wfn.org | Anglican Ordination launches healing journey for wounded Aboriginal

[George Conklin <gconklin@wfn.org>]

community

Ordination launches healing journey

TORONTO, October 29, 1999 -- A bishop from Kamloops and a young Aboriginal
woman raised mostly in southern Ontario will inaugurate a journey of
healing on Sunday afternoon in a downtown Toronto church.

James Cruickshank, Bishop of Cariboo, will ordain Catherine Morrison in St.
Anne's Anglican Church, Gladstone Avenue. The 28-year-old Cree woman will
become the youngest ordained Aboriginal woman in North America.

More significantly, she will begin working with a deeply injured community.
Morrison and her husband, the Reverend Will Hubbard, will become co-rectors
of the Anglican parishes at Lytton, B.C., the former home of the St.
George's Indian Residential School. The school has been closed for a
generation, but the damage from the sexual abuse which took place within
its walls more than 30 years ago is still being felt.

Lytton includes both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal parishes. Among the
parishioners are survivors of the residential school system, including some
who suffered sexual abuse. The community has been profoundly affected by
the abuse and, more recently, by the criminal trial of the abuser, and the
civil trial for damages launched by one of the victims. In the latter case,
the Anglican Church and the Government of Canada were both found liable for
damages.

Ms. Morrison acknowledges the challenge of beginning her ministry in such
an emotionally charged context, but says the opportunity offers "a great
privilege."

There are more court cases still to be resolved but for Jim Cruickshank,
bishop of the diocese since 1992, a watershed has been crossed. "When I
first came to Lytton, I put a sign in the general store and said I'd like
to meet with the survivors of St. George's. I sat in the circle and
listened to the stories. Eventually that lead to a healing process, and an
apology. Then we were able to find money for an abuse counselor.

"My involvement in all that ground to a halt when the civil case was
launched in 1996," Bishop Cruickshank told a national meeting of Anglican
bishops this week. "I accepted my lawyer's direction that I had to keep
silent (out of court) until the trial was over. My image of myself the last
three years is that I've been a telephone put on hold.

"But the Sunday after the judgment came down, I went to Lytton and I let
them know, I'm back. I don't know how any of this is going to turn out, but
I do know that when Jesus went anywhere, he went as a teacher and a healer.
We have to keep focused on healing, and we have to stand with the people
who've been hurt.

"We will not draw back from the Aboriginal people of the diocese. And
that's why I'm so delighted to be able to send Catherine and Will in to
Lytton to be healers."

Morrison completed her master of divinity degree at Trinity College,
Toronto, in 1996, Since then she has worked with the Anglican Church's
national office as its coordinator for Indigenous Justice. She is also
co-chair of the Aboriginal Rights Coalition.

"My family's history in Canada is quite ancient in some respects and very
much in its infancy in other areas," she says. "My father's family is
predominantly James Bay Cree. They were people who lived off the land and
who occasionally earned extra income by trapping furs or guiding white
hunters and trappers through the bush.

"My father's maternal grandfather was Scottish and was hired by the
Hudson's Bay Company while he was still living in Aberdeen to come and work
in the James Bay region.  It was during his first posting in Waskaganish
that he met my great-grandmother, learned Cree, and gained her father's
permission to marry.  In the thirties, the family moved to Moose Factory
and it is there that all of my father's immediate family still lives.

Morrison herself was raised mostly near Toronto in a suburban middle class
environment. "During my internship for the priesthood, which was in Moose
Factory, I learned that I can use the gifts of the cultures of both my
parents to offer something to the community which is unique and strong."

There has been speculation that the diocese of Cariboo may face bankruptcy
in the wake of the judgment against it, and other settlements to come.
Bishop Cruickshank says the diocese is still examining its options, though
it's clear that most assets, including many church buildings, may have to
be sold. "Let's not fool ourselves, church buildings are sacred spaces and
losing them will be painful," he said. "But what we're looking at now are
ways we can keep the integrity of each parish strong.

"We have to find a new vision of the church beyond the buildings. And if we
face this, I believe we can come through it with a stronger church than we
could ever have imagined."

For Morrison and Hubbard, who were married only last May, taking up their
career at a soon-to-be bankrupt parish is surely somewhat daunting. "Not
really," says Hubbard. "We do have some assurance that our stipend is
secure, but obviously this is not the kind of choice you make for financial
reasons.

Morrison adds: "We have visited the community before and talked with many
of the people. We know something of their pain. It's a great privilege for
us to be able to go, to listen, to be with them. And, together with the
community, we hope the healing can begin."

No one is under any illusions that the healing will be swift or easy. But
Bishop Cruickshank cherishes the memory of his return to Lytton, two days
after the court judgment. "I sat with the community and reviewed where
we've been for the past eight years. I told them we would be moving quickly
to fill the vacancy at Lytton. We prayed together.

"At the end, a woman who had been profoundly wounded by the residential
schools came to me, and hugged me. 'I think before I die,' she told me,
'I'll be able to forgive.'"

-30-

Ordination service:
Sunday, October 31, 1999, 3 p.m.
St. Anne's Anglican Church,
270 Gladstone Avenue
(Dufferin and Dundas)
         Toronto.

Contact:
Doug Tindal,
Director of Information Resources,
416-924-9199
  ext. 286;
905-335-8349 (residence);
416-540-3653 (cell)
or
Sam Carriere
Editor, Print Resources
416-924-9199
ext. 256

Link:

Residential Schools: Legacy and Response -- section of Anglican Church of
Canada website
<http://www.anglican.ca/ministry/rs/>

Leanne Larmondin
<leanne@pathcom.com>