Paul McCartney, Not Running

Well that was strange. I wrote a blog about the new documentary, Paul McCartney: Man on the Run -and somehow another blog-in-the-works showed up today. 

As longtime Beatles and McCartney fans we had to watch but it confirmed what we've long known, that we've never been Wings fans and never will be. But I did appreciate the portion of the doc about the period as the Beatles were breaking up and Paul assessed what would come next in an interlude when he wasn't on the run.  

He's said that one of his goals was to grow up and at age 27 he chose a remote farm in Scotland to get that underway. He'd purchased the run-down property on the advice of his accountant but he had no real interest in it, But when he needed a hidey-hole from the oppressive media he went there with wife Linda and their kids to start over. He puttered and repaired and played, generally becoming a regular human being after years of being part of one of the most popular bands in the world. He also wrote music even though he'd thought of giving it up after a decade of a magical collaboration with John Lennon. Both McCartney and Ram were products of that time of creative fermentation. 

Here we are in the season of Lent when lots of Christians chose to honour Jesus' forty days in the wilderness before his public ministry began by participating in different forms of reflection and self-denial. I'm not comparing Paul with Jesus ( John once compared the Beatles with Jesus and it didn't turn out well) but it is interesting that many people have needed their wilderness, or at least pastoral, interludes to recharge and reassess life's meaning. 

During my years of ministry I had a couple of sabbaticals of several months and they were rejuvenating and spiritually enriching. The irony is that day-to-day, Sunday-to--Sunday ministry can become a soul-sapping grind. During one of those sabbaticals I spent a couple of months on a back-of-beyond farm at the end of a dirt road. Ruth was working but came for a three-day weekend every week and we loved the solitude. I also grabbed pockets of time for a few days or a week along the way, including three periods at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. This is place of wild beauty where Georgia O'Keefe painted and Oppenheimer was filmed, All these experiences were important, 

McCartney was one third of the way through his long and energetic life (to date) when he headed to the wilds. He's reinvented himself several times since then. I've never read or heard anything about Sir Paul's spiritual inclinations but renewal takes many forms. Sometimes we need to stop, look, and listen to experience the holy. 

Here's a link for the CBC Radio interview with Oscar-winning documentarian Morgan Neville about working with McCartney and making the film : 

https://www.cbc.ca/arts/q/documentarian-morgan-neville-tells-paul-mccartneys-post-beatles-story-9.7134562

Eid-al-Fitr in Jerusalem

 

   Worshippers pray outside the Old City on Friday morning. Photograph: Lorenzo Tondo/The Guardian

Three years ago next month we were in Jerusalem at the confluence of Jewish Passover/Pesach, Christian Holy Week/Easter, and Islamic Ramadan. While there were cautions about religious tensions and an increased police and military presence in the Old City we moved around freely and there were no incidents of violence. 

We did not go up on the Temple Mount where the Al Aqsa Mosque is situated although I have been there a couple of times before, doffing my shoes before entering for a moment of reflection. We were in the large plaza at the base of the Western Wall and both Al Aqsa and the Golden Dome were quite visible before us. 

    Al Aqsa with the grey dome, The Golden Dome, and the Western Wall Plaza to the left 

Today Muslims in and around Jerusalem are lamenting that on this final day of Ramadan called Eid-al-Fitr they have been denied access to the Temple Mount, an important aspect of this time of fasting and contemplation. According to The Guardian: 

For the first time since 1967, al-Aqsa mosque – Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site – will be closed at the end of Ramadan on Friday, with tensions rising among Palestinians as Israeli authorities keep the complex shut, forcing worshippers to hold Eid prayers as close as they can to the sealed site.

On Friday morning hundreds of worshippers were forced to pray outside the Old City, as Israeli police barricaded the entrances to the site.Because of security concerns related to the US-Israeli war on Iran, on 28 February Israeli authorities had effectively sealed off the mosque complex in Jerusalem to most Muslim worshippers during Ramadan. 

The reality is that Israel has increasingly restricted access to the Temple Mount for Muslims and there have been a number of incidents of provocation by right-wing members of the Netanyahu government who have gone to this contested area despite protests. It is shameful that an area considered holy by the three great monotheistic religions has become the focal point of so much tension. 

Eid Mubarak or "blessed feast" to Muslms around the world as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr to conclude Ramadan. As hard as it is to imagine an end to these religious tensions we can pray for a new way forward. 

