Action Kit to Halt Expansion of MAiD
People with mental illness as their sole underlying medical condition will become eligible for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in March 2023. This change was passed into law in 2021, with a two-year delay before the change would take effect. Many Canadians are seriously concerned about this change, including the EFC. Please join us in asking MPs to halt this expansion of MAID for mental illness alone.
At TheEFC.ca/MAIDreview, the EFC now offers a kit showing how each of us can take action.
How MAiD Is Transforming End-of-Life Care
Palliative care doctors and other experts are concerned about how legalized Medical Assistance in Dying is changing the landscape of end-of-life care. For example Dr. James Boudreau, a fifth-year medical resident from London, Ont., “has seen MAiD providers, with a great deal of autonomy and little oversight, accelerate the process in patients.” Read what he and other doctors told Faith Today senior writer Patricia Paddey in a new feature article now online. (This article is second in a series of two, and there’s a link to the first article there as well.)
Review of Prostitution Laws Released
The parliamentary justice committee released a major report on prostitution laws June 22. It heard witnesses urging MPs to keep current laws, which penalize sex buyers and pimps. Others urged MPs to repeal the laws and decriminalize prostitution. The EFC’s brief was quoted several times in the report. The EFC strongly disagrees with the report’s judgment that the laws cause harm and its assumption Canada should move towards decriminalization. The report did have positive recommendations to address causes of entering the sex trade and to increase support for exit services. Continued advocacy is needed. See TheEFC.ca/Prostitution-Law-Review.
Dispatches on Ukraine from Canadian visitor
During the Ukraine crisis, what can we do? In a new post, World Evangelical Alliance Global Ambassador Brian Stiller shares some practical advice from his visits to Ukraine and experiences with evangelical partners there.
You can also read some of his reflections and encounters from April, when Stiller met with church leaders in countries alongside Ukraine, where churches and ministries are helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war.
EFC Job Opening for Fundraising Researcher
The EFC is looking for a part-time Prospect Researcher, Major Gifts, to join the EFC Development team. The role involves research to identify and provide insight on high net-worth individuals, private foundations and corporations. Application deadline is August 16. Learn more at TheEFC.ca/jobs.
Building Deep-Rooted Relationships
What will it take to improve relationships between the Church and Indigenous Peoples? Mackenzie Griffin, an Alberta writer with Cree and Saulteaux ancestry, reflects on that question in a new post at FaithToday.ca/Reconciling.
This Week’s EFC Prayer Prompts
Prayer is essential to any effective action. Each week at TheEFC.ca/TakeAction we rotate through a prayer request from each of these five areas: Sanctity of Life, Care for the Vulnerable, Church and Mission, Family and Community, Religious Freedom. We also list an EFC affiliate group to pray for.
Pray for the conditions and quality of care inside long-term care homes, that the mental and physical health of long-term care residents remains the priority of those in charge. Pray also for seniors who are isolated, widowed, shut-in or struggling with health concerns, that the church may be a tangible presence in their lives. You can learn more at TheEFC.ca/ChurchandMission.
This week, pray for Embrace Ministries, which works to inspire and equip local churches to lovingly adopt and care for the vulnerable elderly by serving as a bridge between seniors’ residences and church communities in the National Capital region. The EFC is exploring a resource development partnership with this ministry.
The EFC continues to offer new Friday@4 pandemic-focused prayer suggestions each month at TheEFC.ca/Covid-19.
→ Marking Completion in Precarious Times (Susan S. Phillips/Regent College), online/in-person in Vancouver, July 20
→ Silence, The Holy Spirit, and Music in the Processing of Traumatic Experience (Chelle Stearns/Regent College), online/in-person in Vancouver, July 25
→ Reimagining Humility (Dennis Edwards/Regent College), online/in-person in Vancouver, July 27
→ World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, July 30
→ The Sacred Function of Stories: How Imagination Discloses the Imago Dei (Mary McCampbell/Regent College), online/ in-Person in Vancouver, August 1
→ How Biblical Poetry Offers Hope in Suffering (Beth M. Stovell/Regent College), online/in-person in Vancouver, August 3
→ Marriage Enrichment All-Exclusive Retreat (Focus on the Familiy Canada), in-person in Priddis, Alberta, August 5-7
In Case You Missed It
→ Job openings: Justice and mercy coordinator; leadership centre director of programs; pastoral leader; director of philanthropy; pastor; director of human resources; and more (FaithToday.ca/Classifieds)
→ New podcast series: All Things Reconciled
→ Eight New Articles in French / Huit nouveaux articles traduit de « Faith Today »
→ Faith Today writers short-listed for awards from the Word Guild (watch for September announcement!)