Bishop's Message September issue of Anglican Montreal
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“After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb….”
Revelation 7:9 NRSV
For the past four years, our Diocese has been focussed on addressing and combatting racism through workshops and Synod speakers.
Nobody wants to be called racist! And yet, we know that we sometimes harbour attitudes towards others that are not holy. The speakers we have heard have challenged us to look into our hearts, and face the ways in which we may in fact not be as open or diverse or inclusive as the Kingdom of God calls us to be.
Will we ever be able to say that we are done? Bishop Shannon MacVean Brown commented at Synod that she didn’t know of a place in the world where racism is not an issue, because people are people.
“How many things that I hold dear are actually interwoven in this systemic racism?”
Our historic, colonial, attitudes and assumptions may not actually stand up to the light of Christ, and to our Baptismal promises. We do know that we cannot exclude others because they are different from us or speak another language. The experience of Pentecost showed that the disciples were sent by the Holy Spirit to invite people from everywhere to live in the Kingdom of God.
I want to encourage you to ask God to grow your heart into the shape that God wants it to be; to heal your heart of your racist attitudes and of the wounds that you have received; to offer to God your own efforts to be all that you are called to be for Christ.
“We are surrounded by a great cloud of truth tellers who have shown us what it means to trust the Great Spirit. So let us lay to the side everything that weighs us down and the broken ways that so easily wrap around our legs to trip us. And let us run as if we are in a long-distance race, setting a steady pace and heading toward the goal. This means we must keep our eyes on Creator Sets Free (Jesus), the trailblazer of our spiritual ways.”
To the People of the Tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Hebrews)
12:1-2, First Nations Version
