Moonshot

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

            Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you

            Deep peace of the shining stars to you

Deep peace of the gentle night to you

            Moon and stars pour their healing light on you

                        Deep peace of Christ, the light of the world to you. 

 I listened to an interview with Reid Wiseman, the commander of the Artemis spacecraft mission to the moon, including taking a gander at the side of Earth's satellite not visible from our planet.. He was enthusiastic and quite interesting as he explained the years of preparation and the challenges of that dedication as a single parent. 

He mentioned that part of that prep was learning about the significance of the moon in different cultures around the world. I have mentioned that the Canadian on the team, Jeremy Hansen did a vision quest as part of his preparation and I imagine that he learned about the moon from an Indigenous perspective. I was pleasantly surprised that this was part of their education for the mission, given that it isn't of scientific benefit. We are spiritual and cultural beings and this was acknowledged. 

I've noted before that Jesus was likely in a Garden of Gethsemane bathed in moonlight the night before he was arrested and crucified the following day. He was in Jerusalem for Passover, a festival connected to the full moon of the Spring Equinox and Christian Easter is a moon-related celebration as well. 

We're still a couple of weeks away from the June full moon but here are the phases for the month.

A Tree Comes to Downtown Belleville

We shall not be moved

On the road to freedom
We shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's standing by the water side
We shall not be moved

We Shall Not Be Moved", is an African-American spiritual hymn and protest song  dating to the early 19th century American south

A couple of weeks ago we stopped to pick up a pizza at the excellent Bourbon St. Pizza which is actually just off Market Square. We rolled up to see several people installing a large and intriguing mural with a tree featuring prominently in the design. We brake for trees, or at least admire them, but it wasn't until a few days later that we learned its origins: 

The mural is part of Canada Connects: Nature’s Canvas National Mural, a large-scale collaborative artwork designed by Canadian muralist Lewis Lavoie.

The completed 12-by-24-foot mural is made up of 4,000 hand-painted tiles from communities across Canada, including 150 tiles painted by local participants from the Quinte region.

“Downtown Belleville is proud to celebrate creativity in the heart of our community, and this mural is a beautiful example of what can happen when people come together through art,” said Danielle Hanoman, executive director for the Downtown Belleville BIA.  “To be part of a project that connects our community to a larger national movement is incredibly meaningful.  This mural not only showcases local talent and participation, but also reminds us that we are all connected through creativity, collaboration, and a shared sense of place.”

This mural is a cool initiative and I hope people in Belleville will search it out.  

Of course, there are Trees of Life in many cultures, including the Judeo/Christian tradition and trees are just about everywhere in the bible from Genesis to Revelation. The Psalms begin with a tree and in one story that will always baffle me, Jesus curses a fig tree. I think something got lost in the story-telling. 

Who Benefits from the World Cup?

 

The FIFA World Cup of Football (soccer to North Americans) begins today in this country, and isn't Canada lucky to be one of the host countries for the largest sporting event on the planet?  You may or may not support that question and maybe our answers would be influenced by our appreciation of "the beautiful game." 

The World Cup will also rival the Olympics as having the largest carbon footprint of any sporting event. And it will provide the biggest betting spree of any event. Hmm. 

Still, lots of cities in Mexico, the United States, and Canada got on board with hosting the World Cup including Toronto and Vancouver. As the tournament drew closer lots of those venues began to realize that the promise of packed stadiums may not be fulfilled. One reason is that the FIFA tickets are incredibly expensive and in Canada there are a number of meh match-ups. Hoteliers and restaurateurs are frustrated that bookings aren't what they were hoping for. 

We've learned that about a billion dollars in federal funding has gone into the World Cup and given the cost to fans we have to wonder why. Methinks there are lots of people benefitting from the event and they aren't regular folk. 

At the risk of making shallow "either/or" comparisons, how far would a billion bucks go toward fulfilling Canada's commitments to Indigenous communities to bring safe drinking water? We know that the federal government has spent lots of money on lawyers to fight payouts for Indigenous education and reparations to certain groups of school survivors. Of course doing so wouldn't make us "world class" as a nation, supposedly, even though these would be steps toward Truth and Reconciliation. As a Christian and member of the United Church I want these commitments to be fulfilled. 

