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.
The world worked up its hopes that its primary institutions would do the responsible thing and stop the threat of destruction of our beloved civilization.
It failed. Did we have to go to political science and history classes to see it coming? The nature of the beast, shown to us repeatedly over the centuries, but we lived in 'hope' that the beast was something that it is not.
An illusion squashed by its own demonstration. We are so disappointed our hope turned from illusion to its actual reality.
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.
Thought I’d blog before midnight for a change. There’s lots happening outside of the main place of negotiations (the Bella Center) these days, so one can still be involved in important things without being on site. For the first time, I’m back to my room midday before more later afternoon/evening sessions. It’s difficult to even get into the Bella Center now, but more about that later.
My own temperature rose a moment ago when my computer shut down without notice, thereby losing the blog I had taken an hour to compose! It’s now late in Copenhagen, so I’ll do my best to recap without staying up all night, and thank you for accepting rough writing.
