If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has
come. The old has gone. The new is here. All
this is from God who reconciled us to himself
through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
That God was reconciling the world to himself
in Christ, not counting people's sins against
them. And he has committed to us the message
of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's
ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal
through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf,
be reconciled to God. This is the word of the
Lord. As we heard at the start of the service,
today we're going to do something a little bit
different. Today, there's not going to be a sermon
like there normally is. We're not going to do
like a talk or a lecture or something like that.
What we're going to do is have a conversation.
Many of you know that June is a month, a whole
month that is set aside for Indigenous History
Month here in Canada. It's an opportunity where
we get a chance to remember all the cultures.
and all the diversity that make up the indigenous
communities around Canada. And you'll know that
on June 21st specifically, which is Saturday
coming up, so this is the Sunday right before
that, is National Indigenous Peoples Day. And
that is a day that recognizes all the contributions
and all the culture of First Nations and Métis
and Inuit people across our nation. Now, here
at Trinity, Not too long ago, we formed a little
committee, which we called our Truth and Reconciliation
Committee. And the goal of this committee was
really twofold. One was to help us as a church
gain a deeper understanding into the issues facing
indigenous people in our time and in our culture.
But secondly, also to help us as a church consider,
prayerfully consider, how God might be leading
us. to get involved in the work of reconciliation.
This isn't a conversation we've had, at least
in my time, since I've been here at Trinity,
and that's been like four years. So it's high
time that we started to have a conversation about
this as a church family. So again, this morning,
it's not a talk. It's not a presentation. I want
you to understand this morning as we are going
to get the opportunity. to hear the gospel through
the lived experience of one person. And that
one person I'll introduce to you in a moment
is Rochelle Bragg. And this is a chance for us
to, again, discern how God is calling us into
this work of reconciliation. So on that note,
if I could invite Rochelle to come up here and
join me on the stage, that would be amazing.
Let's have a round of applause for Rochelle.
Sure, I'll sit over here. Rochelle is a member
of Trinity Streetsville. She's also an indigenous
person of Severan Cree roots. And we're going
to hear, it's kind of an interesting mix, your
cultural background. So we're going to get to
hear a little bit about that. But along with
Andrew and their two boys, they've been members
here at Trinity for a while. And so we're so
blessed to have... and her family here as part
of our church community. And just to be given
the opportunity today to hear this through her
lens, through the lens of an indigenous woman,
is going to be a great, great blessing for us.
So there's a lovely picture of your family, Rochelle.
You're welcome to have a seat. Let's have a seat.
And let's take a moment. Why don't I just pray,
and then I'll start asking questions. And you
can... Try your best to answer them. Is that
okay? That sounds great. Let's pray together.
Almighty God, we thank you for the wonderful
diversity of our church community, for the many
gifts, experiences, and histories that make up
this part of the body of Christ. And we're thankful
for Rochelle and for her family and for the story
and experience they bring into our community.
We pray now that as we gather to listen, Holy
Spirit would open our ears and open our hearts
to all you want to teach us today. We ask this
in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, Rochelle, first a
question we are going to ask you is just to share
with us a little bit about your background, your
cultural background, your history, and all that
jazz. Yeah, it's funny. As I was preparing for
this, I was writing down my notes, and I have
my notes here, and I said to my husband, this
is the part I'm the most... nervous to explain.
And it's like, how can that be hard? This is
who you are. Just say who you are. So as Rob
mentioned, yeah, I'm married to Andrew. So there
we have two young boys. And we've been living
in Mississauga for 13 years about. That's how
long we've been married. And we've been coming
to Trinity for about three of those years. I
grew up in Northern Ontario, though, with my
parents and my older sister in a place called
Sioux Lookout. Not to St. Marie, it's to Lookout.
