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Fort Langley walk commemorates reconciliation report

Spirit Walk on fourth anniversary of Truth and Reconciliation Commission filing
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This weekend’s Spirit Walk of Reconciliation will be the fourth since the Truth and Reconciliation findings were filed on June 2, 2015. (Langley Advance Times files)

By Bob Groeneveld/Langley Advance Times

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Churches and their congregations are walking for reconciliation this weekend.

The Spirit Walk of Reconciliation is a three-day event starting in Fort Langley on May 31, and concluding in Mission on Sunday, June 2.

On Sunday it will be exactly four years since the filing of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking into the abuses and devastating consequences of Canada’s residential school system.

The schools were run by Christian churches in conjunction with the Canadian government, with the initial aim of assimilating indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture.

This weekend’s walk will take participants to a former residential school in Mission, where ceremonies will relate to the history of Europeans’ arrival in North America, their appropriation of lands, and damage to indigenous culture.

“We’ve been walking to commemorate [the report],” said Langley Mennonite Fellowship pastor Ian Funk, one of the walk’s organizers. “We hope little actions like this make a difference.”

Organized by the United Church, Mennonite Church BC, The Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, The Christian Reformed Church, and Mennonite Central Committee BC, the walk is characterized by Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald as “a distinctly Canadian and Indigenously flavoured act of political, spiritual and social witness.”

The event starts Friday, 5:30 p.m., with a two kilometre walk from the United Church in Fort Langley to Kwantlen First Nation, with a meal at 6 p.m. in the Kwantlen Longhouse.

The walk continues 9 a.m. Saturday from Marina Park in Fort Langley, going 19 km to Mt. Lehman United Church.

It takes up again on the north side of the Mission Bridge at noon on Sunday, for a 5 km route to Fraser River Heritage Park, and on to the site of St. Mary’s Residential School.

There will be a tour of the school, with stories and sharing, at 1:30 p.m., and a KAIROS Blanket Exercise, which Funk characterized as “quite a profound demonstration of history,” at 2:30 p.m., followed by a discussion session.

Dinner at 6 p.m. closes out the event.

To find out more and to sign up for meals, visit Facebook at Walk in the Spirit of Reconciliation or contact Hilde Seal at 604-530-2929 or hilde@ucol.ca.