Journalists and their Jobs

Conversations are changing these days.  The great adventure of Corona-virus is losing its luster.  Even my earlier blogposts about social distancing and different ways of participating, including church, neighbours, etc. no longer of particular interest.  Seems to me by now there is an evolved openness to moderate critique, not only from the rabid ones who believed everything Donald Trump tweeted, but thoughtful confession of weariness and at least some openness to wariness about the information we are getting.  Along with new confessions of confusion, there is still an inclination to blame.  I recently heard group conversation squarely laying the blame at foot of the media.  They are to blame, and social media has some hilarious quips on reports and contradictions, etc. etc.  Yes conversations are changing. 

I wrote an article just over a year ago, not about pandemics obviously, but chafing slightly at some selective reporting by church media.  I share that article recognizing the important and sometimes thankless work of journalists, writers, editors, online media, publishers, etc. My hope is that these friends may give some extra thought to how they do their jobs.  It is a profession which demands much skill, creativity, courage, and accountability.  The pandemic is creating a hungry and somewhat desperate populace.  My church denomination's Canadian Mennonite has received considerable critique citing too much attention to acceptability and legality of presentation rather than the adventure of the edge.  In other words, can journalists of faith make room for a prophetic word in the community's communiques?  These are questions that hover even while some of us critique.  Now the article.

June 7, 2019                            JOURNALISTS AND THEIR JOBS

My sister writes with enthusiasm and also a hint of weariness.  She and her husband have been run off their feet with media attention to their successful new initiative at their dairy-farm – our home place – near Saskatoon, SK.  The concept of cold farm-fresh milk on tap is gaining traction.  Health conscious and trendy neighbors, acreage dwellers, and city folk are coming out in droves to pay the upscale asking price, and while they’re at it they pick up some sausages, perogies, or homemade jams at their Farmyard Market store.

The Western Producer, two dairy magazines, a local Gazette, CTV, CBC, and Global News, all clamor for an interview and some good pictures of their brightly painted and well maintained farmyard.  Oh yes, we are proud!  And, also I go into thinking mode – apparently a characteristic of mine (My dad said I had a tendency to ‘think a little more’ about things -  Nehschea in our low German dialect).  I am intrigued by the interest of local commercial professional media; and also the dis-interest of our church media. 

A few days after appearance on CTV and CBC News I received an email query from the publisher of The Canadian Mennonite, our denominational newspaper, asking which church my sister and brother-in-law attended.  “They don’t attend church”, I replied cheerfully. “They believe in God and they respect, even celebrate, the Mennonite heritage of our parents, but they live a secular life”.  The reply was telling and disappointing.  It was like end of conversation, “We won’t be providing coverage, but my husband and I will stop by next time we come to Saskatchewan to visit my relatives” (who also live in this neighborhood. Osler in fact).  I felt dismissed!  This person is a very fine individual with a cheery demeanor and yet almost instantaneously seemed to lose interest.

Why no questions about this Mennonite farmyard which grew and weaned 12 children.  I had no opportunity to tell her about the rough and tumble formative years on this place which was kind of a community center every winter evening after the cows were milked.  The bunkhouse beside our skating rink was the exact location where now clean freezers and display cases make up the store. This farmyard yielded soccer players, hockey and softball players for all manner of teams in the Rosthern Valley and nearby Saskatoon.  Where was the interest in the evolution of this place?  Where is the personal historical interest? I know the total readership of this Mennonite periodical would have lapped up a feature article about this locale. They don’t attend church; end of story. Really?

