Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada National Bishop Susan C. Johnson, along with Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) National Indigenous Bishop Mark MacDonald and ACC Archbishop Fred Hiltz, are urging the Prime Minister and the Government of Canada to fulfil the "promise to create a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE).

The text of the letter to the Prime Minister follows. Download a copy of the letter here.

January 31, 2019

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister:

We are writing to urge you and the Government of Canada to fulfil your promise to create a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE).

On January 17, 2018, your government promised that:

• It would create the CORE,
• The CORE would be fully independent, and
• The CORE would have the powers needed to investigate—including the power to compel the truth.

In the 2013 Joint Assembly Declaration, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada committed to addressing together issues of responsible resource extraction (www.jointassembly.ca/delegates/acc/cc/joint-assembly-declaration/index.html).

We regard the CORE as a valuable tool to help support communities in defining their own development goals and to ensure Indigenous Peoples in Canada and around the world are able to exercise their right to free, prior and informed consent.

It has now been more than a full year since the CORE was announced and there is still no ombudsperson in place. The need to uphold rights is urgent. We urge you to act promptly to fulfill this promise.

It is the ongoing prayer of our churches that we would have the humility and discipline to use the earth’s resources wisely and responsibly.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Susan C. Johnson
National Bishop,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald
National Anglican Indigenous Bishop, Anglican Church of Canada

The Most Rev. Fred Hiltz
Primate, Anglican Church of Canada

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) National Bishop Susan C. Johnson has written a letter to the church reaffirming the church’s support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including the right to free, prior and informed consent.

A pdf of the letter can be found here. The text of the letter follows:

Dear friends in Christ,

On behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC), I wish to reaffirm our church’s support for the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples, including the right to free, prior and informed consent.

In 2015, the ELCIC National Convention repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery and committed to walking with Indigenous peoples in their ongoing efforts to exercise their inherent sovereignty and fundamental human rights. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) identified the UN Declaration as the framework for reconciliation in Canada.

Recent events on Wet’suwet’en land, including the arrests at the Gitdimt’en checkpoint on January 7, 2019, remind us of the ongoing need for reconciliation and for a true nation-to-nation relationship. Court injunctions and police enforcement should not be used as alternatives to the commitment, patience, good-will and true consultation that is required in order to ensure that free, prior and informed consent is achieved.

Senator Justice Murray Sinclair, former Chair of the TRC, has said that, “because it took us so many generations to get to this point, it is going to take us at least a few generations to be able to say that we are making progress.” As members of the ELCIC, we admit that we have much to learn and we are committed to a long journey. We can begin by seeking new paths for discerning together how to live on the land wisely and how to use resources responsibly. We give thanks for the voices that remind us of the spiritual significance of our relationships with the land and with each other.

I invite you to join me in this ongoing prayer:

Creator: teach, guide and lead us on the path to reconciliation. Strengthen our conviction to uphold all rights of Indigenous peoples. Fill us with patience, respect, understanding and hope as we engage our neighbours and seek to discern how to live faithfully together and in healthy relationship with the earth. Open our eyes to the ways of peace. Amen.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Susan C. Johnson

National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) in partnership in ministry with the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) and The Episcopal Church (TEC) have prepared a liturgical resource for the annual ecumenical celebration of The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, observed January 18-25.

The Daily Devotions for The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity invites Christians to reflect together on a biblical theme based on the words of the Book of Deuteronomy: “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue.”

All of the devotions have been prepared by the four presiding bishops of each of the churches: ELCIC National Bishop Susan Johnson, ACC Archbishop Fred Hiltz, ELCA Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, and TEC Bishop Michael Curry.

The devotions can be found on the ELCIC website.

These devotions are available for use not only during The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but also throughout the year.

Many of us would love to spend more time in spiritual practice than we do, but often find it hard to make space for it in the day-to-day challenges of our lives. As the hectic holiday season subsides, a new year can offer us a chance to make changes and deepen our commitment to what matters most.

In the spirit of our seasonal devotional projects, Lutherans Connect invites you to journey with us through January and the first weeks of the season of Epiphany. As always, we will combine scripture with prayer, images, reflection and music. 

This Epiphany our theme is Living Our Faith. In collaboration with Bishop Susan Johnson, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, we will explore ways to renew our spiritual practice while deepening our experience of what it means to be disciples of Jesus. 

