he Seven Spirits of Wisdom by James Jacko of Manitoulin Island.  Learning and living ways of the Spirit.  (G. Huws' collection)

Yearning for Spirit – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, Biblical and theological reflections were woven together with the ecclesiological realities related to the horror in Palestine. (here is the link: 

https://www.minister.ca/seeking-spirit.)

The Boiling Pot

Regrettably, after writing Part 1,  the political world-pot just kept boiling over.  The obvious, malignant pot-boiling factor:  Donald J Trump.  The USA president continues to consume most of the news oxygen with his myriad, narcissism-inspired agendas:  the missed Nobel Peace prize,

Denmark/Greenland, European Union, Venezuelan kidnapping, the 51^st state, Ukraine & Russia, Minneapolis’ ICE invasion and murderous occupation, the dream of a dictatorial end to elections, trade tariff wars, embargo on trade to Cuba and “sanctioned” others , the Board of Peace without real Palestinian input while Israel's ongoing genocide continues in Palestine.

( ” For a mind-boggling, more complete list of Trumpian escapades in 2025, see The Globe & Mail, Sat., Jan. 17, Opinion pp. 1, 5&6, “ One Year Down”… “America: Executive power is now exercised through narcissistic logic.”)

After this first year of his 2^nd presidency, Trump is dishing  up not only his background of failed initiatives, but also four years of conspiratorial planning at Mar-a-Lago. Realizing that major change would have to happen in year one of the current presidential term before the mid-term elections (and possible impeachment), Trump assembled details and strategies from January 20, 2021 for execution on the same day in 2025 and byond. Was this the reason why so many classified documents had to be taken into his Mar-a-Lago palace gates after Biden occupied the Oval Office?

As an advocate for truth, justice, liberation, and peace, I find the chaos overwhelming. I’ve been feeling like a fledgling being pummeled by a unscrupulous champion’s upper-cuts and blows in the boxing ring. It is difficult to identify an effective place, let alone a safe one, in the ring of life to catch breath for the next volley. But maybe that is the point. We need to make ourselves less available and  vulnerable to the mania and insanity threatening to overwhelm us. We need to open ourselves to community, to the sacred, to the Gospel.

Local Global Worship

On a recent Sunday, in joint worship, we celebrated another year of partnership with the Anglican parish whose facility Ottawa's First United Church, shares. It was our particular local way to commemorate together the world-wide  Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. The liturgy was provided by the World Council of Churches and largely prepared by the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church, a member denomination of the WCC.  We knew ourselves to be part of the global worshipping faith community seeking justice and peace. 

We heard the prophetic Word calling us “…to loosen the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free… (Is. 58:6-11). We prayed: “God of peace, our world is troubled. The daily news is full of stories of war, injustice, poverty, abuse of power. Give wisdom to our leaders, and stir us to work for justice and peace….” We sang: “Build a safer refuge, not a larger jail; where the weak find shelter, mercy will not fail….” And we parted with an ear-worm song: “Draw together at one table all the human family; shape a circle ever wider and a people ever free.” Convictions and vision to embrace, to  inspire.

On the way home I grappled with the question:  how? How to transform "embrace and to inspire" into action to make a difference.   Not for all the world’s troublesome issues, obviously, but for claiming the vision especially for Palestine and its suffering peoples. Contemplating how the homeless Palestinians might survive – food, water, shelter, warmth, safety, courage, resilience – their immediate needs being so dangerously obstructed and ruthlessly denied by Israeli decisions (like blocking 37 international humanitarian organizations from being Good Samaritans for brutalized, starving Palestinians!). How to denounce Israel’s strategies designed more to kill babies, children, and the elderly - adding to the 71,660+ already buried and the 121,419 (as of Jan. 26) injured and maimed.  Ethnic cleansing.

It is too much! So, where do I go with my rage? 

Close my door and shutter the windows to it all?  Find a sauna or other solitary corner as sanctuary?   

Bottle it up inside me and hope it doesn’t cause a personal volcano? Project my anger on more accessible or benign others? Flee to the isolation of the cottage? Perhaps like the figures in the Jacko painting (above) find a sweat lodge as an effective place for introspection and clearing vision?

Rest for Your Soul

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30)

We do have reason to expect in repose - whether in sweat lodge, in meditation, in communal worship, in shared advocacy, or other personal way - to be enriched by gifts of the Spirit. Doubtless it is more achievable for me in a peaceful, healthy setting than for the peoples in obliterated Palestine. Wondrously, the resilient voices of Palestinians witness persistently to the abiding power and healing ways of the Spirit, even as the brutal ways and means of injustice and death threaten them. 

I cannot stop praying:   for the Spirit to transform my rage into non-violent resistance for the well-being of Palestinians; praying for Palestinians to experience the liberating gifts of the Spirit; praying for the people of Israel to experience the Spirit’s transformation opening ways to peaceful co-existence.

The Gospel Yoke

Given the realities of a world plagued by immoral and powerful Imperialists, I must accept the yoke and continue to listen and look with ears and eyes wide open, to see and recognize the gift of blessed opportunities to advocate for liberation and justice, and for truth to name the evils that keep Palestinians in subjugation and servitude. As friend Ruth Evans RIP at 94 years of age proclaimed when honoured in 2024 with the honourary doctorate from Victoria University for her long witness for justice, “When you see injustice in the world, Do Not Turn Away.”

I won’t, Ruth.

Happily, I won’t be doing it alone.  My faith community home is committed to the truth and justice commitments of the Christian faith and it nurtures me to bear the “yoke”. Several energetic groups within the congregation focus on justice and one group finds ways to connect with neighbouring partners to advocate for Palestine liberation. Being part of a national peer group provides me opportunities to strategize at the macro level and communicate for the liberating cause. And browsing on informed social media and in published books expands the boundaries of knowledge and informs my actions and writing the Pilgrim Praxis blog posts and social media platforms' posts.

Bearing this “yoke” is no cause for pride or self-righteousness. When I see what Israel and the USA are inflicting on Gazans and the entire nation of Palestine, there is reason only to lament, rage, and resist peacefully. Given the vicissitudes of aging, as long as I can, the “yoke” will be in place.

I persist because I trust that the Holy One will be true to the promises of SHALOM/SALAAM/REAL PEACE, when “All will be well.”

Harry Oussoren

P.S.I hope that on Nakba Day (May 15) there might be many faith communities gathered to commemorate the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians massacred, maimed, wounded, and grieving as their ancestral home of Palestine was being and still is being stolen from them. I will mourn the death and harm done to so many,  calling on the Spirit of Christ for healing, transformation, and liberation.