Moderator Richard Bott

Just a quiet reminder... This Sunday, May 9, 2021 from 3:00 pm EDT to 4:00 pm EDT, you are invited to a Worship Service of Apology and Lament for the church’s role in coerced adoptions. You will be able to participate in the service by going to The United Church of Canada's YouTube channel just before the start time.... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKYjQvHY5ndMCmrBjCu-N5A

Mother's Day is an interesting one in many churches. Within the context of community of faith I grew up in, I remember it moving from "Mother's Day," to "Christian Family Sunday." Part of that seemed to come from a desire to leave the secular holiday to the world, another part was the recognition that motherhood was not always the overly-sweet dream that the holiday tried to impose - that there were women for whom mothering, for a variety of reasons, held a great deal of pain... and loss. Did you know that the push for a recognized holiday called Mother's Day actually came from a Christian community of faith? In 1907, Anna Jarvis held the first Mother's Day Service of Worship at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia, in the U.S. Ms Jarvis' hope for Mother's Day was quite different than the one many of us experience, now. As a worker for world peace, her vision was based on the work her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, had done for peace alongside of another woman, Julia Ward Howe. The two elder women had seen the ravages of conflict during the American Civil War, and were tireless workers for peace. Anna Jarvis started Mother's Day as a recognition of, and a continuation of, their work. If you have a moment, you might want to read Julia Ward Howe's "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world," also known as her "Mother's Day Proclamation." You'll see that her Mother's Day was a call to action to women around the world, to be people who work for peaceful resolution of conflict and war. Whatever this day might mean to you, take a moment to reflect on its beginnings - one woman calling out to others, saying, let us be those who ensure that the world's children never face the horrors of war. "Mother's Day Proclamation - Wikipedia" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_Day_Proclamation

(Image: World Council of Churches)

This Sunday, May 9, 2021 from 3:00 pm EDT to 4:00 pm EDT, you are invited to a Worship Service of Apology and Lament for the church’s role in coerced adoptions. The United Church of Canada will acknowledge its role in forced adoptions through maternity homes operated by the church. During the service The Right Rev. Dr. Richard Bott, Moderator, will offer a formal apology to mothers and all affected by historical adoption practices. Please, come together, online, on May 9, 20...21 at the United Church YouTube Channel. https://united-church.ca//worship-service-apology-and-lame

Today, I saw red dresses hanging - from tree branches, from lamp poles, from doors and windows. Moving in the breeze, they commemorate the thousands and thousands of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls across this land. For me, as a settler, each of them was also a banner that said, over and over, "what are you going to do, to make a difference for our sisters and daughters, our aunties and grandmothers, the Indigenous girls and women who live *now*?" I sat, tonig...ht, reading again the executive report of National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. There were so many words that struck me: "As the evidence demonstrates, human rights and Indigenous rights abuses and violations committed and condoned by the Canadian state represent genocide against Indigenous women, girls, and2SLGBTQQIA people. These abuses and violations have resulted in the denial of safety, security, and human dignity. They are the root causes of the violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people that generate and maintain a world within which Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are forced to confront violence on a daily basis, and where perpetrators act with impunity. The steps to end and redress this genocide must be no less monumental than the combination of systems and actions that has worked to maintain colonial violence for generations. A permanent commitment to ending the genocide requires addressing the four pathways explored within this report, namely: historical, multigenerational, and intergenerational trauma; social and economic marginalization; maintaining the status quo and institutional lack of will; and ignoring the agency and expertise of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people." There is work that needs to be done. This link is to the executive summary. https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/publi/executive-summary-english/