A Pastoral Letter From Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

["Neva Rae Fox Public Affairs The Episcopal Church" <nrfox@episcopalchurch.org>]

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A Pastoral Letter From Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori issues
pastoral letter

on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous Peoples

"Our Christian heritage has taught us that a healed community of
peace

is only possible in the presence of justice for all peoples."

[May 16, 2012] "We seek to address the need for healing in all
parts of society, and we stand in solidarity with indigenous
peoples globally to acknowledge and address the legacy of
colonial occupation and policies of domination," Episcopal
Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori states in her
Pastoral Letter on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous
Peoples.

She continues, "Our Christian heritage has taught us that a
healed community of peace is only possible in the presence of
justice for all peoples. We seek to build such a beloved
community that can be a sacred household for all creation, a
society of right relationships."

On May 7, Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori joined other religious
voices in repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery at the 11th
session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous
Issues (UNPFII). The theme for the UNPFII meeting is "The
Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on indigenous peoples
and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37
of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples)."Â In 2009, General Convention repudiated the Doctrine
of Discovery.

The Presiding Bishop's letter, issued on May 16, is presented
here:

Pastoral Letter on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous
Peoples

Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to
our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth."[1]

The first biblical creation story tells of the creation of earth,
sky, waters, creatures, and gives human beings dominion over the
rest. God pronounces what has been created good. At the end of
the original week of creation, with the advent of human beings,
God blesses all of it, and pronounces the work very good[2].

The second creation story tells of what goes wrong â the first
two earth creatures eat what they have been forbidden to eat,
and are then expelled from the garden[3]. They have
misunderstood what it means to exercise dominion toward life in
the garden. Through the millennia, many of their offspring have
continued to misunderstand dominion, or to willfully twist the
divine intent of dominion toward the conceit of domination.
Through the ages, human beings have too often insisted that what
exists has been made for their individual use, and that force
may be used against anyone who seems to compete for a particular
created resource[4]. The result has been enormous destruction,
death, despair, and downright evil â what is more commonly
called "sin."

The blessings of creation are meant to be stewarded, in the way
of husbanding and housekeeping, for the true meaning of dominion
is tied to the constellation of meanings around house and
household. There have been strands of the biblical tradition
which have kept this sacred understanding alive, but the unholy
quest for domination has sought to quench it, in favor of wanton
accumulation and exclusive possession of the goods of creation
for an individual or a small part of the blessed family of God.

After that eviction from the primordial garden, the biblical
stories are mostly about how human communities strive to return
to a homeland that will be a source of blessing for the
community. Through the long centuries, the prophetic
understanding of that community broadens to include all the
nations of the earth. Even so, the seemingly eternal struggle
between dominators and stewards has continued to the present day
.

Most of the passages in the Bible that talk about land are
yearning for a fertile place, where people are able to grow
crops, tend flocks, and live in peace. The offspring of those
first human beings gave rise to peoples who hungered for land,
and many of them did a great deal of violence through the ages
in order to occupy and possess it. They weren't alone, for the
empires of Alexander, Rome, and Genghis Khan were also the
result of amassing conquered territory. The Christian empires
of Europe were consumed with battles over land for centuries,
and eventually sent military expeditions across the
Mediterranean in a quest to re-establish a Christian claim on
what they called the Holy Land.

The explorers who set out from Christian Europe in the 15th
century went with even broader motivations, in search of riches
and abundantly fertile lands. They also went with religious
warrants, papal bulls which permitted and even encouraged the
subjugation and permanent enslavement of any non-Christian
peoples they encountered, as well as the expropriation of any
territories not governed by Christians[5].ÂÂ Western Christian
religious authorities settled competitions over these conquests
by dividing up the geography that could be claimed among the
various European nations.

These religious warrants led to the wholesale slaughter, rape,
and enslavement of indigenous peoples in the Americas, as well
as in Africa, Asia, and the islands of the Pacific, and the
African slave trade was based on these same principles. Death,
dispossession, and enslavement were followed by rapid
depopulation as a result of introduced and epidemic disease.
Yet death and dispossession of lands and resources were not a
singular occurrence that can be laid up to the depredations of
benighted medieval warriors. They are not akin to Viking raids
in the British Isles, or ancient struggles between neighboring
tribes in Europe or Africa. These acts of "Discovery" have had
persistent effects on marginalized, transported, and
disenfranchised peoples.

