Guest Homily: Grassy Narrows, A Case Study In Creation And Reconciliation

A Sermon Preached by Our Deacon, The Rev. Lorna May, at Prince of Peace, Wasaga Beach, abd St Luke's, Creemore, on Sunday, Sept 13th, the Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost.

The world we know it is  changing irreversibly with unbearable heat, flash floods and forest fires.   For many this has developed into deep grief and  anxiety as we are concerned for our future. Our Diocese is acknowledging the season of creation, where we are  asked to consider the the Living Water.  We are reminded that water binds all things. 

I am going to share with you what I have learned,  through reading,  and speaking with  Elders about  their home in Grassy Narrows. 

First the mink and the otters started to disappear.  Then the local people began noticing the odd way the vultures and eagles were flying.  One man watched his kitten salivating and walking in circles and convulsing.  These were early warning signs around 1970 that something  sinister was happening in Grassy Narrows along side the English-Wabagoon rivers in norther western Ontario.  

Grassy Narrows is  a small Anishanaabe  First Nation band 80 km north of Kenora with traditional roots in Northwestern Ontario who continue celebrating  and preserving traditions in Indigenous culture and  living.   Their land is part of the boreal forest  where the land sustains them both physically and spiritually and they  are committed to protecting it  guided by the wisdom of their elders, the strength of their youth, and  the teaching of their culture as  they work together to build  a healthier , stronger future for all.  They continue to support  each other in healing,  growth and cultural pride.  Situated on the English-Wabagoon River system, there are over 1600 registered  members, with about 1000  living on the reserve.   

For decades the people of Grassy Narrows have lived with mercury  contamination  in their river system.  Between 1962 and 1970 The Dryden paper mill released 9 thousand kilograms of mercury used in the bleaching process  into their river system.  Through the 70’s,  they  continued generating airborne mercury  emissions until  late into the 80’s.   In 1986 the Ontario Ministry of the Environment  released an assessment that advised against dredging the water system thus relying on the natural  process of the  river cleaning itself over the next decades.

This community  depended on the fish for food and their thriving commercial fishing industry.  The people of Grassy Narrows relied on that river for generations, consumed the fish and suffered the consequences.   So what  happened?  Not surprising  livelihoods disappeared, and the community entered a cycle of  harm that has never been resolved. 

I was recently part of a webinar that heard from Sandra, a young woman from Grassy.    She spoke about the ongoing efforts to seek accountability and justice.  She described the familiar pattern:   land contamination, poisoned water and the slow generational harm that follows.   Growing up Sandra recalls her mother going to the river to haul water, and melting snow in the water because clean drinking  water was not always  available.  At the time she did not fully understand.  Today some can afford bottled or filtration systems but many cannot.  Later, she learned that mercury  had entered her own body through the land and food systems.   Moose, fish and other animals were all affected by the industrial contamination .  She says “ no one ever talks about disabilities  being connected to the land”.  Environmental harm is often described  vaguely, as if it is only in the air, disconnected from peoples bodies.   But for Indigenous communities, the land, water  and body are inseparable.   When the land is poisoned, people are poisoned.   Elders in the community remember  when the water was safe, when people could fish and swim and live according to the teachings passed down from generations.   They have also witnessed what happens when those ways of life are  disrupted.  Loss of livelihood , declining health, increased mental health issues  are not isolated circumstances, but have rippled through the community.  It  has been confirmed that 90 per cent of the people in Grassy have mental health, addictions, or physical limitations such as tremors,  numbness, impaired vision, neurological  damage and chronic pain, ADHD, anxiety, and shorter life spans all  due to the  mercury in their systems.  The entire community is sick.   Can we even imagine what that would be like to live in day in and day out?  

