On Sunday, March 4th 10:30am, the Rev. Evan Smith will be our speaker. Evan is ordained in the United Church of Canada and is the minister at Toronto Urban Native Ministry in Regent Park. Rev. Evan is Two-Spirit, Anishinaabe, and turtle clan. Evan works on the front lines doing pastoral care and harm reduction with sex workers, Indigenous LGBTQ2A youth, families, people who are incarcerated and street-involved folks. Passionate about encouraging peoples spiritual health, Evan serves Indigenous people living on the margins through the practice of both Traditional Spirituality and Christianity as part of her ministerial work at Toronto Urban Native Ministry.
On Sunday, February 25th 10:30am, our guest speaker will be El-Farouk Khaki. El-Farouk is a spirituality activist, human rights & justice advocate, and refugee lawyer, a public and media speaker on issues including Islam, LGBTIQ/human rights, refugees, politics and HIV. El-Farouk is founder of Salaam: Queer Muslim Community (1991); and co-founder & imam of el-Tawhid Juma Circle (2009). El-Farouk is co-owner of the Glad Day Bookshop, and recipient of numerous Awards including: 2006 “Excellence in Spirituality” Award – Pride Toronto; 2007 Hero Award, Canadian Bar Association; and 2016 CCVT Trevor Batram Award. He is currently working on his first book exploring issues of sexuality, social justice and spirituality.
At first it might seem contradictory having Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day fall on the same day this year – a marking of the start of the season of Lent, often reduced to the idea of giving something up (such as chocolate), and a day that has become synonymous with the idea of romantic love as reflected in consumption (chocolate). And yet, if we think about what Lent and Valentine’s Day are really about, they might not be quite so far apart after all.
Let’s start with Lent. In English, Lent can refer to the church season, but it also connects to an Old English word lencten meaning “spring (the season)” and associated with the word for long, because of the days growing longer. In French, Italian, and ultimately Latin we see connections to the word for “slow” – for those of you who are musical, you just need to think of or lentement (or lente) can mean “slow.” A very similar word, however, comes from the Latin for “lentil” and came to take on the sense of “lens” (I guess this is due to the shape of a lens being lentil-like). So we can bring the idea of a lens, and how we see things, to the idea of Lent as well. Where does this get us?
Lent is a season for slowing down and seeing what is around us.
And Valentine’s Day is a day where we recognize the importance of love – not just romantic love, but all love. The love of friends and family (by birth or by choice), the love of others, and the divine love that rests within and connects us all. When we recognize something we might celebrate it, whether through gift-giving (which is nice but not the most important part of the day), or through words and actions (calling a friend, hugging a child, smiling at a stranger), or through reflection, meditation, and thanksgiving for that love that flows through each of us.
So on this Valentine’s Lent day, I wish you time to slow down, look around, and give thanks for the many varied ways that we experience love in our lives.
During last September’s interview, I was asked what Bible stories I planned on sharing with the baby first. It’s an interesting question, but over the last month, I’ve been thinking that another question was more urgent – what hymns did I plan to sing to the baby? During the Songs & Psalms series in late October and early November, we spent time thinking about how music is a window into the sacred. Sometimes people create an arbitrary separation between sacred and secular, when actually all music can speak to the larger questions about life, touching our spirits and not just our ears. So we spent some time hearing lyrics to songs that were not written primarily to be shared in a church, and exploring the meaning they offer our faith (and you can hear those sermons online if you are interested). Since then, I’ve been thinking about the other side of that relationship – the ways hymns and refrains that we sing together in church then spill over into the rest of our lives, as we find ourselves humming the tunes, or remembering words or phrases.
The first time I was changing Neil, I found myself instinctively wanting to sing something to try to comfort him. The lullaby that jumped into mind was “Hush Little Baby,” but as I started singing it I was quickly dissatisfied. First of all, I found myself unable to remember what “Papa” will buy after the looking glass should break. But then, I wondered what kind of a message the song was giving: be quiet and we’ll buy you things. And when something goes wrong with those things, just buy more things…
Well, it started me thinking about what’s behind what we sing, and the next song I chose was “O Beautiful Gaia” from More Voices. A hymn about the beauty of the earth, the Canadian landscape, and our call to responsibility. The hymn is also beautiful when sung slowly, perfect for a lullaby. What makes a hymn a good lullaby? Or, for everyone not seeking lullabies right now – what makes a hymn a song that can stay with us, and feed our spirits during the week? Here are a few thoughts: a tune that can be remembered and sung again; words that can be remembered (the repetition in “O Beautiful Gaia” or “Peace for the Children,” which we sung Nov. 12th, is perfect for this); and ideas that have both a certain depth and a certain simplicity. With these three elements a hymn or refrain can be carried with us into our daily lives, grounding us in times of worry or anxiety, comforting us in times of sadness, expressing our moments of joy and thanksgiving. Spending some time finding the hymns that speak to us can enrich not just our worship together but also many other moments in our lives.
Take “Peace for the Children” for instance. This hymn expresses a deep hope, a deep longing, for the world – that we might experience peace. We also hear about the role of our faith in this longing (“Following the path of One of Peace”) as well as our own personal responsibility (“We work for healing, we work for peace”). Because we can call ourselves followers of Jesus, who is called One of Peace, we are called to work for peace. Peace comes out of wholeness, coming together, our effort. It is something active that we are called toward. As I sing these words to Neil, I can tell him “we know the One of Peace as Jesus. As you grow, I’ll tell you about him.” And for now, I can hope these words and these notes bring peace – “Peace for our little Neil, peace, peace. Peace for our little Neil we pray.”
Ash Wednesday/Valentine’s Day
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