Power of prayer on display as new premier steps forward

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/10/2023 (799 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Among the many fascinating moments Manitobans witnessed at this week’s historic swearing-in of Premier Wab Kinew and his cabinet were the opening and closing prayers.

A closer look suggests a savvy, smart and easily-overlooked action.

It’s customary at the start of all Indigenous gatherings to have an elder say a few opening words, calling beings in all four directions of creation into the space where work will take place. The elder will often also ask for permission for something to be discussed and decided upon or ask for humility and help to assist humans in their task.

At the end of a gathering, an elder will speak to close the session, thanking creation by announcing what has taken place at the meeting and requesting the universe continue its work alongside humans in a new direction.

The prayers at the Oct. 18 ceremony though left many Manitobans confused. (I know this via my email inbox and social media feeds.)

“How many times can an elder call to Jesus?” reads one social media post.

“What’s with the Lord’s Prayer in the opening?” a reader said in an email to me.

“Can an elder also be a Christian minister?” another wrote.

“Why is he shouting about ‘our Lord Jesus Christ’ at the cabinet?” a social media commentator wrote. “This is supposed to be a closing prayer, not a sermon from the pulpit.”

For anyone with links to northern rural Manitoba — specifically Cree and Oji-Cree communities — it probably felt like home. Those prayers were some of the most Indigenous moments in a very Indigenous ceremony.

Chief Sam Knott of Red Sucker Lake First Nation delivered the opening words.

An Oji-Cree fly-in community in northeastern Manitoba, with a population of less than 1,000, Red Sucker Lake is also home of former MLA Elijah Harper (1949-2013).

Like many northern First Nations, it is heavily Christian and conservative — so conservative, in fact the community recently only allowed “residents over the age of 50 who are legally wed” to run for chief and “residents over age 40 may run for council.”

Red Sucker Lake is also a community deeply impacted by residential schools.

While Christianity runs deep, it also comes with trauma. This has resulted in some members rejecting “traditional Christianity” (such as Catholicism or Anglicanism) for evangelical movements.

All of this could be heard in Knott’s opening prayer, as he began in Oji-Cree, mentioning Jesus once in his language, before turning to English.

“Greetings you all, in the name of our Lord Jesus,” Knott told those assembled at the Leaf in Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park.

He then thanked the crowd, the new cabinet members, and blessed Kinew with numerous references to Jesus, finally ending with a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.

It was a perfect example of how Indigenous communities navigate a complicated relationship with Christianity, but find dynamic ways to bridge traditional ways with it.

Dion Halcrow from Pimicikamak Cree Nation (formerly Cross Lake) was the event closer — in every single way.

“I’m a minister, that’s me,” Halcrow told an exhausted audience that had sat for hours. “Today is proof that the power of prayer does happen.”

As if embodying his own declaration, Halcrow then turned into an evangelical minister on a Sunday morning television show, closing his eyes and calling out endlessly to Jesus with an intensity that could only be called shouting.

He called for the Lord to bless Kinew and his family. He called for the Lord to bless the cabinet members and their families. He called for the Lord to bless all Manitoba families.

He called for the gifts of wisdom and grace.

“I know, Lord, that none of us are perfect,” Halcrow announced. “I know the cabinet people and our premier have flaws and weaknesses and are limited in their capacity to lead… so we ask that you carry them, oh Lord, and be with them, oh Lord… Cover them in prayer, oh Lord, cover them.”

For the record, few political ceremonies end with a speaker declaring how the individuals sworn in have “flaws and weaknesses and are limited in their capacity.”

This was no ordinary ceremony. It was a perfect representation of the kind of evangelical and fervent Christianity many in the North embody.

It’s also the kind of passion, love and devotion for Christianity one might find in the outskirts of Winnipeg, Steinbach, Winkler, Altona and other rural areas.

Since Kinew’s election, critics have been swift to say the provincial NDP has no connective threads with Manitoba’s rural, Christian and evangelical constituencies.

At the swearing in of Manitoba’s NDP new cabinet, though, the opening and closing words were full of teachings of Jesus and calls to the Lord — words that might appeal as much to those who voted against them as for them.

How conciliatory.

niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca