An invitation to all from Indigenous Bishop Mark McDonald to pray at noon each day this week after the discovery of 215 unnamed children’s graves found in Kamloops. Below are the connections for anyone who would like to pray with others across the country.
Dear Relatives and Friends,
We are looking for places to offer ceremony, grieve, pray, and believe in Sacred Circle. Each day, from now until Saturday, there will be a gathering, each day at noon Eastern, for you to join and be with others in prayer. On Sunday evening, Epiphany Indigenous Church is inviting us to join them for ceremony and prayer at 7pm Central Time (an invite will be sent out later this week).
Tomorrow, Tuesday the 1st of June, we will pray with Chief Bobby Joseph, Reconciliation Canada, and others from across the land at 12noon Eastern, 9am Pacific. The Zoom Invite is: https://zoom.us/j/99892409581
On Wednesday, the 2nd of June, we put the Gospel in the Centre and pray. The Zoom invite is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82591609134
(If you have any trouble with the invite, [email protected] )
On Thursday, the 3rd of June, we put the Gospel in the Centre and pray. The Zoom invite is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82591609134
On Friday, the 4th of June, we put the Gospel in the Centre and pray. The Zoom invite is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82591609134
On Saturday, the 5th of June, we put the Gospel in the Centre and pray. The Zoom invite is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82591609134
As stated above, the Rev. Vince Solomon and the people of Epiphany will host us for ceremony and prayer on Sunday, June 6th at 7pm Eastern. We will send out the invite and remind you of this, later in the week.
As you pray: Many of our communities are suffering, we are hearing this from so many of them. Please, keep them all in your prayers. This great grief, anger, and pain strikes in the midst of so many challenges. Let us mend the Sacred Circle in prayer, love, and concern for one another.
For you who have been looking for a focus point for action on justice, we are bringing together the things that will make this work proceed in a good way. The good work that Melanie Delva did to prepare this, must now go on without her, at least for the time being, as we mentioned yesterday. We do expect to have the things you will need for your ideas, concerns, and questions over the next few days. We will update you soon.
The Elders who called for a Self-determining Church, those who also hired me, knew well, that this time was something that would face us. Even with so much hurt, we must not let that stop us. They had faced these hard cold truths themselves and knew that the perversion of the truth by others could not stop us from seeking it. The Western institutions, including the churches, always tried to convince Indigenous peoples that they the West owned the truth, that it was their unique possession and that only by becoming exactly like them could Indigenous People be saved. Now, we may say it clearly and for all time: this lie is dead, even for the institutions that believed and proclaimed it. Today, we seek healing and truth, Indigenous and non-Indigenous from God, who offers Forgiveness, Justice, and Truth in the Gospel, saying that it was for this, exactly for this, that Jesus was anointed.
Love and blessings to you,
+Mark MacDonald
National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop