A Message from Elizabeth Snell, Chair, KAIROS Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Coordinating Committee:

Post-Christmas, we start enjoying our gifts. Post-Epiphany, we start our journey into the new year.  Indigenous neighbours remind us that all of Creation is a gift that we must honour, use responsibly, and steward for future generations. And the Magi, returning another way, remind us of our KAIROS journey away from tyrants and empire as we turn to hope. 

This newsletter outlines the many ways our Great Lakes-St. Lawrence KAIROS community is traveling that journey toward justice. As the Coordinating Committee, we offer our deep appreciation of everyone’s participation and for national staff guidance.

May 2026 deepen our faithful action for justice, peace and hope.

KAIROS Toronto West/Mississauga co-sponsored a very successful National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30) event at the Campfire Sculpture Humber Bay shores on Lake Ontario. There were approximately 200 people in attendance. Guests were Dorothy-Lee Lowe, an elder from Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and two collaborators for the Campfire art installation, one from the Mississaugas and one from the City of Toronto. The topic was “Truth and Reconciliation 2025: 10 Years after the TRC Report”. The event was co-sponsored with Etobicoke EcuLinks.

Photo: ariel view as people gathering at KAIROS Toronto West/Mississauga event

Image from KAIROS Canada December 18, 2025

KAIROS Toronto West/Mississauga circulated a petition opposing Ontario Bill 33 that removes powers from elected local Boards of Education.

KAIROS Guelph members submitted questions on justice issues at All Candidates meetings.

KAIROS South-West Ontario network activities included refugee sponsorship and support for projects in Peru and for bursaries for students from South Sudan.

KAIROS Groups in Dufferin and Ottawa are re-grouping. New KAIROS groups are being considered in the Toronto and Southern Georgian Bay areas.

By Brian McIntosh, Kairos Toronto West/Mississauga

Regarding the continuing Jubilee 2025 Turn Debt Into Hope campaign, you might want to check out and share this creative 90 second commercial by Project Everyone that explains the global debt problem simply and even humorously. Many of you will know that the official year of Jubilee in the Catholic Church ended with Epiphany on January 6^th. However, the campaign continues, with KAIROS leading the way for the Canadian coalition until June of this year (2026). Some have asked for a breakdown of the ONLINE petition signatures (i.e., not handwritten) by province, so as of mid-December, here it is:

Yukon 5, Nunavut/Northwest Territories 6, Prince Edward Island 12, Newfoundland and Labrador 21, New Brunswick 38, Nova Scotia 85, Saskatchewan 101, Manitoba 102, Quebec 191, Alberta 216, British Columbia 340, Ontario 897.

You will note that the online signatures only make up a very small percentage of the close to 60,000 petition count as of December (we are almost to 67,000 now), so keep up the good work of collecting in-person paper signatures!

The focus for this year is political advocacy in Canada. Petition collection, both on-line and in-person, will continue until April 28^th when KAIROS and Turn Debt into Hope Coalition members will hold a public rally on Parliament Hill. To build MP support and awareness of debt justice, you are encouraged to meet with your local MP in the months before: if interested, please fill out this brief survey. If you aren’t able to meet with your MP, please write to them with this simple form letter. You are also invited to join coalition representatives at an online “Road to Ottawa” rally on April 14 and at the in-person rally on April 28. More details will be shared in coming weeks.

On a different topic, in the middle of December KAIROS released and animated this call to action: "Join us in putting an end to illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank." You can learn more and write to your Member of Parliament today.

by Brian McIntosh, Kairos Toronto West/Mississauga

As churches focus on survival and local issues, many of us in the ecumenical justice movement have become discouraged at the movement’s gradual decline in involvement and influence.

A few strong local groups remain. But recruitment is necessary for the future of KAIROS, for revival of the social and ecological justice and peace emphasis of our churches in cooperation with other denominations. We would like to share some recruitment suggestions.

1. Encourage each local group member to speak reasonably often about both the KAIROS movement and local group activities with church clergy, officials and leaders, as well as with local church Councils, Committees and members, as well as family members and friends.
2. Share brief written reports about local group activities and events with the above also.
3. Develop a simple data base, such as an e-list, of local churches and interested community members. Share above written reports, upcoming event notices or poster/flyers, etc. with developed data base (at least quarterly).
4. Add to the data base by collecting information at all local group events, encouraging participation in the group as you do. Encourage group members to engage attendees in discovering their interest in the event theme and/or KAIROS, and follow-up shortly after the event upon the expression of any interest of further participation.
5. Consider some social media presence, perhaps by specifically recruiting someone with the appropriate skills or even paying someone a nominal amount to do it for the group. Always include a contact for the local group when doing posts.
6. Invite all on the above data base to a brief online or in-person primer on the local group’s work, beginning with some testimony from current local members about the reasons they are involved. Model flexibility about expectations and particular passions, if possible, while maintaining loyalty to current KAIROS priorities and programs.
7. Be flexible about meeting dates/times/formats, trying to accommodate preferences, especially among those potential members who are employed, who cannot attend a particular day of the week or of the month, etc.
8. Consider naming a membership recruitment coordinator who will keep the above ideas in front of the group on a reasonably regular basis, perhaps even coordinating among the current local group membership a special emphasis on recruitment at certain times of year (September? January?). Perhaps offering a special incentive for those who recruit new members could be part of this coordinator’s intentional approach.
9. Develop local ecumenical partnerships with other organizations/groups who share the goals and objectives of the local group, perhaps across inter-faith lines, among labour or other justice-seeking groups, etc.
10. Urge local group members to pray about the health of their group and invite the Spirit’s help in finding the courage to speak up about the great work of their local group as well as the worthiness of their goals.