A Guilt-Ridden Denial About Our Role In Colonization
In addition to our messages on Sundays, Rev. Marty sits down with Mike Wasyluk and talks about some of the themes and topics in the book Turing Ourselves Inside Out that help us dig a little deeper into our role as a congregation in change, growth and rediscovering St. Andrew’s role in the community and in the kin-dom of God.
Residential schools were designed to make children ashamed of who they were in terms of their culture, spirituality and identity. There is no denying this. Christians at the time were convinced that they knew better, that they needed to ‘bring God’ to the ‘savages’. It was a dark time in the history of Canada. The effects of residential schools and colonization are still felt today. Healing and reconciliation in part, is understanding that First Peoples here on Turtle Island can teach us about God. Traditional spiritual practices that so many are trying to reclaim can teach us as Christians what it means to truly be a spiritual person in terms of our connection to the created world and to each other. As Christians, we don’t have all the answers. God was here long before the settlers arrived.
Notes:
Importance of humility as a continual process of learning.
The danger of thinking we've heard it all before and its impact on our receptivity to God's work.
The role of vulnerability in fostering humility.
The church's struggle with arrogance and entitlement.
Connecting these issues with the book's exploration of humility and its role in addressing the effects of colonization.
Insight into the difficulty of maintaining humility, especially when things are going well.
Importance of recognizing God's work outside the church and embracing a posture of listening.
Exploration of the key question for mainline churches: "How shall we join in on what God is doing today and live?"
The role of humility in approaching the future with a focus on listening and understanding God's direction.
Buy the Book for Yourself
Turning Ourselves Inside Out emerges from the Thriving Christian Communities Project started by the authors in 2015, as well as from a Facebook conversation where someone asked, "We always hear about the problems in our churches. When are we going to talk about the good news stories?" This got the authors thinking: How do we learn about what is exciting and what the Holy Spirit is doing? How do we broaden the conversation beyond how sad, afraid, and grumpy we often are as church people?