Documentary to explore sacred storytelling
TORONTO, ON—The World Council of Churches (WCC) has given a Canadian group $16,000 to make a documentary about how they are using aboriginal prayer circles to facilitate dialogue and strengthen communities.
More than 560 million Christians in some 110 countries worldwide are affiliated with the WCC, whose Urban Rural Mission (URM) groups work around the world to support churches in local mission.
URM Canada say that exploring an inclusive and interfaith definition of mission has enabled them to more effectively support Canada's marginalized. The documentary will be aired to a global audience at WCC's 100th anniversary next year in Edinburgh. They hope it will challenge Christians worldwide to likewise broaden their understanding.
"Churches often think of themselves as the repository of God's spirit and that it's our job to proclaim it and give it to others," says Maylanne Maybee, past moderator of URM Canada. "But there has been a growing change in understanding of mission. God's mission is initiated by God and it's our role to say, 'This is how our community is being transformed—this is where God's spirit is at work,'"
"We all think it is a much needed voice to put out there," adds Niki Kelly, who is on the documentary's creative team. "Our view of mission is bridge-building, peace and accepting each others' differences."
URM Canada is interfaith and multicultural. One third of its members are aboriginal. At their annual gatherings, URM Canada members use a sacred storytelling circle to share the struggles and successes they face in their own communities.
Kelly is a Buddhist peace activist and spokesperson for the families of the 1985 Air India crash. She says that after losing her mother in the crash, she witnessed firsthand the healing power of storytelling.
"It's very cathartic to have a chance to tell your story," Kelly says. "It's about approaching each other with respect....There is a very connecting and healing power around just being heard. People are not heard enough in our society."
"It is a methodology that we inherited from our indigenous cultures," says Maybee, eco-justice coordinator for the Anglican Church's General Synod. "I cannot tell you how inspirational and exciting it was to participate in these [URM Canada] gatherings. In a sacred circle…people speak from their hearts, without cross talk or interruption. The sharing of these stories and struggles became a place of incredible spiritual energy and emotional support."
URM Canada hopes the documentary will bring the stories of its individual members to the global stage, including a woman in Alberta who used storytelling to support the survivors of abuse in residential schools and another who used a sacred circle to help facilitate dialogue in a B.C. land dispute.
Ron Tremblay, a teacher in Fredericton, used a storytelling circle to help break down racial conflict between the school's native and non-native student population.
He then became a spiritual guide for URM Canada, adding they used the storytelling circle as a symbolic gesture of equality, justice and harmony.
"I brought the insight of the First Nations point of view to what spirituality is," he says, "which is quite different from the point of view of Christian spirituality.…Native people do not necessarily need Christ to move forward and move on. They need to find themselves and find their own spiritual awakenings from where they live."
Tremblay hopes the documentary will help inspire Christians to discover the strengths of aboriginal spiritual belief systems.
Last year the WCC pulled funding for all URM projects worldwide. Dan Scott was part of the international steering committee and says that while URM Canada will not be meeting in 2009, they hope the documentary will help their stories live on.
"[Storytelling] is one of the things we did as Canadians which has a fair amount of influence globally," Scott says. He adds that URM Canada has taught seminars for other WCC groups in Europe, the Middle Easy and Africa about using interfaith storytelling circles. He says: "That has been an ongoing contribution that the Canadian group has made."
Juan Michel, a spokesperson for WCC in Geneva stresses that URM Canada is an independent group, made up of WCC member churches in Canada. He adds that while WCC has a strong history in inter-religious work, its constitution confirms "the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour."
WCC issued a consensus statement on world mission in 1989 stating, "We cannot point to any other way of salvation than Jesus Christ; at the same time we cannot put any limit to God's saving power."
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