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KAIROS SundayKAIROS Sunday On the evening of the first Easter Sunday, we hear in today's gospel, the disciples were huddled in a locked room, fearful that those who killed Jesus would come for them. Then Jesus appears and dispels their despair and fear. But Thomas isn't there. And he doesn't believe his colleagues until Jesus appears again. Then Thomas believes, and he says “My Lord and my God". Now, we have to understand that this phrase – My Lord and My God – was deeply subversive and political. At the time when John was writing his gospel, the Roman Emperor was Titus Flavius Domitianus. And he insisted that Roman subjects address him as ‘My Lord and My God'. If any other person were addressed in that way, he, and his followers, would be considered traitors, arrested and killed. By using these words Thomas's was saying ‘I will not follow the way of Rome – the way of empire, of accumulating power and wealth; I will follow Jesus, the way of love of neighbour, of doing justice, of building the Kingdom of God. This morning, I have been asked to talk about why the Harper government has cut millions of dollars in support for KAIROS, and what we can do about it. KAIROS is an Ecumenical coalition formed by Catholic and Protestant Churches to carry out work for social justice. And social justice is something Christians cannot avoid. A Protestant friend in the States, Jim Wallis, tells the story of when he was in Bible school. As a project, he and some fellow-students took an old Bible and, over the course of many nights, they used scissors to cut out every reference to social justice. In the Bible that means any reference to how to treat the blind, the deaf, the poor, the hungry, the leper, the foreigner, the exile – and any passage about forgiving debt and how to worship God by doing justice. So, they cut out a lot of the Prophets and Isaiah, they snipped out the Beatitudes, and the last judgment in Matthew 25, and how the followers of Christ shared things in common in the Acts of the Apostles. And they took this Bible back into class, held it open, upright and said – this is the Bible without social justice. They turned the bible upside down. And it fell apart. It could not hold together without the teachings of justice. And we are talking here not just about Charity, but about Justice. In our Roman Catholic tradition, Papal encyclicals have taught about the need for citizens and organizations, governments and corporations, systems and structures to be transformed to do justice and end oppression: Rerum Novarum addressed the rights of workers and the distribution of property and wealth; Pope Paul VI's Populorum Progressio exposed the inequity between rich and poor nations; and John Paul II's Centesimus Annus (1991) added an insistence on protecting the environment. There are many other documents of social faith teachings. In Protestant traditions there are similar theological writings and traditions. All of this came together in the early 1970s. The Catholic and Protestant churches felt more and more compelled to address social injustice. And while they often disagreed theologically, and even at that times had trouble praying together, they agreed on many social justice issues, and they knew they could be more effective working together than working separately. And so a number of ecumenical coalitions were created. And they made a difference. My wife, Frances Arbour, was the director of the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America, a group that was key to changing government policy after the military takeover in Chile. As a result, many lives were saved and 8,000 Chileans came to Canada as refugees. In the seventies, I worked with the Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility. One of its successes was in putting a brake on Canadian bank loans to the apartheid regime in South Africa. That helped hasten the end of that racist regime and gave birth to a new democracy. The ecumenical coalition called Project North helped the Dene people win a moratorium on the Mackenzie Valley pipeline. Ten Days for World Development educated Canadians about the lives of the majority poor of our world. More recently, the Jubilee Debt Campaign put 645,000 signatures on the desk of Paul Martin and led to billions of dollars of Third World debt relief. In 2001, these ten coalitions were brought together as one, in KAIROS, to continue work on human rights, global economic justice, ecological justice, reducing poverty, and helping refugees and migrants. For 35 years, part of that work – never the advocacy part, but the development and education elements - was partially funded, as other NGOs are, by the Canadian International development Agency, or CIDA. A year ago, KAIROS once again applied to CIDA for a four-year $7.1 million grant. Then, in late November, CIDA told KAIROS its funds were cut off, immediately. CIDA said the Canadian Church work no longer fit CIDA priorities. Well, that was a shock to the Canadian churches. They felt something strange was going on here. CIDA had given KAIROS positive evaluations in previous years. On this application, CIDA had given approval at every stage, until it got to the Minister's desk. The Minister for CIDA had pronounced her support for human rights, the environment and equality for women, and clearly KAIROS projects fit those criteria. Then, the real reason emerged. Just before Christmas, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was on a trip