Idle No More co-founder Sylvia McAdam, pictured speaking at a church event in 2013. (Photo courtesy of Kairos Canada)
One of the co-founders of the grassroots Indigenous-led movement Idle No More says her trust in the Mennonite church has been shaken by Mennonite Church Canada’s recent decision to reduce its Indigenous-Settler Relations (ISR) position from full-time to half-time.
In this 2018 photo, Lorne Brandt (right), then chair of Mennonite Church B.C.’s Service, Peace and Justice Committee, presents Steve Heinrichs with a vest and moccasins made by Cree craftspeople. The governing body of Mennonite Church Canada has ended the full-time Indigenous-Settler Relations position that Heinrichs held for the last decade. (Photo by Henry Krause/Canadian Mennonite files)
The governing body of Mennonite Church Canada has decided to end the full-time Indigenous-Settler Relations (ISR) position held by Steve Heinrichs and replace it with a new half-time position.
Heinrichs’s 10-plus notable years with MC Canada are over.
‘It is a text that, if made flesh in Canada, would revolutionize the church’s relationship to Indigenous peoples, spiritualities and lands,’ Steve Heinrichs says of ‘Beloved Amazonia.’ (Photo by Steve Heinrichs)
Mennonite Church Canada’s Indigenous-Settler Relations program is running a five-week online book club beginning this April.
The chosen text is Beloved Amazonia, a courageous collection of documents from the Pan-Amazon Synod, including an “apostolic exhortation” to the church from Pope Francis.
Anyone looking to explore the Mennonite Church Canada publication Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization in a group setting has an opportunity to do so in the coming month. New Leaf Network, an organization that provides support to church workers nationwide, is hosting a virtual book club during which participants will read through the book. Meetings take place at 1:30 p.m. EST every Thursday in February.
An aerial view of Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, an Indigenous ministry training centre near Beausejour, Man. The centre receives money from the Jubilee Fund. (Photo courtesy of sandysaulteaux.ca)
In 1990, as the 500th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival on this side of the Atlantic loomed, Mennonites felt compelled to do something tangible.
While volunteering with Christian Peacemaker Teams, Steve Heinrichs documented the presence of the RCMP and Coastal GasLinks in Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia.
Steve Heinrichs volunteered with Christian Peacemaker Teams for two weeks in Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia. (Photo courtesy of Steve Heinrichs)
While people across Canada and around the world self-isolate from COVID-19, work continues on the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline in northern British Columbia, without the full consent of the Wet’suwet’en people. The 670-kilometre long pipeline plans to snake through Wet’suwet’en territory and export liquefied natural gas around the world.
