In 1995 Cree politician, Elijah Harper, called for a sacred assembly. He saw the rising tensions and violence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples across Canada and realized that the solution needed to be spiritual. He envisioned Traditional leaders, Christian leaders, leaders of other faiths, and politicians coming together to pray for the healing of the land. Thirty years later, I had the opportunity to sit in the Sacred Assembly in Winnipeg, commemorating the work he began. As I looked around the room and saw Indigenous and non-Indigenous people of faith trying to engage in the work of reconciliation my heart was full…and heavy at the work yet to be done.

One of the presenters, Chief Vae Eli from the royal family of Samoa, exhorted us to learn how to do justice and move towards reconciliation by remembering the work of our ancestors. He said that the only way we could move into a good future, a better future, was by entering it backwards, remembering our traditions and the teachings of those who went before us. 

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one such ancestor, said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but is bent towards justice. We often forget this and fall into despair over the current state of the world, forgetting that those who came before us had to endure such a long arc as well. Some, like Dr. King, paid the ultimate price. Elijah Harper, another of these great ancestors, longed to see reconciliation across Canada, yet his life was also cut short. He did not live to see the arc bend towards justice for his people and for this land. 

One part of Harper’s vision that was lifted up again during the weekend was to see sacred assemblies, like the national one that he called, become local expressions. What would it look like for Christian leaders to connect in respect and mutual learning with those from other faiths in prayer for the local context that they find themselves in? If all good things come from the Father of lights, then perhaps feeling our way towards reconciliation and justice, even with those who do not share our faith, could be offered up in worship as part of the spiritual solution that will heal the rift between Indigenous and settler Peoples of Canada. 

The call of the Sacred Assembly in 2026 is that we do not forget the original Sacred Assembly and as the chief encouraged us, we all must enter into a new future backwards, remembering those who have gone before like Elijah Harper.