Sacred Beginnings brings together Indigenous youth to learn about their culture, traditions, storytelling, and drumming. It provides a space for young people to connect, share experiences, and build a supportive community. “It was incredibly significant for them to come out of their isolated communities and into a setting where they have other young people of their age groups,” said Archbishop Harper.

The funding covered transportation, accommodations, food, and activities, enabling youth from remote areas to attend. The camp offers a reprieve from daily challenges, fostering a sense of belonging and hope. “This was a lifeline for them,” said Archbishop Harper, “participants even expressed difficulty in returning home after experiencing the supportive environment of Sacred Beginnings.”

The most recent gathering was held in Manitoba, with local teachers and bands supporting the event. The plan is to rotate the location to different areas across the country, allowing youth to experience various local traditions. “We try to keep it central, but we’re also going to diversify it by sending it out to different areas within the country,” said Archbishop Harper.

Sacred Beginnings is held every two years, alternating with Sacred Circles gatherings. The next event is scheduled for 2026, with invitations extended to Indigenous communities and dioceses nationwide. “Our goal is to outgrow ourselves so that we have to do it more often.”

Archbishop Harper expressed how every future contribution from our diocese will be fully employed to better and support Indigenous youth across the land. “Indigenous youth need to see that they have a place within the church structure, a voice, a vote, and an image of themselves.”

Archbishop Harper’s goal is to continue building and supporting youth through Indigenous ministries. “We hope every diocese will start to build on this relationship and contribute.”

When asked about the churches ongoing journey in Healing and Reconciliation, Archbishop Harper said that it begins with engaging in meaningful conversations and viewing issues through others’ perspectives. “Reconciliation is about building a level of understanding and a relationship of healing,” he said.

He reflected on how churches play a crucial role in this process. “Their involvement and engagement are vital. It only happens with an open heart, an open mind, and a willingness to learn” he said.

The hope is that all churches will recognize the importance of working together. “First and foremost as a church, and secondly as a nation, as Canadians” he said. “Reconciliation involves all levels of society, with the church leading the way. It is a lot of work and may not be completed in my generation, but it is a collective effort for a better future.”

The post Archbishop Chris Harper: Sacred Beginnings, Reconciliation and the Diocese of Ontario appeared first on Dialogue.

I really don’t know how she managed. I am very fortunate to have a loving husband and three grown up children and many friends whose support is ongoing. Every family has to deal with problems, but nothing like this sort of devastating situation. Eventually, as Jesus was hanging on his cross, He gave His mother into the care and nurturing of his disciple John. She became part of that family for the rest of her life. Whether this scenario was ever discussed beforehand to either Mary or John is not known. Mary obviously was nurtured and cared for by John, but I am quite sure this was not an easy time for her, or for that family.

Heard during Christmastime there is a relatively modern carol called: “Mary, Did You Know?”  It was written by in 1984 by Mark Lowery and later the tune was composed by Buddy Greene. The carol asks a variety of questions to Mary. These also make us aware of some of the very important occurrences in Jesus’s life. But there are a few missing links. I have added a few thoughts of my own to those mentioned:

Mary, did you know:
About your son’s triumphant journey through the streets of Jerusalem, while riding on an unbroken colt?
That within a week, Jesus would be spat upon and reviled?
That He would be betrayed by one of his own disciple believers?
That He would be whipped and stripped and made to carry His own cross?
That He would cry out to the Father asking to have this cup taken from him?
That most of His disciples would desert Him in this hour of need?
That only the women would be at His side at the crucifixion?
That throughout this ordeal He accepted and gave thanks?
Mary did you know?

Perhaps you have other lines to add to mine. Jesus gave so much to us. I know that Mary realized He was no ordinary baby. In Luke 2:19 we read: “But Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” I am sure that her love for Jesus never failed. But I wonder how she was able to anoint His body with oils and perfumes and not question what his life really meant. Fortunately we have answers. Nevertheless, Mary has given me lots on which to reflect.

Today we give thanks for Jesus’s resurrection at Easter, and the ongoing peace and love He bestowed upon us.

Thanks be to God. Hallelujah and Amen!

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Sharon sees prison ministry volunteering as a powerful way to make a positive impact on the lives of incarcerated individuals. At local Institutions in the Kingston area, volunteers play a crucial role in providing support and services to inmates, helping them find hope and purpose during their time in prison.

