Pitching our Tent — An Appeal by the
Northern Manitoba Area Mission
A Good Start
Christian missionaries came to the Indigenous people of northern Manitoba nearly two centuries ago.
The Indigenous people for the most part welcomed the Christian missionaries because they recognized in the Christian Scriptures the same values of Humility, Respect, Honesty, Truth, Bravery, Wisdom, and Love that were taught by their elders. They accepted baptism, built a place for worship, received church membership, and welcomed missionary clergy in their communities.
A Wrong Turn
Many of these non-indigenous clergy lived exemplary lives in the Indigenous communities.
They learned the Indigenous languages, created the syllabic alphabet, translated the Bible, prayers, and songs into these languages. They enlisted the help of elders as assistants, with the titles of catechist and lay reader, to pass the Christian teachings to the next generation.
Tragically, however, these missionaries were not able to recognize truth in the Indigenous teachings. They did not see the work of God’s Spirit in the native culture.
They equated Christianity with their own European culture and condemned most of the Indigenous way of life as heathen, and even demonic. From these attitudes came the tragedy of the Residential Schools and Day Schools where the churches were complicit in the attempt by western culture to forcibly assimilate the indigenous people, by the loss of their language and way of life.
Today, nearly all Indigenous people in northern Manitoba are members of a Christian church.
The involvement of the churches in the Residential and Day Schools means that many indigenous people have deep hurts that they associate with the churches as institutions. It is true that there are now many indigenous clergy, but unlike the missionary clergy that preceded them, they are not receiving salaries, despite their hard work, often being available to people 24/7. Proudly, we are now lead by our own Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Isaiah Larry Beardy.
We now provide spiritual leadership and partnership with people of many spiritual perspectives and affiliations, with special honour given to the traditional ways or our peoples and to the world view of our elders.
We wish to help our young people have a strong foundation both in the Christian faith our people have lived by for hundreds of years now and in the very strong spiritual traditions and practices of our people that go back to the beginning of our time here on Turtle Island.
We rely on Sunday services, confirmation training, confirmation, bishop and other clergy visits, Gospel Jamborees, Holy Communion, prayers for the sick, pastoral counseling, and other pastoral ministry to help our people.
At the heart of our work, we practice Gospel Based Discipleship, where two or three, at least, gather together and place the Gospel in the centre of the Sacred Circle of all our gatherings. We aim to teach all our communities how to join us in this helpful non-denominational practice that will aid in the pastoral care of all the communities in Northern Manitoba.
A New Vision
Our vision is to create an Area mission and ministry that will provide a more meaningful and effective spiritual service delivery to the First People of the Northern Manitoba Region.
Another vision of what the Indigenous Christian church in northern Manitoba can be, has begun to emerge amongst the people themselves. Churches in Indigenous communities can find ways to serve better their local communities. The Word of God can become more visible, when it takes forms that grow out of the local languages and culture.
As a grassroots church, it will take forms that grow from Indigenous culture. Already, faced with the global ecological crisis. Western culture is recognizing that it has much to learn from the values of the Indigenous peoples. Respect for creation, partnership with the Creator in the stewardship of Mother Earth and all her creatures. A new movement of the Spirit is blowing through our lands.
It will support indigenous lay people and clergy to bring about a new form for the Christian church in our lands, that would be truly our own.
With the blessing of our bishops, grassroots gatherings in northern Manitoba have crossed old boundaries created by the colonial church.
The 49th parallel, as well as provincial boundaries are not only irrelevant; they create artificial divisions of peoples where none previously existed. Similarly, for administrative usefulness the Anglican Church divided the northern peoples of Manitoba into two different dioceses: Keewatin (east) and Brandon (west).
Now indigenous lay people and clergy have been meeting to ask how to bring about a new form for the Christian church in our lands, that would be truly our own. We have been guided by the Most Rev. Mark MacDonald, a Wyandotte raised in Ojibwe Aki (in present-day Minnesota) who was appointed National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop for all Canada in 2007.
Without cutting its ties to the larger Anglican Church, our church is one throughout all of northern Manitoba.It is called the Northern Manitoba Area Mission. It is self-determining, through the Northern Manitoba Sacred Circle. It is led by The Right Reverend Isaiah Larry Johnson Beardy the first indigenous bishop in northern Manitoba and indigenous clergy and lay-leaders. It seeks to set alongside the still-honoured ways from the missionaries, new forms of worship, prayer, song, that reflect our culture and grow up amongst our people.
