3/30/2010
A wonderful 10-page document was published on March 3 by the Bishops'
Conference of England and Wales. It's entitled Choosing the Common
Good. It's easy to google and download. I repeat: It's great! Just
what I needed after spending a month researching and writing an
article on Agro-fuels, all the while keeping up with political
events in Canada and Alberta, Water, Climate Change, the Tar Sands,
the Lubicon (a group of northern Alberta Cree who have never signed a
treaty and whose land is completely overrun by oil, gas, and tar
sands), and many other concerns. It is not all bad. Students at the
University of Alberta organized a great 4-evening event on water and
last evening. there was a wonderful hope-filled event commemorating
the 30th anniversary of Romero's martyrdom.
A few paragraphs from Choosing the Common Good:
The common good refers to what belongs to everyone by virtue of their
common humanity. The simple definition of the common good is "the sum
total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as
individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily.
" Promoting the common good cannot be pursued by treating each
individual separately and looking for the highest 'total benefit', in
some kind of utilitarian addition. Because we are interdependent, the
common good is more like a multiplication sum, where if any one
number is zero then the total is always zero. If anyone is left out
and deprived of what is essential, then the common good has been
betrayed.
The common good is about how to live well together. It is the whole
network of social conditions which enable human individuals and
groups to flourish and live a full, genuinely human life. At the
heart of the common good, solidarity acknowledges that all are
responsible for all, not only as individuals but collectively at
every level. The principle of the common good expands our
understanding of who we are and opens up new sources of motivation.
The fulfillment which the common good seeks to serve is the
flourishing of humanity, expressed in the phrase 'integral human
development.' Such development requires that people are rescued from
every form of poverty, from hunger to illiteracy; it requires the
opportunities for education, creating a vision of true partnership
and solidarity between peoples; it calls for active participation in
economic and political processes and it recognizes that every human
person is a spiritual being with instincts for love and truth and
aspirations for happiness.
Opening and Closing song from last evening's celebration:
Monseņor, vives hoy en corazon del pueblo que tanto te amo. Monseņor,
tu verdad nos hace marchar a la victoria final! Un obispo morira,
pero la iglesia de Dios que es el pueblo no perecera jamas
Monsignor, you are alive today in the heart of the people who love
you so much. Monsignor, your truth makes us walk to the final
accomplishment. A bishop may die, but the church of God that is the
people will never perish.
Blessings in these holy days leading up to Easter.
Cecily
3/23/10
We face so many hard and controversial issues. Sometimes we need a
rest. It's spring. Take a walk. Meet a friend. Have tea. Read a book.
Disappear for a few hours away from the computer, the phone and all
other distractions. Go to the art gallery. .....
Recently someone handed me a little piece of paper with seven
statements in various colours- the rainbow principles. It's all very
simple. A fresh breadth of spring!
Respect all beings
Offer fairness and compassion to everyone
Yearn to learn by caring and encouraging
Grow by exploring new ideas together
Believe what your heart tells you yet listen to others
Insist on Peace and Justice for the whole world
Value the interconnected web of all life
Cecily
3/16/2010
"It is by grace that you are saved, through faith, not by anything of
your own, but by a pure gift from God, and not by anything you have
achieved. Nobody can claim the credit. You are God's work of art." -
Ephesians 2:8
Don't you hate it when you have a book you want to read over and over
again. All those other books are there waiting for you and you're
stuck reading the same book over and over again. Richard Rohr's
Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality is like that. He begins
chapter 8: "the resented banquet," this way: At this point I want to
name what I think is the central positive theme of the Bible. It is
the Divine Unmerited Generosity that is everywhere available, totally
given, usually undetected as such, and often even undesired....
Abundance, largesse, excess is the spiritual name of the game, "full
measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over and pouring into
your lap. Grace will always be experienced as more than enough
instead of a mere survival mode. If there is not grace to a
situation, it does not really satisfy or give any joy."
Some people live this, believe this; it's part of each cell of their
body. Here's a note from Sister Mary Alban who is 60 years professed,
80 years of age, whose ministry has been in Port-au-Prince for the
past 26 years. She was in Haiti at the time of the earthquake and
personally experienced its devastating effects. Here's what she wrote
to her community in Toronto to send to donors and friends:
The people of Haiti have always "chosen life" everyday of their
difficult existence. You have seen this on TV and newspaper coverage:
a child pulled out after seven days, his hands outspread in triumph
and smiling with joy; a man finding a door intact and standing it up
while telling the kids to bring pieces of wood from the wreckage to
build their house.
They have cried to God, and God has sustained them as God also
sustained me. I have a new kind of solidarity with the religious
communities and my neighbours in Haiti: we have passed through the
immense catastrophe together as victims and survivors. This is why I
have a firm hope that Haiti - Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Jacmel - will
be rebuilt and they will be beautiful cities. Haiti will never again
be labeled "the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere." This can
and will happen if the Haitians are given a chance to re-envision
their country, find work and remuneration to make the vision a
reality, hand in hand with those like you, our friends, who come to
their aid.
Cecily
3/9/2010
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early
1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the
industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise
of radical ideologies.
1908 Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women.
Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more
vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000
women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better
pay and voting rights.
