National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Greetings EFCC sisters and brothers!
Autumn is here and I trust that you are experiencing God’s grace and peace in your lives. We pray this for you here at Home Office as we look at what is happening in Canada and reflect on this coming weekend.
Saturday, September 30 is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Our EFCC Home Office will be closed on Monday, October 2 as we remember a painful part of our history. For over 160 years the government of Canada forcibly took children from their homes and placed them in residential schools run by various Christian denominations. The goal was to assimilate children into “Canadian culture”, and this entailed the demonization and suppression of indigenous language, values, and culture. Many children experienced physical, sexual, and other forms of abuse. Many children died at residential schools. There are people in our communities whose generational grief is only now being acknowledged.
As children of Jesus, we are called to embrace both truth and reconciliation.
I can only imagine the pain a parent would have felt to be told that their culture and values were “unCanadian” and therefore inferior. How much more horrific would it be to watch one’s child taken away to “unlearn” their “inferior values” and be assimilated into the “correct” culture. Please pray with us for those who bear the scars of abuse and loss. Please also pray that the compassionate, welcoming heart of Jesus will be seen in our congregations all across the Free Church and in our ServeCanada and ServeBeyond families. May we be a people of repentance and the redeeming, reconciling presence of Jesus to those who need His healing.
Serving with you,
Bill Taylor
EFCC Executive Director