When children started having difficulties as infants they were taken to the hospital where doctors told them it could not possibly be mercury poisoning.  They blamed it on   it was their life choices,  intergenerational marriages,  neurologists told parents that there children simply had birth defects.  It wasn’t until  1975 when a Dr. From Japan  diagnosed  Minamata disease which is severe methyl mercury poisoning.  Scientists have continued their research with follow up visits.  What is shocking is the fact that Canadian scientists have not investigated the human health effects of the poisoning.   There has not been any long term tracking  are what now understood to be life long effects of ingested mercury. In 2010 Canadian science did disclose  that “ there should have been extensive examinations and followups”.  Should have.  ..   Of course  if we think about it , nursing students  were taught never to touch a thermometer if it had been dropped and broken during to contact with mercury due to the serious health risks.     Doctors now understand that methyl mercury passes through the placenta to the fetus, causing irreversible central nervous system damage, and severe cognitive defects, even if the mother showed now symptoms herself. 

It’s important to understand that the impacts of the poisoning go far beyond the physical illness.  When land and water are no longer safe entire social systems unravel.  Families struggle to care for their children.  Substance use, violence and  suicide increase.  Child welfare systems intervenes. Employment opportunities  disappear,, and all of this from environmental  harm.  

When I was speaking with Judy this week she told me that  in the early 80’s  some  youth from Grassy Narrows  moved to Kenora  to try and find work.  They were not welcomed.   The word on the street was “ let those Indians stay numb, we don’t want immigrants here”.  Shameful.   For some families whose youth ventured away this brought  up the pain and horror of residential schools which then ,  increased the use of drugs and alcohol for the families trying to cope.   Judy herself went to a residential school, and it was very difficult for  her to speak to me about this last week. 

Through all this the Elders  see hope in how people have refused to remain silent  about Grassy Narrows.   The community has spent years challenging  governments and industries , asserting treaty rights and demanding accountability .  They are passionate about forcing  systems to recognize  and admit formally,  that economic gain cannot come and the cost of human life.   Every human has the right to  dignified living conditions.   It means acknowledging wrong doing, compensating communities that  have been harmed, and ensuring that future generations are protected.   

 Water is sacred, and it is what keeps our planet sustainable.   The people of Grassy Narrows challenge faith groups to see environmental justice as a responsibility and to listen  to Indigenous voices , especially Elders  and people living with disabilities  caused by environmental disruption. 

What kind of world will be left four or five generations from now if these harms continue unchecked?   Justice continues  with listening and acting before it is too late. 

 So how are things today in Grassy NarrowS?  Well, the heavy metal continues to contaminate the water. Every day mining, logging  and the combustion of fossil fuels release more waste into the river  to continue the dangerous  ascent into the food chain.  The interest for scientists has faded.  Government monitoring has tapered off and  the hand bound research reports now gather dust in libraries.  

Have you noticed that there are certain natural  disasters, situations that headline the news each day.  There are positive things happening all around us for  sure.  As Christians we gather week by week  to give thanks for this land we call home,  to encourage either other,  and to continue our calling to go into the world that God loves.  We do it in small ways, any way we can to make our part of the world  a better place.   It may not make the news but its often what matters the most.  

On Wednesday September 23rd I will be  participating in the River Run: Walk with Grassy Narrows for Justice.  The people of Grassy have the longest running blockade in Canadian history which has helped foster Indigenous  resistance across Turtle Island  and has saved 15 million trees from being cut.  They will speak out and ask why the Care Home originally promised by the Government for 2017 is being completed by 2027.   They will ask that community members be compensated fairly for the mercury crisis.  They will ask that the Dryden mill be stopped to end the nuclear waste that threatens Grassy.  They will ask for support  to restore their community  and way of life from the damage that mercury has done while proposals for new mines and  a nuclear waste disposal  site threaten to make things worse. 

My hope is that we can all in our own lives be aware of how we can respect the clean water that we have.  Research if you don’t know how to properly dispose of hazardous materials, reduce chemical use, minimize the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides  and clean up pet waste so that bacteria does not wash into lakes and streams during storms. Learn more about the   Government of Canada Clean Water Plan.  Because we are privileged. 

The people of Grassy Narrow have for over 50 years struggled with basic human rights over the poisoning of the English-Wabagoon rivers. 

I pray that as members of this Diocese that we  will stand  with Grassy Narrows until the water runs clean and the people are heard. I speak in the name of the living and loving God. 

Amen . 

