city planner who seems to agree and speaks of the social contract that is key to a healthy community. 

Of course, the notion of a social contract and faith in the institutions of governance makes sense to those who are employed, housed, and have enough to eat. For those in society who figure that the rules favour a few and not those on the margins. including the working poor, these notions ring hollow. 

i don't disagree with the concerns for safety and access to public spaces. We all want our kids to be able to move about freely and all of us to be able to use our parks as they were intended. But after I read the article I returned to the book Encampment by Anglican priest Maggie Helwig. This is a grace and God-filled reflection on her work with those who are unhoused in the heart of Toronto, some of them living literally on the doorstep of the church called St. Stephens-in-the-Fields. She describes the huge difficulties of accessing a system of support for those without shelter and other basic necessities of life. She is both boundlessly compassionate and clear-eyed and frames her work in the context of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She includes excerpts from sermons that are powerful. 

Encampment is brilliant in my estimation, a view I've discovered is shared by actor and director Sarah Polley, who gives copies to friends.

Last week Helwig won her second award for the book, the  Shaughnessy Cohen Prize. She received the $40,000 monetary prize.at the Politics and the Pen gala, an annual fundraiser attended by some of Ottawa’s power players. According to the Global News report Helwig was direct herself: 

“There is a tendency among politicians these days to speak as if you were helpless, as if you had no real volition or power but are only slaves of the God of the economy. But the God of the economy is a human creation, and you do have power, and you do have choices about how you use it,” she said in her acceptance speech.

She encouraged the politicians, lobbyists and businesspeople to consider the experiences of unhoused people as they wield their power.

“Policies of neglect, exclusion and displacement have a body count. The median age of death for homeless women in Toronto is 36 years, and it is not much better for men,” she said before reading a list of 20 names, all belonging to unhoused people in her community who had died in the last couple of years.

Communities of all sizes in this country are toiling away at addressing the issues of poverty and the need for what Urback calls social cohesion. I don't question the sincerity of our local politicians, social service agencies, and faith communities as they do this important and often thankless work. I pray that by the grace of God we will find solutions that are good news and Good News, as bleak as circumstances may seem. We must remember that the "unhoused" are human beings with names and needs who desire a better life.

This is a long blog entry but a final note: Helwig has chosen to give her awards of $20,000 and $40,000 to those who need rent money to get into housing. She literally puts her money where her mouth is. 

My Tale of Two New Urban Parks

 

                                                     Kiweki Point Park, Ottawa

 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.

 On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 

Revelation 22:1-2 NRSVue

Last week, within the course of three days, we spent time in Toronto and Ottawa, the two largest cities in Ontario. We made a point of visiting urban parks in both, one along the Don River and the other overlooking the Ottawa River. Biidaasige Park is the billion dollar-plus redevelopment and rewilding of the mouth of the Don, which had essentially been killed as a natural waterway and habitat. Kìwekì Point, newly redeveloped, offers panoramic views of Parliament Hill and Ottawa-Gatineau. 

Both parks have names which acknowledge the historic and, hopefully, the current importance of these rivers to Indigenous peoples who travelled them and harvested from them for centuries before colonization. 

Biidaasige Park hasn't been completed and won't come to fruition for decades because there are thousands of young trees and other plantings which will take time and at this point require imagination about what will come. Still, in the created wetlands there are already water birds and songbirds. Biidaasige will be serviced by a light rail line to make it accessible without driving and there are bike lanes as well. 

                                          Artist's (AI?) rendering of Biidaasige Park, Toronto

I write from time to time about the importance of urban green spaces and these are two examples of a thoughtful and enduring approach to the challenge. I've noted that the Christian bible begins in a garden and concludes in a city where a clean river and trees are at the heart of it. Celebrating Creation shouldn't require us to head to the wilderness and this can be possibility to all. These urban parks can be sacred spaces as well. 

Now, if Premier Doug can be stopped from turning Little Norway Park in Toronto into a runway extension for jets...

Silence is Green and Golden

                                                         Nordik Spa, Chelsea Quebec

 We got away for our anniversary spending time in Ottawa and Chelsea, Quebec. Chelsea is the gateway to Gatineau Park and home to a Nordik Spa. Quebec does a lot of things better than Ontario including local bakeries, cycling infrastructure and spas. I'm not really a spa guy but Ruth loves them and judging from the male/female ratio we saw of about 20/80 this isn't unusual. I'll admit that it takes work to get me to one yet our experience is always relaxing and enjoyable. This was the best one yet with a host of options and we were impressed by the way it is nestled into the surrounding rock and trees. 