Kind of like another incident I can think of.  At present I am participating in “Walk for Common Ground”, www.treatytalk.com/#walkforcommonground.  It is a ground breaking collaboration between the Health Sciences Association of Alberta, the Saddle Lake Cree Nation of St. Paul, AB, and Mennonite Church Canada.  It is an education walk to facilitate relationship among the walkers, an invitation for anybody to ask questions along the way, and/or to join in for a day or two of physical exercise, education, and conversation.  We follow an Eagle Staff, carry several flags, and many small signs, “We are All Treaty People”.  Each day along this grueling 300 km walk from Edmonton to Calgary, we are requested to post on social media, and daily there are ‘interviews’ by church and denominational communications employees.  In answer to their stock trade question “Why I walk” they post answers like, exercise my faith, learn more about treaties, etc.  I recently offered my answer (and this after I had submitted a short bio, and also a page long piece on topic “Why I walk”).  Feeling just a bit irritated at the repetitiousness of it all, I submitted a selfie with this quip, “I walk because it is healthier for my soul than sitting at church meetings”.  This is a genuine response from this retired preacher who has probably attended about a million meetings in his lifetime.  

The reply to my quip betrayed either her impatience or that she didn’t get it at all. “You have something to say about treaties?”  Enter my Rick Bell rant (Calgary’s version of Rick Mercer).  It might have gone like this, “Dear communicationista, I can’t think of another way to explain this walk, but I invite you to join in for a day or two.  Come and walk beside me. I am inspired by motivated educated people (most of whom have been there done that). As I walk quietly, I’m thinking, reflecting on the things I learned in college and seminary, kind of enjoying the sermons I used to preach because I always speak to people rather than audiences.  I am enjoying the presence of unionists who are more committed to this cause than most church people I know, and indigenous folk more educated than most.  I am not drinking beers in the hot sun, which is more than I could say for myself if I was at home getting ready for the next meeting. This is life, sister. Come and join in!”

Okay I can’t quite say that – a bit too cynical I suppose.  But there is a need around us these days to speak plainly.  And I would really like it if communications people would help us to do that.  Do not bore us with cookie cutter questions, because the answers (and your articles) will become boring. The church will not survive long if it continues in clichés.  We need intrigue, queries, humor, irony.  Here is an occasion that calls for it. 

I have a similar point of view about sermons, speeches, communiques of any kind.  I enjoy it when people are not just doing their jobs.  Good journalism must push the edges in interesting manner.  Jobs are for making a wage; stories are about life!  I like it when journalists - and preachers too -  tell us about life in full Spirit and full intrigue.  I am come that you may have life; and have it to the full (John 10:10).

So, that was my article written then about that concern. In conclusion I must mention, in a recent issue of that selfsame publication, I enthused about one of the journalists, senior writer no less, who profoundly 'nailed' the Easter message needed by us weary Covid-19ers (CM, March 16, 2020, p.4).  There are journalists who take interest in their subjects, and I applaud and appreciate them.  I do get a little testy when they are merely doing a job.

Back to the Future

Many years ago while a seminary student I wrote an essay about a movement of Mennonites into northern B.C. and Alberta.  These are my people, or at least of my lineage.  My parents, although members of the Old Colony,  no longer adhered to the prescribed belief of remote settlement places, thereby to avoid modernization, influence of the cities, English schools, etc.  My father was skeptical of the religious reasons for moving north, often referencing his saying, "The devil will probably show up there too".  Dad's assessment was that this was yet another occasion of opportunism, seeking good farmland, which Mennonites are capable of  'taming,' but was that enough reason to move?  Some of my big muscled hard working cousins were in that pioneer crowd.  My parents and some other cousins were among the hold outs.  I grew up on a dairy farm, next door to the city of Saskatoon.

I am a product of this lineage, and yet adventured into the more 'worldly', educated strain of Mennonites, the General Conference.  My seminary experience for me therefore was a time for some disciplined reflection of background - my roots - alongside many of other traditions.  Interestingly this mix of students and even several professors hailed from the Amish, America's extreme horse and buggy conservatives. This grad school was a good place to acquire some education, or perhaps become defiled, as some of my relatives might have suggested.