Maker Of Heaven and Earth: A Homily for the Season of Creation

 

Every Sunday it’s our habit to say the Nicene Creed, which begins with the declaration that we believe in “one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen”.  The Creed says a lot of things about God as Trinity, but it begins by describing God as creator of, well, everything, both the knowable, visible world of matter and physics and science, but also the mystical, invisible world of spirit, angels and heavenly realms.  And, between those two worlds, is us, humans, the beneficiaries of God’s creative acts.   So today we’re going on a little diversion and try to think through what it means for us to live in God’s creation.

I’ve chosen today because we’re at the start of what the Anglican Church of Canada calls the Season of Creation.  The inspiration for this idea comes from the Orthodox Church custom of observing September 1 as the Feast of Creation.   In 2019 our Anglican Church fixed Sept. 1 as the start of this season and extended it to October 4th, the Feast of St. Francis.  Our national church website explains that the Season of Creation is meant to be “an annual season of prayer, education and action to protect the gift of God’s creation.”   I’ll come back to the action and protection parts in a minute.

First, I think it’s fair to say that at some basic level, even if we aren’t theologians, we all know something about the Christian idea of Creation.   I’ll prove it to you with a snap quiz.

I’m going to quote part of a line from four well known hymns and I want you to finish the line.  Here goes.

1. “This is my Father’s world, and to my list’ning ears ____________________________________

(all nature sings).

2) “All things wise and wonderful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, _____________________. 

(the Lord God made them all)

3) “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder ______________________.

 (consider all the works thy hand have made).

4) “We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, but it is fed and watered ________________.  (by God’s almighty hand)

Well done!  Many of you I’m sure have been singing these hymns since you were children,  and along the way these and other hymns have taught us about our faith.  They’ve taught us something that theologians call the Doctrine of Creation, and even though the word Doctrine sounds dry and scary, it’s pretty simple.

As children, and indeed as seminarians, one of the first things we are taught is that our lives and indeed the world around us are part of a gift from God that we call creation.

We need to note right of the top that creation is a theological word.   We might think it’s synonymous with nature or even the environment, but those words have a neutrality about them, whereas creation points to our belief that God’s first business is creation.

It’s also important to state that we as Christians can talk about creation without being anti-science.  The debate between evolution and religion is an old debate and a false dichotomy.   The creeds don’t require us to believe that the world was created in seven days vs seven billion years.  I once heard a professor say that science can date the Big Bang to somewhere around 13 billion years ago, but what happened before that is a matter for theologians.  That seems right to me.  I think it’s possible to speak of the entire universe as being created.

One of the gifts of indigenous spirituality is that it has helped us see God first and foremost as Creator.   The idea of creation being entrusted to us as stewards is there in scripture, but the indigenous world view of living in gratitude for the created world and in balance with the created world is a great gift.

I often hear your appreciation of creation as a gift thanks to our very talented and faithful intercessors.   Our Prayers of the People often expresses gratitude for this beautiful part of the world that we live in, and we also pray for those parts of the world and its people that are suffering.  We say these prayers because the church exists in the world, and we trust that God loves the world that God made and gifted to us.  

You might even say that the world depends on God for its existence.  Thomas Aquinas once said that the world  "is less like a house that outlasts its builder, and more like a sunbeam, which would vanish the instant the sun withdrew”. So we believe that God is the creator and the sustainer, and that should give us hope when we are tempted to despair by the state of the creation.

I don’t need to go into detail about the source of that despair.  We’ve all lived through days where the air was bitter with wildfire smoke.  We saw the summer heat in Europe rise to the mid forties, temperatures that kill the poor and elderly.  We saw the videos of the floods in Nepal caused by the collapse of a glacier.  Can we prove that the Nepal disaster caused by climate change?  Whatever the answer, it seems harder and harder to deny that human activity and fossil fuel has changed the world we live in.

Most of us here today won’t live to see how bad things could get, but our grandchildren will.   Last week our federal government released a report which said that since 1947, Canada has warmed two degrees and Northern Canada about 2.6 degrees.  If we do nothing, by the end of the century Canada will be 6.9 degrees warmer that it was before the Industrial Revolution.  That means more drought, more wildfires, and the end of Western Canada’s glaciers.  If we can reach the goal of Net Zero emissions by 2050, we can limit the damage, but that doesn’t look likely.  This June the Carney government admitted that Canada will not meet its 2030 greenhouse gas climates.