How do we get hornswoggled into financing activities such as these with public money and then exclude the vast majority of taxpayers from participating? 

We have four grandchildren and all of them have played soccer, the most popular sport for children in Canada. It's a great activity and one of the least expensive for kids. So far none of them has expressed excitement over the World Cup but maybe that will come. 

I would be happy for a miracle where Canada won a game. 

Some of Your Beeswax!

Have you watched the two-part National Geographic series, Secrets of the Bees. As a "once upon a time" beekeeper I was intrigued and it really is astonishing, particularly the first episode. The team of film-makers worked for three years with the very best of equipment to capture a world unknown to most of us, including the most experienced beekeepers. Even though they focus on the complex society of a honey bee hive they remind us that there roughly 20,000 species and are arguably the most important animal on Earth. They pollinate a third of the food we eat and we might starve without their industry. 

Watching Secrets of the Bees got me searching for the spiritual importance of bees in various cultures and to my surprise I found out that the Christian Easter Vigil Exsultet, the prayer for the worship service the night before Resurrection morning, praises the bees who provide the wax for the large Paschal Candle and therefore the light it provides:

O holy Father, the evening sacrifice of this incense,
which holy Church renders to Thee
by the hands of Thy ministers
in the solemn offering of this wax candle,
made out of the work of bees.

Now also we know the praises of this pillar,
which the shining fire enkindles to the honour of God.
Which fire, although divided into parts,
suffers no loss from its light being borrowed.
For it is nourished by the melting wax,
which the mother bee produced
for the substance of this precious light.

                                           Bee hive design on a Paschal Candle

High praise for the little critters! For several years while in Sudbury a number of  congregations worked together hosting an Easter Vigil service and we used traditional liturgical elements. I don't remember the bees at all and that's because this section was omitted for a time but it is making a comeback in some parishes, deservedly so. 

There is currently an exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum called Bees: A Story of Survival and I think I/we must go:

This visually stunning exhibition – created by the National Museums Liverpool with award-winning sculptor Wolfgang Buttress – tells the remarkable story of bee adaptations and survival, as well as their relationship to humans and the natural world. 

Now I need to find out why when I was a lad we would rebuff a nosy person with the curious phrase: "None of your beeswax!" 

"Problem" Women in the Southern Baptist Convention

 

                                                       Messengers at last year's Baptist Convention 

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord, as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well.

Greet Prisca and Aquila, my coworkers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but also all the churches of the gentiles. Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert in Asia for Christ.  Greet Mary, who has worked very hard for you.  Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Israelites who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

Romans 16: 1-7 NRSVue

I have to be blunt in saying that some Christian groups are so consistently cruel and in such stark contravention of what I consider the gospel of Christ that I'm almost embarrassed to admit I'm in the same spiritual species. Honestly, I don't think I am, as much as I want to be generous about the "big tent" of Christian faith. 

This has risen to the surface again as the Southern Baptists of the United States prepare to gather Tuesday in Florida for their annual meeting. There they’ll debate for the fourth year in a row whether to formally ban churches with a woman serving in any role resembling that of  pastor — not just the top position in a congregation. The Southern Baptist Convention has become increasingly conservative over the past 50 years and the right-wing of the denomination has pushed out moderates, expelling some of their biggest congregations which have given women positions of leadership. 

This year, an amendment proposed by Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, would exclude any church that acts “to affirm, appoint, or endorse a woman serving in the office or function of a pastor/elder/overseer, specifically preaching to the assembled congregation.” Not long ago Mohler said it would even be a “problem” for a church podcast to include a woman answering questions about that week’s sermon.

There are so many reasons to find this stifling of women to be reprehensible, including the respect the Apostle Paul expressed for female leaders at the conclusion of his letter to the Romans. He goes so far as to describe Phoebe as a deacon and Junia as an apostle.

Another is the level of hypocrisy by a church that covered up hundreds of situations of sexual abuse by male pastors for decades, until the SBC was outed by the investigation by the Houston Chronicle newspaper. 

We have Southern Baptist family members in the States whom we love yet we are baffled by their willingness to stay in this denomination. The women are far from subservient. 

