+Andrew: Conversations with the Primate

Welcome back to Conversations With the Primate the first segment of the year 2005.

As the year begins one of the privileges of the Primate is to preach in the cathedral church in Ottawa. It is a kind of review of the church’s interaction with government during the preceding year. That sermon will be found on the website.

Also since the last webcast it was my privilege to preach to the opening of Her Majesty’s courts in Ontario. There have been a number of requests for that address that does address issues of justice from a Christian perspective and that too is on the web if anyone is interested.

I thank you very much once again for your responses to the last webcast and again they have come from clear across the country and in between and I would like to take just a moment to refer to one or two of those. The first is from the west coast and Monte Worthington I thank you very much for your email from the parish of St. George, Fort Langley. In part you have said in your email: “Your reflections on Christ as refugee were very much on point. It’s one thing to be a refugee in a country that welcomes you and gives you refuge. It’s quite another to be rejected by the only safe place you felt you could flee to. As Christ was not truly welcome in most of places he went it’s even worse for Amir. I am proud as a member of the diocese of New Westminster that St. Michael’s has the courage to stand up for what it believes and has welcomed this man in our midst. Maybe as we move along this journey and come to understand the plight of refugees of all types we’ll come to understand far more the gift of Christmas.”

And from the other coast from Halifax, a note from Tanya Moxley. “I’ve really been enjoying the webcast both as a member of Communications and Information Resources Committee and as a regular Anglican. I have been able to interest a number of others in our congregation in watching the webcasts and hope to continue to do so.”

From Saskatoon, this email is from the retired archbishop Tom Morgan. “For what it’s worth, I’d enjoy in a future webcast to have you risk interpreting a little of what you’ve heard in your travels. Like the letters you read, perhaps some tidbits of conversation from your visits, perhaps what the church has been up to, the Anglican Roman Catholic discussions – what’s happening if anything? The trip to Huron, the focus of the visit, the Episcopal Church in the United States, the trip to New West. At least a hint of common threads.” Thank you very much Tom, you had much more to say and I always appreciate your comments. We’ll see if we can incorporate some of that in future webcasts.

Now today’s webcast comes to you from the new chapel in the new Church House at Hayden Street. I do that with a purpose. First of all to introduce you to the chapel. It will be officially dedicated on the 3 rd day of February this year. But I speak to you from the chapel because I speak of a very difficult issue as well, namely the tsunami that took the whole world by surprise on Boxing Day.

I was in Qualicum Beach on Vancouver Island with my family when the news first arrived and I must confess it was a day and a half after the tsunami. It took time for the significance of this to sink in and initially I think that was a similar response for a lot of people. The Canadian government thought itself as generous in stepping up with a $4 million offer of help but within days we heard that more than 10,000 people, then more than 22,000 people and the number has grown to over 150,000 became victims of this sudden visit of a natural disaster. The outpouring of response has been wonderful. The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund is our instrument for response in this case and Anglicans from across the land have contributed most generously. I am happy to say that after intense negotiations with CIDA, that is the Canadian International Development Agency, the government of Canada will match every dollar given to the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund up to the 11 th of January 2005. I wrote immediately to the Primates of all the provinces of our church that were directly affected by the tsunami offering our solidarity, our prayers and our support and that has been very much appreciated by the responses we have had from that. We’ve also been in direct touch with a number of our dioceses on the ground. Most particularly in Sri Lanka that was hit so terribly hard and some of you will remember that Bishop Duleep was one of our international partners at the last General Synod here in St. Catharines. The Bishop is grateful to be able to report that not only is he safe but that none of the clergy in Sri Lanka was lost. It will be a long and painful rebuilding process. We have also been in touch with the Diocese of Seychelles that initially lost not many lives but immediately following the tsunami came the monsoon rains, with devastating effect all over the island. Your prayers, your help and your support will be enormously important to us. Once we were over the initial shock I know that for many people myself included the questions that came to the fore is “How could God allow such a natural disaster? How can we believe in the God of Love and Peace who’s coming we celebrated at Christmastime in the face of this dreadful disaster?

With the passage of time I’ve reflected more and more on this and have a few thoughts some of which may be helpful to you. First of all once the glow of Christmas is over a thoughtful Christian will look at the story of the incarnation and realize that Jesus was born into a very hostile and conflicted and difficult world. Immediately he and his family became refugees driven out of the country in fear of their lives. Immediately children were slaughtered in Bethlehem as a result of his birth. We tend to forget that he ended his life as a victim of the very worst that life can deliver on the cross. Jesus was born into our midst and is with us “Lo, I am with you 'til the end of the age.” In the midst of the worst that human experience can deliver. Another reflection is that I truly believe in the worst of human and natural disasters; there’s always just a glimmer of hope and that’s a spark that is enough to kindle hope to open human hearts to move people to acts of self sacrificing generosity even heroism and that certainly has been forthcoming in the aftermath of the tsunami.

A further reflection would be that we have just experienced a remarkable coming together of humanity from all over the world. The response to relief agencies has been utterly unprecedented. Could it be that there is a glimmer of hope in that as well? That we’ll see our lesser man-made conflicts in a different perspective and perhaps come together over those differences in common cause not only in crisis situations like this but in others. Even as we respond to the tsunami the AIDS pandemic continues to take millions of lives across the world and that is a preventable disaster. Perhaps we could come together over that. Even as we respond to the tsunami, genocides continue in parts of the world, again preventable. Can we come together to respond to that? In all of these things I think there’s a glimmer of hope. Is it perhaps that light of Christ that lights every human being who comes into the world and simply will not be put out?

I will never understand fully the evil in the world much less natural disasters that bring such calamity upon us. But through all of this I believe that through Jesus Christ God is with us as that glimmer of light that will never be put out and that will lead us always to hope for a better world and a better day in his name.

Thank you so much for being part of this webcast. I look forward to hearing your responses and to further Conversations With the Primate.

You may respond to the Primate by writing him at [email protected]. The webcast is financially assisted by the Anglican Foundation.