Devotional for June 2nd 2021

“Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.”
-Jeremiah 31:15

In lieu of my normal devotional, I’m going to invite us to use this time and space to pause and remember the 215 children whose bodies were discovered in a mass grave this past week. Children who died while attending the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. Children who were just a few of those who experienced neglect and abuse at the hands of church officials and staff in residential schools across Canada. The discovery of this mass grave represents just a few of the many more who never returned home to their families after being forcibly removed. They also remind us that many others returned home but were forever harmed by what they experienced.

So now, in this moment, I’m going to light a candle in memory of not just the 215 whose remains have been found, but in memory of all who died under similar conditions across Canada. We cry in despair to God, as we consider the horrors of residential schools. We cry in despair as we we try to imagine what horrors led to this mass grave. We cry in despair at the abuse enacted upon innocent children, by people who claimed to represent Christ, but did not. Light candle.

Hear us, O God, we pray.
Take our discomfort and guide us
as we seek truth. Amen.

If we are to remember them, we must do more than just cry and pray. We must hear the stories of those who survived. We must answer the call to be open to the truths that have long been told to us. The stories are all around us: In books and interviews, through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and in the eyes of our Indigenous neighbours. The stories are there, waiting for us to hear them, waiting for us to know the violence and harm experienced under the falsehood of education. So we light a candle to remind us that Christ calls us to listen and take action. Light candle.

Hear us, O God, we pray.
Hear us as we seek truth.
Open our ears that we might hear.
Open our eyes that we might see,
the truths which have long been told,
but not always heard.
For this we pray, Amen.

Devotional written by Rev. Tara Ann Gourson, June 2021.