Jesus Was a Refugee

When Jesus was a refugee

from Herod's cruel tyranny,
an exile in a foreign place,
a child in need of saving grace,
we wonder who it was God led
to shelter him and give him bread.
We wonder too, had we been there,
would we have been as quick to share?

Now risen, Christ still makes his home
with everyone who walks alone,
and, with the people on the street,
still waits in line for bread to eat.
The time is now. We must decide.
Will we pass by the other side,
or will we follow Love's command
and reach out with a helping hand?

When Jesus was a Refugee Author: Mary Nelson Keithahn (2002) 

Tune: NEIGHBORS (Horman) 

Just before Christmas I saw the news about the deaths of 44 migrants who drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Their boat capsized in a strom the only survivor was an 11-year-old girl from Sierra Leone who was aboard with brother and cousin. This disaster barely received coverage because we've become numbed to the barrage of informations about, migrants, displaced persons, asylum-seekers refugees -- whatever term we decide to use to describe those who are so desperate for a new life that they'll do anything to achieve it. Some are fleeing persecution, others escaping famine and war. 

Yesterday I saw a New York Times headline, Something Extraordinary Is Happening All Over the World, so I had to click for more. It was an essay by Lydia Polgreen, part of a series called The Great Migration, exploring how people are moving around the world today. The piece begins: 

We are living in an age of mass migration.

Millions of people from the poor world are trying to cross seas, forests, valleys and rivers, in search of safety, work and some kind of better future. About 281 million people now live outside the country in which they were born, a new peak of 3.6 percent of the global population according to the International Organization for Migration, and the number of people forced to leave their country because of conflict and disaster is at about 50 million — an all-time high. In the past decade alone, the number of refugees has tripled and the number of asylum seekers has more than quadrupled. Taken together, it is an extraordinary tide of human movement.

The surge of people trying to reach Europe, the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia has set off a broad panic, reshaping the political landscape. All across the rich world, citizens have concluded — with no small prompting by right-wing populists — that there is too much immigration. Migration has become the critical fault line of politics. Donald Trump owes his triumphant return to the White House in no small part to persuading Americans, whose country was built on migration, that migrants are now the prime source of its ills.

Because I tend to dive down rabbit holes a search revealed that this huge number of displaced people is roughly the equivalent of the fourth largest country in the world, Indonesia.This is staggering, yet the response of the global community is to threaten possible asylum seekers, lower immigration quotas, seal borders. 

This year, 2025, marks the tenth anniversary of the first wave of Syrian refugees to Canada and some of us were very involved in sponsorships. In our case it was an initiative of our congregation and other communities of faith. We all felt that this was a moral responsibility, and those of us who were Christians felt it was a Gospel imperative.We might shake our heads at the American debacle after an election based on fear and hatred of outsiders brought a cold-hearted tyrant to power again. Yet there is a growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Canada as well and I am saddened. 

Members of the Mostafa Family 

The other day we stopped in for lunch at the small restaurant of a Syrian family who arrived in 2016. They weren't part of our sponsored group of 23 but we would invite them to events at Bridge St Church. Nasr greeted us warmly and we chatted about his sister in Syria during this time of national uncertainty. Two of his kids are in college now, and they own a home and a broadening business. Canada is better for their presence here. 

Let's pray that our hearts not be hardened to those who desire a new life, and not just those who come from relative stability in their countries of origin. Let's remember that the young Jesus was a refugee as part of a Holy Family on the move. 

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”  

 Emma Lazarus

What Will You Do With Your "Rebate"?

 

Doug Ford announces snap election with ballots printed on backs of $200 cheques -- from The Beaverton

We have received our DEBCs -- Dougie Election Bribe Cheques -- and they didn't bounce. These government "rebate" cheques have been a challenge for some bank machines that read deposits. Maybe they're gagging on them.The Ontario government with Premier Doug Ford as its conniving leader has borrowed billions of dollars for this obvious pork-barrelling for the masses and eventually we the taxpayers will be required to pay it back, with interest. 

We decided long before the cheques arrived that we would figure out how to benefit those in need of support with this nonsensical attempt at currying favour with the electorate -- oh, look, the Conservatives have called an election to get a strong mandate they already have! The satirical announcement from the The Beaverton is so clever. 

