Three years after Oct. 7, no statement on Gaza from Canada’s largest church council

 

It has been nearly three years since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. More than 80,000 Israelis and Palestinians have died in the ensuing conflict and more than 174,000 Palestinians have been wounded in Gaza. 

And still, the Canadian Council of Churches, which represents about 85 per cent of Canadian Christians, is struggling to issue its first collective statement on the war. 

“I think it’s a tragedy that we have not been able to speak to the situation in Gaza, Israel, Palestine,” outgoing Canadian Council of Churches general secretary Peter Noteboom told Canadian Affairs.

Read Michael’s story in Canadian Affairs.

Religion and voting: What can faith communities say about municipal elections?

We have an election coming up in Winnipeg. With that in mind, the Free Press asked some columnists to write about it. What, they were asked, are the challenges ahead and how the city can become better? 

They mentioned things like how candidates will pay for their many promises, take seriously the concerns of inner city residents, tend to our relationship with Indigenous people, and offer people a vision for the future. 

What could a faith columnist say about the election? I wondered what faith communities in other Canadian cities have done, or are doing, during municipal elections—in places like Vancouver, Toronto, Alberta and Ottawa. 

And I was reminded of what Christian author and philosopher G. K. Chesterton wrote over 100 years ago about a horrible slum in London called Pimlico—about the need to love a place before trying to fix it. 

Read more in my latest column in the Free Press.