Pastor’s Message Sept 27, 2021

It is Truth and Reconciliation week! There are many opportunities for us to be people of reconciliation this week, and I encourage you all to participate. September 30th is the inaugural Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, and Orange Shirt Day, which is an indigenous-led, grass-roots commemorative day to honour both the children who survived the Indian Residential Schools and those who did not. Our National Bishop, Susan Johnson, is encouraging us to mark the occasion - you can read here words here: https://www.elcic.ca/news.cfm?article=606 . Here is one other good starting place to understand this movement: https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/national-day-truth-reconciliation.html 

As we enter this commemoration, perhaps we can join together in this Prayer of Reconciliation, written by Cari Klaassen; a long-time member of the ELCIC, a 60’s scoop survivor, an Ojibway woman from the Henley Inlet First Nation, and an Indigenous MDiv student at Vancouver School of Theology (VST).

Creator God, most loving and our protector,
we come today to offer our sorrows, our passions, our grief, our commitments. 

We thank you Creator God, for the life you bestowed upon us. 
We thank you Creator God, for the journey that we have indwelled with your direction.

We thank you for the creation that you have given us and for the earth and all that is within it. From the land, the oceans, the water ways, the trees, the vegetation; to the animals, birds of the air, animals of the sea, that give life and continue to nourish our lives. We take great pride in what you have given us. 

We remember the children that have been found and have been hidden from us for so long. We thank you for each one of their lives, that you protected and cherished them when we didn’t know.

We pray for all the families that have lost these little ones and we pray for those who endured the pain, abuse and neglect but survived to tell their story. We thank you for giving them the courage and strength to move on and heal. With you all things are possible.

We pray for the governments, churches, and other institutions that were involved with the Residential Schools and that justice is served and the healing may continue.

Gracious God, protect and surround Indigenous people with your Great Spirit and comfort us in this time.

Our lament is to cry out to you, to cry to you for healing, to take away the pain that burdens Indigenous people. The pain of the horrors that these innocent children endured. The cries that were only heard by their abusers. 

Give us the strength and the boldness to rise above and prevail in the work that you have entrusted to us to fulfil.

Most of all, Loving God, we thank you for each one of our lives. You created us in your image. Not one is left alone, not one is forgotten. We thank you that even when we live in a fallen world and evil has been bestowed upon us, we still prevail above all to continue the work you have given each of us.

Give us the courage to say, yes, and to stand up against wrongs that have been done, to stand up against wrongs done to Indigenous people of Canada. That this world is restored to what it was intended by you. 

We thank you for the lives that have gone to be with you. We thank you for their leadership and compassion. Their work is done on earth and continues, as they have left for us to continue.

Sovereign of our lives, we pray for leaders in government, in churches, in the world that they make just decisions and reprimand the wrongs that have been done to these children and families. You are a just God and a God of vengeance. 

We thank you, Holy God, as we meet in this sacred space. 
In Jesus’ mighty name, in all my relations.

In Christ, Pastor Aaron