Healing and Reconciliation Sunday was designated by the 2006 General Assembly, recognizing the need for healing and relationship building between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada.
This recognition comes with the difficult but necessary acknowledgment that The Presbyterian Church in Canada is complicit in colonial racism, especially through the church’s participation in the residential school system, which took generations of Indigenous children from their homes and families. The intergenerational trauma that the schools created continues to cause significant harm to Indigenous people today.
The work of truth, healing and reconciliation is a collective responsibility across all parts of the church and Canadian society. Congregations can observe Healing and Reconciliation Sunday in different ways. Here are some ideas:
- Read the church’s Apology for colonization and residential schools at church. Guidance for worship leaders planning to read the apology in church are online here
- Mark Healing and Reconciliation Sunday in worship
- Consider contributing to the Honouring the Children Fund which makes funding available for healing events, memorials, and searches of the grounds of former school sites to nations and groups impacted by residential schools run by the PCC.
- Learn more about ministries with Indigenous peoples.
- Learn more about the church’s commitments to healing and reconciliation.