Truth and Reconciliation Day & Our Christian Response

                                                                    Trenton United Church

 I imagine we'll roll up to worship at Trenton United Church this morning and an orange "Every Child Matters" flag will be flying out front. Many United Churches across the country acknowledge what is now the official September 30th commemoration called National Truth and Reconciliation Day on the Sunday before. We'll join other members in wearing our orange tee-shirts and this week we'll fly our own flag in front of our home. 

This is a sombre occasion and it seems appropriate that we recognize it given the complicity of a number of Christian denominations in the Residential School system, really an indoctrination and assimilation system determined to extinguish Indigenous identity, including culture and spirituality. Denominations willingly worked with governments and police forces to take children from their homes into a life of misery which resulted in intergenerational trauma. The child's lunch box below from the 1950s or 60s is a chilling reminder of how pervasive this was. When I shared this image a couple of years ago I received this comment: 

Hello David. I too have recently come across this same horrific lunch box and I am not sure what to do with it. Would you have any suggestions ? My first thought was to burn it however I feel that it would only give weight to peoples denial that these monstrosities even existed. Just having it in my possession has troubled me deeply. Any suggestions ?

I'm reluctant to describe what happens today and officially on Friday as a holiday, except that this word originates in "holy day." While some holy days of the past were celebrations, others were for contrition and lament and seeking forgiveness. 

The revised United Church crest with the Indigenous colours of the four directions and four seasons, along with the Mohawk language phrase "all my relations"

Whatever our religious sensibilities, we can reflect during this week on what still needs to happen in terms of Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. There has been too much "virtue signalling" on the part of governments and religious institutions, it seems to me, and not enough substantive change. 

I do appreciate the actions of the United Church in terms of apologies, reparations, and even the changes to our denominational crest as recognition of what is our greatest shame. We can still learn, change, and act.