“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me: Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said.”

1 Corinthians 15:3 (NLT)

Our elders are a precious gift. Going right back to God calling Abraham to be the father of a great nation, the faith has been passed on from one generation to the next: from Abraham to Issac and Jacob; from Jesus to Paul to Timothy, right down to our own day.

The Arctic has seen incredible change over the last few generations. We still have elders who grew up on the land, who remember when the modern towns and hamlets were still being formed, as most people still lived in family camps where they hunted and trapped. They remember travelling missionaries coming to visit their camps and bringing the Good News of Jesus. They remember the incredible feasts with singing and dancing as people gathered to celebrate Christmas and Easter. Most importantly, they have life-changing testimonies of what it means to be facing lifeand-death situations, to cry out to God for help, and for God to reveal His power in a mighty way: providing food for the starving, showing a path to safety through a raging storm, even causing the right sized wrench to get stuck on a fishing hook put down through the ice when a ski-doo was broken down and all hope of rescue was lost!

As a result of these rapid changes, and due in part to the tragic reality of abuse carried out when churches became part of the story of human empire rather than messengers of God’s Kingdom, some churches in the Western part of our diocese along the Mackenzie River are struggling to reach out to their communities.

Stories, and the passing of the Good News from one generation to another is how the Church grows. The Anglican Foundation of Canada has partnered with us to fund a trip for the Rev. Francis Delaplain to travel up the Mackenzie and interview elders, writing down their testimonies.

We know that, when the time is right, there can be a revival in these communities. As good stewards, we’re going to write down and record these elders’ stories of faith, so that they will be an inspiration to faithful Christians for generations to come!