We will support a couple of food and meal ministries because these are being squeezed to the limit just about everywhere in the province. The gap between haves and have-nots is growing without any cohesive plan by governments to address the crises of food insecurity and lack of housing. We're also looking at the environmental causes to which we contribute as well. Even though we haven't decided about where our vote will go other than ABC -- Anyone But Conservative -- we may make a contribution to the Green Party because this is the strongest voice for environmental issues. 

In the last election the clear winner was the Apathy Party with just over 40% of Ontarians casting a vote, the lowest percentage ever in this province. As a Christian I feel it is my God-given responsibility to pay attention to governance and the party that will best represent the values I hold in the best interests of all Ontarians but especially for those who need a hand up, not just a hand-out. 

An Airport, A Park, & Whistling into the Wind

 

The once-and-not-future federal government made an important announcement on Monday about lands purchased more than 50 years ago in Southern Ontario. A number of farms and other acreage was bought up, mostly expropriated, for an international airport on the other side of the Greater Toronto Area to take pressure off Pearson and alleviate the dreaded gridlock of the 401 corridor. 

This expropriation was significant, totalling approximately 18,600 acres (7,500 hectares) and almost immediately some barns and houses were demolished. I was in my late teens at the time and this Pickering plan meant that farms owned by members of the congregation my father served in Brooklin had their farms or farmland purchased, although some of them leased the land back from the feds pending the start of construction. This all ground to a halt in 1975 when an agreement with the province couldn't be reached for servicing the area. 

There was resistance before the expropriation and it continued through the decades. There would be announcements about reviving the plan and then it would go away. There were a bunch of studies about feasibility, one as recently as 2023. Is there anything governments do better than hire consultants to study issues at great cost to taxpayers. 

During the early 2000s, when I served a congregation in Lakeridge Presbytery of the United Church where some of those airport lands were located, the committee I chaired invited a spokesperson from Lands Over Landings to speak to our coalition of UCC churches about the ongoing issues and we petitioned the federal government to protect what was and is a pristine watershed including prime farmland. I can't recall receiving a reply because, hey, that's the way in often goes with attempts at resistance.We weren't expecting a "road to Damascus" (or Pickering) moment on the part of the involved governments but we wanted to make a statement of some kind. 

I couldn't be happier that this land has been officially transferred to Parks Canada and will become part of  Rouge National Urban Park, now about a decade old. I pray that the agreement will be ironclad, given the possibility of an imminent change in government. 

I've joked that the unofficial motto of the United Church could be "the importance of being earnest" yet I've participated in protest and support marches, written letters regarding various concerns of the day, and even made a presentation to an Ontario roundtable looking at the use of Crown Lands in the province. I've done so while in ministry in several provinces and now as a "civilian" Christian. At times it has seemed as though I've been whistling into the wind, but I will continue to try to carry a tune, God being my helper. 

Hikers walk through a forest in Toronto's Rouge National Urban Park in June 2021. The Rouge, Canada's first national urban park, was created in 2015. (Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press)

Great, Great Christian Art

 

                                                        The Calling of Saint Matthew -- Caravaggio 

Last week I lamented the seemingly endless stream of kitschy and just plain bad art. From Maudlin Mother Mary to Ripped Caucasian Jesus it is a form of eye pollution.

Then their is the great, even sublime, Christian art from the past and to a lesser degree from the present that inspires the sense of transcendence and invitation to the divine that we hope for in religious experience. 

You may be aware that through the years I've written several times about the 16th century painter, Caravaggio, the general reprobate and convicted murderer who created some of the most intriguing biblical scenes of his time. The moody Netflix series, Ripley, set mainly in Italy,connects the psychopathic central character with Caravaggio both in temperament and the use of light and dark (chiarascuro).

I see that the chapel that Tom Ripley visits in one scene of the series has undergone a renovation with new lighting for what has been a dark space. 

Rome's famed 'cradle of Caravaggio, San Luigi de' Francesi, has got a new lighting system for the iconic Cycle of St Matthew painted by the Italian pre-Baroque master in the French church n the late 16th century-early 17th century. "It's a true, full-blown resurrection," said Brother Renaud Escande, administrator of the Pious Establishments of France in Rome and Loreto, who acts under the aegis of the French embassy... Of the three works that are a high point of Western art and Caravaggio's trademark chiaroscuro technique, perhaps the most celebrated is The Calling of Saint Matthew depicting the moment Jesus Christ calls on the tax collector Matthew to follow him.