Now to this essay.  It was entitled "A Twentieth Century Frontier: Mennonites in Northern Alberta and British Columbia."  Big title, big sound, and I forged into research which satisfied my intrigue and hoped it would also be informative for my fellow students, and perhaps even impress my professor!  Not exactly!  In his kindly way he made some helpful comments, challenging my choice of title a bit (frontier?), offered some suggestions of some other sources I might have looked at and gave me an A-. "Good Work".   Ahh the thankless work of being a student, digging, reading, discovering and then writing it down with aspirations of perhaps publishing! 😉 

And yet, yet I find myself grateful for that learning opportunity so many years ago; not only because "education is good for you" but also because I discovered my people are but part of other people and other people also have reasons for populating a wilderness north - like drought in Saskatchewan and in the U.S. midwestern states, and strange intermixing of evangelical and traditionalism along with things like family squabbles and/or cohesiveness.  Many things among all the people.  I find this to be totally true as I now volunteer among immigrants and refugees right here in Calgary.

What brought this essay to mind is a recent development in my present day church people.  They are the Mennonite Church Alberta - today's version of the General Conference Mennonites.  And it is 45 years later!  In these days of Coronavirus  (Yes fast forwarding. Note the title above contains that f-word Future) our area church leaders have seen fit to introduce some liturgy.  In addition to our denomination's Canada wide weekly virtual worship services, in Alberta we are invited to 4 midweek Morning and Evening Zoom Prayer Time led by two of our pastors.  Our resource is Take Our Moments, an Anabaptist modification of book of Common Prayer utilizing the Revised Common Lectionary.  As one who had been a proponent of the Lectionary during my pastoral tenure, I am pleased.  This is creative and wholesome; an invitation to an orderly unadorned reading of scriptures and prayers with one another, especially in these days of social distancing and worldwide anxiety.  We have here an atmosphere of cooperation for church congregants or anybody else, knowing that themes are not merely chosen by certain people often with vested interests, or even worse, pastors' hobby horses.

So, although this was about Mennonites seeking to escape from worldliness, even my 1975 essay already had a hint of today!  Yes, also reference to  Mennonites becoming ex-Mennonites, an activity already an occupational hazard at that time!  Frank H. Epp tells of an ex-Mennonite Catholic car dealer in Peace River ("The True North," Mennonite Reporter, Oct.28, 1974). The liturgical option is not usually touted among Mennonite leavers. I would love to have a conversation with that certain Mr. Friesen as to his reason for joining the Catholics.  He wasn't the only one.  I too have family members within the Catholic ranks.  Is it that the most traditional, the ones seeking austere predictable worship patterns (like vorsaenger, lehrdienst, sermons read from old books, etc) are actually quite akin to the rhythm and predictability of liturgy?  Catholic priests are not known for their preaching; neither are Mennonite prediger.  Over the years this liturgical option may also have been a contributor to exodus even alongside the many who have left for free church evangelicalism. 

For me this is reason for encouragement, especially from my theological vantage (see my Profile).  I believe God is larger than the Church.  As a Mennonite people we understand ourselves to be neither Catholic nor Protestant (Walter Klaassen, Anabaptism: Neither Catholic nor Protestant, originally published 1973 and latest reprint 2001).  Although that might cynically be interpreted as 'middle in-between',  I prefer to think of it as 'both and'.  We are in a free space, and God looks to us for leadership, not just a good place to be.  When Jesus appeared after the resurrection to his nervous disciples huddling behind closed doors he said,  ²¹“Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:21-23).   I see nothing here about which church is going to be the true church or the successful church, and certainly nothing about comfortable places to be. I see only a Holy Spirit  empowered gospel message of peace!  There is need for our theology these days even if we were to blend in with other communions.  I see good possibility and a future home for Anabaptist Mennonites among liturgical communities, many of whom affirm and yearn for peace teachings.  Apparently one of Winnipeg's fastest growing Anglican churches includes many Mennonites!   It might even be possible for new Anabaptist members of Catholic churches to help that large Church find a way of reconciliation with indigenous peoples for the decades of damage they have done to their children in Residential Schools. All things are possible with our eternal everlasting God.  I also see a great need for evangelism in and among all of our churches, whether we label ourselves as conservative or liberal, or affiliate with ecumenists or evangelicals.  We dare not even pretend to be the church if we not be honest with ourselves and invite others in.  It is a new day for the church. Period.

