LISTENING TO OUR STORIES
SEPTEMBER 29, 2022
Orange Shirt Day grew out of Phyllis Webstad’s memory of her first day of school at the St. Joseph Mission Residential School in British Columbia.
When six-year-old Phyllis excitedly arrived wearing a shiny orange shirt from her grandmother, the teachers took it away. Says Phyllis, “The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”
Phyllis went on to earn diplomas in Business Administration and Accounting. In 2017, she was awarded Thompson River University’s Distinguished Alumni Award for her unprecedented impact on local, provincial, national and international communities through the sharing of her orange shirt story.
Recently, in our worship time together during a meditation I asked the question of all of us When you look out at our world, what breaks your heart? What makes you sad? Do you remember? My answer to this question is the story of the Indigenous Community and their experiences of Residential Schools and the impact of this trauma on them.
Tomorrow is “ORANGE SHIRT DAY” in our Canada, September 30 is a day for communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation in recognition of the harm the residential school system did to children’s sense of self-esteem and well being, to hear stories of residential schools survivors and to imagine a better future.
I want to invite you to engage with some of the following links that help us understand the story of the experience of Indigenous People and residential schools for our devotion today.
God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:19-20
Orange Shirt Day grew out of Phyllis Webstad’s memory of her first day of school at the St. Joseph Mission Residential School in British Columbia.
When six-year-old Phyllis excitedly arrived wearing a shiny orange shirt from her grandmother, the teachers took it away. Says Phyllis, “The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.”
Phyllis went on to earn diplomas in Business Administration and Accounting. In 2017, she was awarded Thompson River University’s Distinguished Alumni Award for her unprecedented impact on local, provincial, national and international communities through the sharing of her orange shirt story.
Recently, in our worship time together during a meditation I asked the question of all of us When you look out at our world, what breaks your heart? What makes you sad? Do you remember? My answer to this question is the story of the Indigenous Community and their experiences of Residential Schools and the impact of this trauma on them.
Tomorrow is “ORANGE SHIRT DAY” in our Canada, September 30 is a day for communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation in recognition of the harm the residential school system did to children’s sense of self-esteem and well being, to hear stories of residential schools survivors and to imagine a better future.
I want to invite you to engage with some of the following links that help us understand the story of the experience of Indigenous People and residential schools for our devotion today.
Here are some links for you. I need to warn you though that while informative you may find yourself, as we say, "triggered" emotionally by some accounts. I certainly was, yet we do need to hear these hard truths. If you do not feel able our safe for this material skip down on the blog and you will find two prayers, One for Survivors of the Schools and a prayer for ourselves.
https://network.crcna.org/biblical-justice/reflection-national-truth-and-reconciliation-day
https://network.crcna.org/ministry-canada/truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc-calls-action
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWlfZoKj-U-o-T1GruFp4qg Click under Videos
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Prayer of Lament
http://albertasynod.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Prayer-of-Lament.pdf
Prayer for Ourselves
God of love,
We open our ears, hearts and minds to the stories of residential school survivors. We give thanks for the courage of survivors to tell hard truths. Help us to learn from our past as we commit to walking in new ways
towards reconciliation.
Amen
God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:19-20
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