 My name is Javid Summers, I'm going to introduce myself in a little bit, but for now as Kevin said I want to lead us in acknowledging the treaty and land we belong to. I think we're fairly spread out today, mostly on numbered treaty territory I expect, although maybe not exclusively. So for those of you who want to, I would invite you to put in the chat an acknowledgement of the land you're on. And then I will share my reflection here based on the particular treaty and land I belong to, but I'm hoping that you will find resonance in these comments for your place in context. So as a settler in Edmonton, Alberta, I have the privileges and responsibilities associated with living in treaty six territory. I acknowledge that the land I live, work, worship and relate on is land that indigenous peoples have lived on since time immemorial, and that was generously shared with my ancestors and with me. I acknowledge that although treaty was entered into with the expectation of relations that would be mutually beneficial. In fact, Canada has dispossessed indigenous peoples and continues to do so today. The Canada that dispossesses can seem abstract, but I acknowledge that I am Canada, and that Canada is my people. For this dispossession therefore I acknowledge my responsibility, both as an individual and as a member of the settler collective, and I commit to working to change that and restore the spirit and intent of treaty relations in all of their optimistic vision. Thank you. Thank you, Javid. Sean, would you like to open us in a word of prayer as well? Yeah, thanks, Kevin. Thanks, Javid, for that acknowledgement. Thank you all for being here this morning, and I just invite us as we begin to just calm our minds and our hearts a little bit, if it helps to close your eyes, that's fine. Just take a few deep breaths. As you breathe, think about the land beneath our feet. Think about the treaties that allow us to be here and that negotiate relationships between us and among us. We give thanks for the peoples who have lived here since time immemorial. We give thanks for the ancestors, ancestors ancient and more newly arrived. We give thanks as well for all the more than human people who are with us, the plants and the animals, the waters and the winds. We give thanks for the presence of elders among us, of their work and lives that sustain us. As we gather here, we ask the Creator to be with us. Bless us, O Holy One. May your spirit move among us, bind us together, guide our words, our decisions, our actions, help us live together in a new way and a good way for the sake of the healing of all creation. Yes, we pray in the name of the One who is love. Amen. Thank you, Sean. It's a good way to begin. Well I'd like to invite, we're going to now share some of introductions about ourselves, the Prairies North Committee or Coordinating Committee. And today I expect is a time for conversation and sharing and maybe even reconnecting if or some of us who've been disconnected for quite a while. And so we're going to try not to talk too long as a Coordinating Committee because we want to listen and hear what's going on with each of you as well and allow you to speak with each other as well. So I'll just begin with by introducing myself or actually I'll begin by introducing the committee and saying that first of all, we are all volunteers. We do not work for Kairos Canada, but we are passionate about the kinds of work that Kairos is involved with and so we volunteer some of our time to help activate this network and help make sure that these connections can flourish. I'll let the members speak for themselves about what else they do. My name is Kevin Gunther Trowine. I'm a pastor in the Mennonite tradition and I'm on Treaty 6 land in the Edmonton area at Lendrum Mennonite Church. And I come to Kairos, well I grew up in Grand Prairie, Alberta. So I'm from this region and I moved out to Ontario later for grad school. I learned about Kairos when I was out there and then moved back here when I began working as a pastor at this church. I've had some involvement off and on with Kairos over the years, especially since I've been at this church. We had Jennifer Henry, the previous director come and speak at our church. We did some of us learned we're facilitating the blanket exercise and I've been out to Ottawa for the mass blanket exercise one year. And so my connection to Kairos has always been a little bit oblique, a little bit off to the side. But when this spring, I'll get into that more later. But when Shannon called us to gather and see if we could do something to build up this network, I agreed that this was a good time to start doing that. So that's a little bit of my history with Kairos and where I'm situated. Now I'll turn it over to who do I want to pick on first? Amanda, you haven't spoken yet. Hi, is it my turn to speak? Yes. Sorry, my internet is in and out so I missed my introduction. Sorry about that. Hi everyone, I hope I'm coming through all right. My name is Amanda Dodge, I'm Secretary of the Coordinating Committee. Alongside Kevin, Sean and Javit and my role is a program director with Menonite Central Committee Saskatchewan. MCC has a formal partnership with Kairos Canada and of course our work and values are quite aligned around the peace and justice work we do as a Christian organization. And I'm relatively new personally to connecting with Kairos. I'm thankful to Shannon's efforts coming to Saskatoon and wanting to reengage folks of like minds and came to the potluck that she coordinated pre-pandemic. I don't even remember when because it was just before the pandemic and just got involved that way and grateful to be so. Should I pass it over to someone, Kevin or will you? Oh, let's go to Sean next and then come back to Edmonton. Hey, folks, Sean Sanford Beck, I am a let's say I'm an ecumenical priest, which is complicated. I'm working right now for St Andrews College in Saskatoon. I'm the recruitment officer and I wanted to I'm actually I'm working with Kairos on on St Andrews time. So I want to acknowledge St Andrews and bring greetings from the college whose values are often very closely aligned with with Kairos. So it's a really good, good fit for me. And I've I've been both in the midst of and around the edges of Kairos for many, many years, ever since it became Kairos out of the the previous justice coalitions. And I just really value the work of Kairos. And most of all, I value the people that I get to meet through through the Kairos connections. You folks are an awesome group of people, whether or not you actively identify as Kairos or whether you're free of folks in partnership with with Kairos, you're just a great group of people. So very happy to be here and and doing some stuff on your behalf and with you. And how about you, Javid? Well, good morning again. My name is Javid Summers. Like I said, really excited to be here. My my it's my first annual gathering. My first Kairos event ever was was in November of 2020. So just getting involved in Kairos, I guess, still a rookie. And honestly, it's been one of the highlights of the last year for me. Sean said the work and the people are really great to get to know and be involved with. So I already mentioned I'm a settler living on treaty six territory here in Edmonton. My day job is is working with Treaty Six First Nations in Alberta for the government of Canada. I'm an accountant and I have a master's degree in native studies from the University of Alberta. And as part of that degree, I wrote a thesis on treaty six relations. I belong to First Presbyterian Church here in Edmonton. I am very passionate about fighting colonialism in Canada and working towards mutually beneficial relations between settlers and indigenous peoples. I became the treasurer of Kairos, Praes North in August. And I will have a report in that capacity in a couple of minutes. Nice to be here and to meet you all. Thanks. Yeah. Thank you, everyone. Thanks, Sean, Javid and Amanda. Now I'll just share a little bit about who we are as a group. How did we come to be? So I went back in our notes and I saw that in April this year, Shannon invited us to an information potluck. We couldn't have an in-person food potluck, but we were able to have an info