Bishop Lydia Mamakwa (foreground, right) speaks before the planting of a symbolic evergreen tree at the end of the 2015 Sacred Circle, as Diocesan Bishop of Missinipi Adam Halkett (foreground, left) and Anglican Council of Indigenous Peoples co-chair Sid Black (foreground, centre) listen. ~ source: Anglican Church of Canada website

As the cool evening air settled, Sacred Circle participants congregated around a small evergreen tree ready to be planted as part of a tradition at the end of the gathering.

Before the tree was planted, Bishop Lydia Mamakwa of the Indigenous Spiritual Ministry of Mishamikoweesh offered a few words.

“Planting a tree is an occasion for us to learn from,” Bishop Lydia said. “This kind of tree, it never loses its branches. It’s always green.”

“Our God wants us to be like this tree,” she added. “He wants us to always be growing … May this be an illustration for our lives that we may be like this tree in our spiritual lives—that the life may never leave us, the life that our Creator who died on the Cross for us gives us.”

It was a fitting end to a momentous day, when Sacred Circle delegates planted the seeds for a historic move towards self-determination by endorsing a draft plan to establish a fifth province and structure for the Indigenous Anglican Church as part of the Anglican Church of Canada.

~ Read the rest of Matt Gardner’s August 22, 2015 article on the Anglican Church of Canada’s website.