RURAL MINISTRY (life and faith)

- Discerning God's Call for the Rural Church Now

- Caring For Each Other:

  a person with arthritis, a spiritual mentor to cancer patients, Aboriginal Canadians

 

HISTORICAL NOTE

- Rural Ministry Institute at Saskatoon

 

RURAL ISSUES

- Survival Instinct Strong in Rural Communities

- Old Man on His Back - Book Notes

 

LINKS  www.agri-ville.com/spiritualvignettes

 

 

 

NEWS UP-DATES

 

Announcement:  RURAL MINISTRY INSTITUTE Established

 

The long dreamed of vision of a RURAL MINISTRY INSTITUTE established in Saskatoon is becoming a reality. After researching institutions around the world that train people for rural leadership and ministry, Dr. Cameron Harder has presented his findings and a proposal for a Western Canadian based Rural Ministry Institute to a number of faculties and boards and has been strongly affirmed and encouraged to bring such an institute into being. (see further notes below)

 

"Cry From the Heart: how can we find hope in the rural landscape"

 

- July 2-9, 2007, Brandon University, Brandon, Manitoba

- 4^th international gathering of the International rural Church Association (IRCA),

  hosted by Canadian Rural Church Network

- Web Site - www.irca-canada.org

 

 

RURAL MINISTRY (Life and Faith)

 

Discerning God's Call for the Rural Church Now - Summary Notes

 

(Discerning God's Call for the Rural Church Now, a National Consultation of Rural Ministry in the United Church, was held in November 2006. The following notes, written by Joyce Sasse, try to summarize Dr. Marvin Anderson's Executive Report of the Conference.)

 

Purpose of the Consultation

 

1. To identify specific challenges currently facing rural pastoral charges and congregations ...

 

2. To highlight the diverse nature of Canadian small towns and rural communities in which congregations are located. (This includes agricultural, resource based, tourism / recreation based, Aboriginal and ethnic communities.)

 

Speakers:  Dr. Cameron Harder (Luther Seminary, Saskatoon); Cynthia Patterson (Rural Dignity, which battled to retain rural Post Offices)

 

-  Addressed the question "What can we do to help small rural congregations regain hope and vitality and help their communities do the same?"

 

- ATTITUDE and LEADERSHIP are essential factors. "Communities and congregations that swim against the tide have the ability to see their community as profoundly gifted, and they have the leadership to help them see that and act on it."

 

Preliminary Findings

 

1. The complex and diverse context of rural Canada is not well-served by simplistic perceptions and analyses based on dominant images of a single rural hinterland.

 

2. The geographical size and breadth of rural Canada defies prevailing stereotypes of our non-metropolitan hinterland. This can obscure critical differences between the various regions, local economies and industries, ethnicities, languages and cultures comprising rural Canada.

- Rural solutions and rural leadership needs to be place-based, not sector-based. Research indicates that communities won't adopt solutions if they aren't their own.

- Start with the gifts of the people who are part of the community today.

 

3. An onerous (denominational) bureaucracy absorbs most of a rural congregation's energies and attention, to the neglect of their own ministries and spiritual growth. Denominational structures should recognize the unique as well as the diverse pastoral contexts of rural congregations.

 

4. Re-focus on leadership development.

-  Don't burn-out leaders.

-  Provide a tool box that will help leaders discover and activate the unique resources of the places they serve. Include the processes of Asset Mapping and Appreciative Inquiry.

 

5. Recognize the unique place and gifts of ordered ministry personnel.

 

6. The role of lay leadership is critical to the rural church, and the gifts and aspirations of lay leaders, younger and older, needs to be supported and developed.

 

7. Shift from a preoccupation with survival and keeping the church doors open, to becoming creative in ministry. This includes working at greater outreach to the local community.

 

Reminder

 

It is important to recognize that there is a need for conscious and appropriate lament for the losses incurred in the changing nature of rural congregations and community life.

 

One participant notes "I am convinced that the despair and grief (I am seeing in small and shrinking churches) is in reality a good thing, painful but absolutely necessary. I am convinced that the first step into God's future is to face reality and grieve what is being lost if, having grieved appropriately, we listen without rushing to solutions, in honest persistent prayer and meditation, so that we may actually hear the Spirit's call and lead our church into God's future."

 

 

 

Caring For Each Other

 

In a world that is full of suffering and pain, what do we understand about healing? How do we care for each other? What does it mean to walk together on healing pilgrimages?

 

In the following three stories spiritual mentors help us think about this important topic. Members of Faith Communities might invite those facing pain and grief to talk together with spiritual and medical support persons so all of us can gain a deeper appreciation for what life has to offer.

 

A Person with Arthritis puts her experience into words

 

"Pain is not a gift from God. It does, however, grant rare privileges to see God enacted in our world" Lee Simpson writes in the United Church Observer (March 2007).

She speaks from the experience of living with arthritis and of journeying alongside a mother who also "lived with pain, but never allowed it to minimize her."

