Place of Meeting June 2014

Place of Meeting

Where our hearts are planted May was a season of contemplating the meaning of reconciliation in the face of what we have learned of the suffering of our First Nations brothers and sisters, and contemplating how we can live more justly together as children of the Creator. Above, together with Diem LaFortune and Lori Unger, kids plant a “heart garden” at the front of the church in memory of children who suffered under the residential schools system. (Some of TUMC’s hearts went to a larger installation in Ottawa.)

Toronto United Mennonite Church June 2015

Place of Meeting

Scene around TUMC

is the meaning of the Huron word “toronton,” from which our city gets its name. Fittingly, it can also mean “plenty” or “abundance.”

Place of Meeting is also the monthly newsletter of Toronto United Mennonite Church. May you find plenty here to enjoy and ponder. Opinions expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily of the congregation as a whole.

Contributions of all kinds are enthusiastically received, through the mail folder in the lobby or at dmartens@pathcom.com Next deadline: June 30 Have you discovered the allcolour online version of Place of Meeting, complete with live weblinks? Check this month’s issue out here: issuu.com/pomeditor/docs/ pom_june_2015l NOTE: New address for submissions: dmartens4@cogeco.ca Editor: Doreen Martens The children’s choir sings on May 3; junior youth offer a lively report on their retreat on May 31; the band, with some new members, plays on May 31.

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A true welcome for young adults U of T campus chaplain Geoff Wichert’s “faith partner” presentation for Alyson Baergen on May 31 took a different twist, pointing out the importance of fully welcoming young adults into the fold. As we look toward another fall season and a crop of students and young newcomers to the city looking for a church home, we thought it would be worth sharing his thoughts more broadly.

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ike many of us, I inhabit multiple worlds –– in my case multiple jobs at the University of Toronto, plus home, church, etc. –– and occasionally there are those happy situations where those worlds overlap in significant ways.

For the past few years I’ve been thrilled to see more connections develop between TUMC and the CRC campus ministry at UofT, mainly in the form of young adults moving freely between them, and many being active both on campus and here in church. And I have to say that much –– perhaps most –– of that is a credit to Alyson’s presence and her efforts. Both here and on campus I have seen her generous and hospitable spirit, her dedication and faithfulness, her readiness to serve others without wanting to draw any attention to herself.

I want to urge / encourage / challenge us as a congregation to deliberately recognize, celebrate and affirm the tremendous gift that our young adults are to us. We don’t always do this; in fact, we (and I include myself in this) often don’t even know who the young adults in our congregation are, either because we’re busy with our own friends and involvements, or because their time here is often marked by transition, limited timelines (e.g. a degree, or a job/position), and multiple commitments (theses, professional expectations, other communities of involvement).

Subconsciously (or consciously) we might ask whether it makes sense to invest a lot of time and energy into getting to know people who will only be part of our congregation for a relatively short time. In the same way, those who are passing through are always wondering whether it’s worth putting down roots and forming deep commitments –– like joining a church –– if they know they’re going to be leaving again in a few years.

Alyson is a member of First Mennonite in Edmonton, and she actually keeps in touch with what’s happening there, sends her vote by proxy, etc. So why is it important –– for us as well as for her –– that she wants to become a member of TUMC now, after nearly 4 years here, and when she’s likely to finish her degree in the foreseeable future? Because not only are we now Alyson’s home congregation, but we are the community from which she will soon launch onto the next chapter of her personal and faith journey, wherever that takes her. We are now the ones who must provide a spiritual anchor, a psychological tether of support and safety that will help strengthen her for the next leg of the journey.

Research into the relationships that youth and young adults have with faith communities suggests that with each successive move or major life transition about half of them will not develop strong connections with faith communities in their new location or situation.

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A true welcome for young adults There are all kinds of reasons for this, from a crisis of faith or disillusionment with previous communities to simply being too busy, or geographically inaccessible (e.g. Cole Sadler & his “functional apostasy” because he couldn't get to church by TTC), or lacking connections to suitable new communities.

