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Monday, July 06, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Ryan McCormick in Denver
If you've read '953 Post'...you'll want to read Ryan's complete article on the AGRM conference in Denver. And here it is:
I was recently given the opportunity, along with three of my Hope Mission co-workers (Mark Domning, Lindy Dowhaniuk, & Anthony Sterr), to attend an AGRM conference in Denver, Colorado. AGRM is the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions, an umbrella organization of which Hope Mission is a member. AGRM affiliated Missions operate all over the U.S. and Canada, and on any given night one fifth of people staying in a shelter are in an AGRM member shelter.
Simply learning about Hope Mission’s affiliation with AGRM was a learning experience for me. A lot of our practices and philosophy have come out of our contact with AGRM and I was surprised to see how much of who we are is a result of this contact. It gave our Mission, and the ‘Rescue Mission’ in general a bit of historical context for me. Like us, many others were started during the Great Depression to meet the specific need of the time. Some are even older though; the oldest Mission represented was the New York mission which has been operating for 127 years. It was encouraging and occasionally a bit curious to interact with so many people who have had a long history in this very specific field of work.
Rescue Missions have filled a crucial role not just in dealing with homelessness, but also in standing as the Church’s representative in this field. Rescue Missions have taken as their primary objective serving the poor and reaching out to them with the gospel. This has had some interesting social implications. One of the sessions I attended was titled “The 100 years war: how Liberalism & Fundamentalism’s fight has hurt the poor”. Being of a somewhat political nature myself, I was interested to hear the instructor’s take, which was very insightful. But the insight he had regarding the Rescue Mission’s place in it all was what most stood out to me. He gave the analogy of Liberalism and Fundamentalism for the last 100 years being entrenched in 1st world war style warfare- trench warfare. And as they camp out in the trenches and fire occasional grenades at each other, in the middle- in no man’s land- stands the Rescue Mission. It is on neither side. Both sides respect it and yet distrust it, but for different reasons. The Liberals like it because it’s helping the poor and working for good humanist causes, but they distrust it because these Rescue Missions can’t seem to resist trying to save people’s souls! They’re so overt in sharing the gospel and preaching personal salvation that the Liberals are often bothered by it. On the Fundamentalist side, the Rescue Mission is seen as good, because they boldly proclaim the Gospel to lost sinners, but often a healthy distance is kept between the upstanding uptown church and the dirty downtown mission. Money yes, and an hour serving soup at Christmas, but rarely is there a desire in the churches to get mixed up in such seemingly Liberal causes, especially with such ‘unsavory’ people.
I found myself comforted by this analogy and yet I could see myself in both sides. We of the Rescue Mission occupy a peculiar territory on society’s map. Maybe that’s why we attract so many ‘interesting’ people on our staff (c’mon, you know it’s true!) It takes a particular brand of person to want to get involved and get messy in dealing with real people, and still want to hold true to belief in a God who created them in His image and desires wholeness and holiness for them. I have found myself often wavering on both sides of this coin, and if you’re like me I’m sure you’ve felt this tension that accompanies work with the homeless. I would assert that this is a good and necessary thing. We must always seek the balance between grace and justice (as one co-worker here explains it), and a balance is always harder to maintain than an extreme.
This tension between what the instructor called “Liberalism” and “Fundamentalism” is seen even within the AGRM as it strives to move forwards in relevancy, while not letting go of its historical roots. And I have personally felt this tension even within our own Mission, as a couple hundred very different staff members try to figure out what life and ‘ministry’ (or service) means to each of them (we found this even among the four of us on the trip!). This can sometimes lead us to despair that we’ll even be able to work together, but I found comfort in the instructor’s conclusion. He stated that regardless of your thoughts on what the end of the world will look like, what we are all looking for is the Kingdom to come. Whether you think that we’ll bring it about by our own progress or that it will be ushered in as Jesus returns and establishes His Rule over all, the Kingdom of God is, I believe, what we are all looking for. We are all looking forward to a world in which people don’t stab each other in alleyways, or choose crack to fill their spiritual longing. A world in which kids don’t have to worry about hiding signs of abuse and women don’t have to choose between the abusive relationship or the street. We are driven by the belief (some of us only subconsciously) that another world is possible and that it looks much like what Jesus described when he spoke so often about the Kingdom. This world looks like a big banquet to which everyone is invited, where the poor are lifted to honored positions, and where God’s light floods even into the darkest alleys, inviting people to come and join in.
Now, before I wade too deep into theological waters without my water wings, I better get back to my main point. For all of us working here at Hope Mission, whether it’s for 2 months or 20 years, as long as we’re here we get to join in and be a part of this world; working side by side with people who are probably very different than us. I know that there are some things that cannot or should not be overlooked, and we may have to deal with those, but otherwise, for as long as we happen to be stuck with each other it is our privilege to serve together. I am thankful to have had this time and experience, and am especially thankful that I got to know three of my co-workers better. Even amongst our little group there were a large variety of experiences and beliefs, but I think that makes us better. As I came back I was even more excited to serve alongside them, seeking change and bringing hope to Edmonton’s inner city.
Ryan McCormick
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Joseph McLaughlin - Vibrant Earth
You can't transcribe a flower. Instead, a flower inscribes itself within until you feel its cool corona against your arm, smell its perfume, and sense its joy. A flower--bud, bowl and blossom--is its own reason... These were things that registered as I stood viewing Joseph McLaughlin's oil paintings.
A dozen years ago Joseph's house burned down. In his new place, surrounded by bone-white walls, he sat with the question about how--on paper-thin resources--to bring the comfort of colour and light, and the feel of home to a house. His answer was to paint a single flower on a large canvass and hang it on in his living-room wall. That was the beginning.
Today, with that original canvass having profusely flowered to its edges, and his home now filled with completed paintings, Joseph is holding his first exhibition. An exhibition he needed to be arm-twisted into participating in, owing to the strong attachment he has with his paintings.
There is joy in these paintings. There's a kind of spontaneous celebration that attends all of his works. I asked him about this and he told me he usually only paints when he's in a good mood.
It shows. And for Joseph, it works. His echoing greens, his blues of twilight, the way he generously spends colour reminds me of William Blake's sighting of "...a heaven in a wild flower."
The exhibition which includes paintings by Darlene Adams is entitled Vibrant Earth, and is at the TU Gallery. It runs from June 20 to July 4.
(Joseph has worked for Hope Mission for a number of years. His current position has him looking after part of the Breakout recovery community program.)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
City TV - Hope Mission's 80 Anniversary
The Hope Mission is celebrating a landmark -- 80 years in operation. Amanda
Ferguson takes a look back at the mission's humble beginnings and its
promising future.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
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