So what can we do?  I would say that the most important thing is not to lose hope.  Politically, you’ve got voices and votes.  Use them to show candidates that you care about renewable energy, green policies, and the future of the planet.

As Christians, I think we all need to be intentional about talking about the created world as a precious gift for all.  Maybe that starts with a stronger appreciation for where we live. The late poet Wendell Berry put it well when he challenged words like “the environment”, a word which he said “refers to no place in particular”.  Berry said that “The environment,” as we call it, is intimately with us. We’re in it. It’s in us. But also we are it, and it is us.” 

As Christians, that means that we all depend on a particular place, a part of the world, to give us life, to share with others, and to pass on to those who come after us.   One way to deepen that awareness might be to check out Creation Church, the initiative of our associate priest Amy as described in this month’s All Saints Alive.  Praying and worshipping in nature reminds us that our connection with God exists extends outside of this church building.  To quote Wendell Berry again, he said that he had to carry the gospels into the woods to see his need for them.   You may find that to be true for you as well.

Caring for creation also means caring for our neighbour.   We are somewhat protected from the climate crisis here in Canada, but other parts of the world feel it much worse, especially as first world countries cut their foreign aid budgets.    One initiative that we our national church has launched through our Alongside Hope agency is the Solar Suitcase project for Mozambique.  This project will provide small health clinics with a solar panel, lighting, and fetal imaging equipment to help women who give birth at night.   Each suitcase costs $6500 Canadian.   Wouldn’t it be wonderful if All Saints could raise the money for one of these suitcases by next Pentecost.   Do you want to embrace that challenge?

Finally, I would say that it all comes back to our faith in Jesus.   I changed our gospel reading for today to remind us that when we speak of God as Creator, we are speaking of the Holy Trinity.   St Paul wrote in Colossians that “all things have been created through him and for him . and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:16).  The hands that created the stars are the same hands that Jesus offers to us as our friend and guide in life.   He has, as they say, the whole world in his hands.  He always has held it.  Which means that our faith and trust in the promise of the resurrection should give us faith and trust for the future of the created world that is our gift and our privilege to share. 

That understanding of creation is part of the gospel. So is the idea that God is as present to creation now he was as at its beginning. The world is held in being at this moment as freshly as it was at the first moment of its existence. The cosmos is less like a house — as Aquinas put it — that outlasts its builder, and more like a sunbeam, which would vanish the instant the sun withdrew. God is not only maker, but sustainer. Another part of the good news of the doctrine of creation is, therefore, the good news of God’s presence.

 

Zero to Hero and Back Again: A Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost (A)

 Preached at All Saints, Collingwood, and St Luke’s, Creemore, Anglican Diocese of Toronto, Sunday, 30 August, 2026.  Readings for the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost (YrA):  Exodus 3.1-15, Psalm 26.1-8, Romans 12.9-21,Matthew 16.21-28

 

 

But Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mt 16.23)

 

You may recall that last year in October I wore a Toronto Blue Jays hat in church and we were all pretty excited that Canada’s team, as we called them, was bound for the World Series and it was a good run, all the way to game seven.  The Jays were our heroes. 

So where did the heroes go?   This year the Jays a below average team, scuffling with a bunch of other mediocre teams under 500 for an undignified wild card spot.  Last year we couldn’t throw enough money at Vladdy to hit home runs.  This year we would just like him to not hit so many ground balls into double plays.  It’s a little shocking how quickly our heroes turned into zeroes.

 

That phrase “hero to zero” came to mind this week as I thought of Peter in today’s gospel.    Poor old Peter!  Last week, when Jesus asked the disciples “who do you say I am?”, Peter totally aced the exam.  “You are the Messiah,” he exclaims,”the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), to which Jesus basically says “Well done Peter, go to the head of the class!”   Jesus declares that Peter will be the “rock” on which he will build the church, which in the language of the creeds is the founding moment of the “holy, catholic, and apostolic church” that we are a part of, all because Jesus recognized that Peter was the hero needed to found and build the church.