Glen Guyton, not an ex-Mennonite ( ! ), but an ex-military officer now Executive Director of Mennonite Church U.S.A., puts it this way,  "It's not enough to say we are a historic peace church.  We must be a peace church for the present day". 

The Stretch

 

My last post, as well as an earlier one (The Need to Die, April 23) make considerable reference to Corona activity, whether that be reading or building or fixing things in the backyard, etc.  It's becoming clear to me that life requires more than things to do to keep from going crazy in your own backyard.  I also know I've gotta get out of here.  Social distancing or not, my life contains more than what's inside my fence.  Life also needs stretching.

Consider the picture above.  All these cyclists are a care group which our daughter is a part of.  This particular Saturday it was decided they would go on a bike ride within the ample space of a nearby provincial park.  My wife and I were invited to come along - just because we are Kimberly's parents or maybe because I have joined a number of them at some previous men's breakfasts.  At any rate it was our privilege to ride along with some very experienced commuter cyclists, some recreationists, and even a few for whom this was a stretch beyond the usual level of physical exertion.  It was a ride which would proceed at speed of the slowest - everybody very welcome! What a good way to spend two hours of a Saturday morning just before the anticipated rains would come.  Obviously the first benefit is to stretch and work out muscles that do not 'get it' just tinkering at home or sitting at Zoom meetings or email messages or even walking walking as we do a lot of.  The more significant stretch, however, is a relational one.  This Saturday group contains several on the autism spectrum, several parents of persons on spectrum, several happily married couples, several stressed marriages, a couple of divorcees, and one recently widowed, and even a couple of no-shows who simply could not make it because of physical mobility challenge.  Simply stated this is one of many groups in one of our community's evangelical churches.  It is a way of nurturing fellowship and mutual support within a faith community.

Another stretch comes to mind, at least for this guy who is always thinking of many things.  This is a life stretch.  It is a part of new relationships coming my way precisely in this new circumstance, and probably also because of old experiences now followed by opportunity to think about them more thoroughly.  One good example is the awareness and polemics regarding systemic racism, not only in the U.S. but (gasp) also in Canada, the country of wide open spaces and a liberal (?) immigration policy.  I just read an article about immigrants and their experience here, "For immigrants, hard work isn't optional - it's a matter of survival" <hello@sprawlcalgary.com>.  Many immigrants become minimum wagers here; and that is followed by political rhetoric about "they all taking our jobs", and then that followed by "those lazy indigenous people should go get a job".  Main point here, our country, our communities including most of our churches, must recognize that a short while ago we were guests of the Indigenous, our hosts.  Unavoidably now we must think forward.  Thinking preservationist is unrealistic and counter productive.  The good life we have apparently earned really contains a huge measure of gift - from our Creator and from those who were here before.  The stretch? I've said it before, and must again; we are entering a new day.  Churches must learn how to include "all of these". This particular church of the bike ride is providing delightful support for the emotionally and spiritually needy - just because they delight in fresh opportunities because of new life in Jesus Christ.

Tomorrow, however, I will meet with some very good new friends.  They also are Christians (yes, new life in Jesus!) recently immigrated from Africa, unemployed or underemployed (see above) plus, some are refugees and some immigrants.  They are in need of Christian worship space.  Can we as Caucasian Christians accommodate?  Very appropriate request and it appears we can help, but we cannot provide for the painful needs of family members back in South Sudan.  At this point, and based on the stretch of new friends gleaned from yesterday's bike ride, we will move forward together in a good way - perhaps in a way not quite envisioned just yet.  The amalgamation, the knitting together of communities will be a process of many years affecting both us Caucasians and my very tall black African friends, perhaps even in a spirit of gratitude for the Treaty land we dwell on?  In my mind this is stretchy material and it is of God.  This is the material for the future of a world that is repopulating.

