We rely on autocorrect, artificial intelligence, and algorithms (the 3As) more than we realize. They are linked to a 4A where Lord Acton’s famous line of 1887 stated that, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely…” These 4As affect society, religion, and our spiritual selves far more than we realize. Would you believe that may soon have robots providing pastoral care in hospitals?

A few decades ago when preparing sermons preachers took time, effort, and discernment diving into resources. Today, the new God – “Google,” does those tasks in nanoseconds. Human involvement in time, effort, and discernment is diminished and discounted.

Many may use the offered resources to “cut and paste.” Some may revert to plagiarism. A few years ago, an American cleric was fired when it was discovered that the weekly sermon was simply downloaded from another’s weekly posted sermon. For shame!

Artificial intelligence and algorithms are so incredible that even after “listening to” a human voice speak a few words, the voice can be mimicked. So, if the church calls asking for an immediate donation, be dubious! It may be “Big Brother” calling.

The 4As do much thinking. But where are prayer, silence, meditation, and essential human face-to-face interactions? In the 1950s, German philosopher Martin Heidegger foresaw noting that the looming “tide of technological revolution” could one day “so captivate, bewitch, dazzle, and beguile man that calculative thinking may someday come to be accepted and practiced as the only way of thinking. This “frenziedness of technology,” he said is “entrench itself everywhere.” He was right. Research is showing that we accept almost everything the machine tells us, and we encourage the machine to then act. We trained the machine which is now training us.

If we are so unwittingly entrenched by the 4As, where are solitude, silence, and prayer? Our phones are the new Bible. They give us ALL the answers.

Through much of Christian history people believed God lived in the clouds. That must be right because we now store data, information, and knowledge, (dare we add wisdom?) “In the cloud,” in the DIKW world!

It is essential to look at how artificial intelligence and algorithms are embedded in all aspects of life. But we sorely need to autocorrect ourselves and be guided by the Holy Spirit. While the 4As do much for us, we need to step back and step down from much to be silent, to listen, and then act for Christ, and ourselves.

Rev Canon. Dr. David John Robson is a local cleric and a researcher looking at postmodern society, the church and spirituality.

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The issue of changing PWRDF’s name to one that is easier to say and less confusing has been ever-present for many years. In 2022, the PWRDF Board approved a budget and the creation of a Task Team to identify a new name for PWRDF that would honour its history as the Anglican Church of Canada’s agency for international development and humanitarian response, but would also carry it into the future.

In 1958, a mining disaster in Springhill, N.S. compelled Anglicans across the country to donate money to support the affected families. One year later, The Primate’s World Relief Fund was established at General Synod, to create an agency that would respond to emergencies on behalf of Anglicans in Canada. In 1969, the D was added for Development. In the last fiscal year, PWRDF worked with more than 70 partners in 32 countries, and was recently named to the 2024 Charity Intelligence Top 100 Charities List. The voting membership comprises Board members, Diocesan Representatives and PWRDF’s Youth Council.

The Task Team was made up of 12 key volunteers from across the country, including members of the Board, Youth Council and PWRDF staffers. Cyan Solutions, a marketing and creative agency in Ottawa, led conversations with the Task Team, other volunteers and staff to inspire reflections and gain valuable insights.

In all of these discussions, one clear and hopeful theme emerged: partnership.

PWRDF partners with local organizations who carry out the work of food security, gender equality, community health, climate action and human rights.

We partner with membership organizations that allow us to be part of a larger network.

We partner with our generous donors and funding agencies including Global Affairs Canada.

We partner with the Anglican Church of Canada, Anglican dioceses, spiritual ministries and ecclesiastical provinces, through their bishops and their PWRDF Representatives.

We partner with parish representatives, clergy and countless volunteers in the pews across the country who connect Canadians with the work of our partners, our neighbours.

This theme of partnership and accompaniment is woven throughout the Bible. The Task Team was drawn to the story of the road to Emmaus. Days after Jesus died, the disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, still grieving their loss. As Luke writes, the resurrected Jesus came alongside them, but they did not know it was him. Jesus travelled with them and then accepted their hospitality to dine with them. In the breaking of bread, their eyes were opened and they recognized him. When we walk alongside one another, Jesus accompanies us. We are strengthened and comforted and recognize Jesus when we share in his feast. As we walk alongside each of our partners, supporting, listening and sharing with one another, we embrace and embody the hope of a better world.

Thus was born Alongside Hope. With the guidance of the Board and the Task Team, taglines were developed in English and French to reflect the legacy of PWRDF.

Alongside Hope conveys the concept of partnership in a compelling way, honouring Jesus’ words to love our neighbour, says Will Postma, Executive Director of PWRDF. “It conveys the listening and learning that takes place when walking side by side, together with partners from around the world, including in Canada, with our supporters and volunteers. Alongside Hope inspires us even further in working with partners towards our vision of a truly just, healthy and peaceful world.”

