Anglican Indigenous Sacred Circle 2000
Walking a New Vision

Daily Reflections

Arctic Bishop Touches Hearts

Bishop Paul Idlout of the Diocese of the Arctic quickly established rapport with the members of the Sacred Circle.

He apologized that English was not his first language. But he did not have any difficulty communicating what was in his heart.

In his homily at this morning's service Bishop Idlout spoke vividly and clearly of being, as a new Christian, anxious to receive God's spirit and God's love in an overwhelming way. And then he spoke ,with some amusement, of his later reflection that somehow this spirit and this love would become a depleted stock as if it was something that he held within himself. It was only later in his Christian walk that he came to understand, as he contemplated the grandeur of God's creation and majesty, that he could never hope to contain all of God's spirit and God's love. It was enough simply to touch that source, to trust in God, that God would give him the portion of His spirit and the measure of His love to meet each new situation.

The response and the comments in the various talking circles and in individual conversations revealed what a deep cord Paul had struck within the Christian experience of many members of the sacred circle.

Sharing Circles Affirm Need for Healing

One Keeper of the Memory reported that people were really striving for healing. "They know what needs to happen. They know what healing is about. People commented on things like you need a change of heart. You need to offer yourselves to the Saviour for healing and not worry about tomorrow. Healing is about faith and about love." Anger can be resolved with God's help and the presence of Jesus. The need for forgiveness was stressed. Healing cannot take place unless there is forgiveness. Forgiveness has to start with onself first before one can forgive others.

One young man, feeling the effects of residential school ,of grief and destruction handed down to him stressed the need to break the cycles of abuse resulting from the rippling effect of residential school abuse. He said that the grief and the destruction can be used as a weapon for healing against the cycle of abuse. Because no matter what grief we carry we all have one God, one Jesus

Out of the stories of physical healing came an emphasis on spiritual healing. It was recognized that inner healing is an act of God, but it also requires an opening of one's heart and soul to allow God's grace to operate. There must be a letting go, before the healing can begin. The healing- the inner healing is incomplete until there is forgiveness. The kind of forgiveness reflected in Matthew chapter 5 in the way that God forgives us in the measure by which we forgive others. With forgiveness there is freedom.

Sacred Circle Receives Tsimsian Print

Sr. Heather Broadwell presented the Anglican Indigenous Sacred Circle with a Tsimsian. The print is the work of Roy H. Vickers of the Tsimsian Tribe in Kitkala, British Columbia.

The print was a birthday gift for Sr. Peta-Ann, SSJD, who spent several years in the Canadian Arctic as a teacher and educational administrator from 1973?1995. In all these settlements she was truly graced by the ministry of the Indigenous Peoples among whom she lived.

?It is with full and thankful heart that she gave this print to the Sisters of St. John the Divine for gifting, on behalf of the Anglican Religious Communities of Canada , to the Anglican Indigenous Sacred Circle to honour and affirm each member, and the Peoples they represent, in their service of our Lord God Almighty and Jesus Christ, our Saviour, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.?

I have questions

A number of questions have been raised over the past two days. ? I spent some time with some of the people outside of the circle to get a feeling of what they thought because I know it's very hard to share in a large group setting. But I thought perhaps one-on-one they would share things with me. And the things that I learned from them were that they?re not sure how much to share in the circle. There were some who have never been in sharing circles and did not know what to expect. So they didn?t know if they should be sharing on healing personally, on the effects of the residential school , the healing of the Anglican church or which healing should we be talking about. That brought out a lot of questions. And the covenant ? they were not sure about that either. Some of the things that I had wondered about as well. These are my feelings now ? what I had wondered about was what is our goal? What are our objectives? Do we have a mission statement for this convocation other than the covenant? Where are we going? So those were some of the things that I?ve gathered from this workshop. The other thing that was talked about was trust. And that brought out more questions for me as well.?

I need a quick fix

The third impression I have of the day was that of energy level. On the first day, there was a feeling of excitement and eagerness as people came together in this fourth Sacred Circle. By Sunday afternoon, the adrenalin rush had subsided and there was evidence of tiredness as participants continued to address the issues. This is one of the areas that made an impression on me today.?

Vital signs

• 97 people registered, including:
• Our Primate, Archbishop Michael Peers
• 5 bishops
• 14 members of ACIP (Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples)
• youth
• 7 partners/observers
• 2 international partners
• 6 staff
• 3 media people

Keepers of the Memory

• Grace Starr, Brandon
• Caleb Lawrence, Moosonee