Restoration                       Hugo Unruh

The responses to the events of September 11th have been many and varied. Initially many of them gave expression to the horror we all felt at the devastation in New York City. Since then we have all begun to struggle to find our way out of the terrible destruction.  It is often so in the spiritual life: prison makes us think about freedom, hunger helps us appreciate food, and war gives us new words for peace.

Why is it that the events of September 11th are referred

to only by the date? ...it’s become a multi-valent

symbol to convey all sorts of intimations” such as

anxiety over the “new world order” that is emerging,

anger over the outrage, explanation for the anti-

terrorist “war” and anti “terrorist legislation, etc. “So

perhaps it is wise to allow September II to remain

nameless -no-name Tuesday.” -Neva Nicholls

The destructiveness of September 11th and its aftermath makes us long for restoration.

This longing has found expression in services of healing that has been held in many local churches, some of them together with people of other faiths. Winnipeg Presbytery sponsored such a service on the Sunday after the 11th. Representatives from Aboriginal, Buddhist, Hindi, Muslim, Jewish and Sikh communities took part.  We were all one in our shock and horror. We are human beings first and secondly people from different faith communities. It was the first time I had worshiped with Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims or Sikhs. We expressed our solidarity with one another in the face of such tragedy.

There has also been a new sensitivity towards people of the Islamic faith, thanks in no small part to people such I as Shahina Saddiqui, a woman of remarkable insight and: courage, giving voice to the hopes and fears of the 1 Muslim community, and educating us about the difference between the basic teachings of Islam and its fanatical sects.

The role of religion in our public life has also been somewhat restored. People expected the churches and synagogues and mosques to have something relevant to say! And in my opinion, they were not disappointed.  This was a time for the church to “speak up.” People were seeking a “Word” among all the words.

People are also trying in countless other ways to make sense of what has happened... from teach-ins to Bible studies, to cross-cultural meetings, and especially through the Internet. I am told that the Internet is aflame with first-person stories of survival, of political analysis and commentary. I have seen some of them.   Most contain material you will not find in the mainstream media. Much is about the necessity for reaching out to one another across barriers that have kept us apart, so that a more peaceful world can be built. If the success of the anti-globalization protests in Seattle was due to Internet communication, just think how it might mobilize us now that we do feel that we are all one in a new way!

I am grateful for the courageous and constructive role some of our journalists have taken. They are swimming against the current and are no doubt paying a price for that. Our own Leslie Hughes is one of those who cuts through the lies, the half-truths, the patriotic and military jingoism and “tells it like it is.” The first casualty of war does need not be the truth. Thank God for the Leslie’s.

Advent is a time when we ponder the coming reign of God. Advent challenges our notion of what can be and cannot be. Advent speaks of a reality beyond our present reality; that time when wolves will live with lambs and leopards lie down with young goats (Isa 11 :6-9), that time when God gets God’s way with the world. Do we have the eyes to see that world coming to be among us? Have we the imagination to grasp the height and depth and breadth of God’s New Age?

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