Sharon notes that one of the key aspects of prison ministry is the involvement of volunteers in chapel services. The Dean of St. George’s Cathedral, The Very Reverend Doug Michael has offered services to celebrate the Eucharist offering spiritual guidance and support to the inmates. These services provide a sense of community and belonging, which is essential for the emotional and spiritual well-being of the prisoners.

Doug’s wife Vanessa is also engaged in various activities beyond the chapel services they hold. Vanessa runs a book club at Millhaven Institution, which meets once a month. This book club offers inmates an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions and develop their reading and critical thinking skills. Additionally, Vanessa and other volunteers participate in the chapel group at Collins Bay, which meets on the third Sunday of every month.

Attracting volunteers to prison ministry can be challenging due to preconceived notions and personal experiences that may deter individuals from getting involved. However, those who do volunteer often find it to be a rewarding experience. Volunteers do not need to be clergy; laypersons are welcome and encouraged to participate. The range of volunteer activities is broad, including leading Bible study groups, teaching art, hosting book clubs, and even teaching inmates how to play musical instruments.

Before becoming a volunteer, individuals must go through a security clearance process, which includes background checks and fingerprinting. This process can take upwards of two to three months. Once approved, volunteers undergo training provided by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) and additional training from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston. This training ensures that volunteers are well-prepared and aware of the boundaries and restrictions within the prison environment.

Technology restrictions are in place to maintain security and privacy within the prison. For example, volunteers are not allowed to bring cell phones, cameras, or devices like Apple Watches that can record or take pictures.

Sharon herself is very involved at Collins Bay where many volunteers come from the Catholic tradition. But there is a desire to see more Anglicans and individuals from other denominations participate.

She stresses that volunteers are always needed and appreciated—these interactions provide inmates with a sense of normalcy and connection to the outside world, which is crucial for their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Prison ministry volunteering is a vital and rewarding service that offers hope and support to incarcerated individuals. By getting involved, volunteers can make a significant impact on the lives of inmates, helping them find purpose and prepare for a successful reintegration into society.

For more information on prison ministry volunteering, contact Deacon Sharon Dunlop at (613) 548-7254 or email sharon@stjameskingston.ca.

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On February 2 the parish recently celebrated their 17^th year of providing Sunday dinners in partnership with three other local churches: Wall Street United Church, First Presbyterian and Brockville Wesleyan Church. Parishioner John Groves, who is the chair of the outreach committee at Saint Lawrence Church, knows too well the challenges faced by many in the local community.

While there are free or low-cost food programs offered during the week in Brockville, John recognized that a gap existed on weekends. These four churches agreed to each take a Sunday in providing a free meal to the community. “I volunteered us for that because I thought that was where the need was greatest and I knew our parishioners would pitch in and help” says John.

Sure enough, parishioners stepped up with offering not only volunteer help but also financial support to the program. On this particular Sunday night 15 volunteers have shown up to prepare and serve the dinner.

Wishing to avoid the stigma of appearing as a ‘soup kitchen’ with people having to line up, John and his volunteers instead offer a sit-down meal where the clients are served by volunteers acting as waiters. “Some of them have had hardscrabble lives and have not been treated very well” says John. “We bring the food to them and its part of treating people with respect. That’s part of our philosophy.”

The need is growing and the volunteers now serve upwards of 200 meals on a given Sunday. Many of those who show up have mental health issues, physical disabilities, are homeless or are unemployed and trying to get their lives together again. Volunteer Rob Wright says, “We are seeing a lot more kids coming out now as well.”

Rob has been helping out with the Sunday Suppers for eight years now and explains that without a large volunteer group, none of this could happen. “It’s amazing the amount of time that’s required, people don’t realize, they only see the two-hour window where we are serving meals. There’s at least a dozen to fifteen people behind the scenes making it happen. We start very early in the morning just to get to this two-hour window” says Rob.

For Rob, the Suppers are a chance to not only help those less fortunate and give back to his community, but he also enjoys the social time the volunteers spend together preparing and serving the meals. “We are like a family” says Rob. “It makes you feel good by volunteering. It’s a lot of work but it has a lot of rewards.”

The Sunday Suppers are truly a labour of love for John and his volunteers. He wishes sometimes that the dinners could be held in the church because there is a stained glass window that depicts Jesus and Simon Peter when Jesus asks him: “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” John says “this window is our inspiration…it’s where we get our instructions, to feed Jesus’ lambs. I wish the need wasn’t there…but it’s there.”

