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Niagara Churches Come Together to Learn about the Effects of Poverty in the Region

8/22/2018

On the weekend of May 11th, the Niagara Churches of MCEC hosted a conference called “The End of Us and Them” at Westview Christian Fellowship and Vineland United Mennonite Church. The conference explored past and present stories of poverty in and around our Churches, Hugo and Doreen Neufeld shared about their experience at Welcome Inn in Hamilton, participants of Westview Centre4Women told their stories, and Carol Penner grappled with Biblical material on the topic. We learned about the overdose prevention site in downtown St. Catharines, and we heard from others in our Mennonite community engaged in issues associated with poverty.

These stories revealed both the unstoppable courage displayed by those living with effects of poverty and the bewildering complexity of the issue. It’s not as if there are some who happen to suffer under poverty and others who are unaffected; our lives grow together in such a way that if you’re not suffering, you might be culpable. We hope this weekend encourages churches in Niagara to continue wrestling with the oppressive forces of poverty present in our neighbourhoods.

Jennifer Symonds, a participant at Westview Centre4Women, tells her own story of poverty, courage and even transformation:

Jennifer’s Story:

Wed. Night Potlucks

6/16/2018

Saved by the Work of Christ’s Grandmothers: Part 3/3

5/11/2018

Part 1: How Ruth Saves Us From the Affordable Housing Crisis - By Caleb Ratzlaff
Part 2: Mother Mary Revolutionary - By Rosilee Sherwood

By Caleb Ratzlaff

Matthew 27: 57-61

“57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.”

We recently finished a series at Westview on the women who appear in Matthew’s Genealogy of Christ: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Through this series, I gained a better understanding of something oft-repeated in my childhood: that , “Christ died for our sins”. Below I argue that the courageous actions of outcasts reveals the sin and injustice upheld by insiders — the privileged and comfortable majority. Christ’s death reveals that salvation is a product of oppressed people’s resistance against injustice; such resistance calls the mainstream community to a better way of life.

To understand how Matthew connects Christ’s salvific work to the resistance of the women in Christ’s life, we’ll start by reviewing some general observations about women in Matthew’s Gospel; before, second, sharing a few of the lessons we learned at Westview about Christ’s grandmothers; and then, third briefly visit the episode where Christ is anointed by an unnamed woman. Finally, I will conclude by thinking about how the women waiting outside Christ’s tomb reveal what it might mean to say, “we are saved by the work of the cross”.

MOTHER MARY REVOLUTIONARY Part 2/3

4/5/2018

Part 1: How Ruth Saves Us From the Affordable Housing Crisis - By Caleb Ratzlaff
Part 2: Mother Mary Revolutionary - By Rosilee Sherwood
Part 3: We are Saved by the Work of Christ’s Grandmothers - By Caleb Ratzlaff

By Rosilee Sherwood

“Mother Mary” is easily seen as a meek and mild, passive figure who is a symbol of purity and faith. Upon closer inspection, I believe “revolutionary” should be added to the list of titles that this iconic woman has earned. Jesus’ genealogy lists five women, including his mother, Mary. Like the four other women in Jesus’ family tree, Mary challenges her status as a worthless “outsider”, fighting to dismantle the system of injustice that deems her worthy only of death.

How Ruth Saves Us From the Affordable Housing Crisis and Other Sins - Part 1 of 3

2/19/2018

In order to be eligible for Niagara Region Housing you also must have a birth certificate, have done your taxes and can produce a notice of assessment, have an address that mail can be sent to and responded to in 10 days, and complete a yearly eligibility assessment in order to stay active on the wait list - all this proves challenging for those living on the street.

Part 1: How Ruth Saves Us From the Affordable Housing Crisis - By Caleb Ratzlaff
Part 2: Mother Mary Revolutionary - By Rosilee Sherwood
Part 3: We are Saved by the Work of Christ’s Grandmothers - By Caleb Ratzlaff

By Caleb Ratzlaff

Female protagonists from ostracized communities is a common motif in the biblical canon, but often overlooked by interpreters. The narrator of the Book of Ruth is keen to remind us that the protagonist, Ruth, is one such woman, continually stressing her identity as an outsider: “So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab” (NRSV). The stress on Ruth’s identity as a Moabite is not accidental. Israelites generally didn’t have a lot of respect for these neighbours, in part due to the story of the Moabite founding father, Lot, who had incestrial relations with his daughters.

