The Justice Hub@Cap
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” - Proverbs 31:8-9 (Today’s New International Version)
The Justice Hub@Cap is a group of Cappers who see their mission to lead CapChurch in doing justice as a faith community. There are four parts to our mandate:
- to educate the community on one international and one national/local justice issue and lead the community to respond;
- to celebrate God’s justice wherever it is being done in the world;
- to support Cappers who are doing justice ministries;
- to call “justice passions” out of the community and into community experience.
For 2010 The Justice Hub@Cap have chosen:
- an international issue focus: the plight of women in the Congo – we screened the film The Greatest Silence during our first annual Justice Week and will build on it to educate the community and respond.
- A local focus: supporting Cappers concerned with justice for first nations people.
Learn more: Plight of Women in the Congo
The 2010 Justice Hub@Cap members are:
- Mike Nichols (chair)
- Mike Dirk
- Bonita Dirk
- Dennis Shaw
- Lucy Gonclaves
If you have a heart for justice and want to connect with us email mike@capchurch.ca or mikeandbonita@yahoo.com .
Justice Hub@Cap News
The Justice Hub@Cap is sending Jan Bryant to the National Forgiveness Summit of the First Peoples of Canada on June 11-13, 2010. On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper extended an apology and asked for forgiveness of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis people for historic wrongs, and for the abuses many aboriginal people experienced in residential schools in Canada. A national coalition of First Nations believers in Creator God, are gathering in a three day summit to form a First Nations national public response and celebrate the freedom that forgiveness. Because forgiveness plays a big part in restorative justice the Justice Hub@Cap felt this was an opportunity to stand with those wronged in a redemptive process. Cap’s Jan Bryant will attend the summit as a representative of the Justice Hub@Cap both to take our blessings; to stand with those wronged for justice; and to bring back reports to help us celebrate God’s hand in these issues. So bless Jan as she goes; receive her as she returns. The Summit is June 11-13 in Ottawa.
Movie Reviews of films with Justice Themes
The Stoning of Soraya M.
This movie dramatically captures the true story of a 1986 stoning of a woman in Iran who was falsely accused of committing adultery by her husband who wanted to marry another woman. The movie is based on the bestselling book by French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s best-selling The Stoning of Soraya M. (1994). Roger Ebert writes (June 24, 2009) The stoning sequence itself is one of the most unbearable experiences I have had at the movies…it lasts nearly 20 minutes…Soraya is buried in a hole up to the waist..The message is that if a religion requires practices that seem evil to its members, they should resign from that religion. If it condones a death penalty that is visited unequally on members of a specific gender, race or class, it is immoral. There cannot be a reward for following it blindly, because only a thoughtful choice has meaning. At heaven’s gate you cannot say, “I always followed the herd.”…I recommend it if only for its brutal ideological message.
The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo
This outstanding documentary shatters the silence that surrounds the use of sexual violence as a weapon of conflict. The film has won four awards at international film festivals including an award from Amnesty International in their Human Rights Film Fest. This 76 minute film [in English and subtitled in French Swahili, Lingala, Mashi] includes interviews with rape victims; interviews with rapists; tours of the limited facilities available for healing the physical and spiritual wounds of rape as well as interviews with those fighting an uphill battle to change the system. The film make the point that to attack the women of the Congo.
Doing Justice
For the conservative wing of the Christianity, the notion of faith has tending toward the personal resulting in a disconnect with social justice. Today more and more followers of Jesus are coming to understand God’s passion for justice. God hates injustice and wants it stopped. The pursuit of Biblical justice is a journey: a journey into the scriptures to discover much that has been lost and a journey into the world to seek out many who must be found. Wherever you are on the journey the Justice Hub@Cap invites you to help make this community one where God’s passion for justice is embodied.
“If you want peace, work for justice.” -Henry Louis Mencken
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong.” -Theodore Roosevelt, 1916