Cesar Chavez & Betrayal

 

                                                                            Cesar Chavez

When I was a young man half a century ago,  I became aware of the United Farm Workers, a social action group in the US started in 1962 by Mexican Americans Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. The goal was better working conditions and fairer wages for those who harvested America's produce. There were plenty of protests but the UFW worked then, as it still does, to promote nonviolence and to educate members on political and social issues. The gains made by the UFW likely affected the way migrant workers are treated in Canada as well, although in both countries there is still much to be done. 

Chavez was a Roman Catholic who connected these efforts to his Christian faith but he was also ecumenical, understanding that liberation was a guiding principle of different religions. There is a book with the title The Gospel of Cesar Chavez which shares his thoughts on faith and social justice. 

                                                                          Dolores Huerta, centre 

This week we've heard the stunning news that Chavez was a sexual predator who raped underage girls, some of whom were the children of friends. And co-founder Huerta, now 95, says that he raped her as well. While there were rumours of his vile activity his offences were kept quiet out of concern that it would undermine the cause. 

Of course this was all a gross violation of the gospel, and the sort of grim story we've heard far too often about individuals in power, mostly men, a fair number of them purporting to be guided by the light of Christ in their mission and ministry. 

Every time evidence like this comes to light, particularly about people who claim faith, I am disheartened, shaken.  There is no doubt that Chavez was instrumental in effecting change for so many downtrodden and exploited people. Yet there is simply no justification for his betrayal of trust and perhaps we need to be far more cautious about attributing "saintly" qualities to those who then live and act in such terrible ways. 

A Wicked Bible?

 

A 1631 copy of the Bible that includes the text "Thou shalt commit adultery." Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

We will be in a museum today contemplating dinosaurs with our 5-year-old and 8-year old grandchildren. Libaries and museums are marvellous places offering insights on the world that inform us and stretch our imaginations. Many of them are under threat due to underfunding and authoritarian control. 

I would love to wander through a new exhibition at Yale Library which explores the history of typos across five centuries. Visitors will see corrections that were listed inside copies of works by James Joyce, Upton Sinclair and Nicolaus Copernicus.

Perhaps the timeliest of the lot is an an infamous 1631 edition of the Bible, which lists “Thou shalt commit adultery” as the seventh commandment  earning it the nickname “the Wicked Bible.” According to a Smithsonian article; " By the time the mistake was discovered, 1,000 copies had been printed. The British king Charles I reprimanded the publishers, fined them £300 and stripped them of their printing license...Nearly all the Wicked Bibles were destroyed, and only about 20 known copies survive. In the copy on view at the Beinecke, someone fixed the error by hand, adding “not” to “Thou shalt commit adultery.”

We know that a certain warmongering president sells his special bibles to the gullible and I wonder if anyone has checked to see if this version is "wicked." This erroneous commandment would apply to Trump, a number of the members of his cabinet and his "spiritual advisor" Paula White. 

Truthfully, I'm more concerned by all the passages about justice and mercy and care for the marginalized effectively edited out of bibles these days. That really is wicked. 

House of Guinness & Philanthropy

I would wish a great lake of ale for the King of Kings;

I would wish the family of heaven to be drinking it throughout life and time. I would wish the men of Heaven in my own house; I would wish vessels of peace to be given to them. I would wish joy to be in their drinking; I would wish Jesu to be here among them. I would wish the three Marys of great name; I would wish the people of heaven from every side.

 Olay, this is a prayer attributed to St. Brigid of Ireland, not St. Patrick, but she is one of the three patron saints of the Emerald Isle and we know that plenty of beer will be flowing on this St. Patrick's Day. I do enjoy a nice craft beer but I've never been much of a drinker and even less so as the years pass. A lake of ale would create problems for me I won't go into here.

There is definitely a long tradition of imbibing in Ireland and the Guinness brand is certainly a part it, going back to the 18th century.We have been watching, with a bit of eye-rolling, the imagined shenanigans of this clan in the series House of Guinnness. While it seem to be something of a Peaky Blinders wannabe it has its moments. 

The writers have chosen to include the family's progressive philanthropic efforts in the 19th century which impacted Dublin's and even rural Ireland's social landscape into the 20th century. They financed numerous hospitals, housing projects, and educational institutions, leading to transformative effects on the city’s social fabric. They created what we might call social housing for workers and the poor. 

