Advent 1 - Hope

Many years, during Advent, we sing “Hope is a star, that shines in the night, leading us on till the morning is bright.”*

In Ontario, parents may ask their children to leave their home at the age of 16, if the child doesn’t agree to follow the parents’ rules. Many young people, when they reveal to their parents that they are gay, are asked to leave if they refuse to give up what the parents believe to be a sinful life. Often, parents are advised by their religious leaders that they must adopt this stance, either to “protect” the other children in the home, or to force the young people to conform to the norms of the parents’ religious group.

Many young people choose to leave. In Ottawa, it is estimated that 1,500 young people are homeless. LGBTQ2+ youth represent as much as 40% of these. Many of these young people cannot or will not go to shelters. Some shelters have a minimum age of 18. LGBTQ2+ young people also fear violence from homophobia in shelters.  So they live on the streets. Hope is hard to find in that situation.

Barak Obama said “This is our first task - caring for our children. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged.”

My hope, this Advent, is that every child be warm, safe, and cared for. May the star of Hope show us the way to making this happen.


Information for this post came from this article:
https://charlatan.ca/2017/12/youth-homelessness-in-ottawa-the-most-at-risk-people-in-the-capital/


* "Hope is a Star" - by Brian Wren, Voices United #7