We take time to reflect upon the repercussions of the Pope’s visit to Canada and the impacts of the apologies that were delivered across the country.

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The Papal visit has resurfaced longstanding issues of pain, violence, dehumanization, abuse and genocide suffered by residential school survivors and their descendants. Every member of the Indigenous communities across the country has been impacted by the legacy of residential schools and the injustices perpetrated. As the Pope concludes his Penitential Pilgrimage, we are left to ponder the implications of his words and the actions of the RC church that will follow. For the Urban Indigenous Circle, we will join together for a time of prayerful vigil for all those lost to violence, hate, abuse, neglect and murder – for children who never returned home and those who returned home broken by their forced assimilation. It is a time to pray for our communities, that we may find our way back to our ancestors’ teachings. To remember the core of who we are.

We will gather virtually on Sunday, July 31, 2022, at 2 pm MT to share prayers for the children and their families, and to remember that the system has not ended the taking of children from mothers and grandmothers — we must remember those in care, those living precariously and hungry in a country of abundance. We must do our part to change, not just for the sake of a church, but for the humanity and soul of our presence here on this land, gifted by Creator.

Everyone is welcome to join us as we remember.

Please Register to receive the Zoom Link HERE

Co-Sponsored by the Urban Indigenous Circle and the Chinook Winds Region of The United Church of Canada.

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Guest Preacher was the Rev. Dr Carmen Lansdowne, Nominee for United Church Moderator and Executive Director, First United Church, Vancouver.

Please see below for photos of the ordination. Please click on each photo to see the captions and then scroll through the photos. Thank you to Photographer Jes Beckerley!

The recording of the service is below also.

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 You are invited to celebrate the ordination of Tony Snow, Indigenous Minister for Chinook Winds Region, on Saturday, June 25, 2022, @ 1 pm MT.

Tony will be ordained jointly by the National Indigenous Council and Chinook Winds Regional Council, The United Church of Canada.
     The Service will take place at Hillhurst United Church, Calgary. It will also be live-streamed and you can access it HERE. The recording will also be available at that link afterwards.
     Congratulations, Tony!

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In this one-hour workshop on June 10, 2022, Tony Snow, Indigenous Minister for Chinook Winds Region, will help us look at important elements in writing this significant statement that acknowledges Indigenous Peoples on whose land we live. The Workshop will take place online on Friday, June 10, 2022, @ 10 am MT.
      Please register HERE
      Also, if you’d like to attend the workshop but the June date won’t work for you, please register and indicate that you’d be interested in a workshop in the Fall. We will let you know when the next workshop gets scheduled.
     As well, we know that many of you have already written beautiful land acknowledgements. If you are comfortable, we would love to share your land acknowledgements on the Chinook Winds Indigenous Ministries web page as a resource for others. Please email Shelley Den Haan, Communications for Chinook Winds.

The post Writing Your Own Land Acknowledgement Workshop on June 10, 2022 appeared first on Chinook Winds Region.

Pacific Mountain and Chinook Winds Regions are pleased to present Implementing Reconciliation for our continuing discernment of the Calls To The Church and Calls to Action from a regional perspective. Join our discussion on what implementing reconciliation looks like for your community of faith. An Indigenous History Month Series.

Begins Tuesday, May 31 and runs for four evenings, wrapping up on Friday, June 3, 2022

Dates: May 31, June 1, 2, 3, 2022

Time: 8 pm MT and 7 pm PT

Please Register HERE: https://form.jotform.com/221436315519251

Questions? Email Tony Snow, Indigenous Minister, Chinook Winds

The post Join us for Implementing Reconciliation Series – May 31-June 3, 2022 appeared first on Chinook Winds Region.

The Centre for Rural Community Leadership and Ministry (CiRCLe M) is hosting an online Book Study of These Mountains are Our Sacred Places by Rev. Chief John Snow. The study will take place on Wednesday evenings from April 20 to May 11, from 7-8 p.m. MT

Facilitation is being led by Chief Snow’s sons, Tony Snow, Indigenous Minister for Chinook Winds Region and Rev John Snow, Indigenous Minister for Pacific Mountain Region. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89944313877?pwd=ektydHBnZlVWaFJCcFRKUjJldkExZz09

Meeting ID: 899 4431 3877
Passcode: 311859

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Wisdom of the Elders, the Indigenous Lenten Series for 2022 wrapped up on April 12, 2022. You’ll find recordings of the Lenten sessions for 2022 HERE

The Lenten season is a time for reflection upon the wisdom of our Elders and Ancestors. In Christ’s example, he entered into the desert for 40 days of fasting and discernment, contending with his purpose and calling, as well as his mission. It is a reminder that our inner work is important as we orient ourselves to be a force for good in the many challenges we face in the world.

