Afterwards there was the gathering of friends and community. It was a miracle. It was evidence of grace. But despite the controversies of work and faith, Vivian’s hard work was known to all of us who had seen this journey from beginning days when she was a student at Vancouver School of Theology with an impossible dream. She wanted to serve her indigenous people from the start. She started Urban Aboriginal Ministry. She picked up native women late at night in what was ever an “Indian car’, a vehicle that ran on prayer power alone. She did so much for the DTES native women and men, their lives wracked by the residential school system and now caught in the Fentanyl epidemic. She is a centre of love and reconciliation, serving in the tradition of St. Theresa to the poor of Vancouver.
Her son Steven was there, a loving man, proud to see his humble mother acknowledged.
Dr. Barbara Harris, renowned therapist and Dr. Andrea Scotland, philosopher, Juliann, United Church minister and others who had all known Vivian in their shared student days were there as well. What a community! What a tribe! I was glad to be there myself.
Vivian, like St. Francis, has always been loved by my dog Gilbert. We’ve attended St. Mary Magdalene Anglican Church where Vivian preaches. I remember her saying, when the children in the church and the dogs got rambunctious during one of her sermons.
“I love to hear the children and see the dogs because it reminds me of my home in the Northwest Territories where all the community are welcome in the church.” When this quiet woman of vast experience laughs all around laugh as well. Her spirituality is like the Dalai Lama that way,
As an indigenous healing woman she is as at home in the native medicine circles as she is in the body of the church.
The sun was shining synchronistically this day as we made our way out of Christ Church Cathedral. Hooray for Rev. Vivian Seegers. Hallelujah!
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