So it's quite up there. It's about a 21 -hour
drive from here. And in terms of my heritage,
so I'm a mix, actually. My father, who is here
today, he's in the third row there. He is Swiss
-German Mennonite. And he grew up in the Elmira
area, just north of Waterloo. So not too far
from here. And his ancestors were Mennonites
that came over from northern Switzerland near
the border of Germany. And they settled in Pennsylvania
before they came up to the Waterloo area. And
so a lot of my family on his side still lives
there. And then my mother. My mother is Anishinaabemowin,
which is Severan Cree. And that's a First Nations
tribe in the Treaty 9 Territory in Northern Ontario.
And as a young girl, she lived off the land with
her family. And her community lived way up in
an isolation, kind of separate from the rest
of the country. And that was before the government.
kind of found them and then put them on a reservation
which is now called muskrat dam so her family
still currently lives there my mother lived there
for many years before she moved off with my dad
when they got married and um uh yeah lots of
my family still lives up there yeah so we have
a map here showing kind of where we are in the
bottom right and where muskrat dam is um so you
said that how long would that take to get up
there So the farthest you can drive is about
21 hours to a place called Sioux Lookout. You
can go to one more place that's farther, but
typically you would drive to Sioux Lookout and
then you'd have to get on a little 19 -seater
plane and then fly for another just over an hour.
Or you can wait till the ice roads freeze over
and you can drive for about 10 hours as it weaves
you in and out of rivers and lakes. So it's very
far. Yeah, that's amazing. So tell us what...
is that like to grow up as a mix of swiss german
background and severin creek yeah um one thing
i'm really thankful for is that my parents were
very intentional about um like having us interact
with both of our families. So they wanted us
to feel very confident and comfortable in both
of our identities as Swiss German and Severin
Cree. And so that was a really beautiful gift
that they gave us. And so I always felt very
comfortable in each family group and each people
group. And then it wasn't until I was older that
I started to realize just how different... how
different these two worlds were, how different
these cultures were, and how they often had a
hard time understanding each other. And so later
in life, I started to kind of have a bit of a
tension in my identity as I went back and forth
between these two groups of people who were...
my family and people that I loved. And so as
I was wrestling with my identity, I was trying
to figure out, like, how do I authentically show
up as myself in each of these spaces? And it
wasn't because I didn't feel loved by both people
groups. I felt very loved and accepted. But this
tension in, okay, who am I? And someone once
described this feeling of tension in my... cultural
identity and maybe some of you have experienced
this as well but this idea of a bridge and the
two pieces of land are the people groups, the
cultures that you're from and then you have the
bridge in the middle and then you're kind of
suspended in the middle walking back and forth
and you're kind of like sometimes you go farther
one way, sometimes you go the other way and so
I had a lot of confusion as a young woman as
I started to notice the difference in my in my
culture groups. And so as I was wrestling through
this over time, I said, okay, God is, he brings
peace to areas of confusion. And so what does
God say about this situation? What does God say
about me? And ultimately what came out of that
was I felt a deep sense of peace that even though
I was suspended in the middle often, That the
truth about my identity was that God created
me exactly how he intended. He created all of
us exactly how he intended. And he also created
cultures to be diverse and to be celebrated.
And that really is a beautiful thing. In Psalm
139, this is a verse that has brought me a lot
of comfort at times. And it says, For you formed
my inward parts. You knitted me together in my
mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works.
My soul knows it very well. My frame was not
hidden from you when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
And that's verses 13 to 15. And so even though
I was feeling tension in my identity, God said,
give me peace over who he created me to be. Yeah,
that's amazing. Thank you. And we did skip over
a photo there. But this is a picture of you,
your father, and your mother, Linda. Yes, who
is also here. I'm sorry I didn't say that. My
mom is here, too. Wonderful. Okay, so, Rochelle.
we're all in different places on this, but many
of us are probably like coming to this place
where we're beginning to understand some of the
painful history that is involved with, that indigenous
people have suffered or continue to suffer in
our own country and around the world, really.
