Mennonite Church Manitoba Update

Mennonite Church Manitoba Update

 

This week our Nationwide Church gathers in Abbotsford, B.C., for Gathering 2019, June 28 to July 1. We ask for prayer for all the folks involved: the delegates and MC Canada staff who will attend the Delegate Session on Saturday morning; the Worship Team who will lead us through the weekend; our guest speaker Dr. Elaine Heath; the folks giving workshops, leading excursions, and sharing Firestarter Stories; the planners; and all of the registrants who are coming to participate. May everyone find the weekend enriching, challenging, and inspiring.

Bill C-262 is dead, but may rise again – The Senate of Canada adjourned on June 21 without passing Bill C-262, The Indigenous Rights Act. Given a fall election, 262 is now officially “dead on the order paper.” Though disappointing – we were so close! – there is good news. The diverse circle championing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has shifted the conversation in these lands and in the halls of power. So many have come to an understanding of this “framework for reconciliation”; so many have engaged in constructive ways to advance the Declaration’s “minimum standards” in the public sphere. And all major political parties, with the exception of the Conservatives, now confess that implementation of the Declaration must be a part of any ethical policy vision. That’s a big shift. Together, we have made a difference. God-willing, 262 will rise again… and soon.