Every time we welcome one of these travellers into our community, embrace them, provide a home, encourage them to put down roots, and help them stay connected here, we’re helping to tip that balance the other way. The “First Mennonites” and other congregations from all over, and countless parents, families and friends, are launching their youth and young adults on their journey and hoping and praying they find a safe (both welcoming and challenging) place to land.

They may not know it (because they may not know us), but really they’re hoping and praying we do our job well.

And our job isn’t primarily about receiving wonderful folks like Alyson (and Donny, and others) into our membership. That’s just the icing on the cake. That’s the celebration part.

Our job has been, for the past four years, to show and convince Alyson that she really belongs here, that we care about her and her journey –– the struggles and the joys. And that we do this long before, and whether or not, she agrees to be a youth leader, or committee member, or church member, or whatever other kind of explicit or implicit “entry criterion” we might harbour in our minds.

Let me say that we haven’t always done that so well, and I know many of you have your own stories of struggling to feel fully integrated / like you truly “belong” here at TUMC. It would have been wonderful if Alyson could have felt that sense of belonging sooner than four years after coming here, but transitions often take time, for everyone involved. Right now what we need to do is celebrate Alyson’s decision to become a member here, and resolve again to be, by God’s grace, as welcoming as Jesus would have us to be.

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Alyson Baergen, top, tells her faith story on May 31 as she is welcomed as a member by transfer. Donny Cheung, centre, offers his faith story prior to being baptized on May 24.

Thanks to Tim Schmucker for photos.

Heritage Club: Mennonite Centre in Ukraine offers ‘a light on a hill’

By Faye Tiessen

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t is with pride that we recall the Heritage Club’s, (Toronto) participation in a project to create a centre to serve humanitarian needs in a country that was once home for Mennonites,a place where some of our grandparents suffered imprisonment,famine and terror during the Stalin years.

It was in April 2000 when Dr. Harvey Dyck made us aware that we could buy a building in Moloschansk, Ukraine (formerly Halbstadt). That building was the Mädschenschule, a former Mennonite girls’ school. A committee with Nicholas Dick as chairperson, Rudy Huebert as secretary/treasurer and Paul Siemens as vice chair, with the participation of Heritage Club members,met with 40 charter members from B.C., California, Niagara and Ottawa at a conference at the University of Toronto in June of the same year.

MCC representatives were Paul Toews, Akron; Bill Janzen, Canada, and Evan Heise, Ontario. The organization, with the title Friends of Mennonite Centre Ukraine (FOMC, suggested by Rudy Huebert) was to “provide humanitarian services which are community-based, provided without discrimination, foster local initiative, and are sustainable, while interpreting and commemorating the Mennonite past.”

The mayor of Molotschansk challenged FOMCU to become “a light on a hill.”

A brief update on FOMCU was given to us on May 20 by Walter Unger, one of the long serving and dedicated directors. The Ukrainian staff of Mennonite Centre includes 11 persons, a manager, Olga Bratschenko, and program coordinator, Olga Rubel, Right from top: The Mennonite Centre, a former Mennonite school, in December. Nina, a refugee who fled Shirokino, with son Sasha, who risked going back to get some of her possessions and had his car attacked by rebels. The center is helping to pay for his rehabilitation for two damaged vertebrae. A refugee family living in a single room in Zaporozhye. The center provided building materials to help give refugees living in a large open building more privacy.

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Mennonite Centre in Ukraine offers ‘a light on a hill’ who hope to be at Mennonite World Conference this summer. Canadian directors usually spend two- to threemonth terms at the Centre, but because of the unrest in Ukraine they stayed only a week this spring.

There are hardships for many people due to the faltering economy. Last winter 2,700 people were fed in one month; 60 seniors were given lunch each week; help was given through telemedicine; people were helped with medications for 28 surgeries; and therapy treatments, cataract treatment and new hospital equipment were provided.

