celebrating 140years NGLICAN OURNAL 1875–2015 A J vol. 141 no. 8 october 2015 Church asks members to quiz election candidates By Diana Swift Compassion, Justice, and Reason ment expressed by An Anglican Approach many Canadians for Election 2015 Archbishop Fred Hiltz has urged the lead- “who aspire to build ers of Canada’s political parties to broaden upon the first foun- the rhetoric beyond the already well-worn dations of a democ- talking points about the economy and the racy that we value middle class to encompass issues of pov- dearly and who are erty, equality and the environment at home committed to love and abroad. The Anglican Church of Canada PHOTO: CONTRIBUTED and serve others.” “In shaping your party platforms and The primate’s election slogans, may your ears and your letter was part of a resource published by hearts be open to the call of Canadians for the church to help Anglicans better engage compassion, justice and reason,” wrote the in the democratic process throughout the primate of the Anglican Church of Canada federal election campaign—and connect in an August 25 letter. In his travels across with their MPs long after the October 19 Canada, Hiltz said he has heard this senti- See Not all, p. 11 Refugee crisis prompts action Staf In tandem with the global outpouring of sorrow over the death of three-year-old Alan Kurdi on September 2, the Anglican Church of Canada issued a statement call- ing Anglicans to a threefold response to the refugee crisis by bolstering aid, sponsoring refugees and petitioning the government to increase its own efforts. “In times past Canada has taken ex- traordinary measures to welcome refugees PHOTO: DIMITRIS MICHALAKIS/REUTERS in crisis,” said a statement signed by Arch- A Syrian refugee holds his one-month-old child after arriving on a dinghy in Greece. ILLUSTRATION: VISIBLESPIRIT.COM bishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, and Adele Finney, executive director of the Primate’s World The image of the Syrian toddler, whose Thanksgiving Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), lifeless body washed up on a beach in As Canadians gather with family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, an Anglican the church’s relief and development arm. “It Turkey, has galvanized public support for refects on the miracle of the loaves and fshes. See “Sharing the bread of life,” page 7. is time for us to do so again.” See Canada, p. 2 Migrant farm workers fnd support, community in Niagara church André Forget Luis, trained as a draftsman back in has been operating, it has largely brought in STAFF WRITER Mexico City, is accustomed to sacrifice. At a steady stream of low-skilled labourers to Beamsville, Ont. —Luis sits at a table in the 50, he has spent fully half of his life—25 work jobs that Canadians typically pass up, parish hall of St. Alban’s Anglican Church years—dividing his time between Canada such as harvesting fruit. after a Sunday afternoon service, eating a and his home in Mexico. But while his Luis makes $11 an hour, which, while hard-shell chicken taco. Between bites he work in the ginseng fields, cucumber farms, not generous pay by Canadian standards, answers questions about his two-and-a-half wineries and flower nurseries of the Niagara constitutes a day’s wages in Mexico, and this decades of experience as a temporary foreign Peninsula have allowed him to provide his is why he keeps coming back, year after year, PHOTO: ANDRÉ FORGET worker in Canada. three daughters with an education, it has in the hopes that his daughters will have a Luis (right), a farm worker from Mexico, Like the 30 or so other men and women also cost him his marriage. better life. with Anglican priest, the Rev. Javier Arias sitting around him, Luis came in by bus from Established in 1973, the Temporary Partway into Luis’s conversation with this a farm not far from Beamsville, in the fruit could be put to better use back home, he said. Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) was reporter, Arias joins everyone at the table. belt of the Niagara Peninsula, to attend the “This church has grown,” he said of the originally designed to bring in skilled work- Born in Colombia, Arias has been a priest in Spanish-language eucharist St. Alban’s holds Spanish service he has been attending since ers to fill specialized jobs when there was the diocese of Niagara since 2009, following every week. It’s a nice alternative to restau- the rector, the Rev. Javier Arias, launched it a shortage in the domestic labour market. his conversion from Roman Catholicism. rants, or the bar, which eat up money that in 2013. However, in the 40 years that the program See Migrant, p. 8 From 6 Beantown E 3 D to the I Newfoundland outports S 15 N Boston I Be still, my soul PM# 40069670 PM# 2 anglican journal • october 2015 CANADA Native bishops express views on