Simpson writes, "It was not suffering that was God's gift in my mother's life, it was the knowledge granted by her quiet faith that she was doing the best she could to fully participate in the life God gave her." She found ways to share of herself with family, friends, and those she felt needed her. She applauded those things that called her to rise above her pain threshold, to feel needed.

"In pain, our vulnerability makes us again the small children for whom the expectation is fulfilled: this will not hurt so much if we have a hand to hold. It is not the pain that is God's gift, it is the chance it affords us to be the best we can be."

Simpson concludes - "Today is a good day, not because I am pain-free but because it is just enough to keep God close and me humble."

 

A Spiritual Mentor helps people diagnosed with Cancer find their voice

 

(Dr. Marvin Anderson writes about the Spiritual Growth Program he offers through Wellspring, Toronto for persons diagnosed with Cancer.)

 

     The challenge is to find ways to "live well beyond the initial, traumatic, life-changing and death-insinuated medical diagnosis of cancer." This is a time when we realize "we don't have as much control over life as we are wont to think.There is no viable future without learning the power of forgiveness, detachments, or letting go of all that seems to assail me 'the victim'."

     The issues faced are numerous: intense physical and emotional pain, the inevitable social ostracism, over-whelming medical bureaucracy, unpredictable and unprecedented detours caused through no fault of one's own. But "the language of soul and spirituality may offer some of the direction and solace that people with cancer crave."

     Talking about and honouring the "natural ambivalence and resistance to suffering" can be a healing gesture. Instead of feeling shame or blame that this was "my fault", opportunities to talk things through lifts the shroud of silence that can be so debilitating.

     Anderson's first topic of discussion - Diagnosis: Trauma or Transformation - moves participants to talk about "the undeniably life-changing impact of a cancer diagnosis" including the possibility of various kinds of death (such as death of ego). Another, Re-weaving our Tapestry: Reviewing Our Lives and Legacies, is a grand reminder that we are so much more than can be defined by any one medical condition.

     He applauds the heroism of the men and women he meets whose lives are lived "full and (with) satisfaction in the face of adversity, when suffering seems to always be 'in your face'."

 

The Healing Journey: for Aboriginal Canadians and the Rest of Us -

 

(Rev. Cecile Fausak assists the United Church to learn about and respond in all ways to the legacy of Indian Residential Schools. From her experience she writes about healing and reconciliation.)

 

In Aboriginal circles, healing and reconciliation appear to be more common words than in the rest of Canada. They also seem to encompass a more holistic understanding of healing usually based on the medicine wheel (not just curing disease, or mitigating physical pain), and of reconciliation as learning to walk together in a good way.

As a person whose work days are filled with promoting healing and reconciliation in response to the legacy of Indian Residential schools, I have much opportunity to reflect on the hurt, and glimpses of healing and grace in the experiences of former students and staff, their families and communities, government and church officials.

(These persons have reminded Cecile that) Jesus' ministry restored people's physical, mental, and spiritual health, which then restored them to participation in the community as well. Recovery of healing ways for the First Peoples means recovering their ceremonies, culture, language, and connection to creation. At the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, George Erasmus says "We believe that healing and reconciliation are critical to our collective ability to move to a better place." How might all of us hear this call more clearly to reach out generously, to respect and embrace each other as brother and sister?

We must recognize the pain and brokenness that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the roots of the harm done.

When children were taken away from their families and communities to attend an Indian Residential School, often far away, often not returning home for years, the fabric of Aboriginal society was torn apart. Mothers and fathers couldn't parent; and children were not parented. Instead, as students in institutions, children "lived by bells", were seldom if ever comforted, nearly always afraid, punished for speaking their native language or to their siblings, often hungry, trusting few. Thousands were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. The ceremonies of their parents and ancestors honouring the Creator were banned. Many, who left school with poor educations and violated spirits, were unable to lead healthy lives, not feeling at home in either the native or "white" world. The next generations have been deeply affected as well by a sick system.

How can there be forgiveness and reconciliation if those who enacted a bad educational policy and sustained a system of enforced assimilation and disrespect do not admit this? "The Conservative government simply refuses to acknowledge the significance of an apology to complete the healing process," said Churchill MP Tina Keeper. "This apology is every bit as important as any other component of the residential school compensation package, as committed to the survivors by the previous Liberal government."

Speaking the truth will set us on the road to healing as individuals, neighbours, and as many nations.

(Notes have been gathered by Joyce Sasse, April 2007)

 

HISTORICAL NOTE

 

Rural Ministry Institute at Saskatoon

 

     The RURAL MINISTRY INSTITUTE, as proposed by Dr. Cameron Harder, will focus on helping rural church leaders develop a sensitivity regarding rural contexts, acquire skills to support rural community development, and gain understandings as to how to create partnerships between church leaders and non-church related rural professionals.

 

     Church leaders who wish to be effective catalysts for new vitality in local communities, through the Institute, will have access to regional, national and international rural ministry initiatives, academic and government based community development programs, and networks such as the Canadian Rural Church Network.

