A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Vida received a call from Flyn Ritchie. Some of you may remember him as the editor of the former Christian Info News. He was wondering if he could drop by with a copy of the newspaper dating back to November 1990. The issue featured a cover story of an art exhibit at Gloria Dei of the works by Indigenous artist Jim Logan. The paintings portrayed the injustices of church run mission-schools. Pastor Don Johnson (1935-2018) "felt it was important to increase awareness of the deprivation experienced by tens of thousands of Indian children who have endured an educational system insensitve to their needs and culture." 

In "Rounding up our Children," the painting featured on the cover, distraught families gather around a pick-up truck on a gravel road running through an northern Indigenous community. It is there to take their children away. At the back of the truck, which has wooden-fenced sides, a black-garbed priest stands calmly checking the names of children off a list. This moment of separation--a mere administrative chore for the priest--is an explicit moment of trauma for both parents and children." 

For both those members who were here in 1990 and for those of us more recently arrived, as you reflect on the art exhibit, how does it inspire you to carry on the legacy of Pastor Johnson in our own day as the church is called to "re-engage in the work of reconciliation to which we have been called in baptism"?

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You can view more of Jim Logan's art here and here