Over the past several days I have been in Ottawa speaking with other faith leaders and political leaders about the moral and spiritual challenge of climate change. On Sunday evening I participated in such a panel at a fully public event hosted at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, and the following morning, in a full-day Interfaith Forum.

How does The United Church “of Canada” contribute to the health and healing of Canada?

It’s been about a week since the end of the first national gathering of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Since then I’ve enjoyed joining the More Franchises: A Second Cup event where, among other things, I interacted with those “tweeting” in response to my sermon during the preaching time.

Wednesday’s Sharing Circle at the TRC (see earlier blog) also invited a former teacher to give voice to her difficult experience in a school in Saskatchewan. She arrived as a new, young teacher eager and ready for her vocation. Then she saw the dreadful basement room in which she and her students were expected to spend their days.

Bearing witness to truth is a first step toward healing and reconciliation. Facing one another as we speak truth holds the promise that we might truly listen to the depth of our own truth and the depth of others’ truth, that we might hear the cry of our own souls and the cry of others’ souls.

Day one of this first national gathering of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission began at 5:19 a.m. yesterday with the lighting of the Sacred Fire at sunrise here at The Forks in Winnipeg.

This morning I head to Montreal for a weekend of helping United Theological College mark the completion of its Designated Lay Ministry Residential program. Another poignant few days in a week marked by countless and varied 85th anniversary celebrations for The United Church of Canada.