Emancipation Without and Within

Saturday was Emancipation Day in Ontario.  I was not aware of this official day even though it was declared in 2008.   The province designated August 1 as "Emancipation Day" to commemorate the approval  in 1793 of legislation that abolished slavery in Upper Canada as Ontario was then known.  Upper Canada was the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to abolish slavery.   

The declaration of an official day and the emancipation through legislation are both things of which we in Upper Canada can be proud.  However, it is unfortunately that this official day is not generally better known and observed – but perhaps that is more evidence of my shortcoming than a general situation.  In any case, with the Black Lives Matter movement coming to prominence this year it is entering the collective consciousness of residents of Ontario. 

Emancipation of racialized people is something which has not been fully completed as our society is becoming more aware of the extent of systemic racism that exists in different parts of our society.  Racism is an overt aspect of discrimination which exists in many forms in society which many people experience to the detriment of all of us.  It is a hope as well as a goal that true emancipation will one day be a reality in Ontario and all of Canada. 

There is another aspect of discrimination which I want to discuss.  This is the inner prison which seems to be the heritage of all humanity.  There is a definition of sin which I find particularly apt and applicable.  Sin is that part of us which chains us to the past.  I came upon this definition many years ago - unfortunately I am not able to identify the source.  However, the concept of being chained to the past, for me, sums up an important aspect of our lives that prevents us from living fully the lives that God intends us to live.  We need the emancipation of our souls and our psyches from those things which we have done to others and which have been done to us by others which do not allow us to live lives as fully as possible.   

If we are consumed by guilt because of the hurt we have caused others or consumed by anger because of what others have done to us we will not be free.  That is why we can find ourselves awake in the middle of the night with memories of past events filling our thoughts and controlling our emotions.  Fortunately, we are offered something which can come to our aid. What is offered to us is the possibility of forgiveness.  That is why the prayer that was taught to Jesus’ disciples, the Lord’s prayer, is so powerful, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” 

By asking for forgiveness we can receive manumission, a word which I was not aware of until a few years ago.  I was reminded of it when I re-watched the Book of Negros which is a marvelous miniseries-based ion the historical novel by Lawrence Hill. If you are not familiar with it, it can be described as the Canadian “Roots”.  However, to get back to where I left off, manumission is the act of the owner freeing his slave.  When we ask for forgiveness, we are offered manumission by the one who owns us – God.  This is not to say that it is easy to achieve. True forgiveness seems to be difficult to seek and to perhaps even harder to accept.  However, it is ours for the taking.

Blessings on your journey to freedom within and without.  

Manumission

Manumission; from Latin manumittere, literally ‘send forth from the hand’.

This past week, Lorna and I had one of our discussions that landed on the issue of the history of slavery in Upper Canada (Ontario).  We realized neither of us were really aware of the details of that history.  After some exploration by Lorna, what we found out was very interesting.  As significant as the issue is to our history, that is not primarily what I want to talk about this morning―at least not directly.

To review briefly what we discovered The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire (with the exceptions "of the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company").  This was the result of a movement lead by such worthies as William Wilberforce.  However, Canada, which was a colony of England, led the way in this area. In 1793 Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe, signed the Act Against Slavery. Passed by the local Legislative Assembly, it was the first legislation to outlaw the slave trade in a part of the British Empire.

In the course of our investigation we came across the word “manumission” and, being unfamiliar with the word, I was interested in its meaning.  I was only aware of the concept of emancipation in relation to slavery i.e. the abolition of slavery by a country as in the case of the Act Against Slavery in Upper Canada.  However, manumission deals with the setting free of an individual slave by his or her owner.  The root of the word is Latin; manumittere, literally ‘send forth from the hand’.

It stuck me that this is a very apt term to consider in the season of Lent.  If we consider that in Lent our journey is to be more intentionally the people that God intends us to be, then what God does is to set us free from the bonds of sin i.e. those things which keep us separated from God.  If that is the case what are we to do with this new-found freedom?

Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidence), at my new parish we are using the video series, “Thy Kingdom Come” for our Lenten reflections.  This series is produced by the Church of England and features a discussion led by with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.  The topic of Sunday’s video was evangelism

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At St. John the Evangelist in Strathroy we had technical difficulties in trying to access the series.  The first week the video series could not be downloaded from the website as it crashed.  The second week was more successful but not entirely as the sound quality of the speakers on our parish hall did not provide a very clear sound (complicated by the English accents of the participants).  That was overcome (at least from the perspective of sound quality) this week with the addition of a blue-tooth speaker.  I mentioned to Rev. Karen Nelles, the Rector, that these days theological training should include training in electronics.  She noted that the evaluation form currently used for clergy in the diocese has a section on competence with electronics.  It makes me very happy I am retired and don’t have to worry about that being an honourary assistant. 

However, I digress; to get back to my topic for today, if we are set free from the slavery of sin and sent forth from the hand of God, that is exactly what evangelism is about.  To evangelize is literally to follow the example of the disciples who were sent forth to spread the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This Good News is perhaps not great news for most Anglicans, at least in this part of the world, who are not raised in a tradition of evangelism―at least in the traditional sense. Evangelism is not something that Anglicans are comfortable with.  The Church of England and the Anglican Church in Canada have been the established church and the church of the establishment.   Traditionally Anglicans didn’t need go out and convert the non-churched around us because most people were already churched. 

However, I take comfort in the words of one of the participants in the video discussion that we can never convert someone, whatever that may mean for the person; that is God’s work.  What then is left for us to do?  It is, I believe, sharing with people what it means for us to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.  It also means living lives that reflect what that means for each of us and to show that to the world.  To do that we need to know it for ourselves and be clear about it; or at least to have questions which we are seeking answers for.  That is the challenge for Anglicans and all people of God. 

Blessings on your Lenten journey,