Singing in a Foreign Land

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How do we Sing

The Lord’s Song in a Foreign Land?

Psalm 137:4

I have all the more respect & humility before our DownTownEastSide siblings who persevere against such overwhelming discouragement & difficulties. We who are privileged fail to fully appreciate the stability of our having a home, how it undergirds & enables all of life. Ask any of us who have worked in the ‘hood & “adequate, humane, safe, low cost HOUSING” will be the consistent response when asked what we need to do to begin to address the problems we have in the DTES. It is easy to lose vision, hope, purpose, & self confidence, when one is constantly struggling just to survive in the today.

But the scriptures are not unawares of this condition: How does one fulfill ones mission & reason-for-being when all seems to conspire against it? The especially difficult thing is not just dealing with the necessitated challenges & changes but with the imposition of these without choice. They are thrust upon us! Disempowerment is the first causality. How do we not just bear it?

But get beyond that & become empowered to yes even sing while displaced?

During these recent challenges I have received much kind support, thank you! Among the many, extraordinary & unexpected support from St. Mark’s Gemeinde was accompanied by an equally exceptional greeting card that read, “I am an idealist; I don’t know where I am going, but I am on the way!”.

One of the exciting projects we have been engaged in over these summer months while we have been thrust into exile & unable to do our usual ministries is that LUMS is producing a monthly brief (5-7 minute) YouTube type video clip about our community & the DTES.

The 1st two of these are already mounted on our website so check them out & watch for future updates & additions to the series. And send us your feedback. By the autumn we expect to have a set of 5 of these which we will be able to make available as a DVD with an accompanying study guide as a resource to congregations & interested friends illustrating the ministry of LUMS. I think of these as singing, as belting it out! I would be easy for us to be discouraged & depressed and retreat inward in stunned confusion, but we have looked at what has been dealt us & decided to take advantage of the opportunity & create something constructive & contributive instead. That’s singing!

These are very challenging times for our small community. Because of many of the intentional decisions we’ve made for our community, guided by our formative principles we have purposely remained a small community committed to cooperative relationships with other communities & agencies. We have not invested in property. We travel lightly! It took only two vehicle loads to deliver us from 1st United to Christ Church Cathedral. We are nomadic opportunistic refugees.

On being in exile….

Even though I was formed for ministry at a seminary that was forged through the exilic experience; Although I have worked most of my ministry among folks who are homeless & displaced; I doubt I have understood & sympathized with our refugee siblings as much as I do these days, being both personally & professionally displaced.

Like ancient Israel there is an earnest desire in our community to return to our native land as soon as possible. This became clear at our recent summer board retreat as we reviewed, discerned & dreamed.

The three principle things that became clear to us were:

1.) how important it is that we find a place back in the DownTownEastSide (not to underestimate the appreciation that we have that the Cathedral community was so generous as to offer us respite & refuge when we had not elsewhere to go!)

2.) how fundamental our meal sharing is to our mission, and

3.) how imperative it is that we continue to accompany the neighbourhood in the struggle for justice

While as yet we have not been able to find a location in the DTES (the Board is considering a storefront but our 1st preference would be for another cooperative sharing opportunity with another Faithbased community or other neighbourhood agency, so if anyone reading this has potential leads or suggestions do contact us!) we do have an opportunity to resume our meal service albeit in a newly evolved form, dependent upon our host organization, its facilities & constraints; we are hoping to serve Saturday meals again commencing Saturday 27 September at “The Door is Open” 373 East Cordova St. and thereafter consecutively on the 4th Saturday of each month ( October 25th & November 29th 2008). As was part of our previous pattern, so once again we are looking for church & other groups who would like to get their hands dirty & participate in frontline engagement with our siblings of the neighbourhood in a safe environment to participate in this ministry opportunity with us. We are also engaged in conversations with other potential partners for another meal perhaps at another site downtown as well, so watch for further details as opportunities evolve for us.

And please continue to pray with, support & stand in solidarity with us during these difficult days of being displaced & in transition in what I have begun describing as our own personal “Katrina”. Yet comforted by God’s promise, “Thus says the LORD who created you , O Jacob, the one who formed you O Israel; fear not, I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the floods, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you. For I the LORD am your God, and you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you. Do not fear, for I am with you.” (Isaiah 43)

Clinging to such promise & striving to sing the LORD’s song while displaced….

Your street priest
Pastor Brian

“ For I the LORD am your God, and you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you. Do not fear, for I am with you.”

Isaiah 43