The name is changing, but the colourful globe icon will continue to identify the organization. This continuity will improve brand recognition as PWRDF transitions to its new name over the coming months and into 2025. More information is available on our website at pwrdf.org.

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Reconciliation between Canada’s First Nations and all other Canadians is something that most people recognize as beneficial for us all. One take away from the weekend was that achieving reconciliation is not just the work of Canadian and First Nation governing bodies, but rather that each person in Canada should be involved in part of the healing.

With that challenge, the leadership of St. Thomas’ thought it important to bring some concrete activity to our church family and it was decided at the Parish Advisory Council to initiate a program to present the 94 Calls to Action policy recommendations from the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. We thought such a review would help make parishioners more aware of the calls and might perhaps stimulate further reading and reflection on the actions the commission considered so vital.

This program was timed to start the Sunday before National Truth and Reconciliation Day at the end of September and will run for 47 weeks with two actions reviewed during a prayer given immediately prior to each Sunday service. We trust the program will encourage some thought, reflection, and prayer and perhaps inspire parishioners to think on how they can participate in reconciliation in some way. It is one way St Thomas’ parish is working to complete Action 59, a call to all churches to ensure their congregations learn about the history and legacy of residential schools and to help in the healing needed.

A sample Sunday in our schedule:
Week 30: April 20, 2025

Let us pray: Dear brothers and sisters, as a community of faith committed to reconciliation, we are called to work towards healing the wounds of the past. Over these months we are embarking on a journey of learning and reflection, examining two of the 94 Action Items of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission each Sunday. By reflecting on these recommendations, we hope to discern how we can contribute to a more just and equitable future together. Jesus, help us today by guiding our reflection and action on these two calls of action:

• Action 59: Call upon church parties to the Settlement Agreement to develop ongoing education strategies to ensure that their respective congregations learn about their role in colonization and the history and legacy of residential schools.

• Action 60: Have leaders of the churches develop and teach curriculum for clergy and religious staff on respecting Indigenous spirituality, the history of residential schools, religious conflict, and the responsibility to mitigate such conflicts.

• Call to Action 5: Call the federal, provincial, territorial, and Aboriginal governments to develop culturally approriate parenting programs for Aboriginal families.

• Call to Action 6: Have the Government of Canada repeal Section 43 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which allows for the physical punishment of children.

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I love the season of Advent. It is by far one of the richest seasons of the church year, and for me it rivals the depth of Easter. It is a combination of anticipation, excitement and almost a holy fear. The music of this season, the darkening days, the scripture we read which tells us of the expectation of God’s mighty final acts in this world, they all add up to a season of hope for me. This is different than the garden-variety hope which we all learn as children. This is more than the expectation of a coming party on a birthday, or the countdown to the end of school and beginning of summer holidays. Those are all instances of expectation and anticipated freedom – but these listed examples of expectation are all about something we know, or have experienced before. In Advent, we are expecting a mighty act of God, which we cannot know, for it is the stuff of mystery, and redemption and joy and faith.

Expectation can be a powerful force in our lives. Anyone who has tried to get a child to sleep on Christmas Eve when the expectation of the next morning is so real will know whereof I speak. Expectation is a state where we allow our minds to wander into the particular delight, the single pleasure for which we have been made to wait. Fantasies of the Christmas Tree piled high with presents, or day dreaming about the long lazy days of summer while sitting in a classroom in the middle of June are good examples of the power of expectation.

But hope, especially in the kingdom of God is not like that expectation. There is expectation to be sure: we expect God to arrive and with a mighty arm set up his kingdom, return to the temple and begin the reign of justice and joy which had been foretold. But we can’t exactly daydream about what that will look like because we have never seen it or experienced it fully before. We have definitely had flashes of it. We have experienced moments in our lives where God may have swept us off our feet with the power of his love and the transforming power of grace. These are flashes…inklings of what is to come. They are not the whole kingdom, rather they are a flash of the sun off of a lake: blinding and beautiful, but a reflected glory.

Advent is about what we cannot see, cannot know and yet believe will change everything. Advent is about hope suffused with glory and joy in the coming Kingdom and in the One who will bring this kingdom into being. Hope is the most powerful emotion because it can make suffering bearable. Hope can make simple expectation and its power, fade, for when hope is present, trust in the outcome becomes a matter of faith, and not a matter of knowledge.

As we enter Advent, my prayer for you is that you will feel the power of hope which the Christ brings to those who put their trust in him. That there is something, someone, coming that will change everything for you. It was to the forgotten, the hungry and the broken that he came. The rich and the powerful did not need, or did not anticipate the hope which Jesus came to bring. They weren’t even interested in the message which Jesus proclaimed until they began to understand that his preaching might upset their comfortable lives. Jesus is still here, calling us into the deeper hope of the kingdom, still preaching the end of the powers who have oppressed and broken the people of God. Advent is about that hope: the topsy-turvy kingdom of God where the meek inherit the earth and where those who mourn are comforted.

May that hope – suffused with glory and joy – grow in you each and every day as we approach the birth in time of the timeless Son of God.

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