Did we have a quibble? Certainement...the silence, or lack thereof. The expectation is that guests go device-free, an excellent idea. And folk are encouraged to be respectfully quiet with an area where silence is required --big signs. Except that there is music playing constantly of the woo-woo variety, I imagine to create a zen-ish atmosphere, but it seemed loud and intrusive. Why ask patrons to observe the quiet when they don't, even in the Silence area? I regretted not bringing earplugs. 

Here is the irony. While we were rambling about on a trail in Gatineau Park immediately after the spa there was a wonderful Spring chorus of birdsong amidst the emerging green. 
We realized we saw very few birds at the spa and they be absent because they are establishing mating territory at this time of year and need to be heard.

Our walk took us to a waterfall and the streams  along the trail were in full voice after so much rain a week ago. There were trilliums and hepatica and trout lilies, the Spring ephemerals. We were virtually alone as we walked so the atmosphere in Creation was contemplative and uplifting. 

Yes, we got the best of both worlds and we thanked the Creator for it all, including the boulangerie just a few steps from our accommodation. Vive le croissant non libre!

                                           Waterfall Trail, Gatineau Park Quebec (not a current photo!)

A Christian Message of Forgiveness in Lebanon

 

Italian peacekeepers and a priest pose with the new statue in the Lebanese village of Debel 

Obtained by CNN

Not long ago I wrote about Lebanese Christians who have literally been caught in the crossfire as the Israeli military pushes into the country in search of Hezbollah operatives. A beloved priest was killed by shelling when he refused to leave the village and the congregation he served. 

A few days ago we saw the jarring image of an Israeli soldier using a sledge hammer to smash a crucifix in a small community, a shocking and gratuitous act. Since the photo went viral that soldier and another were jailed by the Israeli military and I would hope their careers are over. 

Since this disturbing incident the Israeli government apologized and replaced the crucifix with a much more ornate one, Now Italian peacekeepers have installed one that is closer to the original figure, in the same spot. According to CNN

Debel’s Catholic parish priest, Father Fadi Felefli, echoed that sentiment, telling CNN the gift of the new statue was giving residents traumatized by weeks of nearby fighting much-needed hope.

As for the Israeli soldiers who smashed the statue, Felefli told CNN he would continue to spread the Christian message of forgiveness.

“We are the sons of peace and sons of forgiveness; like Jesus said when he was being crucified, ‘God forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.’”

This is a powerful message in an otherwise deeply disturbing moment in time. 

Can it be 50 Years?!

                                                        Honeymoon Ruthie, Trafalgar Square, London

 I am away for the day so this Lion Lamb blog entry will be brief. Today marks our 50th wedding anniversary, which when I see it on the page seems hard to believe. We're off enjoying ourselves as a couple with a larger celebration to come. 

I have spent all these decades with the remarkable Ruth, a loving, courageous, generous, and kind person. And certainly patient, given her partner.  At times we both wonder how we've made it, engaged in our late teens, married in our early twenties. These relationships aren't supposed to last, are they? What did we know about life back then, two pleasantly impoverished and naive kids?

Ruth has been the rock of our family through the years in different communities in various provinces, keeping us all together, figuring it all out, when I was often off tending to the spiritual needs of other people. But she has never been "rocky" in outlook or demeanour.  She's a person who many have turned to intuitively for support and counsel. She's always seemed to do this with effortless grace. 

She is adored by her four grandchildren and lovingly respected by her three children and their partners. She is admired and trusted by friends, a confidant to her siblings. 

Lately we've pondered whether we're lucky in different aspects of our life, even though there have been plenty of ups and downs, sorrows and joys. From Christian homes, we were both brought us to count our blessings rather than claim luck but we now figure life is both. 

God willing, we'll continue to laugh together, explore together, sometimes cry together, and pray together for a while yet. 

I'm a lucky guy and blessed. 

Thank you, thank you Ruth, and much love for the days ahead. 

The Power of Faith Community

  Come in, come in and sit down,

you are a part of the family.

We are lost and we are found,

and we are a part of the family.

1 You know the reason why you came,

yet no reason can explain;

so share in the laughter and cry in the pain,

for we are a part of the family.  R

 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about[d] these things. As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you.                 Philippians 4: 4-8 NRSVue 

On Sunday morning I walked into the Trenton United Church sanctuary a few minutes early and noticed a sixteen-year-old in a pew so I went over to say hi. He's a quiet and yet open guy and I chatted him up for a few minutes about school and this-and-that. He kindly asked how things were going for me and I appreciated the exchange in terms of what I received. Then I took my place nearby with the blessing of our thirteen-year-old grandson sitting beside me. 

