"If you invite someone to be open and honest about wounds you've inflicted on them, either personally or through identification, then you also have the responsibility to ask for forgiveness from the individual or group you have wounded," said Rev. Dan MacKinnon of Grace, Ottawa, following his request that the moderator apologize to General Assembly's aboriginal guests.
It was Tuesday night, June 2 – the day after Canada's five-year Truth and Reconciliation Commission officially began, and the first full day of sederunts at Assembly. MacKinnon's request for an apology was instigated by visits from Ted Quewezance, executive director of the National Residential School Survivors' Society, and Aboriginal elder and residential school survivor Irene Lindsay, who runs her own grandmothers' group in Ottawa.
In response to MacKinnon's request Rev. Cheol Soon Park turned to Lindsay and said, "On behalf of all the people in this room, I'd like to offer the most sincere apology. Thank you, and we ask for your prayers." He then embraced her, and wept with her. The elder told the Assembly no one had ever done that before.
Park later admitted MacKinnon's request had taken him by surprise, but his heart was "very open" to it. His Korean heritage resonated with the suffering of the Aboriginal people.
"For 36 years Korean people were under Japanese regime; we lost our culture, language, names and were forced to take Japanese names … there was so much abuse done to Korean people," shared Park. "Coming from this kind of background, as I hear the stories, the tragic mistake committed to aboriginal brothers and sisters, I felt the same pain, I felt the same agony – their prayers, and their cries.
"That made me respond to this situation and request from my heart. Not just as a formality, but as a heart-to-heart response."
