Reconcile. Everyday Conversations

“If we are going to offer reconciliation to the world, we need to offer space. Space to reconcile ourselves to God and space to reconcile to ourselves”.

Jacqueline Block is a MCC Saskatchewan board member, has a Masters of Theological Studies in Old Testament, and recently finished training as a Spiritual Director. Jacqui believes that her own journey of reconciliation with God, in Christ, compels her to seek peace with and for others. Within this episode Jacqui challenges the listener to take risks in relationships, to know that there will be hurt and woundedness, but trust that we can turn to God for a true reconciliation.

Jacqui’s invitation to enter the reconciliation journey is to offer space. She states, “If we are going to offer reconciliation to the world, we need to offer space. Space to reconcile ourselves to God and space to reconcile to ourselves”. For Jacqui this means trust, graciousness, forgiveness, and risk as we engage in relationships.  Jacqui goes on, “I allow God’s grace and forgiveness to come into my heart and allow this to be the key thing that reconciles”.

We invited Jacqui to our house for a meal and conversation around these five questions: 

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded her reflections.

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Links from the episode:

Queen’s house Retreat and Renewal Centre

Canadian Foodgrains Bank

Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan

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Reconcile. Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters

Reconciliation is “telling each other your stories, making space for others to hear stories, and to find commonality together”.

Greg Wiens has worked as a pastor for 20 years, most recently in the rural community of Waldheim, Saskatchewan at the Mennonite Brethren church. Greg defines reconciliation as “telling each other your stories, making space for others to hear stories, and to find commonality together”. Within this episode he tells stories from throughout his life that have shaped his understanding of how people can learn from each other.

A theme throughout our conversation with Greg was understanding our own privilege and how to listen to stories of oppression with compassion and empathy.  Greg believes that Indigenous people will be the leaders of the future church and we need to make space at the table.

We invited Greg to our office to have a conversation around these five questions: 

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded his reflections.

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Links from the episode:

Aboriginal Activist Groups

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

ConnectR

Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan

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Reconcile. Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters

Ben Borne was born and raised in Saskatoon within a German Mennonite home. He is also a descendant of Yellow Quill First Nation located near Rose Valley, SK. In this episode Ben talks about understanding how his own identity and reconciliation are connected. In an extremely personal conversation Ben speaks about the realities of growing up denying his Indigenous heritage and the journey he has been on to reclaim this part of himself.

Ben invites others to also search themselves, to understand their place within the reconciliation journey. He challenges people to move beyond listening towards action. While he admits that reconciliation is not the perfect remedy for all the traumas that have been experienced, he notes that "reconciliation re-frames the conversation. It helps bring compassion and empathy where it is desperately needed”.

We invited Ben to our house to have a conversation around these five questions: 

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded his reflections.

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Links from the episode:

White Buffalo Youth Lodge

Friendship Inn

SIGA

Towards a New Relationship: Toolkit for Reconciliation/Decolonization

Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan

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Reconcile. Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters

“Reconciliation can be very life giving but it is not always easy”.

Florence is a co-pastor at Peace Mennonite Church in Regina, a house church welcoming people from around the world. She works alongside her husband of 64 years, Otto, with whom she has also engaged in international social and restorative justice work on a volunteer basis for 30 years in Ukraine and more than 5 years in Paraguay. With this wealth of knowledge, Florence reflects on the impact of cultural understandings of interpersonal conflict transformation to reconciliation.

Florence’s invitation to reconciliation is deeply personal. First, we need to be aware of our own wrongdoings and admit these with humility. Second, we must learn from each other and hear one another’s stories. Finally, we must engage in the act of sharing what we have learned – either through letter writing to politicians or conversations with our neighbours. Florence calls us all to be accountable to our own role in reconciliation so that we can “build a community that is supportive of people rather than degrading them”. 

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded her reflections.

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Links from the episode:

First Contact

CoSA South Saskatchewan

MCC Advocacy Toolkit

Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan

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Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters

Dave Feick, executive director of The Micah Mission, has spent his life meeting people wherever they are and walking along with them for a bit. In these spaces, which he often views as holy moments, he recognizes the importance of breaking down walls and learning to build bridges with one another to achieve reconciliation. Dave believes that the purpose of reconciliation is to live compatibly with one another and to not put people into a mold that society wants them to be.

