Homily for Indigenous Sunday

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Before I start, I want to express my thanks to the Haudenosaunee Confederation, the Nations of the Anishinaabe and many others whose writings and websites have helped me understand the beliefs and practices of the Indigenous Peoples who cared for this land long before the settlers came.

As I prepared for today’s service, I couldn’t help being struck by the similarity in beliefs and worldview of many First Nations with the beliefs and worldview of my own branch of Celtic Christianity. The Celts, like our Canadian Indigenous Nations, had a strong sense of caring for creation and a world view of the oneness of all life. And I thought, not for the first time, how different our country of Canada would be if the first settlers had respected  the Indigenous Peoples the way the early Christians respected the way of life of the heathen Celts. These early missionaries assimilated Celtic traditions into the faith that they brought to the western UK and Ireland.

The festivals of the Celts were respected and assimilated into the Christian calendar – our traditions of Halloween are derived from the Celtic end-of-summer festival, Samhain, when the veil between heaven and earth was thin and deceased spirits wandered the Earth. Samhain became All Saints (All Hallows).

Likewise, the beliefs about Celtic deities were transferred to Christian saints – many of the stories about St Bridget were originally told about the goddess Bridget.

Instead, our forefathers approached the peoples we found here in the Americas assuming them to be our inferiors. We the white people had come to bring civilization and salvation to the heathen natives. We didn’t try to understand their culture, perhaps because we didn't think they had any; we didn't try to understand their spirituality, because we had Jesus and they didn't. We came with the expectation that they had nothing to offer us, athough their land did - and we were entitled to the riches of their land.

So, we took their land, destroyed their culture and broke up their families. And we still thought we were superior.

Of course, there were differences. When the first missionaries arrived in Britain in the 2nd and 3rd century CE, Christianity was still a persecuted faith by the Roman Empire. Even in later centuries, after Christianity became the state religion of the empire, the Roman elite had little interest in these far-flung outposts of the empire. They didn’t think that places like Wales, Scotland and Ireland had anything to give to them. But when the first settlers came to North America, they were coming not primarily as missionaries but as explorers setting out to find new wealth for themselves and their imperial sponsors. Even when missionaries followed, they came along with the representatives of the rich and powerful and were constrained by those who funded the voyages to the new world.

The mindset was very different. Even for the church. The missionaries believed that the natives were destined for hell without belief in Jesus, and their missionary work was funded by the European national and ecclesiastical powers, whose greed gave rise to a concept referred to as the Doctrine of Discovery.

I expect you have all heard of the Doctrine of Discovery – not actually a document, but a collection of Papal Bulls and secular decrees. It is a legal and religious concept that has been used for centuries to justify Christian colonial conquest all over the world. It advanced the idea that European peoples, culture and religion were superior to all others.

Here In Canada, both French and English colonial powers used the Doctrine of Discovery to seize Indigenous lands and force their cultural and religious beliefs on Indigenous Peoples. As colonial settlement spread, many Indigenous Peoples entered treaty relationships defining how they would share the land with the newcomers. Earlier in the service we referred to treaties 3 ¾ and 14 which ceded what we now call Burlington, Milton and surrounding areas to the settlers. Influenced by the absolute claims to power and authority expressed by the doctrine, Canadian law interpreted these agreements as surrendering title and control - concepts which were alien to the Indigenous cultures.

The racist assumption of superiority and dominance embodied in the Doctrine of  Discovery led to the relocation of whole Nations to reserves, and a systematic attempt to wipe out the culture, religion and languages of the peoples they found here and in other parts of the world.

This racism underpins many aspects of Canada’s colonial history including the Indian Act, the reserve system, the Indian residential school tragedy and the decline of Indigenous languages and cultures.

