Advent Antidotes & Invitations 2025

 

1 All earth is waiting to see the Promised One,

and open furrows await the seed of God. 

All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty; 

it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.

2 Thus says the prophet to those of Israel, 

'A virgin mother will bear Emmanuel.' 

One whose name is 'God with us', our Saviour shall be, 

through whom hope will blossom once more

within our hearts.                   Voices United 5

Yesterday I lamented "Advent Calendar Creep" the ominipresent appropriation of the Christian season of Advent for commerical purposes. It is antithetical to the message and ministry of Christ but what is the antidote? 

It seems obvious that we seek out the resources and resolve to be Christians in the midst of secularization, not to impose it on others in a multicultural society, rather to contemplate and celebrate our own story. 

A few years ago I blogged about a gem of a book by Galye Boss with David Klein as the illustrator. As you can see below, the title is All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings. That was nearly a decade ago and for this year Boss has created a children's version of the book that is really for all ages. I have them both now and the illustrations for All Creation Waits 2.0 are wonderful as well. 

Each day through the 24 days of Advent a different creature is featured and are meant to be gradually revealed and savoured through the season. I hope you can make out Boss's "Dear Reader" introductory page which upholds the "expectant waiting" aspect of Advent. She describes the book as a form of Advent calendar with pages numbered to correspond with the 24 days of the season. There is even an online Explorer's Guide as a companion to the new version of the book. 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/supadu-imgix/paracletepress-us/pdfs/discussion_guides/DG-9781640608283.pdf

I delight in both of these books because often Christian Creation resources are about what we should be earnestly doing --always important -- rather than what we are noticing and receiving. It is important to remember that all Earth is waiting for the coming of Christ, not just humans. 

During this week I may share some more ideas about how Advent can be what it is intended to be for Christians in gentle but intentional ways. 

3  Mountains and valleys will have to be made plain, 

open new highways, new highways for our God, 

who is now coming closer, so come all and see, 

and open the doorways as wide as wide can be.

4  In lowly stable the Promised One appeared.

Yet, feel that presence throughout the earth today, 

for Christ lives in all Christians and is with us now; 

again, on arriving, Christ brings us liberty.

Advent Calendar Creep

                                                                  Traditional Advent Calendar

The season of Advent in the Christian calendar anticipates the "coming of Christ" from three different perspectives:

 the physical nativity in Bethlehem, 

the reception of Christ in the heart of the believer, 

and the eschatological Second Coming.

Folks, now they're coming for Advent...

 The generation of those who could remember simple gifts at Christmas, often homemade, with perhaps an orange in the stocking, is almost gone.Baby Boomers decided that nothing succeeds like excess when it comes to Xmas spending. We are also the generation that concluded that while we have holidays as a celebration of Christ's birth in the first place it is verboten to acknowledge this reality in most public settings. 

For a long time Easter, the other Christian biggie, was safe, albeit with minor commercialization, but the spending creep has taken over in this season as well. Celebrate the miracle of the Resurrection? God, or no god forbid, as we've seen the alarming secularization of this season as well.

What could possibly happen to Advent, other than becoming the runway for Christmas? 

Well, make way for the "Advent Calendar." Advent Calendars were traditionally a way to build anticipation for Christmas with little doors or pockets containing maybe a verse of scripture and a treat for each day during the four weeks of this contemplative time in the Christian calendar. The one we used with our children was laughable simple but they still had a sense of excitement each day.

                                           from the Globe and Mail article, November 14, 2025

 In the past decade retailers have cottoned to the possibilites for selling secular versions of these calendars. And with this has come the obscenely expensive versions, some with swag costing thousands of dollars. A couple of weeks ago the Globe and Mail offered The best Canadian advent calendars this holiday season elbows up baby Jesus! The cheapest was $70 and the most expensive was about 300 dollars more. You can hit a gift-giving home run with a Blue Jays calendar. 

I hear about the growing number of people in our country crushed by food insecurity and debt. Last years statistics tell us that at least 60,000 Canadians are homeless on any given night. There are probably hundreds of thousands who will are anxious about the pressures of the season. The gap between rich and poor gets wider. How did we get here?

