By Kiply Lukan Yaworski, Catholic Saskatoon News

Representatives of a number of parish truth and reconciliation committees recently joined members of the Diocesan Council for Truth and Reconciliation (DCTR) to share updates, ideas, and initiatives at a diocesan gathering.

The supper meeting Oct. 17 at the Cathedral of the Holy Family began with prayer and fellowship, before representatives reflected on ongoing efforts to further the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action at the parish level.

Elder Gayle Weenie of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish opened the program with a reflection on the huge need to find a way to help Indigenous youth reach their potential. She also offered recommendations about a number of resources to assist in implementing the Calls to Action. “There is hope. I have hope,” she concluded.

“This evening came out of an idea from several of you… to have all the TRC parish committees come together,” explained Myron Rogal, diocesan coordinator of Justice and Peace and MC for the evening. “TRC efforts are expanding, with more and more parishes having such a committee, since Saint Anne Parish started the first one about eight years ago.”

He referenced a reflection by Mackenzie-Fort Smith’s Bishop Jon Hansen at a recent justice and peace gathering, that stressed Christ’s “ministry of presence,” encountering people one-on-one. “We are also called to be present to one another and to be present to our Indigenous brothers and sisters, and, furthermore, this is a role for the whole Church,” Rogal said. “We are called to be ambassadors of hope.”

In words of welcome, Bishop Mark Hagemoen expressed his appreciation for the ongoing work of the DCTR, which was established in 2012, and which is presently in the process of renewing its mandate and membership, and he affirmed his support for parish truth and reconciliation committees.

“I am here to strongly endorse with all of you the development of truth and reconciliation committees at parishes,” the bishop said. “We realize this won’t happen for all our parishes all at once, but there are parishes that are becoming very interested in this — some have been engaged in this for a little while. We want to both encourage that and expand it.”

The bishop stressed that the work of reconciliation cannot be left only to the DCTR and to Our Lady of Guadalupe Indigenous parish. “That is not the kind of relationship that Christ calls us to,” he said, stressing the importance of widening the work of truth and reconciliation.

“It is interesting to see how the quiet initiatives of trying to do a few concrete things related to the Calls to Action have really blessed and enlivened small groups of people — Indigenous and non-Indigenous — about the opportunities to build relationships and to build covenant, which is such a fundamental feature of our Catholic Christian faith.”

He also recommended that parish truth and reconciliation committees be strongly connected to their particular parish pastoral council, in order for that body to provide support and advocacy for efforts at the local level.

“We have this Jubilee Year of Hope coming up and … hope is not something that is merely a sentiment, it is something that is real, something that we have to work on and create,” noted Hagemoen, calling for listening, discernment, prayer and reflection to provide a strong foundation for the needed actions that will follow.

In discussions throughout the evening, participants shared a range of local initiatives undertaken by parishes in the diocese that have provided “small steps” for walking together on a path of truth and reconciliation.

Initiatives cited included: organizing treaty education programs, inviting elders in to share their stories, undertaking small group book studies, holding sharing circles with Our Lady of Guadalupe Indigenous Parish, or offering the Kairos Blanket Excercise, as well as the impact of parishioner involvement in the diocesan online Indigenous Pastoral and Lay Leader Ministry Education program (IPL).

Raissa Bugyi of the Diocese of Saskatoon Catholic Foundation also provided an update about the diocese’s Indigenous Reconciliation Fund (IRF) commitment to raise $1.25-million over five years, and some of the local projects and initiatives that have already been supported through the IRF.

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Kiply Lukan Yaworski is the communications coordinator for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon – rcdos.ca.

Justice and Peace, Indigenous Ministry, Communications and Catholic Saskatoon News are supported by gifts to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal: dscf.ca.