Two scriptures come to mind: Isaiah 54:2 “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes"; and Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."  God is larger than all of this (read my profile).

I enjoyed and also gained perspective from this group of adults celebrating each other even within their range of needs.  These are the occasions that make retirement exciting, even more exciting than a make-work project in my back yard.

Stories of Knowing

Reading has been my favorite pasttime forever.  In that sense this Coronavirus Pandemic is only more of the same - except that I have a little more time to do it.  More time to do it might suggest I have read many books.  Not so!  In fact only two books in this last month!  My daughters would not be impressed; they of the book-a-day variety.  Mix in a little house renovation and walking, yes walking walking along with my wife and the whole neighborhood!  I read not for speed, but for some grist for my mill - that brain up there which still thinks many thoughts.  In addition to the print variety of course there are endless links and references brought my way via committee emails, Zoom and WhatsApp meetings, etc.etc.  I read enough to cause eyestrain, those blood shod eyeballs probably because most of the reading is on screen.

The reason for this post, however, is those two books.  I'm inclined to write a bit about them because, firstly they provided a break from the digital - sufficiently edited and published and safely printed on paper so that my read can happen complete with pen in hand affording opportunity to underline a few things and scrawl the occasional comment.  Secondly, the topic.  I like books that get me thinking. These two did!  Here we go.

Advocating for Peace: Stories from the Ottawa Office of Mennonite Central Committee, 1975 - 2008, by William Janzen (Kitchener, Pandora Press, 2019). 169 pages.
Those Who Know: Profiles of Alberta's Native Elders, by Dianne Meili (Edmonton, NeWest Publishers, 1992).  256 pages.

The topic slightly beyond words.  Two different books, one about 25 years old and the other just off the press; there is a similarity of topic.  William Janzen, sometimes referred to as Mr. Ottawa, is an expert in words.  He writes these stories, autobiographical but scripted in the style of an author more used to preparing briefs and official letters than books.  There is nothing sensational about book cover or chapter headings or paragraph after paragraph of prose.  His pedigree is enviable both in academic, government or church circles - two MA's one in International Affairs and another in Religious Studies, and a PhD in Political Science from Carleton!   As Marlene Epp-Tiessen, writing in the Forward about Janzen's 33 years in the Ottawa office, says, "They reveal the unique advocacy style which Janzen ... came to embody: a posture of patience and humility; a practice of detailed research, consultation and analysis; and a principled commitment to non-partisanship." (p.10).  So, reading his stories and the issues he was asked to address I was impressed and also eventually became a little flushed - with embarrassment!  Especially so when he writes respectfully about the Old Colony, the most conservative legalistic of the Russian Mennonites.  He seeks to be helpful to those in their wanderlust, their disregard for legal details, and a theology that almost ridicules the lawmakers of any country to the extent that it wants to become the stuff of movies, embarrassing movies at that (eg. Pure, CBC, 2017).  This is the office they approach for assistance in family moves, interpretation of marriage documents, and implications for immigrating and emigrating.  Many of them probably knew naught of the classy advocate they had; one who knew the ropes, indeed the one with patience and humility gently seeking to give the best interpretation and presentation to appropriate government departments, civil servants some of whom he knew personally.  Did they also know that he dealt with many many other issues?  Okay, I just ranted a bit!  Mostly these feelings came up after reading one specific chapter; but it is a biggee!  The other 17 chapters, many of them devoted to theological faith issues involving not only Mennonites, but Christians of other denominations and even other faith traditions in relation to our government. Fascinating to see how this man, working for and among his people, spent so much time outside the box.

