Church starting to realize impact of schooling tragedy
VANCOUVER, BC—Twenty years ago, the Anglican Church of Canada first apologized for its part in the residential schools tragedy.
However, at least one priest believes "absolutely" that a lot of healing still needs to take place before the sins of the past are finally laid to rest.
"I think for the most part the indigenous Anglican Church and the non-indigenous Anglican Church don't know each other very well," says Laurel Dykstra, one of three priests in the Diocese of New Westminster involved in the ministry of reconciliation.
In the mid-1800s, the Canadian government sought to "Christianize" thousands of Aboriginal children by forcibly uprooting them from their families and often sending them far away to residential schools run by four denominations—United, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Anglican. This policy lasted for about 100 years.
During that time, many children were abused. Others died or went missing.
On August 6, 1993, the Anglican Church formally accepted its share of the blame.
Dykstra says most non-indigenous Anglicans now "get it" that residential schoolchildren were abused while in the care of the Church. But they have been slower to grasp the long-term and widespread devastation this abuse caused.
"People are just now and more and more beginning to catch on," she says, "that the whole policy of assimilation and the way that culture was destroyed and relationships of care were disrupted, is as great a problem as the abuse."
Dykstra says many also seem unaware of how the Church has remade itself to better include indigenous Anglicans.
In a recent pastoral letter, New Westminster bishop Michael Ingham said indigenous Anglicans "deserve and need more from us than shame and guilt.
"They need to know that we can face the truth about ourselves. They need to know that we can move beyond old attitudes and assumptions. They need to know that we are prepared to walk with them in friendship and partnership."
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