Canadian mobilizers gather for Jubilee 2025 launch webinar, February 19

 — Feb. 6, 20256 févr. 2025

Jubilee 2025: Turn Debt into Hope campaign launch webinar to feature Indigenous and Global South voices, Canadian faith leaders.

What: a group of Christian organizations, led by KAIROS Canada, are coordinating Canadian participation in Jubilee 2025, a global movement to end the mounting debt crisis. The Launch Webinar: Jubilee 2025 – Turn Debt into Hope will kick off Canadians’ participation in signing the Jubilee petition and feature insights from Indigenous and Global South voices, as well as from Canadian faith advocacy leaders. The event will feature simultaneous French translation.

Partner organizers include: Citizens for Public Justice, Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, the Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology and The Canadian Council of Churches.

Where: online, via Zoom. For more information and to register, visit the Launch Webinar: Jubilee 2025 – Turn Debt into Hope event page.

When: Wednesday, February 19, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. EST.

Who: confirmed speakers include:

  • Reverend Tony Snow, Indigenous Minister, Chinook Winds Region, United Church of Canada
  • Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat, biblical scholar, founder of the online teaching platform, Bible Remixed
  • Leah Reesor-Keller, KAIROS Canada Transitional Executive Director
  • Dean Dettloff, writer and Research and Advocacy Officer, Development and Peace
  • Global South partners—more information to be shared before the Launch

Background

The world is in a debt crisis, with 3.3 billion people living in countries that spend more on servicing their debt than on education or healthcare. This debt crisis undermines sustainable development and climate action. Jubilee 2025: Turn Debt into Hope aims to collect 100,000 signatures in Canada by the end of 2025. The signatures will support a global initiative urging world leaders to cancel unjust debts, establish a United Nations mechanism for debt resolution, and prevent future cycles of crushing debt.

The Canadian focus of the campaign also includes Indigenous rights and justice in Canada and Canada’s role as an integral part in global economic and ecological justice and debt reform.

Learn more: Canadians join global movement for debt justice with Jubilee 2025 petition drive

For more information, or to arrange an interview, contact:

KAIROS Canada: Cheryl McNamara, Communications and Advocacy Coordinator,  cmcnamara@kairoscanada.com; 416-875-0097 (mobile).

Citizens for Public Justice: Maryo Wahba, Climate Justice Policy Analyst, maryo@cpj.ca, 613-232-0275 / 1-800-667-8046 x 225.

The Canadian Council of Churches: Marina Fanous, Communications Coordinator, fanous@councilofchurches.ca

The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology: Sasquia Antunez Pineda, Advocacy and Communications, sapineda@orcie.org; 613-400-1631.

Development and Peace – Caritas Canada: English: Minaz Kerawala, Communications and Public Relations Advisor, mkerawala@devp.org; 438-943-6796 | Français: Romina Acosta Bimbera, Conseiller en communications et relations publiques, rabimbrera@devp.org; 514-257-8710 x 327.

Posted: Feb. 6, 2025 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=14518
Categories: NationTalkIn this article: Canadian Council of Churches, Caritas Internationalis, Citizens for Public Justice, Development and Peace - Caritas Canada, Jubilee 2025, KAIROS Canada, third world debt
Transmis : 6 févr. 2025 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=14518
Catégorie : NationTalkDans cet article : Canadian Council of Churches, Caritas Internationalis, Citizens for Public Justice, Development and Peace - Caritas Canada, Jubilee 2025, KAIROS Canada, third world debt


Much of Gaza has been destroyed by aerial bombardment during the Israel-Gaza conflict that began following the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas

WCC calls on President Trump to follow international law for a just peace in Gaza

 — Feb. 5, 20255 févr. 2025

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay has described the proposal of US President Trump as “tantamount to proposing full-scale ethnic cleansing and neo-colonization of the homeland of the 2 million Palestinians of Gaza.”