Is the great art an antidote for the bad stuff? Let's hope so!

                  David and Goliath -- Caravaggio -- the head of Goliath may have been a self-portrait

Auschwitz, Then & Now

A survivor attends a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the camp's liberation at the Auschwitz-Birkenau former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp, in Oswiecim, Poland on Monday. (Oded Balilty/The Associated Press)

 We have been discussing a visit to the Royal Ontario Museum to see the current exhibit about Auschwitz, one of the Nazi death camps, a place of horror where approximately 1.1 million persons, mostly Jews, were killed in less than five years. It's called Auschwitz: Not Long Ago. Not Far Away. 

This extermination of human beings required a level of commitment unprecedented in the history of the world. Ruth isn't sure she wants to go so we will work out a compromise. We went to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem in 2023 and she has been there before so its not as though she won't address the horror known as the Shoah, or Calamity, to Jews. But it is all profoundly disturbing and I understand how she feels. 

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Russians who won't be represented at the solemn commemoration because of their war of aggression against Ukraine. Leaders from many other countries, including Prime Minister Trudeau are present. 

We're hearing that a growing number of Canadian children and young people either don't know about the Nazi "Final Solution" or feel that it has been exaggerated -- about 20% for the latter. Shoah deniers have always existed but this is a disturbing development. So is growing anti-Semitism in Canada manifested in a number of ways and we should all find this troubling and unexceptable.

I also want to see the documentary The Last Musician of Auschwitz which tells the story of cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who at 99 is the only surviving member of the Women’s Orchestra at Auschwitz. This a portion of the description: 

The film also brings to life the testimony of other Auschwitz inmates who played and composed music at the concentration and extermination camp, to explore what music meant in the worst place on earth. 

Woven through the film are a series of new performances of musical works written by prisoners at the camp, and filmed in the shadow of Auschwitz today. Anita recalls how when she arrived at Auschwitz, a chance mention that she played the cello saved her life, by offering her entry into the camp’s official women’s orchestra – one of 15 orchestras ordered to play marches as prisoners forced to carry out slave labour went to and from their work. The film features a performance of Träumerei (Dreams), from Robert Schumann’s Scenes From Childhood, which the notorious camp doctor Josef Mengele asked Anita to play for him - performed here by her son and professional cellist, Raphael Wallfisch.

I will be leading a couple of sessions at Trenton United using the very good United Church document regarding Jewish-Christian relations in a few weeks as one small way of counteracting that trend. We must be vigilant and informed, remembering that Jesus, most of the disciples, many of the early followers, and the apostle Paul, were Jews. 

             White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall with a Jewish Jesus & Persecution in the Background

Listening and Looking with Jesus…in February!

 

This morning I invited the Trenton United Church congregation into what I hope will be a spiritual exercise in attention during the month of February. I heard an intriguing interview with Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore by Matt Galloway on CBC Radio's The Current not long ago. Dr. Passmore is doing research on the connection between attending to the natural world and positive emotions. This is psychological research but the intertwining of mind/body/spirit is so important I was hooked.

I came up with the idea of putting a calendar page for February on one side of a page and the explanation below on the other. Following Dr. Passmore's lead I asked folk to take the page and record something, great or small, each day in the month or as often as they choose. Then on the first Sunday of March we'll take some time at the conclusion of the worship service to share our observations and delights. 

Our TUC administrator made up 30 sheets and I wondered if this was too optimistic. What do I know! We have to create at least 10 more for all the people who wanted one. Some immediately shared what they are experiencing, including a woman who just had major surgery and went for her first walk yesterday to lift her mood. Another said that three deer have been visiting her backyard and I could see the delight on her face. A family across four generations is going to participate. I was really heartened by this. As children of the Creator we are enlivened by the natural world, a realm of true enchantment. 

Holli-Anne Passmore is an associate professor of psychology at the Concordia University of Edmonton. (Submitted by Holli-Anne Passmore)

I reached out to Dr. Passmore  following the interview with an email and she quickly responded. We ended up chatting for an hour thanks to a Google link and while her work is a scientific endeavour she appreciates the spiritual aspect, if maybe not religious for her. I enjoyed the conversation immensely. She has also been interviewed by Britiain's The Guardian and the New York Times about this research. 