I have snooped around trying to find out who were the motivators in this staunchly Protestant  family for their enlightened outlook and whether religious convictions were involved but I haven't been successful. 

I'm sure the blessing of all three saints is upon their charitable legacy whatever else they got up to.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you, and bottoms up, perhaps a stout!

Luminous Jessie Buckley & Grief

 

I have always been spooked by vampire films (Sinners) and I'm a 'fraidy cat when it comes to monsters (Frankenstein) and as I age I'm brittle in viewing violence (One Battle After Another.) I willingly concede that all three of these movies deserved honours at the Oscars and we have started into all of them but sighed and went elsewhere. We may return to them, or we may not. 

We did go the cinema to see Hamnet and were pleased that Jessie Buckley won Best Actress for her moving role as Agnes Hathaway/Shakespeare. She is an actress with remarkable range, simply hilarious in Wicked Little Letters. In Hamnet she embodies a fiercely independent woman who discovers love, including the love for her children. I found her depiction of grief when she loses a child totally believable in a way that no words could describe. 

Through my years in pastoral ministry I was witness and companion to grief hundreds of times and came to realize that it was unique to each person in its expression. Hamnet explores the way loss can shake relationships and even destroy them because the way it is manifested can be so different. I realized that some people moved forward with resilience and others were never over their mourning. There were and are no right or wrong responses.

There are critics of the film that suggest it is too slow moving -- this wasn't a Marvel flick! -- and that the story itself was implausible, although it is historically accurate that their boy died, probably of the plague. In the movie Shakespeare works through his profound grief at son Hamnet's death by writing a play called Hamlet which is about loss and the ghosts that haunt us. To me it is one of those stories that may not be factual but is true. 

Well done, Jessie Buckley. Long may you grace our screens!

Forevergreen & a Greater Love

  

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 

                          John 15:13 NRSVue

We have seen two of the animated short films nominated for this evening's Academy Awards, The Girl Who Cried Pearls and Forevergreen. Both of them are stop-motion stories and both of them are quite lovely. It is a remarkable art form in our world of CGI and AI and whatever new "I" I don't know about.

One reviewer offers a summary of the latter of these two: 

“Forevergreen” is a storybook come to life, even though it’s a rather familiar story. It plays like a more energetic, and even more emotionally-manipulative version of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.” That it ends with a biblical quote — I’d say which one, but it’s a spoiler — only cements the film’s identity as a blunt morality tale.

I've already been the spoiler, naming the verse above which comes from the story of Jesus and his disciples as they share in the meal we have come to term The Last Supper. I'm not so sure that the message of self-giving love is all that blunt, at least in terms of the biblical reference. As a form of evangelism I feel that the Christian filmmakers who I think are Disney animators have been quite restrained.

I've discovered that people who may love certain allegorical stories such as the Chronicles of Narnia are totally unaware of what may seem to be overt religious imagery such as the sacrifice of Aslan, the lion. It's quite possible to enjoy them and even be moved by them without that awareness. In the case of Forevergreen the verse comes at the very end in unassuming print. There is no final Last Supper or Crucifixion image, which would have been over-the-top. 

You can click here and decide for yourself. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4EPW7JUMTM

 

Watershed Wisdom, Watershed Discipleship

 We know that when ice encounters warmth it becomes water and when water is heated it becomes steam. There has been steam coming out of my ears this week as the Ontario government made the announcement, after "consultatiion with the public", that the 36 conservation authorities in the province would be consolidated into nine. I responded to the invitation to provide feedback to this plan and the survey was clearly meant to steer around any critiicsm or resistance, let alone informed science. 

I listened to an CBC Radio nterview with associate professor Michael Drescher from the University of Waterloo School of Planning about these changes. He reminded us that conservation authorities are watershed based and that the local wisdom of those who work in them helps to mitigate flooding and erosion and maintain water quality. In other words, they protect the environment and humans with place-based knowledge and acquired practical understanding. 

Prof. Drescher also reminded us that the Ford government did away with the Endangered Species Act in Ontario and has reduced development seitbacks from wetlands from 120 metres to 30 metres. Even though municipalities, fees, and federal government provide a large percentage of funding it is the province making these decisions. Can you understand why I'm steaming? 

