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Illustration by Neil Webb
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This Lenten season, let’s lean into hope
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Hi friends,
Do you find there are seasons in life when a feeling of futility drops over you and obscures your view? It feels difficult, impossible even, to feel wonder, joy or hope, whether because of burnout, apathy or overwhelm. Bestselling author Katherine May calls this state “disenchantment.” In her new book, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age, she writes about own quest to expand her small life, and to encounter again what she calls “the magic of existence.”
There are epochs in human history that seem defined by disenchantment, and I think we’re in one. And yet, as Rt. Rev. Carmen Lansdowne says in her Easter message in our April/May issue, “It’s a beautiful time to be changing the world.”
The state of things isn’t lost on the moderator. She’s acutely aware of the climate emergency, Russia’s war on Ukraine and the recession, for example. But, she says, she greets each day as a thing of beauty and possibility.
“The task feels so difficult,” she says. And yet, she adds, “When we think of Easter, we think of leaning into hope in the face of the death-dealing forces that culminated in Jesus’ crucifixion and the death of his physical body.”
We’re not there yet. It’s not Easter — and the hope of resurrection often feels remote even on the best of days. This is no less true for the United Church, grappling with its own fraying membership, than for the world. “And yet,” Lansdowne says, “we must keep dreaming about what a just and sustainable world looks like.”
How do we get there? Maybe it begins with nurturing our sense of wonder, and expanding our vision, through worship.
May, in her book, encourages readers to renew themselves through encounters with creation — bird-watching, forest walks, gardening, etc. Lansdowne also encourages us to cultivate “deep spirituality,” whether through centring prayer, meditation or other means.
I hope you’re using Lent to cultivate the spiritual resources that help you commit to changing the world. What are your practices? And what’s your vision for a changed world?
Because it’s a beautiful day.
Be well,
Julie
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United Church of Canada general secretary Rev. Michael Blair. (Photo: Daniel Ehrenworth)
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In a move that could result in less timely and less transparent access to information about The United Church of Canada’s decision making, the denomination’s General Council Executive is closing its doors to the media. Read Mike Milne’s report here.
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Rev. Tony Snow (Photo: Colin Way)
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According to Indigenous minister Rev. Tony Snow, this is what’s missing from performative rote land acknowledgments.
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Broadview remembers the lives of United Church ministers and their spouses. Recent death notices can be viewed here.
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