REFLECTIONS & WORSHIP

Worship

The worship outlines in this section were written in this spirit of ecumenism, and you are welcome to use them in whole or in part in your own faith community or gathering.

Unless otherwise indicated, KAIROS holds the copyright on all of these liturgies and you are free to photocopy them. Where other copyright holders are indicated for any song or text within the liturgy, please respect this by not reproducing their work in print without securing permission first. KAIROS cannot give you reprint rights – you must contact the copyright holder directly.

KAIROS generally uses the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of the Bible in all its English resources. KAIROS also uses language inclusive of both genders in its liturgical writing, while respecting that each member church holds a different policy in this matter.

In our worship and liturgical language as in all of our work, we strive to live out God’s call to justice for all peoples and all of creation. If you have liturgical resources to suggest, especially ones written by your community, please send the text to info@kairoscanada.org

Reflections

Ethical and theological reflections on the issues facing our world are a key part of KAIROS' commitment to social justice. Through these reflections we try to highlight the values and the spirituality that are at the heart of the struggle for justice and peace.

If you have reflections of two pages or less that you'd like us to consider posting, please send them to info@kairoscanada.org.

REFLECTIONS & WORSHIP ARTICLES

KAIROS Christmas Message 2011

December 23, 2011 By Nik

Dear Friends far and near: We enter the season of Christmas with a sense of wonder, awed by your commitment, generosity, and hope. As KAIROS Board and staff, partners and networks, we give thanks for the ever growing movement for faithful justice, the ever deepening commitment to solidarity, and the ever flowing sense of community. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feature 1, Reflections & Worship, Who We Are Tagged With: Christmas

Reflection for Advent 4: Midwifing Solidarity

December 13, 2011 By Nik

I had a January baby (she is now almost eight!). So I remember the December before her birth as a month of profound anticipation. Advent for me was not symbolic, but intensely real as preparations unfolded and my hope and trepidation grew. I also remember an increased appreciation for the Mary of Luke’s birth narrative. A road trip just before giving birth? By donkey, as in most Christmas imagery? This seemed mind boggling in my ever increasing, ever more uncomfortable state. A little fear mixed with the sense of promise is natural with a first baby. There are so many unknowns. What I remember is the comfort I felt from midwives, both the formal midwives who were … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feature 2, Reflections & Worship

Advent 3: l’École Polytechnique, 582 missing + murdered Indigenous women, and Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

December 6, 2011 By Nik

Geneviève, Hélène, Nathalie, the two Barbaras, the two Anne-Maries, Maud, the two Maryses, Sonia, the two Annies and Michèle These are names engraved on my heart. I was 22 on December 6th, 1989 when 14 women were killed at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. I had no connection to any of the women who died that day, but as a woman, a feminist young woman studying at a Canadian university, it was impossible to be untouched. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feature 1, Reflections & Worship, Women of Courage

Reflection for Advent 2 (Isaiah 11:1-10)

November 28, 2011 By Nik

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.” Isaiah 64:1 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feature 2, Reflections & Worship

Ecuador’s Oil Struggle: Reflections on an Amazonian Journey

November 25, 2011 By Nik

In July 2011, KAIROS staff Rachel Warden and Sara Stratton, together with Fort Chipewyan activist George Poitras, travelled to Ecuador to learn more about the impacts of oil exploration on the Indigenous peoples and ecosystems of Ecuador’s Amazon region. The following is Sara's reflection in words and images of her time in Ecuador. Canadian church leaders and KAIROS partners from Nigeria and Ecuador had been hosted by George and his community when the KAIROS Church Leaders’ Delegation to the Tar Sands visited Northern Alberta in May 2009. We were eager to continue building on that relationship, particularly between peoples of the global South and the global South in the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Justice, Feature 1, Global Partners, Indigenous Rights, Reflections & Worship, Resource Extraction, UNDRIP Tagged With: Ecuador, Indigenous Rights, Oil, UNDRIP

The struggle for Dignity behind a Rose: A Reflection for Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2011 By Nik

A rose is a rose is a rose – or is it? For many Colombians, particularly women, a rose has become a symbol, not of love, but of exploitation, massive displacement and pesticide poisoning. http://kairoscanada.org/blogs/?cat=117 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Colombia, Reflections & Worship, Trade & Rights Tagged With: colombia

Budgets are Moral Documents

January 19, 2011 By Nik

The current economic crisis and climate crisis are interconnected. They challenge people of faith to proclaim a different set of values that begins with the vision of one humanity, one creation. http://kairoscanada.org/blogs/?p=807 … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Global Finance, Reflections & Worship

Sisters in Spirit Vigils

October 4, 2010 By Nik

Standing in Solidarity with Indigenous Women October 4, 2010 On October 4, 2010, the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) and its partners KAIROS, Amnesty International, the Canadian Federation of Students, and the National Association of Friendship Centres will host the fifth annual Sisters In Spirit vigils in locations across Canada. They will join First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and their supporters to honour their missing and murdered sisters, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, and friends. Vigils and gatherings will also take place throughout the year in locations across the country. Join us at a vigil near you! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Indigenous Rights, Reflections & Worship, Women of Courage

The Blanket Exercise

May 28, 2010 By Nik

(Many thanks to Rev. Korver and the Committee for Contact with the Government of the Christian Reformed Church for their generous permission to reprint this article from “Mobile Justice”, May 2010. The original can be found at http://www.crcna.org/pages/ccg_mj_1005_aboriginal.cfm ) "You can't understand a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes," goes the old saying. I've never believed it, really. I can grasp the principle, but I don't believe you can fully live in another person's circumstances or truly feel the burden or barriers they might feel. If I don't like the walk, I can quit; but the owner of the shoes must keep walking. Yet, that's not to say that a few … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feature 1, Indigenous Rights, Reflections & Worship, The Land Our Life Tagged With: Indigenous Rights

Even the Stones Will Cry Out – Earth hour 2010 Liturgical Resource

March 27, 2010 By Nik

When? March 27 from 8:30‐ 9:30PM local time, or Sunday March 28 during your regular service of worship or Mass. If you can’t make Earth Hour, try Earth Week (Sunday 18 or 25 April.) … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reflections & Worship