to Israel. He said that his government had zero tolerance for anti-Semitism. Then he listed three groups whose funding had been cut because for this reason, including QUOTE “Kairos, who are taking a leadership role in the boycott” of Israel. Jason Kenney later said he did not accuse the Churches of anti-Semitism, but if you read his speech the syntax is very clear - that is just what he said. He has not apologized; he maintains that KAIROS takes “a militant stance toward the Jewish homeland.” Now, the Harper government has aligned itself more tightly to Israel than any previous Canadian government. It has the right to do so. But its false accusations against the mainstream Christian Churches are defamatory. They debase the idea of anti-Semitism. And they risk turning a programme designed to fund international development into one that serves partisan political agendas. KAIROS programs in the Middle East are the smallest part of its overseas program. Since it was formed KAIROS has explicitly supported the right of the Israeli state to live in peace and security. It also supports a viable Palestinian homeland and its right to live in peace and security. KAIROS is clearly on the record as opposing a general boycott of Israel or economic sanctions. KAIROS member churches do have policies on ethical corporate investing and there have been some questions about one Canadian investment in the occupied territories that may lead to increased conflict. But Jason Kenney' claim that KAIROS is the leader of an Israel boycott movement is pure fiction. In effect, KAIROS' position on Israel is resembles the policy held by every Liberal and Conservative government before this one. This is not anti-Semitism. It is a balanced position rooted in human rights principles. The funding cut by CIDA has put in jeopardy a range of KAIROS projects:
Canada's church leaders – Anglican, United, Presbyterian, Christian Reformed, Lutheran, Mennonite, Quakers, Catholic religious orders, CCODP, and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops – together wrote to the Prime Minister in mid-January seeking a meeting with him to discuss what they see as “our response to God's call to love and promote justice for, and with, people living in poverty.” Three months later there has been no response from the Prime Minister, not even an acknowledgement of the letter. The churches have launched a national campaign to restore funding to KAIROS. Church members have met with more than 60 Conservative Members of Parliament. Tens of thousands of signatures have been collected on petitions, thousands of letters sent to the Prime Minister and his government. I would like to invite you to join this campaign. There is information at the back of the church – petitions if you would like to sign your name, or some guidance as to how to send your own letter, which is often even more effective. KAIROS staff and board members say they were shell-shocked when the funding cut happened. Now they say they have grown in vision and clarity and determination. And they have hundreds of new donors. You might like to support them, as Frances and I do, with a monthly automatic donation. The churches of Old Ottawa South are planning a benefit concert for KAIROS on Friday, May 28th at Trinity Anglican – we'll have more information for you in the next few weeks. Our community pastors – Father John Decoste of Saint Margaret Mary, The Reverend Meg Illman-White of Southminster United, and The Reverend Andrea Thomas of Trinity Anglican Church - have sent a letter to the CIDA Minister asking her to reverse her decision and asserting that: “KAIROS is our ecumenical coalition, and we are proud of the work that it has done and will continue to do in years to come, with or without the support of agencies of government. And you can participate in that sentiment too. After mass, we invite you to come up before the altar and take a picture with all of us around a sign saying “We Stand with KAIROS”. That picture will join dozens of others on the KAIROS website. The word KAIROS is a Greek word for time – a holy time, God's time. Like the moment when Thomas declared “My Lord and My God” before Jesus. Jesus responded, to Thomas and to all of us, with these words: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” It is Jesus' final Beatitude. It reminds us of the Beatitudes he spoke beforehand: Blessed, Jesus said, are the poor, the hungry, the meek, the merciful, blessed are those who weep, blessed are the peacemakers. And one beatitude, perfectly fitting for those who stand with KAIROS: Members of KAIROS Anglican Church of Canada and Primate's Fund AppendixExcerpt from Jason Kenney's remarks at the Global Forum for Combatting Anti-Semitism, Israel, December 16, 2009. We have articulated and implemented a zero tolerance approach to anti-Semitism. What does this mean? It means that we eliminated the government funding relationship with organizations like for example, the Canadian Arab Federation, whose leadership apologized for terrorism or extremism, or who promote hatred, in particular anti-Semitism. Reaction from Ralph Benmergui, creator of the Vision TV mini-series 'My Israel' Links Kairos Letter by Church leaders to Prime Minister Harper The Catholic Register, Development Agencies fear the CIDA chop 10/12/09 Chris Selly, The KAIROS Hoax in the National Post, December 28, 2009 http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/12/28/chris-selley-the-kairos-hoax.aspx
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