Towards Canada Day Sunday, July 2, 2017

This morning a group of volunteers was hulling strawberries in the Lower Hall at the church.  As they finished and people began to leave, along with the words of thanks and farewell some offered their friends warm wishes to "have a good Canada Day."  A mix of life-long residents and immigrants who have done well in their adopted country, the wishes they shared for the national celebration were warm, sincere and grateful for the country they are part of.  

Earlier on the way in to church, though, listening to "The Current" on CBC Radio I heard one of three people interviewed about the holiday explaining why she will not be celebrating Canada Day and the 150th anniversary of Confederation this year.  Just recently sensitized in new and deep ways to Canada's historical and continuing abuse and neglect of the First Nations' peoples, she says honestly, humbly and even tearfully that right now she feels nothing to celebrate.

How do we honestly celebrate this occasion?

If you were to write A Prayer for Canada (which I hope still to do, to be part of our liturgy this Sunday), what would you write?

Things seem more complicated now than in 1967 when we so innocently celebrated Canada's Centennial.  In the past 50 years we have learned a lot of dark things about our history and culture that we still are needing to absorb, that we still need to learn from, and that will somehow have to be integrated in our self-image and conscious identity if we are really to be a mature, grown-up and healing society.

A few weeks ago we were blessed to receive back a quilt that was given 50 years ago as a wedding gift by one of our members to one of her grand-daughters.  It was a Canada Centennial quilt made by quilters at the church, with the Centennial logo and 1867-1967 on the front of the quilt.  The logo and the whole of the front are still in really good condition -- clean, well-cared for, still beautiful.

The back of the quilt, though, shows the wear of the years.  The back side is raggedy and worn thin, with a few holes showing, and it's clear that most of the batting is long gone.  In short, seen only from the back, the quilt looks a wreck.

Is that quilt a helpful image for Canada as we mark our 150th anniversary as a constituted country?

Can we at one and the same time, 

• celebrate 150 years of being a grand experiment in bringing together different cultures and peoples in co-operative peace and common vision, rather than just declaring the usual state of winners and losers (which vision is the genius of the BNA Act, at least as it concerns the French and English realities of the country),
• and lament that the vision was tragically restricted to French and English Europeans, that First Nations and other non-white and non-European peoples were not only excluded but were actively oppressed, and that our national history includes great hurt inflicted for a long time on many First Nations' and non-white and non-European peoples,
• and commit to the kind of learning, listening, repentance, growth and shared healing that we are called to, if we are really to be faithful to this grand 150-year-old experiment in being a nation of diverse and equal peoples living together in true peace?

Things really are more complicated for us at 150 than they were at 100.  But I guess that's the price of growing up.


The liturgy this Sunday will not be all about the 150th.  We will be starting a summer series that I'll say a bit about tomorrow or the day after.

But our liturgy will include A Prayer for Canada.  And whether you are here or elsewhere on Sunday, I trust you say will also say a little prayer for our country as we celebrate, lament and commit to being the kind of country God desires us to be.