The theme of our Vineyard Canada West and East Gatherings
this year is Metanoia, which is the Greek
word for “change your way of thinking,” often translated repent in the New Testament. Metanoia
is a lifelong journey. As summer
comes to end, and as we are entering the season of autumn, I’ve been reflecting
on one aspect of metanoia that is
critical for the followers of Jesus who happen to live in Canada in 2017.
Summertime is a favourite time for me to read. This past summer, my reading included
two books that seemed to both complement but also contradict each other. The
first was Mission of God, by
Christopher Wright, with its panoramic summary of God’s mission as the
essential story of Scripture and our story, too. The second was the completion
of the Final Report of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of Canada. The first book was an inspiring call and
reminder to partner with God in his mission of reconciliation, and the second
chronicled the need for reconciliation due to the role of a misplaced Christian
“mission” in the running of the colonial residential school system in Canada. The
themes of these two books read at almost the same time, created an uncomfortable tension
in me.
The six year Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, launched after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s official apology
in 2008 on behalf of Canada to First Nations for the residential school system,
spawned events across Canada over a period of six years, documenting the stories
of over 7000 First Nations residential school survivors. Seven generations of
First Nations children were systemically torn away from their parents and
families and forced to renounce their language and culture, while Christianity
was force-fed on them. Minimal contact was allowed with their families; many
children had none. Whole communities were bereft of their children. In addition, there
was severe physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse. This devastation was perpetuated
to succeeding generations. So, truth and reconciliation was an invitation for
all Canadians to begin the process of healing together.
What do you do with the volume of information from these
stories of residential school survivors? TRC Commissioners Honorable Justice
Murray Sinclair, Dr. Marie Wilson, Chief Wilton Littlechild, have done an extraordinary
job, artfully weaving these stories together into a national narrative, a story
that we can all engage with. In their masterful work, they argue effectively
that the story of residential schools, indeed, Canada’s colonization began far before white explorers ever
arrived on Canada’s shores. In their concluding summary, they offer a
series of 94 Calls to Action, all of
which are critical for every Canadian to understand, but calls 48-49, 58-61 are
directly addressed to the church in Canada. Some of these calls are directly related
to metanoia, a call to change our way
of thinking. They are why we have chosen, in lieu of our regular Sunday
worship, to join with the Numwayut Walk for Reconciliation in Vancouver
this Sunday, September 24. Numwayut means “all my relations,” or, “we
are all connected.”
THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY AND “TERRA NULLIUS”
One of the TRC Calls to Action that addresses the church (number
49) states: “We call upon all religious denominations and faith groups who have
not already done so to repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty
over Indigenous lands and peoples, such as the Doctrine of Discovery and
terra nullius.”
What is the Doctrine of Discovery and Terra Nullius? In the
mid-1400’s, when European nations were fighting among themselves for
territorial rights in continents such as Africa and the Americas, Pope Nicholas
V issued a decree that these European “Christian” nations had the right to
claim under their sovereignty lands that they “discovered.” This decree has had
an ongoing impact on Canada, the USA, and other colonized territories right
down to our present day. Many of us grew up being taught that Columbus
“discovered” America in 1492. The problem for the explorers who went out from
Europe was that there were already an estimated 100 million indigenous people
living in North America when they “discovered” the continent! As Navajo
theologian Mark Charles quipped, “You cannot discover something that is already
inhabited… If you don’t believe me, leave out your car keys and cell phones,
and I’ll come and ‘discover’ them for you!”[1] His
point, of course is that what we called “discovering” was actually stealing!
When the European nations realized that the lands were
inhabited, they adopted the concept of “terra nullius,” which meant “empty
lands.” These lands were deemed “empty” due to the fact that the Europeans regarded
the inhabitants as uncivilized and sub-human, simply because they were
non-Christian. Some of these colonialists even cited the lack of agricultural
settlement as yet another indicator of “terra nullius.”
How could so-called “Christian”
nations think in a way that was so contrary to the life and message of
Jesus? This mindset goes back to Constantine in 300AD with the unholy marriage
of church and state, resulting in Augustine’s “just war” theory to support state
sanctioned violence. This later gave room for the crusades and the inquisition.