Aid is given to students in universities and trade schools. The great-grandson of Rita Pankratz, one of the women commemorated by Ray Dirks in the recent “Along the Road to Freedom” exhibit, is studying medicine with aid from the Centre. In a joint program with a Winnipeg charity and the Gates Foundation, together with staff of Promitei Centre for children with special needs and Zaporozhye school #66, children with autism and cerebral palsy will be integrated into the regular school system.

Walter told us there is a new spirit of volunteerism in the area. There is a sincere effort to help those in need, particularly refugees from the war zones.

The Centre is involved with partners in providing refugee assistance in three areas that are near the front lines,in the small villages, and also for refugees coming into the city of Zaporozhye, providing food, bedding, shelter, water, propane stoves, tents, etc.

The administration costs of the Centre are low, with 91% of donations going directly to aid Ukrainians.

Donors come from North America and from the Aussiedler –– former residents of Ukraine now in Germany. After 15 years, FOMCU continues to be “a light on a hill.”

Walter Unger adds some comments about the expanding role of Ukraine Mennonite Centre: “It would seem that humanitarian aid to Ukrainians, especially where Mennonites once lived, is the major component of the Centre. That’s certainly how it started, with returning Mennonites discovering the poverty in our former towns and villages. But things have evolved.

Our return with aid was just the opener.

“Our unique history opened doors to us and Ukrainians have invited us to, in the words of the Mayor of

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Moloschansk more than 15 years ago, ‘assist them in creating an ethical renaissance.’ That is increasingly what we have been doing in concert with many others who have been invited to help just now, very much as Catherine II invited many, including Mennonites, to develop New South Russia at the end of the 18th century.

“This expanded role, in parallel with Ukrainians, is the building of a new Ukraine, much different from Putin’s Novorussiya. In short, we have been invited to assist in renewing and often building from scratch the institutions of a just and caring society across a wide range of social developments. We are not involved in Ukrainian politics. We are assisting Ukrainian aspirations to create and fulfill their dreams of peace and prosperity. Believe me, they dream a lot.

“Things are changing.There is a new spirit of volunteerism emerging –– people helping each other across ethnic and religious lines. There is a new push to deal better with the marginalized, the disabled and the very young and the very old, to eliminate corruption, to develop a fair and open judicial system and rule of law, to respect individual rights and property rights.

Increasingly, Mennonite agencies, notably including the Mennonite Centre in Ukraine, which recently received national recognition as the best charity in Zaporozhye Oblast (province), are assisting these topics in close cooperation with Ukrainian agencies and others from around the world.”

Check out many stories and photos on the Mennonite Centre Ukraine Facebook page. If you would like to donate , please mail cheques to: FOMCU c/o George Dyck, 3675 N.Service Rd., Beamsville ON, L0R1B1 Dasha, a girl with cerebral palsy who has been helped by the Prometheus Centre, which gets Mennonite Centre support and helps kids with problems such as autism, delayed intellectual development and Down syndrome.

A Prayer for Reconciliation (A participatory sermon)

The May 31 service was a full one, among other things, the culmination of a month of services reflecting on our response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada. Pastor Marilyn was able to present only a truncated version of her sermon, which includes a series of participatory moments and prayers. So POM asked if we could print the whole thing, for the benefit of those present and away who wondered what they missed.

Prayer of Illumination All: As we hear and read the Scripture, O God, open our hearts and minds to discover your Word for us today, and help us interpret and translate that word into action every day. Amen.

In light of the closing of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Ottawa this weekend today I will talk about Reconciliation. In simple MerriamWebster terms, reconciliation is the act of causing two people or groups to become friendly again after an argument or disagreement. (Diagram 1 at right) When I read that definition and applied it to the process of reconciliation that we hope and pray for between settler and indigenous people. I said to myself, “no, not good enough,� because what happened between settlers and indigenous folks was so much more than an argument or a disagreement. Those terms apply to parties with equal power in a relationship, Settlers and indigenous persons have been living in and experiencing the world from different positions of power and privilege for generations. (Diagram 2) Fortunately we have more than the dictionary to help us understand reconciliation. Our scriptures lead us into a deeper appreciation for what reconciliation can be if we have the eyes and ears and hearts to see.

