CANADA
Anglican Communion News Service
[Anglican Journal] Acknowledging that their apologies for harms done at Indian residential schools “are not enough,” Anglican, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and United church leaders on June 2 welcomed the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which they say will offer direction to their “continuing commitment to reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples.
“It is clear that Indian Residential Schools, in policy and in practice, were an assault on Indigenous families, culture, language and spiritual traditions, and that great harm was done,” said a joint response read, on behalf of the churches, by Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.
While noting the “good intent and care of many who worked” as staff in these federally funded, church-run schools, the churches admitted that “those harmed were children, vulnerable, far from their families and communities,” and that “the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse they suffered is well-documented.”
The response was made after the TRC released its final report that offered 94 “Calls to Action” on issues around Aboriginal spirituality, education, health, missing residential schools children, justice and language, among others.
The churches—all signatories to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement—responded to some of the TRC’s recommendations that were directly addressed to them. “We are committed to respect Indigenous spiritual traditions in their own right,” they said, a promise that was met with loud applause.
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