 

     The seminaries that form the Saskatoon Theological Union (United, Lutheran and Anglican) have understood the need for such an initiative for more than a decade and are committed to ensuring it will be inter-denominational and will include both grass-roots participants and church professionals.

 

     The need is great. Rural Communities are under constant stress. "Essentially, much of rural Canada is "un-developing", Harder says, and most seminary grads go to rural parishes for their first call. "They are a tremendous resource for revitalization" but they need to be equipped to help communities "build the capacity to trust God and each other and work toward a healthy future."

 

     The Institute will offer education and training programs, will be a resource and research centre, and will encourage peer support activities in the form of Rural Ministry Conferences, presentations and consultations to interested organizations, and mentoring programs for new clergy.

 

(For more information contact: Dr. Cam Harder, STU, 114 Seminary Crescent, Saskatoon, Sk., Canada S7N 0X3.)

 

RURAL ISSUES

 

Survival Instinct Strong in Rural Communities

 

     Can the marginalized victims of a boom-cycle survive?

 

     In Alberta, where government and business has single-mindedly focused on development of the oil-sands industry, and where money flows like a spring flood, a lot of victims are left by the wayside.

 

     First evidence of this chaos is seen in the cities where the working poor and homeless shiver in the streets; where business owners are dropping from exhaustion because they can't find sufficient staff; where healthcare and social service personnel can't keep up with over-time demands; where scams are abundant and the volunteer sector is depleted.

 

     Meanwhile the marginalization of rural communities continues and intensifies. Local governments beg for money to upgrade infrastructure. Property owners are forced to band together to try to assert land-owner rights. Tremendous energy is spent in an effort to keep health, educational and recreational services within reasonable driving distance. At every turn, residents see evidence that the land is being desecrated, and they wonder where they are going to find the resources to deal with the effects of climate change.

 

     But rural people are a resourceful lot who are capable of finding creative ways to deal with matters at hand. When they combine the best that technology has to offer with their innate knowledge of and instinct for land and community, the results can be amazing.

 

     I think of the way my own community (Pincher Creek, Alberta) has developed a rural-based health service delivery system that is second to none across the country. I think of the small community of Craik, Saskatchewan, that committed itself to a "sustainable living project" and is a poster-community whose reputation is known abroad. I think of Grand Prairie, Alberta, where house trailers were parked in the old fire hall to provide living space for a number of homeless families through the winter. I think of the tiny community of Warner, Alberta that named the hockey rink and community hospitality as its greatest assets. It was nominated for the CBC's Hockeyville Contest and won exposure and support from across Canada.

 

     These communities, like so many others, have found strength in naming their assets, in finding a creative focus, in soliciting the passionate support of their people and in believing God hasn't finished with them yet.

(Written by Joyce Sasse, April 2007)

 

 

Old Man on His Back - Book Notes

(Book Written by Sharon Butala, Photography by Courtney Milne)

 

     "The Old Man on His Back is a place where the human soul may find both its roots and renewal" Sharon Butala writes as she describes a vast tract of almost untouched Saskatchewan prairie that her husband's family has sought to preserve for generations to come.

 

     "We human beings know in our bone and our blood our need for wilderness. It contributes to our sense of belonging on the earth. Its existence reminds us of our spiritual nature, of what it is to be human, of where we come from and where we are going when we die. In such a sense, land is holy. It is sacred."

 

     Butala calls for "a new land ethic designed to achieve a way of life that recognizes our kinship with nature, that recognizes at last that wilderness is the source of our humanness and that without a vibrant and living natural planet we cannot survive."

 

     Through picture and word, the book's aura of reverence calms us. It tells how the Natives felt about the land, and respects the hard-working pioneers. It names the different attitudes and objectives of the rancher, the farmer and the developer, and questions the ethics of those whose passion is "driven chiefly by the international market place".

 

     Butala has learned well the belief of her husband that no one has the right to obliterate a part of creation. This is truly a significant Portrait of a Prairie Landscape.

 

 

LINKS

 

www.irca-canada.org

     The official website of the International Rural Church Association's 2007 Conference (hosted by CRCN)

 

www.agriville.com/spiritualvignettes

                     93^rd Edition of Prairie Forum on Church and Community

 

SPECIALIST'S COLUMN

     - Hockey Tradition Gives Small Community a Future - Joyce Sasse

 

SPIRITUAL VIGNETTES

     - When Life Hurts - Joyce Sasse

     - Balaam's Story Recalled - Joyce Sasse

     - Acknowledging Generous Gifts - Joyce Sasse

     - Brock's Moment of Triumph - Joyce Sasse

     - Blessing the Land and its Caretakers - Joyce Sasse

 

FROM OTHER PERSONS

     - Water Preservation Concerns - letter to the Premier

 

CANADIAN RURAL CHURCH NETWORK

     - Index of Newsletter # 12

 

GLIMMER OF HOPE

     - Volunteer Spirit at Heart of Rural Survival - Joyce Sasse