In our church readings between Epiphany and Lent we hear the stories of the life and ministry of Jesus, the events that flow from his baptism to his transfiguration. How can we be like the first century followers of Jesus responding to these events in our own twenty-first century world? How can the waters of the baptism of Jesus flow through our own lives in building the realm of God?

Working with a single chapter of Scripture over twelve days and accompanied by excerpts from Praying the Catechism by Donald W. Johnson, LC† Living Our Faith will help us find ways to live our faith anew as disciples in a modern world. 

Join us for twelve days as we Pray, Read, Worship and Love. And may the light of Epiphany guide us in living our faith now and always.

Find the Epiphany Devotional Series here: https://lclivingourfaith.blogspot.com/

The ELCIC National Office will be closed from December 25 to January 1. We will reopen on January 2, 2019. Wishing you a blessed Christmas.

"I invite you to pray for all those affected by poverty, raise awareness about the issues that contribute to poverty within our communities, and engage in initiatives that address these challenges," says Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) National Bishop Susan C. Johnson in a letter to the church on International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

Read the full letter here: https://www.elcic.ca/Documents/201810InternationalDayfortheEradicationofPoverty.pdf

The text of the letter follows:

October 17, 2018

They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor,
which was actually what I was eager to do. (Galatians 2:10)

Dear Friends in Christ,

On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, I invite you to pray for all those affected by poverty, raise awareness about the issues that contribute to poverty within our communities, and engage in initiatives that address these challenges.

As Paul and other apostles debated and discerned the shape of mission in the early church, they came to clear and enthusiastic agreement that “remembering the poor” is essential to the call to share the gospel. Care for neighbours in need is not only about acts of generous sharing and caring, it also includes ongoing learning about issues and a commitment to seek justice.

As the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada’s (ELCIC) National Church Council (NCC) continues to discern what it means to be a church In Mission for Others, they have identified that one of our strategic priorities is Reconciled Relationships, and that working to end poverty in Canada is a key goal for this priority.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals commit to eliminating poverty by 2030. In Canada, more than 4 million people live in food insecure households. The Government of Canada has established a national poverty reduction strategy. The goal of eradicating poverty can only be achieved through a comprehensive, human rights-based strategy, back by strong legislation and sufficient funding for ending poverty for everyone. The ELCIC supports Dignity for All’s model of what Canada’s comprehensive national anti-poverty strategy needs to include: www.dignityforall.ca/about/our-plan/.

I am grateful that we journey together with many partners as we work towards Reconciled Relationships in the following ways:
The ELCIC works in effective partnership with Canadian Lutheran World Relief to support refugees, promote food security, and challenge the causes and respond to the consequences of injustice and poverty.

Organizations such as KAIROS, the Canadian Council of Churches, Citizens for Public Justice and the Lutheran World Federation help us to live out Jesus’ call to remember the poor.

We join with our full communion partner, the Anglican Church of Canada, in addressing the issues of homelessness and affordable housing and of responsible resource extraction.

Paul reminds us every congregation and faith community is called to remember the poor and discern the particular ways it can promote compassion, justice and peace in its neighbourhood.

As we pray for the eradication of poverty, I give thanks for all the ways that you participate in God’s mission and pray for God’s blessing on all the ways you work to eradicate poverty and to journey toward reconciled relationships.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Susan C. Johnson
National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) National Bishop Susan C. Johnson has written a letter to the church affirming the commitment to upholding the dignity of all people and "to standing with our LGBTQ2+ siblings in Christ, both inside and outside of our church."

A pdf of the letter can be found here. The text of the letter follows.

Dear members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC),

Then [Jesus] took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” (Mark 9:36–37, NRSV)

Grace and peace to you.

On Sunday, we will hear how the followers of Jesus were arguing about who was the greatest. When confronted, they are silent. Jesus takes a child into his arms, and directs the disciples to welcome everyone with a sense of the holy in each person.

From the margins of society, Jesus draws people into his arms and into the centre of our communities; and asks us to reconsider our attitudes, our assumptions and our ways of welcoming. I am reminded of how tempting it is for leaders and communities to argue about who is important and who is not; to make decisions about who is in and who is out; and to magnify the significance of our own experience of normal. Even after we have committed to following Jesus, to treating people fairly and to being inclusive, there is much work to be done to turn our commitments into true and meaningful action.

