Open to Change
Reading is an act of vulnerability. We don’t know how stories might change us. We don’t know what might happen.
healing and reconciliation
Churches Sign Joint Statement on UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Eight denominations signed a joint statement in March expressing their commitment “to implement the principles, norms, and standards of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for reconciliation.”
Listening and Learning
It is like speaking the truth with your right hand on the Bible when you hold the feather. In a round circle at Kenora Fellowship Centre, Marvin shared his challenges.
A Long Road
The sound of the drums and the songs rang out as 10,000 people turned the corner to Ottawa City Hall. This Walk for Reconciliation marked the beginning of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s closing events.
The Voice of the Bell
“Can you see anything? Are they coming yet?” Elizabeth, our church administrator and I squinted up the street. Standing at the open church door, gripping the bell rope, we were ready to ring our bell and cheer the Truth and Reconciliation marchers on their way
The Challenge of Reconciliation
Reconciliation isn’t easy, even when the truth is known.
Private Pain on Public Display
As I sat there watching people coming in to register, I began to feel myself being pulled into my past. I felt like I was back at the residential school being dropped off as a young child. A strange place. Strange people. Strange language. I started shaking.
At Last an Understanding
Just as soldiers who went to fight did not hear of the Holocaust until after they returned, so we who were raised in Canada were never taught the story of residential schools.
Visiting WICM
Now that the TRC has come to a close, a challenge for us as citizens of both God’s Kingdom and Canada, will be that our First Nations and Aboriginal peoples continue to be a priority of our mission and outreach mandates.
Culture Clash
As a lay missionary working with Anishinabe people on Manitoba’s Keeseekowenin and Rolling River reserves in the 1970s, I, like other missionaries at the time, was given lessons in how to learn any language and cross-cultural communications.