Questions for my congregation - but where is this coming from?

The other day one of our church leaders spoke to me about some of the initiatives I have been trying to bring forward to our Council and congregation (Peace Mennonite Church, Richmond, BC). During our exchange, he asked, "Where is this coming from?" I have given that question further thought and have come up with a number of answers.

In the first place, even before providing the answers, it is always important to look at where a question is coming from and what it might altogether mean. Given the history of our congregation and its response to some of these issues, I think one of the questions behind this one is, "Why should we care?" Or in other words, "We have more important things to do." Indeed, this speaker asked me if I did not know how busy our council was? Did I not know what they were doing? Truth be told, although I provided an answer, I had some difficulty really coming up with what is engaging them that intensively that they have no more room for anything else.

Over the past number of years, I have raised a number of questions within our congregation:

1)    I have asked about where our congregation is at in terms of being more environmentally conscious.

2)    I have expressed concerns about homelessness and housing affordability and where we might fit in with support and help in that area.

Perhaps these two are not that difficult for our congregation to accept at a certain level because the local media reports on these topics regularly and so they are probably somewhat aware of the needs in these areas.

3)    Over the past three or four years I have also tried to raise our congregation's consciousness about matters related to the status of our indigenous neighbors in this country.

4)    More recently, I have become concerned about the issues between Palestine and Israel in The Holy Land.

When I actually did lead some sessions in our congregation about indigenous matters in advance of the Truth and Reconciliation event in our city in September 2013, I actually wrote a piece called "Justice for First Nations in Canada – I. Why We as Christians Must Care" and published it on my blog, "Reflections from Lulu Island." I was pleased to see that it was well enough received at the time by our Mennonite Church BC leadership that they placed it as a resource on their Indigenous Relations website area. If memory serves me correctly, it was also posted in the Resources Section of Mennonite Church Canada.

As I thought further about this issue just this morning, I was quickly able to jot down seven reasons why we should care or where this is coming from:

1.     If we are concerned about reaching the younger generations, as this brother stated was a prime dynamic behind what our congregation needs to do, showing awareness of and responding to these issues is, I believe, one way to attract their attention. Young people are always looking, at least a certain worthy element of them, for something that grabs their attention, that may perhaps be slightly radical, that calls for commitment and provides a challenge. There are certainly challenges in all of the areas I mentioned two paragraphs back. If what we do in these areas is seen by these young people as representing something Christ wants us to do, which I believe it is, they might actually take a second look at Jesus and Christianity.

2.     We are simply following in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Just read the Scriptures and look and learn as to what he cared about. When he issued his manifesto at the beginning of his ministry, as recorded in Luke chapter 4, he also pointed out that it was a fulfillment of prophecy as recorded perhaps 500 years earlier by Isaiah. What did he say in verses 18-19? "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." As some students of this passage will summarize, Jesus was calling for liberation, liberation in many areas, wherever it is needed. Over the centuries, too many in the church have believed this refers simply to spiritual salvation, the liberation of being born again, to put it bluntly in their language. I believe it applies much more broadly than that. Jesus healed people's illnesses, even raised them from the dead, but we do not always read that he preached personal salvation to each of these individuals.

3.     The issues I refer to are on the national and international agendas of many governments and agencies. If we are to be salt and light in our society, in our nations, we also need to be concerned about what the Christian response to these issues is and speak to that. As my professors used to tell me in Bible College, we need to read the Bible on our right hand in the newspaper on our left. Well, maybe they did not specify which hand for which.

4.     At a deeper level, and I believe this is really key, I really do not believe God can bless the church and make it grow if we ignore all these needs around us. To be sure, know one of us, nor any single congregation, can necessarily cover all of these areas in-depth. However, I never asked for that. Just the same, we bear a lot of guilt in some of these areas for what we and our ancestors have been a part of and we need to take responsibility for that. Our mean focus of ministry, after all, is reconciliation; reconciliation with God, which can provide reconciliation with ourselves, reconciliation with others, which goes beyond the personal, and reconciliation with our world, our environment. We have done damage in all areas.