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by Reverend Sharon Mason
Deacon, Christ Church Cataraqui

There is such peace in this space
We were brought here by God’s grace
And when I look upon each face
I know that I am home.

There is such love within these walls
And much gratitude for us all
As laughter often fills this hall
I know that I am home.

There is such joy surrounding me
In all the smiles that I see
This is where I want to be
I know that I am home.

There is such hope all around
As we make a joyous sound
It’s community, I have found
I know that I am home.

There is such faith in people here
Praising God throughout the year
And truly holding each other dear
I know that I am home.

The post Ode to my Church appeared first on Dialogue.

We should not expect “the kingdom of God” that Jesus preached to be only in the heavens; Jesus preached that it is here, “in your midst”. The fact that Matthew’s gospel called it the “kingdom of heaven” should not mean that Matthew was talking about something different from what Jesus calls it in the other three gospels. It is the same thing. But while Matthew did not intend it to be different from what it is in the other gospels, people have taken it to mean that it is different: that it means what happens after you die. This is not the emphasis Jesus intended, but rather that we should pray: “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (note that in the original Greek there was no punctuation, so a comma between “thy will be done” and on earth as it is in heaven” is not original, and is misleading. Heaven is the model of how things are when God’s will is truly being done. But Jesus teaches us that God does not want for his will to be done only in heaven, but also on earth as well. The injustice of the current world order is something that a Christian cannot sleep easily with. Even more so in the modern world, where we understand how globalization has promoted our consumerist appetites, which are satisfied at the expense of the poor in developing countries.

A Case Study: Mining and Electric Vehicles

One case study, amongst many we could do, involves the relationship between mining and one of the solutions to air pollution being advanced world wide; electric vehicles. If we have stood against the injustice of human trafficking, (as we have done in our diocese), we should expect to apply the same principle when it comes to mining practices in the two thirds world, where human rights violations often are more common than labour laws would allow in Canada. Even here, there can be abuses, but labour and environmental laws are often checked more closely here, than they are in large parts of Africa, for one example among many.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights groups like Amnesty International have documented the practice of children being used as miners for rare earth metals, and cobalt, gold, and many other critical minerals like copper, working under horrendous conditions, which cause disease and early death. Schools that once existed in Katanga province have been demolished so that children will have no alternative but to work as miners to survive. These facts must not be avoided by environmentalists and all who care for God’s Creation. In many cases, in fact, it has been environmentalists, along with human rights organizations, who have sounded the alarm bells about these mining abuses. After over a decade of working on this file, I consider that of the scores of reasons for not buying an electric car, the human rights abuse in mining of cobalt is the most significant moral reason for avoiding one. The other reasons have all either been solved, or else never were real to begin with.

Better Rules are Coming

As shocking to our conscience as these reports are, it would be a mistake to just quickly conclude that there is no hope of change. Human rights organizations have, following the “Blood Diamonds” scandal of Sierra Leone, since the early 2000s, worked on getting international mining companies to consent to checks on ethics abuses in metal sourcing. Since 2010 international companies seeking critical minerals have agreed to more stringent measures on ethical sourcing practices. These pressures have combined nicely with economic forces that just make it more sensible to obtain critical minerals on the same continent on which manufacturing will happen. (-see the Dec. 2022 news release on Canada’s commitment within the Sustainable Critical Minerals Alliance: https://www.canada.ca/en/natural-resources-canada/news/2022/12/countries-commit-to-the-sustainable-development-and-sourcing-of-critical-minerals.html)

This also has the benefit of cost cutting, because ore that is shipped fewer miles mean reduced shipping costs, and reduced emissions from shipping. While manufacturers do not always pass along their savings to the consumer in lower purchase pricing, there is at least a chance that competition may force them to. Especially with China in view, which now produces EVs cheaper and better than any internal combustion engine vehicle in the western world.[i]

Developments we should find encouraging here are many and varied. But because these are good news stories, they don’t make the headlines the way bad news does. Apocalypse sells.

1/ Better Metals Are Coming

The campaigns to require better battery metals, and to show proof that metals have not been obtained through human rights abuse have been at least partially successful.

(i) Cobalt out, → nickel or iron in.

Tesla, for example, no longer uses cobalt in their cars manufactured in Shanghai, their largest factory, since 2022. Other manufacturers also are moving to other battery chemistries. As of Feb. 28th, I see that Congo has paused all export of cobalt for four months, due to oversupply.^[ii] The news of alternative battery technologies that don’t need cobalt has been reducing demand for months; but now demand has dropped off a cliff. The Shanghai stock exchange posts the lowest price for cobalt on record. This may be a temporary market “adjustment”. It may also be a moment when the right kind of intervention could result in more fair mining practices and the return of education for children in Katanga.

