National news

 — Sept. 30, 200230 sept. 2002

Rev. Karen Hamilton, a minister of the United Church of Canada, has
been appointed as the new general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches,
succeeding Janet Somerville whose five-year term expires at the end of September. Hamilton
is a founding member of the Greater Toronto Council of Christian Churches, a director of
the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto, and a member of the Canadian Christian Jewish
Consultation. She has taken part in the work of several national United Church committees
that have developed policy on ecumenical and interfaith matters. Somerville was the first
Roman Catholic and the first woman to serve as chief executive officer of the Canadian
Council of Churches founded in 1944. She was appointed general secretary in 1997, the same
year that the Catholic Church became a full council member, effectively doubling the
number of Christians represented by member churches.

An exhibition, opened in June at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa,
illustrates the history of residential schools through photographs, maps, original
classroom textbooks and historical government papers. Entitled “Where are the
Children? Healing the Legacy of the Residential Schools,” the exhibition is
considered a step toward raising awareness of the effects of the residential schools on
those who attended them from the 1880s to 1969. Archbishop Michael Peers, the Primate of
the Anglican Church of Canada, said the exhibit tells a story that is not easy for many to
hear but in telling that story “it serves us well, not by easy evasions but by hard
truth, the kind of truth that makes us free.” George Erasmus, chair of the Aboriginal
Healing Foundation, said, “The history of the residential schools must be documented.
For healing to take place, the story must be told.” Aboriginal artist Angus Cockney,
a former residential school student, told the gathering at the opening of the exhibit,
“Some of you will for the first time see what survivors of residential schools have
never forgotten — the face of a child whose identity is just a number, whose culture
is forbidden and whose future is an institutional experience.” He said he hoped that
the exhibit would provide a greater understanding of what the aboriginal people of Canada
have experienced in the residential schools. “Healing will and must continue,”
he added. Viewing of the exhibition at the National Archives of Canada is free. It will
remain open daily until Feb. 3, 2003.

Posted: Sept. 30, 2002 • Permanent link: ecumenism.net/?p=46
Categories: CCEIn this article: Centre Canadien d’œcuménisme
Transmis : 30 sept. 2002 • Lien permanente : ecumenism.net/?p=46
Catégorie : CCEDans cet article : Centre Canadien d’œcuménisme


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