potluck and just share people from across Kairos, Praes North shared sort of what they were up to, what was going on in their lives. And out of that, a few of us, the ones that you've just heard, were kind of stepped forward to help be a coordinating committee. In May, we began meeting monthly. So this is still pretty new for all of us. And one of the first things we thought of doing or needed to do was begin planning this event itself so that we could sort of reactivate the Prairies North region. So that meant things like planning this meeting, setting up an email account, which I think all of you've probably received an email from, choosing some roles. So I'm the convener for the group. Sean is the treasurer. Amanda is the secretary. And no, Sean, Sean is the external up to national person, and Javit is the secretary. And Amanda, Amanda is the secretary, and Javit is the treasurer. If that's not clear, we'll make it clear later. You can tell why it's too early in the morning for me. After, so we've been working on those kinds of things, meeting only once a month for about an hour at lunchtime. So we try not to let this overwhelm all of our work. And then in August, the a sort of side group that's associated with us, but was organized or animated with in connection with Javit and Amanda, the decolonization group had an event in Fort Carleton, I think, yes. And out of that, we realized we needed to have a bank account. And so that was what led to some further discussions and setting that kind of stuff up. And Javit, because we have a bank account, is going to now give a bit of an update on our very simple financial statement or matters. Yeah, thanks, Kevin. That's funny. I think I said I became the treasurer in August. I guess it was technically made, but it feels like sort of the treasurer activity started in August when we opened up bank accounts. Yeah, Kevin and I are the signers on that bank account, given that we're both here in Edmonton. For this year to date, all of the financial activity in the region has related to the activities by our affiliate, the decolonization group. And Amanda will talk about that group a little bit more in a bit. There's certainly many more people than just demanded me on that, but that is the connection to the coordinating committee. So that group actually has organized three events this year with the third one being this afternoon. And they did a lot of fundraising to support those events and then also utilized some of a $1,000 grant that Kairos Canada has for the regions. We're still reconciling some of the expenses and revenue from these events. I think at the moment, my calculations show were that that group has spent about $3,000 on those three events. Most of that's on our area. And they raised well over $2,000. And most of that came from other nonprofit organizations in the region, such as churches and I think a couple of colleges and so on. So most of those transactions were handled by Kairos Canada on our behalf, as Kevin sort of alluded to there. But now that we have a bank account and a treasurer and signers, we're going to be able to be a little bit more independent, I hope. I do expect to finish up the year with a surplus of a few hundred dollars, something in that range. And most of that is already designated to support the decolonization group again in early 2022 with what would be a fourth event at that point, I think. In 2022, we also expect to receive another 1,000 from Kairos Canada and Shannon's here so she can correct me if I'm wrong. But my understanding is there is a potential for asking for additional funds if we need them. So I am interested towards the end of today, hearing this end of this morning, hearing if, you know, to what extent financial support might be helpful in local activities and if the Coordinating Committee has a role in that. So and I definitely don't want to encourage fundraising and kind of explain how that can work. So so I am able on behalf of Kairos for his north to accept e-transfer donations at that Gmail address that Kevin alluded to and we'll make sure it's in the chat. I think at some point here. But so I can accept the transfer donations there. And in theory, cash and check could be possible, too. I would have to provide a mailing address, probably, or pick those up in person. But that could be possible. But the big thing is we cannot issue tax receipts for donations received in the region. So for donors requiring tax receipts, we should encourage them to donate directly to Kairos Canada. Exceptions would be like churches or like I mentioned, other nonprofit organizations, they shouldn't have to worry about tax receipts if they want to support our work, they could be transferred directly. And anyone wanting to donate by credit card or securities or anything complicated or exotic should just donate directly to Kairos Canada. Yeah, that's that's all I have. I wish it was a bit more formal. I'm used to providing more formal financial updates, but that's what I got for now. Thanks. So before we move to the next piece, just noticing the chat, somebody Catherine asked, are there individual memberships? And Shannon replied that everyone who's on the email list is considered a member or participant. And Shannon said she'll talk about that more when she gives her update in a bit. All right. Thank you, Javid, for the financial news notes. They're not quite a statement, but notes. And you can see that near the end, we're going to do updates from the regions next. So each of you will now get a chance to share just some of what's been happening in your region, loosely connected to Kairos initiatives or independent. I know a lot of groups are not as active as they had been. But we want to hear what's going on in the regions. And then after that, we want to have a roundtable discussion about what we should be doing going forward. And that's that's where some of what Javid was talking about. If there's things that we need sponsorship for, if you need a bit of funding to kick off a project or something, that's where we can talk about those kinds of things. So keep those in the back of your mind. So now I would like to invite someone from the Regina group. I think it was Dan Beverage was going to share a little bit about what's been happening in the Regina Kairos region. Hi, folks. Yeah, thanks, Kevin. I I've sent in my my report. I don't know if there's any advantage to putting out on the screen, but I'll I can proceed. The Kairos Regina local group is located in 3 4 territory and is submitted by me Dan Beverage, the convener of the group, along with Kathy Cameron, who is here today as who she's our recorder. Nick Jessen, communications, who's not able to be with us today. And Laura Stewart, Climate Change Working Group chair. I see Laura is here today. So we've had 16 meetings beginning in June 2019 and running up until November of this of this year. Preliminary meetings with, first of all, with Shannon and then another to establish the Regina group. And thirdly, a meeting to establish our terms of reference and to working groups. And we had several individuals, folks who registered as Kairos companions and two church bodies became Kairos communities, notably the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina. So since then, we've had 13 monthly meetings. Most of them about eight or 10 people attending. So most of our activities are are in the working groups, which meet separately. So first of all, the record, record reconciliation and indigenous rights working group said had several meetings before COVID. Then a couple of them joined the Saskatoon based KPN Indigenous Justice Subgroup via Zoom and the Regina group basically dissolved as the KPN group became more active in organizing events, which I'm sure you'll you'll hear about shortly. The secondly, the climate change working group has been very active and regularly held monthly meetings. And it includes members from not only Regina, but Saskatoon and one from Herbert. It hosted for the love of creation, climate conversations launch in February via Zoom with 24 registered. We're quite happy with that. And it inspired in May and June, another for the love of creation set of two Zoom sessions at Wesley United Church and a worship