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A Prayer for Reconciliation A Children’s Prayer (This can be done as a ‘repeat after me’ prayer) God, reconciliation is a big word, Help me to always listen with my heart, as well as my ears.

Help me to see with my heart, as well as my eyes.

Help me to speak the truth, and to listen for the truth And then I will be on the path towards reconciliation.

Amen (kairoscanada.org/events/time4reconciliation/attachment/500x10-white-bar/)

As Christians we talk often about the reconciling work of Christ and while this is true, essential and important, this morning I would like us to examine Isaiah 6 and see already there a model and foundation for God’s powerful work of Salvation and Reconciliation.

The model in Isaiah’s vision (Diagram 3, left) that Jeff read for us includes four parts. First, God reveals God’s magnificence to Isaiah and in that vision Isaiah has a powerful encounter with the Holy.

Second, The Seraphs respond with praise. and Isaiah responds with confession. Third, God offers forgiveness symbolized by a burning coal that touches Isaiah’s lips. And Fourth, when God asked, “Whom will I send and who will go for us?” Isaiah volunteered with, “Here am I, send me” And what was that message to that God had for the people? The rest of chapter 6 tells us: If the people would look and see with their eyes hear and listen with their ears comprehend with their minds and hearts they could turn and be healed.

The way it is phrased in this passage, God tells Isaiah that all of this is not likely to happen.

Isaiah asks, “How long? How long will it be before the people will turn and be healed?”

And God replies, “The land will be desolate, houses will be empty, the people will be sent away and everything will be scorched and desolate before anyone turns for healing.”

Does this also need to be true for our time? I pray not.

Kids prepare to plant the “hearts” they created in activity period in a heart garden at the front of the church, to remember First Nations children who suffered in residential schools, during the May 31 service.

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In this chapter in Isaiah, the holy seed of hope will be found in the stump of the terebinth, or oak, that survives even though it has been cut down. We have come to understand that the holy seed of hope has come to us in the reconciling work of Jesus.

But already Isaiah’s vision offers a model of how to look and actually see with our eyes, hear and actu-

A Prayer for Reconciliation ally listen with our ears and comprehend with our minds and our hearts that we need to turn and be healed so that the reconciliation of all peoples can take place.

In light of the Truth and Reconciliation process in Canada, what is it that we are being asked to see and hear and comprehend?

First, we have been asked to recognize the profound difference in power and privilege between Settlers and Indigenous. and recognize the wrongs that have been committed.

In four previous Sundays we tried to acknowledge those differences by naming who we are and where we are.

Today I want to allow the words of Aaron Paquette (an indigenous artist who lives in Edmonton) to describe for us one more time what so many of our indigenous sisters and brothers experienced. This following reflection comes from his public Facebook page: “The stated aim was to "kill the Indian in the child"...

For generations the children in my family have been under attack, despised. More recently in the form of being stolen from their home and either put in outside/foster care or sent to Residential School.

The Schools were often many tens of miles away from home, sometimes further. That way it was difficult for parents to visit.

“These Institutions were generally run by religious organizations (Anglican, Catholic, United, and Presbyterians) on behalf of the Canadian Government, officially starting in the 1840s. Approximately 150,000 children went to Residential School. They say that 50,000 of them died there or in trying to escape. Many others were starved or exposed to disease or cut into for "medical research".

“At school, they were taught that their grandparents were evil devil worshipers and that their language was the Devil's Tongue. If they spoke anything other than English, the children were punished.

“The first thing that happened to them upon arrival was the cutting off of their braids. Most of the children were abused physically, all emotionally and many sexually. This from the people who were indoctrinating

them in Christianity and the Word of God's Love.