I may be a curmudgeon but I actually get emotional about all this. It seems soullous to me. There is nothing in the definition above about the arrival of retail excess. 

Tomorrow Advent 2025 commences and I will do my best to observe as a Christian with a sense of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. God being my helper. Join the resistance!

Come, Lord Jesus, Come

 

Mr. Scorsese & Christianity

We have been watching the five-part Apple TV series about revered film-maker Martin Scorsese. It seems that anybody who is anybody in the motion picture world is in awe of his lifetime contribution to the industry and story-telling on the big screen. We have seen a few Scorsese dramas and documentaries but a lot of his work is known for violence, for which we have limited tolerance especially as we age. 

He is a charismatic and candid figure in a quiet way, admitting to his own demons perhaps born in the raw Italian-American neighbourhood of his youth in New York City. The series has reminded me that Scorsese began studies for the priesthood but quickly realized he wasn't good at it. It seems that he has addressed the demons and his spiritual longing in various films including a documentary series called Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints. I think that once upon a time I blogged about his historical drama, Silence, about the travails of Portugese missionaries in Japan. It is another film with lots of violence that explores spiritual themes. 

Mr. Scorsese also explores the world-wide response to his film The Last Temptation of Christ, inspired by the Nikos Kazantzakis novel of the same name. The last temptation in the novel and film was for Jesus to forego death on the cross for the sake of his love for Mary Magdalene. When Scorsese pitched the film the question was why he would want to make such a controversial picture and his answer was that he wanted to get to know Jesus better. If Jesus was both human and divine he must have experienced human emotions, desires, temptations. This was an uncomfortable incarnation rather than a sanitized one.

Scorsese commented at the time: 

The beauty of Kazantzakis' concept is that Jesus has to put up with everything we go through, all the doubts and fears and anger. He made me feel like he's sinning—but he's not sinning, he’s just human. As well as divine. And he has to deal with all this double, triple guilt on the cross.

While this is honest theological exploration both the novel and the film were condemned by the Roman Catholic church and irate Christians everywhere, most of whom had not read or seen them. Why is it that people who would never watch certain films are insistent that no one else does either? You can see above that 25,000 gathered for one protest. 

The Last Temptation was banned in many communities and countries and the critics were certain that Scorsese, now 83,  was headed for hell, but he doesn't seem overly worried by the prospect. 

We have a couple more episodes to go so it will be interesting to see if there is any more God-talk from Mr. Scorsese. 

We are not far from Christmas, our Christian celebration of the Incarnation, although the safer part where a baby is born. Yet with the cradle there is always the foreshadowing of the cross and the challenging questions and answers that come with our God-with-Us faith. 

Thomas King, Accidental Pretendian?

More than a quarter century ago I listened to a CBC Radio show called the Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour a 15-minute segment (nuck, nuck) that poked fun at cultural stereotypes held by White People and "Indians." It was clever and often biting. 

The show had a number of regular segments, including:

• Gracie's Authentic Traditional Aboriginal Recipes, including puppy stew, fried bologna, and Kraft Dinners
• The Authentic Indian Name generator, featuring three wheels that could automatically create names like "Stewart Coffee Armadillo" or "Rosemarie Clever Tuna"
• Gracie's Conversational Cree, which taught simple but useful phrases, such as, "Please ask the chauffeur to bring the car around" and "How long will we be in port?"
• Recommendations from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples were ironically highlighted.

I liked the show because of its irreverance and because I was doing my best at that time to develop a greater understanding of Indigenous culture and to come to grips with the complicity of Christian denominations in Canada, including the United Church, with the horrors of the Residential School system that did it's best to extinguish Indigenous identity. A lot of that exploration was heavy stuff and the Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour made it's point in a humorous way. 

The host, Thomas King, is an author who went on to write many books including the excellent The Inconvenient Indian, the novel Indians on Vacation, and the Dreadfulwater mystery series -- I've read them all. He has taught Indigenous studies at the University of Lethbridge and received the Order of Canada for exposing “the hard truths of the injustices of the Indigenous peoples of North America.”

