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JOINT TRUTH & RECONCILIATION GROUP CHALMERS & SSUCMINUTES OF MEETING - 7 JUNE 2017Present: Lynn Freeman, Mary-Stewart Ross, Bill Egnatoff, Joan Egnatoff, Rosemary MacLachlan, Barbara Parrott, Jim Leake, Rosalie ArmstrongRegrets: Michael Cooke Anya HagemanOPENING – Lynn opened with a Mohawk PrayerLynn mentioned that the Ontario Government will allocate $ 5.6 million over three years to Ontario’s nine (9) aboriginal post-secondary institutes and change OSAP eligibility for Aboriginal students.The Gathering Concert… co-chaired by Mary-Stewart and Lynda Gerow, president of the Kingston chapter of the Ontario Native Women’s Association…. will occur on Saturday June 10 at 7:30pm at Chalmers and feature both aboriginal performers and non-aboriginal performers. The music will all be of Canadian composition and/or originally performed by Canadian artists.The Blanket Ceremony at Chalmers will occur during the Worship Service on Sunday June 11th, led by Lynda Gerow and Ojibway elder Onagattay.The Blanket Ceremony for SSUC and St. James Anglican churches will be held in City Park on Sunday 18 June at 11am, after each congregation holds a short worship service in their own church. Lynn & Mary-Stewart will make sure that an email is sent to their congregations for announcements about the two Blanket Ceremonies to be included in the bulletins.Reading Libraries – Mary-Stewart reported that the Chalmers Memorial Committee has denied funding for a First Nations Library at Chalmers because it doesn’t meet their mandate, which is to support things that are about worship services. For future library developments, Rosemary MacLachlan will be the contact person for Chalmers and Barbara Parrott will be the contact person for SSUC. It was suggested that we could get books at the annual Symphony book sale. Both Rosalie and Rosemary have books to contribute. Rosemary suggested that we include Children’s Books in our First Nations Libraries. Lynn will approach Margie MacKay at the Public Library for suggestions of appropriate titles. Bill Egnatoff will make up identification stickers for inside the books.Our Website – Anya has been keeping up the website, which currently includes our Terms of Reference (now accepted by both church executives), minutes of our meetings and upcoming events. There will be links to both church websites and a link to our website will be included in all of our outgoing communications. Mary-Stewart and Lynn will ensure that a link to our website will be put on both Church websites.Strength for Climbing – Rosemary was reimbursed the $3 owing from each of us for these booklets. Michael Cooke expressed an interest by email in study & learning more about First Nations culture as part of our group activities. Using the Strength for Climbing booklet would be a good first step in this initiative. Barb asked how we choose what to learn and where we focus…. Lynn suggested that we could each take a topic to pursue and then share with the others what we have learned…… as well as share what we have learned with our congregations, since that is part of our mandate. We again discussed the idea of having Discussion Groups, Speakers & Films for our congregations. Joan Egnatoff suggested that “Speaking My Truth” would be a good book to study and discuss. (Should we all read this book over the summer?)Rosemary reminded us that the Pow Wow at Tyendinaga Reservation is on August 12 & 13th. Those of us interested in going could car pool (contact Mary-Stewart). Announcements will be put in both church bulletins about the Pow Wow (Lynn & Mary-Stewart)Engaging with other Faith and/or First Nations Communities… Nan Hudson, minister for Faith United Church, has agreed to meet with us on Wednesday June 28th at 4:30pm at SSUC to their related activities and connections with First Nations people.Jan Hill is the Executive Director of Four Winds Aboriginal Student Centre and might be a good speaker if she has time… or perhaps it would be better if we met with her at Four Directions, which is in our neighbourhood. Lynn announced that Four Directions has a Full Moon Ceremony every month for women. She will send us details.Jim mentioned that the play “Children of God” was playing at N.A.C. in Ottawa June 7 – 18th. He is planning to attend and will report back with more details.Bill said that he and Joan had attended the opera “Louis Riel” in Toronto and that it was coming to the NAC June 15 – 17th. Also Buffy Ste. Marie will be at the NAC on July 3rd.Rotary Club – Bill is a member of the Rotary Club, which is showing a growing interest in taking steps in the Truth & Reconciliation process. Bill is involved in an annual High School History event in Youth Justice… currently they are studying why there is a disproportionately high number of First Nations youth in the Justice System.Including Other Churches? Jim asked whether we should open our group to include other churches, such as St. James. Both Bill & Mary-Stewart thought that we should keep the group to Chalmers & SSUC since we are in a process of seeing how the two churches can work together.Other comments:Joan pointed out that Lynn’s many connections with First Nations activities is a real benefit to us and will introduce us to other people & groups in this field.Lynn discussed our need to educate our own congregations and to keep more connected with each other.Jim expressed concern for the declining Protestant Church, and thought that working with other churches would be good…. We should make a resolution to partner with other faith communities whenever we can.Next Meeting is Wednesday Sept 6th at SSUC at 4:30pmReminder: June 28 at 4:30pm at SSUC for a conversation with Nan Hudson from Faith United. ................
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