The Barbarity of Capital Punishment

 

                                                                             Christa Pike 

Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him. Suddenly one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it, and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear.  Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place, for all who take the sword will die by the sword.  Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?

                  Matthew 26: 50b -53 NRSVue 

Some days it is difficult to sort through the barbarity of the United States, what with mass shootings, and wars where civilians die in "precision" bombing, not to mention the draconian extraditions of migrants deemed illegal and therefore less than human. 

This week our attention has been drawn to the botched attempt to enact the death penalty on a woman who committed a brutal murder in Tennessee more than thirty years ago. Christa Pike was a teenager when she was sentenced to death although her two accomplices escaped the same fate. We've heard that Pike, now 50, is  being treated in hospital after not one but two attempts to kill her by lethal injection. 

Shane Claiborne, an evangelical Christian who has been a theme speaker with United Church youth, grew up in Tennessee and has pointed out the irony that many Bible Belt states maintain the death penalty, strongly supported by conservative Christians. We've heard from many Christian organizations in the States, the United Nations, and Amnesty International condemning capital punishment in light of what has happened to Pike. 

Catholic bishops in the US have called for the commutation of Pike's death sentence and renewed their condemnation of capital punishment. You might recall that the late Pope Francis officially changed the teachings of the Catholic faith to officially oppose the death penalty in all circumstances, and I'm assuming that American-born Pope Leo supports this stance. 

Canada stopped executing people in 1962 although it didn't abolish the death penalty until 1976. Back in 1960 the General Council of the United Church received a report with the title  Alternatives to capital punishment. I would like to think that the United Church, robust and influential at that time, aided in the decision to stop killing people who killed people. Along the way there has been efforts to reintroduce the death penalty in Canada and the United Church has been vocal in its resistance. Somewhere I have a button that I wore for a time when the debate flared up.

Since capital punishment was abolished half a century ago the per capita murder rate in this country has declined steadily.

There are times when my visceral reaction is that murderers deserve to die. Yet nearly 50 years ago I spent several months working as a chaplain intern in a maximum security prison (Kingston Penitentiary) I spent time, often one on one, with those who had committed reprehensible crimes, including murder, and most of them acknowledged they were guilty and deserved to be punished for their crimes. 

With nearly all of these men who I got to know the death penalty still existed when they committed murder but that didn't serve as a deterrent. Some of them were essentially boys when they committed their crimes and the passage of time did make a difference in their outlook on life, including regardlng violence, and some of them had embraced faith of some kind.  

I concluded then that a society that kills killers undermines itself, even though we might be drawn to retribution and revenge. We risk becoming inhumane. A journalist who has been a witness at several executions says that capital punishment "erodes our souls."

I still feel this way as a Christian and as a member of a civil society. Maybe we should pay attention to what Jesus taught about violence and what he modelled the night before his public execution. 

Perhaps we should all watch the film Dead Man Walking again. 

                                                                            Sister Helen Prejean 

The Symbolism of Bullet-Riddled Stained Glass

                                        Sons of Jacob Synagogue bullet-riddled window 

 

Zebulun shall settle at the shore of the sea;
    he shall be a haven for ships,
    and his border shall be at Sidon.

Genesis 49:13 NRSVue

On Yom Kippur a gunman was stopped in his attempt to enter the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario, with the terrible purpose of killing those who had gathering for the holiest day in the Jewish year.  The police officer who thwarted the attack is still recovering from multiple wounds and the perpetrator died. It was the most violent anti-Semitic act among many in Canada this year 

One graphic image from this incident was a portion of the large stained glass panel in the synagogue facing the street, riddled with bullet holes. Each of these hexagons represents one of the sons of Judah and tribes of Israel, The one which was damaged is obscured in the photo below. 

 I was curious as to why it depicts a sailing ship. I have passed by the synagogue often through the years and honestly I have barely registered the window. Yesterday I stopped on my way home and walked up to it for a better look and could have touched the damage. 

Why a ship with billowing sails? I've done a bit of research and Zebulun and his descendants were known as seafarers from the port of Jaffa, even though the verse mentions Sidon, hence the sailing ship image. They fished and also collected sea creatures whose dye offers the colour of blue incorporated in the flag of Israel. Most Jewish art does not portray the human form so the ship represents Zebulun.

I'm sorry that it took such a ghastly incident for me to become better informed about this window. I realize that I have seen an exterior clock near the Western Wall in Jerusalem that also portrays symbols of the twelve tribes and sons of Jacob and we were in Jaffa three years ago as well. The clock also represents Zebulun with a ship. 

It's gratifying to hear from synagogue president Norm Weddum that nearly nearly $100,000 had been raised from the public to restore and provide better security for Sons of Jacob, even as we know that this attack should never have happened. The congregation plans to resume worship, including Sukkot, a time of rejoicing and thanksgiving. G_d bless them. 

