Sunday Service: Do You Believe in Magic?

Arran Morton

The Lovin’ Spoonful call us to, “believe in the magic that can set you free”, in this service we will explore how everyday magic can support us to create a world where we are all free.

Arran Morton currently lives in Victoria, BC – though he is from Scotland and came to Victoria the ‘scenic route’. He loves to be near the ocean, the trees, and (Vancouver) island life generally. His work has focused on building community as well as training and facilitation on issues related to healthy relationships, sexuality, conflict resolution and restorative justice/practices. Arran was the Director of Spiritual Exploration at First Unitarian Church of Victoria until he adopted his daughter in 2021. He is currently the Minister at Comox Valley Unitarian Fellowship.

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Join us in person in our Sanctuary or live online at https://ucv.im/live for our weekly Sunday Service, beginning each week at 11am

This week’s land acknowledgment

Very often when we listen to land acknowledgements in Vancouver, we will hear words like “the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil Waututh are the stewards of the land since time immemorial”. And it true, but it kind of suggests that land stewardship is something in the past.

But its not. I wanted to share one contemporary example: the tidal marsh restoration project at New Brighton Park, at the northeast corner of the city known now as Vancouver. A collaboration between the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil Waututh, city of Vancouver and Port of Vancouver, this project created 450m of shoreline and replanted a host of tidal plants to restore a small portion of the marshes lost during the colonization of Vancouver. Finished in 2017, young salmon have been spotted on their migration to the ocean.

Land stewardship is intimately connected with stewarding culture. The signs in New Brighton park provide us settlers with some insight on the relationship between land and culture. I want to read from one of the signs entitled “Interconnectedness”

Knowledge and Territory: for our people, plants and animals are much more than just resources.

Each has its own constellation of knowledge, including social cohesion, land, language, technology, and health. Each is connected – to harvest deer, you need to make a bow, which requires yew and materials to make carving tools. This stewardship is at its heart, the stewardship of language, knowledge, and identity.

As we go forward into the next week, perhaps see if you can find other examples of land and cultural stewardship near where you live and read what your host first nation says about it.