Call to Change to Prairie to Pine Regional Council (Origin: Indigenous/Intercultural Conversation on April 30th, 2019)

Call to Change to Prairie to Pine Region
(Origin: Indigenous/Intercultural Conversation on April 30th, 2019)

Know that an intercultural church is the vision for the whole church, regardless of the creation of an indigenous/intercultural gathering as the body for connection, support, and leadership.

We call upon the Regional Council, Executive, committees and leaders to decolonize the governance and leadership as a way to become an intercultural church.

Strategies for implementing change:

1. Make the Vision of an Intercultural Church a priority in all Regional gatherings, meetings, and in worship, as much as possible.
   
   1. Be open to different ways of worship (i.e. indigenous ways of worship), not just the Western way
   2. Seek to celebrate, encourage, accommodate and engage cultures other than White Culture
   3. Develop and engage a more intentional consultation process in order to have
      conversations.
   4. Encourage regional leaders to connect and consult with the indigenous/intercultural members who are represented in this gathering body to bring the voices to the issues that affect us and to provide the leadership with reference, consultation, and recommendations.
   5. Centre UNDRIP (The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and Calls to the Church (United Church of Canada) as the framework.
   6. Seek opportunities to decolonize ourselves (including people of colour and the indigenous members).
   7. See the value of interculturalism, and understand that intercultural education and ministry is beneficial to everyone (not just the indigenous/intercultural members.)
      
      
2. Prayer, song, worship and leadership should reflect the different people groups we already have in our region. Increase the visibility of non-dominant (i.e. immigrant and indigenous) members, their culture and experience in order to establish more of an intercultural presence.
   
   
3. In planning of annual regional gatherings, worship services, and events, consult broadly with the indigenous and intercultural members in our region, before decisions are already made.
   
   
4. Avoid tokenism by building relationships and involving indigenous/intercultural members in decision-making. 
   
   
   Be mindful that:
   • - Calling for indigenous/intercultural involvement at the last minute, after decisions are made, is tokenism
   • - Calling for indigenous/intercultural members to be involved in rituals, without the intention or the previous work to build ongoing true relationship and friendship, is tokenism.
     
     
5. Support the creation of an annual gathering of indigenous/intercultural members in this region.

6. Seek ways to decolonize the governance of the Region by:
   
   1. Learning what self-determination truly means for the indigenous members and
      communities.
   2. Identifying the lack of decolonized leadership in decision-making which disconnects and also furthers colonizing.
   3. Being more intentional at nominating committee to have diverse voices.
   4. Constructing leadership to be more balanced between White/Western and racialized people.
   5. Building inclusiveness in the structure as opposed to a hierarchical structure.
   6. Working to form initiatives and relationships at the ground level, for example,
      between churches in the region, and at local and personal levels.
   7. Issuing invitations as a decolonizing act, instead of assuming the same people will give leadership.
   8. Challenging assumptions.
   9. Always asking who is missing.
   10. Setting the agenda together.
       
       
7. Invest in education to develop decolonized thinkers and leaders in the church, e.g. encourage leaders in the Region to participate in initiatives like DUIM (Deepening Understanding of Intercultural Ministry) as places where dominant culture folks and racialized people can do some deep learning together with a view to decolonizing our thinking.
   
   1. Understand the living reality of indigenous community and people.
   2. Be more attentive to the obvious demographic changes in the country as whole (i.e. the growth of the Winnipeg Filipino and Chinese communities.)
      
      
8. Ask members of an intercultural group to consult one another when questions are asked of us so we speak with a breadth of worldview.
   
   
9. Listen and learn from indigenous/intercultural members about how the structure unconsciously or consciously disconnects and marginalizes racialized and indigenous groups from the church.
   
   
   1. Recognize more community ministries in intercultural and indigenous ways, and
      understand the challenges these leaders experience of having these ministries
      officially recognized by the church.
   2. Review and replace boundaries and rules (which have become an obstruction to
      church seeking leaders and communities i.e. educational accreditation) with inclusiveness.

10.Build relationships as a framework for everything we do, especially in relationship to indigenous siblings.

1. Build collaborations between the Western church and indigenous church.
2. Build connection between racialized groups and the church.
3. Include ethnic ministries in further conversations about intercultural ministry.
4. Connect to second and third generation Canadians who experience their
   interculturalness and Canadianness in a very particular way. 

At the banquet, June 15th, 2019, Keystone Centre, Brandon 

On the Saturday night of Prairie to Pine Regional Council Gathering