There were 15 young people and children in worship, a happy reality  in an aging congregation. Does this qualify as a United Church miracle?  Half a dozen of them were teens, which is remarkable. 

I give a lot of credit to Pastor Isaac, who is our son, but the congregation is very welcoming and supportive of children and youth in many ways. They are included in every aspect of congregational life, including decision making. A couple of the teens sing in the choir, which is astonishing. Several are involved in leading Sunday School, as was the case this week.  Isaac preached on a theme which is important to one of the teens and a woman in her eighties who have connected on the subject. Ike will often pause and affirm  one of the kids who has a point to make and it is delightful. You can tell that they assume they will be heard and respected. 

Isn't this what we hope for in our life together as Christians? I came across this post below and I would caution that secular kids do often have strong family and community connections and some communities of faith are just not welcoming or can be coercive. Yet I can't help but feel that there is something to what Haidt observes, someone who has devoted a lot of time and focus on "the anxious generation."

In most of the congregations I served there was a strong emphasis on inclusion of young people and that made a difference to our life together. There weren't there as ornaments or as our future. They were "part of the family", then and there, and we all need community in these anxious times. 

For what it's worth...

Camus

@newstart_2024

·

Apr 26

Religious kids used to be noticeably happier than secular ones. After 2012, that gap exploded. Jonathan Haidt dropped this on The Daily Show: Religious children have built-in community, rituals, and traditions that anchor them. Secular kids, especially those handed phones and iPads early, are left floating without real roots. Haidt (who’s an atheist) says non-religious parents now have to work much harder to intentionally create stable social connections, because a network of strangers, bots, and algorithms is not a community — it’s crazy-making. In the smartphone era, the protective effect of community and ritual has weakened dramatically for everyone, but especially for kids growing up without traditional anchors. We traded thick, real-world belonging for thin digital freedom — and we’re watching a generation pay the price in anxiety and meaninglessness. Do you think religious community still gives kids a real advantage in 2025, or can intentional secular parents create equally strong roots without it? What’s worked (or failed) in your experience?

Chernobyl and its Creatures

A roe deer stands in a forest in the state radiation ecology reserve in the 30 km (19 miles) exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor near the village of Babchin, some 370 km (230 miles) southeast of Minsk, March 18, 2011. Still inhospitable to humans, the Chernobyl "exclusion zone" -- a contaminated 30-km radius around the site of the nuclear reactor explosion of April 26, 1986 -- is now a nature reserve and teems with different wild animals. 

During April Earth Month we have the opportunity to celebrate the wonder of the natural world, and to be contrite over the ways humanity defiles what Christians describe as Creation. 

One of the most horrifying examples during my lifetime was the semi-meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, a facility in Russian occupied Ukraine. Because of human error and general incompetence the plant spewed a radioactive cloud that the rest of the world only found about because the usual prevailing winds were reversed for a couple of days sending the toxins toward Scandinavia. Soon an exclusion zone was set up around Chernobyl that resulted in hundreds of thousands of displaced people and the creation of ghost towns which will never be repopulated.

After residents were evacuated following the Chernobyl disaster, the forest began to take over the town of Pripyat in modern-day Ukraine (Credit: Getty Images)

 It's hard for me to believe that this past weekend marked the fortieth anniversary of this catastrophic event. There have been a number of articles and reports about the resurgence of wildlife in the exclusion zone despite the radioactivity. Among these creatures are elk, wolf, roe deer, fox, wild boar, weasel, lynx, pine marten, bear, raccoon dog, mink, ermine, stone marten, polecat, and hare. Wild horses have been reintroduced to the region as well. 

There are more wild animals now that before the disaster. While the radiation is not good for the critters and may cause serious genetic damage it would seem that the presence of humans is worse.  We wouldn't want to consider the exclusion zone as a sort of Noah's ark, a lot of animals have thrived without people. God help us all if the pointless war in Ukraine damages the concrete-entombed reactor. 

I'll note that while humans are still prohibited from entering the zone except for researchers, there were some who returned. They were known as the Babushkas of Chernobyl, elderly women who returned to their rural homes to carry on life, growing gardens, fishing, and generally fending for themselves. Authorities allowed them to stay and even supported them in a limited way, probably because they were already old. Most of them are gone now but they actually seemed to thrive as well for the years remaining to them.

I rewatched award-winning The Babushkas of Chernobyl documentary from 2015 and it is lovely. One scene I'd forgotten shows a number of the women coming together at Easter for a simple feast. At the table they raise glasses of vodka and moonshine and declare "Christ is Risen." He is risen indeed, and we can pray for the resurrection of all Creation.