Enter Dianne Meili.  Her book is not presented as a story book, but that's exactly what it is, all 31 chapters.  Each chapter features one elder.  Meili, a metis journalist from Edmonton, also one-time editor of Windspeaker, Alberta's bi-weekly Indigenous newspaper, became fascinated by these seniors of influence because of her professional work and also her own spiritual search that led her to a discovery of her own indigenous heritage.  The individual profiles are fascinating, heartbreaking, inspirational, sometimes hilarious; some hardly with story line, and all spiced with personality.  She presents them as 'those who know'.  These are the ones who have 'been there done that', lived every kind of life - on the trapline, in the army, in a camp on the move, in jail, in residential schools, on the reserve.  They are the ones who have counseled, prayed, fasted, healed, and helped birth.

Touching, moving books, both of these.  My retirement interest in theology beyond the church (see my profile) and also my lifelong belief in profound inspiration from among 'the least of these' (read some of my blogs from my trucker years) kept me fascinated page after page.  So it is that sometimes a coincidental season or sequence of reading can bring on an "aha".  I read for that - and as I sometimes say to my daughters, "Why read a book two or three times. There's always another book to read."  I once had a college teacher, Dr. David Schroeder, who encouraged us to read for that aha moment, and then begin our essays - not before!  At the moment I am recipient of an aha.

It is from among the ponderous reflections of down-to-earth uneducated (some educated) indigenous elders that I discovered a great appreciation of a humble knowledgeable servant like Bill Janzen advocating for justice in and among the least and the elite.  Eventually the possession of knowledge, detail and procedure and relationships becomes a spiritual gift.  Eventually it serves especially within the power structure (or lack thereof) within the Mennonite churches; it incarnates the peace message of the people he represents in his dealings both within and beyond.  It struck me that in a similar manner, many of the indigenous elders are an invaluable presence even as they lament the individualism of this younger generation and of course alcohol and drugs messing with their communities.  Their presence in that culture provides essential service for indigenous self understanding and of course communication with Settler society around them.  I recognize considerable similarity to Mennonites, they sounding exactly like 'the old ones' I sometimes heard in my rural Saskatchewan farm family and neighborhood.  Not only that, I am fascinated to hear testimony of the influx of Christianity right in alongside indigenous ceremonies - similar values advocating for sweat lodges or church - depending on which elder is talking.  Of note also, a number of these subject elders are devoted Christians - Anglican, Catholic, Pentecostal or non-denominational evangelical!

Now to really add punch to this developing theme, allow me to add a third book; arrived in my mailbox after I had begun this post.  It is a booklet actually, one in a series, Mission Insight #19, Toba Spirituality: The Remarkable Faith Journey of an Indigenous People in the Argentine Chaco (Willis G. Horst, Elkhart, MBM, 2001).  Fascinating; I must learn more.  It is an intriguing sample of an embodiment of Christian faith within a group of indigenous tribes in the Chaco, Northern Argentina.  The essence of Christianity, complete with new birth in Jesus Christ (John 3:3), very celebrative worship, and this comfortably alongside indigenous cultural practice, all the while resisting affiliation with historical denominational church groupings!  "Aha", say I once more, another support for this tome.  Tome? probably not.  A tome is a heavyweight document.  We're not quite there just yet with these couple of "aha" thoughts.😉 Furthermore I believe the most profound inspiration cannot be contained in words anyway (read my blog Pentecost Still, June 2).

"Times, They are a changing", so crooned Bob Dylan to me and my cool university friends in the 1970's.  I remember thinking the church was so outdated and  must face the fact that we really knew our stuff - us and the anti-Vietnam War draft dodgers!  At this point, in midst of a world-altering Covid-19 pandemic and crisis racist social upheaval in the U.S, Dylan's songs ring true as ever.  Today's times-a-changing, not only among christian or indigenous communities, but all religions, all society.  It was my good fortune (providence?) that I happened upon a couple books that give excellent hope for the ongoing perspective and even relationship with Creator God especially for days such as these.  
   Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and^[a] knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11:33).