A family photo shows Thomas King, far left, and his brother Chris to his left, with their mother and cousins.Thomas King

King has written from the perspective of being part Cherokee, or so he thought. He has discovered that he has no Indigneous heritage and is devastated that the story he was told by his mother from childhood wasn't true. He chose to explore rumours that he wasn't Indigenous and the evidence is clear that he is what we might call an Accidental Pretendian. He just wrote an essay in the Globe and Mail in which he describes being told that there is no background in the Cherokee Nation: 

As you might expect, I didn’t want to believe her. I was sure she had made an error in her research, hadn’t gone back far enough, but as she talked about what she had found, as we matched the pieces of family history that I had with the pieces of family history that she uncovered, it became clear that the one piece missing was any connection to the Cherokee.

It’s been a couple of weeks since that video call, and I’m still reeling. At 82, I feel as though I’ve been ripped in half, a one-legged man in a two-legged story. Not the Indian I had in mind. Not an Indian at all.

I first read an online contention, by a Cherokee researcher,  that King wasn't Indigenous several years ago and commented to Ruth, my partner, that I hoped this wasn't true. Then it seemed to evaporate...until now. 

We'll see where this all goes. I have the feeling that despite the resonance with the scandal around Buffy St. Marie and other pretendians what has unfolded with King may be different, but we'll find out. I know that I benefitted from the insights of The Inconvenient Indian.  

In his confessional essay King reminds us that the sign-off for Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour was "Stay calm! Be brave! Wait for the signs!" My heart goes out to Indigenous people who feel that they may have been exploited and betrayed once more. The sign-off could be a prayer for all of them, but it shouldn't need to be. 

The Zorg & Britain's Abolitionist Movement

 

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.

The "Best Books of 2025" are emerging and one non-fiction volume on a number of them is The Zorg. I will contritely return my library copy, a couple of days overdue. It was a compelling and disturbing story, told well. 

It is about a specific 18th century ship whose Dutch name ironically translates as "care" involved in the vast trade of enslaved human beings which resulted in immense wealth for a few. Overcrowded ships with incompetent crews carried kidnapped Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to British colonies. 

On one such voyage the Zorg encountered bad weather and navigational miscalculations led to diminishing food and water onboard. The captain ordered that 130 of the 442 captives be tossed overboard and when the ship returned to England the owners sued their insurers for losses, and a jury decided they must do so. An anonymous letter about the actual circumstances to a newspaper resulted in an expose piece and resulted in a new trial which overturned the previous ruling.

This publicity awakened the British public to the horrors of the slave trade and energized the abolition movement.   

I was particularly moved by the chapter called Victory for the Whole Human Race. It describes how Christians including Quakers, the converted slave ship captain, John Newton (author of the hymn Amazing Grace), William Wilberforce, and a host of others devoted themselves to the abolition of slavery despite repeated setbacks. In that era only 10 percent of British men and no women had the right to vote and many members of the House of Lords became wealthy from the New World plantations where enslaved people toiled. 

One of most influential of those Christians was Thomas Clarkson, someone I'd never heard of before. An Anglica priest, he wrote a number of essays decrying slavery beginning during his seminary days.  Over the course of decades he rode an estimated 60,00 kilometres doing research about the slave trade, interviewing those who had served on slave ships, and speaking to groups across England. Clarkson's health was seriously compromised by his relentless travel. 

Eventually the Slavery Abolition Act was passed in Britain 1838, the first of its kind in the world. The colonies, including Canada, followed suit, making this country a haven for self-liberated enslaved people from the United States. One of the concessions to get the act passed was paying the modern equivalent of billions of dollars in compensation to enslavers, an incurred debt for Britain only retired in 2015. 

This is a well-written book telling a story we all need to hear. 

Oh yes, the great British painter, JMW Turner, who believed in a Creator God, was inspired to paint the gruesome scene of the murders of the Zorg captives once the evidence came to light.  