In 2011, the ELCIC National Convention adopted a Social Statement on Human Sexuality, which calls us as a church to the following commitments.

We commit to upholding the dignity of all people. We recognize the image of Christ in every person and serve that person as Christ himself. In meeting diverse people, we begin with a core sense of respect for the value of each person as a unique child of God. We commit to following Jesus by welcoming everyone.

We commit to engaging in practices that more fully enable all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to live as members of the body of Christ and as co-workers in ministry, and to help nurture disciples in the image of God. We recognize we are affected by the biases of our predominantly heterosexual culture. We commit to keep on learning.

We commit to engaging the diverse faces of the world in which we live. We recognize that meeting diverse peoples and forming a truly inclusive community is a journey of discovery that will include moments of discomfort and anxiety. We commit to using these moments to help us grow as disciples.

The ELCIC finds itself in an increasingly pluralistic context which invites us to think anew about how we preach and live the gospel. As we continue to learn and grow as God’s people, we gain new understanding of our world. When we name our complex history, it can assist us in repairing those broken relationships and moving us towards being a more inclusive church. Language becomes an important vehicle to proclaim God’s justice and well-being and reflects hospitality and welcome to all.

In March 2018, the ELCIC’s National Church Council approved new Inclusive Language Guidelines. Women and men, transgender and non-binary people, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, two-spirit, asexual, and heterosexual communities deserve to have their individual identities, titles, and pronouns respected and upheld. While it isn’t required to know all of these terms, it is critical that we have a general understanding of the range of identities we have been gifted with by God and reflect that in our use of language with one another.

Just as the church wonders how to uphold dignity, so do our communities and our societies.
Recently, in different parts of Canada, there have been conversations regarding what curriculum will be used in schools as appropriate sexual education. Concerns are being raised about possible future use of the notwithstanding clause that may affect our LGBTQ2+ siblings. In the face of these conversations and concerns, how do we help each other to deepen respect for each other?

I am conscious that persons whose sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity means living as a minority in a predominantly heterosexual and gender-binary culture, the risk of painful, harmful and/or dangerous experiences remains far too high. The ELCIC does not support conversion therapy to change a person’s sexual orientation; or any other form of treatment that is hostile to a person’s identity. Rather, we sense a deep need for safe opportunities to listen to diverse experiences, to learn from each other, and to honour people’s God-given identity. We are called to form families, communities and societies where all are welcome and where all make a meaningful contribution. We are committed to standing with our LGBTQ2+ siblings in Christ, both inside and outside of our church.

This church lives by faith and grace. Living faithfully means trusting in God’s grace boldly, and taking risks. This church is yearning to see how God will be active in our future, and how God will use us as agents of reconciliation in our broken world.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Susan C. Johnson
National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

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The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is Canada’s largest Lutheran denomination with 114,592 baptized members in 525 congregations. It is a member of The Lutheran World Federation, the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.

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The 2018 Canadian Lutheran Anglican Youth Gathering (CLAY 2018) has come and gone, but the memories, lessons learned and experiences gained will live on for years. Held every two years in a different Canadian city as a joint youth gathering between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) and the Anglican Church Canada (ACC), CLAY 2018 took place this year at Lakehead University Campus in Thunder Bay, ON, on the traditional lands of the Fort William First Nation, Signatory of the Robinson Treaty of 1850.

106 Home Teams consisting of 845 total registrants joined 84 local volunteers, the six-member CLAY Worship Band and the four-member CLAY Drama Team for the five-day event, spanning from Wednesday, August 15 to Sunday, August 19, 2018.

Coming together under the theme ‘Threads’, the 2018 gathering focused on story-telling, story-tending, and what it truly means to listen. Five Large Group Gatherings (LGG) tended to the following themes/questions, including: How to listen to the stories of others, How to trust God in our unravelling, Where God fits within our stories, Good news stories from God, and Where do we go from here as unfinished but beloved children of God?

Steve Greene – the lead speaker/storyweaver at CLAY 2018 – spoke at each LGG reflecting upon and weaving together the many stories of place and purpose (shared by the other various storytellers) to the Biblical story. Greene, who has previously presented/led many powerful slam poetry ministry projects at past gatherings, was born in Montreal, QB., with his family originally coming to Canada from the West Indian cultured Barbados.