 And we won't get started on the strong support for Trump within the denomination. 

Nature for Healing and Wholeness

                                                   Along the Belleville Waterfront

1 Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently,

nourish the life of the world in our care:

gift of great wonder, ours to surrender,

trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

4 God of all living, God of all loving,

God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,

teach us, deflect us, Christ reconnect us,

using us gently and making us one.

                                      Voices United 307

 From time to time our son Isaac, pastor at Trenton United Church, asks if I might visit a member of the congregation in Belleville Hospital. I am what the UCC terms a Voluntary Associate Minister with all the appropriate shots and paperwork.

This doesn't happen often because Isaac is a conscientious visitor to his flock but he lives and works half an hour away and we are five minutes from the Belleville Hospital. So. the other day I stopped in on two people, one in their eighties and the other not far off one hundred. Both have demanding medical needs but I was touched by their positive outlooks and determination to get back to church again. They both new me before the visits so we were able to chat openly and pray at the conclusion. 

The person in her late nineties is in a room overlooking the marvelous waterfront trail at the edge of the Bay of Quinte, an arm of Lake Ontario. Ruth and I regularly cycle along this path. We love the vistas but the view from several storeys up is spectacular on a sunny late Spring day. 

As I admired the view I commented that studies have shown that looking out to trees and water contributes to recovery for hospital patients. This charming person, remarkably lucid and engaged, agreed enthusiastically. It was obvious in our conversation that she loves the natural world, including the variety of birds at her home feeders. 

We have come to understand how important it is to encourage children to enjoy the outdoors and what we term Creation in our Christian faith. A friend and former parishioner is an interpreter at a Conservation Area not far away and he has commented on the ways in which kids open up to wonder in that setting. I've met children on the boardwalk there and even though I'm a total stranger they are bursting to share what they have seen and heard. 

Surely this is true throughout the seasons of life. And we should ensure that this is part of the design of our healthcare institutions. The Hospice facility for Quinte has rooms which open onto a green space with sliding patio doors in each room so that patients can experience nature to the very end of their days. 

I figure that Belleville Council should send a photographer to the roof of the hospital for photos to promote the city and this time of greening would be ideal. 

PS: As I write this blog entry the birch trees outside my study window are dancing in the breeze and I getting occasional whiffs of the nearby lilacs. 

Hope for a Trenton Little Forest

A drone view of the Yakama Nation's Healing Forest, which is in the shape of a medicine wheel, in Toppenish, Washington State

Recently  I have seen a number of articles about Little Forests or Pocket Forests or Miyawaki Forests, named after the Japanese botanist who founded the movement in the 1970s. The concept is planting a relatively dense and complementary patch of trees and plants in smaller areas, often in urban settings. One of the studies suggests that these small forests had limited value for reforestation and the outcomes can't be generally verified. But this seems to be missing the point that they are intended to be tucked into places where little else is growing and people are engaged in establishing them. Most of the articles are uplifting. 

Miyawaki worked with Japanese companies, including Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi, offering workshops for employees to teach them how to turn barren land into mature forests. Now there are Little Forests around the globe.

A couple of years ago I attended a Kingston Little Forest Seminar in Napanee and left enthused by the concept. I was a Sunday worship leader at Trenton United a short time later so I focused on the many passages of scripture about trees in the bible, from start to finish, and I shared my Little Forest seminar experience.

Money was raised at Trenton United to purchase specific trees and during last summer's drought a dedicated member nursed them along at her home. Then in the Fall a determined group of organizers and congregation members of all ages from TUC planted a variety of native trees in an area by the Trent River designated by the Conservation Authority.  Ruth and I went to take a look in late April and we were delighted to see that most of them were budding and leafing out. 

There is also a plaque describing what the trees represent and naming Trenton United as a source for the project. I feel that this is an important Christian outreach and witness by the congregation and maybe we need to organize a return group junket to see how our saplings are doing. 

Ecologist Akira Miyawaki developed this planting method to re-create lush native forests preserved in sacred areas near temples and shrines in Japan. He was a scientist (he died in 2021) but there was also a spiritual aspect. Whatever our faith tradition, we can find practical ways to "live with respect in Creation" (UCC New Creed) and see the sacred forest and the trees. 

