Truth & reconciliation
Land Acknowledgement
The Road Church is a part of Treaty 7. We are located on the traditional territories of the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy) which includes the Siksika, the Piikuni, the Kainai, as well as the Tsuut’ina Nation, and the Iyaxe Nakoda Nation (Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Good Stoney). The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.
We acknowledge the land and honour Indigenous stewards because we are treaty people created and sustained by our covenant-keeping God. We lament the religious basis of past and current colonial harms. Our hope is that, where once there was a blindness to and the erasure of a people, there is now sight and witness and opportunity for a transformed relationship with those who are our neighbors.
The Journey of Truth and Reconciliation at The Road
We know that justice can mean different things to different people. For The Road, it means restoring Shalom (peace) or the relief from injustice. We talk about what this looks like in God's Kindom, in the bible, and why we need to engage with this issue and all of its implications for our real lives in Calgary.
As we learn about and lament the injustice done to our Indigenous neighbours, and as we understand how our unjust history affects people's lives today, we ask:
"As people reconciled to God, how do we reconcile with our neighbour? What do we do now?”
The longing for restoring Shalom is the longing for putting things to rights. Every human has this longing innately working within them – for ourselves and for others. What would happen if we continue to follow this longing? Where would that road lead us?
In God's grace and peace, we will walk down this road together.
Learn more:
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Canadian magazine Faith Today Written by Ambrose university professor Mark Buchanon and Christian-Indigenous leader Cheryl Bear on what it means to be reconciled as Christians.
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The Blanket Exercise is a learning tool for non-indigenous Canadians to learn some of the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada. The Road participated in this exercise in 2018 and it continues to open us up to what God might do when we take one another's stories seriously.
