This upcoming week, from September 27 to October 1, 2021, our staff and students will be focusing on “Truth, Reconciliation and Beyond.”
Reconciliation is a process that goes far beyond the scope of one day or even one week. It takes time and will include all of us.
Over the course of this week we will be focusing on special activities that will guide our understanding of the importance of identity and reconciliation. As stories in our school communities are shared, the hashtag #Itsinikasi will be used. Itsinika'si is Blackfoot for “relate” or “tell a story.” We look forward to listening closely to these stories throughout this week, and beyond, as we celebrate the strength, resiliency, culture, achievement, and vibrancy of our First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities.
As we walk together through this next week, may the Diocesan prayer for truth and reconciliation ring in our ears and resonate in our hearts:
For the children who died in residential schools throughout Canada
and for all those who continue on a journey through the darkness,
that there may be healing founded on truth and that the Spirit will
inspire our ongoing commitment to reconciliation.
God, through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit,
continue to offer us correction so that your grace
might change and transform us in our weakness and repentance.
Give us humility to listen when others reveal how we have failed
and courage to love others as ourselves,
mindful of your love for the weakest and most vulnerable among us.
Amen.