February is tough for a lot of people so, God willing, this will help to make it a bit more hopeful. I reminded Ruth yesterday that about six weeks from this date we paddled for the first time in 2024. She didn't roll her eyes for too long. Who knows what 2025 will hold!

Please join in this endeavour of listening and looking, should it appeal to you, wherever you are. 

Listening and Looking with Jesus…in February!

“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.” ― poet Mary Oliver

 "When people notice nature, and not necessarily even just spend extra time, but just [notice] it, we know it enhances our positive emotions…"

Dr. Holli-Anne Passmore -associate professor of psychology at the Concordia University of Edmonton who studies the correlation between nature & well-being

You are invited to take time each day during the month of February to pay attention to the natural world we Christians call Creation. We will look, listen, engage all of our senses, for a few minutes or longer during this shortest month. You might:

Notice your houseplants or the lengthening days from the comfort indoors

Pay attention to the birds at feeders (or the squirrels!)

Go for a walk, skate, ski & consider tracks in the snow, ice on the bay/river, the changing sky, birdsong

Create a snow angel (providing you can get back up again!)

Jot down what you experienced in the squares of the February calendar page, or perhaps create a tiny drawing.

On Sunday March 2 you’ll have the opportunity after worship to share what was meaningful for you as you paid attention to the world around you.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear… Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…. Matthew 6: 25 -26 NRSVue

CBC The Current interview with Dr. Passmore

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/noticing-nature-experts-1.7434315

Setting the Captives Free

 

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and release to the prisoners...

                       Isaiah 61:1 NRSVue

While we can all be grateful for the hostages exchanges between Hamas and the state of Israel we have to be aware that this is the outcome of a ceasefire, not a peace agreement. Hamas is a terrorist organization whose cowardly attacks precipitated a cataclysmic response by Israel that has killed thousands of civilians. There is blood on the hands of both sides, an indelible stain. So many of us have attempted to figure out where we stand during this war and for my part I can find no straightforward answer.

 It is all madness, but that's the was it is with wars, even the supposedly "just" ones. As an aging Christian who follows the Prince of Peace it becomes more difficult to establish justification for any of them. Combatants die, most of them young, and civilians are brutalized and killed. Culture is destroyed and so is the environment. 

The hostages released to Israel today are four young women who are soldiers in the IDF, the Israel Defence Forces. They were in observation posts along the border between Israel and Gaza and they, along with other female soldiers in that role, sensed that trouble was brewing but were ignored by their arrogant and dismissive superiors. As a result, many were killed and others held hostage for these 14 months. 

When we were in Jerusalem during April of 2023 Ruth asked four soldiers if she could have her photo taken with them and they happily replied. She has wondered what has happened to these women during the war, as with the teens in uniform we would see everywhere in the country, sometimes as check-points, sometimes sitting near them on trains.

God of many names, bring this senseless killing to an end and free the captives on both sides, including those imprisoned in Gaza as citizens whose daily life has been crushed. There will be joy in the families of these released women and those of the Palestinians set free. 

Bishop Takes King in America

 

Brilliant!

Bad, Bad Christian Art

 

Some of the greatest artwork in human history has been created for Christian churches and other places of faith. Often the artists didn't share the religious sensibilities of that faith (then again, it could be argued that certain popes didn't either) but they followed the money to create sublime images that have stood the test of time. There are plenty of contemporary artists who explore spiritual themes in evocative and provocative ways as well. 

During the second half of my ministry I was able to use art images within worship as congregations adopted projection for the service as a whole. In my final congregation there was a lovely elderly woman who was initially resistant to the notion of including art images during the sermon. She had been an art procurer for various institutions in Toronto as a profession and was dubious about what might be shown. Happily, my art history background won her over and we had some excellent conversations about the importance of art in her gorgeously adorned condo. 

Then there is the propaganda art that is the blight of religion, an unrivalled level of cheesiness that should be considered blasphemy. Since a fair amount of it has been produced for Sunday School use it could also be labelled as child abuse.Some of the stuff from my childhood was cheerfully racist. 

