Message from Light of God Ministry • Reverend Mary White
As we grieve the 215 children buried at the Kamloops Residential School, and the possibility of many more children yet to be found, let us not forget all those hundreds of family members and loved ones who continue to suffer this tragedy and the memories of their own experiences at Residential Schools and the Sixty Scoop. We must not forget that when one person suffers, we all suffer and when the Nations suffer, this whole country suffers. Our hearts are broken, and our spirits torn. They will not be whole again until reparations are begun, and also completed, on the terms of the peoples of the First Nations.
Mother Earth embraces the stories of each of the 215 children and soon their spirits will be free to join their ancestors.
With Love,
Rev. Mary White
Poem • The Gods of Old
Excerpt from Richard Skinner “Colliding with God”
We no longer pray to the bully
swaggering in the playground
while we cower in the toilets
fearing a bloody nose, a twisted arm;
nor to the sarcastic master
whose fine line in humiliation
and outbursts of anger
we anxiously seek to defuse;
nor to Judge Dredd nor to the Terminator
nor to the invading alien nor to any of those
our insecurities could appropriate
to fashion into a fearsome God;
for we are grown-up now, know about
the psychology of projection,
the archetype of the Shadow,
how only fear itself is to be feared:
until, at three o’clock of a sleepless night,
like a river ripping from its channel
in flood, reclaiming its former course,
obliterating our hard-won territory,
the gods of old come rampaging back.
Message for Young Families from Brenda Pielle
Dear Families and Friends:
Another new month is upon us! Whether you have a loved one changing from crawling to walking, completing preschool, kindergarten, or any grade level, moving from primary grades to intermediate grades, moving from elementary school to high school, graduating from high school, graduating from a post secondary education program, or moving to a different level of a sport, dance, or music program, you have someone completing a level of growth. It is a great time to reflect on the previous months, and acknowledge the accomplishments that have taken place. Congratulations to all of our children and youth who have had a great year.
This week the parent tot video has the following songs: "Higgledee, Piggledee, Bumble Bee", "Baby Beluga", "Love God", "Swimming in the Swimming Pool", and "Over My Head". The book is a story about a shark who likes to smile.
The Family Fun video has: "To Be Alive", "Magic Penny", "Me and Bobby McGee", "Puff the Magic Dragon", "It's a Happy Day", and "This is the Day". The story is about a hippo who makes friends with a tortoise.
I hope you enjoy singing along with me. Have fun!
Brenda Pielle
Reaching Out to Families
Powell River United Church
Reading Excerpt from “Highway Of Tears” by Jessica McDiarmid
First the government came for Matilda’s older siblings. And then it came for her.
Matilda was put on a train in Hazelton when she was five years old. She cried and cried. The conductor was a kindly man who tried to comfort her. He told the children that it would be okay. It wasn’t. When they arrived at Lejac Residential School, and imposing, three-story brick structure with a smattering of outbuildings on Highway 16 near the shores of Fraser Lake, staff took the kids clothes, shaved their heads and marched them into cold showers. Matilda was assigned a number in place of her birth name. They were at Lejac to learn the white man’s ways, to have the “savage” within them extinguished. They picked up English quickly – they were strapped or walloped if they were caught speaking their own language. The children were subjected to sexual abuse, beatings, starvation and neglect. Sometimes they try to run away. One winter, four boys were found dead, frozen, out on the ice of a lake a few miles from their homes. Matilda learned what hunger and loneliness and fear were at that school.
PRUC Online Worship Service
Please join us this Sunday, June 6th
PRAYER
Creator, make me instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
where there is injury, pardon
where there is doubt, faith
where there is despair, hope
where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Maker
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we are born again
to everlasting life.
Amen