Truth Before Reconciliation

On Sunday a group of White Supremacists staged an event on the Tk'emplups te Secwepemc Reserve near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. They were dressed in black with face masks as is the custom with so many of these hatemongers whose swagger doesn't extend to being identified by others.

They are part of the denialist movement downplaying the grim realities of the Residential School system in Canada. These institutions, run by the Canadian government and several Christian denominations, including the United Church of Canada, were intended to erase Indigenous language and culture for the children who were incarcerated in them. The children were removed from their communities as early as age six and tens of thousands were abused physically and sexually by the staff of the institutions, including priests and nuns and pastors. 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada documented thousands of deaths amongst these children, most from untreated diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia. Often families weren't informed of the deaths and some have spent decades searching for information and the gravesites of their loved ones. This information is ignored by the denialists and it's likely that the majority have never bothered to read any portion of  the final report from the commission. 

The denialists claim that efforts to find burial sites are bogus and while the cowardly supremacists of the weekend were newsworthy there are plenty of "respectable" Canadians who share their views, ignoring the bleak statistics regarding deaths taken from the records of the residential schools. On this  National Day for Truth and Reconciliation we are reminded to acknowledge truth as a step before reconciliation. 

There is a section in the final Truth and Reconciliation Report with the title Canada’s Residential Schools: Missing Children and Unmarked Burials. You might read it or a portion of it as a way of honouring those who died and those who loved them.  https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/trc/IR4-9-4-2015-eng.pdf

As Canadians, as Christians, and specifically as United Church Members we must be vigilant in supporting those who still seek Truth and Reconciliation. Here is a link to United Church resources: https://united-church.ca/social-action/justice-initiatives/reconciliation-and-indigenous-justice/prayer-action-and-community

A screenshot from a video showing a group white nationalists, “appearing to be associated with Second Sons Canada,” according to one report, gathered near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. (IMAGE VIA BRANDI MORIN)

Narnia, Meryl and Juliana of Norwich?

 

With the Church through the ages,

we speak of God as one and triune:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We also speak of God as
    Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer
    God, Christ, and Spirit
    Mother, Friend, and Comforter
    Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,
    and in other ways that speak faithfully of
the One on whom our hearts rely,
the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.

from A Song of Faith, United Church of Canada

The buzz is building for the Narnia movie now filming in London, Great Britain with a release sometime next year. There have been several adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia children's series written by Christian author C.S. Lewis in the 1950s, with varying degrees of success. I'm not sure that it's possible to have a visual portrayal of any portion of this saga that could match what happens when the imagination of the reader or listener encounters the printed page.

The film-maker endeavouring to do so this time is the impressive Greta Gerwig of Lady Bird, Little Women, and Barbie fame. Apparently Narnia: The Magician's Nephew is taking some creative liberties with the story in both time period and aspects of the setting. What has emerged as the most controversial tweak is the voice for one of the characters, the wise and noble lion, Aslan, who is a Christ figure. Gerwig has chosen to cast Meryl Streep in this role -- who can't she play? -- and this has caused a leonine uproar in the conservative Christian sphere. How dare a fictional character who is a lion but may be Jesus be besmirched with a woman's voice? 

Of course, Jesus, the Christ, was a man and the traditional trinitarian formula describes God as "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Yet in a desire to comprehend "God with Us"  Christians through the ages have explored the feminine aspects of the Triune Deity, although often with strong push-back and censure. The Medieval mystic, Juliana of Norwich was one of them:

It is a characteristic of God to overcome evil with good.

Jesus Christ therefore, who himself overcame evil with good, is our true Mother. We received our ‘Being’ from Him ­ and this is where His Maternity starts ­ And with it comes the gentle Protection and Guard of Love which will never ceases to surround us. 

Just as God is our Father, so God is also our Mother. 

Jesus, as our true Mother? Heretical, some would claim. This makes the words from the United Church Song of Faith seem rather tame, don't you think? Perhaps we turn to the holy words of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for guidance:

“But as for Aslan himself, the Beavers and the children didn’t know what to do or say when they saw him. People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”

So, it may be that Gerwig's "terrible" choice for Aslan is inspired, if not providentially consistent with Lewis' seemingly contradictory vision. Someone has asked whether Christians don't have more important things to do than worry about the voice of Aslan. I hope the film lives up to the hype.

Rivers of Death and Life

  

 He said to me, “Mortal, have you seen this?” Then he led me back along the bank of the river.  As I came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side and on the other.

Ezekiel 47: 6-7 NRSVue 

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

We are a week away from the conclusion of Creation Time or the Season of Creation or Creationtide, depending on the Christian tradition. Earlier in the month Christians everywhere were invited to reflect on verses from the book of the prophet Ezekiel which I hadn't seen before supporting the theme of Living Water. There are actually more verses in Chapter 47 worth our consideration including those above with a vision of a river lined by trees that I realize are reflecting in another vision found in Revelation,  the last book of the New Testament. 

