Letters

What a beautiful article about true reconciliation and healing in the tangled web of residential schools (Justice, May). A teacher’s bravery in reaching out, a student’s hopeful honesty and respect, healing for both. And a reminder that all who were part of the schools cannot be tarred with the same brush. Thank you.

Rev. Stephanie McClellan
Gander, Nfld.

What a touching story, sensitively written, about a residential schoolteacher and her students (Justice, May). I have always felt a kinship to the people who suffered through the residential schools. Growing up as a Catholic, from ages two to 18, I was sexually abused regularly by Catholic priests. There were good priests in my childhood also. My experience doesn’t compare with what residential school survivors went through. I preserved my language, culture and Catholic faith. I was able to be with my family full-time, outside of school. Somehow, we will all heal and will be stronger at the broken places.



Kerri Wickhorst
Calgary

We were very poor when I was growing up, but my mother saw that all we could spare went to support the residential schools. Her uncle headed one, and anyone knowing him would have a hard time imagining him as an abuser. A woman from our community taught in one of the schools, and she was an honest and sincere person. So when there were fine people working in the schools, where did the abusers come from? Edward Gamblin has clarified that for me. He explains that children kept the truth from staff members they liked for fear that if those teachers stood up for the children, they would be sent away.



Kay Parley
Saskatoon

We were very poor when I was growing up, but my mother saw that all we could spare went to support the residential schools. Her uncle headed one, and anyone knowing him would have a hard time imagining him as an abuser. A woman from our community taught in one of the schools, and she was an honest and sincere person. So when there were fine people working in the schools, where did the abusers come from? Edward Gamblin has clarified that for me. He explains that children kept the truth from staff members they liked for fear that if those teachers stood up for the children, they would be sent away.

Kay Parley
Saskatoon

Thank you, Richard Wright, for telling my story so well. One note: your story should have identified Edward Gamblin  as a student at Norway House and at Portage la Prairie Indian residential school for 11 years.



Florence Kaefer
Courtenay, B.C.

Bravo for opening the question of whether Jesus was God (Decoding the Bible, May). Before AD 325, much of the church believed Jesus was supremely God-like but not the same being as God. Jesus was Lord and Messiah who “increased in wisdom and stature” and prayed to God as other humans do.

Another question the church urgently needs to re-examine if it is to reset Christian thinking to its original biblical patterns is whether God really required a blood sacrifice by Jesus in order to atone for human sin. Jesus preached the gospel of atonement by “return” that Deuteronomy and the prophets, poets and wisdom writers of the Bible consistently proclaimed. God forgives all who return and ask for forgiveness, as long as they forgive their offenders. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was an ethical act of loving his enemies.

Christians should stop claiming that we alone have God, who arranged forgiveness for us alone. These claims are not true to Jesus or the Bible.

Rev. Paul W. Newman
Sooke, B.C

It’s Bill Phipps and déjà vu all over again. Now Ken Gallinger is telling us we don’t have to believe Jesus is God to be a Christian. He quotes the doubting Thomas story to claim that when early Christians said, “Jesus is Lord,” they were really saying, “Jesus is in charge.” He leaves out the part where Thomas cries out not only “My Lord,” but also “My God.”



Charles Levy
Ottawa

The problem in the United Church is that we try to satisfy all faith concepts and end up confusing congregations. We need more forthright messages such as this to bring us into a common focus.



Mervyn Scott
Oshawa, Ont.

We were disappointed and dismayed to see four Canadian children’s charities and their work overseas highlighted (Equity, May) with no mention of the Mission and Service Fund and global work of the United Church.

The United Church has a long history of working with people and communities overseas. Through the Mission and Service Fund, about $5 million a year supports the mutual work of global partners and the United Church. World Development and Relief is a fund specifically set aside within Mission and Service for people to contribute to the church’s work in responding to humanitarian crises and sustainable community development overseas. Why were our own United Church efforts not noted in the article?

Through gifts to M&S, the church works with global partners who are committed to working toward justice and the realization of God’s kingdom on earth. Through established and long-standing relationships, the church can indeed assure people, “The money does get there.”

So when letting donors know how to make an informed decision about donations, please don’t forget to include the charity near and dear to all our hearts — the United Church.



Rev. Bill Steadman, United Church Executive Minister, financial stewardship; Omega Bula, United Church Executive Minister, justice, global and ecumenical relations
Toronto

The recent payroll system adopted by the church is proving harmful to its staff (At a Glance, May). It took their system six months to start taking pensions and benefits off my paycheque. Then they forgot to bill us for a month. When we asked for a correction, they sent the following note: “Please be advised that we are aware of your previous invoice inquiry request for an account reconciliation. Unfortunately, due to the unusually high volume of similar requests . . . we have been unable to review your file.”

Since the church outsourced our pensions and benefits, there is no one left to speak to about these problems. The time for a review is at hand, because the new system has failed to get off the ground.



Rev. James Murray
Ottawa

The system has been nothing but a headache since I enrolled. I have been treasurer of this charge for 16 years, as an unpaid volunteer. Now we must pay a private enterprise to look after the payroll for one employee at $500 a year.

I was not aware that the payroll company is a U.S. subsidiary. Are there no companies in Canada capable of performing these duties?

Better still, why couldn’t United Church staff in the national office do this work? I would be interested in knowing how many of the 60 percent of charges enrolled by late March are satisfied with the service.

Alma Downing
Perth-Andover, N.B.

Grace United has experienced considerable difficulty with the payroll service as provided by ADP and objects to mandatory compliance with its use.

We have withdrawn all but our full-time ordained staff from the new system and reverted to our previous, quite satisfactory in-house system. We experienced cash-flow challenges, time-consuming interactions with the payroll firm, errors and unwanted approaches to our part-time staff from the pension and benefits program, all as a consequence of our participation. Given the option, we would prefer to withdraw completely.  u
General Council should revisit its decision with an eye to making participation voluntary and find another way to deal with payroll disputes within individual churches.



Renwick Mann
Peterborough, Ont.