Every Child Matters

Dear Friends in Valhalla Parish—

I am writing to you as a person heartbroken by last week's news of 215 children dead and buried on the site of the Kamloops Residential School. The news may come as a shock to some, though not surprising to the communities, survivors, and descendents of those who survived the residential school system.

The Anglican Church of Canada, along with the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Roman Catholic Church, and the United Church of Canada were partners with the Government of Canada in running Indian Residential Schools. The Anglican Church of Canada has repented of its participation in these schools, and is making steps towards telling the truth of its complicity in the legacy of harm done to the peoples of the land. You can read about the history and responses here. 

Last week's announcement adds one more story to the greater truth needing to be told. 

Residential Schools were, as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has pointed out, an instrument of genocide. Last week's discovery brings this reality out of the past and brings it to the present. It demands that we confront the truth of what has been done in God's name, on our watch. It demands that we seek to live lives as individuals and as communities that resist the impulse to bury the truth, but rather to look truth in the eyes, and to live in a way committed to dismantling the disproportionate policing of Indigenous bodies, the separation of Indigenous families, and the ongoing harm of Indigenous lives.

This is important, because the ongoing legacy of the colonial project continues to put Indigenous people disproportionately at risk of illness, incarceration, separation, and death. There are many ways in which the policies and practices that informed the residential schools continue to live on.

The way of Jesus invites us to seek a new relationship, one based on mutuality, care for one another, and love. For those in power, the way of Jesus requires that we relinquish that power so that all may have enough.

Today, I believe that we are called to turn to God with broken spirits and contrite hearts. 

The truth that is emerging should shake us to the core. It should lead us to weep, to confess, and ultimately to resist the structures and practices that. continue to deal death. Such structures are present in our own hearts, communities, church, and country.

For these sins, I believe we are called to repent. 

This morning, National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Mark MacDonald shared these challenging words:

We have known that days like this were coming and have known and feared the pain they would bring. Many of our Sacred Circle lost relatives in the Residential Schools. Some still do not know what happened to them.

The hideous evil that hid in structures that proclaimed that they were only for the good has not been hidden from us. They were innocent children. Innocent baptized children, for this was a condition of their participation in the schools.  Did this not make them part of the Church?  

Did Baptism, which was said to make them registered in the Book of Life, not make them worthy to be noted in the register of the church, worthy of note when they were buried?  Could not the water that Christ made Holy in baptism make the blind eyes of the school officials see that the children were human - were holy?

These children were removed from their communities and families. When they arrived at school they were forcibly baptized.

This means, amongst many other things, that these children are our siblings in Christ. And in that reality, we bear responsibility to honour them as both Holy Innocents and members of the Great Cloud of Witnesses. We are called to listen to them, to what they would tell us. We are called to listen to their stories, and to live in light of what is being revealed. 

How will we embody the way of Jesus in our lives in light of this truth? 

As individuals, we might consider regularly giving towards the work of the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society or the Anglican Healing Fund.

As a parish, how might we respond to one of the TRC's 94 Calls to Action?

These are questions I believe we are called to wrestle with. Ultimately, they are questions about discipleship. How will we follow in the way of Jesus in this present moment? How will we follow in the way of Jesus in light of these horrifying truths?

Today, may we commit ourselves to prayer. And, as we listen to God, and the needs of our world, may our prayers lead us to weep, confess, and resist injustice wherever it is found, proclaiming the good news of a world in which God calls all people beloved, and in which every child matters. 

In Deep Lament and Gospel Hope, 

Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Valhalla Parish Missioner