The 2022 Indigenous Lenten Series is an opportunity for discerning our calling and mission during these difficult times. We trace the efforts of our forebearers, the leaders and wisdom keepers of the Ecumenical Circle who attended the Morley Indian Ecumenical Conference between 1970 to 1985, and who continued their call for reconciliation and healing throughout their lives. We look upon their message and its relevance today for our work toward fulfilling our obligations under the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People and the Calls To The Church from the Indigenous Caretakers Circle. This invitation is open to everyone. 

Facilitators

• Tony Snow, Indigenous Minister, Chinook Winds Region, The United Church of Canada

• John Snow, Indigenous Minister, Pacific Mountain Region, The United Church of Canada

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By Tony Snow, Indigenous Minister, Chinook Winds Region
Today we hear words of apology for those who have waited to hear the recognition and contrition of the Papal office for generations. The apology is the first step in the work of the denomination that was outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. 
In The United Church of Canada, we know that this is a long and difficult path. In 1980, Alberta Billy from the We Wei Kai Nation stood before the United Church’s General Council Executive and told them they needed to apologize for what the church did to them in residential school.

Read Also: Calgary Indigenous Christian ministers call for action following Papal apology

After many years of ecclesial and legal wrangling, the UCC offered its First Apology in 1986. The apology signed by the Very Reverend Robert Smith focused on the church’s part in colonization and the work of assimilation: “We tried to make you be like us and in so doing we helped to destroy the vision that made you what you were.” A response came in 1988 from Saddle Lake First Nation Elder Edith Memnook on behalf of the All Native Circle Conference within the United Church of Canada. They acknowledged but did not accept the apology, saying: “The Native People of The All Native Circle Conference hope and pray that the Apology is not symbolic but that these are the words of action and sincerity.” At the challenge of the ANCC, the church entered into a time of testing and discernment about the nature of the apology and the work of reconciliation within the denomination.

In 1998, this discernment led the Very Reverend Bill Phipps to issue the Second Apology, an apology focused on the tragic history and ongoing trauma experienced in the residential school system. This apology was an acknowledgement of the church’s role in the abuses and harm the children and families experienced: “To those individuals who were physically, sexually, and mentally abused as students of the Indian Residential Schools in which The United Church of Canada was involved, I offer you our most sincere apology.”

The work of apology is the beginning. In the path toward reconciliation there is a recognition of sin, the harm caused and the deeds committed, this brings to light the nature of offences in order to determine the measure of reparation/atonement. It guides the work of reconciliation to bring repair not just to those abused, but to the theology and perspective that caused the offence, and the measure it will take to bring the denomination into the right relationship, including the restoration of the rights and the dignity of Indigenous people. The Second Apology set in motion the church’s path toward the acknowledgement of truths and the steps needed to achieve reconciliation.

In 2003, Phil Fontaine led a class-action suit based on the abuses committed by the Indian Residential Schools. The Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement was signed in 2007 by Canada and the ecumenical partners named in the action and led to the 2008 federal apology delivered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons “to acknowledge the inter-generational damage caused by this policy to former students of Indian Residential Schools, their families and communities; to offer an Apology; and to ask for forgiveness from the Indigenous peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.” 

The Settlement Agreement called for the Federal Apology and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to determine the nature of the abuses, the gravesites of those children who died in the schools as a result of abuse and neglect, and the Calls to Action: recommendations on the path forward for signatories to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement (like the UCC and other denominations), as well as recommendations for governments, municipalities, industries, businesses, non-profits and institutions of culture like museums. 

We continue this path on our journey toward reconciliation. We understand that this journey is intergenerational, and has already taken many generations to achieve the advancement we see today; with the fallen lives of our ancestors, brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, grandparents and great grandparents remembered in the genocide that has taken place over generations. 

Today is a day of discernment. We must understand our past in order to move forward. We must acknowledge that our world could have been a much different place if we had practised our Christian values and teachings to accept one another, be good relations and neighbours, care for one another, and to love one another. As our Catholic brethren enter into this apology and time of discernment, we offer prayers for their path, and the wisdom we will share from our experiences, knowing that together we seek a better society for all, with hope, charity and goodwill. 

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We observed Pink Shirt Day on February 23, 2022 with a session including trauma-informed professionals discussing anti-bullying, lateral violence and the legacy of residential schools on Indigenous communities. We remember that those children who were lost or murdered in acts of genocide had surviving families and communities that continue to live with the impacts of those atrocities. Through remembrance and cultural resiliency, the ways of healing are a long and complex path that must be travelled together.

Facilitated by Indigenous Minister Tony Snow, guests included Amanda Good Stoney, social worker; Teresa Snow who works in community wellness and healing and Rev. Dr. Carmen Landsdowne, First United Church, Vancouver.

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