 

How quickly it all changes!  Here we are just a few verses later in Matthew 16, and Peter goes from hero to zero in a heartbeat!  Last week he was the rock on which Jesus would build his church.  Today he is demoted to stumbling block.  Hero to zero, or maybe better yet, Peter goes from rock to block.

 In Matthew’s gospel, this is the first time that Jesus predicts that he will go to Jerusalem and die there.  He describes his death (note the word “must” in 16.21) as an obligation, something he has to do.   This news is a shock for Peter, who has just identified Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed saviour of Israel.  Peter and the other disciples were doubtless raised on stories of Israel’s great military heroes from stories such as those in the books of Joshua and Judges, so this is all a bit much to take.  Peter surely wants a Messiah who wins.  Peter wants a conquering hero, not a loser zero,

 

Peter doesn’t just challenge Jesus, he “rebukes” him, which in is like telling the boss, “sir, that’s crazy talk”.  So it is that Peter goes from rock to block.    What Peter can’t recognize is that in telling Jesus not to go to Jerusalem and die, he is essentially repeating the temptation that Satan offered to Jesus in the wilderness to save himself from death, to which Jesus replied “Away with you Satan” (Mt 4.10).  

Peter becomes an obstacle on Jesus’ road to Jerusalem, literally a stumbling block (scandalon), which literally means something you can trip over but it also means a trap.   Thus we can say that Peter goes not just from hero to zero, but he goes from rock (the foundation of the church) to stumbling block.  Hero to zero.  Rock to blockhead.  Ouch.  Poor Peter.

 

All this background is necessary to help explain two ensuing phrases which give Christians a lot of trouble.  One is Jesus telling Peter that he is “setting his mind not on divine things but on human things”.  There is a temptation here, especially after hearing Peter called “Satan”, to think of an absolute division between heaven and b earth, so there’s  the divine, God stuff, and the earthly, human stuff, which is bad and maybe even demonic.     Call this way of thinking sacred versus secular.   At it’s worst, it’s cult or sectarian thinking, making believers want to have as little to do with the human world as possible.   At its mildest, it makes us compartmentalize God, so that we only occasionally think of ourselves as Christians and disciples while going about our business in the real or physical world.

 

This confusion is made worse when we don’t properly understand what it means to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.   These words as they are often understood can reinforce the sacred/secular divide and make is think that a life focused on divine things must be a joyless life of abstinence and suffering, like the lives of the early Christian hermits in their hair shirts.    Which is all very strange when we remember that Jesus in the gospels went to weddings, visited the homes of people he loved, ate and drank with friends and was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard.    It all seems very hard to reconcile.

 

What if we didn’t have to think in terms of a faith that called us away from our earthly lives, but which instead enriched them?   What Peter doesn’t understand is that Jesus must go to Jerusalem not only to die, but also to live  (“and on the third day be raised” 16.21).   The cross that Jesus calls us to is thus not life-destroying but life-giving.  The cross gives us eternal life, but it also gives us life in the day to day of our lives.  

Our reading from Romans 12 gives us a good sense of what that life looks like:  rejoicing, blessing, befriending, companionship, all in the company of others.   The self that has to be denied in that life is the self that gets in the way of these things – cursing, hating, grudge-holding, pettiness, hatefulness, hoarding, and selfishness, fear and bigotry and racism.   No one wants to be that guy!   These are all the dark things that we need to take to the cross and give to God so that we are free to live the way God wants us to live.

 

This calling sounds like a life worth living, like our best possible life, and it is!  Our invitation to a better life as disciples is a calling or a vocation.  Now you might think that having a calling or a vocation to be a Christian sounds intimidating.  Can I live up to a calling?  Whar if I screw up?    And certainly we will, on any given day.   Even major league baseball players strike out and commit errors on the field.     If we slip up, Jesuswill say to us, as he says to Peter, “get behind me”.   Jesus never says “Get away from me”.   He only says that to Satan.  He won’t say that to us. Getting behind Jesus means retaking our rightful place as a disciple, as a follower.  I think for us it means more like get on board,  join the team, close up. Following Jesus means that we won’t get lost if we keep Jesus in front of us.  And if we follow Jesus, he will lead us to our best life.