service at Wesley and a noon hour Zoom session at the University of Regina Lifelong Learning Center with 36 registered. I use the word inspired to mean that the they were not actually planned and organized by Kairos directly. But these would not have happened without Kairos and the for love of creation program. The working group promoted the FLC advocacy campaign before the federal election was called. It hosted a train the trainer session. It inspired a school grounds tree planting project. Several Regina public school board trustees are quite interested and they're discussing it in their committees. And the Regina Catholic School Board also is being approached. Trees, of course, being one way of sequestering carbon and dealing with climate change, action and education. The committee is also sustaining an interest in the city of Regina plans regarding the emerging energy and sustainability framework. There's also a group, a discussion group at Broadway United Church. They decided to provide a copy of the Seth Klein book, A Good War, to all Saskatchewan MLA's. Maybe sometime they'll find out if anybody actually read it. I really do hope that they do read the book. Very good book. OK, other activities. We maintain membership in the SCIC. That's the Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation and attended the HGM, but potential benefits so far. We haven't actually used them. And of course, several of us attended the Kairos 20 anniversary event in October and the fall of creation fall symposium October 30th. All via Zoom. It's it's a little heavy for some of us to to take in all of those hours. OK, finally, hopes for the future. Regarding climate change, education and action, the for the love of creation program this past year has demonstrated the amazing and inspiring potential of Kairos, Citizens for Public Justice and about 35 other faith groups who are operating together at the national level in three key areas. Local and congregational engagement or education, political advocacy and theological reflection. But currently, Kairos and for the love of creation have very little connection with local churches. The challenge now for Kairos or Jaina is to help the for the love of creation program connect. Connection, really important word, connect more meaningfully with church congregations, both urban and rural, so they can, number one, carry on education to learn about climate change justice issues. Number two, participate in political advocacy, making public statements of that is municipal, provincial and federal government levels and thirdly, engage in action projects such as tree planting, solar energy, etc. So to conclude, I thank Cathy, Nick and Laura for all their contributions and Shannon for all her support and thank you. Thank you, Dan. That's a really positive way to start this today and I'm glad to hear all the activity that's going on in Regina. It's great. I was taking notes about, especially about that challenge you noticed and we'll maybe talk about that later. Next, I would like to invite Wendy to speak for Lethbridge if Wendy's on and if you're able to. Sure. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. And I'm joining you from the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy. I should have started by saying OK, which in Blackfoot is hello. So I'm on the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which is part of Treaty Seven. So there is really no formal Kairos committee here in Lethbridge. There are a few of us who are members remain as members of Kairos, but we're we're actively involved with out of McKillip United Church, there is the Justice, Peace and Social Action Committee. So we're more actively involved with them in things that we do. And for the past year, perhaps maybe year and a half, our main focus has been doing some work and being collaborating with a number of other groups on the plans for reintroducing coal mining in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. So we've been collaborating with a bunch of other groups, such as the some wildlife and other conservation groups. There's also some pop up groups that have started, such as Together Alberta, Alberta Beyond Coal, that kind of stuff. And we've been a part of letter writing campaigns and a couple of demonstrations and held a lot of meetings and gone to a bunch of things that have happened with some of the land owner groups that are directly affected, that are directly about the lands that the government of Alberta through an Australian corporation that is looking at doing open pit coal mining. So we've been primarily working on that. And and most recently within not within the last couple of weeks, Justice, Peace and Social Action has members who are seconded or representative on the United Church is living into right relations committee. And as part of that, that work, film has recently been produced here by the Kai and I First Nation with regards to the to the opioid crisis. And so there have been a number of public showings of of those films. And we had Reverend John Snow come down and facilitated discussion afterwards on on the devastation that it is that it is obviously causing in in the communities and how to dig deep into our into our soul and our psyche and concentrate on right relations and compassion and things like that. We are a small group, I think maximum of about maybe 10 people meet monthly, except during December and during the summer holidays from June, June, July and August. We don't meet, but they do carry on with some activities during that time. Some of the women are also part of the raging grannies. So we we go out and sing at rallies and do stuff like that. And that's basically that's basically what we've we've been up to in the West Virginia. Thank you. Thank you, Wendy. It's good to hear from you again. I remember a few years ago, you and I were working in a group together on the calls to action and the curriculum in it. Alberta, of course, that was a different curriculum than we're dealing with now. But it's good to hear from you again. Yes, let's see again, too. My my regrets, the device that I'm on now does not have a camera. And I was on my phone before, but the battery was starting to die out. So I switched it instead. Yeah, good to see everyone again. I remember Dan from a number of years ago and even some gatherings, regional gatherings that the Regina group had had organized. So it's good to see old folks and Shannon and I'm seeing new people too. Thanks. Next, we'd like to hear from someone from the Athabasca region and it's possibly somebody from the Right Relations Committee. But if not, we have maybe Sean will speak to them for them if there's no one from the Right Relations Committee. Well, then, Sean, maybe go ahead. They have a really good reason for not being here. Oh, maybe Julie wants to speak to that. Sorry, I don't want to interrupt. Is it the Right Relations Committee of Northern Spirit Regional Council or is it a different? Sorry, Northern Northern Spirit. Yes, it is. That's that's who they're connected with quite a bit. OK, well, let me just say very quickly, first, it's awesome to see everyone and hear a bunch of voices I haven't heard in many years. And I'm the staff support for the United Church that includes the Being Good Relations Network that covers all of the treaty territories of Alberta, actually, and into Peace River Country. Those treaties in B.C. and up to Yellowknife. And Sean can probably add stuff I don't know, but I just wanted to follow up on what Wendy was referring to and note that we participated in an action around the Alberta curriculum specific to the commitments of the TRC calls to action. And frankly, speaking among friends, got a completely BS answer back from the government justifying itself a lengthy one, so at least before some to write that. But all the all the congregations in Chinook, Winds and Northern Spirit were invited to participate in that and a number did. And I only got one email complaining that we shouldn't be getting involved in politics. I'm not sure where that person's been spending their time in the United Church. But yeah, so it feels like we need to come up with some follow up. But I think that was one small thing we could at