Online resources aid truth and reconciliation process
TORONTO, ON - The Anglican Church of Canada is launching new online resources on the residential schools program, in support of the broader work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
Henriette Thompson, General Synod's facilitator of the TRC national events, says the goal is to "provide in depth, reliable and accurate information about the Anglican Church of Canada's involvement in the residential schools situation, and also to be able to set that in the light of colonialism and that period of Canada's history."
The new pages are part of a wider overhaul of the Anglican Church web site. They include detailed histories of the Anglican residential schools, stories of those impacted, and worship resources, along with information on national TRC events and how people can take part.
The section's home page includes video messages from Mark MacDonald, national indigenous Anglican bishop, and archbishop Fred Hiltz on "why truth and reconciliation matters to me."
"When our normal ways of dealing with things," MacDonald says, "legislatively, judicially or person to person, are overwhelmed by an event - in this case the Indian residential schools - you need something like a truth and reconciliation process to allow the creativity to bring healing and balance back to a nation. Seen in this way, the truth and reconciliation process is a doorway to a renewed Canada, a balanced Canada, a Canada with justice."
Thompson says she hopes the new resources will "encourage Canadians to see that this church, which has a lot to apologize for, is actually apologizing, and committing [itself] to both the theology and practice of reconciliation and healing."
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