Posts Tagged ‘justice’
Doing Justice to Short-Term Mission Trips
Short-term mission trips are a hot topic in the Christian Reformed Church right now, and in the broader Western church in general. Millions of North Americans travel to both far off and nearby places every year with the intention of sharing the good news of Christ to those living in poverty, or places where the…
Read MoreA Step Towards Reconciliation
“When you hear about all the assimilation policies one after the other, you sit back and think ‘whoa,’” says Shannon Perez. Shannon has experienced and led the Blanket Exercise, an interactive workshop developed by KAIROS that walks participants through the history of Canada from the perspective of Indigenous peoples, dozens of times. As a Sayisi…
Read MoreAdvocacy: It’s Not as Hard as It Sounds
Advocate. It’s a word we hear every once in a while. No, it is not a smooth green fruit that gets turned into guacamole. And no, it’s not a liqueur made with eggs, sugar and brandy. (Yep, I’m talking about the Dutch liqueur known as Advocaat. Yuck.) Jokes aside, advocacy is an activity we talk…
Read MoreChanging the Conversation about Climate Change
Climate change, global warming, and the greenhouse effect—we’ve heard the same language over and over again. The earth is getting too hot, it’s happening too fast, and humanity is to blame. And, while the scientific consensus is overwhelmingly positive that global warming is real and being caused by humans (97% of scientists), some Christians disagree.…
Read MoreShowing Your God-Colours
This fall I helped start a Generous Space group in BC’s Fraser Valley. Simply put, Generous Space is a bible study for people and allies of the LBGTQ+ Community. If you asked me five years ago if this is where I saw myself headed, I would have laughed. Six years ago, my husband of 15…
Read MoreLiving Justly: A Conversation with Christian Trans* Advocate Tori Phillips
(In the above photo, Tori Phillips is on the top left.) By Rachel Vroege, DMC Staff Note: DMC has recently launched a new LGBTQ+ vulnerable people group webpage. To see the webpage, click here. To see the previous blog post explaining this webpage, click here. I first met Tori just over a year ago after a…
Read MoreBlack History Month and Racism in Canada
In Canada, February is Black History Month, an event that has existed since 1995 to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Canadians with African or Caribbean heritage. At DMC, we thought it would be good to interview someone with Caribbean heritage. So, we approached Bernadette Arthur, Race Relations Coordinator for the Office of Race Relations…
Read MoreThe Freedom Climb: Getting Uncomfortable for God’s Precious Children
In July 2014 I had the privilege of travelling to Colorado from my home province of Saskatchewan. There I joined about 70 other women, from 6 different countries, for “The Freedom Climb”! We summited 7 mountains, each of them over 14,000 feet elevation, in 4 days. We were dizzy from the altitude, with aching muscles…
Read MoreThe Refugee Crisis and the CRC Response
The following was sent out by the CRCNA Communications: With the refugee crisis on many people’s minds, questions have come in to various agency and ministry staff about what the CRC is doing to help. A number of communication items have recently gone out from our office to address the refugee crisis and how churches…
Read MoreNEW! Next Devotion in the series
Follow the link below to download the eighth devotion for deacons in the latest set of devotionals from Diaconal Ministries Canada (DMC). In our conversations with deacons across the country, DMC often summarizes the ministry of the deacon into 4 areas: community ministry, compassion, justice, and stewardship. This devotion is the second of three which will focus on…
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