I am the student representative of St. Andrew's Hall/VST and a member of Haney, in the Presbytery of Westminster. Moderator, I would first like to thank you for allowing me to address this assembly and giving me permission to observe and participate in the deliberations of this past week. I have enjoyed the week immensely; being here at General Assembly has confirmed for me that I am definitely a Presbyterian because I had the time of my life. I suppose my excitement at being here was heightened by the difficult trip I had getting here. After a flight from Vancouver to Toronto and a lengthy layover in the airport there, I flew into Ottawa through a thunderstorm – I could see forks of lightning outside the windows as we landed, and we had a long period of waiting on the tarmac for several hours until the storm cleared and we could disembark. I have heard people say that 'the journey is more important than the destination,' but I can tell you that after a long and difficult journey, arriving at your destination and being greeted by the friendly faces of the local arrangements committee is pretty wonderful.
I have been reminded of this contrast between journey and destination throughout this week. On Sunday Night, Dr. Kouwenberg spoke of the prodigal son and the journey he took back to his father. At the banquet on Monday, Rev. Gwen Ament pointed out the Bill Reid Spirit of Haida Gwaii sculpture and reminded us that we are all in the same boat, travelling in the same direction. Our visitors from Vanuatu, Pastors Aki and Zacharie, presented the Assembly with a canoe with the reminder that we move forward with the wind of the Holy Spirit in our sails.
This week the Assembly's journey has been one of seeking justice; we are searching for the establishment of God's righteousness in our church and throughout our world. We are seeking justice, both where every child of God gets what they deserve, basic human rights like food and water, their own culture, dignity and respect, and also where every child of God gets what they do not deserve: grace, forgiveness, and the love of God through Jesus Christ. The stories of justice I have heard this week have been inspiring: the work of PWS&D in development and emergency response around the world, Dr. Mercy Odoyoye's mission to give voice to women theologians in Africa, and especially the ongoing work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. While these stories have shown glimpses of the justice we are seeking, they also reveal the great ongoing injustices still present in our church, our country, our world and in ourselves. Despite our seeking, it has often seemed that we are no closer to finding that final and complete justice for the whole world. It starts to seem like we're on a journey without a destination, that the weight of the world's injustice and our own sin are too much.
For this reason, I found the words of the Elder Irene Lindsay on Tuesday night of great comfort. In describing her work counseling and comforting survivors of the Residential Schools, she said that she tells them that it will come to an end, that the pain and injustice will not last forever. In Matthew 5, Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled … Blessed are those who mourn, for the will be comforted.” When we seek justice, we have Christ's promise that we will find it in Him, that the brokenness in our relationships with God, our planet and each other will be healed and we will be reconciled through the grace of Jesus Christ.
I am grateful to you Moderator, to this Assembly, to my college, and above all to God for bringing me to this place to learn and observe the work of the church. I have seen us go through storms and I have seen us go through long periods of waiting, and I have seen the Holy Spirit work through the deliberations of God's people. As I go through my own journey towards ordained ministry in the PCC, I look forward to continuing the church's journey of seeking justice in this world alongside each of you, confident that our destination is secure, that we will find justice for all humanity at journey's end.
