Moderator Rev. Hans Kouwenberg spoke with Prime Minister Stephen Harper about poverty and First Nations' issues in Ottawa last December. Kouwenberg delivered a church leaders' letter on poverty that was signed by all members of the Canadian Council of Churches.
Kouwenberg said he felt the Prime Minister was open to discussing some of the items which are of deep concern to the church.
The two also discussed the forthcoming apology that the government has said it will offer to First Nations people concerning Indian residential schools.
“I pointed out to him that this apology should not be understood as bringing about any sense of closure as was mentioned in the throne speech, but rather as a renewal in a pledge to walk together with First Nations people in new paths of healing and reconciliation.”
Kouwenberg also mentioned the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a joint government and church initiative where stories of residential schools will be voiced and shared, and the renewal of the Covenant to Walk Together that national church leaders attended in Winnipeg last summer and the upcoming church and aboriginal leaders' tour that is to take place in March. He invited Harper, whose mother currently attends Westminster Presbyterian in Calgary, to bless the beginning of this tour in Ottawa.
“Although he did not commit to attend this event, he told me would not be issuing the government's apology until the people who were going to be appointed to this tour were in place,” said Kouwenberg. “He hoped this would be before March, and indicated his government was committed to this process.”
During the meeting, Kouwenberg was presented with a certificate of congratulations on his appointment as Moderator of the 133rd General Assembly. –AM
