By Rev. Canon Valerie Kenyon
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE during this Fall season when we celebrate Thanksgiving and remember the gift of St. Francis to us, to not be impressed with both the beauty and bounty of God’s creation and reminded of our stewardship of it.
As the final vow in our baptismal covenant asks us,
Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?”
While we understand this statement well enough, I found myself pausing at the word “integrity”, for it is the integrity of God’s creation that we are striving to safeguard. What is this really asking of us?
Did you know that integrity has two meanings? The first definition of Integrity is that it is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles, moral uprightness. Now on the one hand it’s hard to argue with moral uprightness, but as our history tells us, the definition of what is and what isn’t moral can be a bit changeable depending on who’s in charge at any given point. However, it was the second definition of integrity that caught my attention, for integrity is also defined as the state of being whole and undivided.
Few could argue with the idea that we live in a day and an age where opinions run hot, and polarization is common, quite the opposite of integrity. Perhaps it has always been so among humans, but it feels more pronounced these days. So, in the midst of all of this, what does it mean for those who follow Jesus, to strive for integrity, for wholeness and for unity?
While no simple answers exist, it seems clear that polarization, is fueled by anxiety and uncertainty, again, both in abundant supply these days. As we consider our response to this state of affairs, perhaps there is a clue for us in the prayer attributed to St. Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument, a vehicle, a catalyst of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
What does all of this have to do with Education for Ministry in the Diocese of Huron?
Each week as the participants of EfM gather, they do so, seeking integrity and wholeness in their lives. Their intention is to live lives that are guided and directed by their faith. As they gather, they reflect together and support one another in their readings of Scripture, of history, of theology, of global and local news and views. They lean, as best as they are able, into the questions and the wonderings anticipating that there will be grace to help them to be open and sensitive to see how God’s Spirit is moving in and through them, with the hope that in offering themselves, injury, doubt, despair, darkness and sadness might be transformed, so that wholeness might with time blossom in the places in which they live and serve. They journey together as they look for the intersection of their every-day lived experiences and their faith, and while not an answer to every dilemma, it is a beginning, a faithful beginning.
Interested in learning more about Education for Ministry? Either Libi Clifford, the Diocese of Huron EfM Coordinator or me Val Kenyon at EFM@huron.anglican.ca would be pleased to consider with you the possibilities.
Rev. Canon Dr. Val Kenyon is EFM Animator in Huron.