At Waterloo CRC we have a group of folks who are learning about justice for Indigenous peoples and are committed to acting on that knowledge. We call ourselves JIP – Justice and Indigenous Peoples. After participating in Hearts Exchanged and learning more about land acknowledgements, Worship Ministry and the JIP group wondered and discussed how best to make land acknowledgements as a church. We wanted to acknowledge that our church is situated on the Haldimand Tract – the land on six miles on each side of the Grand River all along its length given to the Haudenosaunee, Anishinaabe, and Chonnonton peoples in 1784. We talked about doing land acknowledgements at the beginning of every service – but didn’t want them to lose their meaning. And so, after sitting with this for a time we decided to have a plaque made for our front foyer. It is engraved with a feather and made of maple – both symbols of significance to Indigenous peoples. It reads as follows:
June is Indigenous History month in Canada – and the month that we as a church have our offering for the Canadian Indigenous Ministries Committee. Our Worship Ministry team had been wondering about the idea of incorporating the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address into a worship service during June and brought this idea to the JIP group. The Thanksgiving Address – or "words before all else" - is used among Haudenosaunee people to begin gatherings. It is a time of remembering that we are interdependent creatures of the Creator – and we take time to greet, respect and be thankful for other creatures – and express thanks to and for our Creator God. We thought it might be fitting to combine it with our annual “Wander to Worship” Sunday.
"Wander to Worship" Sunday was first planned in 2011 and has now become an annual tradition. It is held in June and was first inspired by places of worship being challenged to participate in Canada's “Commuter Challenge Week”. This is a week when workplaces challenge their workers to arrive at work in ways that limit the use of single occupancy vehicles. Car-pooling, walking, bussing, biking, roller blading, or pogo-sticking are some of many options for getting to work. We took up the challenge as a congregation to see how many of us could come to church in a way that reduces our use of the planet's resources. While initially framed as a challenge, over the years it has become for us a Sunday when we remember that our coming to worship is a part of our worship…..taking the time to praise and thank our Creator for all of the natural beauty and other creatures that we see on our way to church.
We thought perhaps it would be fitting to combine our “Wander to Worship” event with a worship service that started with a Thanksgiving Address done outside. We travelled to Burlington with tobacco in hand and asked Adrian Jacobs, who is Haudenosaunee and the Senior Leader for Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation for the CRC in Canada, to lead our worship service on June 16th. He readily agreed.
We travelled to Burlington with tobacco in hand
After we arrived to worship in our various ways on June 16th, we stayed outside for some strawberries, cornbread, and fellowship and then moved to a grassy area behind the church where we sat on blankets or on chairs to hear the Thanksgiving Address. We spent 25 minutes acknowledging the created world that supports us, greeting it, and giving thanks to our Creator for it. The Thanksgiving Address follows a pattern of naming an element of the created world, recognizing that it is continuing to follow God's original instructions, and then gathering our minds as one and giving thanks for this element to the Creator. We then moved inside to continue our worship and to hear Adrian continue our education on how God has been revealing truths to the Haudenosaunee people for a very long time. It was a wonderful Sunday of praising and worshiping our Creator.
We are thankful for the Canadian Indigenous Ministries Committee that provides resources for churches looking to learn more about the church's involvement in the oppression of Indigenous peoples and how we can walk with Indigenous people toward justice and wholeness and healing. We are thankful to Adrian Jacobs for leading that committee and walking with us on our journey.
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