least offer and a lot of involvement were in short day and a lot of interest in connecting with Kairos and gladness that this this group has has resurrected and just needing to figure out some stronger connections. I I think blanket exercise, of course, in association with Kairos is something that comes up a fair bit. A lot of uncertainty about where that's going and the desire to eventually have a meeting with Shannon and others to help us or understandings. And maybe that just needs to be an ecumenical meeting, not a United Church only meeting. So with that, I'll turn it back over to to Sean, but thank you all. Yeah, thanks, Julie, for for that update, piece of update, too. And I I know that Cecile Fausach, who who is the person who's our our contact person in the Athabasca region. Yeah, they they mentioned that what she mentioned that she and her spouse, Bruce Jackson, wouldn't be able to be here today because they're actively working with the so I'm just reading my notes. So I get this right, the keepers of the Water Society and the Public Library to hold a water for life, water for strife conference in Athabasca concerning the impact of climate change on water in Alberta with a focus on indigenous perspectives. So they they're heavily active. And as Cecile mentioned, and I this came up as a theme when I was talking with Wendy, too. And it's great to hear from you again, Wendy, the sense that there have both in Athabasca and in Lethbridge, there had been very active kairos groups. And now there are very active kairos people who are not really doing kairos groups so much but doing all the work that is associated with with kairos. And so I know there's been lots of treaty type events that that folks in Athabasca have been part of. As Julie mentioned, they're they're they're linked in with the Be A Good Relations leadership group. And also Cecile mentioned that they she's the secretary for the Remembering the Children Society that they've been involved for over ten years with researching and commemorating the children who died at the Red Deer Indian Industrial School and were buried in the Associated Cemetery. So they've been doing a lot of work around that. So there's lots of stuff going on. I do apologize that I can't give you all the details. But just to know that this type of work is active and ongoing in in Athabasca and in places where there's not necessarily a formal kairos group. It's still good kairos work. Thanks, Sean. Yeah, it is good to hear. And and that really is in keeping with what I understand about kairos. But this is a network of people of faith and goodwill. I like that phrase and I want to keep using it that we are. We want to hear what people of faith and goodwill are up to all around our region. Speaking of that, the next one I was going to ask about was the Grand Prairie region, Peace River, Saskatoon, etc. And I don't mind sharing that I was trying to be in touch with somebody from there. And in my email exchanges with them, they said, you know, with COVID, they have not been actively meeting together as over the last two years. So they didn't feel they had anything to report. If there's somebody from that region here who would like to share, I would be happy to turn it over to you. But well, but they seem to be a passionate group up there. And they were when in talking with Shannon, I'll maybe put you on the spot a little bit, Shannon, Shannon said you would hear from them once in a while when they would have a fundraiser and send in money. And so it was really just a very encouraging group to have that, you know, even though we were not as actively coordinating the Prairies North Region, there are still people who care up in Grand Prairie where I was born and they're working and involved in raising funds and doing their part as well. So I wanted to acknowledge that. And I'm going to just find the one email I had from someone from Helen McDonald, who said they're involved in projects like refugee sponsorship and and other social justice issues through their churches. So that's that there is a group up in Grand Prairie. And maybe part of our work, which we'll talk about later, is how to reengage and maybe pass this on to the next generations. The next group we wanted to hear from. Oh, and Amanda, your back is the decolonization group. Just in time. Yes, that's right. Let the Lord hold the Internet connection for now. Yes, I'm so pleased to share an update about the newly formed Kairos Prairies North decolonization group, which is made up of settlers committed to dismantling colonialism with the goal of facilitating educational conversations, among other settlers from primarily Christian faith communities about decolonization and systemic discrimination in order to equip learners for advocacy and action. Over the last year, we've planned three educational events that prioritize Indigenous voices and create safe space to unsettle settlers. So just a few words on our history. In the fall of 2020, Kairos Prairies North, as we know, didn't have a coordinating committee. So Shannon approached a few of us with some history or connection with Kairos to pull together an annual gathering. And Kathy Cameron, Mark Biglin, Pritchard and I, as well as others, came together to under Shannon's leadership to plan an event a learning event that focused on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Canadian law. And it was called Embracing Indigenous Rights, bringing life to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. And it was a two part online event in November 22nd and 24th, which I was realizing is almost exactly a year ago this weekend. And at the event, we heard from lawyer, Sonja Eggerman, activist, Michelle Brass, and had a bird's eye view for Mary Ann Morrison and a good turnout, about 100 registered and a number attended. We prioritized small group discussions, seeing value in learning together. And one of the objectives of that event was to inspire and equip attendees to participate in individual or collective action around UNDRIP and Canada. And so folks who wanted to take action after the event were to put their names forward. And so a number did and I was to coordinate them. And that's how our group came together. So in December, 2020, in January, 2021, we had our first meetings where Javid Summers, Trevor Harriet, Tegan Brock, Sandra Blankensop, Jordan Cantwell, Julie Graham, joined Mark and Kathy and I at the table. And we, at that point, Bill C-15 had hit the floor. So the legislation to put UNDRIP into Canadian law, essentially. And our first thought was to do advocacy. So we started prepping meetings with MPs, but we quickly realized that there were such a range of perspectives on the bill and indeed that our own organizations weren't taking a position on it. So we decided to take an educational approach instead. We wanted to create neutral space to hear varying Indigenous perspectives on the bill. And we were just delighted by the incredible Indigenous women who came to the table or who came to speak at the event. We had Judge Mary Ellen Terpel-LeFond, Akkoui and Sylvia McAdam, Seisou Asham, among others. For our event, which was called Bill C-15, Step Forward or Step Back, which was held online on Tuesday, March 16th. And we had a huge level of interest in this event. 