Remembering Thea DeGroot: A Justice Warrior and Kingdom Worker

The Christian Reformed Church in North America is made up of about 228,000 people. Each one contributes to God’s kingdom in a variety of ways in their local community, home congregation, and place of employment -- as well as making an impact in the world.

Recently one such kingdom worker passed away. Thea DeGroot of Sarnia, Ont., died of pancreatic cancer on May 16. Her commitment to justice will have a lasting impact in her community and on the denomination.

DeGroot was born Theadora DeLange on Oct. 6, 1948, in the Netherlands and moved with her family to Canada in 1957. They originally settled in Brantford, Ont., where she worked as a summer counselor in local parks in her teen years.

In 1969, DeGroot moved to Sarnia to teach at Sarnia Christian School. It was there that she met her husband (Art DeGroot), raised her three daughters (Jennifer, Esther, and Amaryah), and was an active part of Redeemer CRC.

As an elementary school teacher, DeGroot helped to shape the lives of many young people into the adults they would become. Later she continued touching lives as she transitioned to a career in teaching adult literacy.

One of her primary teaching sites for adult education was at Aamjiwnaag First Nation, an Anishinaabe reserve within the Sarnia city limits. She formed relationships with Indigenous students and teachers there, and that helped to shape her understanding of justice and to renew her commitment to working for positive change.

“Living justly was uppermost in Thea’s life. She was involved in every poverty group in our town, supported them as allies, was very involved with Indigenous issues, wrote monthly letters on behalf of Amnesty International, and served well on the board of Citizens for Public Justice,” recalled Diane Plug, a friend of DeGroot’s from Sarnia.

One key area of passion for DeGroot was helping people in need in her own community. She was instrumental in starting Lambton Circles, which matches low-income people with "allies" who can provide support and learning to help them move from poverty to independence.

In addition, DeGroot helped champion Food Charters as a way to help vulnerable people gain access to healthy food. This included a mobile food bus and community vegetable gardens.

She starteda social justice film festival in Sarnia and was involved in Southwestern Ontario Kairos and the Lambton-Sarnia Food Coalition.

DeGroot also helped to write a proposal to make Sarnia the site of the Basic Income Guarantee Experiments -- a pilot project of the provincial government of Ontario that worked to provide a guaranteed minimum income to eligible participants regardless of their employment status.

As a result of all of these efforts, DeGroot received a YMCA Peace Medallion in 2015 and was nominated as an Everyday Political Citizen by Samara Canada in 2017. Yet her influence went beyond the Sarnia area.

“I heard about Thea long before I had the privilege of meeting her,” said Bernadette Arthur, Race Relations Coordinator for the CRCNA in Canada. “I heard there was a woman in Sarnia who attended a CRC church and who had been championing the cause of justice for Indigenous peoples for decades.”

This lifelong passion for Indigenous people led to DeGroot’s involvement in the CRC’s first Youth Ambassador of Reconciliation immersion trip to Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (K.I.) First Nation. This trip was created to help CRC young people learn about Indigenous issues and get involved in reconciliation work.

“There was unanimous consent to invite Thea on this trip,” said Arthur, who also attended the 2016 journey to this community about 600 kilometers north of Thunder Bay. “We felt that it would be a win-win situation. We would be in the presence of a person who made it her life's mission to pursue reconciliation with First Nations peoples, and she would have the opportunity to continue living out what it means to walk humbly and do justice through one of the basic means -- relational living.”

Shannon Perez is a Justice and Reconciliation Mobilizer for the CRCNA and a member of the Sayisi Dene First Nation. She attended the immersion trip with DeGroot and said, “Thea was generous in every way with kindness, helping, and grace. She shared her perspective from her experience in a way that was welcoming and comforting for me.”

Arthur agreed. “After having spent approximately 12 days with Thea, I realized that her heart indeed beat for justice, love of people, and love of God. I will remember Thea through the tableaus in my mind's eye: Thea cooking in the community center kitchen with the K.I. aunties, Thea listening attentively to the stories of K.I. elders, Thea standing amidst the backdrop of a stunning landscape soaking in the glory of the Creator,” she said.

DeGroot’s life and work will have a lasting impact on the CRCNA’s Aboriginal and justice ministries. In addition to her participation on this immersion trip, DeGroot also served as a board member for Citizens for Public Justice, was an active participant of a Facebook group known as the “CRCNA Justice League,” and was a contributor to the CRCNA’s Do Justice blog.

In one Do Justicepost, DeGroot summarized her own life of justice this way, “For as long as I can remember, I have deeply felt the need to respond to the words and pictures of Matthew 25:34-40 first encountered in the children’s Bible – ‘I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. . . .’

“My work experience, first as a teenage summer counsellor in local parks and later in community settings, have kept me regularly in contact with people whose lives were often marginalized and in which those biblical words came through loud and clear, not as a warning to assure my place in heaven but as a call of a loving God to treat all people as fully loved and created by the same God that loved and created her.”

This is something that her life taught those who knew her.

“Thea desired a better world, a world where kindness, sharing, and understanding were supreme. Thea did not just talk about these things but did them -- and showed us all how to do it,” said Plug.

“Thea DeGroot was, for me, an unparalleled example of Christian service and integrity,” added Cathy Smith, who considered DeGroot not only a colleague but also a mentor and dear friend for over 30 years. “Her lifelong activism culminated in a staggering list of accomplishments on behalf of individuals, institutions, organizations, and communities. With unflagging energy and conviction, she lived a Christian faith that was practical and concrete.”

“I am forever blessed by having shared space and time with Thea DeGroot,” Arthur concluded. “May her legacy continue on and her seed bear much fruit in the CRC and beyond.”