Wild Saints & Wild Christianity

 

It was roughly 30 years ago that I drove with son Isaac, just emerging as a teen, from Sudbury to Toronto to attend a seminar with the Rev Herbert O'Driscoll. He was an Irish-Canadian Anglican writing regularly in the United Church Observer magazine but we made the trek because he was speaking about Celtic Christianity, a relatively new area of exploration at the time. O'Driscoll had recently published a memoir The Leap of the Deer: Memories of a Celtic Childhood. He was a fine presenter and he had lots to say about the Celtic saints who were known for their love and immersion in the natural world or Creation. 

Through the years I have been fascinated by the legends of these hermits who communed with birds and otters and other creatures. On one level they are highly improbable and on another they remind us that these Christians had adopted the sense of interconnectedness with nature that they took on from the Druids and is also part of our biblical story. 

I see that writer/theologian Paul Kingsnorth, now living in Ireland, is writing The Book of Wild Saints, and I can hardly wait for it to be published. Kingsnorth is an admirer of St. Kevin, one of my favourite Celtic saints as well. Here are a few paragraphs from a piece he wrote for his substack earlier this month. 

Yesterday was the feast day of St Kevin of Glendalough. Kevin, or Coemgen, whose story I told here in April, was one of the Christian wilderness ascetics who I’ve taken to calling ‘wild saints.’ I am fascinated with these people. Why? Well, partly because I think they bring the Christian Way to its purest expression. Partly because their stories are so intriguing and eccentric and sometimes even inexplicable. There’s a deep mystery to them. And finally because I have a strong intuition that they have something important to tell us today.

What could that be? I tried to get at the answer in an essay I wrote last year for First Things magazine, entitled A Wild Christianity. In that essay, I wrote that we are living in what we might call a ‘desert time’: a time of collapse and change and radical reinvention. If that is true, then these old Fathers and Mothers of the desert might have something to tell us about how to live in it:

I feel like I am being firmly pointed, day after day, back toward the green desert that forms my Christian inheritance … Back to the song that is sung quietly through the land by its maker, the song that is in the stream running, in the mist wreathing the crags, the growling of the rooks, the thunder over the mountains. Back to the caves, to the skelligs, to the deserts green and brown … I feel that in another time of crisis and confusion we need to go back to our roots, both literal and spiritual. To flee from the gaze of a civilised centre that denies God and launches salvo after salvo daily against the human soul. To seek out a wild Christianity, which will see us praying for hours in the sea as the otters play around us. To understand—to remember—that the Earth and the world are not the same thing.

In recent years I've come to appreciate Indigenous spirituality and have been humbled by how dismissive colonial culture has been, of this gift, including the Christian church. I do want to rekindle my love of the Celtic saints as well. 

At this time of year we to endeavour to be outside as much as possible, although this year the mosquitoes are not creatures I am willing to embrace as a treasure from the Creator. 

Ebola and Burying the Dead

 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. 

                                                      Romans 12: 14-15 NRSVue

I listened to a brave science and medicine reporter for the New York Times describe the circumstances in the region of the DR Congo where the Ebola virus is sickening and killing hundreds and perhaps thousands. There are many issues including lack of medical supplies and isolation. Another is the funeral practices of families who have lost loved ones. Not only to they want to bury the deceased, it is customary for mourners to touch the face of the person, a disaster with a highly infectious disease. It has been very difficult for officials to dissuade families from doing this and conspiracy theories abound. 

We saw how traumatic it was for those who couldn't be with loved ones as they died during the COVID pandemic and funeral gatherings weren't allowed. It seems that this disrupted burial practices here in Canada that we are still experiencing.

I thought about my first pastoral charge in ministry beginning in 1980. I've described it as a Maritime Green Acres because I was the minister from the big city of Toronto arriving at my five preaching points in outport Newfoundland. So much there was different from what I took for granted about religious practice and I was the odd person. God help me when I naively messed with those conventions. 

I was quietly appalled at the custom for mourners to touch the face of a deceased person as the body lay in the casket at the back of the church. Funeral homes were an hour way back then so folks filed in, some of them weeping dramatically, all of them touching the dearly departed. I actually came to respect these customs to a degree even though they were a departure from the stoic funerals and memorials I grew up with. Why wouldn't we weep at the loss of someone who was precious to us? 

