Remembering Roger

We ended 2013 on a very sad note. Former MCM director and much loved colleague and friend, Roger Snelling, passed away peacefully at home in Ottawa on December 14th. Roger was an exceptional and unique individual whose passion for social justice was only surpassed by his integrity and authenticity. The Montreal United Church community, along with colleagues and friends from the larger grass roots milieu, gathered together with Roger’s family on February 1st at St. James United for a final adieu. At that service, Roger’s son Peter, and former colleagues Lance Evoy and Paula Kline shared their memories of Roger. Their texts follow.  

Peter Snelling

I’d like to tell you three stories about my Dad when I was a kid, and he was a little younger than I am now.

The first story is about swimming. My Dad played water polo when he went to Queen’s, and he kept swimming regularly his whole life. He approached most things in a very methodical way, and swimming was no different. If he decided that he should swim 20 lengths 3 times a week, then that’s what he’d do. He’s show up at the Allancroft pool regularly, and do the lengths. One summer they set up a board to record the number of lengths people swam, and my Dad, because he was so reliable did the second highest number of lengths at the pool. The only person ahead of him was a lifeguard who was a competitive swimmer.

One of my most vivid memories of my Dad is from one summer, when we took a family holiday, and drove down to Cape Cod. We stayed at a small efficiency Motel called the “Shady Nook”. It wasn’t very close to the beach, but it had a small pool. It was too small for my Dad to do lengths, but I have this vivid image of him jumping around and around in this small pool, so much that big waves formed all around the pool. When I think of him, that’s often the first image that comes to mind.

My second story is about board games.

My dad played competitive bridge. At home we kids weren’t very interested in bridge but he taught us to play Hearts. When playing Hearts he would go for “Control” (where you try to capture all the points) so often that you’d almost always have to try to take one heart early on, just to stop him. But the game I remember playing with him most was Monopoly. If you know him through the Montreal Community Loan Fund, you might not believe how mercilessly competitive he could be playing Monopoly with little kids. He’d offer us complex deals. He’d offer them with a smile on his face, and you knew he was trying to trick you somehow.

Monopoly is a game of chance, and sometimes these deals would work out for you. But you don’t have an equal chance of landing on every square. Frequently you’d wind up drawing a Chance card that said go back 3 spaces, and you’d land on his hotel on the New York property you traded him a few turns back. I could claim it was just a life lesson for us kids: that you need to think about deals carefully because they might not be as good as they sound. But really I think he just enjoyed playing the game.

The last story is about baseball.

I played little league as a kid, and once at sign up time, my Dad checked the box to say he was willing to be an Assistant coach. Unfortunately for him, no other parents volunteered to Coach, or be assistant coach. So he became the coach. My Dad grew up in Welland, so he was a Detroit Tigers fan, and while he knew about baseball, he didn’t know much about coaching, so he approached it the way he did most things. He researched it, he read books, he talked other parents into being assistant coaches and helping out at practices. If our team had problems with the first baseman missing the ball, he’d buy a special big “first baseman’s glove”, that everyone could share when they’re playing first base. If we had a problem with people overthrowing bases, he’d tell the whole team that everyone is supposed to move on every play. You need to predict where the throw is going to go, and you can be there to catch the ball if there’s an overthrow.

We had a pretty good team, and with his coaching, we wound up making it to the finals. The finals were a 2 game total point series. In the final inning of the last game, we had the bases loaded, our best hitter came up, and struck out swinging. We lost the series by 1 run. On the car ride home, my Dad said to me “I really thought we were going to win at the end”. I said I did too.

Then he told me something I hadn’t noticed. During the first game, between innings they were comparing scores. The other team said they had one more run than we’d counted. My Dad assumed they were right, and gave them the point. During the second game, the same thing happened. The other team said they’d scored an extra point, and this time my Dad didn’t really think so, but their scorecard showed they had. He couldn’t believe they’d actually cheat at a little league game, and again he gave them the point… and watched their score very carefully for the rest of the game. So in the end, we lost by 1 point, but the score might have been off by a point or two. Maybe, if he’d been the kind of person who wanted to argue everything, and kick sand on the umpire’s shoes until they agreed, we might have won the game. He was competitive, he wanted to win, but he really just wanted to play the game, without the kind of confrontation that’s so common in sports.

Finally: what’s the moral of these stories? Ecclesiastes 9 says:

The race is not to the swift

or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

or wealth to the brilliant

or favor to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

Those words are clearly true, and they provide consolation for when things don’t work out as you’d like. But they’re not really the moral of my stories, because they’re focused on outcomes. My Dad devoted a large part of his life to helping others who were less fortunate, and fighting for social justice. He also showed us by example that you’ll lead a more fulfilled life if you become involved in the things you care about. So try to swim the most laps, make big waves in a small pool, try to get control at Hearts, wheel-and-deal at Monopoly, and if a coach is needed at baseball, you step up and try to win. Because win or lose, your life will be happier if you act on your beliefs.