Beatrice Twance-Hynes of Biigtigong First Nation led the ‘Patterns’ session at Friday’s LGG. She is from both the local Bear Clan (maternal), Deer Clan (paternal), and has lived in Thunder Bay since 1988. Beatrice is a traditional women’s dancer, singer, songwriter and drummer. She serves as a Cultural Manager and is a member of the Elders Advisory Council within Thunder Bay.

Jenny Salisbury of Toronto, led the ‘Unravelling’ session at Thursday evening’s LGG. She was born and raised within a military family, and travelled/moved a lot as a child. Jenny found meaning and purpose within the church community through theatre. She currently serves the theatre as a writer, actor and teacher.

Lindsey Jorgensen-Skakum of Lethbridge, AB., led the ‘Weave’ session at Saturday evening’s LGG. As a Pastor, Lindsey has a passion for sharing the Good News of God’s love within and outside the church’s walls. A passion that has led them to share a ministry of welcome and inclusion as a member of the LGBTQ2+ community.

Esther Diabo served CLAY 2018 as the Elder-in-Residence, acting as a teacher, observer and elder. As a nine-year attendee of the Canadian Indian Residential Schools, Esther went on to become a teacher, and now offers free Ojibwe & Culture classes, welcome to all. She has taught for 18 years within the First Nations communities of Northwestern Ontario.

Highlights from the gathering included an offsite event, where youth were able to hear stories about Thunder Bay at the nearby Marina Park, and the indigenous lands and the threads of the lives of the locals. Hosts from the area gave accounts specific to their upbringing and lives. After learning what it means to be a true listener and a story-tender, the members of CLAY participated in an act of public witness as agents of reconciliation while at the park.

Working together with sets of different home teams and CLAY volunteers, the youth belonging to the ELCIC and ACC continued to fulfil their commitment to address issues such as homelessness and unaffordable housing through the National Youth Project (NYP).

By first learning of the issues contributing to poverty and homelessness, and then acting and advocating in supporting the local networks and agencies through partner programs, the youth visited a mock homeless shelter, gathered/donated socks, and sent postcards to the Federal Government and local Members of Parliament, in hopes of raising awareness and advocating for a greater responsibility and accountability in addressing the underlying causes of homelessness. 

While at CLAY 2018, attendees took part in the second-largest KAIROS blanket exercise in the world, and the largest ever by youth. Diabo helped lead the exercise with prayer, the teaching of Ojibwe, and a purification process. The 45-minute activity helped participants gain a better understanding of colonization (or the shrinking of land/blankets) and the process of displacement endured by Indigenous Peoples here in Canada.

The Story Dash on Lake Tamblyn was one of the lighter moments, and pinnacles of Home Team time at the gathering. Hilarious 10-sentence story content was created by each Home Team using set ‘base words’, additional ‘bonus words’ and creative titles.

A variety of late-night spots – including dances, swimming, yoga, a campfire with the CLAY Worship Band, and a coffeehouse – provided many options for the youth following evening sessions. 

CLAY 2020 will take place Calgary, AB., on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and the people of the Treaty 7 region at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.

A one-of-a-kind internship in the rural area of Brokenhead, Manitoba is opening up the opportunity for nine congregations to participate jointly in a creative relationship.
 
Supervising the internship is Rev. Richard Engel who oversees services and pastoral duties at six different congregations within the Brokenhead area, consisting of congregations from Lac Du Bonnet, Ostenfeld, Pinawa, Whitemouth, Lydiatt and River Hills. Three other congregations from Green Bay, Thalberg and Beausejour complete the nine that jointly sponsored the internship.

This shared ministry program has been operating since May of 2017. Three months after its humble beginnings, Intern Pastor Jeremy Langner was welcomed to the Brokenhead area and has since been serving alongside Rev. Engel.

“A typical internship usually only has one supervisor and one congregation,” Engel says. “What we have here is anything but typical.”

As complicated as it may sound, this Manitoban pastor/intern duo has been rather successful in the early stages within this recently developed shared ministry.

“The overall goal of this internship is to have an intern who is fully functioning as a pastor by the end of the training period,” Engel says. “In the beginning, Intern Pastor Jeremy was my shadow, and we did everything together. We then began a period of transition… now he goes to one two-point parish to preach while I go to another on Sundays as the congregations really begin to experience the ‘shared ministry concept.’”

“The ‘shared’ word in shared ministry is something that I have discerned and taken very seriously,” Engel continues. “How do we share together while doing ministry? The pastor isn’t in charge of everything, rather we are in charge of this all together, and we are going to work at this together.”