We can pray that this Ebola outbreak will be brought under control soon, although it is proving to be a challenge. I suppose we can all ask what customs and observances we would want when we're "promoted to glory." 

Sagrada Familia and LEGO

 

                                                                Lego Sagrada Familia -- Antonio Gaudi 

I have expressed my regret that I will never visit Sagrada Familia Basilica, the astonishing architecture tour de force of Antonio Gaudi. 

Construction work began in 1883  and in February of this year, Sagrada Família became the world's tallest church when a part of its central tower was lifted into place. The official dedication service and ceremony will take place on June 10th. Gaudi was a brilliant architect and a person of deep Christian faith who attended mass almost daily. I've written about the movement to have him recognized as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. 

LEGO, the construction toy that has launched untold numbers of profane outbursts by parents who stepped on them has created its own Sagrada Familia masterpiece. The new LEGO Architecture set was announced to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of the renowned architect Antoni Gaudí. At 12,060 pieces, the model surpasses the previous record holder, the LEGO Art World Map, by nearly 500 pieces. You can preorder the set, to be released in November, for a modest $1,100 Canadian. 

I've already teased my six-year-old grandson, a LEGO savant, that it would probably take him the better part of a day to complete this model. I won't offer to purchase it for him so I can't enjoy the basilica vicariously either. 

What an amazing accomplishment stretching across three centuries.

The Journey of Abraham into the 21st Century

1 To Abraham and Sarah the call of God was clear,

'Go forth and I will show you a country rich and fair.

You need not fear the journey for I have pledged my word,

that you shall be my people and I will be your God.'

2 From Abraham and Sarah arose a pilgrim race,

dependent for their journey on God's abundant grace;

and in their heart was written by God this saving word:

'that you shall be my people and I will be your God.'

3 We of this generation on whom God's hand is laid,

can journey to the future secure and unafraid,

rejoicing in God's goodness and trusting in this word:

'that you shall be my people and I will be your God.'

                                       Voices United 634

 I see that the Common Lectionary, or schedule of Sunday scripture readings, offers us passages from Genesis and the story of Abraham. In fact the next four weeks tell us a bunch of gripping tales about a bunch of important characters. Abram and Sarai are called by God this week and are renamed Abraham and Sarah. Then this ancient pair are informed by angels or travelers or God that they will have a son, against all odds. The following week we're introduced to Hagar and Ishmael, revered figures in Islam. We'll then move on to the disturbing near-sacrifice of beloved son Isaac by father Abraham with the promise of a new covenant. 

These stories are key to Judaism and Islam and Christianity and in some respects bind these three monotheistic religions together and push them apart. Years ago Bruce Feiler wrote an insightful book exploring the good, the bad, and the ugly of these connections. 

One of the few positive developments in the first Trump administration are what are known as the Abraham Accords of 2020. They offered a glimmer of hope for peace in the Middle East, or at least a de-escalation of mistrust and possible violence. All that changed with the attacks by Hamas on Israel in 2023, followed by the horrendous campaign of retribution in Gaza. Then Trump blew up the stability of the region with the ongoing war with Iran, and Israel invaded Lebanon.  

In the on-again, off-again ceasefire Trump has repeatedly claimed that a peace deal with Iraq is at hand but has baffled many with his insistence that a condition will be a number of nations signing on to the Accords:

I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition,

Is "mandatorily requesting" akin to "volun-told"? Who knows. This unexpected insistence hasn't played well with several nations. 

It is interesting that thousands of years after this saga of Abraham and Sarah and others unfolded there is still at least symbolic heft, even though a certain leader probably couldn't find in the bible if his life depended on it. 

May the blessing of the God of Sarah and Hagar,

as of Abraham,

the blessing of the Son, born of the woman Mary,

and the blessing of the Spirit, who broods over us

as a mother her children,

be with you all. Amen.

                      Voices United 428

The Hypocrisy of Character Building Sport

10 

Therefore the people turn and praise them

    and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
    Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Such are the wicked;
    always at ease, they increase in riches.

Psalm 73: 10-12 NRSVue

As game one of the Stanley Cup Finals got underway last night I was aware that one of the key players for the Vegas Golden Knights was involved in a high profile trial last year 

Five former junior hockey players were acquitted of sexual assault in a London Ontario courtroom last July and there was no surprise in our household, sad to say. When Ruth was a support worker in a women's shelter she often accompanied clients to court in abuse and assault cases and saw how the legal deck of burden of proof was stacked against them. 

In yet another "he said, she said" trial the argument was not about five young men engaging in group sex with a young woman, it was about consent. Ultimately the judge concluded that there wasn't reasonable evidence that this sordid incident was illegal even though it was sickening that most of these young men enthusiastically engaged in this behaviour.

Some of them had already gone on to NHL careers by the time of the trial and one of them, Carter Hart, was an emerging star goaltender for the Philadelphia Flyers. The league suspended them for a time but Hart was pursued by several NHL teams, including both now in the finals. Hart chose to sign with Vegas rather than the Hurricanes and even though I sense it was a porous game (I couldn't watch)  Hart is now three wins away from a Stanley Cup Championship.

The Golden Knights management team and coach speak about what a fine young man Hart is and he has spoken about what he has learned in rather vague terms. Yet I haven't seen any specific apology for what happened in that hotel room or for the terrible example it sets for young athletes.

 I shake my head at how often people speak reverentially about the benefits of collective sport for kids without much reflection on whether there is any moral compass for young athletes. I'm not suggesting that children and their parents should attend Morals and Ethics 101 classes as a requirement for participation. Yet this high profile case is not an anomaly in a culture of often toxic manhood. Then there are the parents who harass referees and shockingly rage away in the stands. How is this "character building"? 

The God I worship is one of second chances and forgiveness, so I want to generous in my outlook. My faith also includes acknowledgement of wrongdoing (we used to call it sin) and heartfelt repentance. 

It would be unfair to describe Carter Hart as wicked and this is really a systemic problem. Now, though, he is those few games from being a Stanley Cup hero and it doesn't sit right with me. 

UFOs and...Demons?

                                                                    from Project Hail Mary

 “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien.  

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19: 33-34 NRSVue 

Just when one might assume that things couldn't get any stranger south of the border they do. The United States government has released murky images collected through the years of UFOs -- Unidentified Flying Objects -- UAPs -- Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. As always, sightings and indistinct photos lead to speculation about visits from intelligent life from beyond our solar system. 

I am certainly open to this possibility although you'd figure that if space travellers managed to get this close to Earth they'd have the ability to make contact in some meaningful way. 

It turns out that there have already been gatherings of conservative Christian pastors and leaders who are Some worry that it undercuts the Bible’s account of the Earth and humanity as the centerpiece of God’s plan for the universe. If God came to save humanity in Jesus Christ what will the possibility of aliens mean for the Christian narrative? 

Among atheists and agnostics in the United States, 85 percent say their best guess is that intelligent life exists outside Earth. Among white evangelicals, only 40 percent say the same. So, what have some of them concluded? That these are demons and we must be spiritually prepared for a demonic invasion. The Vice-President, JD Vance, a possible president at some point, supported this bizarre contention as a guest on a conservative podcast. 

There are sensible Christians who offer different responses. Decades ago CS Lewis (Narnia Series)  entertained the possibility of extra-terrestrial life in an essay and a trilogy of novels. A few years back a Vatican scientist made headlines when he mused that aliens might have souls, and said he would baptize an alien “if they asked.” Just how would an alien communicate this desire? 

Russell Moore a sensible evangelical and editor of Christianity Today says that proof of extraterrestrial life should pose no threat to Christianity and need not be received with hostility. “If we assume the possibility that there’s something outside of Earth, our basic default should be the way we treat strangers generally”  I assume this doesn't mean sending them to a squalid prison in Central America. 

I think that these UAP demon hunters should be required to watch the excellent film, Project Hail Mary and learn from the warm relationship between reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace and Rocky, the extra-terrestrial. Or maybe search out an old episode of My Favorite Martian. 

I'm far less concerned about Little Green Men than I am about the earthling with orange hair. 

