Talk the Walk

We often hear the expression “Walk the talk” to denote a person who is authentic in living out his/her values that are professed verbally.

But when there is an invitation to “TALK THE WALK” it has a slightly different twist: it assumes that the person has already or is engaged in the walk that is professed.  For example: Recall a time when you have experienced a situation in which you have been unexpectedly called upon to speak or act out of personal truth and conviction,.  What was that like for you?

This Talking the Walk is done in the Kairos Teaching and Sharing Circles that have recently been birthed to educate mainly Non-Indigenous peoples, although not exclusively, about the history and culture of the Indigenous peoples of Canada.  The TALK is given by an Indigenous person, who has and continues to WALK in the steps of the ancestors.  These Talking and Sharing Circles have become another forum along with the Kairos Blanket Exercise, for the true history of the relationship between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples of Canada to be told from the Indigenous perspective and provide an opportunity for ALL people in Canada to become more knowledgeable to “Walk the Talk”.

We, as a nation have just embarked on implementing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report that came out in 2015.  We have an opportunity to SPEAK OUT, to move towards reconciliation.  https://secure.kairoscanada.org/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=800

In our own personal lives, what might it mean to “Talk the Walk”, to “Walk the Talk”?  

- Submitted by Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

Let Goodness Prevail

On the sixth day of creation, God, the Creator, ”looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!” Gen. 1:31 (from The Message)

Such a message of hope for us in these days of fake news, the violence of wars, natural disasters, racism, verbal abuse at so many levels and even genocide: goodness is inherent in all of creation. It is in our DNA, and it is now that we as a species are called to live that reality of being a force for goodness in this world.

In my personal experience of facilitating and co-ordinating Kairos Blanket Exercises, I, with the facilitators and participants have the privilege of seeing how truth, when revealed and received by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, is freeing. For the Indigenous peoples, their story is told: of the impact of residential schools, of being given Hudson Bay blankets as “gifts” that were full of the small pox virus, of the seizure of lands that were sources  of food, of the murdered and missing indigenous women and children…boys and girls, of the Indian Act that reduced whole nations to being put on small isolated reserves and forbidden to practice their spirituality or cultural practices, and who were “assimilated” into the white society to be made “civilized”, as the settlers defined the meaning of the term of being “civilized”.   The non-Indigenous participants hear this same story as told by an Indigenous and a non-Indigenous facilitator. If the participants come with an open mind, heart and will, they are INformed, TRANSformed, and empowered to work together to seek ways of “Returning to Harmony” (see Richard Wagamese’s article: https://teacherlauragroome.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/returning-to-harmony.pdf

For ALL participants, the telling and hearing of this story together is the beginning education of the truth of Canadian history: painful to tell and to hear but nonetheless a vehicle for further dialogue, leading to sowing initial seeds for reconciliation, or restoring a relation of collaboration that once existed. See Murray Sinclair speak about reconciliation in this 4-minute video https://www.csps-efpc.gc.ca/video/ssontr-eng.aspx

Senator Murray Sinclair, the head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was issued in 2015, quotes:"It is education that got into this and it is education that will get us out of it.”

Being a retired teacher and educator, I am convinced that education is a beginning to living in right relationship, if we work together toward this. We are ALL inherently GOOD: we can choose to live out of that belief in all our interactions.

Submitted by Kathleen Lichti, CSJ

KAIROS Reconciliation in the Watershed - October 14, 2017 @ 10 am – 4 pm

In partnership with the Sisters of St Joseph in Canada – London, KAIROS Canada will host a full-day Reconciliation in the Watershed workshop at King’s University College on Saturday, October 14, 2017. Supported by the Echo Foundation, this workshop is part of a series being delivered by KAIROS Canada across Canada this fall.  The KAIROS Reconciliation in the Watershed Program aims to increase the number and diversity of Canadians who are, knowledgeable about their immediate watershed, able to identify issues related to its protection, and make connections between local ecological issues and Indigenous rights.  The full-day workshop aims to renew the relationship between Canadians’ and their local watershed on a path towards reconciled relationships with Indigenous Peoples.

