posted on February 1, 2007 in News

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ENI – Rev. Robert S. Bilheimer, an American Presbyterian minister who organized the first assembly of the World Council of Churches in 1948 and later was credited with helping turn South African theologian C. F. Beyers Naude into an opponent of apartheid, has died at age 89.

posted on February 1, 2007 in News

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Presbyterian History turns 50 this year, first published in March 1957. The bi-annual publication of the Committee on History has recounted the stories of Canadian Presbyterianism, including tales of how congregations got started, biographies of lay and ordained Presbyterians, and the role of Presbyterians in the history of Canada.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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Clifford Bear represents everything Anishinabe wants to accomplish in its ministry. Shy, quiet and an artist, Bear used to wander the Winnipeg streets with his gang members — a rival gang, it turns out, of Lenny McKay's former posse. The two men now frequent Anishinabe at the same time; previous rivalries long extinguished.

posted on February 1, 2007 in News

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For the past two years, David Phillips has acted as the Leading with Care coordinator for the denomination. During this time, he has visited or worked with more than 500 congregations. He is also convener of the Pickering Presbytery’s Leading with Care Committee, and serves as clerk of session, teaches the adult Sunday school class and convenes the mission committee at his home congregation.

posted on February 1, 2007 in News

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Kouwenberg came to his current charge after 20 years at St. Giles, Prince George, B.C. He has served on a number of the church’s national committees, including the Assembly Council and the Task Force for the Revision of The Book of Praise. He has been clerk and moderator of the Synod of British Columbia and moderator of the Presbyteries of Kamloops and Westminster. Currently the convener of the Board of St. Andrew’s Hall and a member of the Committee on Theological Education, Kouwenberg has served as a member of the governing bodies of all three of the church’s theological colleges. In 2005, the Presbyterian College, Montreal, awarded him an honorary D.D. He has also been the editor of Channels and a contributing editor to the Record.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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Reconciliation support members and groups…

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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When they got the call to go to the remote Cariboo-Chilcotin region of British Columbia, they hesitated. Rev. Shannon Bell-Wyminga and her husband Rev. Jon Wyminga had always thought they were destined for ministry in the inner city. Instead, they got dense bush, deep snow and long drives between house churches.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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Iroquois peoples, the Haudenosaunee, members of the Six Nations Confederacy, entered into some of the earliest treaties in North America with European settlers. These treaties were recorded symbolically in wampum belts. The Guswenta wampum belt of 1692 records the treaty known as the Covenant Chain. A silver covenant chain was fashioned with three links representing peace, friendship and forever — the key concepts of the treaty.

posted on February 1, 2007 in News

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Before settling in Calgary, Marple served on several summer mission fields in various provinces, and three different pastoral charges in Nova Scotia. He has been moderator of presbytery and of the Synod of the Atlantic Provinces and is presently clerk of the Presbytery of Calgary-Macleod. He has served on a number of presbytery, synod and General Assembly committees including a Rural Ministry Consultation, the Senate of Knox College and Assembly Council. He has been active in areas of social justice including advocacy for refugees as well as being involved in the establishment of a local chapter of KAIROS in Calgary. Ecumenically minded, Marple has always been involved in inter-church relations. He currently serves as president of the Calgary Council of Churches and is a Presbyterian representative on Calgary’s Muslim-Christian Dialogue.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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I stood on the Saskatchewan prairie on a silent, crystal winter day. Rev. Stewart Folster had brought Montreal visitors to the Wanuskewin Heritage Park just north of Saskatoon. We had seen the videos and mock tipis and eaten bison burgers and wild rice salad. We had heard the songs and stories of people seeking shelter and sustenance in this place for 6,000 years. We had seen the massive stones waiting patiently, and felt the spirit of this ancient place.

posted on February 1, 2007 in For the Journey

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Burrrrrrr! Where did that cold come from?” I was just in from a foray into the frozen expanses of our lakefront lot to a steaming hot cup of Linda's coffee. “It's -30 Celsius out there! How can a winter that has been so unseasonably warm turn on us like this … and so close to spring too?”

posted on February 1, 2007 in News

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Born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, DeWolfe was ordained in 1983, and has served numerous congregations since that time, including two ordained missionary appointments at Knox Listowel, and in a team ministry in Palmerston and Drayton with his wife, Rev. Janet Allan DeWolfe. He came to his current charge in 1999. For the past seven years, he has also served as Lecturer in Homiletics at the Atlantic School of Theology.