Gratitude to Creator and Creation

 

                                                 Blue Heron in Flight -- Gerry Gant 

In a couple of days Ruth and I will be on different schedules travelling hither and yon for a couple of weeks, something that rarely happens. We agreed that this morning was the best opportunity to get out on the water in our kayaks until the middle of June, so we headed north 20 minutes to a stretch of the Moira River. It may not surprise you that the river was not busy at 7:00 AM on a Monday morning. Well, there were no humans about but there was a lot of activity. 

Over the course of an hour or so of paddling we saw several blue herons including one that startled us flying up from a spot at the edge of the water. There was a single deer in a meadow and we caught a glimpse of an eagle on the pair's Volkswagen Beetle sized nest. On our return to the launch Ruth let out a delighted cry as she passed immediately over a large snapping turtle and another as a large fish leapt and splashed her. The water lilies are all emerging, some already with pads on the surface while others are climbing toward the sunlight. We heard a kingfisher, a pileated and red-bellied woodpeckers. 

If this sounds idyllic, it was, other than the mosquitoes at the put-in site. We started paddling later in April but today's lush surroundings, the birdsong, and the unexpected creatures were all a blessing. We took a moment to thank the Creator as is our habit, taking nothing for granted. 

This wasn't the blog entry I had planned for today but I just had to interrupt regularly scheduled programming to express gratitude to Creator and Creation. 

Who are the Good Guys in International Charity?

 I've just finished the novel Good Guys by Newfoundland writer Sharon Bala. There are several important characters in this story about international aid organizations including Claire Talbot, the publicist for Children of the World, started by an aging rock star.  Her motives are good when she facilitates the involvement of an A-list actress at their Central American orphanage. When this celebrity visits she is moved to adopt an infant with special needs who has a family living in abject poverty. While this supposed orphan adoption brings plenty of media and online attention with plentiful monetary contributions to Children of the World the machinations of the "good guys" soon goes south (pun intended?) and the well-meaning white saviours become bad guys. 

Good Guys is a thought-provoking story, well told by Bala. It is also a focused and sometimes cutting scrutiny of the ecosystem of international charity. We have been privy to celebrity adoptions by Madonna and the then-couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Both women have been generous in their support for charitable causes, Madonna began the charity Raising Malawi and her adopted kids are from this African nation. Jolie was named a Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees at the age of 26. I certainly don't question their sincerity but we are reminded that stars attract eyes and ears, as was the case with Audrey Hepburn decades ago. 

                              

                                                                                Angelina Jolie 

Earlier this year we watched a segment of 60 Minutes featuring the orphanage Have Faith Haiti financed by best-selling author Mitch Albom (Tuesdays With Morrie) in violence-torn Haiti. This compound with 30-foot walls and careful security is an oasis of peace and hope for children who would face a bleak future otherwise. We were impressed. I am an admirer of rock star Bono and his work in the Jubilee movement and AIDs relief. 

There are bigger questions, though, about the inequities between have and have-not nations and how children are rescued from their fate. Bala also circles around the role of churches and other Christian institutions in outreach work and the cynicism of an investigative reporter who left evangelicalism is obvious. Characters in the novel reflect on the mission trips of teens from North American churches to help build schools without much thought to how those schools will be supported into the future. Who are these trips for? We have a friend in ministry who was very involved in these trips on behalf of the United Church for a number of years. Again, we never questioned her sincerity but what is the bigger picture and what are the lasting effects of these trips in the lives of those who parachute into countries for a brief period of time at considerable cost? 

In the end Bala paints a picture that is not a simplistic polarization of good guys and bad guys. It is an indictment of privileged assumptions and actions. 

This would be a worthwhile novel for discussion by a church book club. 

Acknowledging the Shame of Slavery

 "Slave Chain with Four Yokes" from the Dexue voodoo convent in Adounko, Benin, dating from the 19th century at the Memorial ACTe, the Caribbean Centre of Expression and Memory of Slavery and the Slave Trade, in Point-a-Pitre, May 8, 2015. © 2015 Nicolas Derne/AFP via Getty Images

This past week there was plenty to catch our attention in the news, everything from Pope Leo's newly released encyclical, to the spreading Ebola outbreak in Africa, to the peace deal/not a peace deal between the United States and Iran.

