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Remembering the Children prayer

Remembering the Children is a bilingual prayer created for the 2008 Remembering the Children tour, a cross-country initiative that called Canadians to acknowledge the realities of residential schools and prepare for the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The prayer lifts up the children who endured harm and loss, including those who did not return home, and offers language for lament, honesty and hope in communal prayer.

Suggested uses

  • National Day for Truth and Reconciliation or Orange Shirt Day services
  • Parish or diocesan gatherings focused on reconciliation or anti-racism
  • Vigils, memorial events or public acknowledgments
  • Small-group study, circles of learning or educational settings
  • Inclusion in printed or projected liturgies

Key themes

  • Truth telling and remembrance
  • Healing and reconciliation
  • Justice and renewed relationships
  • Lament and hope
  • Commitment to collective responsibility

Best suited for: parish leaders, clergy, worship planners, educators, reconciliation committees and groups engaging in learning or liturgical reflection on residential schools and renewed relationships.

Acknowledging the land and God’s creation

This acknowledgement is crafted in light of the Principles of Reconciliation by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, as we seek to live faithfully in Christ and in right relationship with all. 

We give thanks to the Creator for this land, its waters, forests and all living beings, and for the abiding presence of Christ among us. From coast to coast to coast, these have been cared for and nurtured by First Nations, Inuit and Métis through countless generations. 

We honour the enduring relationship Indigenous Peoples have cultivated with these lands and waters, and the treaties and agreements that reflect these sacred bonds. We acknowledge the harms caused by colonial expansion, through frameworks like the Doctrine of Discovery and structures like the residential school system. We recognize our past failures as a Church, including disruption of connections to the land and suppression of Indigenous spiritualities. 

Guided by the gospel of Jesus Christ, we confess our need for healing. We commit ourselves to seeking truth, pursuing reconciliation and nurturing harmony with all creation. We place our trust in Christ, through whom all things are reconciled to God. 

May God strengthen us to live faithfully as stewards of the Earth. Let us walk in love, justice and reconciliation, joining in God’s work to restore all creation.