Sisters in Spirt Campaign
On Monday night I had the chance to go to the local kick-off of a national campaign called Sisters in Spirit. The national wide campaign is raising awareness about 500 Aboriginal women who have gone missing in Canada. Throughout the next year local organizations across Canada are going to seek ways to address the issue of violence against women and specifically Aboriginal women who tend to simply get ignored or forgotten. To imagine that these children of God are simply forgotten or largely dismissed by the rest of us really is a shame. The event on Monday night consisted of a service at St. Matt’s church in Timmins that blended Christian traditional hymns with traditional Aboriginal drum and vocals. The service was very powerful and meaningful. Following the service there was a sharing ciricle at Timmins Friendship Centre. There was 22 women and 5 men in the sharing circle. The women had many stories to tell, many of the stories were heartfelt cries related to their struggles with violence and abuse against themsevles or other Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal women. As a man it was difficult to listen to how men have oppressed women in so many ways, not only through physical violence but also through emotional violence and the way men view women. During my time here in Timmins I’ve been going to Grace Bible Chapel with reservations regarding the silencing of women in the church. I didn’t want to judge at first and wanted to look for understanding of what I saw as a bit of a different culture. Increasingly as Darlene has often heard I’ve been finding it hard to witness the oppression of women in the church on a weekly basis. Darlene has a passion to work in the church in a position of leadership and many of her struggles have been about her self-esteem, about feeling she’s not good enough and I feel that largely men in the church have led women to feel that they couldn’t do the job as well, which is not true. The church could definitely use the voices of women in the church, they have a lot to offer, in fact I believe we need their voices or our body as Christ is not complete. I understand that I’m sort of ranting now, but I guess a blog is a place to be honest and open and after a few months this is how I feel. I know there are different persectives out there, so I’d welcome some response and further reflection, thanks.
The belated review from The Passion
My previous entry was my thoughts prior to watching The Passion, which I didn’t get too many comments on…oh well. I have now seen the movie and can comment on my thoughts after seeing Mel Gibson’s highly talked about movie. My first response to the movie was one word “disturbing”. The movie was highly disturbing. The constant images of Jesus being beaten and bloody were disturbing and difficult to watch. As Jesus was continually beaten I couldn’t help but wonder my part, our part, in that violence. I got to thinking that each one of Jesus’ scars were witness of each one of our sins. Probably the most profound moment for me was when the Roman soldier chose the man out of the crowd to carry Jesus’ cross and the man said that he would carry the cross but that ”everybody should see that he was an innocent man doing this for a condemned man”. The irony of the moment I felt was deep and profound. The movie is indeed worth watching but I think that someone should not watch the movie unless they are willing to take some time afterward to reflect on just how disturbing the movie is. What about my initial thoughts about the movie possibly being too violent? Yes, there are a few scenes that go overboard with gruesome violence and yes the camera views and music are specially set up to make the movie shocking and to focus on the blood and gruesome acts, but regardless of those hollywood exaggerations the movie is stunning and impactful. One last thought as I walked out of the theatre was about how difficult it is for us to relate to all the circumstances surrounding Christ’s death and resurrection. Living in Canada in 2004 I find it very difficult to relate to an event of that magnitude that occured around 2000 years ago in a land far away and a social and cultural context that is even farther away.
What everybody is talking about -The Passion
Well I guess I’d better join the bandwagon about having my say on Mel Gibson’s movie ”The Passion”. Being a person who believes that we are called to bring peace to this world and not greater violence or images of violence my question before I see the movie is whether violence in the movie crosses the line between historical reality vs. gruesome blood for the sake of Hollywood drama and getting a reaction out of people? I haven’t seen the movie yet so I will withhold any other opinions until I have seen it. But today I read an article in Maclean’s which asks questions about Jesus the historical figure versus Jesus the Christ. I thought it was interesting enough. You can find it online here
MACLEANS article
There also a movie review in Macleans about The Passion.
Official website of Jonathan R. Schmidt