Date/Time
Date(s) - December 19, 2013
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Location
1st Avenue & Commercial Drive
Categories No Categories
Ninth Annual Advent Season Vigil with The Silenced
“Vigil does not ask that we accomplish something; instead it affirms our presence itself has meaning, that our attention is a valuable currency.” [1]
Will you soon be singing “So, this is Christmas…”, too?
Consider:
“All despair presupposes hope. The pain of despair lies in the fact that hope exists, but that there appears no way for the hope to be fulfilled. Where hope for life is frustrated in every respect, the hope turns against the hoper and eats into him.”[2]
Advent prepares us for the birth of the One who brings concrete hope and embodies caring. Caring especially includes those who have been excluded or crumbed from the riches’ tables of society. Is it something about being born in a “cowshed”, amid the phenomenally hierarchal Roman Empire, then, that links these, now?
The annual blitz of encouragement and splash to donate goods for the homeless or contribute gifts to “needy” children may well mask the dark reality of political and economic policies that really perpetuate poverty and homelessness.
Thus, Advent is a prophetic time – an unmasking time — to mark light coming into the world. We vigil . . . to bear witness to the cries for justice— a setting right of that which has caused hurt, exclusion and anguish.
We invite you to join us in our witness (and we with yours); we urge you to express your concerns to the following:
- Mayor Gregor Roberston, City of Vancouver. Email: [email protected]; Tel: 604 873-7011
- Christy Clark, Premier of British Columbia. Email: Christy.clark.mla.bc.ca; Tel: 604 660-3202
- The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. Email: [email protected]; Tel: 403 253-7990