For the third year in a row, SCM and friends have gathered to learn, build, worship and celebrate at the Cahoots festival.

From June 9-12 we met at Camp Kenesserie on the shores of Lake Erie, territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe peoples.

Each morning we met for prayer, reflection on the themes of Think, Pray & Love, and song, with our theme song ‘God’s Counting on Me, God’s Counting on You’ from the immortal Pete Seeger.

Our workshops shared an array of skills and talents on some fascinating themes – everything from Seed Saving to Racism in Social Media, from the Enneagram to the fight for a $15 minimum wage.

In the evenings we played board games, enjoyed camp fires, worked through deep conversations, formed friendships, and listened to great music from artists like Diem Lafortune and Din and the Soles.

On Sunday morning we celebrated communion, administered to us by some of the children at the festival, and reflected on the powerful themes we had heard. Worship coordinator Esther Townshend shared her poem/reflection ‘Home‘, which you can read here by popular demand.

Many of us were especially grateful for this time of solidarity and safe space as the news of the Orlando massacre came to us on our final day. A world without violent power is possible. A world where all lives are respected and where all people can be safe is possible. Cahoots exists to teach the skills to create that world and share with the spiritual power to help us endure.

We hope you will be able to join us for future Cahoots festivals – connect with us here:

Cahoots on Facebook
Cahoots Website

In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful collection of photographs from our friend Lyf Stolte, and consider joining us for our Turning Tables young adults retreat, Sept 30-Oct 2.

After another SCM year, I am ready to finally say goodbye to the post of National Coordinator. This is a love letter to all of you connected to the SCM…whether you are involved in the Board, Cahoots festival, local units, or helped make a resource, or supported financially. It’s been a transformational time and I want to say thank you. I am particularly grateful to you for breathing new life into my Christian faith.

When I met the SCM in 2010 at the mobilization against the G20, I was ready to say goodbye to the church. I was bitter and angry at the sexism, homophobia and the lack of justice analysis. I didn’t want to be a Christian. Good Christians were those who conformed to the capitalist status-quo, who were nice only to one another, and pitied the poor while they served in soup kitchens. I also did not relate to a God who was anthropomorphized as male, white and old. It was a God who shamed me for not upholding middle class moral codes. I wasn’t the kind of Christian who wanted to turn the other cheek, or walk another mile for my oppressor, or give them my coat. I wanted to resist oppression and to dream of an alternative that liberated me and everyone else.

Luckily and maybe fatefully, I found the SCM just at the right time. The SCM offered that alternative space for me and my waning faith. I met students, young adults and ministers who didn’t worry about dogma around lifestyle or obsessed with the immortality of the soul, but were concerned with people’s material conditions. Christian faith was for them an impetus to work for liberation and the story of Jesus and the Resurrection is a reminder of the renewal we can all experience. I learned about a God who cared about migrants, poor people, women, queer people…people we all push to the margins. I learned about a Christian faith that is inspired by the Divine that works beyond us and also the Divine within us who moves our hearts for justice and peace.

Thank you to the SCM and everyone involved for reviving and renewing my faith and for giving my sense of justice a spiritual dimension. Thank you particularly to all the friends who have kept SCM going since 1921, because of you…I can be here on this day to write these words.

Much love and solidarity,

Sarah

We remember John Anderson, a long time friend to the Student Christian Movement, who passed away on June 2nd. We celebrate his life!

John born was born in 1925 in Madras, India. He reached the end of this life in Meaford Hospital on June 2, 2016.

Returning from India via Scotland to Canada in 1926, John lived in Brandon, Halifax, Saint John and Toronto before serving in the army and attending Victoria University and then McGill where he studied theology and experimented with other SCMers in cooperative living and a “worker priest” approach to ministry. Like many of their friends, it was through the SCM that John first met Muriel and began their long life together. Following his 1953 ordination into the United Church ministry, and serving parishes in Quebec, John and Muriel continued their social justice ministry commitment in Toronto, sharing a home with many at Howland House for twenty years. In 1963, John joined his love of books and theology, beginning more than 20 years of service at the SCM Book Room.

John and his family kept their Maritme roots strong through summer visits to Muriel’s home in Long Reach, New Brunswick where he deepened and shared his love of and awe for God’s creation. They were drawn to the Beaver Valley in 1971, the scene of much gardening, skiing, hiking, family time, and active community engagement.

Beloved by his family and many friends in the Beaver Valley, Toronto and the Maritimes, John will be deeply missed. He leaves us with many stories to tell and wisdom to emulate. We celebrate with gratitude a long life, well-lived, with Muriel, his life partner of 65 years.

John will be interred at Fern Hill Cemetery in Saint John, New Brunswick at 2:00 p.m. on August 5, 2016.

John’s family wish to thank the nurses, doctors and staff of Meaford Hospital for their compassionate care of our Dad and ourselves in his final days. Family flowers only, but donations are welcome to Grace United Church, Project Ploughshares, and The Student Christian Movement of Canada, directly or through www.fergusonfuneralhomes.ca/.

SCM Canada is pleased to announce our newly hired National Coordinator Peter Haresnape, starting this summer as current National Coordinator Sarah takes her leave.

Peter is originally from the UK, where he studied English Literature at the University of Stirling. During that time he began to read about Christian Pacifism and Anarchism, and became involved in direct action against nuclear weapons. He first encountered the SCM in the UK at a camp in 2008 protesting a new coal-fired power plant, and discovered the joy of Taize prayer and sharing communion as political action.

In 2010, Peter came to Toronto to work with Christian Peacemaker Teams, with the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity project. His team has worked to support the campaigns of several First Nations to resist destructive resource extraction projects and assert Indigenous sovereignty. When not ‘on site’, the team works with schools and churches on education, reconciliation and solidarity-building programs. This includes participation in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Idle No More and leading short-term delegations to Grassy Narrows First Nation to learn about their history of resistance to logging without consent and mercury poisoning of their waters.

During his time in Turtle Island Peter has worked alongside the SCM to put on various events, including the Cahoots festival, the Lenten Open Mic Night, and the upcoming Turning Tables retreat for young adults. He is excited about continuing to work on these and similar collaborations, to explore and share the Good News of liberation and justice in today’s world.

Peter lives with his husband Ken, some wonderful housemates, and a variety of guests at the CPT house in Toronto, part of the historic Catholic Worker community. He is a member of Toronto United Mennonite Church where he serves as a Sunday School teacher and part of the preaching team.

You can contact Peter by emailing peter@scmcanada.org or calling the office at (416) 463-7622