There were two significant acknowledgements that probably flew under the radar in the news feed. One was the recognition by France of the nation's complicity in the international slave trade in earlier centuries and the possibility of reparations. According to Human Rights Watch:

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the need for reparations in connection with France’s role in the transatlantic slave trade on May 21.

Macron said that reparations for enslavement crimes should no longer be ignored. He also warned against “false promises,” Emphasizing that the legacy of enslavement could never be fully repaired because it was “impossible.” Macron backed the symbolic repeal of the never-abolished “Code Noir,” which were royal decrees from the 17th and 18th century that governed enslavement in French colonies.

Other European nations including Great Britain are grappling with complicity in the horrendous trade in human beings and the need to support initiatives to compensate the descendants of those who were enslaved, as complicated as that might be. King Charles has addressed the shame of the royal family accruing wealth through slavery. 

The other acknowledgement was by Pope Leo within the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas who apologized for the involvement of the Roman Catholic Church in slavery through the centuries. He named  the "regulating and legitimising forms of subjugation, including the enslavement of of [non-Christians]" by the church. He also acknowledged that earlier in the Middle Ages, ecclesiastical institutions had their own slaves. Pope Leo sincerely asked for a pardon in the name of the Church, adding that it was "impossible not to feel deep sorrow when contemplating the immense suffering and humiliation endured by so many".

Not long ago I wrote about the initiative  of the Church of England to raise money for a slavery reparations fund, controversial within the denomination which also benefitted from the slave trade. 

Pope Leo visited African nations recently. Did this trip prompt the inclusion of the apology in the encyclical? The BBC reports:

Ghana said the Pope's acknowledgment of the "painful history" was significant, at a time the world was having a "deeper reflection" on the effects of slavery and colonialism. The country successfully pushed for a UN resolution in March, which recognised the enslavement of Africans as the "gravest crime against humanity".

All these public statements and efforts toward compensation are important if they are honest and lead to results in the lives of those who continue to be affected, both individuals and nations. We'll see. 

George Washington & the Prayer at Valley Forge

 

"The Prayer at Valley Forge", a 1975 painting by Arnold Friberg done for America's bicentennial celebration in 1976.

It's hard to miss that this year marks the 250th anniversary for the United States of America. There will be celebrations "from California to the New York Island" and presumably Hawaii and Alaska. In some of the gushier praise of America's shining history there is no mention of slavery or a brutal war pitting North against South or segregation, but there ya go. 

One of the recurring myths to be brought forward is the Godliness of the Founding Fathers, including George Washington. As I mentioned recently. Washington went to church with wife Martha from time to time but he referred to go fox hunting on Sundays. He was more of a theist than a Christian and he didn't mentioned Jesus in his writings. 

The historical record has never deterred patriots from portraying him as a man of prayer, even in the midst of war. This is based on an unconfirmed story created by the same writer, Parson Weems,  who fabricated the "I cannot tell a lie" tale of young George confessing to cutting down a cherry tree. Apparently the parson could tell lies without compunction. Search "The Prayer at Valley Forge" and you'll be rewarded with lots of images going back long before the 1975 painting above. 

An article from NPR offers: 

After the publication of Weems' book in 1800, images of the first president praying became a meme — long before there were memes. Paintings and engravings were reproduced on china plates and on postage stamps in the 1920s. It appeared on the cover of the popular magazine The Saturday Evening Post in 1935, and reproduced in stained glass in a special prayer room built in the U.S. Capitol for members of Congress in the 1950s.

Of course, we could all be content to accept Washington as a person of prayer and faith, if it's true. Even if so, it's the ways in which the story of Valley Forge is used to suggest that the United States has always been Christian and therefore other religions are "lesser than" that is problematic. And then there is the blurring of the separation of church and state, along with the sanctification of war swallowed whole by millions, including lots of people in the current administration. The story is almost certainly fabricated, so why perpetuate the dishonesty? 

Well, there is likely much more to come during this year. God bless America. 

                    The altar in the Congressional Prayer Room at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

                                                                     Lisa Mascaro/AP