I've been more aware of river stories during these weeks because of the scripture and the Living Water focus. 

Last week thousands gathered in Toronto for a rally at Queen's Park in solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of Grassy Narrows a small community in Northern Ontario that has been poisoned for more than half an century. It's estimated that 90% of the residents have health issues related to this poisoning including Minamata Disease. Back in April the Globe and Mail described what transpired: 

In one of Canada’s worst cases of environmental racism, the Dryden Chemical Company in northern Ontario released more than 9,000 kg of mercury into the Wabigoon-English River system from 1962 to 1970. This poisoned multiple generations of Anishinaabeg from the First Nations communities of Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows) and Wabaseemoong (White Dog). The province eventually ordered the plant to stop the practice, but according to the Canadian Environmental Law Association, airborne emissions continued until the company ceased using mercury-based processing in October, 1975.

The recent protest drew attention to the ongoing reality of mercury in the river, the failure to clean up the problem, and lack of medical support for residents. When we celebrate the visions, biblical and otherwise, of clean water, flowing living water, we must include environmental justice and the ways in which contamination of waterways often affect the marginalized in societies the most. One of the Grassy Narrows participants, Chrissy Isaacs, said: 

Our people were river people, and our main food source was from the river and our livelihood was from the river. That was robbed from me from birth. I never got that chance to actually be able to really live that part of my life.”

In a much more hopeful story, the salmon are running again in the Klamath River, a 430 kilometre waterway from Oregon to California. For centuries Indigenous Peoples along this river depended on salmon for their livelihood and culture as well. Hydro-electric dams were built blocking the salmon run. Those dams have finally been removed and to everyone's astonishment the salmon returned almost immediately and have reoccupied most of their range. 

Change can happen, justice can be realized, and we can share our visions for the restored world the Creator intends. 

Pope Leo & Religious Fervour in France

 

                                                        Champs Elysees during the Papal Visit

Europe has become an increasingly secular region, even though thousands of Christian church buildings dot the countryside of a number of countries. France is one of them, not only in the exodus of worshippers and distancing from traditional religious roots but in the restrictive policies of the government.

During the past few days Pope Leo has been in France and we might assume that the head of a struggling Roman Catholic church would receive a tepid welcome. This has not been the case and it may be that the pontiff is surprised by the numbers of people who have participated in public events, many of them young adults.

An estimated 800,000 lined the Champs Elysees for a drive-by on his way to celebrate an outdoor mass. I notice that there were many nuns there in habits. Strictly speaking, was this an illegal religious demonstration? I'm confident that no one was arrested or fined.

 Leo will celebrate a mass in majestic Notre Dame Cathedral with its majestic sanctuary, almost destroyed a few years ago.  Leo stood outside Notre Dame last week and grew emotional as thousands sang Salve Regina. 

These remarkable displays of religious fervour seem to support evidence of a renewed interest in Christianity in France, particularly amongst younger people. The number of young adult baptisms has grown significantly in the past few years, including a 25% increase in 2025.

Huge crowds to honour popes are not new and often as Protestants we attempt to understand the religious rockstar flavour of these papal visits. I imagine Pope Leo, a humble man, is praying that this is evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit sparking a renewed desire to follow the light of Christ in a world that seems increasingly confusing and dark.  

Orange Shirt Sunday

 

Today we wear orange

to remember and honour all the Indigenous children who went to residential schools.

Today we wear orange and we pray
for the residential school and intergenerational survivors who are still struggling.

Today we wear orange and we are thankful
for those who speak the truth, and who work to shine a light on injustice.

Today we wear orange in the name of compassion and the spirit of truth and reconciliation.

Help us, God, to remember and act on this this every day.

Amen.

We put up our Every Child Matters flag a week ago, a bit earlier than usual this year for a reason. In Canada September 30th is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day -- Every Child Matters. Established to honour Residential School Survivors, their families, and those who never returned home, it serves as a reminder of the lasting impacts of the Residential School system in which several Christian denominations were complicit, including the United Church of Canada.

The orange shirt aspect is inspired by the story of Phyllis Webstad having her orange shirt taken away on the first day at a residential school. The movement began as a grassroots initiative in 2013 in BC and is now recognized by the Canadian government, many organizations and school boards, and by individuals across the country. 

The United Church encourages acknowledgement with Orange Shirt Sunday, which this year is September 27 -- tomorrow. The sanctuary at Trenton United will be decorated appropriately and we're encouraged to wear orange to our worship service tomorrow. 

One reason for putting up our flag earlier is that there is a growing denialist movement that publicly attacks Webstad personally, also claiming that Residential Schools weren't so bad and children didn't die there despite evidence in school records. They actually produce orange tee-shirts with denialist slogans.  It's wicked and disheartening. 

Still, rather than despairing we will affirm Truth and Reconciliation as a matter of justice and faith.