A prayer for the 215 children who didn’t come home

Tony Snow, Coordinator, Indigenous Right Relations, Chinook Winds Region: Let us mourn the loss of 215 Children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, as we remember those who never came home. The legacy of Residential Schools affects all Indigenous people. We see the grief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation and those families whose children were taken to this school from other lands. It is a recurring story. It is an intentional story, a story of bias and assimilation and intolerance. There is grief at losing a whole generation for the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc people. A deep stain of injustice. A gaping wound that this community bears (like so many across this country) because of intolerance and ignorance and hate. Our call to be an Anti-Racist Denomination, our agreement to live out the TRC Calls to Action, the Articles of UNDRIP and the Calls To The Church necessitate action to aid this community, to be the good neighbour we espouse from our pulpits every Sunday.