“The last Residential School closed in 1996. Not 1896 ...1996. The stated aim was to "kill the Indian in the child.” So imagine, if you will, what kind of damaged person emerged from a place like that. They have lost their culture, their language, their sense of self-worth and their grip on proper behaviour.

“Now imagine them trying to piece a life back together in a world that despises them for their skin, their family, their culture, their very existence.

“Now imagine their feelings when their own children are taken away, and they know what is happening to them, but they can't do anything about it. Many tried and were arrested.

“A shadow of shame and violence descended, and for generations no one talked about their experiences.

They hid their pain in alcohol. They perpetuated their own abuses.

“Some didn't. Some found healing again in their culture. A culture that the government was actively attempting to stamp out, that had to be kept secret.

“I am the first generation of my family that wasn't taken from my home.

“Imagine that.”

The story is harsh, but the TRC has been one of our opportunities to hear the story. So where are we as a community in the model as proposed in chapter 6 of Isaiah?

Each Sunday we come here to worship, and if God grants it to be so we may encounter the Holy.

We build into our services responses of praise for God’s holiness and sometimes we have opportunities to confess the wrongs that we have committed. As part of the model of reconciliation found in Isaiah, let us take the next step and pray this prayer of confession together.

May it be for us part of our journey along the path of reconciliation in these matters.

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A Prayer for Reconciliation Prayer of Confession Leader: God, how often have we listened but have not heard, looked but have not seen the pain our indigenous sisters and brothers have experienced.

How often have we felt paralyzed not knowing how to respond?

All: We confess that we do not always see or hear with our hearts. We confess that we do not always act with your justice.

Leader: We sometimes feel that we were not there when the children were taken from their parents and sent away to school. For most, our parents were not there nor were our grandparents.

All: We confess that sometimes we don’t see why we are being held to account for the actions of people that we did not know and, so long ago.

Leader: But, we are the bearers of many blessings of our ancestors of blood or faith. Therefore, we must also bear their burdens and responsibilities.

The last Residential School closed in 1996, that was in our time and we did not know the truth.

All: We apologize for the actions of our country and our churches in running Indian Residential Schools. We seek your forgiveness for what has been done to your children. We seek acceptance of our commitment to justice and our desire to walk towards reconciliation.

We ask for your grace to heal all of us.

Amen.

Hear these words of Assurance Leader: Holy, Merciful and Righteous God Holy One, your love is higher than the starry heavens.

Merciful One, your purifying kindness is deeper than the ocean.

Righteous One, heal and transform us by your love and kindness into energy for speaking the truth and reconciling with one another.

Amen.

While in this sermon I want to illustrate a powerful model towards that salvation and reconciliation that God intends for us, it is not for me to say what that model must look like for our indigenous sisters and brothers. (Diagram 4, top of page)

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For many it includes encounters with the Holy as well and the strength that comes with walking with Christ who is always present with the hungry and thirsty, the naked and the imprisoned –– with the vulnerable and powerless ones.

But Aaron Paquette as an indigenous person is free to say what that might look like for himself and his people –– and he says it this way: “All people have suffered and come from a long line of suffering. For some of us it is sickness, in any of its forms, for others it's secrets or loss. We are born into suffering and grow in it. It shapes us. If we only go with the flow, we become lost in it. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can navigate these waters, these tears.

“Suffering makes us strong if we let it. Even as the body weakens, the spirit can become unstoppable. If your body is whole, pushing it can build muscle and endurance. The same truth is reflected in spirit. But we need to see a path. A way.

When we are lost in darkness it feels as if there is no choice that could lead to something better. We get stuck in the tangles of the woods, the forest of our mind.

“That's when we need to stop struggling, stop recounting the horrors of our journey and simply rise above it. To "get away from it all" we often watch TV or have a drink or play video games...check Facebook, lol.

“But that activity only makes us sleep. Our soul shuts down and we become numb. Zombies.

