This year’s diocesan Outreach and Advocacy Conference broke new ground through the use of modern technology and a dramatically new approach for one of its workshops.
The conference was held virtually on Oct. 18 and attracted about 100 Anglicans from across the diocese who learned from a keynote speaker who addressed participants from his homeland, Brazil. Workshops included education and action strategies about reconciliation with First Nations, welcoming homeless people, the basic income movement, community land trusts, and the Communion Forest movement.
The Rev. Dr. Rodrigo Espiuca from our companion diocese of Brasilia wove together a powerful keynote address around the theme of hope, rooting the Church’s social justice ministry in scripture. Dr. Espiuca is a lawyer working in human rights law, as well as overseeing the Brazilian church’s advocacy work and its Communion Forest efforts.
Hope often seems like a luxury, he noted, especially at a time when we face various crises. We are all invited to live in a hope that transcends the circumstances, he said. We are not alone, and we are called to act as agents of hope in our communities.
He cited the example of Abraham, whose faith enabled God’s promise to be fulfilled (Romans 4). “We as Christian people cannot forget the great work Christ makes in our lives through his resurrection,” he said. “We are, brothers and sisters, those who give birth to the resurrection. Resurrection is a school of the Lord, a continuous learning that educates us and reorders us to new life in Christ.”
The companion relationship between the Diocese of Toronto and the Diocese of Brasilia is a sign of resurrection, he said. Other Anglicans from the Diocese of Brasilia joined Dr. Espiuca at the conference, including Bishop Mauricio Andrade.
Dr. Espiuca outlined various ways of making hope real in our lives, and the lives of people in our communities. Hope is an act of resistance that enables us to fight for a more just world, he said. He cited a feminist theologian who said that “to hope is to make space for silenced voices,” such as those of women, gay and lesbian people, and others.
Hope is very much a communal activity, he said, referencing Abraham’s hope as not only involving him personally, but also his family and descendants (Romans 4:18). He cited a Brazilian program to assist people with HIV/AIDS as an example of how the Church works to sustain hope and create safe spaces for people who feel marginalized.
“Jesus shapes our spirituality” he said, and is the model we should strive to follow, in his suffering and resurrection.
Conference participants lauded Dr. Espiuca for his address. Josephine Irving was “thrilled and challenged” by his remarks. The Rev. Canon Andrea Budgey appreciated the range of ways in which we can pursue resurrection.
The Rev. Leigh Kern, the diocese’s Right Relations Officer, led a workshop on reconciliation in which she urged participants to think about how they could work to achieve the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, a decade after their release. She noted that 80 per cent of people living on the streets of Toronto identify as Indigenous. “People who were displaced (by settlers) continue to be homeless. What a crime.” Ms. Kern presented a wealth of resources for learning about progress on the Calls to Action, including calls directed at churches.
The key role of community was highlighted in a workshop about encampment theology, led by the Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig, incumbent of St. Stephen in-the-Fields, Toronto, where a long-time encampment of homeless people was broken up by the City of Toronto. As Genesis says, it’s not good for people to be alone – yet the shelter system isolates people by not allowing them to have visitors and in other ways, she said. She gained so much from the homeless community at her church, who became her friends, she said. “The church is really lonely now.”
The concept of a basic income in Canada has gained support, but as Sheila Regehr, facilitator of a workshop on this topic acknowledged, we’re in a “tough political moment” in terms of gaining government support for it. Ms. Regehr is the chair of the Basic Income Canada Network.
She noted how the need for income support is greater than ever. A recent survey of homeless people revealed that 80 per cent said lack of income was the main reason they were unhoused. Participants at the conference affirmed the desperate conditions many are in. The Rev. Susan Spicer said her parish, St. Luke, Peterborough, began a foodbank program to benefit 25 households, but now more than 80 households take part.
Ms. Regehr countered arguments often given against basic income – specifically, that it will encourage laziness and is unaffordable. She noted that Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot project, held from 2017-2019, supported entrepreneurship, child-raising and volunteer work. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit enacted to provide ongoing incomes to Canadians during COVID-19 affirmed that government can act, if the political will and public support are there.
A workshop on the theology and practice of planting trees, led by members of the Bishop’s Committee on Creation Care, attracted people from across the GTA and beyond. Tree planting efforts have already begun at St. John, Ida and St. Hilary, Cooksville. Planting trees connects us to our primal vocation, which is to care for creation, participants heard. One of the facilitators, the Rev. Paige Souter, emphasized how Jesus said to Nicodemus that God loves the cosmos, so that all of creation is being redeemed, not just humans. (John 3:16-17)
Other workshops focused on community land trusts and on how churches can support housing and shelter in their neighbourhoods, despite community opposition.
Think twice before taking a bite
What’s it actually like to be a temporary foreign worker in Canada, doing the hard labour that most Canadians shy away from?
Outreach and advocacy conference participants got a taste of that through an interactive theatrical presentation called Harvest Justice: Twice the Speed of Lightning. Presented by Mixed Company Theatre, which uses theatre as a tool for social change, the drama depicted the plight of migrant workers from Mexico and Jamaica who are packed into cramped and unsanitary bunkhouses, often enduring unsafe working conditions, abusive treatment and loneliness. Threats of deportation make it hard for workers to stand up for their rights. Meanwhile, workers must pay into Canada’s employment insurance system but can’t collect benefits.
In the play, a Guatemalan arrives in Canada, eager to work and earn what he thinks will be a healthy wage, only to discover that various charges take a big bite out of his paycheque, while he encounters harsh treatment from his boss. Disillusionment sets in. “They give us the jobs Canadians won’t or more likely can’t do,” he says bitterly.
After seeing the play, participants were invited to discuss the issues or play out how they might bring about positive change. Post-play discussion buzzed with comments and action suggestions. The current program “is like indentured labour, right in our midst,” said Tina Conlon, whose first job in Canada involved working as a domestic. “You are exploited because you are desperate,” added the Rev. Claudette Taylor, a deacon.
Elin Goulden, the diocese’s Social Justice and Advocacy consultant, said the situation challenges us to raise our voices through advocacy. “Migrant workers should have the same rights as any worker in Canada,” she said. Our faith calls on us to respond, she added, referring to Leviticus 19:33-34: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.”
Ms. Goulden noted that General Synod last summer adopted a resolution on advocacy for migrant workers.
When a bishop is away