It is time for new models of mission with Indigenous peoples, says Canadian Cree pastor

["Daphne Martin_Gnanadason" <Daphne.Martin_Gnanadason@wcrc.ch>]

** High Priority **


World Communion of Reformed Churches  
News Release 
09 May 2011
 
It is time for new models of mission with Indigenous peoples,
says Canadian Cree pastor
 
The way the church has done mission with Indigenous peoples in
the past has to change says Mary Fontaine, a Presbyterian pastor
and member of the Cree nation in Canada. 
 
“I welcome the commitment of the World Communion of Reformed
Churches to enter into dialogue with the world’s Indigenous
Christians on how to create new models for mission,” Fontaine
says. 
 
The first Indigenous person elected to a senior post in a global
organization of Reformed churches, Fontaine serves as
Vice-President of the North American region of the World
Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC). She was speaking in an
interview while in Geneva, Switzerland for meetings of the
organization’s executive committee. 
 
Discussions in Geneva this week focus on adopting a strategic
plan for the organization for the coming seven years. Programmes
in mission, theology and justice linked to Indigenous issues are
on the agenda.
 
At its founding meeting in the United States in June 2010, WCRC –
a global network of churches including Presbyterian and Reformed
denominations in 108 countries – announced plans to work towards
reconciliation and healing with Indigenous peoples. 
 
“To do this work, churches need to step out of the box in unique
ways,” says Fontaine. 
 
In recent years, churches in North America have been involved in
legal cases brought by Indigenous people who attended church-run
residential schools where they suffered sexual, physical and
psychological abuse. Some former students have qualified as
“cultural genocide” efforts by teachers to impose rules that
forbid them the right to speak their language and cut them off
from their cultural traditions and religious practices. 
 
Churches in other regions of the world are grappling with
similar negative legacies of abuse of Indigenous peoples by early
Christian mission practices.
 
Fontaine says new models of mission are emerging. In ministries
with Indigenous peoples that seek to incorporate traditional
music, dance, ceremony and art, leaders are gathering
intergenerational and intercultural groups for positive
experiences in churches.
 
As founder and director of Hummingbird Ministries on the Pacific
west coast of Canada, Fontaine has initiated events held in
churches that incorporate ceremonies such as the ritualistic
entry of tribal leaders carrying the cross, accompanied by Pow
Wow (traditional) dancers. 
 
“Some people say this is the first time they have been in a
church since they left residential school,” Fontaine reports.
“They are amazed to see such ceremonies as part of a church
gathering.”
 
Hummingbird Ministries is supported by grants from the
Presbyterian Church in Canada, a WCRC member church. 
 
The WCRC executive committee meeting runs from 5-12 May.
 
WCRC was created in June 2010 through a merger of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical
Council (REC). Its 230 member churches representing 80 million
Christians are active worldwide in initiatives supporting
economic, climate and gender justice, mission, and cooperation
among Christians of different traditions. 
 
Media Contacts: 
Kristine Greenaway
Office of Communications
Email: kgr@wcrc.ch
tel: +41 (0)22 791 62 43;
fax: +41 (0)22 791 65 05
www.wcrc.ch ( http://www.wcrc.ch/ )