5.     This last point segues nicely into another reason that is closer to home for some of us as Mennonite Christians. All of these points raised in that key paragraph above are also at some level on the agenda of our provincial and national churches. Some of this has come about through the efforts of those who have worked in certain areas, e.g. spent time in Palestine-Israel. This led to a resolution being passed at this year's Assembly 2016 of Mennonite Church Canada describing ways we could become more involved in this area. The impetus in the case of the environment is individuals who have led to the formation of the Mennonite Creation Care Network, which started in the US but is taking hold in Canada. I am on the Mennonite Church BC Service, Peace and Justice Committee. All of these issues have crossed our table. We were largely responsible, working together also with some members of our conference from Saskatchewan, with organizing an afternoon and evening workshop at extra cost after Assembly 2016 wrapped up, which was attended by some 40 members of across the country, indicating a good level of interest in this area. Mennonite Church Canada has been involved with missions to indigenous people and relating to them on a broader sense going back at least to the 1970s. Prior to that, this was largely a venture of The Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba. Now even in BC, for several years, we have had our own Mennonite Church BC staff Indigenous Relations Coordinator. So, I am not bringing these issues up on my own. There are many others also trying to raise awareness and advance action on these fronts.

6.     When it comes particularly to concerns relating to indigenous Canadians and the Palestine-Israel situation, an extra reason for us to be concerned is that we have gone through much of the same experience as some of these peoples, so we should be even more understanding, empathic and able to act positively in these areas. Our ancestors have been persecuted, oppressed and dispossessed. They have been chased from their homes. Many of us, particularly those who fled the Soviet Union around the time of the Bolshevik Revolution and after World War II, could have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Mennonite Central Committee, which some of our church members have great respect for because it helps them so much in their flight from the Soviet Union, was also beginning to be active in Palestine-Israel with the refugee situation there after World War II. Therefore, they have been a presence in that area as long as they were working with those fleeing Eastern Europe post World War II.

7.     Another very important reason for us to care and see what we can do in these areas is that in some cases, we have been invited to work with those in question. This is particularly true of the situation without indigenous neighbors following the release of the full and final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Among Its 94 recommendations, there are several directed at churches and their agencies and schools. If we are going to have credibility among our native peoples, which we must have before we can help bring them closer to The Kingdom of Heaven, we must respond in a recognizable and significant fashion. With respect to the Palestine-Israel question, our Palestinian neighbors on this globe, especially the Christians, are desperate to have our support. There are elements in the Jewish community that are glad to work with us as well, as they are not happy with what the agenda of the Israeli state appears too much to be.

So, I think I have presented a range of powerful reasons as to why we must pay attention to these areas, these needs that are coming to us from all directions, even if our own individual or congregational response cannot, by virtue of our other pressing needs, be that quantitatively great. We can do small things with quality. That is called “brightening the corner where you are," to quote an old chorus, or "placing the lamp on top of instead of under the bushel basket" to paraphrase one of Jesus’ messages.

Home-building in Richmond

Today I wrote our city, provincial and federal representatives the following, as there are 2 hearings about housing coming up next week and opinions are being solicited:

I want to share with you and the mayor, staff and councillors of our city my thoughts on housing in Richmond.  I am also copying it to our other city representatives at other government levels.

As so many have been saying for so long, the current building trend - which has already gone on far too long - must stop.

As a Christian who also is aware of and supports First Nations views on our need to care for our earth and try to keep it beautiful and sustainable for all, the way our Creator made it, I also believe I need to make my voice heard. 

What we are doing to our city is destructive to the environment and contributing to global warming. Is that what we want to be remembered for? What we are doing is also obscenely socially unjust. If we had prophets, as in biblical times, they would be calling judgment on our heads for what we are doing to the environment and to those who cannot afford any longer to live in their homes because of the greed of too many.

There are many groups involved. First is the federal government, who lets too many wealthy immigrants in, ostensibly to invest or get jobs. But that is another level of government beyond you all. However, I think it is the rsponsibility of city councillors and staff to bring citizens' concerns on federal matters to that government.