posted on February 1, 2007 in News

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The Presbyterian Church has its very own ambitious, aggressive human rights activist in David Kilgour, a member of parliament from 1979 to 2006, who has advocated for global social justice and peace issues throughout his time in public office. On a recent 10-country European tour he drew attention to the alleged organ harvesting of Falun Gong prisoners in China. Along with human rights lawyer David Matas, Kilgour conducted a two month investigation into this practice, uncovering evidence that Falun Gong practitioners (a banned spiritual movement in China with about 70 million members and founded in 1992) are being wrongfully imprisoned, killed and harvested for their vital organs which are sold to local and foreign patients.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Youth

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I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” He said “Put your hand into the hand of God; it shall be to you better than a light, and safer than the known way.”

posted on February 1, 2007 in For the Record

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According to a native adage, you have to walk a mile in another person's moccasins before you can understand them. No one said how far you have to walk to understand their pain if you take their moccasins away. • Our cover story, Sharing the Pain, is an attempt to reveal some of the pain caused by residential schools and some of the ways the church is trying to address it.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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1866
Work begins among aboriginal peoples led by Rev. James Nisbet.

1875
The Presbyterian Church in Canada is formed. In 1876, the Women’s Foreign Mission Society begins and by 1883 resolves to focus on Aboriginal women and children.

1878
Lucy Baker appointed as first woman missionary to aboriginals.

1883
Birtle School opens in Manitoba.

1888
WFMS is supporting nine schools. Birtle becomes a boarding school.

1902
Cecilia Jeffrey School opens in Kenora, Ont., at the request of the band, and named after the first secretary of aboriginal work for the WFMS.

1908
PCC teaching over 500 students.

1914
The WFMS becomes the Women’s Missionary Society. There are 21 centres of native mission work.

1920s
Eighty state-sponsored, church-run schools peak with more than 17,000 children.

1925
Church Union occurs. The PCC now operates only Birtle and Cecilia Jeffrey.

1927
The Mistawasis day school begins.

1957
Staff at Birtle totals 20 and enrollment is at 164. At Cecilia Jeffrey, staff totals 24 and enrollment is 150.

1960-70s
The church advocates for aboriginal rights, including urging the federal government to provide full citizenship for aboriginals. In 1975, assembly expresses the need for the whole church to sensitize its self to the concerns of natives.

1964
The Kenora Fellowship Centre and the Prince Albert Fellowship House open.

1968
The Winnipeg Fellowship House (now Anishanabe Fellowship) opens.

1970
Birtle School closes.

1970s
The PCC joins an ecumenical coalition on northern Native concerns.

1976
Cecilia Jeffrey School closes.

1979
Prince Albert Fellowship House for Boys closes.

1980s
Stories of abuse at residential schools begin to percolate.

1986/87
Board of World Mission undertakes a study on aboriginal issues.

1987
“A New Covenant: Towards the Constitutional Recognition and Protection of Aboriginal Self-Government in Canada” is signed by leaders of various Canadian churches.

1989/90
Former non-PCC residential schools staff are convicted of sexual assault in B.C. and the Yukon.

1989
A report, which includes the formation of the National Native Ministries Committee, is submitted to assembly.

1990
The PCC joins Project North’s successor, the Aboriginal Rights Coalition.

1991
A report to assembly notes that justice, peace and truth are required for aboriginal rights issues.

1992
Chiefs and leaders of B.C.’s First Nations call for churches and government to be held responsible for schools.

1993
The Residential School Working Group is appointed.

1994
The General Assembly adopts The Confession of the Presbyterian Church for its role in residential schools.

1996
The last federally-run residential school in Canada closes.

January 8, 1998
The Canadian government apologizes to the country’s 1.5 million Indigenous Peoples for mistreatment and cultural assimilation.

1998
The Journey to Wholeness campaign is launched. The church raises more than $280,000 and distributes through an application process.

August 1998
The first statement of claim related to residential schools is filed against the PCC.

2002
The Presbyterian Church organizes a reunion for the former staff of its residential schools. Only one third of those invited show up.

November 2002
Assembly Council approves a Residential Schools Resolution Fund worth $500,000.