But I am just wondering, are you able to share
some of your own story, especially of, you know,
the struggles that you and your community have
experienced, the struggles. Yeah, for sure. Growing
up in Sioux Lookout, I kind of was able to witness
firsthand the struggles that Indigenous people
experience, not only because Sioux Lookout has
a large Native population, First Nations population.
They call it the hub of the North because it
kind of services the almost 30... Communities
that are north of it that are isolated and so
people funnel through there to come off the reserve
for various reasons and so not only for that
reason, but also because my family lived a lot
of the Struggles I was able to witness their
experience of life of overcoming barriers And
so if you live on a remote reserve which a lot
of First Nations people do if you're in Northern
Ontario, you experience a lack of access to resources.
So things like medical care, education, clean
drinking water, affordable groceries, proper
housing. And so those are all things that my
family have experienced, and I've been able to
see that over my lifetime. And these things are
all things that are deeply rooted in... systems
that were built to oppress Indigenous people.
And to really understand that, we would have
to do a whole other presentation on things like
colonialism, the Doctrine of Discovery, the Indian
Act. And because all those things brought with
it oppression. And so many of the struggles that
First Nations people experience today are rooted
in our country's history. And so in the Canadian
context, The Indian Act, which was created in
1876, it led to the seizure of indigenous lands,
the displacement of indigenous peoples, and disrupted
their whole way of life and culture. And so many
of my family members have been deeply wounded
by things like residential schools, the 60 scoop,
and racism at both a structural and personal
level. Okay, so you've talked about this racism,
you've talked about the injustices. So you personally,
how has your faith, in Jesus have been able to
carry you through all that as you've come to
grips with it? Yeah, I will say honestly that
there was a point in my life, which wasn't too
long ago, that I was very confused and conflicted
about being part of a faith community, a church
community that could have allowed this type of
oppression to people that I love deeply. I really
wrestled with the idea that the church could
have allowed mistreatment to Indigenous children
and their families through things like residential
schools specifically, because that did immense
harm on people that I know, people who were children
at the time, who were 5, 6, 7, my aunts and uncles,
people in our communities who are now elders.
And as we know, some of those children never
returned. In 2021, there was a kind of awakening
in our country where we collectively recognized
and it was discovered that there were a bunch
of unmarked graves in Kamloops, BC. And when
that was discovered, it was like a new awakening
for me where I had known all of this already,
but I felt this collective awakening and it kind
of reawakened mostly anger in me. And that made
me come to a place where I started to question
being part of a Christian community again. And
through all that, I felt a lot of pain, anger,
sadness, despair, and hopelessness. But God is
faithful. And what didn't waver during that time
was my belief and trust in our creator, the God
of the universe, who I had come to know as good.
And the example of who Jesus was on earth. All
these things I was wrestling with was rooted
in the harm that people have done, not God. God
has given people free will, right? He's given
us free will to believe in him, to not believe
in him, to do harm or to do good. And I was recognizing
that God doesn't control all of our moves. He's
not up there deciding what everyone's going to
do. And rather, I was able to see that, okay,
God is actually a good father who wants the best
for us, who wants us to treat each other with
love and kindness, and that's up to us whether
we listen to him or not. And so through this
pain and whatever pain, you know, we all experience
in life, God promises to draw near to us. That's
one of his promises when we're brokenhearted.
He promises to always be with us, to strengthen
us. and help us in times of trouble. And there's
so many other comforting verses in the Bible
of who God is in times of distress or pain. In
Psalm 34, 18, it says, the Lord is near to the
brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed
in spirit. So I was able to come to a place in
my life, in my faith, where God anchored me in
my despair, and he was the comfort in my brokenheartedness,
and he fueled me to stand up against injustices.