The shift away from cobalt is driven partly by innovation. Nickel is replacing Cobalt. Since 2022, many of Tesla’s lithium ion batteries have already been replaced with the lithium iron phosphate chemistry, (LiFePO4) and other automakers make use of it too. The unprecedented pace of innovation is bringing less costly, more powerful, more fire-proof, and longer lasting battery chemistries into production every day.

(ii) Lithium out, → Sodium in.

Many companies are replacing lithium with sodium, which, being right beside lithium on the Periodic Table of Elements, shares some of the same properties. Sodium is even more common in the earth’s crust than lithium, and is easier to extract, making its use more environmentally sustainable. Every litre of sea water has 35 grams of salt (sodium chloride) in it. “This means there are roughly 38.5 quadrillion tons of salt in the oceans.” The supply of it is vast beyond our imagination! The abundance of sodium exerts downward economic pressure on the price of lithium, which has gone down considerably over the past year. Again, this should be good news for cutting production costs of making EV batteries. Hopefully, companies will begin to pass along the savings to the consumer in reduced asking prices. If competition works the way it was supposed to, this could happen over the next two or three years.

Petroleum, by contrast, is far more limited. Estimates of proven reserves suggest 1.6 trillion barrels of recoverable oil remain in the earth’s crust – orders of magnitude less than salt. (www.livescience.com/planet-earth/how-much-oil-is-left-and-will-we-ever-run-out).

Many futurists see salt as the element of the future. it is now clearer than ever that batteries with ever better, and ever more fire proof, and less costly technology are bound to happen. The pace of engineering innovation in the past five years has been moving faster in the field of battery technology than perhaps any field of science in human history. As long as nationalistic use of tariffs doesn’t close down the pace of innovation, the picture could be very hopeful.

(iii) Graphene in → all of them out.

In addition to the cobalt and lithium replacements we are seeing, also the long promised graphene batteries have recently announced breakthroughs that promise actual production models, though these are not as far advanced as sodium ion batteries, and the lithium iron phosphate batteries.

(iv) Solid state in → all of them out.

Solid State batteries have long been promised, but as of this year are now coming into production, in small quantities. Solid state has long been thought to be the “holy grail” of batteries because they cannot catch fire, even when punctured; they promise much higher weight to power ratios; up to five times higher than the best existing batteries today. Several companies are producing semi solid state batteries already this year, with many of the biggest car manufacturers announcing in 2024 that they will begin production of solid-state batteries with five times the energy density of existing batteries in 2025 and 2026. Toyota has long promised mass production of full solid-state batteries in 2027. Most other companies now have announced plans that rival Toyota’s, or else promise even earlier implementation. The exciting result is that we are now more likely to see EVs with range that exceeds the range of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles in the near future. Several car manufacturers are saying their EVs will have one thousand miles of range within the next two years. Others promise 1,600 miles of range on a single charge. When that happens, the whole discussion of “range anxiety” becomes mute.[iii] A charge at a fast charge station once a month will be adequate; thus, also solving the problem of condo and apartment dwellers whose condos don’t allow EV charging.

Cleaner Mining is now here:

One piece of good news that is often overlooked these days is the fact that previous estimates of future emissions from mining and manufacturing are now rendered obsolete because of facts on the ground: the mining industry as a whole is latching onto the idea of zero emissions mining more rapidly than the car manufacturing industry has done. This is because the economics of it make immediate sense. Mine owners realize that any mining equipment that cuts underground emissions to zero greatly reduces the amount of money they have to spend on expensive, heavy duty HVAC systems. Air quality deep underground has always been a critical concern, as thousands of miners have died from toxic, and unbreathable air. If mining equipment could be emissions free, then the entire process of materials extraction and manufacturing any EV, or anything else for that matter, could also be made entirely emissions free.

According to the online journal Electric Autonomy, we are already there! Recent news releases have reported that Canada now has zero emissions mines in operation as we speak.  (see: https://electricautonomy.ca/automakers/2025-01-08/sandvik-autonomous-electric-loaders-canada-mine/

This fact on the ground is new in the last two years and makes obsolete all earlier estimates of how quickly we could get to net zero emissions. A similar upending of such estimates happened in November 2017, when Tesla unveiled its Semi truck. Up to that time, the most comprehensive study of environmentalist’s plans to get to net zero, Paul Hawken’s 2017 book Drawdown, had concluded that there was “no possibility of zero emissions long haul trucking” before 2050.