While we have made progress in the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and settlers, we still have a long way to go. Over the past few months, there has been a lot written in newspapers and online about Ontario Bill 5. This bill, fast tracked into law by the Ontario Government, amends several key pieces of legislation with the goal of accelerating economic development. It introduces or changes legislation affecting local governance, labour laws, treaty rights and environmental protections. Now the federal government is trying to do the same with Bill C-5, another omnibus bill that has been rushed through Parliament and is now before the Senate. Amongst other things, it will allow the federal government to fast-track projects in the “National interest.”  This bill, too, would side step environmental protections and bypass consultation with Indigenous Nations. 

I mention this to show that we, as a nation, still do not respect Indigenous (and other) peoples’ rights, whether inscribed in treaties or whether our rights as citizens. As Christians, we should be very concerned about this. While individually there’s very little one person can do, we can join with organizations that are seeking to redress these concerns; we can support them financially, by writing to our MPP’s and MPs, or just by learning about and making others aware of what is happening.

It didn’t and doesn’t have to be like this.

What if the settlers had tried working with the Indigenous Peoples, like they did with the Celts? We would have found many areas of similarity where connections could be made between beliefs of the Indigenous inhabitants and the Christian faith. We share a belief in a Great Spirit. the Creator of everything and in the sacredness of that creation. WE pray to this Spirit. We share a belief in the dignity of all humanity and the moral imperative to act on that belief showing respect each other. We share many values, including love, respect, truth and many more. I’ll just flesh out a couple of these points. Our National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop, Chris Harper, in his greeting for Indigenous Peoples’ Day of Prayer speaks about the universality of prayer and the relationship between the Indigenous smudging ceremony and the ancient Christian prayer: God be in my head, and in my thinking. God be in my eyes, and in my looking.God be in my mouth, and in my speaking.God be in my heart, and in my understanding.

The First Nations’ sacred connection to the land reflects what the Bible teaches, as for example, we find in Psalm 24 “The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” And as we read in our psalm this morning “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows the handiwork of the Lord.” Like my Celtic forefathers, our first Nations still have a lot to teach the church in this area.

Many Aboriginal organizations and communities have adopted the 7 guiding principles, in one form or another, as a moral stepping stone and cultural foundation. Each community has adapted the teachings to suit their community values. Despite where the teachings may have originated, they share the same concepts of abiding by a moral respect for all living things.

For the Anishinaabe Nation, they are called the Seven Grandfather Teachings - a set of principles emphasizing love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility, and truth. I’m sure this is the same principle St Paul was expounding in todays first reading: “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, … think about these things.” 

The Seventh Generation Principle is based on an ancient Haudenosaunee philosophy dating back to somewhere in the 12th to 15th century CE - that the decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future.

Of course there are differences. While the Western Christian orientation has been more towards personal commitment and conscious contact with God, the Indigenous spiritual practices (like those of the Israelites in the Hebrew scriptures) are geared around prayers for the whole community, the whole Earth, the natural forces, and the "other peoples," meaning the animal kingdoms. For Christians, the church or temple building, where natural forces and animals have been shut out and swept out, defines the sacred place. For Native Americans, the world of animals and natural forces participate in sacred ceremonies. The arrival or appearance of a particular animal or bird during a spiritual ceremony contributes a certain meaning to that ceremony. But we could have worked together.  And we still can.

The Seventh Generation Principle today is generally referred to in regards to decisions being made about our energy, water, and natural resources, and ensuring those decisions are sustainable for seven generations in the future. But it can also be applied to relationships - every decision should result in sustainable relationships seven generations in the future. Relationships today between Indigenous Peoples and non-Indigenous Peoples should be forged with the Seventh Generation Principle in mind.

And with Seven Grandfather Teachings emphasizing love, respect, courage, honesty, wisdom, humility, and truth, I leave you with these words about the power of Love, represented by the Eagle. I’m sure Jesus would agree with them

The teaching of love is found in all of the other [Grandfather] teachings. It is the eagle who mirrors these lessons back to us. The eagle is strong enough to carry all of the teachings and flies high enough to see all of creation. When we live by these teachings and see ourselves as the eagle does, we are able to love who we are. And once we have found that balance within, we can provide love to our family and community. Amen.