For Intern Pastor Jeremy Langner, the chance to be able to serve and learn in this very unique shared ministry partnership has been fundamental in his growth as an emerging leader within the ELCIC.

“In Manitoba, pastoral internships don’t really come up all that often,” the 34-year-old says. “I am originally from Winnipeg, so having the chance to learn about the challenges and dynamics from rural congregations in my home province has been an incredible opportunity for me. I am not just in one particular place/congregation, but I am learning from each of these sites – something I really appreciate.”

Not only is the internship a unique partnership, but so is the funding that is supporting this new initiative. Financial support is coming from all expressions for the ELCIC. The ELCIC’s National Office Church Extension and Capital Fund (CECF), synodical funds from Acts of the MNO and local funds from the participating congregations help make this initiative possible.

“Having that assistance in supporting me as an intern has been critical,” Langner adds. “It has provided the internship site and in-part, has made my seminary education possible. If I wouldn’t have found this opportunity in my home province, and had been forced to relocate the family, it certainly would have been a very different outcome. So national funding for this is really critical for training leaders in theological education; I am really thankful for it.”

Rev. Richard Engel also echoed his intern’s thoughts on CECF funding.

“Funding from such things as the CECF has been integral to this internship,” he reflects. “Without the CECF, we would not have been able to do this internship.”

While every relationship experiences a few bumps in the road, Engel says the experience has been very exciting. “When I look back from where we were in May to where we are now, there has been significant progress. Much like our liturgical readings from a few weeks ago, in which Jesus was out in the wilderness, that is certainly how we all felt in May. We had been cast out into the wilderness, but it is no longer a wilderness anymore.”

The Font for the 2019 ELCIC National Convention was designed by artist Jeffrey Taylor, Newschool Arts, Duval, Saskatchewan.

“I am very proud to have been asked to create this baptismal font,” says Jeffrey. “It was one of those serendipitous God occurrences when the Rev. Patricia Simonson asked me if I could make a bowl for the font, and also inquired if I would be interested in making the base as well.”

The original idea was to have the base constructed out of reclaimed elevator timbers. “We sat and talked about the project at my table, which happened to be made from reclaimed elevator lumber, and I grew excited about taking on the task,” describes Jeffrey. “As Pat and I spoke of the materials that might be used, we shared a desire to use as many naturally grown, locally sourced materials as possible. So, all the antler used was from naturally shed antlers which fall off the deer and then regrow each year. The clay comes from pits in southern Saskatchewan and Alberta. The wood was sourced from a local wood reclaiming company that specializes in grain elevator timbers.”

As Jeffrey thought and prayed about the project, his mind was drawn to the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:1-23. “I felt that it was an apt passage for a baptismal font that was to represent Saskatchewan.”

The decorative marks on my pottery echo the land around Jeffrey. Furrows and fields echoed in the dark marks, clouds in the sky and snowbanks are imagined in the blank spaces. Both bowl and marks made from mixtures of the abundant clay, which lies beneath our province’s fertile layer of topsoil. On the font, there are subtle green markings. Looking closely, on both on the inside and outside, there are three intersecting circular marks representing the Trinity. Flowing out of this are lines that flow around the bowl as an expression of how God is at work in the world.

The base has simple straight lines that bring to mind the provincial boundaries. Jeffrey has been exploring working with antler as a creative material for a few years, and antler inlay was next on his list of things to try. Each pair of inlaid images represents one of the types of soil used in the parable to describe the differing responses to the gospel reading:

“A farmer went out to scatter seed. As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path, and birds came and ate it.  Other seed fell on rocky ground where the soil was shallow. They sprouted immediately because the soil wasn’t deep.  But when the sun came up, it scorched the plants, and they dried up because they had no roots.  Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorny plants grew and choked them. Other seed fell on good soil and bore fruit, in one case a yield of one hundred to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of thirty to one. Everyone who has ears should pay attention.”

The bolted sections are of differing lengths to echo the differing harvests coming from the good soil. Using reclaimed lumber means it comes with a variety of marks and scars from its previous life, beautiful stories of the journey the wood has taken, and perhaps an echo of our own lives as God works on and in us to reclaim, restore and reconcile us.

Following National Convention, the font will take up residence in its new home: Luther College’s Chapel, as they were in need of a font.