Here is the link to the interview: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-193-fresh-air/clip/16203178-ontario-plans-decrease-number-conservation-authorities.-heres-one

We have spent time in many of the Conservation Areas in both Quinte and Lower Trent Conservation Areas and we feel blessed, literally, by these oases of nature. As the decades march on I've become more convinced of the necessity of  a "grounded" approach to caring for Creation. Sometimes I become discouraged and angry but I want to maintain hope despite what unfolds around us. 

Years ago the theologian Chet Myers introduced the notion of Watershed Discipleship, a bio-regional approach to how we as Christians inhabit the Earth. In a prophetic article in Geez magazine ten years ago Myers offered: 

A talk in 2009 by Brock Dolman, a permaculturist in Northern California, really sold me. “Watersheds underlie all human endeavors and form the foundation for all future aspirations and survival. The idea is one of a cradle,” he said, cupping his hands into a little boat. “Your home basin of relations is your lifeboat.” “Our watershed represents a community,” he continued, “every living organism within this basin is interconnected and interdependent.” This represents the most viable “geographic scale of applied sustainability, which must be regenerative because we desperately are in need of making up for lost time.”

What would it mean for Christians to re-centre our citizen-identity in the topography of Creation, rather than in the political geography of dominant cultural ideation, and ground our discipleship practices in the watersheds in which we reside? Five years ago I began to explore an approach I called “watershed discipleship” with other faith-rooted organizers and educators around North America. “Watershed discipleship” is an intentional triple entendre:

• recognizing that we are in a watershed moment of crisis. Environmental and social justice and sustainability need to be integral to everything we do as inhabitants of specific places;

• acknowledging the bioregional locus of an incarnational following of Jesus. Our discipleship and the life of the local church inescapably take place in a watershed context;

• and implying, as Todd Wynward added, that we need to be disciples of our watersheds, learning from and recovenanting with the local “Book of Creation.”

                                                                                from the Narwhal 

Crustacean Compassion?

1 This is God's wondrous world,

and to my listening ears

all nature sings, and round me rings

the music of the spheres.

This is God's wondrous world;

I rest me in the thought

of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,

God's hand the wonders wrought.

When we arrived in outport Newfoundland from Toronto 46 years ago the practical acts of kindness to the new minister and his wife soon began. It came in the form of edibles (not those edibles), everything from fish to moose to rabbits to berries and jam. We were willing to try just about anything but the most unsettling gift was live lobsters. We may have indulged in "surf and turf" once but we discovered that living creatures into boiling water was not for the faint of heart -- shades of Annie Hall. Ruth has a vivid memory of putting the lid on the pot with relief only to have it pushed off by a large claw. 

This morning I recalled our lobster queasiness as I heard on the news the effects on Canada's lobster fishery from a growing movement in Europe. Several countries have already or are considering bans on cooking live lobsters because it is a form of cruelty to animals. In Britain there is an organization called Crustacean Compassion and I must admit I guffawed when I heard the name.

Yet I realize that during my lifetime attitudes toward other creatures has changed, often dramatically. We regard our companion animals differently and cruelty can be a chargeable crime. We have laws about the treatment of the livestock we eat and have restricted the use of animals for testing of products and experimentation for medical procedures. This is all important and what I think most of us would consider progress.

                                                            Saturday Night Live Skit 1982

As Christians we recognize that we are people of a Creator God who brought call living things into being and in our United Church we affirm that we are called to "live with respect in Creation." While we may readily agree that this applies to Fluffy the Llasa Apso, do we share this conviction about Larry the Lobster? 

When Kristi Noem, former Governor of North Dakota, and now former ICE Barbie, admitted in her biography that she'd shot a supposedly untrainable pet dog named Cricket many people were appalled. Did her callousness toward this hound contribute to the hardness of heart she demonstrated toward undocumented immigrants as her minions hunted them down in communities across the United States?

I have never seriously considered becoming a vegetarian or vegan, although I respect those who've made this choice. As an outdoors guy I won't alter my slaughter of mosquitoes and blackflies. And I will never be a card-carrying member of Crustacean Compassion. Still, as we become increasingly aware of the decline of biodiversty and species extinction we probably have a lot more to learn about compassion toward all the critters in God's Wondrous World. 

This is the end of my tale...tail? Anyone want to write a lobster hymn? 

