Tuesday, February 15, 2022

We, as leaders within The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, recognize and lament the current turmoil being experienced within our nation. While not advocating for every expression of protest being evidenced in the country today, we do prayerfully trust for the following attitudes and actions:

• As a Pentecostal community in Canada we are grateful to God for this country.

• We prayerfully thank God for the country we have been blessed to live in and accept our responsibility to pray for our nation and its leadership.

• As followers of Jesus our call is to exercise our “first” citizenship within God’s kingdom as well as our Canadian citizenship. We are commanded to live out our love for God and our love for others in such a way that those we live among may see our good deeds and glorify God. We live among others as Jesus did, full of grace and truth.

• We prayerfully ask that God, by His Spirit, would empower us to demonstrate His love, grace, and truth in the relationships and contexts where God has placed us. We pray for wisdom and discretion to avoid identification with the polarized political labeling that takes place within our culture, and that is currently evident on many fronts.

• As citizens of Canada, we equally share the rights granted to us in a democracy and respect those rights both as citizens and leaders. We must be able to speak prophetically to both people and to power. We acknowledge that there is a shared concern regarding divisive and dismissive approaches to valid discussions regarding policies that go far beyond vaccination mandates, etc. The current protests, with all the appropriately identified concerns regarding extreme views and actions, do represent a broader sense of ostracization within stratums of our country. Wise, knowledgeable leadership will work to bridge those divides rather than to seek political advantage.

• We prayerfully ask God to grant to our leaders at federal, provincial and local government levels an experience of divine wisdom, strength, and grace as they respond as humble servant leaders.

• In all, we rightfully call followers of Jesus to live by the Great Command to love God and others, and the Great Requirement to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly, as we lovingly pray for both our leaders and neighbours.

Lord hear our prayer, ignite our hearts, and guide our steps.

For Your glory,

David Wells, General Superintendent

Murray Cornelius, Executive Director for International Missions

Ron Davis, Interim General Secretary Treasurer