Faith Meets Life: Pushing the boundaries of holiness and faith

Mosques, church buildings, temples, synagogues — these are the places we think of when we think of religious faith. Priests, shamans, immams, monks, nuns, popes, church ministers — these are the people we typically think of when we consider faith.

But is faith only lived out in relation to religious buildings and official representatives of faith?

The answer to that question is “no” according to Canadian author, Greg Paul. Paul is one of the founders of Sanctuary Ministries in Toronto. At the moment he is on tour with his band. When he appeared in Halifax, where I currently live, he had with him Cheryl Bear, a Native-Canadian singer-songwriter and several presenters living with disabilities.

For Paul, religious faith, specifically Christian faith, does not begin and end with priests and pastors. It does not cease to apply outside the doors of the local church building or the office of the chaplains at Fanshawe College. Paul's faith hits the ground when he is with the marginalized.

His tour mates made this clear. Bear sang about the care of God. But not before she sang about a Native mother and loss of her son taken away by the residential school system. When the son returned, she hardly knew him. When the son returned, he did not know his home, now ripped apart by alcohol.

One presenter, speaking from his wheelchair, told about being accepted in Sanctuary and finding support among the people of that church.

This connects with my own experience of the Christian life. Over the years churches with which I have been involved have sponsored refugees from Bosnia, set up youth drop in centres in the Niagara Peninsula, and supported food banks in London. Last spring the church where I presently am gave financial support to a Nova Scotia Community College student project to help with HIV/AIDS relief in Tanzania.

And if you look at the founder of Christianity, what you find is someone who gave most of his attention to the marginalized, including lepers, prostitutes, crooks, terrorists and the “demon-possessed.”

Faith and holiness are not confined to certain people and locations. They can surface anywhere. Perhaps they surface especially as the marginalized are cared for and hope is given to those who before had little.

Paul, I think would say that in fact, this is one of the radical messages of Christian faith. Hope, holiness, faith are not advanced by self-centred living or acts of terror and violence. We are faithful when we follow Jesus' example to reach out to the “unreachable.” We participate in holiness, not so much by religious habits, but by giving of ourselves without, as Jesus said, hope of repayment.

Michael Veenema was a chaplain at Fanshawe till 2004. Greg Paul's latest book is called The Twenty-Piece Shuffle: Why the poor and the rich need each other.

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