Despite all of this, the book of Ruth reminds us that, like Naomi, Boaz, and ultimately Israel, we too should seek redemption in the resilience of those who reside on the outskirts of our community. These outsiders offer us redemption, the opportunity for justice, and an insight into our own sin.

Jesus Isn’t Talking to You

11/7/2017

Picture (wood cutout): Fritz Eichenberg "Christ of the breadlines" (1953)

Jesus Isn’t Talking to You. The real audience of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7. 7-11).

By Caleb Ratzlaff

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matt. 7. 7-11).

Receiving whatever we ask for is scandalous in an age of consumerism. My son, like so many of us, never stops asking for things. If I gave in to all his requests, he’d quickly make himself sick with treats and would soon be able to recite by memory every episode of his favourite animated series. I’d be a truly irresponsible father. This portrait of an indulgent father probably shouldn’t be the first that comes to mind when we think about God. Perhaps, Christ’s Sermon on the Mount isn’t addressing me and my family — whose material needs are thankfully satisfied — perhaps he has someone less privileged in mind. This subtle shift significantly changes the meaning of the sermon. Suddenly Christ isn’t talking me and mine when he says “ask and you will receive.”

WC4W 10th Anniversary Vid!

10/8/2017

We are so excited to present this video in celebration of Westview Centre4Women's 10th anniversary. Thanks Thomas Reimer for doing an amazing job.

Bike the Greater Niagara Circle!

8/26/2017

Summer BBQs are back!

6/15/2017

Transforming Abuse through Mutual Submission

4/2/2017

By Caleb Ratzlaff

Consider a basic revenge flick such as “Taken,” or “The Revenant.” These movies often begin with a shocking injustice — the murder or abduction of a child, for example. The body of the film is then dedicated to the protagonist’s struggle to balance the scales of justice, so to speak, by chasing, outwitting, outmaneuvering, etc., the “bad guys” and finally taking sweet revenge. Twists and turns occur along the way, but classic revenge flicks often make us question the logic behind the violence portrayed on screen. Don’t get me wrong, injustice demands a response, and it should always make us upset. However, most revenge stories end in a spectacle of bloodletting, but the sacrifice leaves us unfulfilled, unconvinced that the cycle of abuse is truly ended. If revenge fails to transform injustice, how else might we respond, what kind of response justice demands?

In many ways, chapter four and five of Ephesians address the above question, describing a better kind of response to “the darkness of injustice.” At the end of chapter four, the reader is first urged to avoid certain activities: “don’t engage in lustful greed” (4:19), for example. And then, in chapter five, there is a call to expose the harm: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them” (5:11-12). The author repeats these two imperatives — abstain and expose — along with a third: the author calls the reader to pursue change by transforming relationships defined by greed and abuse. We read,

“Instead, be filled with the Spirit,

19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,
20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (5:18b-21)

The Power of Invisibility

3/2/2017

By a friend from the Commons

It's an interesting time in Hamilton. Condos are booming, and students are moving into the core, followed by priced-out renters and buyers from Toronto. How the city works is changing. Still, the old churches keep up with traditional outreach methods. Old notions of service and charity are everywhere. Food banks do their food bank thing; meal programs do their meal programs. Charity doesn't change, even as rents go up and homes double in value as waves of people move in from Toronto.

That's where I want to start--waves of people. If we want to talk about being a just city, it comes down to each and every one of us--our actions, and our moral responsibilities. The question is simple: Who are we responsible for? Christ teaches us that no, it's not just about our kin, our immediate people, our blood; it’s about how we show hospitality to all who come into our lives, especially those who are invisible to a rapidly gentrifying city like Hamilton.