Time for an End of Gossip Sunday?

My brothers and sisters, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill[a] the law of Christ.  For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves.  All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride.  For all must carry their own loads.

                           Galatians 6: 1-5 NRSVue

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.  Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.

            Ephesians 4: 29-31 NRSVue

Back in September I blogged about a book with the intrigying title You Didn't Hear This From Me: (mostly) true notes on gossip by Kelsey McKinney. Apparently she has a podcast on the subject called Normal Gossip. The book is entertaining and thoughtful and, lo and behold, there is a chapter on gossip from her perspective as someone who was raised in what seems to be an evangelical church. To quote myself: 

She notes that there are only eight verses in the bible specifically about gossip and thousands on caring for the poor. In the King James Version of the bible the word gossip isn't used at all because at that time it didn't have the connotation that slander did. Actually, we have allowed "gossip" to become cozy enough that it has lost its schmeck and we might do well to return to using slander or talebearer.  McKinney points out, rightly, that while gossip/slander/talebearing is condemned it isn't really defined. Is it any conversation about someone else when that person isn't present or does there have to be a certain threshold of nastiness? 

I'm circling back to this topic because since I wrote I've become aware of two situations involving clergy I know who have been dealing with destructive gossip. 

In one instance the minister and his wife have separated and they are moving toward divorce.They worked at resolving their differences for a long time but they eventually concluded that they need to move on. Very quickly false rumours started within the congregation and a beloved pastor is now treated miserably by some people, including some who are divorced and were probably subject to nasty talk themselves. 

In the other, a pastor and church leaders are dealing with a complex pastoral situation where the circumstance and details can't be revealed. They are following United Church guidelines in this regard and have been advised that legally they must maintain privacy. Again, this hasn't prevented destructive speculation and gossip and those who are addressing the situation faithfully are being maligned rather than supported.  

I know that some readers have also been caught in the swirl of similar circumstances within congregations and it has left emotional and spiritual scars. The fooishness and meaness can be profoundly discouraging. Why does the Body of Christ end up sounding like a mean kids high school nightmare? 

I wonder if the United Church needs to have an annual End of Gossip Sunday so that the subject can be addressed from the pulpit without, well, starting rumours? In those services we could make an attempt to define gossip. They might include prayers for repentance and reconciliation. 

Maybe there could be the reminder that in Christ we are called to build one another up rather than tear one another down, as the passages from the apostle Paul's letters to the Galatians and Ephesians tell us. 

Canada, China, & Religious Freedom

 

The Catholic church on Wangfujing Street in Beijing was built by Italian missionaries in 1655. Churches are forced to display portraits of Xi Jinping alongside the cross. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Prime Minister Mark Carney has realized that "elbows up" in the knife fight with Donald Trump is not a good plan so he is trotting the globe on Canada's behalf in search of new markets and trade agreements. This is laudable and while the faltering US economy and business pressure may lead to the reduction of crippling tariffs that hurt Americans as much as Canadians we can't depend on the States anymore. 

I certainly feel that Carney is the best person for this demanding role and I marvel at his stamina. I also have concerns about his willingness to "let bygones be bygones" with regimes that have in the past and are still guilty of egregious human rights violations. These crimes are not gone and result in the incarceration and deaths of far too many people. 

When Carney met with China's Xi Jinping at the end of October he spoke of "sensitivities" and "irritants" between the two countries as he attempted to overcome the trade barriers and boycotts that are hurting Canadian agricultural and manufacturing exporters. This seems disingenuous to me when we know what is happening right now in the suppression of religious freedom in China. The Wall Street Journal recently published an article with the title: 

Why China Still Can’t Tolerate Christians and Other Believers: Recent arrests highlight Beijing’s deep ideological hostility to religious life, which flourishes even in the face of repression

The recent arrest of the prominent Beijing pastor Ezra Jin and several other “unregistered” church leaders reminds the world—if any reminder were needed—of China’s awful record of religious repression. Known for his efforts to maintain an independent religious community known as Zion Church, Jin joins a long list of believers harassed and detained by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The crackdown on Christians fits a broader pattern that in recent years has included the persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, Uyghur Muslims, and members of smaller groups such as Falun Gong.

