Join the Edmonton diocese as we celebrate the return of Fr. Michael Lapsley SSM to the diocese this September as part of our continued commitment to reconciliation. Fr. Lapsley is the Canon for Healing and Reconciliation for the Diocese of Edmonton. He will work with local partners to facilitate the third Healing of Memories workshop in Edmonton. These local workshops have been for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities of Edmonton to be healers of one another; to reach a better understanding of ourselves, one another and the community we form. For more information, please visit HERE.
As we approach September 30, 2022, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, please consider how you can become more informed and participate in reconciliation. For example, learn more about Indigenous history in Canada by taking the Indigenous Canada course offered by the U of A (link HERE). At St Paul’s, we encourage you to wear orange shirts at church on September 25. We wear orange shirts in recognition of children who survived residential schools, and those who did not. The orange shirt is now a symbol of stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations. Information from last year’s events can be seen HERE, and can serve as ideas for how you might recognize this day in your own family and community.
Culminating in October 2020, Edmonton City Council presented the Indigenous Framework, after several years’ collaboration with Indigenous representatives from Treaty 6. This framework provides a structure for the city to move forward in being better partners to the commitments settlers made when Treaty 6 was signed on September 9, 1876. To learn more, please visit the City’s Indigenous Framework page HERE, where they provide videos, timelines, and the Framework pdf.