THE NIAGARA DECLARATION:
Dear Christian leaders, churches, and elected officials:
Welcome to the official website of the Niagara 2020 Declaration. We sincerely thank you for your interest and for visiting. We hope you will be able to join us in this national Christian initiative, and we value your prayers for its success.
In Canada, as blessed recipients of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for generations and heirs of the Christian Parliamentary tradition and English Common Law, we have long been able to take our freedoms and liberties in the faith for granted. Tragically, those days have waned, and we all share culpability for the declining situation and loss of the pervasive influence of the Scriptures. In our generation, with the undeniably radical cultural shift over the last sixty years, we are confronted with increased political, institutional, and legal opposition to the faith. Christians are facing an attack on our historic liberties and Charter freedoms. These include (but are not limited to) various persecutions in the form of media propaganda, speech and human rights codes, Supreme Court decisions regarding Christian institutions and end of life issues, municipal and provincial bylaws regarding sexuality and gender, indefinite emergency restrictions and lockdowns, and proposed amendments to the Criminal Code that could radically curtail the freedom of Christian leaders, churches and parents (cf. the federal bill to criminally ban so-called “conversion therapy”).
In facing these serious threats to freedom, we urgently need a united and collective witness bridging denominational distinctives, that gives voice to our concern for the ongoing freedom and liberty of Christ’s church and the propagation of the Gospel in our nation. Such a collective stand can be used to great effect as part of a united Christian engagement with civil authorities when God-given and historic liberties are threatened or trodden upon.
Originating in a gathering of Christian leaders in the Niagara region in the fall of 2020, this document is a humble attempt to rally the Christian Church in this nation around a common confession as it relates to church and state and the protection of our civil liberties. History proves that freedoms not fought for are soon forfeited; if the church loses its freedom, freedoms will be lost for all. We can no longer afford to be complacent. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, our neighbours who need the Gospel, and our beloved nation of Canada, we must prayerfully and courageously seek to stem the tide to the glory of God and for the kingdom of His dear Son.
Our prayer is that you will seriously consider joining Christian leaders right across our nation in signing this potentially historic document as we seek to bring various faithful Canadian churches together around our common commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, freedom for the Gospel, and constitutional liberty for the churches.
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