Wherever we live in creation we are part of a watershed, an interdependent eco-system nested in a larger eco-system, which is also a watershed.  We all have a relationship with the bodies of water that sustain our lives and we too are living parts of a watershed.  In Canada, our watersheds continue to be threatened by mining, fracking, oil exploration, pipeline development, agriculture, water bottling, and more.  The impacts of colonialism and industrialization have alienated us from our watersheds by creating political territories that ignore watershed boundaries and turning our water and natural resources into commodities.  Colonialism has also damaged the relationship between non-Indigenous and Indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples, who affirm the interconnectedness of our watersheds, continue to offer gracious welcome to settlers and seek partnership in a just transformation of the land. 

It is time to repair these relationships and build relationships of ecological integrity with our local watersheds and between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.  To do so, we need to go in to our watersheds and listen to the voices of Indigenous peoples who were its first protectors and stimulate learning, affection, and ultimately a commitment to protect our water. The Reconciliation in the Watershed workshop is a great place to start! 

This day of learning, relationship-building, and action, will include presentations and activities focused on decolonization, Indigenous rights, environmental issues, and reconciliation.  In the afternoon, the workshop will move to the Museum of Ontario Archeology, where participants will learn about the history of the land and the watershed’s first peoples.  Participants will also engage in a medicine pouch activity, to learn about the importance of medicine pouches to Indigenous nations and the sacred plants that are used, as well as the significance of the Medicine Wheel.   

Registration for this event is $20 regular/$10 students and includes lunch and activities at the Museum of Ontario Archeology.  Register here or email Mary Shamley at mshamley@csjcanada.org.

Flyer

Guest blogger: Beth Lorimer, KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: A Surprise Reconciliation

John is noted for his one on one dialogues, encounters between Jesus and another, which results in insight and transformation. This is what happens in Jesus’ encounter with this lady of Samaria, alone at the well at noon.  She should have drawn her water early in the morning with the other ladies, laughing and talking and hauling up the water for the day, but she has to wait until everyone is inside resting and we find out why. Her life with multiple “husbands” makes her an outsider.

Jesus here is an outsider too: a Jew, in Samaria, where the centuries of mutual charges of religious unorthodoxy and hateful prejudice should have ensured their mutual avoidance of each other.

Then Jesus, shockingly for Jewish listeners, breaks the rules as he requests water from this woman, and she breaks them on her side by even noting his request. The theme of thirst connects them both, over water, the key of life. Jesus’ spiritual promise of an eternally satisfying water only he can give, is met with the woman’s misunderstanding. For the listener, however, Jesus’ promise rings true since our encounter with Jesus does result in that fountain of life springing up like a fountain  inside us.

In Jesus’ responses which show his knowledge of her true life, she tries to distance herself from him, stating the differences in the place of worship which divides their two peoples, but Jesus brushes it away in his promise of a future re-unification of both in the worship of God in Spirit and in Truth. Then, he reveals himself as the Messiah for whom both peoples wait.

Now John shows us the  effects of this powerful spiritual current she has received from Jesus:  she leaves that earthenware water jar there, and instead hurries to the very townspeople she had been trying to avoid  and announces  “Come , see a man who told me all that I ever did. He couldn’t be the Messiah could he?” And they do respond to her call. And amazingly, invite Jesus to stay with them, which he does, for three days. And they tell the woman, “It is no longer because of your words, that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed, the Saviour of the world”.   

This account shows us the effects of the waters of life that spring up from an encounter with Jesus: it is the complete ignoring of prejudices, suspicions and long held separations justified on religiously self-righteous grounds. Rather there is a free and refreshing outreach in love and care for others, a reconciliation, and a union, which is a worship of God in Spirit and in Truth.

Sister Wendy Cotter CSJ, Ph.D.