ELCIC members encouraged to prayerfully support the meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and First Nation leaders through prayer

Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) are encouraged to join in solidarity with KAIROS and other denominations across Canada in support of the upcoming meeting between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and First Nations leaders.

Indigenous leaders will meet with Canada’s Prime Minister on Friday, January 11 to discuss treaty relationships, aboriginal rights and economic development. The ELCIC joins with KAIROS and our Full Communion partner, the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), along with other denominations across Canada, in inviting people to observe a day of prayer on Friday. KAIROS has asked that people pray for a successful meeting, "one that will mark the beginning of a genuine, collaborative process for resolving the long-standing injustices on a nation-to-nation basis."

Resources relating to supporting participation in this day of prayer can be found on the KAIROS website and on the Anglican Church of Canada website.

ELCIC Bishop’s Commissary, Rev. Paul Gehrs — who also serves as chair of the KAIROS Board, offers the following prayer:

God of all creation, source of light and hope: Make your justice and peace known in this land.
Support, encourage and guide First Nations leaders and Government leaders as they meet this day
 to address important, difficult and systemic issues of rights and responsibilities.
Open our hearts and wills to see opportunities before each of us to increase respect, renew relationships and
 create more just communities. Send your spirit of wisdom and understanding, that we may walk the days ahead
as faithful covenant people. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

At the 2011 ELCIC National Convention, delegates committed the ELCIC to encouraging right and renewed relationships between Indigenous and non-indigenous peoples within Canada. Through the motion approved by delegates, the ELCIC affirmed, "that we are all treaty people, and we will find ways to mature in our living together" through means such as "remembering the rights, responsibilities and dignity that are bestowed by God and lived out with one another" and by affirming that "recognizing and implementing indigenous rights is essential to being the kind of society Canada strives to be."

—————————————————————–
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada is Canada’s largest Lutheran denomination with 145,376 baptized members in 594 congregations. It is a member of the Lutheran World Federation, the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.

Subscribe or unsubscribe to ELCIC Information by emailing info@elcic.ca with a short message.