Relevant has come up with what they've called The Definitive Ranking of Bad Christian Art, and I've included a couple of the images above. It is really impressive, in a hideous way. They did choose not to include the many gag-worthy depictions of a certain convicted felon, no doubt because of the possible backlash against the publication.It is heart-warming to realize that Jesus was with him in the courtroom through the trial. 

Standing Tall in the Pulpit

 

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. ²Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely^* on my account. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

13 ‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

14 ‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 

from the Beatitudes in Jesus' SERMON on the Mount Matthew 5

Please indulge me as I use this blog as a "pulpit" to express some views this morning, although I hope I'm not a bully. 

It's fascinating to see and hear the response of people across America to the sermon preached by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde from the pulpit at the Washington National Cathedral. The inaugural prayer breakfast is a big deal with President Trump, VP Vance and a lot of others were on hand for this tradition where the deity or deities are invoked to provide guidance to the incoming administation.

 Bishop Budde prepared her message well in advance with three points but added a fourth after hearing Trump during his inauguration. The president stated that he was spared from an assassin's bullet by God so that he could achieve a higher purpose. There was a creepily messianic tone to his assertion but Budde diplomatically drew upon this to ask that Trump be merciful toward those who have been marginalized and persecuted. 

The reaction to this sermon, echoing the biblical prophets and Jesus, was mixed,to put it mildly. Thousands have voiced their support but Trump hated it -- the nasty woman should apologize -- while one congressman figures she should be deported (to New Jersey, where she was born?). Lots of conservative Christians woofed and fulminated that she wasn't a real preacher anyway because she is not male. 

This was the same pulpit from which Martin Luther King Jr. preached shortly before his death,  a pointed message that was not well received. Pulpits have always been both practical (preachers are more visible and can project the voice better) and symbols of a divine  authority beyond that of the preacher. The early Protestants (following the original Martin Luther) went in for elevated pulpits for sermons rather than messages or homilies from behind the altar, usually the custom of Roman Catholics. 

                      Martin Luther King's Last Sunday Sermon, Wash. Nat. Cathedral, March 31, 1968

I've stood behind plenty of pulpits including the one in  St. Andrew's, Sudbury, that had the carved inscription facing the preacher "Sir, we would see Jesus" (John 12:21) It was from the King James Version, no less! I should note that as the years went on I still used the pulpit during worship but regularly departed from it to preach closer to the congregation. Preaching is an honour and humbling and to my mind should always be biblical, even if the message must be unsettling. 

President Trump criticized Bishop Budde for being political, a laughable comment given that thousands of sermons have been preached extolling Trump from podiums and pulpits of churches on the religious right. Faith is always political, although preachers should refrain from partisan politics.

 Preaching the truth isn't always well received. Jesus was deemed a threat by a political regime and executed for a message that was interpreted as seditious rather than Good News. 

Karl Barth, the German/American who was one of the greatest theologians of the 21st century said:

Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” (Time Magazine, May 1, 1966.)

It's also been suggested that preaching should "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Isn't that what Bishop Budde was about? I'm confident that she doesn't have a messiah complex, so let's pray for her safety. A reminder of her call for compassion: 

I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared. There are gay, lesbian, transgender children, Democratic, Republican, independent families — some who fear for their lives...“The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. 

Amen! Preach!

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me
    because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
    to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
    and release to the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
    to comfort all who mourn...

From Isaiah 61, one of today's lectionary readings (NRSVue)

                                                                            I Couldn't Resist

\

Bishop Budde Speaking Truth to Power

                                          

                                                      Bishop Mariann Budde and...

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

    and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord is faithful in all his words  and gracious in all his deeds.
 The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.
 You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.
 The Lord is just in all his ways and kind in all his doings.
 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

                              Psalm 145: 13-18 NRSVue

Thank God for Episcopal bishop, Mariann Budde. You might remember Budde from her denunciation of President Trump during his first term when he used an Episcopalian centre near the White House as the backdrop for a bizarre moment of theatre During the George Floyd protest Trump had portesters tear-gassed and removed from Lafayette Square, then walked to the centre, surrounded by the military. There he held a bible (upside down it would appear). Budde and other religious leaders were quick to speak out against this unannounced event and the blasphemous use of scripture as a prop for violence.  

Yesterday there was a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral with President Trump in attendance. There were speakers from more than a dozen religious traditions during the interfaith service, including those from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu traditions, although no evangelicals. 

