A Prayer for Canada Day

Almighty God, you have given us this good land as our heritage. May we prove ourselves a people mindful of your generosity and glad to do your will. Bless our land with honest industry, truthful education, and an honourable way of life. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance; and from every evil course of action. Make us who came from many nations with many different languages a united people. Defend our liberties and give those whom we have entrusted with the authority of government the spirit of wisdom, that there may be justice and peace in our land. When times are prosperous, let our hearts be thankful; and, in troubled times, do not let our trust in you fail. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 – The Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada, p.678

Election Day musings

Today I voted in the 2015 Canadian federal election.

I did not find the choice to be easy. I don’t tend to be a member of the faithful of any political party, although I have joined one or two of them from time to time. Each time an election rolls around, I try to listen to the positive message the parties are presenting – piercing through the rhetoric and the barbs and the attack ads and the point-scoring, and asking myself the question ‘What vision of Canada (or Alberta, or Edmonton) is being presented here? And how does it square with the vision I believe in?’

I have to confess that this time around, my mind was still not made up when Marci and I walked to the polling station this morning. I was caught between the choice I would make if I were voting according to my true beliefs, and the choice I would make if all I was concerned about was the likelihood of my candidate being elected. I had no doubt at all which party I really supported. The problem was that, in our first-past-the-post system, my vote for that party would appear to have been a wasted vote.

Eventually, I rejected that thought. My reasoning was that if that thought was universally valid there would never have been a British Labour party, never have been a CCF or NDP, never a Reform Party. None of these parties seemed electable when they were first created. Voting for them seemed like wasting your vote for the first few years, or even the first few decades, of their existence. But in time, they became movements, and those movements grew by presenting their vision to the public in such a way that more and more people were gradually inspired to join them.

I’m proud to say that today I did not vote cynically. I voted for my real beliefs. I don’t for a moment think that the person I voted for will be elected. But I do believe that the movement I believe in will grow. Maybe I won’t see the party I voted for in government in my lifetime. But I hope that one day my children and grandchildren will see it. And if that happens, my vote today will not have been wasted.

What comes after the niqab?

I don’t very often wear a clerical collar, for all kinds of reasons, but I’m thankful to be free to wear it. There are countries in the world where Christian clergy are banned from wearing any sort of clerical dress.

Apparently Daniel Dennett thinks clergy like me make it our business to control what our ‘adherants’ know. I assume that he sees my clerical collar as a symbol of oppression. One day Daniel Dennett and people who agree with him may be in a majority, and I may be part of a tiny minority. If the day ever comes when the vast majority of people in Canada are offended by a clerical collar and what it symbolizes to them, will someone try to ban clergy from wearing it?

I’m asking this, because I have seen links to posts on Facebook in which people are seriously saying, not only that women should not be allowed to wear a niqab at a citizenship ceremony, but that the niqab should be banned altogether. Those who claim that the niqab is a symbol of the oppression of women by men, and that no woman ever wears one by her own choice, now want to force women not to wear them. How is that not oppression?

This is the dangerous powder keg that our federal politicians have set a lighted match to in this election campaign. They may not have intended it to go any further than citizenship ceremonies, but extremists are already taking it a lot further.

In this country we have freedom of speech and freedom of expression. In this country I am free to practice my religion. I am even free to say that my allegiance to God is more important to me than my allegiance to Canada. I’ve been told that our prime minister claims to be an evangelical Christian; if so, I hope he would say the same thing.

Martin Niemöller, famous German pastor from World War Two who had the courage to stand up to Hitler, once said,

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me –
and there was no one left to speak for me.

Indeed. And if I don’t speak up when they come for those Muslim women who want the freedom to wear the niqab, who will speak up for me when my turn comes? That’s why I want to be included as one of the #peoplelikeNenshi.

A prime example of the hypocrisy of party politics

I work for a registered charity which is authorized to issue receipts for donations so that people can receive a tax deduction for their generosity. The more they give, the more they get back. When the federal and Alberta amounts are combined, the refund on donations over $200 is close to 50%, which is nothing to sneeze at.

However, our charity (which is a church) is, of course, strictly forbidden from engaging in partisan politics. If we were to do that, we would lose our charitable registration and would no longer be able to issue receipts to our members for tax deductions.

Does it bother me that I can’t engage in party politics in my official capacity as pastor of my church? No, not really. On the other hand, if I was working for a charity that was trying to alleviate child poverty in Canada, I might feel a little more constrained by the system. After all, child poverty can’t be solved by donations alone. To use an old illustration, if you start noticing that the river is full of drowning babies, it’s not enough to have an efficient rescue operation; sooner or later, someone needs to go upstream to find out who’s throwing them in. And the answer to that question may well have political implications. But charities aren’t allowed to go near that, or they lose their status and their ability to issue income tax receipts.

And now, behold the hypocrisy of the Canadian political system. Today I gave a donation to a Canadian political party (most of you will be able to figure out which one!). On their website, they promptly informed me that according to Canadian law, when income tax time rolls around, I will receive a tax refund equal to 75% of my donation!

That’s right, folks. Registered charities can’t get involved in party politics or they lose their ability to issue income tax receipts, but if you donate to a Canadian political party (which engages almost exclusively in party politics), you’ll get 75% of it back at income tax time. That’s over half as much again as you’d get for donating to a charity that helps to feed the poor, as long as they don’t get political about it.

You couldn’t make this stuff up, could you?

‘To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea’

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says one of Canada’s greatest mysteries now has been solved, with the discovery of one of the lost ships from Sir John Franklin’s doomed Arctic expedition.

“This is truly a historic moment for Canada,” Harper said. 

At this point, the searchers aren’t sure if they’ve found HMS Erebus or HMS Terror. But sonar images from the waters of Victoria Strait, just off King William Island, clearly show wreckage of a ship on the ocean floor.

A sea floor scan reveals one of the missing ships from the Franklin Expedition in an image released in Ottawa Tuesday. (Parks Canada/Canadian Press)

The wreckage was found on Sept. 7 using a remotely operated underwater vehicle recently acquired by Parks Canada. When Harper revealed the team’s success at Parks Canada’s laboratories in Ottawa Tuesday, the room burst into applause. 

Read the rest here.

‘Ah for just one time I would take the northwest passage,
to find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea,
tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage,
and make a northwest passage to the sea’.

 – Stan Rogers

The Mary Ellen Carter

And to conclude our Canada Day Stanfest, perhaps the best loved of all Stan’s songs, ‘The Mary Ellen Carter’. Have a wonderful Canada Day evening, everyone. And God bless you, Stan; you were taken from us far too young, and we still miss you today, even after thirty-one years.

The Idiot

The Canada Day Stanfest continues…