A Covenant…and Our Journey of Spiritual Renewal

We, the indigenous partners in Canada of the Anglican communion respectfully affirm our place in God’s Creation and in God’s Love, manifest through the Grace of Jesus Christ.  In specific, we address the Anglican Canadians with whom we are in direct communion.

We have shared a journey of close to three centuries in which we have been:

• denied our place in God’s Creation
• denied our rights a Children of God
• treated as less than equal, and
• subjected to abuse, culturally, physically, emotionally, sexually and spiritually.

The result, in our communities, homes and daily lives, has been and continues to be:

• broken homes and lives;
• sexual and family violence;
• high recidivism and incarceration rates;
• high chemical abuse;
• loss of spiritual fulfillment;
• loss of cultures, languages and traditions; and
• poor stewardship of Mother Earth.

Because the National church’s canons, structure and policies have not always responded to our needs nor heard our voice, we now claim our place and responsibility as equal partners in a new shared journey of healing, moving towards wholeness and justice.

We acknowledge that God is calling us to a prayerful dialogue towards self-determination for us, the Indigenous People, within the Anglican Communion in Canada.  Through this new relationship we can better respond to the challenges facing us in a relevant and meaningful way.

As faithful people of God, guided by the Holy Spirit, we invite you, the Anglican Communion of Canada to covenant with us, the Indigenous Anglicans of Canada, in our vision of a new and enriched journey.

A Covenant

We, representatives of the Indigenous people of the Anglican Church of Canada, meeting in Winnipeg from the 23 to 26 of April, 1994, pledge ourselves to this covenant for the sake of our people and in trust of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ:

Under the guidance of God’s spirit we agree to do all we can to call our people into unity in a new, self-determining community within The Anglican Church of Canada.

To this end, we extend the hand of partnership to all those who will help us build a truly Anglican Indigenous Church in Canada.

May God bless this new vision and give us grace to accomplish it.  Amen.