G20: Reflections from Toronto

"There is not a square inch in the whole
domain of our human existence over which
Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!' "
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)

Widely quoted in Christian universities, Sunday school classes, pulpits, and theological discussions, this quote seems like one of those poetic phrases that is beautiful when spoken yet extremely challenging to live by.

Ten of us sat in the basement of Eastminster United Church debriefing our long day in Toronto. We marched with our banner amidst a much larger crowd of around 10,000 people. What did our group have in common with the thousands of other G8/G20 protesters? We were marching in peaceful protest against an unjust world with unjust rules and asking our leaders to listen to our requests for a better world.

Unfortunately by this time on Saturday night, the only headlines reaching the world were about a small fraction of people using Black Bloc tactics to run the streets of Toronto and set police cruisers on fire. This is not the march we witnessed. We marched next to Amnesty International and the Make Poverty History campaign. We saw grandmothers come out and hold signs in support of Maternal Health, young people asking for cleaner energy and care for the earth, concerned citizens asking for transparency in international mining, and a host of other causes. Clearly, some of the protesters had extreme views that we may have disagreed with, but we still had this in common—we were standing for something; we hoped for change.

So our discussion in the church basement led to this question:

Does the church have a place in the People’s March in Toronto, or the next G8/G20 protests?

If we truly believe that this beautiful quote by Abraham Kuyper is Biblical, the answer is yes. Christ, who is Sovereign over all, indeed cries, “Mine!” over these meetings of world leaders and the group of people that ask for change to unjust structures.

Imagine the surprise of the world if at the next G8/G20 meetings, thousands of Christians representing the church showed up to the march to voice their concern over God’s creation, mothers dying in childbirth, and children not surviving until their fifth birthday. What if we began the march with prayer for our leaders? Would the normal protesting crowd be surprised at the presence of the Church? What does this mean for our reputation? Do we see an irony to the average church member’s aversion to protesting, when we consider ourselves “protestants”?

Definition

Prot·es·tant[ prótt?st?nt ]

somebody who protests: somebody who makes a protest against an action

This is where our faith is birthed—protesting a powerful system and believing things should change.

A small group of Christian college students in a Toronto church basement dared to dream what creative Christian advocacy might look like and the impact it could have on our leaders and our world. We want to extend the invitation for you to join us on this journey and be a part of this conversation.

Psalm 24

“ ¹ The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;”