Groups are gathering in various regions of the world today, June 8th, to mark World Oceans Day, learning and taking action about ocean change, along with climate change.
My prayer times are extended these days with so many troubling incidents of violence and distress calling to be held in God’s love, peace, and justice.
This week’s General Council Executive meeting unanimously decided that the work of the General Council Office will be focused on supporting denominational identity and connection. (Read more about these decisions on the United Church website.)
In the days since our meeting, I’ve been blessed by events and conversations that have reminded me of core strands in our denominational DNA—our identity.
As the stars were gathering in Hollywood on Sunday, another group of stars was gathering at Eastminster United Church to celebrate how churches and other communities of faith are turning deeper and deeper green. It was fun to be there.
Hope-filled conversations about my letter of January 17 continue, and I am deeply grateful for your dozens of blog comments, other blog postings, hundreds of e-mails, and many newspaper articles and letters to the editor. Here’s the opening to an opinion piece (“Let’s bring some hope to our fragile planet”) published just last Saturday, February 20, in the Kamloops Daily News (Kamloops), page A12, written by Dawne Taylor:
You may have heard about the letter by this title that I have written as an open letter to all Canadians, to be read in pulpits across the United Church this Sunday (January 17th) and personally delivered to the Governor General, the Prime Minister, and other party leaders on Jan. 18th. Others, including all parliamentarians, will also receive it.
My last message from Copenhagen was over a week ago. Daily blogs were planned to end on December 18th, but it’s time to renew my regular (normally weekly) correspondence.
Bleached coral from the Pacific Ocean was the most eloquent voice in Copenhagen this week (during the Ecumenical Celebration for Creation), accompanied by glacier stones from Greenland, dried up maize from Africa, remarkable faith leaders from around the world, and words of scripture, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God” (Rom. 8:19).
You may have seen my tweet from last night’s gathering of Canadians here in Copenhagen. It was a great time of talking with people from across Canadian organizations and perspectives: political, social, economic, and religious. Yesterday I reported about provincial politicians’ comments about the church being here, and last night that message was echoed by more politicians, activists, journalists, and others across generations.