Conclusion

The future could be brighter than the apocalyptic scenarios often put before us; at least as far as the availability and workability of climate solutions is concerned. And because of this, I believe it is right for us to persevere in working towards the coming of God’s Kingdom right here “on earth, as it is in heaven” – just as Jesus taught us to pray. This is not a kingdom which, in Jesus’ own view, can wait until after we die. Why would Jesus talk about a kingdom that we can only see after we die? His preaching was always: “the kingdom of heaven is in your midst.”

Katharine Hayhoe, in her 2021 book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case For Hope and Healing In a Divided World, gives scores of signs of hope from her own experience and from around the world. In the midst of often dark and threatening reactions to her message, she remains hope-filled and joyful. As a Christian, this hope infuses her whole life, even though she must bear news from the world of science that is often foreboding. I recommend her work highly. Our lives should reflect, in ways small and large, His life in some measure. As far as environmental impact goes, she recently pointed hopefully to her colleague David Carlin’s study on best practices to minimize our carbon footprint. His research brings together 7000 studies looking at which actions matter the most to reduce household emissions. These top 10 apply for the average Western household, but there’s a lot of variability depending on individual situations.

1. Live Car-Free: Reduces emissions on average 2.04 tonnes CO₂e/year.
2. Switch to a Battery Electric Vehicle: Reduces emissions on average 1.95 tonnes CO₂e/year.
3. Avoid Long-Distance Flights: Reduces emissions on average 1.68 tonnes CO₂e/year.
4. Adopt a Vegan Diet: Reduces emissions on average 0.82 tonnes CO₂e/year.
5. Install Renewable Energy-Based Heating: Reduces emissions on average 1.60 tonnes CO₂e/year.
6. Implement Comprehensive Home Refurbishment: Reduces emissions on average 0.895 tonnes CO₂e/year.
7. Purchase Green Energy: Reduces emissions on average 0.37 tonnes CO₂e/year.
8. Use Public Transportation: Reduces emissions on average 0.98 tonnes CO₂e/year.
9. Limit Consumption of Animal-Based Products: Reduces emissions on average 0.35 tonnes CO₂e/year.
10. Practice Energy Conservation at Home: Reduces emissions on average 0.21 tonnes CO₂e/year.

This list should not be seen as a new “ten commandments”. If you can’t get to your work without a car, then you would have to let go of #1, but #2 is still possible, and more and more affordable and practical each year. If you can’t do #4, you can do #9. These are all possible measures, and the more people who do them, the closer to God’s wisdom we will be living, and thus to God’s Kingdom.

However, any scheme of “do’s and “don’ts” can get us bogged down into a new kind of legalism, and a “holier than thou” attitude. And even if you exercise Christ-like humility in regard to these things, many people may not receive it as such. So, as in all things, the most important thing of all is our attitude. Do we want to know the truth? Truth, not only in the realm we call “spiritual”, but also in the realm we call “physical”?

Where a person’s personal identity is at stake, people often choose what reaffirms the picture of their personal identity that they are comfortable with, rather than allowing God’s Word to change them. Even many Christians are vulnerable to this temptation. To live hopefully is to seek out reasons to see and enjoy positive, life-giving changes and improvements in the tasks of stewardship of God’s Garden. To find reasons to hope that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Among the greatest enemies of humanity is the human tendency, which in German is called schadenfreude: the tendency to want your enemy to fail! It applies even to people we don’t really know, but to whom we are not yet inclined to like. Schadenfreude has a corrosive effect. One could say that social media, in general, uses schadenfreude to push a certain political agenda much further than it would ever get without that appeal to rage and hatred against perceived enemies. Indeed, it is why some politicians employ “rage farming” techniques in their campaigns, with devastating effect.

So then, much more than your ideas about any particular remedy proposed by environmentalists, whether it is vegetarianism, solar energy, or electric cars, or electric anything, we can say that what you want to be true is even more dangerous than what you believe to be true, when schadenfreude is in the driver’s seat of your life. The advance of disinformation on the internet has accelerated the pace of lies and half-truths, exponentially. AI driven algorithms now find out not just what you want to buy, but also what you want to believe, and feeds that to you. This helps explain the rapid rise of neo Nazi, and extremist groups in many countries of the world, and also, sadly, for an increasing number of Christians who have fallen for their propaganda.

