The Heavenly Earthiness of St. Francis

         

                                                                 St. Francis, Santa Fe Cathedral
 

October 4th is the annual Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi and this year is falls on a Sunday. Tradition holds that Francis died at age 44 on October 3rd 1226, so yesterday was the 800th anniversary of his death. This is a Jubilee Year for Francis in the Roman Catholic Church. 

As most of us are aware now, Francis was born into a wealthy family but as a young man chose a discipline of personal poverty which soon attracted a large following of men and women. During his lifetime the Franciscan order came into being as did the Poor Clares, named after a woman who became a follower of Francis at the age of 17. 

Francis has always been honoured in the Roman Catholic Church, recognized as  a saint shortly after his death. In 1979 Pope John Paul II named Francis as the patron saint of ecology and Pope Francis took this papal name because of Francis' dedication to the poor and marginalized. Pope Francis also honoured Francis for his love of all Creation and his Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home encyclical begins with his namesake's hymn of praise for all that God has brought into being. 

Along with recognizing the 800th anniversary of Francis' death this year has special meaning because Christian leaders from many traditions gathered in the city of Assisi earlier in 2026 to consider how there could be a truly ecumenical commitment to a liturgical day in the Christian calendar  to celebrate Creation and the Creator. The result was designating September 6th as the Feast of Creation in Christ and scripture readings were added to the Revised Common Lectionary. The readings chosen for the three years include some of my favourites, the  "greatest hits" of care and praise for Creation. 

In the midst of an accelerating global climate crisis, inexplicably denied by some world leaders, the willingness of Christians to unite in prayer and action is heartening and essential. 

I was taken by the statue of St. Francis (above) outside the Cathedral in Sante Fe New Mexico when I first came upon it during a visit a number of years ago. I keep coming back to it because of the reminder that while mourning is an aspect of the existential crisis we find ourselves in, we are invited to celebrate God's "earthiness" in the Incarnation. 

What Home Means to Us

 

 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

Today we will make our way to Batawa, just north of Trenton, Ontario for this year's version of Walk 'N Roll for Refugees. This is in support of AURA and the impetus is through Trenton United Church, our home congregation. The cycle option is a reasonable 10 km to accommodate riders of all ages. It's meaningful for us to be involved in such an important initiative each year with our two Trenton grandchildren. 

We are aware that anti-immigrant sentiment has grown in Canada and with that a hardening of our generous hearts toward refugees. It was so impressive when In 2015 Canadians, including folk in the Belleville congregation I served then, sponsored tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. The dedication to providing a practical and warm welcome was evident across the country.  These sponsorships changed the lives of those who arrived for refuge and made us a better nation, in my estimation. 

Today's event will raise money for a worthy organization and make a statement that our faith is grounded in the words of the prophets and the teaching of Jesus. Here is a portion of the news release:  

Trenton United Church invites the community to get moving for a meaningful cause at the 2026 Walk ‘N’ Roll for Refugees, taking place on October 3, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Batawa Community Centre, 81 Plant Street, Quinte West.

Since 2021, members of Trenton United Church and the wider Quinte West community have participated annually in support of the Anglican United Refugee Alliance (AURA).   Over the last six years, the team has raised more than $15,000 in support of AURA’s work with refugees seeking safety and the opportunity to build a new life in Canada.

This year’s theme, “What Home Means to Us,” invites participants to reflect on the security, belonging and hope that come with having a place to call home.

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.