Slideshow image

So I entered the classroom at the Lutheran College, Regina, this July, looked around at other people much like me, found a seat and sat. Our topic: The Indigenous Creed, to be presented by Adrian Jacobs, the senior leader for Indigenous Justice and Reconciliation in the CRC in Canada, and a Cayuga First Nation member of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy of the Grand River Territory. 

Adrian is a quiet, medium-height man who spoke in a conversational voice. The “Creed” begins with New Year’s, he told us, which is a midwinter ceremony. “At that time, we watched the sunrise. We knew its timing was determined by the stars.”

The second part of the creed was the maple-syrup harvest, a thanksgiving festival. “We had to listen for the trees to tell us when it was time.”

I remember a sugaring event I attended with Anglicans in Quebec and try to relate snow mushed with maple syrup somehow to the Apostles’ Creed—but don’t quite succeed.

So then we had seed banking, Adrian continued. We would gather seeds we wanted to preserve into a hole for protection. His lips quirked. That ceremony included gambling, he went on--a competition between the men and the women who shook and shook the beans until one side had all of them. 

Strawberry time was in June, and raspberries came in July. Green beans and squash arrived in August as well as corn. He pointed out how the beans gave the corn nitrogen which improved its growth. The culmination of the cycle came in October with Harvest Thanksgiving.

No, I was not linking all of this with the Apostles’ Creed, but Adrian explained how the indigenous creed is a liturgical calendar that illuminates the larger creation story into smaller segments of specific events. Each season was an action of thanksgiving, and each included celebratory dances. 

He spoke of the importance of listening to the values and world views that people already have in place rather than imposing beliefs—foreign beliefs—on others. Assuming our body of knowledge is superior to that of others is a mistake. So like the Apostle’s Creed summarized beliefs in the early church, the cycle of creation tells the story of indigenous beliefs and values.

He then told us an Anishinaabe story. Each animal had a talent: bears had hibernation, wolves had community, eagles were carriers of messages, and so forth. But humans are vulnerable. The Creator gave us animals to help us and make sure we survive. Animals are our relatives, as are all parts of creation. 

Next, he gave a beautiful interpretation of the Bible, starting with the Genesis creation stories, flowing to the Jesus story and focusing on the essential importance of humility among all beings of creation. Out of this humility, he depicted the return to Eden as our present reality and responsibility.

“Instead of talking about early church doctrine, talk about geography and dance.” He motioned for us to get up. He took his drum and began to beat out the rhythm as we did a shuffle dance with motions of  kneading dough and hands spreading the seeds that fall from the sky.

This workshop was part of the Anglican Church of Canada and Evangelical Lutheran Churches’ 2024 national conference on ‘the decolonization of language in worship.’

The word decolonization indicates that sometime in the past, certain languages became colonized, that is, suppressed by the dominant culture which is and continues to be Eurocentric in Canada.

A language that is not Eurocentric may be seen as less important; its view of reality may not be taken seriously or respected. This means that indigenous ways of being and seeing have been and continue to be pushed out of existence in Canadian society.

The Truth and Reconciliation process seeks to redress that wrong. It restores the original names held by indigenous children to the people whose names were taken away. It means that indigenous peoples have a right to know their languages and the identity that language bestows within a community.

This year the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada made the decolonization of language used in worship in the church the topic of discussion. The choice of theme indicated a willingness to change from what is dominant to language that is more open and less oppressive. What was once the language of the British Empire in our world view as Christians needs to give way to something more open and universally respectful. We need to listen with silence and respect for those with other viewpoints. 

We need to recognize that language is not just a collection of words, but a way of being, an identity. As we restore the possibility of this identity to indigenous groups in our country, we also open the the means to expand and re-define our own language. We can see the fossil-like remains of Empire stamped on our own mode of being and find methods to grow beyond an Empire that no longer exists in the way our language still indicates. These concerns are particularly acute because we have many indigenous members across Canada who are in our denominations.

The conference organizers established these questions:

How can our churches create liturgies that make space for these voices? How can we confront empire in the way we pray, sing, preach and celebrate the sacraments? What does it mean to decolonize liturgy on Turtle Island in light of the call to the churches to live into our responsibilities in light of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Calls to Action?

The scriptural basis of the conference was Luke 19:38, when the pharisees called on Jesus to rebuke the people for identifying him as the Messiah. Jesus responded, “I tell you...if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Here he is supporting the people in their professions of faith. And if the people did not express them, the very stones should shout out the truth. The Creator’s truth cannot be contained.

The image of speaking stones, pieces of rock from creation, are appropriate symbols of our expressions of faith in Christ. In some indigenous communities, stones are passed around the circle so that each person who holds the stone has the space to speak and the right to be heard.

Organizers continued, The stones are crying out for justice particularly in the ways we pray and worship. Let us begin by listening to the land, hearing the ancient voices of creation that hold our narratives.

Speaker Michelle Nieviadomy, nehiyaw iskwew, a Cree healing woman and member of Kawacatoose First Nation in Saskatchewan, spoke of the wounds she experienced as a child and then to the role of healing that decolonized language could bring. 

Becca Whitla, professor of practical ministry and the Dr. Lydia E. Gruchy Chair in Pastoral Theology at St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon where she teaches worship and liturgy, examined ways to decolonize liturgical practices especially through community singing. 

 

The Rev. Chun Yam Lam, an ordained pastor of ELCIC, serving All Saints’ Anglican Church Westboro in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, identified some of her own ways of learning to decolonialize language of the Empire by challenging herself in reclaiming her identity as a Chinese immigrant from Hong Kong “while holding well the traditions of Lutherans and Anglicans — all at the same time.”

Lorna Standingready served as the conference elder with gentleness and many words of wisdom.

Workshop topics included ceremony and liturgy in indigenous as well as “Empire” perspectives; sacred treaty and relationships and promises; indigenous spirituality; reviews of the new hymn supplements developed both by the ACC and ELCIC; stories from indigenous and ally views; and mysterium, an ancient and modern liturgical form; and First Nations’ expectations around treaty as sacred.

Workshop leaders were: Brenda Anderson, Susan Beaudin, the Rev. Dennis Hendrickson, Adrian Jacobs, the Rev. Dr. Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero, Dr. A Blair Stonechild, the Very Rev. Peter Wall, Elder Standingready, and Dr. Becca Whitla

---

Kathleen S. Schmitt is the author of three volumes of Seasons of the Feminine Divine: Christian Feminist Prayers for the Liturgical Cycle (Crossroads, NY). Her novel Magnificat: Song of Justice will appear in January of 2025. She is a retired priest in the Diocese of New Westminster and a member of Christ Church Cathedral.