Spirited Reflections
September is Climate Action Month
July 8, 2019
KAIROS is promoting September as Climate Action Month to explore the climate crisis and highlight the work of our members and networks. On each day in September, an event, blog post, environmental challenge – or some combination of all three!…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Indigenous Rights, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Jesus outside the gate
July 3, 2019
On June 7, in what is likely to be his last meeting of the KAIROS steering committee as a representative of The United Church of Canada, Jim Hodgson, shared this reflection. In this reflection, I am inspired by Mary Pezzulo’s…
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Spirited Reflection: It’s about time…
June 25, 2019
We live in a culture where there are many different types of time: chronological or calendar time; justice time(“that should have happened years ago”); convenient time(“when I get around to it”); “when the time comes”, fantasy time; “there is no…
Post filed in: Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Ancestors, Imagined
June 21, 2019
Recently, I was fortunate to witness the Guatemalan expression of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise while in Toronto, Ontario. As a First Nations woman, I was struck by the similarities of this story of colonization to the one I had come…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Imagine
June 20, 2019
At a recent KAIROS Blanket Exercise (KBE), the facilitator commented that he often wonders what Canada would look like today if, instead of having forced Indigenous communities to adapt to colonial ways, the European colonists had assimilated the ways of…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Mourn and organize
June 13, 2019
An excerpt from Jennifer Henry’s Opening Remarks, Streams of Justice at the KAIROS Atlantic Gathering in May I begin in gratitude…and from memory . . . In a crowded Scarborough church, with a table full of candles, and media pushing…
Post filed in: Regional News, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Singing God’s song as exiles in your own country
May 30, 2019
How could we sing the God’s song in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:4) During the 6th century BCE, Jerusalem was plundered, and its leading citizens were dragged off to exile. By the rivers of Babylon, the voices of these…
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Spirited Reflection: Take up your load
May 21, 2019
Ascension Sunday – 6th Sunday of Easter; Acts 1: 1-11; Luke 24: 44-53 In the days following Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples experienced a range of emotions. At times, they were amazed. At other times they were terrified and convinced they…
Post filed in: Spirited Reflections
Equality and Social Justice– no better and no worse
May 14, 2019
Fortunately, I did not have to attend Residential School. Since I grew up with my parents in Toronto, I absorbed their attitudes and worldviews. In spite of a great deal of denial in my family, I have been constantly identified…
Post filed in: Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: That you should enter under my roof
April 26, 2019
A man approaches. He gives me a Happy Easter greeting. I give him the same, and two dollars. A woman comes, desperate to get to the hospital. I give her cab fare; she thanks me and touches my arm. A…
Post filed in: Spirited Reflections
NEW VIDEO- On Earth Day, Canadian faith leaders issue urgent plea for climate action
April 18, 2019
Unceded Algonquin Territory [OTTAWA]/ Territory of the Huron-Wendat, Seneca, Petun, and Mississaugas of the Credit Indigenous Peoples [TORONTO] (April 18, 2019) — On Earth Day 2019, Christians leaders from across Canada have come together to issue an urgent call to…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Spirited Reflections
Easter 2019 video: Where do you see new life?
April 16, 2019
Dear Friends, I invite you to watch KAIROS’ 2019 Easter video: Where do you see new life? Please share it with your family, friends, congregation and community. Post it on Facebook or tweet it. If you attend a church, consider…
Post filed in: Executive Director, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection on Palm Sunday: Shouting Stones–discerning when and how to speak out, facing the evidence
April 11, 2019
NRSV Luke – 19:37-40 As Jesus was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they…
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Spirited Reflection: And hatred is not a form of love
April 5, 2019
I marvel how some religious communities justify exclusion and hatred as an expression of the divine command to love. Love does not insist on its own way, but policies of exclusion and expressions of hatred are somehow based on insistence….
