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Bishop's Message - Spring 2010
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One very significant change that I have noticed, since beginning my ministry as Bishop of Yukon in 1995, is the loss of many loved and respected elders among our First Nations People. I think I am correct in saying that the emerging elders of today in Yukon carry a much different life experience than that of those who over the past years have left us. They too, the emerging elders of today, have entered a new time, a new day, with new challenges confronting them in the on-going life of their nations.
On Wednesday February 3rd I shared in officiating along with The Rev. Susan Titterington and three Deacons, Marion Schafer of Old Crow, Hanna Alexie and Mary Teya of Ft. McPherson NWT and Lay Leader Joanne Snowshoe of Ft. McPherson, at the funeral service of a dearly loved Gwitchin elder and well known member of St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Old Crow. Miss Edith Gertrude Josie died on January 31, 2010.
Edith was a licensed Lay Leader at St. Luke’s Church in Old Crow, Yukon Territory. Edith touched many lives, even internationally, with her efforts to communicate for her people and to serve her community. Edith left a long list of accomplishments. I believe that her accomplishments and her wonderful laughter and sense of humour were largely motivated by her strong Christian faith.
On that occasion St. Luke’s Church was full of people. Government dignitaries of Yukon and the Northwest Territories were present. The RCMP provided a colour guard for Edith, comprised of current and former RCMP officers who served the community of Old Crow. Hymns were sung in the language of the people and prayers were prayed in the warmth of the log church with its wood burning stove. The congregant’s long walk to the cemetery in the bright sunshine of the day, with the temperature in the minus forties and the lowering of Edith’s body into a frozen grave was an experience to be remembered. The finality of death was made real but the brilliance of the low setting sun brightly shinning in our faces filled us with light and the hope of life to arise even out of death for those who die in the Lord. The fond and loving memory of a dearly loved Christian mother, friend, elder, servant, gave hope in the stillness of that frozen moment. It too, I am sure, inspired those gathered among us who are the emerging leaders of their people, to face the challenge of changing times, to pray, to follow our Lord, to laugh, to laugh a lot like Edith did and to live always in the hope that Jesus gives.
The Diocese of Yukon can learn from Edith Josie and the people of Old Crow. We can learn to really live by faith in our Lord, to pray, to love, to care, to reach out to others and to laugh, and laugh a lot, for we serve a risen Saviour as we journey on together facing the challenge of changing times.
In Christ’s love,
Terry
Bishop of Yukon
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