“I have found that a creative state, a prayerful state, a meditative state ... these have the same effect of allowing us to shed our stress. But instead of going numb, we do the opposite.

We become alive.

A Prayer for Reconciliation “Learn to dream while awake and aware –– not in the sense of a plan or accelerated thoughts, but in a peaceful state that allows you to see. The shadows are banished.

It takes practice. It takes time. It takes a willingness to be calm, slow down, become still.

“In Cree culture, we have many methods to attain this state. It's embedded in the culture itself. The strongest elements of Cree spirituality and well being demand that you put the world aside and become present.

“The same thing is found in Indigenous cultures across the Americas and the world. It's how we survived the centuries of attempted genocide. How we laugh when things are darkest. It's what heals the people and gives them strength.

It's how we continue to offer peace, to talk and find solutions, to love those who would destroy us. It's a gift left to us from our ancestors, preserved through the generations.

The fundamental teachings are what will save the world.”

–– Aaron Paquette, facebook.com/AaronPaquetteArt What would it mean for us as Christians to claim our own fundamental teachings –– knowledge of the Holiness of God that leads to a response of praise and confession, and the opportunity to receive purifying forgiveness from this Holy and merciful God –– so that we are empowered to volunteer with a “Here am I ” when God asks again and again, “who will go?”

And maybe most difficult of all, we can learn from Christ the ultimate lesson of relinquishing power and privilege, so that like Christ we will live in solidarity with those who have little or none.

(Diagram 5, below) When we claim and live these teachings, Christ’s reconciling power can heal and transform us so that our ears and eyes and hearts can hear and see and comprehend our kinship with all others in our beautiful and God-given diversity as children of God.

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Let us now pray this prayer that you will notice in the note at the bottom was prayed at the beginning of the TRC, let us pray it again at the end of the formal process of the TRC so we acknowledge that our Holy God’s work of healing, transforming and reconciling is not done and that we are and will be part of what is yet to be.

Remembering the Children God of our Ancestors, who holds the spirits of our grandmothers and grandfathers and the spirits of our grandchildren, Remembering the Children, we now pledge ourselves to speak the Truth, and with our hearts and our souls to act upon the Truth we have heard of the injustices lived, of the sufferings inflicted, of the tears cried, of the misguided intentions imposed, and of the power of prejudice and racism which were allowed to smother the sounds and laughter of the forgotten children.

Hear our cries of lament for what was allowed to happen, and for what will never be.

In speaking and hearing and acting upon the Truth may we as individuals and as a nation meet the hope of a new beginning.

Great Creator God who desires that all creation live in harmony and peace, Remembering the Children we dare to dream of a Path of Reconciliation where apology from the heart leads to healing of the heart and the chance of restoring the circle, where justice walks with all, where respect leads to true partnership, and where the power to change comes from each heart.

Hear our prayer of hope, and guide us and this country of Canada on a new and different path.

(By Rev. Lillian Roberts, for the launch of the Church Leaders Tour which marked the original launch of the TRC)

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Friendship in the big city

The GERMS (junior youth) had a great time hosting Wanner Mennonite Church youth April 25-26. The exchange included a scavenger hunt, sleepover, Sunday worship and a potluck.

Left, goofing around on the front porch; Gould spirits at the CBC building; a pause near the Legislature building.

Below: Dave BrulĂŠ guiding the hunt at the Distillery District.

Thanks to Michele Rizoli and Sheri Klassen for the photos.

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Milestones

Top, a very special celebration on May 24 for Luis Alberto Mata, who finally received his permanent residency papers after a 12-year wait and an intensive campaign including a launch event, an online petition, newspaper articles and letters and speeches of support. Above, the same day we said a sad farewell and offered our blessings to Aaron Penner and Courtney Cauthon, moving back to Colorado with their boys Grant and Everett. Left, kids watch intently as Pastor Marilyn Zehr prepares for the baptism of Donny Cheung.

Thanks to Tim Schmucker for these photos.

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