Celebrating the spirit of the north and the generosity of the ACW
by Ana Watts
Fiona Brownlee brought the colour, life and spirit of the people and churches of the Council of the North to ACW members in this diocese when she spoke to them at their annual meeting in Riverview. In
return, the ACW sent help to the Council of the North in the form of a cheque for $3,000. It made May 3 a rich experience for everyone.
With passion and grace the council’s communications officer celebrated the vibrant cultures and communities of the dioceses and parishes that occupy 85 per cent of Canada’s land mass but enjoy only 15 per cent of the Canadian population. She took special care when she talked about issues in the north around the residential school legacy because she knew there were former residential schoolteachers in her audience. “Some people had good experiences in residential schools, but that many more did not,” she said. “Many of my colleagues have shared with me about the damage that was done to them, and I must honour their trust in me by shining a light on those experiences and walking with them on a journey toward healing and wholeness.”
Vision 2019, the Anglican Church of Canada’s strategic plan has seven priorities. One of them is to walk with Indigenous peoples in the Council of the North on a journey of healing and wholeness. Adopted by General Synod in June 2010, it invites the Holy Spirit to shape the life of our church in the paths of discipleship and mission and is based on the Five Marks of Mission used widely around the Anglican Communion. Ms. Brownlee used those Five Marks as guideposts for her illustrated journey through the Council of the North as she highlighted its strengths and challenges.
• Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
Clergy are crucial in this, the first of the Five Marks of Mission. The church in the north is highly indigenous and about half the clergy are First Nation, Inuit and Métis. Few are paid, so most work 40 hours a week at a secular job and another 10 to 40 hours a week on pastoral care. “Clergy in the north want to proclaim the good news of the kingdom but they can’t without burning out,” said Ms. Brownlee. “This is a justice issue and Bishop Mark MacDonald, national indigenous bishop of the Anglican Church of Canada, has got his teeth around it.”
• Teach, baptize and nurture new believers
Unlike in the south, there are many young people in the northern church and they help ensure there is no shortage of new believers to teach, baptize and nurture. “The church is as present as possible with young people,” she says. “The Virtual Church School Project is a good illustration. Started in 2008 in Keewatin, it was taken over by the Council of the North in 2009 and is a gift from the Council of the North to the rest of the church.” The site provides Sunday school lessons for small, remote church schools that are often unable to afford educational materials, and for any other parish that is looking for creative materials. Even families unable to make it to church on a Sunday use and appreciate this service. Ms. Brownlee, author of the curriculum, is always grateful for feedback.
It is also among the young that the Council of the North finds many opportunities to heal some of the hurts of the residential school situation. “The parents of many young people were brought up in residential schools so they have little understanding of family and developed no parenting skills. Many of them were also abused. Many of these residential school survivors went on to abuse their own children and have created a cycle of family violence.” Because of this, the Council of the North has come to understand that it is necessary to change how it ‘does church.’ One way is to educate indigenous leaders that are raised-up by elders in their own communities.
• Respond to human need by loving service
The Church in the North responds to needs, both universal and indigenous, by establishing soup kitchens, keeping pressure on authorities to investigate incidents of missing and murdered native women and responding to mental health issues, especially suicide prevention. The Amazing Grace project in 2008 financed a full-time suicide prevention worker. Suicide, especially among the young, is yet another legacy of the residential school program. Ms. Brownlee hopes funding will be forthcoming to enable this incredibly valuable and important work to continue. “We are just beginning to get a handle on this huge issue — beginning to give people the tools they need to deal with their lives, not just to prevent suicides, but how to be a family and how to be a child in a different way.”
• Seek to transform unjust structures of society
“Stop complaining about high gas prices. You’ve got it easy. People in the north are not even on the grid so they need even more expensive gas for their own generators as well as for the ATVs they use to tend their trap lines. The cost of healthy food is outrageous and diabetes is a big problem because people can’t afford fruit and vegetables. A kilogram of apples here is maybe $2.50; there it is $10. But liquor store prices (in Ontario at least) are the same in the north as they are in the south. If this is possible, why is it not possible to keep prices for milk, eggs, fruit and vegetables at southern values too? And don’t get me started on the cost of transportation.”
• Strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
People of the north live on and by the land, so they are sensitive to assaults on it. Some communities have recently begun to block mining company planes because northern communities were not included in the consultation process.
Diocesan Communications
May 24, 2011