The Snellings at St. James United on February 1st

Lance Evoy

Roger and I first met in 1984.  It was an election year in Canada, the federal election where Canadians elected the Mulroney Conservatives.  I was a community organizer and popular education trainer, working at the Third Avenue Resource Centre / Centre de ressources de la troisième avenue here in Montreal, a small social justice non profit that had been created by several of us who had worked in the international development/social justice field and who had set out on our own in 1974.

A national Election Priorities Project has been set up by organizations working in the peace, development and environment sectors prior to the anticipated election that prepared material citizens could use in approaching the candidates in their riding, educating candidates and the public on the connections between disarmament and development - linking the arms race to underdevelopment.

It was one of the first times, I recollect, where a campaign was set in motion drawing together these three powerful movements and setting in motion an inspirational example of citizen engagement and democracy.
Roger and I attended a training session for the Montreal area. Roger was with WIND - West Islanders for Nuclear Disarmament.  WIND was one of many groups that sprang up at that time to lobby their local governments to declare themselves nuclear free zones.

This was an amazingly effective approach to pressure our government to take a stand and was no "charging the windmills" tactic but a real grassroots approach to social change.  Roger was part of this exciting work.  As well, WIND members were also exploring ways that they could consider their investment practices and investment options to assure that they were not investing in companies and industries involved in armament production, or cruise missile development. Here again, Roger was involved at the early stages of what was becoming a powerful grassroots movement in alternative investment and socially responsible investment.

Celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Community Loan Association

Years later our paths crossed again. I had joined MCM's board where I worked closely with Roger, Trish, Paula, and a wonderful cast of board members, students and volunteers.  It was this setting where I saw Roger thrive.  He had left his corporate work at CN and chose to work and volunteer at MCM.  He had found a 'home away from home', a setting where he was working in a community of people building effective support facilities and programs for those who had special needs and skills - new arrivals to Canada/Quebec, the homeless, and those ravaged by HIV/AIDS.  

Roger had heard about the community economic development work and was inspired by it and soon was learning more about a new community investment vehicle - the Montreal Community Loan Association (Association communautaire d’emprunt de Montréal) that was one of the first community controlled revolving loan funds in Canada that gave its first loan in 1990. This loan fund, which is still a pioneer in its field today, was created by young unemployed, new immigrants, social housing service organizations, and an amazing mix of community based organizations.

Roger was soon volunteering with the MCLA and through ongoing discussions with the board of MCM arranged for MCM surplus operational funds to be invested in the MCLA for a specific period to time and lent out to help people start socially viable businesses in their community.  One thing, among many, that appealed to Roger was that the Fund brought together a fascinating mix of investors: individuals, faith based organizations, unions, foundations, private businesses (Aldo Shoes), international development organizations and corporations.  Here people from all walks of life were sitting around the table literally redefining development and the role their organizations and structures and their wealth could play in addressing issues of wealth redistribution.   

Roger challenged his church and community to imagine how wealth that they sat on and used for church outreach work could be invested in the community loan fund where their initial loan could be lent out to individuals and groups seeking loan capital time and time again for creating new services in their community - bridge loans..... and investing in new business start ups for those that could not receive loan capital from traditional financial institutions because the potential borrowers could not offer traditional guarantees for their loan. Roger met with MCM's board, the United Church Administration and Finance Committee and persuaded them to come on board in no small part due to the trust and respect they had in Roger and the inspiring story he had to tell them.

Roger was invited to join the board of MCLA and later became its chair..  He attended and set up meetings with investors, helped review loan requests, helped garner technical assistance for borrowers when it was needed and find skilled volunteers to accompany borrowers in their new undertakings.

Roger assisted MCLA in setting up an annual national workshop where those from communities across Canada came to Montreal and shared their stories and hopes and learned from borrowers, investors and staff and volunteers of MCLA on how to replicate community revolving loans funds across our country.

Soon Roger was invited on the board of CAIC - Canadian Alternative Investment Cooperative made up of 50 faith based communities with over $7 million in funds invested in initiatives across the country for day cares, purchase of property, bridge loans.  He had started in his local community with WIND looking at how he and others could invest in a socially responsible fashion, and was now working on a national level through the United Church network, the new network created by the MCLA, and groups like CAIC, while always staying involved locally.

He was such a highly motivated dedicated activist who touched so many of our lives.  He was tenacious and was guided by his faith and social justice values. He was a great administrator and problem solver. He was a dreamer who realized that dreams announce the possibility of another reality.  He was a visionary who led his life knowing that from a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back.  That is a point that must be reached if we are going to participate in creating a more just world.
Let me end by reading you a quote from the American novelist Russell Banks from his novel Continental Drift:
"We are the planet, fully as much as its water, earth, fire and air are the planet, and if the planet survives it will only be through heroism.  Not occasional heroism, a remarkable instance of it here and there, but constant heroism, systematic heroism as governing principle".
Roger your life's work was all about heroism of the nature quoted above. You are missed Roger, we feel sorrow right now, but we also feel blessed to have known you, walked through some of this journey together, and felt your love and fairness towards all you knew.

