A few years ago, Synod mandated the amazing people of the Doctrine of Discovery Task Force to study stories Christians love to bury deeply. Their report will be discussed at Synod this year.
We owe it to ourselves to listen to what the Task Force has to tell us. This includes Aboriginal leaders who point out in love the great injustices committed to their Peoples.
The Doctrine of Discovery provided the underpinning to a worldview that encouraged Europeans (yes, definitely including the Dutch!) to proclaim God’s infinite love for all his image bearers while ignoring his commands to love our neighbours as ourselves and be stewards of creation.
As one task force participant observes, “It’s really easy for churches to lean on the noble intentions of missions” and refuse to acknowledge injustices caused along the way.
Does all of this make you feel uncomfortable? Maybe it should.
Read more about this in the full length editorial in Christian Courier.
Comments
The meaning of Sankofa (African word) is looking back to know where we came from to understand today and know where we need to be tomorrow. I paraphrased this to say it is important to know what happened
yesterday to see where we are today, however more important is where we are going to be tomorrow .
thus a three stage process is vital for our successful future.
Our descendants will determine tomorrow's outcomes, so what we do today will be their "past."
Let us pray together that we do not stumble by only looking in the past too long.
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