Reconciliation

How can we expand our reach with the Jubilee Turn Debt Into Hope campaign?

At the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum in Calgary this past June, ORCIE joined over 100 participants, social justice activists and people of faith from across Canada to call for global debt justice. Just four months after the Turn Debt Into Hope campaign was launched, the People’s Forum offered two key elements that demonstrate practical ways forward for the movement for debt justice.

The G7 Jubilee People’s Forum began with a dynamic Interfaith Service where multiple faith traditions prayed for justice in the Jubilee year. Led by the Calgary Interfaith Council, the service included voices and elements from Muslim, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish, Buddhist, Bahai, Sikh, Unitarian and Christian traditions, followed by a meal from the community kitchen of the Calgary Sikh gurdwara. The Council, 30 years strong, not only focuses on deepening relationships across faith traditions, but they also urge members of their community to educate themselves, become advocates for peace and justice, and pave the way for integrated coexistence for future generations. Members of the Council did not just participate in the first evening but stayed throughout the Forum and deepened their engagement with the Jubilee campaign. It was a vivid example to the ecumenical movement of the need to expand our relationships and work beyond our own faith and cultural communities.

In Christian communities we often invite one or two other faith traditions to join the existing group, expecting newcomers to adapt to the group’s own history and way of doing things. Instead, what if we reach out to local interfaith groups, to create and build relationships that could lead to collaboration? Or what are the local Christian cultural communities, not necessarily part of the mainline churches, who we have neglected to include in our ecumenical work?

The city of Calgary is on the traditional territories of the Peoples of Treaty 7, which include the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut’ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). Calgary is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta.

With a desire to go beyond land acknowledgements, each day of the Forum included dedicated time for an opening session by an Elder from the three main nations. A high point of the weekend was travelling to Mînî Thnî for an interfaith prayer meeting on sacred ground at the Stoney Nakoda First Nations Medicine Wheel. Leaving the classrooms to see the stunning mountains, the prairie flowers and the Bow River allowed for deeper integration of mind, heart and spirit.

Reverend Tony Snow and Elders from the Bearspaw, Chiniki and Goodstoney First Nations joined the interfaith circle at Mnî Thnî to lift up prayers for the Jubilee vision for the world.  Rev. Tony: “Built by Elders from the Ecumenical circle, the Medicine Wheel commemorates the journey of restoration that our people have traveled to honour the wisdom of our ancestors. In this space we invite interfaith prayer and ceremony to lead us. In this sacred space we bring hopes and dreams, guided by the wisdom of many traditions.”  Alongside education and strategizing at the Forum, creating space for Indigenous Elders to share their wisdom and for each person to set foot on sacred Indigenous land provided us a chance to catch our breath, to taste a decolonized Christianity, and be stunned by the glory of creation. This time of integration set a strong foundation for the action steps where participants spoke about debt justice in local churches and rallied in the streets of Calgary.

How can religious congregations contribute to building political will for action on reconciliation? By keeping clean drinking water in First Nations communities front and centre.

Bill C-61, currently in front of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs and the North, aims to ensure that First Nations have reliable access to sufficient, adequate, safe drinking water and effective wastewater disposal.

To date Indigenous Services Canada has been unable to provide effective water treatment systems, with sufficient resources and training etc., and there has been little and no regulatory regime. Will Bill C-61 move us forward, where we would see the federal government finally supply each and every community with effective water treatment systems, and commit to a transfer of ownership to give First Nations responsibility for their drinking water? How can the Bill be improved? 

Council on Canadians has a briefing note with recommendations and a call to action. Recent media about the 30 year long boil water advisory in Neskantaga First Nation, speaks to the importance of community led solutions to infrastructure challenges. In Neskantaga’s case, Chief Chris Moonias describes a patchwork of short-term solutions over the years that have cost tens of millions of dollars and haven’t addressed the root of the problem.

Let’s keep in mind if the Bill does not make it through the House and Senate before the election it will likely be an issue we can highlight on the campaign trail.

One year after the visit of Pope Francis to Canada, Global Sisters Report expanded their reporting on the reconciliation efforts by women religious. Genevieve Gallant worked with the author Sandrine Rastello to members of religious congregations in Canada working on reconciliation. Introduced to the range of response, the author’s idea of one article turned into three. 

The first, A year after Pope Francis’ Canada trip, sisters walk long road to reconciliation amid boarding schools’ bitter legacy, shares how the responses to the residential school repercussions resemble a mosaic of initiatives that vary in size and visibility, depending on the age, background, and personal journey of sisters. Sometimes it is just one person in a community who’s deeply committed to reconciliation, or several congregations come together to support an Indigenous-led project or form an advocacy group. Other times, reconciliation isn’t high on the agenda.

In particular it highlights ORCIE members Sr. Priscilla Solomon and Sr. Sheila Smith.

“There’s a whole debate around ‘Can this relationship be reconciled, when there really wasn’t a relationship to begin with, when it was a relation of domination?’ ” Sheila shares. “I do believe reconciliation involves our own reconciliation, looking at our own identity and who we want to be in this relationship”.

The second article For Catholic sisters in Canada, reconciliation is a mosaic of action, includes a section on ORCIE. The third article, Taking part in reconciliation: Inside the process of life-changing workshops shares experiences with Returning to Spirit.