600 people registered and about 200 did attend and another 200 watched the video afterwards. So it was exciting to be facilitating, you know, public dialogue around an issue that were on a lot of minds and hearts and to be hearing Indigenous voices speaking to these issues. So after that event, we did in May, we did some light strategic planning. We named ourselves the Decolonization Working Group and developed a framework for action, which named our objectives as facilitating educational conversations among settlers and newcomers about decolonization, systemic discrimination and intersecting issues to equip for advocacy and action. We want to create safe space to unsettle settlers and prioritize Indigenous voices without burdening them. And we want to do educational sessions and advocacy and action-oriented work together. So we decided to keep our momentum going and plan a summer event. We chose to focus on land, problematizing crown land and deepening our understanding of treaty relations and the land. It was summer, COVID was abating. We decided we could hold this in person. And we did so at Fort Carleton. Trevor Harriet extended an invitation to the treaty land sharing network who agreed to partner with us, much to our delight. And Mary Smiley joined our planning group. And so together we hosted Decolonizing Ourselves Land and the Spirit of Treaty at Fort Carleton on August 7th. And we had about 75 registrants, approximately 45 to 50 people were there. And they were in small groups that circulated among the learning stations. And we had amazing speakers. Yet again, Elder Maria Campbell spoke, Bushy family lawyer, Eleanor Sunchild spoke and our own Javid Summers and the treaty land sharing networks, Morley Mayer. So it was a fantastic event. This fall, we've been focusing our energies on planning this afternoon's impactful and delightful event, Decolonizing Ourselves Rediscovering Treaty with the Earth with speakers Reverend Dr. Stan McKay and Reverend Dr. Bob Haverlich. In closing, I'll just say it's been such an honor working with this amazing group of human beings and the meaningful learning opportunities that it's provided all of us and the folks who have who have engaged have been so rich. I think that what is working well with our group is that we share a commitment to decolonization personally and often in the work we do outside Cairo's we are committed to disrupting the mainstream narrative and pursuing shifts in power and systemic change. Our group members are all doers. Everyone contributes to the larger effort, their knowledge, their abilities, their their relationships and move into leading roles and supporting roles as we as we go through our work. We're also well organized and we seem to really like each other. We have fun together. So it's just been a great experience. We welcome all interested folks to the table. We have members across the Saskatchewan and Alberta. And if people are interested in joining us, they can contact me. I will pop my email in the chat. And I think that's it. Subject any questions or additions? Is that a clap or a hand raised there? I see some some thanks. Awesome work. Great. Thank you, Amanda. And that's the decolonization group. And it's it's an amazing group. And we're looking forward to hearing more from them later today. I have to confess, I missed the Calgary region. So we're going to go back to Calgary before we hear from the treaty land sharing network as well. So, Clint, would you like to give an update from the Calgary region? Well, you know, you're in Edmonton. So missing Calgary is probably a common anyway. The it's very interesting to hear Wendy talk about how she's meeting with 10 people in a group, but it's not a Kairos group. And it's interesting to hear that the work is work is being done but outside of Kairos around the region. The Kairos group in Calgary is is non existent. Except we set up a subgroup some years ago on homeless issues, housing issues and Doreen Cott is here from that group. Several were informed of it, but it looks like Doreen, you're the you're the one and she can speak to that. What has happened to the Kairos group is attrition, a very important person died. Another has moved to be closer to grandchildren and wait, moved to White Rock. A couple have had serious illnesses. One of our key members, Ryan Anderson, left the Kairos group and is the staff person for the Calgary Alliance for the common good. And they're an interfaith group. That has a social justice wing and has taken over a lot of the various concerns. We have the Snow Brothers. You mentioned John Snow earlier. Somebody, Wendy, I think mentioned John Snow and John and Tony. They they're they're from the Stoney Reserve here. They're both proceeding through the United Church clergy formation route and they're excellent, excellent fellows and are available and would be willing to travel anywhere in the region. I'm sure to to speak to indigenous issues and and assist. They certainly are great with people in Calgary. And and so anyway, Tony works with Hillhurst United Church and is the is one of the driving forces in the right relations group there, which is not restricted to United Church at all and continues the indigenous work. We have a climate group in town that's very active and and again is is much broader. Bob Hawksworth politician political type is is part of that Bill Phipps several others Joe Vipan. These these guys and women, these people are doing a lot on climate change issues. We have Wendy mentioned the coal mining issue. A lot of and you've mentioned the the proposals for a new curriculum in Alberta. The a lot of the energy seems to be over against. The non united conservative party in in this province. And we're all earnestly hoping and praying that they will not represent Alberta again. I don't know what else to to really say. The Kairos committee as the Catholic Church is withdrawn into other concerns. We have a new bishop in the last few years who has different priorities. And yeah, so the Kairos group per se is nonexistent except in the in the guise of what was a subcommittee and is now the committee, the Kairos homeless concerned group. And Doreen is here to I hope Doreen you're going to speak to that and what you're doing. You're muted incidentally. Doreen. Doreen, if you're if you're prepared to speak, we'd love to hear from you about homelessness working group. I can add to that off the cuff, I guess, but sounds of it. We can call ourselves Kairos affordable housing working group officially. The other name is called a place to call home. And as Clint mentioned, this happened about 12 years ago. We were discovering that we had people moving in and out of housing and we were rescuing right and left from our church, which is Parkdale United Church. And at that Kairos meeting, I think Clint was there. The man from the drop in center said do housing. Well, at Kairos we said we have no budget. It was very interesting. We couldn't own land. We couldn't give charity refunds. So we started 12 years ago. And now we are a collaborative outfit working with partners Calgary homeless foundation. And their subsidiary home space that handles our land title because we couldn't buy land. And we couldn't give charity. So home space does it. And we work with cops whom we now have fired to do our residents in the building. And we now are working with four low income apartment buildings for Calgary's highest acuity people, mostly off the street or shelters, mostly indigenous, although we don't talk about that a lot. So we've been able to really follow through with our truth and reconciliation goals here. So basically, Kairos is housing about 800 and some people. And that has involved a lot of building maintenance and involved with the programming and individual support. We've had a wonderful opportunity to work with people doing reconciliation guidelines all 94 of them. You won't believe what we've come up with. We've eaten all sorts of food. We've built TVs and done smudging and gone canoeing. And I'm leaving as soon as this is over to house a lady that's been in the shelter and the baby's arriving thirsty by cesarean. So I've got a busy weekend. So Kairos is very involved in Calgary in a very big way. Thank you, Doreen, for that update. That's really good to hear. That's great. I, yeah, we'll have to connect more in a bit. And I'm glad you made time in your day for us for that. Now I'd like to hear from the treaty land sharing network. I'm really excited to hear from you a bit of a preview of what we're going to hear or of what your group is about before we hear more from you in depth in the afternoon with the decolonization group. I'm expecting Emily and Martha, Emily Eaton and Martha Robbins to share a little bit about the treaty land sharing network. Hi, everyone. I'm going to do the sharing. And then if anyone has any questions, then Emily will, we just decided five minutes was too late. So, so, yeah, my name is Martha Robbins. I'm from Treaty Six Territory in Saskatoon, which is Nehuac, Anishinaabe, Stoney, Dakota and Dakota Territories and Homeland of the Maintee. Today I'm at Little Manitou Lake and I'm not sitting in a sauna though it looks like it. It's