It was in late spring that our Montreal unit of PWRDF thought about organising a webinar featuring our new Indigenous Archbishop, Chris Harper. I had met archbishop Chris Harper at the last meeting of the 2019-2023 CoGs. What really impressed me was that he spoke of getting out of bed with his daily prayer, “Today help me to be better than yesterday and the day before”.
Since Archbishop Chris had already been approached by the Diversity in Community group from St George’s Place du Canada, the two groups decided to work together on the event, which was held in November.
This webinar, which was hosted by PWRDF’s Janice Biehn, was a huge success. We learned some important things that we who live in Christian communities should focus on.
Being a Christian trumps everything else. Being a Christian means that we are all part of one family, the family of God. Being human means that we tend to do things that hurt others. Being Christian means acknowledging and accepting individual responsibility for the things we do wrong.
Being human often means that we are afraid of truth. Truth is important because it is a necessary part of the healing process. Archbishop Chris spoke about forgiveness. True forgiveness comes from the heart. God forgives us because God loves us. When we love others we are accepting them as children of God.
Archbishop Chris also spoke about treaties that had been broken and that Canadians do not receive enough learning about our own history. He said we can all make a difference, and he had changed the role of the Indigenous Archbishop to helping the diocesan bishops to support indigenous people in their dioceses.
I hope that your appetite has been whetted to learn more of what Archbishop Chris told us. The recording of the webinar is posted on the PWRDF part of the Diocesan website.
I want as many people as possible to listen to Archbishop Chris’ message. As a Lay Reader who had been assigned to lead a service of morning prayer at my home church, St George’s Ste Anne de Bellevue, I found an opportunity. I was able to shorten the morning prayer service and show the Archbishop’s part of the webinar instead of the usual homily.
We started in the church and during the gradual hymn proceeded to the hall where the gospel was read and the video played. When the talk had finished we continued morning prayer downstairs and sang our closing hymn.
If you have questions regarding this latter event, contact me at [email protected].