The ongoing dispossession of indigenous peoples is the result of
legal systems throughout the "developed" world that continue to
base land ownership on these religious warrants for colonial
occupation from half a millennium ago. These legal bases
collectively known as the Doctrine of Discovery underlie U.S.
decisions about who owns these lands[6]. The dispossession of
First Peoples continues to wreak havoc on basic human dignity.
These principles give the lie to biblical understandings that
all human beings reflect the image of God, for those who have
been thrown out of their homeland, had their cultures largely
erased, and sent into exile, are still grieving their loss of
identity, lifeways, and territory. All humanity should be
grieving, for our sisters and brothers are suffering the
injustice of generations. The sins of our forebears are being
visited on the children of indigenous peoples, even to the
seventh generation.

There will be no peace or healing until we attend to that
injustice. The prophets of ancient Israel cried out for justice
when their ability to live in the land they saw as home was
threatened. A day laborer named Amos challenged those around
him with the word of God, "Let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an everflowing stream"[7]. Where there
is no justice, there can be no peace for anyone.

In the North American context, the poorest of the poor live on
Native reservations. The depth of poverty there is closely
followed by the poverty among ghettoized descendants of the
indigenous peoples of Africa who were transported to these
shores as slaves. That kind of poverty is also frequent in
other parts of the world where indigenous people have been
dispossessed and displaced. Healing is not possible, it is not
even imaginable, until the truth is told and current reality
confronted. The basic dignity and human rights of first peoples
have been repeatedly transgressed, and the outcome is grievous â
poverty, cultural destruction, and multi-generational
consequences. The legacy of grief that continues unresolved is
visible in skyrocketing suicide rates, rampant hopelessness, and
deep anger. In many contexts it amounts to pathological or
impacted grief â for when hope is absent, healing is impossible.

The legacy of domination includes frightful evil â the
intentional destruction of food sources and cultural centers
like the herds of North American bison, the intentional
introduction of disease and poisoning of water sources, wanton
disregard of starvation and illness, the abuse and enslavement
of women and children, the murder of those with the courage to
protest inhumane treatment, the repeated dispossession of
natural resources, land, and water, as well as chronically
inadequate Federal management and defense of Native rights and
resources.

There have been some glimmers of justice in decisions that have
returned Native fishing and hunting rights, and some
improvements in tribal rights to self-determination. There is a
very small and slow return of bison to the prairie, and wolves
have begun to return in places where they are not immediately
hunted down. Yet many of these recoveries continue to be
strenuously resisted by powerful non-Native commercial interests
.

There are signs of hope in returning cultural treasures to their
communities of origin, and the Native American Graves Protection
and Repatriation Act[8] is returning remains for dignified
burial. The legacy of cultural genocide is slowly being
addressed as indigenous traditions, languages, and cultural
skills are taught to new generations.

The Episcopal Church has been present and ministering with Native
peoples in North America for several centuries. That history of
accompaniment and solidarity has hardly been perfect, yet we
continue to seek greater justice and deeper healing.

The Episcopal Church's relationship with Native peoples in the
Americas begins with the first English colonists. We remember
the story of Manteo, a Croatan of what is now North Carolina.
He traveled to England in 1584 and helped a colleague of Sir
Walter Raleigh learn to speak Algonquin. He returned here the
next year, became something of an ambassador between the two
peoples, was baptized, and is counted a saint of this church[9].

Episcopal missionaries have served in a variety of indigenous
communities and contexts. Henry Benjamin Whipple was Bishop of
Minnesota in 1862, and his powerful petition to Abraham Lincoln
saved the lives of some 265 of the Dakota men sentenced to hang
the day after Christmas in Mankato[10]. The Dakota people
called him "Straight Tongue."Â Today many Dakota and Lakota
people are part of this Episcopal tradition.

This Church has stood in solidarity with native peoples in Alaska
, Hawai'i, and the American southwest, especially the DinÃ
(Navajo), as well as in urban Indian communities. The Poarch
Band of Creek Indians (in Alabama) achieved federal recognition
in the 1980s with the aid of baptismal records maintained by
this Church, which also assisted in returning a piece of land to
the Poarch Band[11]. A large group of indigenous people in
Ecuador is seeking recognition as worshiping communities in the
Episcopal tradition, and we have other indigenous members and
communities in Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, and Micronesia.
Our historical presence in the Philippines began with the
indigenous Igorot peoples of the mountains and highlands.