just a pine cabin. And I know that Mary Smiley has been the, the contact person and the connection between the treaty land sharing network and Cairo. So, today you're just seeing a couple of new faces. I know quite a few folks in this group but not everybody. So, thank you for welcoming us here. And Emily Eaton is here as well and you can see she's, there she is. So, the treaty land sharing network is a group of farmers and ranchers and other landholders who have come together to begin the crucial work of honoring treaties. And in the spirit of sharing the land we welcome indigenous people to access the land that we farm to practice their way of life. And we are committed to implementing the treaty relationship, engaging in ongoing learning together and as we practice being treaty people together. And we're also intent on establishing a different way forward for rural Saskatchewan, which has been known of course for deep-seated racism among other things. So, and I'm just going to give you a brief update of where we're, what we've been up to for the last year because I think Mary presented at your, at your meeting last year. So, it won't give you the full scope of what we've been up to but just in the last year. We've hosted a number of gatherings on the land with, with elders and knowledge keepers. And then in, on July 15th, 2021, we had our public launch at Gladworth Saskatchewan, which is Mary Smiley and Ian McCurry's farm. And it's right on the border of treaty six and treaty four territory, which are the treaties that we currently have network land in. More than 70 people attended the, the launch and it was a pipes, it began with a pipe ceremony. We had sharing circles press conference because it was our public launch. And then we shared a meal together. And we had wonderful media coverage coming out of that. Just, I'm sure I'm hopeful that you've seen some of it, but we had everything from Moose John, North Battlefield papers to the Western producer to the Globe and Mail at the national level. So, we were really happy with the, with the media coverage from that event. Also in the last year, we've developed and, and this is before leading up to the launch, we developed the logo for the treaty land sharing network. And I have to say that that was a longer process than the coordinating committee anticipated designing by, by consensus is a long process. But we arrived at a, at a logo that people are happy with. And we also developed a website, which you can find at treaty land sharing network.ca. And maybe Emily, you can put that in the chat. So we have our, our website went live as well on at our launch on July 15. We, we designed and got got printed signs, aluminum signs for land title holders to put up on their land when they join the network. And we've distributed over 50 of those so far. And going into the launch, we already had a number of, we already had quite a few land title holders signed up with the network. And we've had coming out of the launch, a significant interest and more folks joining up. So I think at this moment, we're at 34 locations listed across the province. We've also, we also this past year engaged in advocacy. So we started HALT, we wrote HALT, the sale of crown lands, open letter, and then organized to get various organizations to sign on. In the end, I think we had more than 30 organizations sign on to that letter. And then we launched as well, a petition, an individual petition to sign as well, working on stopping the sale of crown lands. And then more recently, we've had coming out of the launch, we also had a lot of interest from other provinces in either expanding the treaty land sharing network or organizing their own version of treaty land sharing networks. And we're still grappling with how, how and what that looks like, partly due to our own capacity and wanting and also because we want to be very careful that we're not, we've had a lot of successes and we're very, very happy with how things are going. But we're also very cognizant of the fact that we're just actually, despite working on this for three, more than three years, we're just actually at the very beginning stages of, of land actually being shared. So the, you know, we don't want to export a model that we don't know works yet. So, with that in mind, though, we did have two meetings on October 17th with, with folks from Alberta that were interested in, in learning more about the treaty land sharing network. And then on November 10th, with folks from Manitoba that were interested in the network. And, and now what we're, what, what they're working on is whether they can self-organize within, within those, within their groups and put forward a proposal for pilot projects in those provinces. So we'll see, we're going to take this one step at a time and, and see what we can, what we can manage and help us to, to, to continue organizing this network. And then just two more things to report on. One is we've also, we also engage in learning opportunities along the way. And so we run a book club and this most recently we've, we've, our book club had two meetings and actually thank you to Javid for, for that as well, participating in that. But we had a book club focusing on the Treaty Elders of Saskatchewan book and we ran that for two sessions. Emily has it right there. And we also just recently, just this last week had a Buffalo Treaty webinar. And, and that was, that was a wonderful event as well. So we're, we're trying to always offer learning opportunities and other ways to engage in the network. So in terms of upcoming, upcoming items, we are focusing now, we're turning our attention. Last year we spent a lot of time focusing on recruiting land title holders and, and trying to move folks that have been supportive and part of the network from the beginning from, from being participants in our events to actually putting their land up as on the website and being open for land sharing. And so now this year we're, we're focusing more on Indigenous outreach and making sure that they're, that we are creating as barrier-free opportunities as possible for Indigenous folks to, to actually access and use the land in the network. So that's, that's our key focus for the coming year. And then also, I just wanted to mention that we are also going to be hosting another book club in January focused on Maria Campbell's Halfbreed. And so if anyone is interested in joining us for that, please, please let us know and we can add you to the list so that you can get the emails for our events. I think that's all that I wanted to say in terms of updates at the moment. And of course, if you have any questions, Emily and I are here to answer. And thank you for the space and the time. Yes, thanks for sharing. Are there any questions for Martha or Emily? Thank you so much. Let's move now into a bit of a roundtable time. I've been really encouraged by all the stories. And I know we want to, oh, one question about how to contact the treaty land sharing network that's in the book, in the chat. Who is the author of the book? So things are being answered in the chat. Yes, let's let's keep this conversation going by moving into kind of a roundtable discussion. As we were getting to know each other as a coordinating committee, and also trying to get to know the region, we were asking ourselves, what does the region need? What do we need to be doing as a coordinating committee? And what what are the region, the local groups looking for? So you've heard from each other. So now I just want to open the floor to anyone who wants to talk about for about five to 10 minutes. We know that people have, where there's another event coming up and we don't want to take up your whole lunchtime. So I'm going to actually maybe shorten it up to more closer to the five minute range. But if you have brainstorming that you'd like to do about what should Cairo's Prayers North be doing in the next year or two, let's hear from each other. So I see somebody in the chat online book study. Is that responding to the treaty land sharing network? Or is that about something that our Cairo's Prayers North could be doing? Because I think that sounds like a great idea. Just to clarify the for the treaty land sharing network book club, they are all online. We try to do the land events in person. Of course, we were following COVID rules. So and but we did have the launch was our first kind of big event in the COVID world. But that was in July. So now things have changed again. But the book clubs are all online. And I'm thinking it's good that Shannon's here because maybe we can if we're doing a newsletter or updates, we can actually are we able to issue an invitation to that? Or is that too broad of an invitation if it goes out through Cairo's like Martha or Emily? I think it's probably okay. We do want to try like ensure that people within the network have an opportunity to participate. But so far, they haven't been too, you know, over full. Maybe we could just double check with the coordinate the other members of the coordinating committee and let you know. Okay. And we can also talk about there. There are a few different sizes of lists. For instance, we could email only to the participants of this event, or we could email to certain just a Saskatchewan or whatever. Yeah. That sounds good. Yeah. We'll let you know. As we were phoning around and trying to talk to the different regions as a coordinating committee, we heard a couple of ideas. One was around a newsletter. And there is there is a sort of a newsletter that goes out to that Shannon and the national offices responsible for. Does anyone have any thoughts about what is this something useful that you would like to hear more more about? And what would what kinds of things would you like to go in a newsletter? Or are there other ideas you have for how we could be supporting each other? Hello. Hello. I'm Helen. Yes. Yes. It's Helen Northcott from Colac. This is so this is so uplifting. I'm 79 years old. I'm a survivor of the Indian residential school where I was in from seven years old to those 18 and the United Church of Canada in Portia Prairie Manitoba. I have been isolated. This pandemic isolation is great to me because I have learned to reflect on my past to deal with those 11 years. And now this Kairos was introduced to me by TRC when they had a conference in Calgary. And the representative here in Northern Alberta, he called me. He said, do you want to take part in in a conference TRC conference in Calgary? I said yes. So he said through Kairos. He said, you can apply to get funding for accommodations for your travels and your food. So I said, thank you very much. I said that'd be great. But I didn't use it until I went to Ottawa for another conference for TRC and Kairos helped me with my finances there. And that was my first introduction to this wonderful group of people. And I live in Northern Alberta. So it's really, I'm really isolated. And to hear such awesome positive action, because of my 11 years in institution as a little girl. And I have lived that racism. And I understand about systemic racism. I am not educated. I have great education. So but I have life experience. I have been and I refused the church and God when they released me from that Indian residential school at age 18. And I did not, I did not read the Bible. I had nothing to do with the church or religion after 18 years old. Until I was 55 when the light of God came upon me and changed my life. And that that journey, I God sent me to the passion play in Drum Hall or Alberta. And I became part of that group for 10 years. And in that span of time, I have taken off the layers of all what they tried to teach me in that Indian school that that I believed in. Because as if you're told things, you taught things for 13, 300 days out of the year for 11 years. But by the time you're nine 10, you totally believe it. I believe that I was stupid. I was dirty. I was backwards. I was lazy. I was a drunken Indian. And there were worse names that those white women supervisors, they call them, taught me that I am I was taught that I was going to end up on the streets that I was no good. I believed it. So when I had the light of God come upon me, I God led me to the passion play. That 10 years I spent living the life of Christ on when he was on earth taught me that I'm not any of that was all lies. I'm not. I am not. God gave me a gift in Jesus name and guided by the Holy Spirit. I am compassionate, caring woman. I became a deacon in a local church here. And I became a reference in May 2016. But the church in this town in 2008 made a public statement in the car and a sermon that they did not want Indians in their church. And I was only Indian in that church after I came to Christ. So when in 2016, when the Bishop of Edmonton came to our church to to welcome in a new priest, she was with me when I had another God visit. And that's when she said, Helen, I want you to contact my office in Edmonton. And I want you to start your training in EFM to become a deacon. So I started. But the church itself here made a public statement that they did not want Indians in their church. That is something as a Christian that I could not fathom. And I spent many, many, many, many nights asking God. The first, the first commandment is to love him with a heart, body and soul. Totally love him, worship him. The second one is to love one another. What happened in that church? I asked. I cannot understand these. So I have been asked many times to speak at groups of people. I have all of also spoke to the school children in the Roman Catholic Church here in this town to speak about my life, my 11 years at the Indian residential school. And I'm always, I'm from Manitoba and I live in Alberta. I have never, never been back to my reserve except for my mom, my dad, my one sister, my brother's funeral in the time I was from now, from 18 years old till now. Those are the only times because the school taught me that the Indian way is the work of the devil, that we are, we, I could not visit my reserve and my relatives because I was taught that we are all work of the devil. We are evil. I believed it after 11 years in that institution. I believed it. But people ask me today when I speak in front of them, they question me after and they said, how come, how come you're like the way you are? I said, if it wasn't for the Lord our God, he saved me. I understand, understand. And he even, God shows me, he even teaches me to face evil. I have faced it. I have seen it. So everywhere I go today at 79 years old, I'm the only Indian in the group anywhere I go. I have, I, in this group, in this area, I joined the, I'm a culture. I joined a quilter's guild here and I am the only Indian in that group. So I, I hear, I hear all of these ideas and feelings about the white society and how they think and feel about us Indians. And these, these white people are retired, retired teachers of many years. They taught in the Indian schools on the reserves here. And they're retired nurses. They have treated native people in this area and their opinions. I hear, I hear it all about this racism. And I asked God, explain to me what systemic racism is. And I understand. I understand. But you talked about the land. I know how the white settlers that came in this area, I know how they think. They do, there's a, when they look at me, they discuss it and then they look at me and then there's silence. Today I asked that the church that, that I became a deacon, I asked them right from each level ranked in the church, I went right up to the national, the national leader of Canada. And every level I am always shunned or there's silence from the local priest to the top, the top leader of Canada. I am shunned as an Indian. And I don't know what the white people still believe in. How do we undo that? Just like me, I went, it took me 10 years of the passion play to get rid of the layers and layers of all those lies. How do we do that? Only through education. And Cairo's is a good step. Yeah. I'm sorry. Once I start talking about the Lord our God, I cannot stop praising him, honoring him, loving him. So I love you all. