As I begin my year as moderator of the 135th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, I am keenly aware of the high honour bestowed upon me but also of how quickly the honour will pass as the next 12 months fly by. I thank a past moderator, Rev. Dr. Hans Kouwenberg, for reminding me of this truth in a recent conversation. So it is with this thought in mind that I want to get right to the point in sharing with all of my Presbyterian family the focus I want to take in my moderatorial year.
It will be on the ministry which our church can have and is having among the men and women of the Canadian forces who are serving our country in these troubled days in a post-9/11 world. In particular, I want to highlight the ministry of our own chaplains, regular and reserve forces, as they touch the lives of service members and their families on our behalf and in service of the gospel. as I write this column, 116 members of the Canadian forces have paid that ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan and hundreds more are recovering from injuries inflicted on them by this cruel war on terrorism. What have we to say to our world in these troubled and troubling days? What have we to say to those who are trying to make a difference on behalf of our country, which I believe really does value peace with justice?
From the early days of my childhood, as I sat in Barney’s river, Kenzieville, N.S., worshipping with aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents and cousins by the score, I have had a deep concern for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country. On the side wall in that church were the names of the local boys who did not come back from the wars in Italy and France, Holland and Germany. One name will always stick with me, that of Pte. William Lyal “Billie” Izzard, a member of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. Billie Izzard died in Normandy in June 1944. I remember his name for two reasons: one because his father Archie Izzard farmed alongside my Uncle Donald Bannerman in Barney’s River, and secondly because in 1967 I visited Billie’s grave at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Beny-Sur-Mer, Normandy, France. That is the kind of visit that stays with you for life.
I invite you now to fast-forward with me to Tweedsmuir Memorial, Orangeville, Ont., in May 2007. My nine years of service in the Canadian Forces Chaplain Branch before coming to Orangeville certainly created within me empathy for our servicemen and women, but I must admit I was still taken aback when the family of Cpl. Matthew McCully asked me, on an otherwise quiet Sunday morning, to host their son’s funeral in our church. Matthew had been killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan only days before. The family was nominally Roman Catholic but when it came to their son’s funeral they really wanted someone like myself who had first hand experience with ministry among our military members. I was honored to assist Padre Doug Friesen of CFB Petawawa as an officiant at Matthew’s funeral service in may 2007. By God’s grace I, and my congregation, have been able to have an ongoing ministry of loving support to Cpl. McCully’s family here in Orangeville. That is truly what the church should be all about in our world today.
I would hope and pray that the coming year would be a journey of discovery as we consider what our church can do in this often unheralded and yet so crucial realm of ministry. I hope to learn more of what our chaplains are doing in their ministry to the military members and their families and what we can do to support them in their unique calling. I hope that along the way of this journey we will have our minds and hearts opened to new ways by which we can, like the Good Samaritan in Jesus’ parable (Luke 10:25-37), reach out to the neighbours all around us.
