Mardi Tindal

January 6, 2010

Dear Friends in Christ,

I trust that like me you have been “overwhelmed with joy” during the season of Advent and Christmas. My heart was stirred by stories of people gathered in inspiring worship and work, including congregations ringing bells for climate justice from coast to coast to coast on December 13. Here are just a few comments I received on my blog:

My 7 year old daughter and I rang jingle bells at a downtown intersection in London on Sunday—in response to the suggestion from our minister.... I felt quite alone there on the curb, but she was quite comfortable. You see, I was raised to not make a fuss—she is being raised to raise a fuss.
hopefulinlondon

bells were ringing in Saskatchewan
Crazyheart (and many similar comments from across Canada)

A small, determined bunch of people carried signs and a banner and rang church bells and hand bells down Newmarket’s Main Street on Sunday afternoon as our act of solidarity…. No press, no crowds. A few passing motorists honked in response to our signs—very gratifying. We thought of how foolish we must look on a wet, dreary Sunday afternoon, and the size of the challenge facing those who know and care, and re-committed ourselves to action.
Robin Wardlaw

And so we arrive at Epiphany, the manifestation of the Divine, when the wise ones were overwhelmed with joy under Bethlehem’s bright star. Then they were “warned in a dream not to return to Herod, [so] they left for their own country by another road” (Matthew 2:12). We too have been overwhelmed with the joy of the Christ child, and we cannot return to Herod. We must leave for God’s own country—by another road.

Many accounts of this century’s first decade have noted increasing levels of fear, anxiety, and, as Robert Sibley recently wrote in the Ottawa Citizen, “moral panic.” Sibley suggests, in his December 26 column, that as citizens we have become anxious and uncertain to the point that panic is overtaking our moral courage.

Some of you have expressed surprise at the strong note of hope within my song of lament about the disappointing results of the climate change talks in Copenhagen. Yet our choice is clear: to return to a familiar way of fear, anxiety, and lack of imaginative faith—or to understand that Spirit calls us to leave by another road for a country marked by the hope with which Christ has blessed us, a hope that enables us to participate in God’s abundant healing of soul, community, and creation. A choice, in short, between moral panic and moral courage.

In concert with you and others of our extraordinary community in The United Church of Canada, I intend to leave by another road, to nourish imaginative faith and courageous action with you, by God’s grace. Our church is well known for moral courage, and I know that we will travel this road together.

What will it mean for you to bring the Christ child’s message of joyful freedom and moral courage into this year? How will you live the Christian story of life over death, hope over fear, abundance over scarcity? How will you travel by another road to God’s realm of peace, justice, and the integrity of creation?

For my part, as you know, I view the ecological crisis represented by climate and ocean change as the greatest moral challenge of our age. The time has come, I believe, for all of us in the United Church, with other faith communities, to demonstrate transformative leadership on this issue. And in the next few weeks, I will be inviting your participation in this leadership. Watch for suggestions and materials about wholeness and healing of soul, community, and creation.

But for now, Christ is born! We are overwhelmed with joy. We cannot return to business as usual. I look forward to hearing your stories. Perhaps you’d like to join me in conversation on my regular blog, found through From the Moderator’s Desk.

We are overwhelmed by joy—and will travel together by another road.

Epiphany Blessings,
Moderator Mardi Tindal