Truth and Reconciliation

Did you know that Canada is in the midst of a Truth and Reconciliation process like the one that South Africa went through at the end of apartheid?

Read below for more information on this. I (Jodi) have had the privilege of working with a this group in BC on behalf of our denomination and God's House of Many Faces.

Over the past few decades,there has been an increasing awareness of the church's disturbing historical relationship with native people in Canada. The key role that missionaries played in the colonization of this land, and the specific task of administering Indian Residential Schools that certain denominations fulfilled, are both very troubling aspects of our history in this place.
In particular, from the 1870s to 1996 Canada established 130 Indian Residential Schools across the country, which were government funded and church run. These schools had the express purpose of eliminating parental involvement in the intellectual, cultural and spiritual development of Aboriginal children.
Survivors took the government and churches to court to address the harms of this system. The settlement involved 2 parts: compensation to former students and the implementation of a 5 year Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The mandate of the Commission is to learn the truth of what happened at the schools and to inform all Canadians of this truth as a means of healing and reconciliation (taken from the TRC website, www.trc.ca).
Here in BC an Ecumenical Coalition was called together at the request of the Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) to be the hands tasked with ensuring that the process of the TRC becomes an opening in the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal persons whereby real healing and reconciliation can begin.
The Ecumenical group consists of party denominations (those responsible for running schools) and non-party denominations. While the TRC officially only involves party denominations, deep and lasting reconciliation requires all followers of Jesus to own our part in the attitudes that contributed to the schools, and to learn new ways of relating to Aboriginal persons in light of the wounding that has been done in the name of Jesus to our Aboriginal brothers and sisters. The Ecumenical group is committed to finding openings and opportunities within our traditions to further the work of reconciliation.
This work is important because 1) in the name of Jesus, the church in Canada colluded with the State to remove children from their homes and communities in order to "kill the Indian in the child"; 2) for the sake of the gospel, Canadian Christians need to know our history and be given the opportunity to repent of our misdeeds; and 3) for the sake of reconciliation (the primary task of Jesus our Saviour) we must examine and renounce the doctrines and traditions that allowed us to justify and perpetuate this sin against our brothers and sisters.
In South Africa during apartheid, a group of theologians across a variety of denominations got together and wrote a document renouncing the practice of apartheid and the church doctrines and traditions that supported it (see http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/kairos-document-1985-0#.TyWPM8ikeOI.mailto). Survivors of Indian Residential Schools in Canada are asking that the same thing be done here.