Over against the desire to “expose” the evils of electric cars, (largely energized by schadenfreude), we should, instead, aspire to have a discerning, transformed and renewed mind. Saint Paul says: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind….“ (Romans 12:2). Pray for it! When the Holy Spirit moves us, we discover, as we read in 1^st Corinthians 13:4:

“Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.”

The spirit that is urged forward by schadenfreude rejoices in hearing of wrongdoing or failure. This is the appeal of all gossip. The book of Proverbs warns us against the love of gossip in Proverbs 11:13, Proverbs 16:28 and Proverbs 20:19, Proverbs 21:23 Proverbs 26:20. That warning is reinforced in Paul’s letters. St. Paul writes in 1^st Corinthians 13:7:

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…”

All of this, however, is not a call to be naïve. In Matthew 10:16 Jesus says to his disciples:

“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

He is saying we should not throw out our internal lie detectors. In fact “discernment of spirits” is a spiritual gift, which Paul, in 1st Corinthians 12:8-10, encourages us to desire. Basic discernment is something all Christians are called to develop. Hebrews 5:14 teaches that mature believers, through practice, learn to distinguish good from evil. If we practice daily the disciplines of prayer, Bible reading, and listening to “the still small voice” we naturally grow in wisdom, and also discernment.

This is all a call to love: love that never allows hope to die. To always be open to new possibilities, to renewal. For the best of things to break forth. To never rejoice in the failures of others. Never give up hope. Pray for it!

[i] Tariffs may keep Chinese cars out, but what if “protecting” north American cars using tariffs merely ends up making them less competitive in a rapidly changing market? This could, inadvertently, cause the collapse of the very industry tariffs were designed to “protect.” Protecting obsolete technology has never worked out well; as witnessed by the buggy whip manufacturers by the 1920s.

[ii] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-24/congo-suspends-cobalt-exports-for-four-months-amid-oversupply?embedded-checkout=true

[iii] We have not even opened discussion of how much range one needs. People who own an EV and use it often report that they don’t need much more range than their average daily commute, which for most people is no more than 70 kilometers round trip. But all recent EV models have at least 350 kilometers of range, and 480 to 600 kilometers range is becoming more common today.

The post Waiting in Hope: Part 2 appeared first on Dialogue.

Younger members of our society have no frame of reference for the chaos and anxiety that they face on a daily basis—and that is just dealing with the issues surrounding growing up and learning how to be human in the early 21^st century. Add to it the political turmoil and disruption, the global displacement of millions of people and the quick easy answers of the ‘strong men’ who vie for our votes trying to convince us that they have what it takes to get all the emotional and political toothpaste back into the tube. I am not convinced they do, frankly.

We are approaching the season of Lent, and this means we are meant to have a good, hard look at ourselves and perhaps even at the figures who we have trusted in the midst of turmoil. The 40 days temptation in the wilderness is an example that the spiritual answers to many of our pressing questions are not answered quickly. Spiritual wisdom to face the chaos and uncertainty that are stalking the world does not come packaged as motivational posters or coffee mugs with wise sayings. If it were that easy, I suspect Jesus would have been the fool to face temptation and Satan for 40 days.

Our reliance must be on Christ alone, for he is our saviour and our guide of the way out of chaos and into the Lord’s marvellous light. Plenty of others will offer themselves as the ones with the answers, but our focus is meant to stay on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. That reliance does not mean that we will be protected from the storms or uncertainties that may attempt to overwhelm us. Rather it means that the uncertainties may be borne and the storms weathered knowing that they will not destroy us.

Much is made in the management culture today of “resilience”. Whole books on management and even child rearing are focussed on how we can develop resilient children, or resilient co-workers. If ever there was a season of the Church year, whose purpose was to teach us resilience, then it would be this one. We are reminded from the very start that every temptation that comes our way has an ending and we only need resist long enough and the temptation will flee away. This may sound old fashioned, but in a time when every matter under heaven is meant to be solved and resolved instantaneously, we need the help of lent to become more resilient.

That resilient ideal is based in our faith in Jesus, our confidence in his loving care for us and the temporary nature of the trials and tribulations that come our way. He has accomplished the fullness of salvation for us, we are not expected to do more than he has already done. Our only requirement is faith in his power and endurance for the trials to come. May this lent be a time for you stability and strength in the Lord, as we navigate the changes and chances of this life, for he is our resilience.

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