I know it is summertime and we are all
want to coast into the lazy hazy days of light topics and beaches and
cold beverages but this is what is on my mind this week....
Poverty. Specifically poverty in
Grande Prairie and what we can do about it.
A couple weeks ago I received an
invitation to attend 2 half-days of meetings to do some visioning on
that very topic. And because this is a very important issue, and
because it is an issue the faith community needs to be involved in, I
went.
If you were to describe the reality of
poverty in Grande prairie what words/phrases/pictures would come to
mind? If someone asked you what we could do about poverty in Grande
Prairie would you have suggestions?
We started out by defining poverty as
(working from memory so the wording might be a bit different) “The
lack of secure and sustainable access to basic rights such as food,
shelter, education, clothing health, and safety” [I pushed for the
use of 'rights' instead of 'needs' because that language pushes us to
action]. And then we talked about who in Grande Prairie is impacted
by poverty.
Some are directly impacted: those who
live pay cheque to pay cheque, those who live on set/fixed incomes,
those who experience episodic poverty because of seasonal
fluctuations in work (such as break-up). But we also recognized that
in the end we are all impacted by poverty. Not only are many (most?
all?) families a missed pay cheque or two away from real financial
hardship but when we find ways to lift the least of our community out
of poverty then we are all healthier.
After defining a vision and mission
statement for the Community Action to End Poverty (CAEP) group in
Grande Prairie we started to develop a plan. I left to go to another
meeting before this was done but I know there were some great ideas
out there about what can and needs to be done.
My question now is where do we fit in.
Lisa Watson from the City was very clear that she wants the faith
communities at the table as this moves forward. There were 3
ministers present this week. At least one of us will likely end up
on the committee moving forward. What do we have to share?
I think we have a role in two ways.
One is that we are a place where issues get discussed, where hard
questions get asked, where information gets shared.
Poverty-reduction work is often hampered by assumptions and
mis-information, and pre-conceptions so a place for open discussion
is vital.
The other big gift I think we have to
offer is that we believe in two very key things. One is the
possibility of transformation. Repeatedly in our discussion I
mentioned that we are taking about transformative work if we are
serious about this task. Transforming the culture, transforming the
society, transforming the way we interact is the way to eliminate
poverty. As followers of the Resurrected One we know that
transformation is possible.
We also believe in the centrality of a
call to justice. Not just fairness, not just equality but justice.
Justice is what makes us demand (and demands of us) that all people
have those basic rights met. Justice is not treating everybody the
same. Justice means that sometimes you give one person more support
to compensate for something else. As spiritual descendants of Amos
and Isaiah and Jesus we are people who live into God's justice. This
helps us (and requires us) to work to reduce and eliminate poverty.
CAEP is going to continue to work. I
am sure we will hear more about what they are doing over the next few
months. Governments at all levels will be part of the work. But
citizens need to be as well. Only as a whole community can we
embrace transformation. Together, we can reduce poverty. I trust
that the people of St. Paul's will pray for and support this work as
best they can.
A final reflection on these meetings.
In our discussion it was noted that when something sudden happens
when a major disaster strikes and 1000's of people are left without
the basic rights in our poverty definition because of, say a historic
flood in Southern Alberta, there is a massive push for voluntary and
governmental relief. It can be argued that people living in poverty
is an ongoing disaster across the country. Where is the same push
for relief?
