Archbishop of Canterbury to visit Canada

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/03/2022 (1670 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Attention next week will be focused on the long-awaited meetings in Rome between Pope Francis and representatives of the Assembly of First Nations, Métis National Council and the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

The meeting of Indigenous Elders, knowledge keepers and residential school survivors was originally scheduled for mid-December, but postponed due to the Omicron wave.

While in Rome, members of the three groups hope the Pope will say he is coming to Canada to apologize on behalf of the church for how it treated Indigenous people physically, spiritually and culturally, especially through Roman Catholic-run residential schools.

But while attention is rightly focused on that important event, Canadian Anglicans are quietly preparing for special meetings of their own with Indigenous people from April 29 to May 3.

That’s when Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will be visiting Canada to highlight that church’s desire to pursue reconciliation with Indigenous people.

The Archbishop — head of the Church of England and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion — is coming in response to an invitation from Archbishop Linda Nicholls, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, and National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Mark MacDonald.

While here, Welby will meet with Anglican Indigenous people and Indigenous leaders in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, and at the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario — site of the former Mohawk Institute Residential School, which was founded by the Anglican Church in 1832 and operated until 1970. He will also visit urban Indigenous ministries in Toronto.

In making the invitation, Nicholls and MacDonald say Welby’s visit will recognize the role the Church of England played in Canada’s colonial history with Indigenous people.

This includes how representatives of that Church were present during treaty negotiations with Indigenous people, and also the Church’s involvement in running residential schools.

While here, they hope Welby will apologize on behalf of the Church of England and offer repentance for damage done to Indigenous people by it.

The Anglican Church of Canada has apologized twice to Indigenous people—in 1993, for its role in residential schools, and in 2019, for the spiritual harm it caused them.

For Nicholls, Welby’s visit is significant because the presence of Church of England representatives at treaty signings gave the treaties a “sense of sacred obligation, which makes the breaking of the treaties all the more egregious.”

In the making of the treaties, “the presence of clergy indicated a spiritual covenant, not just a legal covenant” she said. “For some Indigenous people, the breaking of those treaties is a breaking of a sacred obligation.”

While Welby’s visit is important for Indigenous people, it is also important for Canadian Anglicans since it will allow them to once again “acknowledge this part of our history,” Nicholls said.

Macdonald, who represents an estimated 65,000 Indigenous Anglicans in Canada, also is happy to see Welby coming to Canada.

His position as Archbishop of the Church of England “represents a living connection to the past,” he said. “The Church was a very significant actor in colonization. His physical presence is important.”

His coming to Canada also proclaims “the Church has a moral responsibility” for what happened to Indigenous people in this country and be a spark for Anglicans to repair relationships and pursue reconciliation with and justice for Indigenous people.

An apology on behalf of the Church of England while Welby is here will be significant, MacDonald said.

“The Church failed, and I think the Archbishop of Canterbury understands that, both here in Canada and around the world,” he said, adding that to this day many Indigenous people look to the Crown and the Church of England as “a guarantee of the treaties and of their ongoing rights in the Canadian project.”

MacDonald also hopes his visit will remind Canadians of “the full scope of the catastrophe that was the residential schools and the evil that was done to Indigenous people, and what needs to be done to repair that evil.”

As for the Anglican Church itself, “it suffered a severe moral wound” because of its involvement in residential schools,” he said, adding the visit could be “a major step for Anglicans to fully incorporate reconciliation into the life of the church.”

For Geoff Woodcroft, Bishop of the Diocese of Rupert’s Land, which takes in half of Manitoba and parts of northwestern Ontario, the visit will be a message to Canadian Anglicans that the Archbishop of Canterbury “gets this. He understands the need for reconciliation.”

It will also put the eyes of the worldwide church on Canada, he said, “reminding us we need to act to heal relations with Indigenous people.”

A statement from Lambeth Palace, the official residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, noted the presence of the Church of England at treaty negotiations and subsequent partnership with the federal government “are part of the legacy of colonialism that contributed to residential schools and to abuse and cultural deprivation.”

Welby last visited Canada in November 2018, to meet with the primates of North and South America.

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