Post filed in: Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: The outsider insider perspective- how a KBE changed me
March 29, 2019
I am a settler in Canada and having immigrated from India about a year ago, I felt a longing need not just to belong here, but also to be able to connect with the cultural and historical past of this…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Salmon lament
March 22, 2019
Lent is about taking time to look at what lies heavy on our hearts. To acknowledge these things and then reflect on the ways in which our lives could change to create space and opportunity for new perspective and renewed…
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Spirited Reflection: This World Water Day, leave no one behind
March 15, 2019
World Water Day March 22nd- helps inspire passion for sustainable management of this global resource, and promotes the UN Sustainable Development Goal #6: Ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all. Billions of people around the world (including in…
Post filed in: Ecological Justice, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: This land’s not my land, This land’s not your land
March 7, 2019
The First Sunday in Lent “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor” …. (Deuteronomy 26:1-11) So begins a recitation of the history of the people who wandered, were enslaved in Egypt, and then, through the Exodus, eventually came to the promised…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Transfiguration Sunday—From the Mountain to the Streets
March 1, 2019
From Luke 9:28-36 When Jesus took Peter, John and James up onto the mountain to pray, Jesus’ face and clothes became dazzling and bright. Then Moses and Elijah also appeared with Jesus, also in glorious splendor. When these Disciples witnessed…
Post filed in: Migrant Justice, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Finding safety and justice for migrant workers
February 20, 2019
Epiphany continues February 24 with KAIROS reflections in Light of a Star (digital) (print), the Epiphany Resource. Heide and Richard’s Story Two workers at a McDonald’s in Fernie, B.C. ‒ Heide and her boyfriend, Richard ‒ alleged that the owner,…
Post filed in: Migrant Justice, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: From the Doctrine of Discovery to the killing of Colten Boushie
February 15, 2019
When an apparently all-white jury acquitted Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley a year ago of any wrongdoing in the August 2016 killing of 22-year-old Cree man, Colten Boushie, their action pierced the hearts of Indigenous people and their allies across Turtle…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: When called to paths toward reconciliation
February 6, 2019
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany 5 – February 10, 2019 Luke 5:1-11 we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets. (Luke 5:5) For me, 2018 was a year…
Post filed in: Indigenous Rights, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Acting for our neighbours
January 31, 2019
Epiphany continues January 27 with KAIROS reflections based on Light of a Star (digital) (print), the KAIROS Epiphany Resource. Scripture Commentary – Jeremiah 1:4-10 Prophets have a difficult job. They must speak the words that God gives them to speak, even though…
Post filed in: Migrant Justice, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: It comes down to status
January 24, 2019
Epiphany continues January 27 with KAIROS reflections based on Light of a Star (digital) (print), the KAIROS Epiphany Resource. TERESA’S STORY: Teresa (not her real name) is a single mom from Baja California, Mexico. Since 2012, she has been supporting her parents…
Post filed in: Migrant Justice, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Employers as allies with their workers
January 18, 2019
Epiphany continues January 20 with KAIROS reflections based on Light of a Star (digital) (print), the Epiphany Resource. RYAN’S STORY: Ryan was desperate when he lost his job as a restaurant cleaner amid Alberta’s economic recession and faced possible removal to…
Post filed in: Migrant Justice, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Named and claimed
January 16, 2019
Inspired by Luke 3:15-22, Psalm 29, Isaiah 43:1-7 & Acts 8:14-17 Periodically, over the years, I’ve asked myself this question, ‘What difference does being a Christian make for me?’ How am I living out my Christian Faith? I suppose that,…
Post filed in: Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Seeking justice and building a community
January 8, 2019
Epiphany continues January 13 with KAIROS reflections based on Light of a Star (digital) (print), the Epiphany Resource. ARLENE’S STORY: After Arlene came to Canada, she realized she was under a pilot program and couldn’t possibly meet the post-secondary education and…
Post filed in: Migrant Justice, Spirited Reflections
Spirited Reflection: Why migration?
January 2, 2019
January 6 is the beginning of Epiphany and KAIROS reflections are focusing on the issues surrounding migration and migrant workers, based on the Epiphany Resource Light of a Star (digital) (print). Gabriel’s Story Gabriel lost his job because of a combination of…
Post filed in: Migrant Justice, Spirited Reflections
