Response to Kamloops Residential School
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The news of the remains of 215 children being found at the site of the Kamloops Residential School has shaken us all. How can it not? Over the past few days, I have been in conversation with some of you about this and realize there may be many more of you wondering how we process such news and what we might be doing or be able to do in the future. Let me start by saying, the single biggest response I am hearing right now, particularly from our Indigenous neighbours, is that we need to listen. Many of us naturally lean towards action and, if that’s the way we are inclined, simply being intentional about listening might seem rather passive. Please believe me when I say that it is not! Listening is what we are being asked to do by the very peoples we are wanting to help in some way. It is also a very, very wise thing for us to be asked to do. It may be one of the most important and tangible ways we can love our Indigenous neighbours. So if you find yourself both blessed and challenged with the opportunity to listen to someone’s story of how their lives have been impacted by the realities of the Indian Residential Schools, I encourage you to take the time to do so. It will change you. And it may very well be a tangible expression of love for the individual you listen to.
In the meantime, there is some ‘homework’ we can be doing now. You may want to read the statements made on our national and regional church websites. You will find them here:
https://united-church.ca/news/kamloops-residential-school-time-mourning-and-support
and here:
https://pacificmountain.ca/remembering-the-215/
You also may want to remember the work the United Church of Canada has been doing towards Truth and Reconciliation for many years. I know that there are people asking me about the United Church of Canada’s role in the residential school system and about what we as a church are doing to try to bring healing and reconciliation. You may be getting the same kinds of questions. Here is where you can find information on the apologies that have been made:
and on our engagement with the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada:
There is a lot of information here and my hope is that, in directing you to it, it might help you to answer some of those questions others may be asking of you, questions you certainly may be asking yourself.
We can also pray as we have been asked. This Sunday we will join with United Church congregations across Canada in praying the Prayer For The Loss In Kamloops, written by Rev. Murray Pruden, Executive Minister, Indigenous Ministries and Justice, The United Church of Canada. I also commend to you our Moderator Rev. Richard Bott’s prayer, Prayer For The Students of Kamloops Residential School. When we don’t know how or what to pray it is entirely faithful to borrow the words the Spirit of God has inspired in others. It can also be very powerful to come together across a church as widespread as ours, to join in these same prayers together.
Above all let us hear what The United Church’s Indigenous Ministries and Justice Circle have asked of us. In the statement they released this week they concluded by saying, “We understand the desire to do ‘something’ that will make this right. But we ask you, right now, to come together as people of the United Church and take the first step of mourning and remembering.”
For now this is what we can do. Together we will listen for what more might be to come.
Blessings,
Dianne