Funding call for respite for Northern ministers
Northern Indigenous Ministers in Manitoba and Ontario in the Keewatin Circle are dealing with an ongoing crisis in their communities. Rising numbers of addictions leading to deaths or suicides among the youth mean they are at a breaking point. The Indigenous Ministries and Justice Unit and the United Church Foundation have begun a campaign to raise funds for a fall in-person retreat to give Northern ministers respite, training, and support.
You can support the ministers and their communities by donating through the national church, here. This is an opportunity for those who want to contribute directly to a very specific project; this funding campaign also reaches out wider than Mission & Service, through the United Church Foundation. The Foundation wanted to be part of the thinking and planning when the state of emergency was declared by the Northern Chiefs, so Executive Minister Shannon McCarthy is part of a group that has been planning and talking about approach for over a year.
Three ministers who serve their communities every single day, and have created deep relationships between Keewatin Circle and Prairie to Pine and beyond, describe their community context in these short public videos. Please have a look, and please share them as you wish:
Rev Olive Flett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVfwuBA1uKI
Rev Lawrence Moore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Swli03VzKk
Rev Grant Queskekapow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXzCNjDj8sk
Thank you for your solidarity with the struggles facing Northern Indigenous communities and our colleagues in the Indigenous United Church, and for taking the time to hear about the realities and the gifts in these communities. May we be Christ’s body together.
