wfn.org | Associated Parishes asks rethinking of Anglican mission to indigenous peoples

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2001-119

Associated Parishes asks rethinking of Anglican mission to indigenous peoples

by Jan Nunley

     (ENS) The Council of the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission, 
meeting in Santa Fé, New Mexico, in April, called upon the Episcopal Church to 
"rethink completely its practice and understanding of mission" in a document 
called The Santa Fé Statement."

     Associated Parishes is a think tank composed of lay leaders, bishops, 
priests and deacons of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada 
that has led movements for the renewal of the churches in North America for over 
50 years. The Rev. Ron Miller of Baltimore, Maryland, is the group's coordinator.

     "Our hearts burned within us as our Canadian members shared the story of how 
the Anglican Church of Canada embraced and implemented the government's policy of 
assimilation of indigenous peoples as an opportunity to further its mission," the 
statement said. "Children were taken out of their homes and removed to distant 
residential schools, run by the churches. Grave injustices were committed by the 
Anglican and other churches, with dire consequences to the peoples and ultimately 
to the churches themselves." 

     The statement acknowledged "our own inherent racism, past collusion, and 
present complicity in such policies." The statement urged the Episcopal Church to 
"approach with caution the proposals of the U.S. Government for 'faith-based 
initiatives,' to avoid the future occurrence of tragedies similar to those in 
Canada about which we heard."

"Faith-based" Indian programs not new

     In fact, "faith-based" programs involving religious--specifically Christian-
-groups and American Indians date back to the late 19th century. And 
Episcopalians were at the forefront of their development.

     According to the Rev. Robert W. Prichard,  professor of Christianity in 
America at Virginia Theological Seminary, a circle of influential Episcopalians 
was instrumental in establishing what is probably one of the first "faith-based 
initiatives" undertaken by the United States Government: the so-called "Peace Policy" 
of President Ulysses Grant, which aimed at what was called at the time "the 
humanization, civilization and Christianization of Indians."

     Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota, believed 
that the United States government should emulate the Canadian strategy for 
peaceful relations with Indian nations. "They plant among them schools and 
missions," Whipple wrote of the Canadian government's programs. "They send them 
agents who believe there is a God and are afraid and ashamed to steal. They 
appoint those agents . . . for other ends than as a reward for political service. 
They make their own civilization the pioneer, instead of gathering a mass of 
discontented savage humanity on their border." 

     By 1872, churches had taken responsibility for 72 Indian agencies in the 
United States. Episcopalians, with 8 of those agencies, worked primarily in the 
Dakota Territory (Yankton, Ponca, Upper Missouri, Fort Berthold, Whetstone, 
Cheyenne River, and Red Cloud) and Wyoming (Shoshone and Bannock). 

     But the "peace policy" system was dismantled in 1877 by Grant's successor in 
the White House, Rutherford B. Hayes.

Mission changes with the times

     What may have seemed an acceptable--even humane--mission strategy in the 
days when indigenous nations were being slaughtered in such massacres as the one 
at Sand Creek, Colorado (led by Methodist minister Col. John Chivington) doesn't 
look so enlightened in retrospect.

     "All of us on the Council recognized the imperative to confront the 
implications and results of the cultural domination in which we have participated 
and in many instances continue to participate, and to examine honestly and 
carefully our theology and patterns of mission," an attachment to the Santa Fé 
statement continues. "…Mission is therefore as much about listening to the Gospel 
as it is discovered by local experience, illuminated by the presence of the 
Spirit in indigenous cultures and traditions, as it is about heralding the Gospel 
in Jesus' name.

     "We believe that mission and evangelism predicated upon the conversion of 
individual hearts to a relationship with Jesus Christ is not adequate to address 
such evils as the deprivation of culture and the break up of families. Rather, 
genuine conversion involves turning to Christ, becoming members of living 
communities within the Body of Christ, and discerning through the Spirit what 
is being redeemed in one's life and culture, and what must be renounced," the 
statement concluded.

--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News Service.