February 13, 2003
The Presbyterian Church in Canada and the federal government sign a settlement agreement: the church will contribute $2.1-million to a fund, from which compensation for valid claims of abuse will be paid. The church will cover 30 per cent of compensation payments, while the federal government will pay the rest. The church has a total of 246 cases against it.

June 2003
A Residential Schools Healing and Reconciliation Program Fund, also worth $500,000, is approved for education, as well as healing and reconciliation.

June 2004
The Residential Schools Working Group is dissolved. The Healing and Reconciliation Task Force formally takes its place. Its foundational statement is: “Healing between aboriginal people and people of the church can only be achieved through building ongoing relationships based on awareness, understanding and trust.”

General Assembly names the Sunday before June 21st each year Aboriginal Day within congregations, beginning in 2005.

June 2005
General Assembly debates the church’s native ministries, and directs the church to focus on healing and reconciliation in every department at the national offices.

The Healing and Reconciliation Task Force is formally dissolved. The team had spent the last year working on a national strategy for engaging congregations in the healing process with aboriginals. Continuing where the original team left off, the newly formed Healing and Reconciliation Program Design Team will work on creating a national program.

November 2005
The federal government approves a $1.9-billion settlement package that provides a common experience payment to all former students of Indian residential schools. Each student is to receive $10,000, plus $3,000 for every year of attendance. Advance payment will be given to former students over the age of 65.

November 2005
Assembly Council finds that unless givings to Presbyterians Sharing increase (and Canada Ministries’ budget does likewise), the church is unable to devote more funds to native ministries, without jeopardizing existing programs.

March 2006
Assembly Council approves Walking Together – a new healing and reconciliation initiative developed by the Healing and Reconciliation Program Design Team. The team was guided by the idea that this will be a long-term, ongoing journey, with projects fostered at the local level and ideally involving youth. The new program includes a possible Ten Days Tour across Canada to visit native ministries, a new “animator” position under contract for one year, and a new H&R consultative committee. Its work finished, the design team is disbanded. The program will use the remaining $400,000 (approx.) from the Healing and Reconciliation Fund adopted by the General Assembly in 2003, for this work.

April 2006
Thanks to an agreement between the federal government and Roman Catholic entities regarding residential school settlements that was more favourable than the agreement with the PCC, the church has its cap for compensation dropped from $2.1 million to $1.32 million. Any funds saved will go towards other healing and reconciliation endeavours, such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

June 2006
General Assembly adopts Walking Together. It also designates the Sunday before May 26 as Healing and Reconciliation Sunday.

September 2006
Lori Ransom, a member of the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation and elder at St. Andrew’s, King Street, Toronto, is hired on a one-year contract as the church’s new healing and reconciliation animator.

December 15, 2006
Provincial judges approve the overall settlement agreement for former students of residential schools worth more than $4-billion.

The agreement provides a common experience payment totaling $1.9-billion for all students, additional compensation for specific acts of abuse, provision for commemorative events that support the healing process and initiates a $60-million Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which is a joint venture of government, churches and First Nations.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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Mary Fontaine had been preparing for her Hummingbird Ministries since she was a little girl. Growing up on the Mistawasis reserve in Saskatchewan, her late parents instilled in her a love for the church, as well as respect for traditional native ways.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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The scene is nothing new for Rev. Stewart Folster. On the street outside his small downtown Saskatoon location, the blue and red lights of a police car are flashing once again. Some sort of physical altercation has just taken place; apparently a scruffy-looking man struck a woman as she walked past him and his dog. Various versions of the story are fed to the officer; the man denies the charges. A crowd gathers.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Speaking Up

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The present practice of The Presbyterian Church in Canada is to place retired ministers of Word and Sacrament on the appendix to the roll of presbyteries. As members on the appendix to the roll these persons have the right to speak on matters before the court but do not have the privilege of moving or seconding motions or of voting.

posted on February 1, 2007 in Features

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What we need is to find a way that we can offer all of these programs in one place,” said Rev. Stewart Folster, who became one of the PCC's earliest Native ministers when he was ordained in 1996. He is currently the director of Saskatoon Native Circle Ministry. “We need a healing centre in all major centres of Canada that offers addiction services, parenting and life skills, Native spirituality, Bible study, shelter, worship, child care, help with education and employment, with Native elders on staff as well as counsellors, therapists, parish social workers, and native artists to help in therapy. It needs government, church and aboriginal cooperation.”