Marking National Indigenous Peoples Day
Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day, a special occasion to learn more about the rich and diverse cultures, voices, experiences and histories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The EFC invites affiliates to journey toward right relationship with Indigenous peoples by making an ongoing commitment to listening, learning and relationship-building. Visit our webpage to learn more and take action.
MAiD Must Not Be Canada’s Response to Poverty or Lack of Supports
The media has been reporting on people with disabilities who are requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide because they don’t have the supports they need to live. The EFC’s latest blog includes quotes from some of the witnesses who have shared these concerns with the special committee of MPs and Senators studying medical assistance in dying (MAiD), and learn how you can best help.
Observing World Refugee Sunday this Sunday
World Refugee Sunday is held annually on the Sundays before and after June 20. Visit the EFC’s World Refugee Sunday page for resources on this topic, including World Renew’s latest World Refugee Day toolkit and a link to Life Jacket, a powerful award-winning documentary that takes viewers on a journey to re-live refugees’ journey across the Aegean Sea, along with their subsequent struggles in Moria Camp.
Bringing the Good News Home: Church-Friendly Resources for Hosting Refugees
Jon Fuller is a mission agency leader, facilitates the Welcome Church project and leads the pastoral team at his home church as they seek to welcome newcomers to their neighbourhood. In this blog, he offers some practical suggestions for hosting refugees.
Faith Today Podcast: How Does Clergy Sexual Abuse Keep Happening?
Victim-advocate Melodie Bissell, who is also president of Plan to Protect, is currently working with victims connected with The Meeting House situation. She joins Karen Stiller and co-host Ilana Reimer to answer some of the questions we are all struggling with and explore the very tough topic of clergy sexual abuse.
Pitch an Idea for a Creative Project Inspired by the Theme ”Imagining Reconciliation”
Submit a creative, innovative idea for a project centred on the theme “Imagining Reconciliation.” Pitch a project in the medium of your choice, such as a performing arts project, video, visual art piece, photography series, digital media project, or written work. The winner will receive up to $1,000 to complete their project and their work will be promoted across multiple platforms.
This commission is sponsored by the Creative Collective, an agency and community established by the EFC to facilitate networking, training and work opportunities for Canadian Christians who are performing artists, video content creators, visual artists, digital innovators and writers.
Application deadline is July 31, 2022. Applicants must be 18-35 years old as of July 30, 2022. For more details about the theme, criteria, and how to apply, go to: loveismoving.ca/imaginingreconciliation.
Summer Citizenship Challenge—Make One Positive Contact with your Local MP
The EFC is challenging Canadians to make a positive connection with their Member of Parliaments this summer. Connecting with your MP is a way of following Scripture’s call to pray for those in authority over us, and it creates a positive context for future interactions. Read more in the EFC’s new blog.
Time to Refocus (Faith Today column)
EFC Executive VP and Resident Theologian David Guretzki reflects on setting our priority amid pain and distraction.
Faith Today Readers, Please Take Our Survey
Faith Today, Canada’s Christian Magazine, wants to hear from our readers. What are we doing well? What would you like done differently? Take our reader survey, and you could also win one of 10 coffee-shop and bookstore gift cards. You can visit www.FaithToday.ca/ReaderSurvey.
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.
This week’s prayer request is about conscience protection. As medical assistance in dying expands more and more, the need for conscience protection for health care workers becomes even more critical. Doctors and other health care providers could be asked to participate in ending the lives of patients who aren’t dying or who have mental illness alone. Conscience protection would protect both health care providers who object to all euthanasia as well as those who object to ending the life of a patient in particular circumstances.
Pray for legislation to protect health care workers from being forced or pressured to participate in ending the life of a patient. Pray that no one would be screened out of health care training programs or medical schools because of their beliefs. Pray that palliative care and hospice settings would not be required to offer MAID.
Pray for government officials, that they will incorporate conscience protection into legislation and respect individual freedom of choice. Pray also for those working in professions where they might have to make decisions that go against their conscience. You can learn more on these issues at TheEFC.ca/ReligiousFreedom.
This week’s affiliate highlight focuses on CMDA. The Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) is made up of the Christian Medical Association (CMA) and the Christian Dental Association (CDA). CMDA provides resources, networking opportunities, education and a public voice for Christian healthcare professionals and students.
The EFC continues to offer new Friday@4 pandemic-focused prayer suggestions each month at TheEFC.ca/Covid-19.
→ Worship Central Conference, Vancouver, June 24-25
→ World Refugee Sunday, worldwide, June 26
→ One with Them: A Day for Christian Captives (Open Doors), online, June 26
→ Revelation – The End of the World as We Know it? (Apologetics Canada), online, June 26
→ A Widower’s Lament from 1619 (Regent College), online and in-person in Vancouver, June 27
→ The Perverse Logic of Evil: Putin’s War on Ukraine in Theological-Ethical Perspective, online and in-person in Vancouver (Regent College), online and in-person in Vancouver June 29
→ Voices Together from Sea to Sea (Glad Tidings Church), online, July 1
→ Summer Institute of Church Music, Whitby, Edmonton or online, July 3-7
→ Reading Romans in a Time of Upheaval (Regent College), online and in-person in Vancouver, July 4
→ Reconciled to Reconcile: A Visible Witness in a Divided World (Regent College), online and in-person in Vancouver July 6
→ BC Christian Ashram, online, July 8-10
→ C. Stephen Evans: The Fear of the Lord & the Virtue of Accountability (Regent College), online and in-person in Vancouver, July 11
→ God Shows No Favouritism: The Body of Christ and the Household Codes in Ephesians (Regent College), online and in-person in Vancouver, July 13
→ Sing the World God Imagines (The Hymn Society), online, July 17-21
→ Theology of the Land from a Palestinian Perspective (Regent College), July 18, online and in-person in Vancouver
→ To Make an End Is to Make a Beginning: Marking, Completion in Precarious Times (Regent College), July 20, online and in-person in Vancouver
In Case You Missed It
→ Review of Medical Assistance in Dying Part 2: Assisted death for children as young as 12? (EFC blog article)
→ Servanthood in a Narcissistic Age (Faith Today column by Bruce Clemenger)