At MCM Centennial celebration in June 2010, with Rev. Bill Jay and Roger's wife Sheila

Again, at the MCM Centennial celebration

Rev. Paula Kline

Last December 21st, some of us gathered in Ottawa, a week after Roger's death, to grieve and to mourn. At the time, it seemed rather ironic that we should be gathering on the darkest day of the year, to remember one who brought so much light into our lives.  Ironic, but perhaps significant as well, for just as the winter solstice hides under her mantle of darkness the promise of new light and new life, so too did Roger work tirelessly to bring light into those dark corners of our world.

‘Son of encouragement’ - In the passage from Acts just now, we heard how those early Christians worked together for the common good, encouraged one another through pooling their resources, their possession so that there would not be a needy person among them.

As I was reading that wonderful passage again last evening, I couldn't help but thinking  - hmm - that that would be a good moniker for Roger: ‘Son of encouragement’ - for Roger was  always upbeat, always pleasant, always faaaaaaantastick. But Roger was much more than simply an optimist. He was indeed a ‘son of encouragement’ - he encouraged good works - through what he preached and through what he practiced.

At Paula's ordination in June 2013

His faith spoke to him ....and he responded ....in word and in deed.

I recall in the early days of working with Roger at the mission, one Sunday when we were doing an outreach visit at a church and I was a bit surprised at Roger's bold message to the congregation. He mentioned  how he had just inherited some money from one of his aunties - and how the system was set up to allow him to invest that money to make more money, how the resources in our world are not "distributed to each as any had need" - as the Gospel preached, but rather favour those who already have.

 And so he announced he was going to invest that money in the Montreal Community Loan Association so it could be used to help other people - and not just the banks. And he encouraged the congregation that day to consider making a small investment as a group or as individuals, in the loan association.

But he didn't stop there, throughout the 90s, he went on to encourage many more individuals, groups, foundations and some big time players to make alternative investments, and, in doing so, helped raise millions. And we'll be hearing in a few minutes from Roger's long time friend and colleague Lance Evoy about that important part of his ministry. A ministry that he was able to pursue in a more dedicated fashion, and in many different aspects when he took early retirement and  became the director of Montreal City Mission in 1992.

And I consider myself extremely privileged that when he made that important career and life change, he wound up being my boss.  From what I experienced during those years of working side by side with Roger, and also from what his family has told me, I believe it was at the mission that Roger  experienced his faith in a new and profound fashion, where he truly found his calling - as a ‘son of encouragement’.

 And encourage he did, Roger was a collegial director, never imposing his viewpoint but offering it, and mostly encouraging us to discover our own gifts and talents.

Roger was a good listener and you always knew that whatever opinion or advice he offered, came from a place that wasn't driven by ego from by a deep faith, by the desire to be of help and find the best solution for all, to contribute to the collective good.....  to encourage.

Roger wasn't only active at MCM, he also dedicated himself body and soul to the United Church that he loved, alongside his life partner Sheila, supporting the Mission and Service Fund for so many years, at his home congregation of Beaconsfield, at the presbytery and at the Montreal & Ottawa Conference, as St. Columba House as interim director for 2 years and on countless boards, committees, ad hoc groups, too numerous to mention.

 When asked to serve, Roger Snelling stepped up to the plate. And he was asked to serve often, for he was respected as a man deep convictions, integrity and fairness.  According to Lynda Ecott, Montreal Presbytery Administrator, hardly a day - and certainly not a week - go by without people commenting about how Roger Snelling had ‘fixed this problem, come up with a new idea over here, mediated that crises over there, found a novel way to organize and explain complicated budgets’ - comments always followed with a sigh:  “If only Roger were here to advise us - do we ever miss him”. As we know, he was honoured for this incredible contribution with an honorary doctorate from the United Theological College in 2012.

Dr Snelling was a peace maker, a conciliator, but he also had strong opinions and stood his ground when necessary. I first met Roger in the early 90s at a presbytery meeting. The Americans were in the middle of the infamous 'dessert storm' operation in Iraq and Roger was pressing the court to pass a motion to denounce this aggressive action that would have disastrous consequences, not only for Iraq but for world peace. All of a sudden someone called out: “Oh, come on Roger”.

But what struck me about that incident was that Roger didn't respond in kind, didn't argue, he simply paused - smiled - not an arrogant smile that said I’m right and you're wrong - though that was the case!  His countenance said: Here I stand - this is what I believe, what my faith tells me to do. And that's the calm, solid, inspiring presence that Roger brought into all of his relationships. With Roger - it was never about being right - but always about doing the right thing and being in right relation.

And that's why we not only loved him, we loved working with him.

I've been thinking a lot about Roger this past month...  how unfair it is that he was taken from us so quickly, how much we miss him, how much we all still need his encouragement.

  But you know, the more I think of him and all he did, the stronger I feel the light of his presence, calling out to us to continue his ministry of social justice - encouraging us to pull back that mantle of darkness - to not wait for the day - but work for the day when ‘there will not be a needy person among us’.

 And so, let us embrace Roger's spirit and carry it with us as we go forward, so this incredible man many continue to warm our hearts and lighten our path.