First step towards reconciliation

Mennonites pledge their commitment to building peace with their feet

October 9, 2013 | Young Voices
Rachel Bergen | Young Voices Co-Editor
Vancouver

“Walk together, children, don’t you get weary,” said Bernice King, daughter of the legendary Martin Luther King Jr.

Those words were spoken to a crowd that organizers estimated at 70,000 who were about to take symbolic and literal steps towards reconciliation on Sept. 22, the day after the Vancouver Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) events ended.

Thousands from around British Columbia and across Canada flocked to downtown Vancouver that day to participate in the four-kilometre-long Walk for Reconciliation, holding signs, drumming and singing, and pledging their commitment to building peace.

King greeted those clad in rain gear and holding umbrellas as brothers and sisters of the human race, all inhabitants of what she called the “global house” that is “made up of many races, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we will perish together as fools.”

Among those walking were two groups of Mennonites. One billed itself as “East Van Mennonites and Friends,” and the other called itself “Mennonite Folk,” led by Garry Janzen, Mennonite Church B.C.’s executive minister. The Emmanuel Mennonite Church youth group from Abbotsford walked with the Mennonite Folk.

Chris Lenshyn, Emmanuel’s associate pastor, said the event was an opportunity for the youth and their sponsors to act on the reconciliation demonstrated and called for in the Bible. “We believe in reconciliation,” he said. “We participate in a gospel, in a faith in a God that’s all about reconciliation, so to be a people of faith means to be people of action, which means we need to be here. Or I would be afraid of what our faith would stand for.”

Gerald and Rie Neufeld, also members of Emmanuel Mennonite, brought their three young children to participate in the walk. “We explained quite a bit this past week what’s going on in Vancouver,” Rie said. “The kids are old enough to understand the history of what the indigenous people are struggling with.”

Earlier that week, MC Canada and MC B.C. representatives, along with members of churches in the area, attended the TRC events at the Pacific National Exhibition.

Representatives from MC B.C. and various Mennonite and Mennonite Brethren churches in B.C. offered a statement of reconciliation on Sept. 19. Janzen led the statement, along with David Heinrichs of Eagle Ridge Bible Fellowship; Isadore Charters, a member of Sardis Community Church; Don Klaassen, a church mission coach with Outreach Canada; Darryl Klassen of Mennonite Central Committee B.C.’s Aboriginal Neighbours program; and others.

“As Mennonite settlers, we have benefitted greatly from your dispossession and marginalization,” Janzen told the crowd.

Heinrichs added, “We commit to working towards reconciliation as we follow the example of Jesus, whose life and mission modelled peacemaking and bringing justice.”

Although many people attended the TRC and made positive steps toward reconciliation, some felt there wasn’t enough done by the Christian community to encourage participation.

Some Christian and secular schools in B.C. cancelled classes or made efforts to help students attend the TRC events, but those that didn’t received negative feedback from students and alumni.

Columbia Bible College in Abbotsford offered students the opportunity to miss class without penalty in order to attend. Trinity Western University in Langley cancelled classes and provided transportation to the events. Most UBC faculties closed for the first day, although Regent College, UBC’s graduate school of theology, did not close and held its student and faculty retreat on the weekend when many statements of reconciliation were offered and the walk was held.

Jordan Shaw, a Regent student who used to attend Emmanuel Mennonite Church until he moved to Vancouver, spoke out about the decision. “I feel like the right choice here would have been to make this [Walk for Reconciliation] accessible to the students and faculty of Regent,” he said. “There is so much hurt and pain here, and Regent is looked at as a leader in evangelical thought. . . . I really want to love this school, but I must follow my conscience as well,” he said, explaining that he did not attend the retreat in order to participate in the last day of TRC events and attend the Walk for Reconciliation.

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