​Written by Gwyn Beer
Canada West Mission Centre Co-President

Written by Vonda DenBoer
Canada East Mission Centre Co-President

The restoring of persons to healthy or righteous relationships with God, others, themselves and the earth is at the heart of the purpose of your journey as a people of faith” Doctrine and Covenants 163:b

How each congregation achieves that is as unique as the individuals being discipled in that community. How do we bring hope where there is none? How do we address poverty and needless suffering? How do we confront prejudice and greed? How do we share Christ’s gospel of love and peace and justice? How do we find the kernels of wisdom in our common human heritage with one another?

Recent services on World Religion Day in London and Barrie, brought together persons from differing faiths who agreed that we need to love and serve one another. It is not an “us” or “them” situation. That if we stop fighting our differences, but instead embrace our common goal, together we can work toward peace and justice.

Let’s celebrate some initiatives that individuals within Community of Christ are doing toward that:

Teresa Fryer of North Bay recently traveled to El Salvador to teach women how to sew. Her friend Dulcie Shepherdson is there teaching English. Pat MacGregor opened the Sarnia church for donations of clothing and personal care items for the 120 seniors who were abruptly evacuated from their home late one Friday evening in January due to a fire. The community responded abundantly. The St Thomas congregation held a $2 dinner reaching out to community groups with the greatest need. The Woodfield congregation reaches out to bring care packages to individuals who are reintegrating into society after incarceration.

“God’s grace, revealed in Jesus Christ, freely moves throughout creation, often beyond human perception, to achieve divine purposes in people’s lives … As revealed in Christ Jesus, God, the creator of all, ultimately is concerned about behaviours and relationships that uphold the worth and giftedness of all people and that protect the most vulnerable. Such relationships are to be rooted in the principles of Christ-like love, mutual respect, responsibility, justice, covenant and faithfulness, against which there is no law (D&C 164:2b,6a)

May we all seek to alleviate needless suffering and bring hope where there is none. May we all strive toward relationships that respect and uphold the worth of others. And may we embody peace and justice individually and collectively.

Written by Apostle Art Smith
Council of Twelve

I Arthur, one of you, just like you, called to serve Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to all of you, not just for you, but flowing through you as a blessing to others, to all communities.

As I write, at the start of this new year, I remember all of you fondly, thinking of times we’ve shared and picturing places you are and situations you face.

My prayer, for you, at the start of this year, with all the joys and promises ahead, is that the Holy Spirit will do what I’ve always known it to do, meeting each of us and all of us and everyone mysteriously as needed.

In the middle of exile,
In a time of despair,
May the Spirit of hope shine through
So we see ways out of hopelessness with hope our beacon and our proclamation.

In a time of joy and celebration,
When all our needs seem met,
May the Spirit illumine and remind us of those in need on the margins
So we hear voices and understand the perspectives of others.

May we lift up and care.
Outside forces and our own weaknesses,
Lead so many to see the church as irrelevant
Or as an instrument of hate and harm, exclusion and injustice.
But the mission of Jesus Christ remains.

It’s not just some external promise of things that God will do,
as if by magic in some future, decades away.
YOU are a gift.
YOU are to be a light to the world.
YOU are to open the eyes of the blind, to release the prisoners.

See through the fog of fear and hate.
The mission of the church is not irrelevant, hateful or harmful.
Your mission, this year, where you are, is to participate in
Release from demonization, marginalization, poverty and all sorts of captivity.

Everyone is invited in,
To participate in this purposeful project.
How it happens will be as diverse and varied as the two or three of you who gather to support each other,
to dream and to plan.

No person abandoned.
All invited to participate.
No matter if you live in uncertainty, decline of your community, or despair.
May this be our mission, their liberation and our liberation. All at once.
​
Apostle Art Smith
Council of Twelve
Canada, Caribbean, Mexico/Texas Fields
January 2023