As Buffy Saint Marie stated, “When the Doctrine of Discovery was decreed, there
were serial killers on the thrones of Europe!”[
This Doctrine of Discovery provided the roots for the
colonization of the Americas and Africa, among other nations. To this day, the
Doctrine of Discovery still forms the basis of our Canadian constitution
including the “Indian Act,” Canada’s laws and justice system. The Doctrine of Discovery is a systemically racist doctrine that has perpetrated the
worst kinds of injustices and abuse. Indeed, it constituted the roots of the
residential school system. The residential school system was simply the
fruit of a dark and hidden root called colonialism,
and as such, was an attempt to “kill the Indian in the child.” Most tragically,
this was done in the name of God and Christian missions. It created this
terrible disconnect between Christ and his church in the minds of many First
Nations people in Canada, who are otherwise very open to the Creator and to
Jesus, but to this day, will not enter the church.
Such are the roots of a colonial world that many Canadians grew up in. As a child, I lived within 30 miles of an Indian Residential School
(Grouard) in northern Alberta, but I had no idea that such an institution even existed
until I was 35 years old. Nevertheless, I was indoctrinated with colonial assumptions
that Canada had been “discovered,” and as such, became unknowingly complicit with
the system, regardless of my best intentions. As I now read the TRC’s Call to Action, I am impressed with how important it is to First
Nations that we, as communities of faith that bear the name of Christ, name and
publicly renounce this horrific Doctrine of Discovery, because it is the root
of some of the most heinous injustices and crimes known to humanity.
METANOIA AS A DOORWAY OF HOPE
The whole colonial saga can be disheartening for those of us
who are engaged in Christian mission. Yet, it is the very Gospel which was so
badly misrepresented, when truly understood, provides hope. It calls us to
metanoia, which includes naming and
owning our colonialist mindset, confessing our sin of misrepresenting Christ
and his Good News, and humbly seeking forgiveness from our First Nations
sisters and brothers as a first step towards a new relationship. We can’t
rewind the past, but we can take ownership of it and learn from it, as we work
out an equal and just relationship.
That is why it is critical that the church specifically
responds to TRC Call No. 49.
Some churches have already done so. The United Church of
Canada’s national website has these words: We
repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery, which asserted that lands belonged to the
Christian powers that “discovered” them.
In addition, the Anglican Church of Canada made this
statement in their 2010 synod: [We] repudiate
and renounce the Doctrine of Discovery as fundamentally opposed to the gospel
of Jesus Christ and our understanding of the inherent rights that individuals
and peoples have received from God.
Evangelical churches have also responded. The Christian and
Missionary Alliance Church have published this prayer in a beautiful document on their national website that covers all 94 Calls to Action, and this one specific to no. 49: Father
God, We regret that Your Church was party to the use of the Doctrine of
Discovery and terra nullius in the expansion of European sovereignty over land
that had been in the care of Aboriginal peoples. We regret the dislocation that
resulted from these concepts. We pray that Your Church will be pro-active in
bringing healing and restoration to those whose ancestors and present families
continue to live with the negative results of this dislocation.
WHAT ABOUT US?
In this season of reconciliation, metanoia means proactively finding ways that we, as the Vancouver Eastside Vineyard Church alongside our Vineyard tribe in Canada, respond to TRC Call to Action, No. 49, as communities of justice, mercy, and humility. Of course, formally renouncing the Doctrine of Discovery is only the first step towards decolonization.
If we stop there and go no further, "decolonization" can quickly become a cheap “buzz word,” the latest trend, or simply a
meaningless metaphor to make us feel better about ourselves in our culture of
domination. No, real decolonization means a life long journey of metanoia, of unlearning the
past, changing our way of thinking, and working out in practice,
policy, and habits, both personally and corporately, what renouncing the Doctrine of
Discovery really means.
Any role the church takes in encouraging this partnership of
justice and reconciliation is a vital part of our mission and message as
the church. Numwayut – we are all
connected. This Sunday, this is the reason we walk.
[1] Mark
Charles, “Race, Trauma, and the Doctrine of Discovery,” Lecture
at Calvin College
[2] Buffy
Saint Marie, “God, Reconciliation, and the Doctrine of Discovery,” Context
with Lorna Dueck
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