                                                                 Scenes from Annie Hall -- 1977

Iranian Christians in Montreal

 

Pourya Zaganeh (left), pictured here with Anglican bishop Victor-David Mbuyi Bipungu, was Muslim when he lived in Iran but was baptized at St Jax in Montreal after some powerful personal religious experiences. Now he leads a Farsi Bible study at the church. (Photo courtesy of Pourya Zaganeh)

We've been informed during this past week that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the supreme leader of Iran who was "eliminated" by US missiles has been replaced by his son, also a hard-liner. It would seem that the perserve version of Islam practiced by the leadership structure in Iran has not been shaken by the onslaught by the United States and Israel and the citizens of Iran are still in their iron grip. 

We might assume that all Iranians are fundamentalist Muslims but this is not the case. There are moderates in the faith as well as a small number of Christians, despite persecution. I came upon what was for me a suprising article in Broadview magazine, formerly the United Church Observer, about a growing group of expatriate Iranians living in Montreal who have been baptized as Christians in an Anglican congregation there: 

As participants logged into St Jax Church’s weekly Bible study on Feb. 3, the Zoom call filled with the warm echoes of “salam baradar” and “salam khahar”—peace, brother, and peace, sister. The study, held in Farsi, is one of the services the Montreal church has recently added to address the growing influx of Iranian congregants. St Jax has baptized over 140 Iranians since 2020, when it opened as a new Anglican church plant.

“The growth of our Iranian community actually started with a person who was a very dynamic community leader and came here saying, ‘I’m definitely not a Muslim. I’m definitely not a Christian, either. However, I know a lot of Iranians who are trying to explore Christianity, and I’ve looked into where the best churches for them are. It may as well be here,’” recalls senior pastor Rev. Graham Singh. 

While Iran is predominantly a Muslim nation, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian and Baha’i communities have rich histories in Iran and continue to gather as minorities, often at risk of persecution under the Islamic theocracy that has ruled since the 1979 Revolution. Although apostasy is punishable by death under the Islamic regime, Christian conversion among Iranians born Muslim is a growing movement both within the country and across the diaspora living in the West. Now, as Iran reels from levels of governmental violence that haven’t been seen since the revolution, Montreal’s Iranians are finding comfort at St Jax.

It's tempting to consider conversion as coercion but it sounds as though the people who have joined this congregation have experienced the Good News of acceptance in Christ in this setting. 

I'm grateful that Broadview shared this story and we can pray for this faith community and all whom they love in a war-torn land. Here is the link to the article:  https://broadview.org/st-jax-church-iranians/

A Canticle to Medieval Women

 I've mentioned that we listen to books together as we travel in our vehicle, downloading them from the library, often repeatedly, until we work our way through. 

We have just finished our most recent tome called Canticle, by Janet Rich Edwards which we both appreciated, although I did moreso than Ruth. A canticle is a song, often a religious song, and this novel is a song of praise to women of courage and faith. 

A review in the Washington Post drew me to the novel and this paragraph sums it up well: 

Edwards, like her late-13th-century heroine, Aleys, is walking a treacherous path. With “Canticle,” her debut novel, she has created a bizarre story of miracles and martyrdom by drawing on equally bizarre stories about medieval mystics such as St. Clare of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Genoa. Some readers will catch echoes of Lauren Groff’s 2021 novel, “Matrix,” about the 12th-century poet Marie de France, but Edwards’s fidelity to the Christ-saturated imagination of the period is bolder — and, probably, less appealing to those modern readers who want historical women to be sweetened with modern feminist sensibilities like a Communion wafer dipped in honey.

I wouldn't describe the story as bizarre even though it is very different from our perspective of the world today, including the spiritual. I appreciated the many allusions to that era, some of them listed above but also the Beguines. The Beguines were religious lay communities in which the women were devout yet not nuns and were free to leave if they chose. 

As I listened I was reminded of so much I've read about women of that time who found ways to express their faith outside of the often oppressive control of men. They were often mystics who experienced God and Christ in unconventional ways that were viewed as a danger to the patriarchal control of the Church. If they strayed too far from that control their lives could go up in flames -- quite literally. There are also echoes of Hildegard of Bingen and Julian of Norwich in this well written novel. 

We agree that there were portions that could have been been edited to a degree but I'm glad we prevailed to the end. 

