Pursuing Truth and Reconciliation as a Church

- Micah Peters Unrau

Man smiling“Pursue peace with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). 

With last week’s Red Dress Day fresh in my mind and Indigenous History Month coming up in June, I’ve been contemplating peace’s place in truth and reconciliation. While I tend to envision peace as something we make or build, when it comes to treaty relationship, peace really is a matter of “pursuit.” We don’t possess or control this peace. Culture loss, land and governance conflicts, intergenerational health impacts, and ongoing gendered violence have put peace far ahead of us. Right relations between Indigenous, Settler, and Newcomer peoples require the agility and persistence of a long-distance chase, the will to follow peace off beaten paths and continue running when it seems beyond our grasp. 

...peace really is a matter of “pursuit.”

I’ve been encouraged to hear through my story-gathering work that Scripture’s call to pursue peace and Indigenous calls for solidarity have been converging. MCEC congregations increasingly consider neighbourly relations with Indigenous people part of what it means to be Christian in Canada – not that this happens all at once, or all in the same way.  

Scripture’s call to pursue peace and Indigenous calls for solidarity have been converging

Breslau Mennonite Church 

Four years ago Breslau Mennonite Church formed a dedicated working group to advise the congregation on accountability, understanding, and healing with Indigenous neighbours. Each year the group presents several “doorways to truth and reconciliation” for congregants to choose from: Studies of Indigenous books, art, and music open up Indigenous stories in a more familiar setting. Indigenous-led community events and the Living into Right Relations newsletter highlight where Indigenous people are inviting support. Individuals within the congregation can determine what makes sense for them based on their experience and availability. Naturally, educational doorways received the most attention early on, but hands-on, corporate opportunities like Red Dress Day and the All Nations Grand River Water Walk are a growing focus. 

Bloomingdale Mennonite Church 

The Water Walk, an annual ceremony founded by Mary Anne Caibaiosai, has become a connecting point for other congregations around the Grand River as well. Though it is a specifically Indigenous spiritual practice honouring Nibi (“water” in Anishinaabemowin), organizers invite non-Indigenous neighbours’ support through fundraising, food and accommodations, and participation in the Walk.  

Last year, Bloomingdale Mennonite Church took up the invitation to provide a meal along the Walkers’ 280-kilometre journey. When the day came and volunteers had gotten busy preparing food, a fellow Mennonite called with an unexpected but providential interruption. An elderly Indigenous Walker was asking for a pickup. Could the meal-preppers spare a bit of extra time and gas? Soon after the volunteers had retrieved the Walker, a hearty exchange of stories and laughter filled the hour-long drive. Although Bloomingdale had established a reconciliation payment to Six Nations Polytechnic and Crow Shield Lodge a few years prior, the storyteller I spoke to said these spontaneous face-to-face experiences made truth and reconciliation meaningful to them. 

Waterloo North Mennonite Church  

The concept of “Spiritual Covenant” has presented churches in the Grand River area with yet another way to combine political-economic and personal relationship. Proposed in 2007 by Adrian Jacobs and Rick Hill, a Spiritual Covenant runs between congregations on treaty land and First Nations with historical claim to that land. Under the covenant the congregation makes an annual 99-year lease payment to the relevant nation and agrees to cede that nation their land should they decommission their building. In other words, the church voluntarily becomes a tenant of First Nations hosts. 

In recent years the truth and reconciliation action group at Waterloo North Mennonite Church has been exploring this proposal. Their peace pursuit took off in the late 2010s when three congregants led a truth and reconciliation adult ed series, with follow-up sessions in 2021 and a sermon series in fall 2025. Last summer, the action group paid its budget to Six Nations of the Grand River as a “first step” toward Covenant. Because the Spiritual Covenant is meant to reflect the understanding and friendship of the entire congregation, Waterloo North will discern further before solidifying any long-term agreement. 

Bethany Mennonite Church 

In Niagara, Bethany Mennonite Church approached truth and reconciliation by marking Orange Shirt Day in their worship. From the beginning it was important to emphasize the continuities between living into treaty and biblical teachings. After hearing about the Spiritual Covenant concept, this past year Bethany arranged an annual payment to the Niagara Regional Native Centre as an initial reconciliation act. 

When congregants visited to present the cheque, they learned the Centre received funding for programming, but rarely for building maintenance equipment. Encouraged by that initial connection, Bethany made it their goal to fund a floor scrubber machine. In just a few months they reached their $8000 target with the help of a fundraiser barbecue and support from nearby congregations. As a bonus, a local builder heard of the campaign and donated his own scrubber, which found its way to Fort Erie Native Friendship Centre. 

It drives us to ask, “What’s next?”

In most of the storytellers I’ve spoken to thus far I’ve sensed joy over these signs of grace, but not self-congratulation. There remains an underlying understanding that we’re “only doing what we ought to have done” (Luke 17:10), that injustices persist and healing is ongoing. We may not catch up with peace for a long time.  

But that doesn’t mean we don’t get excited that people are joining the pursuit. When we start chasing peace and gaining some ground, when we glimpse “the good works God has prepared” (Ephesians 2:10), it feels worth it to keep running. It drives us to ask, “What’s next?” as one storyteller put it.  

When we start chasing peace and gaining some ground, when we glimpse “the good works God has prepared,” it feels worth it to keep running

Whether your congregation has been pursuing truth and reconciliation for a long time or has never mentioned it before, if you’re asking that “What’s next?” question, I leave you with some possible directions to go: 

  • Reach out to MCEC’s Truth and Reconciliation Working Group at trwg@mcec.ca to connect with others from around the regional church pursuing right relations with Indigenous people. 
  • Look into Red Dress Day (May 5), National Indigenous Peoples’ Day (June 21), or the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30). Consider how you and your congregation might participate. 
  • Pow wows are often open to people of all nations. Consider visiting one as a neighbour. 
  • Visit the opening of the Indigenous Friendship Garden at Heartland Forest, Niagara on May 29. 

“May the God of peace...equip you with every good thing to do his will, by developing in us what pleases him through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 13:20-21).