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Yes, thanks. Thank you Helen for sharing. It's I'm glad you shared and your story is a powerful one and one we need. We need you yourself to be part of us and we, this is just to undo all those lies that we're told. So thank you for sharing and we need to keep, keep hearing that story. I also want to respect that some of us have a need to hear have some lunch before our next meeting in, in about 40 minutes. And so let's wrap up the time of brainstorming. There are some people who made comments in the chat about what we can do and we'll keep that our email is open. We want to keep hearing from you and we'll keep reaching out to the regions throughout the rest of the year. But please think of us when you're thinking about how your groups can be active in your regions and especially Helen, you, if there's ways that Kyros can support you in your region, that'd be really good for us to hear too. The last thing I wanted to do today before we, we leave and try to leave in a good way is to hear from Kyros Canada and Shannon has been our Zoom host today and will help us is, is, can give us a bit of an update on what's going on in Kyros across the country. So Shannon. Thanks very much, Kevin. I'm very glad to be here and very excited, along with the rest of you, to hear about what all is happening in the region and to get to meet some folks I haven't met before and to just learn a little bit more about what is going on in the Prairies North region. And I thought that my role today would be to give you a few tips and connecting points. I consider that to be my role to help with connecting points. I was planning to give you a tour of the website to give you some ideas about how many resources are at your fingertips. I'm not sure I'm not sure if we want to take the time we've had some really good discussion. Maybe I will just do it but shorten my plan. So I'm going to share my screen here. And so when I'm doing this you know that if you have a question, simply unmute yourself and speak up because I can't see your raised hands or anything. One thing that I think people often miss about the Kyros website is that if you scroll down on the home page, all the news is right there. So new information. And so there's a letter of solidarity with the Wetzel at Land Defenders. There are going to be highlights of stories of courage about the activism against gender-based violence. And so there is a story about the new empowering temporary foreign workers partner. You can find that on the front page of the website. So all you need is kyroscanada.org but there's lots more there. You can learn about the various areas of work, ecological justice, gender justice, indigenous rights, migrant justice, and prophetic witness. That's what Kyros works on. Or if you know of a specific program, you know earlier Kevin and Wendy were talking about the work around curriculum change. That was the Winds of Change campaign and that is still listed as a specific program here. The mayor hub may not mean anything to you. Those letters put together, that's this one in the middle here, is the mother earth resource extraction. Mayor also being mother in French. And that hub there has stories of courage of women across mostly Latin America and North America. Many indigenous women and other women who are putting their lives on the line in the face of resource extraction. And then you will also find in this program area about our recognition that Kyros has now existed for 20 years and building on the 30 previous years of ecumenical coalitions and work together. If you missed the events at the end of October that were marking those 20 years and that gathered the voices of all different folks, global partners from various different countries, indigenous folks and some migrants and those who are working on migrant justice, people from all different walks of life who came together to talk about how they've been part of Kyros over the past 20 years and what our hopes and dreams are for the work of Kyros in the next 20 years. You can find the videos of those sessions under this program here. There are resources to order. There are newsletters that you can read if you missed past newsletters. Of course, we invite your donations. And there are many different ways to do that whether you would become a monthly supporter, which is really the backbone of the support for us that supports all the work that we're doing together. Or if you wanted to say make a specific donation to the Women of Courage program, which is then matched by the Canadian government and you can see your dollars go even further. And I wanted to highlight that there are many ways to get involved. To join Kyros as an individual or as a local initiative, whether that's a church committee or a congregation, is to simply sign up and tell us a bit more about yourself so that we can have this kind of open communication. I am going to click over to the Advocacy and Campaigns. I think this is a very important page. And so you'll see here the places where sometimes it's petitions, sometimes it's letter writing, sometimes it's other sorts of campaign work to get involved in. And you can always find the details here under Get Involved Advocacy and Campaigns. This list also has our Kyros regional gatherings. And someone asked if the videos were available from the past gatherings and they are. First the registration of the current gatherings, but then the videos from last year's gatherings are also available on that page. So many resources. And finally I'm going to just mention about this calendar of events, which you are all invited to put your events on this. Anyone can open up this section of the website and add an event. And then myself or one of my colleagues would go in and approve it. We get some events from organizations that are not affiliated and we don't approve those. But anything from you, any size of group, whether it's your congregation, your region, if you have an event that is about these areas of work, ecological justice, gender justice, indigenous rights, and migrant justice and prophetic witness on those areas. We welcome you to share your events and activities with us. So that is a very brief overview. You can also find how to contact various staff people, my self included on that website. And we just invite you to dig into the resources that are there. And if you have any questions, certainly ask. And my I am here to support your work and your advocacy and let me know any help that you would need with that. Thanks very much for being here and for giving me a little window to talk with you. And looking forward to hearing this afternoon's presentations as well. Thanks, Shannon. And yeah, it's always encouraging to hear even what's happening across the country. I know there's other regional groups like ours doing exciting things across the country and we're not working alone. That's a good thing to hear. So now I just want to thank everyone for making time today on a Saturday morning, for those in the Alberta region who had to get up early. I thank you especially for coming like myself. And but for everyone, the people who presented something from your regions and the work that you're doing, these presentations are just a small part of the work that you're all doing that takes up most of your time. So it's just so encouraging to have that. And I am looking forward to hearing from the decolonization group and the treaty land sharing network in about half an hour. And so I'm just going to invite all of you if you weren't planning, please stick around. I'm sure it will be very good. And now to close us off in a good way, I'd like to invite Sean to give us a prayer or a benediction. Thanks, Kevin. And thanks, everybody for being here and for adding your voice and for all the work that you do and all the stories that weave together to make us kairos. So I thought I'd end with a little short prayer meditation attributed to Archbishop Oscar Romero from El Salvador from years ago called a profits of a future not our own. So let's hear these words of prayer together. It helps now and then to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that God's reign always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program, even kairos, accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. But rather this is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders. Ministers, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future, not our own. And so in that prophetic spirit, may we go in peace to be a blessing for all creation. Amen.