Throughout this past Lent, Anglicans and Lutherans in the Waterloo area joined together to walk the path of reconciliation.
Each Wednesday, All Saints’ Anglican Church, St Columba Anglican Church, Christ Lutheran Church and Mount Zion Lutheran gathered together for a speaker series focused on reconciliation and the Truth and
Reconciliations Commission ’s call to action #59.
The program began by building an understanding of the Doctrine of Discovery, UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Ingenious Peoples), the Indian Act and the Residential Schools system.
Our first speaker, Bishop Mark MacDonald, brought insights from Indigenous Spirituality to Christian Theology. The Good Walk or 4 Directional Thinking reminded us that we should experience the Gospel truths from all sides, as one experiences a mountain from all sides when they walk around it.
At the core of Bishop Mark’s message is the principle or idea of relationships that are formed through time spent in community. Bishop Mark encouraged all to participate where they can in a blanket exercise, visiting the Six Nations and the Woodland Cultural Center or attending a Pow Wow.
Next, Rev. Tom Patterson from the Diocese of Huron Bridge Builders reminded us of the importance of discovering both our differences and similarities as we come into relationship. The Bridge Builders do this with balanced representation on the working group while being attentive to not force that relationship or for settlers to take over.
Rev. Rosalyn Elm helped the participants to decolonize our Western theology and use insights from Indigenous Spirituality to create new insights into scripture. Western Theology tends to look from the Fall onward, seeing humanity as sinful, while Indigenous Spirituality looks back to the Garden, proposing
that we are living in the Garden of Eden as it is not just spiritual but real.
Through sharing our sacred stories we are also able to better understand our own stories by receiving a new lens in which to experience scripture. Rosalyn poignantly highlighted this with a telling of the Haudenosaunee creation story and using that to interpret Genesis.
To close out our time in Lent together, Deacon Scott Knarr shared tangible examples of reconciliation
in action. Deacon Scott has helped develop and participates in a music camp on the Six Nations, which operates both summer camps and Tuesday after-school programming. (musicforthespirit.ca)
Scott brought into focus for the group the importance of relationships, of walking reconciliation with one person at a time and that reconciliation cannot be rushed or we will just tip the canoe.
The thread that connected all the various topics and speakers was relationships. The path to reconciliation can only be travelled by mending the broken relationships between settlers and
First Nations. This was a powerful insight as we are reminded in the season of Lent that it is through Christ that our broken relationship with God is reconciled and our sins are forgiven.
This story was picked up and reprinted in the ELCIC Newsletter. It can be viewed here.