Dave has challenged these molds many times in his work as a prison chaplain and reintegration chaplain. He has witnessed that, “Our prisons today are very much the residential schools of yesterday. We are still finding ways to oppress people, we are trying to make them fit into a certain type of mold that society wants. And it’s just not working.” He challenges us to work towards reconciliation by visiting those who are or have been incarcerated. “Treating them with respect and understanding their situation goes a much longer way than to ignore them and reject them.”

We invited Dave into our house and around our dining room table to have a conversation around these five questions: 

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded his reflections.

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Micah Mission

TRC Calls to Action 

Canada’s prisons are the ‘new residential schools’ by Nancy Macdonald, Feb 18, 2016

Broken system: Why is a quarter of Canada’s prison population Indigenous? by Vicki Chartrand, February 18, 2018

For indigenous women, prisons are the adult version of residential schools by Carol Finlay, March 28, 2016

Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan

Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters

Spurgeon Root, Director of Outreach Ministries at Healing Hearts, has immersed himself in the work of reconciliation over the past 20 years. Along with his family, he has lived in the North-Central neighbourhood of Regina, a community with a high population of Indigenous people. In this podcast, Spurgeon and his daughter Keziah, discuss their views of reconciliation within this context. They both come with a posture of learning and building relationships where all parties have choice to maintain relationships. To achieve reconciliation, Spurgeon states that a person should look at the relationships involved and what work is needed to move towards a healthy relationship on both sides.

Spurgeon highlights the importance of understanding reconciliation as an ongoing action that impacts both our personal lives and our institutions. People must prepare to work on reconciliation for generations. As Spurgeon says, “For some people this might be disheartening because it seems like a never-ending task. But on the other hand, it can take some of the pressure off because there is no deadline. Just keep going.”

We invited Spurgeon and Keziah into our house and around our dining room table to have a conversation around these five questions:

1.   How would you define reconciliation?

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded their reflections.

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Christian Community Development Association

If ‘indigenizing’ education feels this good, we aren’t doing it right by Monique Giroux

Office of the Treaty Commission events

Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan

Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters

Sarah Buhler is a law professor in Saskatoon who has researched how the justice system works for or fails marginalized groups. In our podcast around reconciliation Sarah discusses the importance of recognizing present-day colonization and justice needs for Indigenous communities. Sarah also speaks from her perspective of a Mennonite settler whose family prospered with the land that was given to them, while Indigenous people at the same time were becoming disposed. For Sarah, the journey of reconciliation is political and personal.

Sarah offers some concrete places for people to enter their own journey of reconciliation First, to learn their own story, to be an ally and work in solidarity with Indigenous groups in the spirit of reciprocity, and to advocate to governments.  She notes, “It is important that our work involves relationship building and commitment to reciprocity because that is where transformation can happen.”

We invited Sarah into our house and around our dining room table to have a conversation around these five questions: 

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded her reflections.

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Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

In our first episode, Tara Anderson discusses her understanding of reconciliation and how it has evolved over time. Since 2015, Tara’s understanding of reconciliation shifted from a biblical definition to a broader secular awareness. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s summary propelled her to become engaged in her local community by exploring a deeper understanding of Indigenous history and culture.

Tara speaks about embracing awkward questions. She highlights the important first steps to understanding reconciliation – educate ourselves, find mentors who can walk with us, and show up to places where we will meet new people. “If we aren't in the same space it is difficult to build relationships,” Tara states, encouraging her audience to take action. 

2.   What experiences have defined this understanding?

3.   Where have you seen grace in the reconciliation journey?

4.   How would you invite other people into understanding reconciliation?

5.   Why is reconciliation important to you?

Then we recorded her reflections.

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Links from the episode:

Reconcile: Everyday Conversations is a project of Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan aimed at facilitating conversations among settler/non-Indigenous Canadians around our role in reconciliation.

Project Coordinator: Heather Peters