An Encouraging Prayer Breakfast

May 11, 2024

HERE'S MY TAKE

Look only at news headlines and you’re likely to miss signs of the continuing vitality and relevance of Christianity in Canada. Of course, the cultural challenge Canadian Christians face is real. Even so, Canada’s 59^th National Prayer Breakfast still managed to break records with over 1,300 people gathered at 7:00 a.m. this past Tuesday at Ottawa’s Shaw Centre.

Prime Minister Trudeau read the Beatitudes from Matthew 5. Opposition Leader Poilievre read about Jesus calming the storm in Mark’s gospel. NDP MP Charlie Angus read from the prophetic calls for justice from Isaiah 58. It was by no means perfect—some politicos couldn’t resist making unwise partisan barbs. Yet, more than 100 MPs and senators joined dozens of diplomats and many denominational and not-for-profit organisational leaders, as well as members of the public both to pray and to be inspired by the keynote delivered by International Justice Mission CEO Anu George Canjanathoppil. Both her personal testimony and message of hope regarding the work to protect human trafficking victims reflected faith and trust in a God who has not abandoned us.

I’ve attended a few dozen of these events. Sometimes I quip that official prayer breakfasts have “little prayer and even less breakfast.” This year I was encouraged on both fronts. There were six prayers interspersed throughout the program. National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak surprised her parents by inviting them to the stage and asking her mother to recite the Lord’s Prayer in Anishinaabe. As was pointed out, Jesus originally gave the Lord’s Prayer to his disciples in Aramaic, but it has been passed down through the Greek New Testament to almost every language of the world. In the midst of the church’s diversity, this prayer serves as a unifying instruction from the Lord as to how we are called to seek God’s throne.

Looking back through Canada’s history, it’s easy to see a public place for faith, and especially Christianity. An opening video, Faith that Shaped a Nation, sponsored by the Bible Society, highlighted the various biblical texts in the architecture of Canada’s Parliament. But if we compare the present to the past, there is reason for concern. Survey data Cardus released this week suggests Canadian Christians often profess beliefs inconsistent with (or opposed to) what their churches teach. More than half of Christians who otherwise fit the category of “Religiously Committed” agreed that regular church attendance was not necessary. Many simply do not understand or reject basic orthodox truths of the Christian faith. There is more evidence that the church has been deformed by the dominant non-religious culture than there is that she is actively forming the culture.

Record attendance at the prayer breakfast is an encouraging spring flower blossoming in our cultural desert. But, I don’t want to read too much into it. In part, that is a reflection of the hard work, skill, and dedication of the organisers. These are all good things, but on their own, they don’t really prove anything. A flourishing church makes a difference in a manner that a prayer breakfast will never do.

But that’s no reason to minimize the event’s significance. Some suggest that in our multicultural, pluralistic society, the prayer breakfast is outdated. However, our constitution protects freedom of conscience and religion. This very protection is why we should hold this event. The protection granted to followers of other religions also protects me as a Christian. This should impel our exercise of public devotion.

Let’s also remember that freedom of religion is recognised in a constitution based on “the supremacy of God and the rule of law.” All of our fundamental freedoms come from a conception of the human person as having dignity and worth as an image bearer of God, the imago dei. When we pray, publicly or privately, we affirm a particular view of what it means to be human—finite and subject to the transcendent. That anthropology brings blessings to those who pray as well as to those who don’t.

So, prayer breakfasts are part of our civic liturgy. Just as the texts etched in the stones of our Parliament tell a story of Canada’s founding and the vision for the country bequeathed to us, so our public prayers to God continue to have relevance. And even granting that some of this may be pro forma liturgy, there is still no reason to abandon the liturgy. We inherit liturgies from the past but they are teaching tools for the present and future.

Speaking of the future, the ethnic and demographic diversity of prayer breakfast attendees might surprise some. Our most current data suggest that those born outside of Canada are twice as likely to be “Religiously Committed” than those born in Canada. Meanwhile, weekly church attendance for those under the age of 30 is more than 1.5 times higher than it is for baby boomers on a per capita basis. The Canadian church will look very different in the future than it has in the past, a change that was displayed this week.  

Having made a study of the changing landscape of faith in Canada over the past few years, I can come up with a long list of concerns about the church in Canada. There are many who believe Christianity is an identity that one can claim without regard to belief or practice. It’s a box to be checked on a survey. The implications of this for the Christian church are serious.