So on a personal note, how did your relationship
with Jesus kind of develop and grow over the
years in that context? I was raised in a Christian
home, so my parents were Christian when they
had me. And so my sister and I, we always knew
that Jesus loved us. We never had to really question
that. And so I always knew this, but I didn't
really get to know who Jesus was at a personal
level until my early 20s. It was at a time where,
you know, when you leave home, you're finally
questioning for yourself, what do I believe apart
from my parents? Does this make sense? Does this
add up? And so I found myself in university.
in a similar place with other young people who
were having questions about God, faith, Christianity,
Jesus, all of that, and what that means. And
so what came out of that time of searching is
I met Jesus for the first time. I was reading
through the Gospels with a group of people, like
I said, that were having similar questions. And
for the first time, I felt like I actually met
Jesus. I read about someone who was passionate,
loving, vibrant, and not apathetic to matters
of injustice. I read example after example of
Jesus going out of his way to spend time with
people who were overlooked, oppressed, hurting,
and cast out from society. And I thought, okay,
this is a Jesus that I can follow. I have no
control over the actions of other Christians.
And so all I can do is use my own voice. And
I decided to use that voice to help mend what
was broken between. christian church and indigenous
people yeah so i mean you mentioned the church
so what has your relationship with the church
been during this time both positive and negative
yeah um this is going to sound really obvious
but and especially as i have been part of trinity
and the church we were at before but as i looked
around at people in the churches who had come
to know and love and i was able god revealed
to me all the amazing works that people were
doing every all the hard work and effort people
were doing to fight injustices and to stand up
for the brokenhearted and um that sounds obvious
when you come to come out of a place of anger
but at the time When someone's trust has been
broken, and I felt like my trust had been rebroken,
when someone's trust has been broken by someone
or the church, it's really easy to fall into
a very black and white thinking, a black and
white lens where you, you know, something happens
and someone from one group does something bad
and therefore that whole group is bad. You can't
trust them. And I do think there's an appropriate
amount of time and space that we need to give
people where they can process that hurt or process
that anger. And I was really angry at that time,
and it was really hard. But I began to wonder,
okay, how will I ever be able to trust the church
again? If I look around and I see good people,
how can I trust the church again? God was faithful.
He was able over time to just continue to remind
me that there are so many amazing people in my
life who do care about justice and who speak
up for the oppressed and who are doing really
good work in their own communities for other
causes as well. And knowing that God cares about
these matters of injustice meant a lot to me
and was very impactful. In Exodus 34, God says
this about himself. The Lord called out his own
name, Yahweh the Lord, the God of compassion
and mercy. I am slow to anger and filled with
unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing
love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity,
rebellion, and sin, but I do not excuse the guilty.
And so this idea of, okay, God is this big God
of compassion and mercy, and he's so, so faithful.
And he will have justice in the end. Thank you.
So, I mean, the key word, even from our scripture
reading today, is reconciliation. And so I guess
I just wonder, for you and for your family, what
did that look like? What did it look like to
kind of come to this place of reconciliation?
I'll start by sharing a couple examples. And
I'll use my parents as an example of what reconciliation
can look like. So at the beginning I mentioned
my dad is Swiss -German and my mother is Anishinaabemowin,
which is Severn Cree in English. And I've been
watching them serve together for my whole life
and them walking alongside each other in their
differences from two different worlds and continually
choosing to come back and work through the difficult
times. the difficult scenarios that they have
to work through. And so it's such a perfect example
of God's love. They've spent the last 30 years,
almost 30 years, I guess, working closely with
Indigenous communities, my mother's community
being one of them. And there are counselors who
deal with topics like abuse, addiction, grief,
trauma. And they're just very passionate justice
-seeking people, and so it's just a beautiful
example of reconciliation between two worlds
and that journey. Another concrete example is
I've had the privilege of watching my dad interact
with my mom's family for my whole life, and I've
been able to witness his humility, his love and
respect, which has not only given him many wonderful
friendships with those in my mom's community,
but it's actually healed. hearts that have been
broken, and trust that has been broken between
Indigenous and non -Indigenous. My dad has been
part of the Muskrat Dam community since he first
went up in 1985 as a teacher, and then soon after
met my mom, and a few years later they were married.