Don't you wonder what the "two Michaels", Spavor and Lovrig feel about this thaw between Canada and China? They were Canadians unlawfully detained in China for years as political pawns, including months in solitary confinement 

While the Canadian government has been forced into a global mess not of its own making when it comes to trade and political relationships we need to maintain our moral and ethical bearings. 

The Reign of Christ in 2025

 

                                                  Christ Between the Two Thieves -- Rembrandt 

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus  there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by watching, but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him,“This is the King of the Jews.” 

 One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!”  But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?  And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in[g] your kingdom.”  He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:33-43 NRSVue -- Gospel reading for Reign of Christ Sunday

4 Crown him the Lord of love;

behold his hands and side,

rich wounds yet visible above,

in beauty glorified.

All hail, Redeemer, hail!

for thou hast died for me;

thy praise shall never, never fail

throughout eternity.

Crown Him With Many Crowns -- Voices United 211 

This is Reign of Christ Sunday for Christian denominations which observe the liturgical calendar. We used to call it Christ the King Sunday in the United Church and while the new title may seem more inclusive the real question is why we single out a Sunday that uses the terminology of royalty to describe peasant Jesus, the crucified Christ. There has always been the risk of triumphalist misinterpretation, including in our hymns.  

We are seeing in the world today a form of Christianity that is to my mind an abomination, a betrayal of who Jesus was and is. The Christian Nationalism Jesus of the Religious Right in the States and Canada  perverts our faith to justify misogyny and racism and nativism. I read that in the United Kingdom the followers of Tommy Robinson, the dangerous far-right leader, are returning to church even when they don't believe in God. They do so as a statement against Islam and march through the streets carrying crosses and other Christian symbols. This is blasphemy. The witness of the Christ of love, compassion, forgiveness and redemption is being perverted.

When Pontius Pilate asked during Jesus' trial if he was a king Jesus responded saying

“My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom belonged to this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”

John 18: 33-38 NRSVue 

Many congregations choose not to observe Reign of Christ Sunday anymore and I understand why. Still, we need to hear Jesus' voice and uphold the truth that his kingdom challenges earthly conventions and that the message of the cross upholds the dignity of all persons. 

We are called to be the Church:

    to celebrate God’s presence,
    to live with respect in Creation,
    to love and serve others,
    to seek justice and resist evil,
    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
       our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
    God is with us.
We are not alone.

    Thanks be to God.

from A New Creed -- United Church of Canada

Kissing Goes Back 21 Million Years? Holy!

 

   The Kiss Of Judas in The Garden Of Gethsemane -- Giotto,  Scrovegni Chapel.-14th C Padua. Italy. 

Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be restored; listen to my appeal; 

agree with one another; live in peace; 

and the God of love and peace will be with you. 

 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

2 Corinthians 13: 11-12 NRSVue

You must remember this

A kiss is still a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by...

 It turns out we humans have been smooching for a long, long time. Researchers from Oxford University opine that kissing predates what we would term humanity although they can only speculate why kissing got started. According to a BBC article: 

Their study suggests that the mouth-on-mouth kiss evolved more than 21 million years ago, and was something that the common ancestor of humans and other great apes probably indulged in.

The same research concluded that Neanderthals may have kissed too – and that humans and Neanderthals may even have smooched one another.

The scientists studied kissing because it presents something of an evolutionary puzzle - it has no obvious survival or reproductive benefits, and yet it is something that is seen not just in many human societies, but across the animal kingdom.  

I immediately thought of Judas kissing Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, an act of betrayal that led to Jesus'  arrest and crucifixion. Was a duplicitous kiss essential to our salvation? 

There are dozens of kisses in the bible, acts of greeting and even intimacy, although not amorous. In the New Testament early Christians were instructed to kiss one another within the context of worship. 