Pillay noted that the proposal violates every applicable principle of international humanitarian and human rights law, flouts decades of efforts by the international community – including by the USA – for a just and sustainable peace for the peoples of the region, and would if implemented constitute multiple international crimes of the most serious kind. “The standing of the United States of America as a responsible member of the international community has been gravely diminished by the proposal itself, not to speak of any actual implementation thereof,” Pillay said. 

In a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 4 February, President Trump said the United States “will take over” the Gaza Strip — possibly with the help of American troops — while the Palestinians who live there should leave. “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” said President Trump. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings,” he said, describing his vision for the area as a new “Riviera.”
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At the Canada-US border in New York

Canada must withdraw from Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States

 — Feb. 4, 20254 févr. 2025

Canada must urgently withdraw from the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) given the dire situation facing refugees in the United States, the Canadian Council for Refugees and Amnesty International Canada said today.

The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States bars most people crossing into Canada via the United States from seeking refugee protection in Canada. Under the agreement – which is premised on the notion that both countries reliably respect people’s right to seek asylum – people entering Canada via the U.S. to make a refugee claim here are usually turned back at the border.

“President Trump’s extreme anti-immigrant and anti-asylum orders are designed to instill fear and make the U.S dangerously more unsafe for those seeking protection,” said Ketty Nivyabandi, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section. “Canada’s assertion that the United States remains a safe country for refugees under the Trump administration is a cruel irony to those fleeing persecution today. It must be urgently rescinded, and tariffs threats must not blur the plight of those at immediate risk.”
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Church leaders call for permanent ceasefire

 — Feb. 4, 20254 févr. 2025

“A permanent ceasefire would cease hostilities, release all remaining hostages, liberate thousands of Palestinian prisoners detained without cause or charge, ensure continuing and increasing humanitarian aid in all forms — medical, food and psychological — and result in the withdrawal of occupying forces,” write Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian and United Church leaders.
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Rev. Dr. Sandra Beardsall was the speaker for the 2025 De Margerie Series for Christian Reconciliation and Unity, with events held in both Saskatoon and Regina. Her lectures were also live-streamed online

De Margerie Series for Christian Reconciliation and Unity continues

 — Jan. 24, 202524 janv. 2025

The late Fr. Bernard de Margerie was remembered during the 2025 De Margerie Series for Christian Reconciliation and Unity — the 12th year of the series and the first to be held since his death in March 2024.

“We continue this series in his memory, and, with his encouragement, to continue to be agents of Christian reconciliation and unity,” said Nicholas Jesson, who helped establish the series in 2012 while serving as ecumenical officer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon, and who now serves in Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations for the Archdiocese of Regina.

“No doubt Fr. Bernard is listening tonight, and joining us in prayer that all may be one in Christ so that the world may believe (John 17:21),” said Jesson in a poignant introduction at the start of the 2025 series Jan. 22 in Saskatoon.
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The offices of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue on the Via de la Conciliazone in Rome, just steps from St. Peter's Basilica

Pope Francis names new Indian cardinal to lead Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue

 — Jan. 24, 202524 janv. 2025

Pope Francis has named Indian Cardinal George J. Koovakad to be the new prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue.

The 51-year-old, who received his red hat from the pope in December, also will continue to be responsible for organizing papal trips abroad, Vatican News reported Jan. 24, the day his appointment was announced.

The dicastery is responsible for dialogue with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs and members of other world religions.

“The Dicastery works to ensure that dialogue with the followers of other religions takes place in an appropriate way, with an attitude of listening, esteem and respect,” according to the apostolic constitution governing the Roman Curia.
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Friends and supporters of the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, which started in Saskatoon in 1984, gathered for a 40th anniversary celebration held at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Prairie Centre for Ecumenism’s 40th anniversary

 — Jan. 21, 202521 janv. 2025

Fond memories of early-morning worship services at different Saskatoon churches during the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity were shared at a recent 40th anniversary celebration for the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism, founded in Saskatoon in 1984.