One more story I have of my dad trying to gain
the trust of the community, and mostly my mom's
family, is when... my mother and father were
going to get married. And so word was getting
around. My mom was telling her family members.
And she called up my gookum. We called gookum
for grandma. My great gookum, Juliet, and was
telling her on the phone. And she was not happy.
She did not want her to marry my dad. And it
was not funny at the time. And I'm just chuckling
because in the end, Oh, and she was so much so
not trusting my dad that she decided not to show
up to the wedding. She said, nope, I'm not coming
to this wedding. She had a hard time trusting
that my dad would take care of my mom. They got
married, and over the years, my dad continued
to show his love and care, not only for my mom,
but for her people. And eventually, Juliet came
around, and they shared many years of friendship
together. My dad's persistent love, humility,
and respect has built him many years of friendship
over his lifetime. And so my point here is that
reconciliation is a journey, and if we are to
move forward together, we have to do so with
humility, love, and respect, even when it's really,
really hard, even when there's pushback. I would
say start by listening to the stories of Indigenous
people and their experiences. Believe those stories.
And allow that to open your heart with empathy
and love. Friendship is that doorway that opens
the pathway to reconciliation. There's a book
called The Reason You Walk by Wab Kanu, who's
actually the first ever First Nations premier
in Manitoba. And he wrote his biography, and
he wrote this in there. Reconciliation is not
something realized on a grand level, something
that happens when a prime minister and a national
chief shake hands. It takes place at a much more
individual level. Reconciliation is realized
when two people come together and understand
that what they share unites them and that what
is different about them needs to be respected.
Reconciliation happens when the archbishop and
the sun dancer become brothers. I truly believe
there's hope for our future and that deep friendship
can be had and understanding can be had between
Christian people and the indigenous people. That's
Wab Kunnu. Yeah. So, kind of bringing this together,
what is one thing, if there's just one thing,
that the church or we as a church could... do
differently or think differently coming out of
this? Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately I do want
the church to know that this can be overcome.
If you haven't started this journey yet of understanding
what our country's history is with Indigenous
people, I would want you to know that there is
hope because it's a very painful history. But
to have faith and hope that it can be overcome.
that the power of our God is big enough to overcome
what humans have done. You know, the message
of the cross is one of reconciliation, as we
read this morning in our scripture reading. And
to know there are many people, indigenous people,
who are followers of Jesus, who have been able
to wrestle through these things and overcome
and see that God is good, Jesus is good. And
so I hope... I hope that as we do that, as Christians,
we would be reminded that we are called to stand
up for justice, care for the hurting, comfort
the brokenhearted, and bring people together.
The passage I read earlier about who God says
he is, and so just clothe that on yourselves.
Be loving, compassionate, slow to anger, carry
empathy, and be willing to listen and learn so
that we can connect on a human level. and move
forward in truth towards reconciliation because
the pathway of reconciliation is a journey, and
so it's not an easy fix. It's choosing to come
back and choosing to listen and believe and show
up. In the book of Micah, God speaks through
the prophet to his people, and he says this.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and
what does the Lord require of you but to do justice?
And to love kindness and walk humbly with your
God. And I think that's just a beautiful summary
of what God wants from us. As humans who walk
this earth, who try and coexist together in all
of our diversity and our messiness and our mistakes,
we should walk forward together with love, kindness,
and humility. Well, thank you so much for sharing
this very... Well, it's a powerful story. It's
a sacred story. It's a story that's infused with
pain, but also infused with grace and God's love
and reconciliation itself. It's a wonderful picture
you've given us. So thank you for taking the
time. to be with us in this way. I know it's
not the easiest thing to do, to talk about this,
but to talk about it in front of a crowd of people
also makes it all the more difficult. So I want
to say thank you so very much for sharing that
story with us today. Could we just show our appreciation
for Rochelle?