1909 The first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the
United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the
last Sunday of February until 1913.
1918 - 1999 Since its birth in the socialist movement, International
Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and
celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For
decades, IWD has grown from strength to strength annually. For many
years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to
coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation
in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as
'International Women's Year' by the United Nations. Women's
organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD
annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women's
advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance
and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and
maintained in all aspects of life.
This week in Canada we had the Speech from the Throne to inaugurate
the new session of parliament. It mentioned that Canada's national
anthem would be revised for gender equity - to change "in all thy
sons command." I was very surprised - well, shocked - to learn that
these words came from a 1982 revision! They were not in the original
anthem. The proposed revision came to an end in two days since the
Conservative caucus had not been advised of this proposal and 100% of
them saw no reason to change "in all thy sons command." A venter
wrote before the review was rescinded: "If the government wants to be
more gender-neutral, it should enforce equal pay for equal work."
Women's groups in Canada were not able to get the government to
accept a more just version of this by substituting "equivalent"
instead of "equal." Recently, the government had to pay back a large
number of female civil servants who for years were discriminated
against in their pay.
At mass this morning, a young woman read "Brothers" at the
introduction of the reading from Romans. She hadn't noticed that most
of us read "Sisters and Brothers." I wonder what the younger
generation understands by "brothers" or even "sisters and brothers."
We have a lot of religious communities in our parish - many they
think the sisters deserve a special greeting.
Before leaving for church this morning, I read a few paragraphs from
Great Mystics and Social Justice on Desmond Tutu:
"Accepting human dignity and loving one another slowly brings the
human family into unity that is God's intent."
Tutu describes this unity as essential to our humanity: "We are
human because we belong. We are made for community, for togetherness,
for family, to exist in a delicate network of interdependence ... We
are sisters and brothers of one another whether we like it or not,
and each one of us is a precious individual.
"We are caught up in God's 'centripetal process, a moving towards the
Centre, towards unity, harmony, goodness, peace and justice; one that
removes barriers ... none is an outsider, all are insiders, all belong."
(Desmond Tutu quotations come from Tutu's book No Future Without
Forgiveness."
Cecily
3/2/2010
Saturday, 9:00 am - 4:00 pm, in Edmonton, we celebrated the Social
Justice Institute, a shorter, simpler Institute than we've known
over the years. So much simpler that I didn't recognize it when I
registered but only when I got there! And I liked it! All of us
sitting around round tables in the basement of Trinity Lutheran
Church (no charge for the use of the hall), in central Old Scona, a
popular shopping, strolling, entertainment area and not in a far-
flung middle-class suburban church or at Newman Theological College
and Seminary where the Institute used to be held before Newman was
demolished to make way for a ring-road around Edmonton. The seminary
and college was just too big, too nice, too formal, too Catholic and
too far. A long introduction but I think the setting is very
important: a two and a half day conference restricted attendance,
increased the cost of attending. Attendance at this "new" Institute
was more diverse and younger.
The main attraction was Bishop Luc Bouchard, bishop of Alberta's most
extensive diocese, one that comprises most of northern Alberta's vast
territory and many of its indigenous populations. It also includes
Fort MacMurray and the Oil Sands, the world's second largest oil
reserve, whose extent covers an area the size of Florida. Its rapid
expansion creates massive problems of pollution, excessive use and
contamination of water, production of green-house gases, toxic waste
and concerns with reclamation which after decades of mining has not
even begun. It also creates social problems with services not able to
keep up with population growth, high cost of living, large numbers of
workers from across Canada as well as thousands of temporary foreign
workers, mainly from China.
In January 2009, Bishop Luc had the courage to address these problems
from a theological perspective with liberal use of the Church's
social justice documents, solid environmental and human ecology and
profound ethical questions in a pastoral letter entitled:The
Integrity of Creation and the Athabasca Oilsands. The speed of
development is excessive. Sacrificing the integrity of creation for
economic gain cannot be morally justified. But we must also take
responsibility for our consumer demand. His last word in the late
afternoon wrap-up was "Hope" - not to lose hope and to believe in the
vision of the potentiality of people endowed with spirit, heart,
intellect. He called us not to "giddy optimism" but to HOPE,
steadfast hope.
The bishop was followed by a very young engineer who is a research
analyst for the Pembina Institute, a non-profit that promotes
environmental, social and economic sustainability in the public
interest. He gave an excellent presentation. All but one of the
afternoon workshops were also conducted by young talented individuals
who tackled Alberta water issues; Earth Charter Churches; Carbon-
fast; Creating a greener household. The sole older presenter spoke
on changes that can be made to make your church building greener.
The opening and closing worship was also conducted by a young woman.
She used some beautiful prayers from the Iona Abbey Worship Book and
the following prayer by Sr. Ellen C. Rinke, IHM:
Loving God,
We thank you for the wonderful gift of life.
We know that all we are, and all we have, are your loving gifts.
We thank you for the gift of your son, Jesus Christ,
who shows us the way to love, and
who calls us to work together to build
a community of peace, justice and care for the Earth.
We desire to be good stewards of all your gifts, nurturing them
with reverence and care.
It is our fervent hope and prayer that you who have begun this
good work in us,
will bring it to fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever. Amen.
Cecily
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