At the 40th anniversary celebration Nov. 22, 2024, Prairie Centre for Ecumenism Board Chair Mary Nordick pointed to the early-morning gatherings on cold and dark prairie mornings in January as times filled with the warmth of fellowship and the joy of re-connecting with friends from other Christian traditions.

Rev. Dr. Sandra Beardsall – a United Church minister and professor emeritus of Church History and Ecumenics who has been involved in the Prairie Centre for Ecumenism (PCE) in various ways over the past 25 years — also shared memories of those early morning gatherings.

“I think those will stay with me all my life,” she said. “I would get up and say ‘what am I doing? It is minus 30!’ And then there would be this beautiful prayer service, and breakfast, and friends … there is something so precious about that praying together early, early in the morning.”
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IARCCUM bishops from Ireland, Rt Rev Adrian Wilkinson, bishop of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory, and Most Rev Niall Coll, bishop of Ossory. Bishop pairs from 27 countries were commissioned by Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls

Bishop voices ‘sadness’ at continuing eucharistic separation

 — Jan. 21, 202521 janv. 2025

The fact that Anglicans and Catholics are not able to receive the Eucharist together yet is a matter of sadness,” the Bishop of Ossory Niall Coll said at the start of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

In his homily at an Anglican Eucharist in St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny last weekend, Bishop Coll said the Church of Ireland liturgy, as well as his attendance at a meeting of the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission last year, were the “most moving experiences” of spiritual communion for him.

He told the congregation he hoped they would be “a further impetus to continue our ecumenical journey together so that we might one day break bread together around the same altar”.
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Dr. Paul D. Murray, Professor of Systematic Theology at Durham University. Murray conceived of 'receptive ecumenism' more than 20 years ago as a new approach to ecumenical relationships

Ecumenism’s new horizon

 — Jan. 17, 202517 janv. 2025

While a new perspective in the goal of Christian unity that embraces diversity has emerged in recent years, more work is needed to include the burgeoning non-denominational Churches.

Sceptics often ask whether a century of ecumenical activity has brought Christians any closer to the goal of full visible unity. But in recent years the traditional goal of ecumenism has been reframed. What is now hoped for might be better described as “full communion in continuing real diversity”.

This new horizon has come about through multiple experiences of what the theologians involved in ecumenical work call “transformative ecclesial learning”. This is the modus operandi of “receptive ecumenism” – another technical term for an initiative conceived more than 20 years ago by Paul D. Murray of the University of Durham and developed with colleagues around the world. Its starting point for each tradition, institution and person is to ask, “What can we learn, or receive, with integrity from our various others in order to facilitate our own growth together into deepened communion?” Focused initially on establishing a new approach for the Roman Catholic Church in its ecumenical relationships, receptive ecumenism has evolved in a host of Christian denominations as well as in various countries and cultures around the world.
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The Parliament of Canada. Photo taken from the north facing south towards the Parliamentary Library in the centre with the Peace Tower in the background

Charitable status risks even with prorogation

 — Jan. 17, 202517 janv. 2025

The resignation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Liberal Party leader and the prorogation of Parliament may have postponed a non-confidence vote and an immediate election, but has not averted the risk of certain organizations losing their charitable status on the basis of religious belief or disagreement with government policy, say experts speaking on behalf of stakeholders.

The finance committee of the House of Commons has tabled a report which, if enshrined in law, could destabilize the entire charitable sector, according to legal experts of two major organizations.

The controversial recommendations from the committee are:

  • Anti-abortion organizations should no longer be accorded charitable status;
  • The Income Tax Act should be amended to provide a definition of a charity which would remove the privileged status of “advancement of religion” as a charitable purpose.

“The issue is an important one,” Deina Warren, director of legal affairs with the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities (CCCC), told The Catholic Register. “The recommendation has been formally made by a House Committee and ought to be officially retracted, and advancing of religion as a charitable purpose should be positively affirmed by the government.”
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