Reflection: Christ on the Chemainus Road
Before moving to Winnipeg, my family lived in a town that was built on a steep hill, Ladysmith. The town of Chemainus, built in a river valley, is about a 15-minute drive from Ladysmith, and the United Church in Chemainus was where I worked. This part of Vancouver Island, south of Nanaimo and north of Duncan, is where we lived, loved and worked.
I particularly enjoyed the drive to Chemainus. The best part of it is when you turn this one corner. I knew exactly when the corner appeared and what I would see after I turned. In all four seasons, the bottom of the trees and rocks on the edge of the narrow road were covered with a large delicate moss that was a popping neon-lime colour. I loved the glory of God in that beautiful show of nature.
My heart sank when I saw a Facebook post which showed the road to Chemainus was swamped – underwater, in parts. Some cars had to still pass this road which had turned so dangerous. Soon, I was reading more news, articles and seeing pictures and videos about what happened in BC. Huge rain, and a windstorm, bad enough to be declared a state of emergency. All roads and highways between the Lower Mainland and the rest of Canada were closed. Damaged, or completely washed out, bridges and highways would take months to repair. Railroad traffic to and from the rest of the country was suspended. In one city the water treatment had to be taken off-line, and there was no water available in people’s homes. Thousands of people have been evacuated from entire cities; thousands of people were trapped between slides.
As I speak of these tragedies, I find my colleague Jennifer Henry’s words of prayer helpful: “Feeling for all the BC folks struggling with another state of emergency. [We pray] for those who experienced trauma earlier this year and to whom it is returning. For those cut off from basic necessities and medications. For those separated from loved ones. For those feeling afraid. For those who have died, likely more than the one soul now grieved by family and friends. Stay strong, dear ones.”
This past weekend, I was asked to open a meeting with prayer and offer the land acknowledgement. Thinking deeply about it, I decided to ask people the following questions, rather than simply writing down on their zoom chat box which and whose territory they live in. (Show the picture of Our Lives Are In the Land by the Metis artist, Christie Belcourt): “The harm of climate change affects the lives of all of us, in Canada, the whole of this American continent, around the globe. It is no longer thought to be something that affects only the ‘vulnerable’ population or people in the Third World where it is hotter and more humid, or in the north of the globe where permanent glaciers are melting. Climate change affects a very immediate part of our lives, the lives of all of us. We think especially of the Indigenous communities, peoples and nations whose traditional land we live on.
From the knowledge you have so far, could you name negative impacts of climate change on culture and cultural rights of Indigenous people, especially in your region, specifically how it affects the lives and the land of First Peoples?
Also, could you name some potential benefits of the culture and cultural rights of Indigenous people that would enhance responses to climate change, especially in your region?”
To prepare this land acknowledgement, I was reading an article I found on-line, Cultural Rights of First Nations and Climate Change, published by the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations. (May 2020) (https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/CulturalRights/Call_ClimateChange/BCAFN.pdf)
Among many important learnings, I would like to share two points from the article:
“Evacuation orders from fires and floods force First Nations to move away from their territories, often without culturally appropriate assistance and support, and especially impact Elders, women and those with special needs.”
“There are many examples in BC where First Nations have been using their Indigenous knowledge to mitigate and adapt to climate change, although there is no specific, dedicated effort or funding from the Provincial or Federal Governments to enable all First Nations to undertake climate change mitigation or adaptation actions using culture and cultural resources. …
Indigenous self-governance and land rights are essential to upholding cultural rights and responding to climate change. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Report and other sources show that Indigenous peoples with secured land and water rights are coincided with areas of enhanced biodiversity, conserved forest and marine areas, carbon sequestration, and markers of biological health.”
Scientists and other experts have long since predicted how climate change would impact the region where we live. And they are proven devastatingly accurate, each year. Forest fires, historic flooding and melting glaciers are just some of the examples of how Canadians have experienced the impacts of a changing climate and the extreme, unpredictable weather patterns that come along with it. For the West, (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C.) the key risks are wildfires, flooding, droughts, changes to water supply and quality. Changing rain patterns make droughts more frequent and more intense across the southern Prairie region in summer. That leads to less water in the rivers during the summer months, which could have a big impact on the agricultural industries based here, despite the fact that the growing season itself will likely get longer as a result of fewer days with frost.
As many of you have also learned this past week, one of the areas most affected by flooding, Abbotsford, was originally the Sumas Lake, the biggest fresh-water wetlands in all of BC, and it was drained to make some of the best farmland. The draining of the lake destroyed the only way of life the local Sumas Band of the Sto:lo Nation ever knew in 1923-24. Ned, a former chief of the Sumas band, was interviewed by the Vancouver Sun in 2013, and he said, “They took the lake away and we never got one inch of it. I don’t know how the people (Sumas) survived way back then.”
The rampant wildfires of the past few years crumpled the holding power of the soil, so when the heavy rain fell, it was unstoppable. The water reappeared and tried to come back to what it was once part of, the disappeared lake.
The reason why I am sharing this painful news and findings on this Reign of Christ, Christ the King Sunday is that Christian doctrines and traditional theologies about Jesus the Christ contributed to what has caused and now speeds current and future climate change woes. Historically, Christianity promoted the dualism of spirit and flesh, and taught the superiority of spirit, rationality or reason over flesh and body, and their right to control and govern what is inferior and manipulatable. It gave theological permission and a foundation that justified the rights to use, explore, even exploit what is considered to be just flesh, body not spirit, which is women, the land, nature, the earth.
On this last Sunday before Advent starts, the Reign of Christ, Christ the King Sunday, that celebrates the final Sunday before we return to the Genesis of the Gospel, the Advent, I want us to ask who Jesus is, what it means that we follow Jesus, as we lament, confess and faithfully respond to climate change and its effect and hurt to all peoples on this Turtle Island and on the earth.
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| Moss Lady, Victoria, BC |
In our Gospels, we do not only tell the story of Jesus’ ministry and death. We also sing a song of faith in which we prayerfully wait for, patiently prepare for and courageously celebrate the birth of Jesus, the resurrection of Christ, with our saints and ancestors of faith in the world. If Christ has a colour, I believe they would show the bright lime colour of the moss whose beauty and delicacy surprised and created awe in the hearts of many drivers and passersby. This week, may Christ’s cry and blessings for the wholeness of the earth, relevant to today, challenge us and comfort us as we start surviving climate change, and strive to mitigate it for the well-being of all of us, on the earth.
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