Re: Intentional act of reconciliation, Post, Oct/Nov 2022, p. 4.
I agree completely with Rev. Christopher Reiners that St. John’s giving its church building and parsonage to Epiphany Indigenous Church was an incredible act of generosity and of reconciliation. But, I take issue with the universal import of Reiners’ words “resisted the lure of money that a sale would have brought for the church,” and the reference to “their resistance.” Those words imply that a sale would have been a negative thing.
That depends completely on how the resulting funds are used. When Augustana, Edmonton, some ten years back contemplated the need to make decisions about what to do with the church and property, and its contents, the congregation, “nurtured and formed in the image of Christ,” wholeheartedly and with thanks to God embraced the sale of the building and property, and the subsequent giving away of the proceeds from the sale.
Augustana gave away, upfront, some $500,000 to the Lutheran Church and its associated missions, and to a host of social ministries in Edmonton and its surroundings. —Carl V. Sorensen, Edmonton
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