In our congregation the pandemic put an end to even touching hands during the moment of greeting in the Sunday service. I think Rev. Isaac should get us all to make chimp noises and lay a kiss on one another for a change, although that might be his last Sunday. 

                                                              Us, Lower Right, Before our Morning Coffee

An Award of Shame for Canada

 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it,

for he has founded it on the seas and established it on the rivers.

  Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?

    And who shall stand in his holy place? 

Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, 

   who do not lift up their souls to what is false 

   and do not swear deceitfully. 

They will receive blessing from the Lord

    and vindication from the God of their salvation.

                                           Psalm 24:1-5 NRSVue 

Canada has been given an award at the COP30 climate conference in Brazil! Before you head out to dance in the streets it isn't a prize of which we should be proud. Canada's reputation as a global climate leader took a hit Tuesday when it was awarded the "fossil of the day" title at the UN Climate Conference in Brazil.

Climate Action Network International has issued the satirical "fossil of the day" title to Canada, the first time in more than a decade, for "flushing years of climate action down the drain." The current government under seems to be moving away from commitments to reduce carbon emissions with alarming speed and Prime Minister Carney is in the United Arab Emirates touting our shared status as energy superpowers, meaning the production and sale of fossil fuels.

 A glimmer of hope is that on Monday Carney said that Canada respects its commitments under the Paris Agreement and intends to achieve them. This was the first time in months that the government clarifies  its climate policy. and it was enough for Green Party Leader Elizabeth May to vote with the government to pass the budget. I do hope that gaining May's vote wasn't the reason for the feds to make their statement but the timing suggests it was.

I want Canada to be a world leader when it comes to addressing the climate emergency and as I've commented before I'm weary of unfilled election promises.While I am into the fossil stage of my own earthly existence I want to have hope for the planet in which my children, grandchildren, and future generations will live. 

So much of scripture praises the Creator God and the abundance of Creation. As a Christian I want to be mindful and vigilant in my own life "to live with respect in Creation" and for every level of Canadian government to do the same. 

I pray that we will be "flushed with success" as we honour commitments. 

Yet Another West Bank Tragedy

 Aysam Jihad Labib Naser, 13,died Nov 11, one month after Israeli forces attacked his family while they were harvesting olives. 

“If you besiege a town for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you must not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them. Although you may take food from them, you must not cut them down. Are trees in the field human beings that they should come under siege from you?

Deuteronomy 20:19 NRSVue 

Earlier this month this West Bank boy died after inhaling tear gas a few weeks earlier. He had encouraged his mother to sit in the shade of the trees while he harvested. As I have noted before there have been relentless attacks and violence perpetrated on the Palestinians of this territory. Extremists from Jewish settlements have beend emboldened due to the conflict of the past two years but this has been going on for decades, often with the protection of the Israeli military. When the Palestinians resist on their agricultural land and in their orchards they run the very real risk of reprisals by the military, including the use of tear gas.

 I have been reluctant to note that the attacks are orchestrated by those living settlements in the West Bank deemed illegal by many countries, includiing Canada. My reluctance to describe this stems from the rise of anti-semitism around the world. Yet these desuctive incidents are usually carried out by those who insist that they have a right to take over this land and drive out Palestinians justified by their  interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures. In my estimation this is a distortion of the bible and a disgrace to the spirit of justice in Judaism. There are lots of Jews who agree, including Israeli citizens. Some have travelled into the West Bank to help with the harvest and act as human rights monitors. 

The escalation of violence has been condemned by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee who has described violence by illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as “terrorism." The ambassador said Israeli authorities are seeking to bring those accountable to justice. “Those who are committing acts of terror, even if they are Israelis, they are going to feel the full force of the law.” More than 1,076 Palestinians have been killed, and 10,700 others injured in attacks by the army and illegal settlers in the occupied territory since October 2023. 

                                                     Destroyed Olive Tree in the West Bank 

Of course, while Huckabee makes these statements and Israeli PM Netanyahu essentially agrees with him the number of incidents rises and the IDF is often on the scene, turning a blind eye to the violence.  At times IDF bulldozers have razed hundreds of olive trees with little or no justification. 