Healing work continues across The Episcopal Church. In 1997
Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning apologized for the enormities
that began with the colony in Jamestown[12]. Today our
understanding of mission has changed. We believe that God's
mission is about healing brokenness in the world around us â
broken relationships between human beings and the Creator,
broken relationships between peoples, and damaged relationships
between human beings and the rest of creation. We seek to
partner in God's mission through proclaiming a vision of a
healed world; forming Christians as partners in that mission;
responding to human suffering around us; reversing structural
and systemic injustice; and caring for this earthly garden[13].
We partner with any and all who share a common vision for
healing, whether Episcopalian or Christian or not.

Work with indigenous peoples in recent years has been intensely
focused on issues of poverty and the generational consequences
of cultural destruction, the reality of food deserts and
diabetes rates on reservations, unemployment and inadequate
educational resources, as well as the ongoing reality of racism
and exclusion in the larger society[14]. Mission and
development work in Native communities is locally directed,
honoring the gifts and assets already present[15], and moves
toward a vision of healed community. We partner with White
Bison in community organizing that develops training programs
for community healing[16]. This is a historic development, the
first such partnership between a traditional Native American non
-profit and The Episcopal Church.

This Church has worked to alleviate systemic and structural
injustice in many ways, and our repudiation of the Doctrine of
Discovery in 2009 is a recent example[17]. Since at least 1976,
our advocacy work has included support for First Nations land
claims in Canada, advocacy with the U.S. government for improved
health care, religious freedom, preservation of burial sites and
repatriation of remains and cultural resources, increased
Federal tribal recognition, and critical Federal Government self
-examination around Native American rights. We have affirmed and
reaffirmed our desire to strengthen relationships with Native
peoples by remembering the past, recognizing the deficits and
gifts in our historic and current relationships, and continued
work toward healing[18]. We are currently advocating for the
reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, with
provisions directly affecting Native women.

The Doctrine of Discovery work of this Church is focused on
education, dismantling the structures and policies based on that
ancient evil, support for the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples[19], and challenging governments
around the world to support self-determination for indigenous
peoples.

We seek to address the need for healing in all parts of society,
and we stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples globally to
acknowledge and address the legacy of colonial occupation and
policies of domination. Our Christian heritage has taught us
that a healed community of peace is only possible in the
presence of justice for all peoples. We seek to build such a
beloved community that can be a sacred household for all
creation, a society of right relationships.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been
brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in
his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down
the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between usâ and might
reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus
putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and
proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who
were nearâ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but
you are citizens with the saints and also members of the
household of God[20]

We pray that God will give us the strength and courage to do this
work together for the good of all our relations, in the belief
that Christ Jesus ends hostility and brings together those who
were once divided.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church

_________________________________





[1] Genesis 1:26

[2] Genesis 1:1-2:3

[3] Genesis 2:4-3:24

[4] Commodification or what Heidegger called Bestand, cf. The
Question Concerning Technology or Being and Time

[5] Doctrine of Discovery resources:
[http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/doctrine-discovery-resources]

[6] cf. Johnson v M'Intosh:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_v._M'Intosh]

[7] Amos 5:24

[8]  [http://www.nps.gov/history/nagpra/]

[9]
[http://kingofpeace.blogspot.com/2009/05/manteo-virginia-dare.html]

[10]
[http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/dakota.html]

[11]
[http://www.poarchcreekindians.org/assets/pdf/newsletter_jun_2007.pdf]

[12]  http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19971101&id
=LOwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UwgGAAAAIBAJ&pg=6997,143732
[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19971101&id=LOwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UwgGAAAAIBAJ&pg=6997,143732]

[13] a shorthand summary of the Five Anglican Marks of Mission

[14]
[http://archive.episcopalchurch.org/native/109407_123131_ENG_HTM.htm[15]]
through Asset-Based Community Development

[16]
[http://www.coloradospringsindiancenter.com/2010/04/partnership-white-bison-episcopal-church-alleviate-poverty/]

[17]
[http://www.nativevillage.org/Archives/2009%20Archives/Oct%202009%20I%20201%20NV%20News/Episcopal%20Church%20Repudiates%20Doctirine%20of%20Discovery.htm]

[18] cf. Decade of Remembrance, Recognition, and Reconciliation:
[http://www.okiv2010.com/images/03_c008_res_rrr.pdf]

[19]
[http://social.un.org/index/IndigenousPeoples/DeclarationontheRightsofIndigenousPeoples.aspx]

[20] Ephesians 2:13ff

On the web:

Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori issues
pastoral letter on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous
Peoples

[http://www.episcopalchurch.org/notice/episcopal-presiding-bishop-katharine-jefferts-schori-issues-pastoral-letter-doctrine-discover]

The Episcopal Church [http://www.episcopalchurch.org]

[http://www.episcopalchurch.org]





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