This Issue

Canada is in an affordable housing and homelessness crisis. According to Statistics Canada, nearly half (45 per cent) of Canadians reported being very concerned about housing affordability. Previous research from 2022 found that more than one in five Canadian households are living in uaffordable housing. Statistics Canada research from 2024 found that, “while 68 per cent of Canadians reported experiencing one or more housing challenges related to affordability, suitability, condition or discrimination, this percentage was much higher for young adults. Among young adults aged 20 to 35 years, more than 8 in 10 (83 per cent) faced at least one housing challenge, compared with over 6 in 10 (62 per cent) of those aged 36 years and older.” As well, it found that 81 per cent of racialized Canadians experienced one or more housing challenges assessed by the survey, compared with 63 per cent of non-racialized Canadians.

Housing affordability is a widespread issue across the country. It is a concern that sits heavy on our minds, and has for a long while. More than 10 years ago, in 2013, the first Joint Assembly between the ELCIC and the Anglican Church of Canada took place in Ottawa. There, the Joint Assembly Declaration was adopted, and under it, we committed ourselves to working together in pursuit of engaging issues of homelessness and affordable housing.

One of the ways in which this commitment has manifested across congregations is congregational redevelopment. Many congregations across Canada have pursued —or are currently pursuing—congregational redevelopment initiatives that are focused on re-purposing their properties in innovative ways of community-building in their local communities, that are also sustainable for the future of the congregation.

In this issue of Canada Lutheran, our cover story aims to uplift the ways in which our congregations are re-imagining their spaces in faithful response to the affordable housing crisis.

This story is one that inspires me. It makes me so happy and hopeful to see how our congregations are mobilizing in such innovative ways to address community needs. This story plants seeds of what can be possible, what can be attainable.

Across our other pages, you can find other stories of community-building within our various local communities, as well as across borders. Game nights, quilt-making, Facebook groups, construction and rebuilding, and playgroups for children are all ways in which ELCIC communities are fostering connection and growing stronger relationships with each other, and folks outside our congregations.

This past month, February, was Black History Month. The Eastern Synod published a series of YouTube videos on their website, providing the opportunity to learn more about Black History Month and listen to racialized perspectives from across the Synod. Listening, and learning, is constant. Even though Black History month is over, our commitment to racial justice and anti-racism, uplifting Black voices, and education is ongoing. Lent is a reflective time, for self-examination and introspection. It is a common practice to give something up for Lent, usually something we label as “bad”. Typically, this manifests as restricting something material. What about the nonmaterial? There is a lot that we can work towards eliminating that is not defined as a physical, tangible object. This Lent, I will be making a conscious effort to engage in unlearning, to work towards decreasing my complicity with racism, and further my involvement with anti-racism action.

You can find the Eastern Synod 2025 Black History Month resources at: https://easternsynod.org/bhm2025/ .

May you all have a blessed and reflective Lent.

Sarah Malina
Editor