Home Is Where the Heart Is
This beautiful painting depicts a mother sheltering her child as the threatening waves of a cyclone crash on the shores of their home. In the background crosses are seen to commemorate the lives lost in such vicious storms of the past. The artist of this painting, titled Cyclone Pam II, is a Vanuatu woman named Juliette Pita. The women of Vanuatu are leading us in The World Day of Prayer this year. Their focus of prayer is: Building on a Strong Foundation, Matthew 7: 24-27. Given the devastating cyclones, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes their island nation has been subjected to, perhaps it is not surprising that they value the foundation of home and land.
While the homes in Vanuatu are threatened by natural disasters, closer to home is the very real problem of losing one's home due to COVID restrictions. Temporary foreign workers have planted, tended to, and harvested much of the food we consume in Canada, in order to gain an income to feed their own families half-way around the world. What happens when travel restrictions interfere with this long established symbiotic relationship?
“The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ”
Lastly we have the lectionary notes of the third Sunday of the Lenten podcasts from SALT. This week we are presented with considering Jesus's anger at the Temple. Why did he clear out the money exchangers and the sellers of animals deemed appropriate for sacrifice? Jesus is outraged with this very system of offerings to grant God a “gift”. His Cleansing of the Temple is a manifestation of returning the temple to a true House of God.
Home: The Foundation
The Women of World Prayer Day, 2021
by World Day of Prayer | November 16, 2020
The women of the archipelago nation of Vanuatu are this year's representatives of World Day of Prayer. To a Ni-Vanuatu (inhabitant of Vanuatu) land is what a mother is to a baby. With land she or he defines her or his identity and maintains spiritual strength.
In the following video we get a glimpse of how these women overcome the challenges of weather calamities, child malnutrition, domestic violence and COVID by keeping Vanuatu's moto "In God we Stand" at the core of their faith.
Melancthon Farm Struggles to Bring Food to Our Tables
by Paul Bettings | February 26, 2021
You may have eaten the fruits of Avenash Sanatan's labour, as he is a temporary foreign worker at Lennox Farm in Melancthon. He has returned every year to work and provide a living for his family back in Trinidad for the last seven years.
This article shines a light on how our local farmers, our own food security, and the survival of families in foreign countries are effected by COVID and the restrictions that have come with it.
Jesus Cleans up God’s House
by SALT team | March 2, 2021
Here again are the lectionary notes to accompany the Podcast posted in the Contemporary Service from SALT productions. This is the third of seven in a series, preparing us for the coming of Easter.
The theme of home is continued in these lectionary notes as Jesus cleanses the temple - the home of God. The traders flee before Jesus's wrath, abandoning their practice of exchanging money to support the vile system of sacrificing animals to please God. The prophets warn against the wrongfulness of this practice, which Jesus himself affirms as he Cleanses the Temple.
Living Our Faith Day-to-Day
Mr. Rogers on Forgiveness
An ordained Presbyterian minister, Mr. Rogers’ ministry took an unconventional form - and his congregation, even after his death, knows no bounds. Here he is with some classic wisdom on forgiveness. As we slog through this age of pandemic, safe to say we all could use some!