Budde, the bishop of Washington, appealed to Trump's better nature and the dignity of his role, well aware that these don't exist. Here is an excerpt from the Washington Post report of the prayer service: 

At the inaugural prayer service, the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, made a direct appeal to President Donald Trump to have mercy on the LGBTQ+ community and undocumented migrant workers. 

Referencing Trump’s belief that he was saved by God from assassination, Budde said, “You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” 

The Trump administration has already issued executive orders rolling back transgender rights and toughening immigration policies. When he returned to the White House, Trump was asked about the sermon.

“Not too exciting, was it?” the president said as he walked with staff toward the Oval Office. “I didn’t think it was a good service. They could do much better.”

I so admire Budde's courage in "speaking truth to power", choosing to be a prophetic and unpopular voice (as with other prophets) knowing that the president would not be amused. 

Early this morning Trump posted on Truth Social, his untruthful "newspeak" platform calling her a "radical left hard line Trump hater...who is not very good at her job." “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way." I commented to Ruth yesterday that he would probably label her as nasty, a term he regularly aims toward women who are not manikins or syncophants, misogynist that he is. Sure enough, he added "She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart...”

How did Bishop Budde refrain from whacking the convicted crook with her crook of office?

The psalm portion for yesterday was from Psalm 145 which includes the verses above. Those who have ears to hear, let them hear, Jesus said. 

Notre Dame & Birds of the Air

                                     Notre Dame Cathedral -- Common Kestrel (also found in Canada)

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 

My soul longs, indeed it faints, for the courts of the Lord;

 my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself

where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God

Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah

                        Psalm 83: 1-4 NRSVue 

Here is more positive news related to the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. It hadn't occurred to me that this historic place of worship was home to birds and other species but it makes sense that they lived on, in, and around such a vast structure and that their habitat was destroyed by the fire of 2019. Enter BirdLife International and their partner La Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseauz (LPO.) 

In a time when there is so much gloomy news about the loss of habitat and biodiversity, world-wide, this is a good news and Good News story. After all, Jesus asked us to consider the birds of the air and flowers of the fields to counteract anxiety, so let's take it as gospel.

How wonderful that amidst the formidable challenge of restoration the "dwelling place" for creatures other than human was given respectful consideration. And if the lectern in the sanctuary can feature the eagle, symbol of St. John, along with a rooster atop the rebuilt spire, why not honour living birds? 

Another delightful tidbit about the cathedral restoration is that the "forest" of trusses was created from oak trees harvested from across France. These oaks were planted by jays who bury -- "squirrel away?" -- up to two billion acorns each year for food. Happily, lots of those acorns germinate and reforest the country. 

Here is a description of the creature-friendly endeavour at Notre Dame:  

An urban wildlife sanctuary

More than just a cathedral, Notre-Dame de Paris is an urban ecosystem. Its towering structure and countless hidden crevices offer a sanctuary to species that have adapted to the challenges of city life. The façade’s original openings, designed in the Middle Ages to accommodate construction beams, have become essential nesting sites for birds.

As Paris modernised, the cathedral became an important refuge, as other nesting and wildlife sites in the city diminished. The most common residents of the area include the Common Kestrel (Falco Tinnunculus) whose population across Paris has dwindled to fewer than 30 pairs and the House Sparrows (Passer domesticus), whose numbers plummeted by 75% in just two decades. But you can also find pipistrelle bats, a species of tiny, insectivorous bats.

The devastating fire on April 15, 2019, which destroyed a significant part of the cathedral, drove away much of the wildlife that had long inhabited its surroundings.

Fortunately, LPO was committed to ensuring Notre-Dame once again became a sanctuary for city wildlife. Since 2022, the organization has been working closely with the teams responsible for rebuilding Notre-Dame, integrating ecological considerations into the restoration efforts.

This collaboration included technical assessments to identify and evaluate potential nesting sites, along with proposals for habitat enhancements. Construction teams and artisans received training to recognise and protect wildlife during their work, while LPO naturalists conduct regular inventories of the species present on the site. Additionally, the Paris municipal government expressed its intention to designate the squares surrounding the cathedral as LPO Refuges, which is the largest network of in France. Thanks to six years of hard work with the LPO, the restoration has been carried out in a way that preserves access for birds and bats. Victor Hugo’s cathedral birds can now finally return home.