We are calling this vision, Pitching our Tent.
The Mission
Our mission in these days ahead is to live a church life that is attractive to those of our people who have in the past turned in frustration, anger, and pain from the church.
We are working to heal and reconcile the wounds of the Residential and Day School survivors.
We look to win our young people to a church that values the identity they still learn from their elders, that the schools are promoting, a church that speaks in their own language.
We will work together for strength and create a First Peoples ministry that will provide effective spiritual service to the communities.
We will unite our people into a new self-determining and self-reliant church community.
We will help our people reaffirm their faith in the Creator and help them grow in faith.
We will help restore our people in wholeness through healing and compassion.
We will work collectively, assisting the First Peoples communities to establish sacred spaces.
Today, our church leaders are cooperatively working with other helping professions in our communities, with the Red Cross, and our Chiefs and Councils.We are on the ground and available to our people 24/7, as we have been for well over a century. This relationship which was once recognized and supported by both the larger church and the Federal government is now working hard to sustain itself in the face of some of the most challenging conditions – intergenerational trauma and pandemic of poverty. We do, however, function in the hope of faith and invite those who would wish to invest in a future of well-being for Northern Manitoba to join us.
Northern Manitoba Area Mission is located in northern Manitoba. The First Peoples’ communities are:
| Shamattawa | Split Lake | Bird | Gillam |
| Pikwitonei | Tadoule Lake | Ilford | York Landing |
| Little Black River | Thicket Portage | Norway House | Fort Alexander |
| Hollow Water | Manigatogan |
The mode of transportation to the communities is by ground transportation using private vehicle, snowmobile and train. In all the communities, gas and air travel are very expensive. During winter the weather is usually extremely cold. Some of the communities are only accessible by aircraft and a during the winter there is a short winter road season.
We do, however, function in the hope of faith and invite those who would wish to invest in a future of well-being for Northern Manitoba to join us.? Can you help to make a difference? Partnerships, human and financial resources will benefit Northern Manitoba Area Mission, and any donation will help make an impact. Your contribution to this cause means so much. In general, donations will support spiritual service, healing ministry, training and sacred spaces for Northern Manitoba Area Mission.
Our Mandate
1.Establish a First Peoples church governance with the ultimate goal of being a self-determining and self-reliant Northern Manitoba Area Mission and Ministry.
2.Provide effective and consistent spiritual leadership and service in the Northern Manitoba Area Mission.
3.Strengthen and restore the foundation of our First Peoples traditional values and spiritual principals.
4.Promote and provide wellness programmes to individuals and families in our First Peoples communities.
5.Indigenous bishops and clergy to provide spiritual service and leadership to people and families in our own languages.
Pitching Our Tent Narrative Budget
We are working on the basis of a five-year financial plan. Here is a rough outline of the plan, organized by our areas of mission and capital needs for the period:
| Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| Spiritual Service |
$404,250 |
$410,799 | $417,829 | 426,018 | $434,496 |
| Healing Ministry |
$404,250 | $410,799 | $417,829 | $426,018 | $434,496 |
| Training |
$269,500 | $273,866 | $278,960 | $284,428 | $290,088 |
| Sacred Spaces |
$269,500 | $273,866 | $278,960 | $284,428 | $290,088 |
| Capital | $652,500 |
$663,070 |
$674,822 | $688,108 | $726,032 |
| Total | $2,000,000 | $2,032,400 | $2,068,400 | $2,109,000 | $2,225,200 |
Our Appeal
My dear friends, Paul teaches us,
“For instance, we know that when these bodies of ours are taken down like tents and folded away, they will be replaced by resurrection bodies in heaven—God-made, not handmade—and we’ll never have to relocate our ‘tents’ again.”
So therefore in the meantime, while we are living together let us listen to what our ancestors have taught us from the teepee structure,
“The tops of the poles have many teachings. Each one points in a different direction. We are like those poles. We all need the strength and support of our families and communities, but we accept that we all have different journeys and point in different directions.”
My prayer,
I ask you to partner with Northern Manitoba Area Mission
in this new vision:
Pitching Our Tent.
CreativeStewardship.ca is maintained by Canon Dr. Gary Russell, Diocese of Rupert’s Land, Anglican Church of Canada.