Anglican Communion News Service

The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan recently sent a check for US$500 to the Diocese of Keewatin, Canada (their former Companion Diocese), as a small gift in solidarity with the Anglican Church of Canada. Jim Kelsey, Bishop of Northern Michigan, wrote to David Ashdown, Bishop of Keewatin, saying, "Your primate, Michael Peers, [has] pointed out that all Canadian dioceses, not just the eleven named in the residential schools lawsuits, share a 'common moral liability' and a 'common vocation to ministry and mission in our society.' The Diocese of Northern Michigan acknowledges and embraces that common liability and vocation with the rest of the dioceses of your Province. The church in the United States carries its own culpability and imperfection in our own historic relationships with native people. We are inspired by your witness and your example."

This grant was requested of Diocesan Council by the people of Grace Church, Ishpeming, who suggested that the diocese should make whatever gesture necessary in order to stand with the Anglican Church in Canada. Council granted the request at its January meeting, naming the largest amount possible within policy guidelines.

From 1820 to 1969, the Anglican Church of Canada was involved in running residential schools for aboriginal Canadians. More than twenty years after they abandoned participation in the schools, former students began to come forward, alleging abuse at the hands of those in authority in the schools. There are some 12,000 lawsuits facing the federal government, including 2,200 against Anglican-run schools. The Anglican settlement with the government caps liability at $25 million for any proven abuses suffered by natives in the national residential school system.

Archbishop Peers writes, "Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, defines 'remorse' as the discovery that we do not control the telling of our stories - that we play unflattering and sometimes destructive roles in the stories of others. In the stories of aboriginal Canadians, we hear that our actions were not noble and our impact was not lifegiving.... It was 'our people' - people who share with us a faith, a church, and a tradition - who suffered in the residential schools. In the Anglican Church of Canada, there are dioceses in which the majority of our members are aboriginal Canadians. As we continue the hard work of fashioning a church that brings us all together for mission, we can bear witness to the possibility of reconciliation.... This settlement is not about 'getting out of' anything. It is instead a way of getting more deeply into the healing and reconciliation by which we can both strengthen our own common life and extend that life into mission in our society."

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