                                                            Print of a Beguine Woman from 1489

Bedside Manner in Medicine & Ministry

Opinion

A medical tradition worth reviving

I have found making house calls to be one of the most meaningful and satisfying aspects of my work as a family doctor. Although they have long been in decline in North America, there are still physicians fighting to save the tradition

Nicholas Pimlott

The Globe and Mail

Published January 31, 2026

When we lived in Halifax I got a phone call one Christmas Day evening about the death of an elderly woman I had been visiting in hospital, She was the mother of a member of the congregation but I ended up seeing her a number of times. She actually died at home because the family made arrangements for her to receive care there in her final days.

I went to be with the family so that we could pray and commend her to God's eternal care. She and her husband lived in one of the swankiest condominium buildings in the downtown and as I approached the elevator I realized that the man waiting there was my doctor, who, it turned out, was her physician as well. We were both a bit surprised to see the other and we chatted on our way up. 

A few weeks ago the artiicle above was publiished in the Saturday Globe and Mail and it brought to mind that incident. I was touched as I read it because I found pastoral "house calls" to be a deeply meaningful part of ministry, although my role was in spiritual health rather than physical. Dr. Pimlott began his piece with a story about the death of a woman and the solemn and intimate formality, with her care-giver daughter present, of verifying what had occurred. Dr. Pimlott went on to offer some facts and a reflection on the value of home visits:

Before the Second World War, house calls made up around half of all visits between doctors and patients; by 1950, that had fallen to roughly one in 10, and by the 1980s house calls made up just one in 200 of all such visits...

Not long after I started making those monthly home visits to her, the weekly trips to the emergency department suddenly stopped. Whether or not it was because my regular home visits finally had an impact, or because in her new home she had easy access to the help and advice of a nurse, I cannot say. Nor did I ever ask her. Like many doctors, I am vain enough and arrogant enough to think that somehow, I had changed her behaviour. The more obvious truth is that she changed mine. After years of frustration, I had finally stopped treating Isabel as a problem to be solved and began treating her like a person to be cared for.

Although still inadequately compensated compared to office visits and not always convenient to do, I have found making house calls to be one of the most meaningful and satisfying aspects of my work as a family doctor. They have provided me with insights into the lives of my patients that have helped me to better understand and care for them, and they have deepened my sense of connection to them.

I did have occasions when I was present as parishioners "shuffled off this mortail coil" and it was always a powerful experience. Thankfully, most visits were pastoral  in nature with conversation and perhaps a scripture reading, a prayer, and sharing in holy communion. I had my own version of the doctor's bag, a lovely walnut-cased communion set, and a visiting bible, a small version I would have trouble reading from now because of the tiny print. 

As with Dr. Pimlott there were individuals I didn't really want to visit and neither did the excellent pastoral care ministers I worked with through the decades in multiple-staff congregations. One imperious old soul insisted on holding court in her bedroom with the stock market scroll on the TV. I eventually convinced her to turn off the set for the time I was there. 

I'm grateful that son Isaac, also a United Church minister, visits congregants, mostly older,  where they live. As with physicians, home pastoral visits by clergy have been on the decline for decades. More than once colleagues opined that they didn't have time to "sit around drinking tea" (a direct quote) and I wondered what they were doing that was so much more important than this aspect of ministry. Of course, there are so many cautions and rules about time spent alone with vulnerable persons but compassion is still essential. 

While I will readily admit that I often felt mildly guilty that I wasn't keeping up with this ministry of presence in Christ's name I have no regrets for the time I "wasted" with my parishioners. 

Reproductions of The Doctor, a painting by 19th-century British artist Luke Fildes that depicts a house call to a sick child, hang in many modern family doctors’ offices.

The Crisis in Cuba and Christian Witness

 

                                                       Matanzas Theological Seminary

The United Church of Canada expresses its unwavering solidarity with Cuban Mission and Service partners and the people of Cuba. At a time of deepening interconnected crises, the United Church condemns the recent  executive order (opens in a new tab)issued by the Trump administration, which declares a national emergency and establishes a process to impose tariffs on goods from countries that sell or otherwise provide oil to Cuba. This threatens the right to life and the wellbeing of Cubans. 

