World watching Nunavut Christian revival: Iqaluit pastor

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

An upcoming Bible conference in Iqaluit promises to showcase the religion’s success in the North to Christians around the world, says the event’s main organizer.

James Arreak, pastor for the Iqaluit Christian Fellowship, said his counterparts around the world are heralding the North’s explosion of church events and activities as a revival that can be duplicated among other aboriginal groups, and in Africa.

“The Inuit themselves, who they are… the choices they’ve made as Christians, is having a pretty incredible impact on people all over the world,” Arreak said in a phone interview from a national Bible conference in Ottawa.

On Good Friday, hundreds of Christians from across Nunavut will converge on the Iqaluit’s curling rink for a week of music and evangelical celebration.

Organizers say they will join guest preachers from the South, including the United States, and other delegates from Nunavik and Greenland in “sharing the truth of the Gospel” and preparing for what some pastors are calling a “visitation from God.”

“That’s the theme,” Arreak said. “We’re being prepared for greater days ahead of us. And the church is being prepared for greater glory. God is going to reveal his glory to us, there’s no doubt about it. And his glory doesn’t mean shining lights and everything. It means there’s going to be joy that’s unspeakable, that cannot be stolen from us.”

The conference will also mark the 20th anniversary of Bible conferences in Inuit communities. Twenty years ago, only a handful of people showed up for the first pan-Arctic Bible conference in Arctic Bay.

Next week, Arreak expects a flock of up to 800 people to squeeze into the curling rink for seven days of church services and teachings.

The growing interest in Christianity, especially evangelical strains espoused by Arreak, has become obvious in churches across the Arctic.

Wayne Moore, pastor for the Iqaluit’s Pentacostal Church, said churches throughout the city are filling up, and have started thinking about the need for larger church buildings to house the growing congregations.

Moore said people across Nunavut, and the entire country, are suffering a spiritual malaise that is leading them to Christianity.

“I think there’s such real need in our world today,” said Moore, who is also helping organize the Bible conference. “Young people are wondering what life is all about, and I believe God is the only one that can give us that satisfaction, that real answer.”

Arreak said the expanding crowds of people at Bible conferences in Nunavut also reflect the region’s growing “hunger for God”.

“People are tired of depression,” he said. “They’re looking for better things, for coping mechanisms that will bring healing to their lives. This is basically the message of the Gospel. We’re speaking hope, we’re sharing what Jesus did for all of us on the cross.”

Arreak believes the momentum of the Christian movement in the North will mean they will eventually have to create a pan-Arctic church. Although he said discussions about the mega-church are already underway, Arreak said the debate wouldn’t likely take place at the Iqaluit conference.

Arreak said the conference will be open to the public for free. Plans are underway to broadcast the event on a local television cable channel. Most proceedings will be in Inuktitut.