I had the profound gift to spend some time with members of the Tsleil waututh Nation and others this week as preparations are beginning for an Interfaith Water Ceremony on the Burrard Inlet in June. As you may know, this week the Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) project officially became operational, which means a huge increase in the number of oil tankers filling up from the terminal and travelling through the mouth of the inlet. The Tsleil waututh have opposed this expansion from the beginning and continue to oppose, even though the project is continuing. We have been invited to pray with them.
Standing on the shores, looking across at the terminal, it is not difficult to imagine what it is like for them to witness their traditional waterways that have sustained them for thousands of years being used in this way. The TMX feels to them like an existential threat to their way of life and the water that has brought them life.
That, along with this weekend’s day to honour and remember missing and murdered women and girls have cast a cloud over my musing this week.
Jesus says, there is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. We are called not to hold on to our lives but to pour them out for one another. The TMX has been a deeply controversial political conflict, and in these few lines I don’t want to get into a debate about it. I just want to ask you all to pray for our Tsleil waututh friends and neighbours as they reach out to us in friendship. Take a drive out towards Cates Park and stand on the banks of the Inlet. Imagine how it is for people whose lives are intimately connected to that water way. And then pray that the water, the air, the fragile and beautiful ecosystem that sustains not only their life but ours will be protected.
Blessings
Will
Minister’s Musing for May 3 2024
Categories:
Ministers Musing