Repent and Burn: The Baptism of John the Baptiser

1/3/2017

By Caleb Ratzlaff

In apocalyptic style, John the Baptist introduces us to three components of Christ’s kingdom of peace: repentance, the Holy Spirit, and fire (Matthew 3:7-12). What comes after is often referred to as “Christ’s Baptism,” but if we consider the examples below and the exegesis that follows, it’s clear that John experiences a kind of baptism as well.

Regrettably, my wife Jenica did the vast majority of our wedding planning on her own. It’s no surprise that my failure to offer a help was a source of conflict on several occasions. For example, one evening, while Jenica was making wedding invitations, I looked up from my computer to realize that she was gone. Distracted, I hadn’t noticed her leave the room. Often when Jen’s upset she wisely disappears to cool-off before evaluating the situation. So when I realized that I was alone with a mountain of unfinished invitations, I knew something was amiss.

The feeling I had at that moment is something I think we’ve all experienced. It’s the moment we realize that we’ve let down those we depend on. Jen expected my help. It was our wedding after all and weddings take at least two people, not counting all the support contributed by family and friends. Repentance, I want to argue, is the realization that we don’t do life on our own. We depend on a power greater than ourselves — friends, family, neighbors, government, water, soil, oxygen and in these God.

Psalm 137's Haunting Violence

10/31/2016

By Caleb Ratzlaff

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem
1 By the rivers of Babylon--
   there we sat down and there we wept
   when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows[a] there
   we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors
   asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
   “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How could we sing the Lord’s song
   in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
   let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
   above my highest joy.
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
   the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, “Tear it down! Tear it down!
   Down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator![b]
   Happy shall they be who pay you back
   what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
~Psalm 137

It’s difficult to accept the fact that the Bible describes revenge in such brutal detail as found in Psalm 137. There are other Psalms that ask us to direct our anger in ways that promote peace rather than perpetuate violence but not Psalms 137. Psalm 137 doesn’t temper an author’s fierce anger towards injustice and desire for revenge. It’s important to hear and remember the extent of the anger expressed here because it was apocalyptic verses like these that inspire Christ. He too is angry at the injustice he sees around him and condemns Israel in a similar way as Jeremiah (the prophet we think authored Psalm 137) condemns Babylon.

Psalm 137 is remembered for its violence but also because of the haunting tune set to its lyrics by Don McLean titled “Babylon” linked at the beginning of this post. If we let them, the song and its lyrics can haunt us in three healthy ways.

On Enjoying Wolf Stew

10/17/2016

By Caleb Ratzlaff

It’s important to make two preambles before I begin. First, all the most interesting insights found below are taken from Amy-Jill Levine’s fantastic book Short Stories by Jesus. Second, this post is an attempt to deal with the parables as we think they were given by Jesus. In doing so, I avoid dealing with Luke’s interpretation, the way he relates them, in the voice of Christ, to repentance (more on this at the end). I want to be clear that this doesn’t imply that Luke’s interpretation and repentance are unimportant, but rather to do justice to both would require more space than a normal blog post allows.

Parables have a way of surprising us by inverting our expectations, forcing us in some cases to reconsider commonly held beliefs or to ask difficult ethical questions. Consider the parable of the “Three Little Pigs.” After two failed attempts, the wolf, in desperation, jumps down the third little pig’s chimney only to land in a cauldron of stew. Pig’s enjoying wolf stew is a surprising result (and in some ways disturbing). Similarly, when Christ told parables his aim was to provoke and disturb and it’s no coincidence that he uses parables to do so.

Luke presents a series of three parables: “The Lost Sheep”, “The Lost Coin”, and “The Lost Son”. All three parables follow a similar pattern: (1) a wealthy individual loses part of his or her wealth, (2) he or she finds the thing that was lost, and (3) its recovery is celebrated with a meal. These three parables follow the “rule of three” whereby the first two in the series set up the third. Again consider the parable of “The Three Little Pigs;” the first two pigs with their homes of straw and sticks set up the story of the third pig with his home of brick. Although the three parables in Luke are similar, the first two help explain the events of the third. To understand how Christ provokes his audience, than, it’s helpful not only to understand how the stories are similar but to also notice the details that make the third story unique. Below is each parable, with a consideration of the way in which Christ uses the story of “The Lost Son” to challenge expectations and ask difficult ethical questions.

