Interesting article today in Toronto Star - I was surprised and saddened to read that one in seven children lives in poverty - a number increasing over the past decades.  http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/10/26/good_parenting_key_to_breaking_cycle_of_poverty.html

I have just had a talk with the head of Canadian Jews for Peace in the Middle East. She is very upset that the Israeli government is displacing 40,000 Bedouin Israelis from land they have lived on for centuries, and whose ownership of that land as private property was recognized by both the British and the Ottoman empires.

Now, these bedouin are Israeli citizens. Let us be clear on that. The land they live on is owned by them. But their land and their homes are being taken away by government fiat.

Why?

I want to join a union.

No, not one of the traditional unions like the Canadian Auto Workers, who were recruiting among United Church ministers a while back. The union I want to join is The Union of Food Bank and Emergency Meal Program Volunteers. Sponsored by the York Region Food Network, they have a great web site at www.freedom90.ca. Check it out.

The UFBEMPV (now doesn’t that just roll off the tongue?) has no union dues. As volunteers at food banks and emergency meal programs, members have already paid their dues.

Pigs are flying in Owen Sound.

I have proof.

The first proof I have is a picture taken last August in Woodstock of the lead staff of six key organizations which strive to address poverty in this city. They are all sitting together. They are all smiling.

I know the photo wasn’t staged, because most of them told me that they liked the photo and were glad to see it.

A story from Rev Allen Tysick, The Victoria Dandelion Society Ministry http://dandelionsociety.ca/.  This story has been shortened to fit in this space. To read the full text, see http://atysick.blogspot.ca/2012/05/cougers-rabbits-by-allen-tysick.html

A story from Rev Allen Tysick, The Victoria Dandelion Society Ministry http://dandelionsociety.ca/

I often wish that you my friends were beside me in my ministry on the street. Each morning I wake up about 50 or so of the homeless on the streets of Victoria. This morning I saw 58 men and women. It is impossible of course for all of you to be there, so let me attempt in my feeble way to bring you with me through the written word.

What's the church about? Is it about community socializing? Is it about small groups sending aid to the poor? Is it about making sure we get to heaven? Is is about feeling superior to those who don't go to church?

In the past fifty years, at  least ten million people have been killed in wars, and the majority of them killed by Christians. Outside of international wars, the only thing that has saved the western, Christian world from beiing the leader of brutality  was the rule of Mao Tse Tung.

Earlier this month, the progressive Christian publication Sojourners, chose not to run an ad campaign encouraging churches to welcome and fully include LGBTQ people. The campaign included a video, depicting a lesbian couple and their son being met with both suspicion and welcome when they visit a new church, is part of the Believe Out Loud coalition’s Mothers Day campaign. http://www.believeoutloud.com