wfn.org | Episcopal Church signs covenant wit

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org (ENS)]

November 13, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1994
Episcopal Church signs covenant with Native Americans, launching
decade of reconciliation

by James Solheim
       (ENS) On a blustery Saturday afternoon, on the site of the first
permanent English settlement in North America, the Episcopal Church
apologized for centuries of abuse and signed a new covenant calling for
reconciliation with Native Americans.
       Gathered on All Saints Day, November 1, at a shrine on the site
of the first Anglican Eucharist in the colony, about 300 people from
across the country inaugurated a decade of "remembrance, recognition
and reconciliation" leading to the 400th anniversary of the founding of
Jamestown in 1607 and the first expression of Anglican mission overseas.
       The description in the Jamestown Charter of the indigenous
peoples as "infidels and savages" who lived in "darkness and miserable
ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God" should provoke
outrage among those who know the history of the era, said Presiding
Bishop Edmond Browning in his sermon at a Eucharist prior to the
signing. 
       The charter "carried within its sinfulness the seeds of its
redemption, Browning added. "The work of repentance, the work of
starting again to build the structures of justice in the ashes of injustice,
the work implicit in every line of the Gospel, bears fruit again in the new
Jamestown Covenant."
       Pointing out that "the first impulse in the relationship between the
Native American and the European American was the impulse of
friendship" and that "betrayal and mistrust came later," Browning said
that the true issue was trust. "The most holy thing about today is the
decision it represents to remain in hope and trust," he said. Racism and
greed have not destroyed the gift of "holy memory" that makes it
possible to accept "a legacy of hope and trust for the future as well as an
honest recognition of the past."

A new and different way
       The sounds of drums playing the Eagle Calling Song wafted
through the small church built on the same site as the original colonial
one, mingling with the Eucharistic prayer of the liturgy. After a
procession from the church to the shrine, the assembly was welcomed by
Chief Webster Custalow, a direct descendant of the original Powhatan
Confederacy which had assisted the English colonists.
       Bishop Frank Vest of the host Diocese of Southern Virginia said
in his welcome, "We come here with thanksgiving and with the hope that
we can begin again in a new and different way." In an earlier interview
he said that "our mistreatment of the Native Americans began as soon as
we got here--and we have much to repent for." He added, "It is never
too late to apologize."
       In a display of searing historical honesty, church and tribal
participants traced some of the painful components of the relationship
through the years. Carol Hampton, a Caddo from Oklahoma, read a
testimony from Wahunsonacock of the Powhatan Confederacy who asked
of the English, "Why should you take by force from us which you can
have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with
food?"
        Owanah Anderson, an Oklahoma Choctaw who is the Episcopal
Church's officer for Native American Ministries, read from Chief
Seattle's lament after signing a treaty in 1855 that doomed his people to
the reservation: "When the last Red Man shall have perished, and the
memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the white man,
these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe, and when
your childrens' children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the
shop or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone...
they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them and still
love this beautiful land...."

The glory and tragedy
       In addressing the Anglican experience, Pamela Chinnis, president
of the House of Deputies, said that the Episcopal Church was deeply
involved in the colonization of the hemisphere so "we come to this
moment of covenant fully aware of both the glory and the tragedy of our
historic relationship... We acknowledge our part in the colonizing of the
Americas and in the great injustice this brought to the Indigenous Peoples
of this continent. We do accept that responsibility and do ask forgiveness
for what we have done. We apologize to the Indigenous Peoples of our
own church, and of all communities who still bear the marks of the cross
of colonialism. While recognizing the tragic history behind us, we
resolve to change our present and hope for the history to come."
       The Rev. Doyle Turner, an Ojibwa from Minnesota, summarized
the Native experience: "We come to this place with hope. We come
representing our many tribes and nations. We come in deep respect for
our courageous history and our martyred ancestors. We come bringing
our ancient spiritual tradition as an integral part of our commitment to
the Episcopal Church. We come not to forget what has gone before but
to anticipate what is to come--the renewal of an old relationship that can
be made new through love, justice and the peace of God."

Moving into the future
       In his meditation, Bishop Steven Charleston, a Choctaw who is
former bishop of Alaska and now chaplain at Trinity College in
Connecticut, said that the purpose of the covenant is "to claim the reality
and truth of the past and move it forward. We stand in a historic place
but we are not here only to look backward but also to the future...
committed to work for a solution to problems and provide justice for
indigenous peoples."
       Charleston, who convened the event with the Rev. Carol
Gallagher, a Cherokee serving a parish in Delaware, said the covenant
represented "a new beginning, not shackled by the tragedies of the past.
We inaugurate a new reality, full of promise, truth, joy, mercy and
love."
       A cross-cultural reading of the covenant was followed by
responses from church leaders and elders from some of the tribes
represented. Browning said that the covenant was a fitting valedictory to
his ministry and its emphasis on inclusiveness. In a personal tribute to
Owanah Anderson, he drew links between their common effort to call the
church to a new place on issues of racism and justice.
       Chinnis said that "the church of today must own up to the sins of
yesterday" but that it "must not let shame and guilt from the past prevent
us from fulfilling our responsibilities in the present." She argued that the
covenant "calls us to renewed social and political effort" and "challenges
us to find new ways to speak across the great divide between Native
traditions and the form of English Christianity evolving on these
shores.... What we do here today marks another stage in the maturing of
the Episcopal Church's understanding of its responsibilities to its Native
American members."
       A Litany of Hope, read by a broad representation of participants,
mixed remembrance of the days when "greed and ignorance" destroyed
people and relationships with thankfulness for the freedom to "gather
together to remember our faithful ancestors who taught us compassion,
respect and humility" and for making the "sacred circle whole."
       Then feathers and beads blended with copes and miters as dozens
of people from many ethnic backgrounds lined up to sign the covenant,
embracing each other as a sign that reconciliation had begun and a new
story would be written in the years to come.

--James Solheim is the Episcopal Church's director of news and
information.