I’d also grant that there is a sense in which rituals like prayer breakfasts can be like checking a historic box. This year we held the 59^th annual breakfast; the 60^th is scheduled for next year. However, I suggest we consider the event a display of a sprout of vitality regarding the Christian faith in Canada. I don’t diminish the value of a well-attended prayer breakfast that includes Scripture reading, praying for those God has placed in authority over us, and declaring a gospel message of hope even in the midst of violence and injustice.

And while religious rituals don’t themselves achieve things, they are often the means through which God works to achieve even greater things that don’t neatly fit into our public square strategies and routines.

WHAT I’M READING

A New Way of Doing Business

Opposition Leader Poilievre signalled his intention to deal with business interests a new way, penning an op-ed in the National Post to proclaim he would listen to the “little guy” rather than entertain lobbyists and business associations. While some dismiss this as hypocritical politicking, others worry that this is nothing but intellectual dishonesty. After all, aren’t many industry associations surviving only because they represent grassroots supporters who hold them accountable by the voluntary cheques they write? Andrew Coyne has a far more cynical take. He argues Poilievre isn’t calling on the business community to sell its policies to the grassroots as much as he is appealing to them to become Conservative policy apologists.

The Threats of Ableism

Gabrielle Peters writes a compelling Policy Options piece describing how the debate about providing euthanasia in health care overlooks the concerns of people with disabilities and silences them. Disability, Peters writes, “is cast as a diminished state of being human,” adding that it’s “a short journey from believing disability makes you less human to thinking that it is better to be dead than disabled.”

Macron's European Worry

French President Emmanuel Macron followed a Sorbonne speech with an interview in The Economist, both of which expressed his concern that Europe is at risk of no longer being “a safe place, a guarantor of prosperity or a liberal democratic order.” The details are a bit less alarmist than the headlines and come in the context of European Union politics. Still, the tone is certainly more apocalyptic than usual.

Connecting to Neighbours

I’m a bit surprised this Pew report found that Americans are less likely than citizens of other countries to feel a connection to their neighbours. I get that the political polarisation south of the 49^th parallel is intense, but that’s not unique to Uncle Sam’s domain. Populism and polarisation are global phenomena today. I expected this all would be offset by what I always perceived to be a greater American patriotism. Interestingly, religion (and especially the lack thereof) has a measurable effect both on feeling close to neighbours and on volunteering and charitable giving.

The Notwithstanding Debate

Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, more commonly known as the “notwithstanding clause,” was a key condition in the 1982 constitutional agreements without which arguably the document would not exist as we know it. That said, it has (in spite of having been invoked 27 times by five provincial governments over the years) been viewed as a dangerous clause by many and raises significant pushback. Joanna Baron helpfully outlines both sides of constitutional arguments regarding whether the courts or Parliament should get the final word, anticipating that the current political climate presages “a constitutional storm” regarding the matter.

MEANINGFUL METRICS

No one should be surprised following the public response to the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s military response that 2023 would see an increase in anti-semitic incidents.

 However, “off the chart” numbers reported in B’nai Brith’s annual report was worse than expected. A 208% increase in violent incidents and a 135% increase of online harassment contributed to a more than doubling of reported incidents over 2022.

TAKE IT TO-GO

Going Dutch

Ottawa’s annual tulip festival combined with warmer weather has the national capital looking most attractive and welcoming this week. This all sprouted from post-World War II immigration, so there is a part of me that springs with pride when I see the tulips everywhere. The Canadian army helped liberate the Netherlands from German occupation in 1945 and in gratitude, the Dutch government annually donates the tulips for Ottawa’s annual festival. I know I have mentioned this occasion in previous years, but I stubbornly repeat it since I do have Dutch heritage and wooden you know, persistence is part of our national DNA. 

The reality is that neither comedy nor gourmet are ordinarily the first thing that comes to mind when talking about that nether land. I can even be polder and admit that I really can’t think of many gouda puns.  But then I do a bit of Google research and realise that while “Dutch” is shorthand for cheapness (or frugality, to put a bit more positive spin on things) for most Americans, it can also be shorthand for not being comprehensible (“it’s Dutch to me”). That’s cause for pause and just to prove that “wooden shoes, wooden head, wooden listen” is a stereotype and not always true, I’ll stop clogging up Insights with wordplay, invite you to enjoy the flowers, and look forward to being back in your inbox in two weeks’ time.

Next weekend is Victoria Day and Insights will be away, celebrating a British monarch and Canadiana on what is known around these parts as the May 2-4 weekend.

Thanks for making Insights part of your day.