#WestviewBikes

8/9/2016

Street Workers Target of Police Sweeps

7/30/2016

For the second time in a year, numerous street workers were arrested this past week during a Niagara Region Police sweep of the Queenston neighbourhood. As part of their arrest, these women have been banned from the area between Queenston to the north, Westchester to the south and Oakdale/Geneva to the East and West. Although intended to improve the neighbourhood, these kinds of sweeps only make it more difficult for these women to receive help from their community and support base. Thankfully, the court order was amended to allow the Westview Centre4Women to be exempt from the ban Tuesday - Thursday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. With this exception secured, WC4W is serving as a place where the women can access those services they depend on that operate out of the quarantine zone including: Positive Living, Start Me Up Niagara, Deb Nanson, YWCA - Stomp, Stacy Allegro Community Nurse, and Street Works. Westview Christian Fellowship and Westview Centre4Women know these women; we know their children and are part of their community. It breaks our hearts to witness this continuing ordeal.

We ask you to pray for the women arrested, for their families, and loved ones. Pray that they receive the support they need and continue to find love, joy, and peace despite obstacles in their lives.

Pray for the services working out of, and including, the Centre. Pray that they don’t lose hope in the important work they do but instead push harder to see the women in this community given the support they need.

Pray for the city of St. Catharines. Pray that our Compassionate City Initiative is able to focus on the people that live in our city’s neighbourhoods, including those individuals who are repeatedly swept out. Our city is not made of real-estate alone, but rather real-estate that is a home to its inhabitants. The city loses pieces of itself each time people are swept out.

~WCF

Poetry at Westview

6/22/2016

As worship last Sunday we shared and discussed some of our favourite poetry and a few poems written by us. As preparation, we held a writing workshop with Bonita Martens who introduced us to some of the basics of reading and writing poetry. You’ll find a selection of the poems discussed below, enjoy!

On Peace
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound...
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

— “The Peace of Wild Things,” Wendel Berry

Summer BBQs!

6/13/2016

Writing Workshop

5/30/2016

Writing Workshop with Bonita Martens
Wednesday, June 15th, 6pm

On Sunday June 19th, as a part of our service, you are invited to sign up to share a short piece of writing you that you find meaningful. It can be something you or someone else has written. You can read your work out loud, you can have someone read it for you, or you can post it on the wall to share. Listeners will have the opportunity to provide feedback to writers.

To prepare for this Sunday, we are running a writing workshop where Bonita Martens will be giving some instruction on how to start the writing process. EVERYONE is invited to attend - women and men are welcome. If you have never written anything more than a grocery list, this workshop is for you! Come and explore this amazing way of expressing yourself.

To sign up for the workshop and/or to sign up to share your writing on Sunday morning, please talk to Rosilee Sherwood - rosileesherwood@gmail.com

For The Joy Set Before Him

4/21/2016

By Ruth Brown Martens

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
--Hebrews 2:1-3

“Oh, you’re real, you’re real! Oh, Aslan!” cried Lucy, and both girls flung themselves upon him and covered him with kisses.
“But what does it all mean?” asked Susan when they were somewhat calmer.
“It means,” said Aslan, “that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward. And now—”
“Oh yes. Now?” said Lucy, jumping up and clapping her hands.
“Oh, children,” said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!” He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind.
--The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe*

I never think of Christ’s joy when I think about Easter. I think about his suffering and pain and death. I think about his agonized prayer in the garden. I think about the betrayal, the blood, the beatings, the whipping and what an excruciating way to die crucifixion is. I think about Jesus gritting his teeth, setting his mind and forging on directly into the heart of darkness. I think about the work of the cross. I think about the fact that this work was required if salvation was to be accomplished.