Actions and Commitments

Call to Action # 59: Church Apologies and Reconciliation (58-61)

The United Church of Canada

January 1, 1970

The Healing Fund established in 1994 offers financial support to grassroots projects that focus on healing, language learning, and cultural restoration. Projects must be connected to the continuing need for healing from the legacy of the Indian Residential Schools system Justice and Reconciliation Fund will support projects or events with one or more of the following goals:

  • To promote understanding of the United Church’s role in the Indian Residential School system and of the impact of this system on former students and their communities
  • To foster direct community-to-community engagement or face-to-face encounters between Indigenous and non-Indigneous peoples in the church and with the larger community
  • To assist nation-to-nation events involving church members that support advocacy in solidarity with Indigenous rights
  • To fund justice and reconciliation work that supports The United Church of Canada’s commitments to implementing the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

The fund has an annual budget of $100,000, and usually does not grant more than $15,000 to any one project. The United Church has developed and animated various educational resources and programs. These materials and an array of worship resources are available on the United Church website, notably current ones pertaining to the 30th anniversary of the 1986 apology. Histories of schools and photos are posted at http://thechildrenremembered.ca. The book Sorry: Why Our Church Apologized is available from Wood Lake Books, and the church promotes and makes wide use of the KAIROS Blanket Exercise.