A spokesperson for the organization Defense for Children International -- Palestine (DCIP) said: 

“Aysam should have been able to pick olives with his family in peace, and instead Israeli forces targeted him and his family with deadly force,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at DCIP. “Targeting a child who poses absolutely no threat to a soldier’s life is shockingly routine for Israeli soldiers, who are never held accountable for killing Palestinian children.”

As the grandfather of an almost 13-year-old grandson Aysam's death is particularly poignant. I am also appalled that the harvests that feed Palestinian people who are struggling with food insecurity and malnutrition. How is this not genocide? How can anyone believe that this is what God would desire or bless? Enough. 

The Repatriation of Indigenous Artifacts has a Date

 

 “In this year of Jubilee you shall return, every one of you, to your property.  When you make a sale to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor, you shall not cheat one another.  When you buy from your neighbor, you shall pay only for the number of years until the Jubilee; the seller shall charge you only for the remaining crop years. If the years are more, you shall increase the price, and if the years are fewer, you shall diminish the price, for it is a certain number of harvests that are being sold to you.  You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.

                   Leviticus 25: 13-17 NRSVue

We now know that the Roman Catholic church will fulfill a commitment made by the late Pope Francis to repatriate artifacts to Indigenous groups in what we call Canada. There is a specific date, December 6, and that initially they will go the Canadian Museum of History to be assessed for conservation purposes.

Bringing them home in 2025 is symbolically significant because many of them were sent to the Vatican as part of an exhibition of artifacts from around the world on the occasion of the Jubilee of 1925. Pope Pius XI wanted to organize in the Vatican a Missionary Exposition in order to illustrate the reach of the Catholic missions in the world and, at the same time, to make the cultural, artistic and spiritual traditions of all peoples known.There were more than 100,000 works on display, from all over the world, exhibited in twenty-six pavilions specially built for the occasion and more than a million people came to see them.

One of the challenges in repatriation is that the Roman Catholic church has insisted that these were gifts rather than plunder so should remain in the Anima Mundi (Soul of the World) museum. Of course we now know that missionary work by Christian entities was often soul-stealing, including the Residential Schools in Canada. Too often this was an extension of colonialization and the papal Doctrine of Discovery rather than sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. 

Although the repatriation of these 62 items is welcome news, the process by which they will be returned has raised strong concerns amongst Indigenous groups.  This from a New York Times article:

Cody Groat, a Kanyen’kehaka member of the Six Nations of the Grand River and an assistant professor of history and Indigenous studies at Western University in London, Ontario, said he was dismayed the Vatican is not transferring the items directly to Canada’s three main Indigenous groups.

Instead, it is giving them to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose senior leadership met with the Pope on Saturday. Ms. Napier said ownership of the items would belong to the bishops’ conference “very temporarily” and once they were returned to Canada they would be turned over to the Indigenous communities.“They don’t want this to be the Vatican repatriating directly to communities and they’ve never really articulated why,” Professor Groat said. “We’ve seen a lot of First Nations articulating that the Church wants to maintain power in this relationship.”He nevertheless called the planned transfer of the artifacts “consequential” and “meaningful.”

I heard an interview with Professor Groat this morning and felt that I was better informed about what has seemed like a positive intention made increasingly complex. For many Indigenous groups these are more than just historical artifacts, they are more like elders to be treated with reverence. I pray that there is a positive outcome. 

This too is a Jubilee year in the Roman Catholic church and the themes of restoring what was lost and setting free those who were enslaved are powerful. 

 When [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,  and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to set free those who are oppressed,
 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4: 16-19 NRSVue 

Pope Francis arrives for a pilgrimage at the Lac Saint Anne, Canada, on July 26, 2022. The Vatican on Thursday, March 30, 2023, responded to Indigenous demands and formally repudiated the “Doctrine of Discovery,” the theories backed by 15th-century “papal bulls” that legitimized the colonial-era seizure of Native lands and form the basis of some property law today. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)