Our Living Prayer mission statement was created at 1995 National Conference (Sylvan Lake, Alberta). The Living Prayer statement is read at every national gathering of SCM to build unity in our diversity; however, SCM has no creed or dogma to which one must agree to participate.
We are the Student Christian Movement because we feel called to engage the prophetic teachings of the revolutionary Jesus of Nazareth. We include people of many beliefs and faiths seeking to explore and challenge the Christian tradition.
Locally, nationally and internationally, we strive to be a healing community. Through spiritual practice we strengthen and challenge each other on this journey.
Embracing radical ecumenism and interreligious praxis, we celebrate the paradox of unity in diversity.
We seek through reflection, study and action to discern God’s will for the world and to understand our role in it.
Proclaiming God’s preferential option for the poor and marginalized, we act in solidarity with the oppressed to resist structures of domination and realize justice in this world. This we offer as a living prayer.
Our Principles
Resisting oppression and injustice is a core part of what makes the SCM a unique spiritual movement. We recognizing that oppression is not just ‘other people’s problem,’ but is part of our own communities and affects us all. Read SCM’s Anti-Oppression Covenant here, which states our intent to challenge all forms of oppression, including racism, sexism and homophobia within our own movement.
SCM is inspired by Liberation Theology and the Preferential Option for the Poor. SCM believes that Christians must work for social justice and new relations in this world, not in some future heaven
SCM is queer affirming. SCM believes that because we are created in the image of God, we find our genders, sexualities, and sexual and gender expressions, to be fluid, constructed, a journey, and unique to individual experience. We commit to struggle to overcome and resist homophobia, sexism, cisgenderism, transphobia, binary genderism, genderist assumptions, queerphobia, heterosexism, and other forms of sexual and gender oppression in all aspects of society. Read our full resolution here
SCM is committed to ecumenism which is a global movement for unity among Christians and includes Anabaptist, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant/Evangelical, and other Christian faith traditions.
SCM Canada strives to be part of an interfaith community. SCM is open to people of many beliefs and backgrounds, including people from faith traditions other than Christianity. SCM is committed to working in partnership with people from other faith communities and encourages inter-faith dialogues and inter-faith justice work.
SCM Canada strives to act in solidarity with Indigenous peoples of this world in an ongoing way. We acknowledge that we are building our movement on Indigenous land, recalling that we are guests here; and to welcome the unique gifts, alliances and cultures of Indigenous youth in our movement, to name but a few. SCM believes that the Indigenous Peoples of this land, who are the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis have, through colonialism, been subjected to numerous crimes, including but not limited to, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. SCM acknowledges that our movement operates within traditional Indigenous territories. Read our resolution here.
SCM names climate change to be one of the most profound and urgent crises facing our planet and its people, and an issue of justice, anti-oppression, and ecological integrity, rooted in our faith and spiritual traditions. The Student Christian Movement of Canada (SCM) pledges our solidarity with the climate justice movement, and joins the global mobilization in support of radical climate change action.
SCM implements consensus. It is the decision making process we follow in the national movement. At its simplest (and it’s not that simple), consensus is a cooperative way to reach decisions everyone can live with, in a way that is not hierarchical or coercive.