Then there are some immigrants who build what are now often referred to as these monster houses. Indeed, some are bigger than small hotels in other parts of our country. These people often do not end up working here because in the end they really do not have the language skills and because they can make more money in Asia, so they contribute little to our economy besides what they spend on houses, cars and other purchases. They generally keep all their other assets offshore, so they are nontaxable for Canada. Therefore, they claim low income and drain our social welfare coffers. I have close ties to the new immigrant community and I know how some of them count the days until they can get the maximal benefits from our system - OAS, GIS, Sales tax rebate etc, not to mention low-cost bus and community amenity passes and extra medical care - all the benefits that accrue to low income. For too many, this is just pocket money on top of what they already have. They are well-informed about these things by their immigration advisers and often know more about these matters than many who grow up here. Some thus also inflate our poverty figures, including for chlidren, as again, many of these wealthy parents don't work here and claim no income here as it is stil being earned and kept offshore.

We need to educate these newcomers about our Canadian values at the stage where they are expressing interest in coming here. They come here for our education and health care but, as I said, contribute little to its upkeep. They come here for our beauty and clean air, but are speeding up the process of changing all that by their driving and housing habits. 

Then there are the realtors who are just too happy to let home prices go up and up so they can make more. This is driving away many of our citizens; those who have lived here for years and those who have grown up here and have every right to keep living here in this beautiful environment. Instead, we sell out to wealthy immigrants at overblown prices. If the market cannot correct this, government needs to step in somehow. There are ethics invovled here.

Then there are the developers and builders. Again, why not, they will build what the customer wants. More money is made that way. Maybe the architects and developers need to teach their clients that large house are giving them a bad name in the eyes of fellow Candians and making them unwelcome. I have taken guests around our city and heard them and other newcmers comment on how ugly many of these new homes are with their mix of old, new and pretentious. It is again, socially and morally obscene the way we tear down perfectly sound homes in this city to make way for these monstrosities. In any other part of this country these homes would be kept up and renovated over time. Here? Why bother, let it deteriorate and we can sell it for a fortune. Four hundred homes gone in a year according to recent news reports? That's a whole village in other parts of our land. We need to encourge preservation of our homes, not destruction. At least these older homes would be more affordable to those who now cannot afford to live here.

Here is where the city comes in. We need to turn the tide on the increasing growth of our carbon footprint because of these building methods. Every tree cut down - and our tree bylaws and their renforcement, I'm sorry, are just a window-dressing joke in far too many instances - contributes to loss of oxygen and increase in carbon dioxide in our environment. It also directly drives up the temperature because trees give off water vapour which has a cooling effect. They also provide shade which further cools. They way some trees repeatedly have their limbs amputated - I won't give the practice the dignity of calling it pruning - even right on Number 3 Rd. almost in sight of city hall, is contrary to city bylaws, not to mention that it eventually kills the trees. Some of these newcomers come from cities and places where they are not used to greenery and trees. They are not used to looking after yards (mowing grass and raking up leaves), so they want no big trees that might cause more work such as pruning and cleaning up fallen leaves. We need to teach them (and many of our so-called arborists and gardeners, who are too often tree butchers - look at what they do to trees near hydro lines etc. - overkill and then some) the value of trees.

Environmentally, our Western traditional lawns make no sense either - cutting, watering, fertilizing etc. However, one can plant ground cover, flowers and shrubs. One can make gardens, what with all our concern about food safety, transportation costs and loss of farmland. Every square foot of green replaced by paving stone and pavement, or larger house, again contributes to global warming. This calls for more air conditioning... see the energy usage and costs increase? These homes must be ovens inside in the summer with no trees or greenery around to absorb heat and provide shade and cooling.   

Surely the City also realizes that many of these large homes with their large car-filled driveways are so made to accommodate the many illegal renters housed there. Many are also indeed unoffical hotels for tourists. All of this needs ot stop or be controlled and monitored.

Every time I go for a walk in the neighbourhood and see more developer signs and orange fencing etc., a little bit of me dies along with our city. Is this what our city representatives want to be remembered for - the death of Richmond and loss of many of its citizens to the rest of the country? We need some major changes at City Hall... I know there are some allies there, but obviously still not enough.