marriage André Forget STAFF WRITER In their August 7 statement to the commis- sion on the marriage canon, the Anglican Church of Canada’s Indigenous bishops attempted to chart a course between the Many liberal/conservative binary on the ques- would be tion of whether the church should practise “ same-sex marriages. willing to “Though many, if not most, of our accept that [Indigenous] societies appear to have we disagree had protocols of welcome and acceptance with the larger for homosexual members, we see little church...as evidence that these practices were thought to be similar to marriage,” read the state- long as our ment, signed by Bishop Lydia Mamakwa have the acknowledged and welcome free- to R represented in current debates over hu- communities of the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of dom to act on their own,” the bishops said. National man sexuality. While Canadian society at have the Mishamikoweesh, Indigenous Bishop of The statement, posted on the church’s Indigenous large views marriage as a “social contract acknowledged Missinipi Adam Halkett in the diocese of website, anglican.ca, affirmed the place of Anglican ishop between two people” with an emphasis on Saskatchewan and National Indigenous gays and lesbians in Indigenous communi- individual choice and freedom, “for our and welcome Mark MacDonald, Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald. This ties and families. Indigenous elders marriage is a ceremony of commu- freedom to act does not mean, however, that there is a In an interview, MacDonald noted that Spiritual nity and the primary place where we enact on their own. “clear consensus” among Indigenous while he and his fellow bishops under- Ministry of our understanding of Creation and the Anglicans about what course the church stand the importance of contributing to MIshamikoweesh relationship of God to the universe,” it said. — Statement of the should take regarding same-sex marriage. the conversation, they were “reluctant ishop ydia The commission on the marriage Indigenous Anglican The statement acknowledged that there to do it” because they felt that owing to canon was established by the Council of Bishops Mamakwa and was disagreement among elders as to what general ignorance among non-Indigenous ndigenous ishop General Synod in fall 2013, in response the response should be if the church were people about traditional Indigenous social of issinipi Adam to a resolution approved at the July 2013 to change its canons to allow for such structures, “this type of cross-cultural Halkett General Synod to bring a motion regard- marriages. “Some view this as intolerable, communication generally does not work in PHOTO: ANDRÉ FORGET ing same-sex marriage to its 2016 meet- a few find this acceptable and many would our favour.” ing. It solicited opinions from various be willing to accept that we disagree with Indeed, the statement pointed out that bodies within the church as well as from the larger church on these matters, as long many Indigenous Anglicans feel that their ecumenical partners and individuals in as our societies, communities and nations perspectives and opinions are not well Canada and overseas. Canada needs to do more for asylum seekers, says primate Continued from p. 1 norities such as Christians and Yazidis. The 6,000 would be private sponsorships. Of a global response to the humanitarian vast majority of Syrian refugees are Sunni the already 1,300 processed this year, a tragedy facing 11 million Syrians displaced Muslim. (See Editorial, p. 4.) majority of them (1,100) have been private by four years of civil war. Alan Kurdi, his The statement also took the government sponsorships. brother Galib, 5, and their mother, Rehana, to task for offloading its responsibility Anglicans could give practical help to were among a dozen Syrian refugees who for resettling refugees to private citizens, Syrian refugees, through the PWRDF’s died when their inflatable boat capsized in and called on the government to uphold food aid partnership with the Canadian the Aegean Sea. the principle of “additionality,” in which Foodgrains Bank (which allows those Titled “A call to prayer and action,” the private sponsorship is understood to be donating to specify Syria as the destination statement urged Anglicans to ask their MPs an addition to, and not a replacement for, for their aid) and through private sponsor- to expedite the asylum application process government efforts. ship of refugees, said the statement. and facilitate reunification for Syrians with Canada has so far resettled 2,500 Syrian Donations can be made online at pwrdf. family already in Canada, and commit to refugees since 2013, 1,600 of whom were org (designate it for “Syria Response”) or providing 10,000 resettlement places for privately sponsored by various groups, by phone (416) 924-9192, ext.