We spent time as tourists in Cuba on several occasions over time although we haven't been there in at least 15 years. Even though we enjoyed the respite from the cold of Canadian winters we became increasingly concerned about the the oppressive regime generally and the lack of religious freedom, despite statements to the contrary. We were very aware that tourism was an economic engine for the country and those who served us in resorts were dependent on Canadian dollars to lift them above poverty.

Now, thanks to an American embargo on Venezualan oil entering Cuba, most tourism has ground to a halt and the country is suffering from power outages and serious food insecurity. People have no money and are starving in the dark. This embargo is punitive for average Cubans who have no say over government policy. Canada is trying to figure out how to offer aid to those who need it most. 

On one of our trips we visited a Christian seminary in the city of Mantanzas, a simple oasis in the midst of the poverty. At the time the United Church had am active partnership with the seminary and our son, Isaac, considered doing a portion of his theological education there. We toured the grounds and saw the extensive vegetable gardens which provided produce for the seminary and the broader community. We had brought with us cloth and sewing supplies for a collective sponsored by the seminary and we met with the coordinator later in Havana. They simply didn't have the money for or access to these supplies within the country. 

I have been thinking about this Christian witness in Mantanzas and about the ministries of the Roman Catholic church in Cuba. A spokesperson for the RCs said recently:

“Food prices are rising. Medicines are scarce, medical services have been reduced, and surgeries are limited only to those whose lives are in danger. Access to drinking water has become more difficult because many people depend on water trucks, and without fuel, they cannot reach them.”

In this context, the Church — poor and among the poor — offers a pastoral ministry of charity and consolation. “It is in the area of charity that we are perhaps being renewed and continually growing, as we see increasing needs and experience the Lord’s call to serve Him in the poor,” he said, recalling the many assistance efforts carried out — often with great difficulty — for the most vulnerable.

The prospects for Cuba are bleak and while President Trump has mused about a "friendly takover" of the country, starving the poor is not a form of liberation. 

I'm not sure to what extent the United Church connection has continued but we can pray for Christ's church in all its expressions in the country. Here is a link to the United Church response to the current situation:

https://united-church.ca/news/new-us-tariffs-target-cuba-united-church-offers-solidarity-cuban-people

                Various moments from the social pastoral ministry of the RC churches in Havana

Living Water

 

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John” (although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized),  he left Judea and started back to Galilee.  But he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 

 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

John 4: 1-7. 13-15 NRSVue 

Both Lower Trent and Quinte Conservation Authorities have issued warnings about high water levels in rivers and streams due to heavy rain and rising temperatures. The message is that banks might become unstable and flooding is possible. These are important cautions although I'm somewhat pleased that they are necessary. Last year drought in our region was so sustained that water levels dropped alarmingly, wells dried up, and many dependable channels became a navigation nightmare. Our waterways need to be replenished. 

                                                               Samaritan Woman at the Well -- He Qi 

Wouldn't you know that the gospel reading for this Sunday in Lent is exclusive to John, the story of the encounter between Jesus and a woman at a precious source of water, a well. It looks as though our pastor (and son) Isaac will tie what is the lengthiest conversation between Jesus and any person in the gospels to International Women's Day, a thoughtful choice. In the back-and-forth of this exchange Jesus, the Jew, promises the Samaritan woman Living Water, even as she provides him with a drink to quench his thirst. 

Although this story abounds in symbolism, as is the case with so much of John, it is also a reminder of the value of water for daily sustenance. Finding sources of water and managing them was a vital part of every day, often women's work. Some of you may have read James Michener's novel, The Source, which unfolds the complex history of the region through countless generations with the focal point  of a particular water source. In years past I would recommend this entertaining saga to those who were going on trips to Israel and Ruth read it before we visited in 2023. 

The paucity of water in places around the planet due to global heating is becoming a crisis and even in normally watery climes such as ours is cause for concern. While we watch the extensive bombing of Tehran in Iran, there is another emergency for this city of well over 10 million.  Officials have been warning about Day Zero, when the taps run dry as the country has endured six consecutive years of severe drought.

When we read the story of the Samaritan Woman we appreciate that Jesus is offering a deeper spiritual truth to this rejected person, a message of hope and acceptance. Perhaps we can also rethink the symbol of  Living Water as the precious resource that brought the two of them together in the first place. Water is sacred in many religions, complete with rituals and liturgies. 

Am I suggesting that the seemingly endless snowfall of this Winter was actually a blessing? I'll let you decide!